Am I eating too much??

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curlgirl_03
curlgirl_03 Posts: 49
in Food and Nutrition
:embarassed: MFP allows me to eat 1200 calories per day. I did that, but I also exercised and burned 537 of them off. I read on here that the net should be the same amount as what MFP says you should eat no matter how much you worked out. My question/ worry is that because I worked out, I tried to "eat" my burned calories and ended up with a whopping 1561 for my food intake and 1024 for my net intake. I have never eaten so much in one day! Did I eat too much??

I don't feel fat or overstuffed.. I feel fine and full. Healthy, even. I just think that 1561 is a lot, and eating/working out like this everyday (I am at the gym everyday burning at least 400 calories) it will slow my weight loss down.

Please tell me what I should fix about this.

Thanks! :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • agibsonky
    agibsonky Posts: 124 Member
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    You;ll hear a lot on here about eating your exercise calories and a lot about not eating them... I have found that if I eat them all, I don't lose weight, but it just took experimentation to find that. Do you use a heart rate monitor for your calorie burn or just the numbers on the machine? If you use the numbers on the machine, I would start out by eating back half to 3/4 of the calories the machine says you burn. Do this for a while (longer than a week...more like a month) and see where you are. If you are not losing, decrease that to eating 1/4 of your calories back....This isn't set in stone, it takes some experimentation. I'm not a professional, by any means, but that's what has worked for me.
  • curlgirl_03
    curlgirl_03 Posts: 49
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    Thank you for replying. I think I did eat about 3/4 of my burned calories because I am still left with about 172. I think a month is a long time to experiment with my health like that. I also think that if I feel like this (even a little guilty) that maybe from now on I shouldn't eat as much as I did. I understand what you're saying about trial and error, though.
  • Fat2FitChick
    Fat2FitChick Posts: 451 Member
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    I usually eat back about half the exercise calories because when I eat them all my weight loss slows down. I tried it without eating them at all, eating them all and eating some and eating some worked better for my body. You have to try it out and see how it goes.
  • mindspinmegs311
    mindspinmegs311 Posts: 31 Member
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    The thing about the exercise calories is that... well... they aren't always the most accurate. And your metabolism is going to change based on your eating and exercise pattern.

    Best rule of thumb - eat every 4-5 hours, three meals a day, thrown in a snack or two if needed, and try to aim for 1200 calories a day. Your brain alone needs 1200 calories to function, just FYI, and if you don't get that many calories your metabolism will slow down.

    Remember though that exercise will crank up your metabolism, so yes, you can eat more! It sounds like you are burning a TON of calories with exercise, so just listen to your body and see what happens. Don't burn yourself out with too much exercise (by that I mean an exercise regime that you just can't keep up with forever) or it will negatively affect your weight loss.
  • debbiequack
    debbiequack Posts: 275 Member
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    I agree with the other posters... i experimented with eating them back. These days I eat back all but about 200 cal. But I'm also zig-zagging because I hit a plateau. So on my "zag" days I eat them all back.

    Debbie
  • beesareyellow
    beesareyellow Posts: 335 Member
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    I eat back most but not always all of my exercise calories. If I have a huge workout day ( like close to 1000 cals burned) I will definitely try to eat back at least 500. If it is less than 300-400, I don't worry too much about them. what seems to work best for me is to go ahead and eat if I feel hungry, but I never force myself to eat if I feel full. I hope that helps a bit :)
  • curlgirl_03
    curlgirl_03 Posts: 49
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    Thank you all for your responses. But what about my net calories? I was so concerned with making sure that it reached almost 1200 that I ended up eating over 1500 calories today!

    Which is more important: the net calories or the actual caloric intake?

    How do you eat you calories back without over eating your allowance?
  • annacataldo
    annacataldo Posts: 872 Member
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    Lets say you are allowed 1200 a day. You eat all your calories. You work out for 500 calories burnt. Your total would then become 700calores net that day.. you dont need to eat all of your excercise calories, you just need to make sure that your net calorie goal is 1200. If you just leave it at 700net calories, then your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto everything and stores it as fat.

    If you eat 1500calories, and burned 500, being 1000net, ur still in starvation mode.

    One day of being at under 1200 calories net isnt going to hurt u, but if you continue to do it, several days (or all days) a week, you may continue to loose for awhile, but eventually you will not be able to loose anymore until you start to eat normally.
  • mindspinmegs311
    mindspinmegs311 Posts: 31 Member
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    Lets say you are allowed 1200 a day. You eat all your calories. You work out for 500 calories burnt. Your total would then become 700calores net that day.. you dont need to eat all of your excercise calories, you just need to make sure that your net calorie goal is 1200. If you just leave it at 700net calories, then your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto everything and stores it as fat.

    If you eat 1500calories, and burned 500, being 1000net, ur still in starvation mode.

    One day of being at under 1200 calories net isnt going to hurt u, but if you continue to do it, several days (or all days) a week, you may continue to loose for awhile, but eventually you will not be able to loose anymore until you start to eat normally.

    THANK YOU!!! This is exactly right. Net calories shouldn't ever be below 1200 for anyone. You wanna get to your goal calories, even with exercise, and you should still lose weight. Being under 1200 one day won't hurt you, exactly - but consistently being at 700-1000 calories can do some real damage to your body.
  • annacataldo
    annacataldo Posts: 872 Member
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    i was writing at the same time as your question...

    to be clear....

    NET calories is more important than calorie intake.. your calorie intake minus your excercise is your net... if u didnt excercise your net and calorite intake would be the exact same.
  • kacarter1017
    kacarter1017 Posts: 651 Member
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    Basically, your net calories should be 1200. So, your base per MFP + whatever calories you burn in a workout. You don't necessarily have to eat all your workout calories back, but enough to hit the 1200 mark.
  • curlgirl_03
    curlgirl_03 Posts: 49
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    You all were so very helpful and informative! I am put at ease now and so blessed I came to this site :flowerforyou:

    Thank you!

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