Excercise calories

brendlynch
brendlynch Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi,

I have a question around exercise calories.

I have been using MFP for some years now. I'm a 41 year old bloke,. about 6 foot and weigh in at 13 stone 8lb. I class myself as reasonably fit and have completed 3 marathons aver the last two years. I generally train 4 times a week and clock up about 25 miles over the course of the week.

My aim is to reduce my BFP down to around the 10/12% mark as I am currently around 18% and this equates to me getting down to 12 stone 7lb.

In terms of calculations my calorie burn is 2688 and if I work on a deficit of 30% my daily calorie intake works out at 1881 in order to lose 2lb a week.

I split my intake as 50% Carbs, 30% Protein and 20% Fat. I am very good at keeping to this and extremely disciplined in maintaining a healthy balanced diet.

If I go out for a run in the morning and taking today as an example I burned 642 calories by running 4.5 miles. MFP will automatically give you these calories in the bag as what you should consume for the day. I'm not convinced that you can just eat the additional 642 calories and lose the weight. It never seems to work for me.

My question is, how many of the 642 calories should I really consume to ensure that I am still losing fat and not muscle? I ensure that I eat within 15 minutes of exercise with Porridge and I am of the view that this should be enough to counter the energy used in my run.

At a more extreme level, at the weekend I do a long run (normally between 10/15 miles) and MFP will give me 1500+ calories to consume. If I ate an additional 1500 calories I would burst.

What is the most sensible way of dealing with this?

Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    You want a 15% deficit at most. When you don't have that much to lose, you want to take it slowly so you don't end up burning too much muscle (and starving).

    So you either want to use MFP and set it up to lose half a pound, then eat your exercise calories (but don't overestimate them, so maybe just eat back 75% of them), or just cut 15% of your TDEE of 2688 and just eat that.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    The most sensible way is to set a less aggressive calorie deficit. Whether that is by eating back exercise calories or doing the TDEE method is your choice. Personally I believe the MFP eat back exercise calories method is far superior for people doing endurance events.

    Running is an activity where you can be confident exercise calories can be reasonably accurate - use some of the online calculators to verify the MFP one is in the same range.

    In the end your results are a better indicator of your true deficit than calculations. Your comment that eating back exercise calorie doesn't work for you may indicate either your logging is inaccurate or you happen to be an outlier. I'm always need about 300 cals/day less than calculators would suggest.

    "If I ate an additional 1500 calories I would burst." Think that's more in your head than reality! You can skimp on fuelling short runs but think it's a mistake not to fuel your longer runs. I ate over 4,400 cals on Sunday and didn't burst! :)
  • brendlynch
    brendlynch Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks both, appreciate the comments on the deficit and I am aware that this is aggressive. Was only intending on this for the first couple of weeks (to get the ball rolling again so to speak) and then reducing down to 15/20%.
    I do think that you can look at the numbers all you like but all of our bodies are different and manage weight/food/calorie burns in different ways. I have found from the last 4 years of doing this that I generally need about 300 cals/day less than the calculators would suggest so it's good to hear that I am not unusual on this front.
  • AcademicusMaximus
    AcademicusMaximus Posts: 22
    Porridge is a very poor choice PWO to be honest. You need glucose or dextrose and 40g of protien after endurance training like that.

    That being said if you aren't losing weight when you add the calories from your run either:
    a) you are tracking your calories incorrectly (which doesnt sound like it from what you said)
    or
    b) MFP is overestimating your calories burned (which is extremely likely as its a wild guess)

    cutback your calories but continue to eat more on days you workout. just consume an extra meal on those days.

    Also if you have been in a calorie deficit for 3 years like you said your leptin and testosterone levles must be F'd up badly. you could have damaged your testosterone or leptin and that will make losin weight EXTREMELY difficult
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,630 Member
    Let your body tell you. Eat more when you need to eat more.
  • brendlynch
    brendlynch Posts: 3 Member
    I like the last approach. Keep it simple. Always served me well in life.

    I have no idea what my lepin or testorone levels are so going to plead ignorance!
  • RedandBlueRunner
    RedandBlueRunner Posts: 7 Member
    My advice to get shot of the extra few pounds would be to increase your mileage by a few miles a week and reward yourself with a protein shake. Make sure your runs are varied, not only in distance, but also exertion and route. You need to stop your body being comfortable in its current routine. Good luck.
  • sridharj23
    sridharj23 Posts: 11
    15-17% is a right BFP for a normal person. It gets below if you are a high intensity athelete or else requires a real low car diet. But a low carb diet is going to disrupt your running atleast for the first month or so. Getting to 10-12% by itself requires quite some discipline and keeping it at that is even more tough. Its gets relatively easier if you don't do any cardio / endurance sports.

    I always like the idea of keeping it simple - listen to ones body. Not easy though :smile:

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