To lose weight, should I eat the calories that I earn with exercise?

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Mommaoftwinsx2
Mommaoftwinsx2 Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am in a weight loss challenge at work and working with a nutiritonist. She wants me to eat the calories that I burn to keep my daily intake above 1200. I understand that a safe weight loss is 2 pounds a week but if supervised you can lose more and still be healthy. Does anyone have any experience with this?

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  • RunsForFood
    RunsForFood Posts: 110 Member
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    I usually try and eat at least half my exercise calories back. I find when I eat them all back I don't lose any weight.
    But everyone is different, you have to listen to your body too. Are you still super hungry at the end of the day when you don't eat them back? Are you forcing yourself to eat them back even when you aren't hungry? You have to find what works best for you!

    Good luck!!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Mommaoftwinsx2 wrote: »
    I am in a weight loss challenge at work and working with a nutiritonist. She wants me to eat the calories that I burn to keep my daily intake above 1200. I understand that a safe weight loss is 2 pounds a week but if supervised you can lose more and still be healthy. Does anyone have any experience with this?

    well, the person supervising you is advising you not to go below 1200 calories...so in this case, no.

    two Lbs per week is plenty aggressive for most people..it may not sound like a lot, but it's 1,000 calories per day off your maintenance...that's a *kitten* ton of energy you are going without.

    To boot, you can only oxidize so much fat in a 24 hour period...you run a big deficit and you end up burning muscle and whatnot.

    this is one of the big reasons I think these weight loss challenges are stupid...they tend to make people do stupid and silly things for no reason.
  • Mommaoftwinsx2
    Mommaoftwinsx2 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you both! I have lost over 67 pounds this past year going to Weight Watchers. I am tracking through Finess Pal while on this challenge, I have 39 until I'm at my goal. I'm just trying to get there! Thanks again for your responses!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Mommaoftwinsx2 wrote: »
    Thank you both! I have lost over 67 pounds this past year going to Weight Watchers. I am tracking through Finess Pal while on this challenge, I have 39 until I'm at my goal. I'm just trying to get there! Thanks again for your responses!

    Definitely not with 39 Lbs to lose. Generally speaking, diets below 1200 calories are supervised by a medical professional and reserved for the morbidly obese who have plenty of fat stores to compensate for the energy deficit.

    With 39 Lbs to lose, I'd shoot more for about 1.5 Lbs per week.
  • Chandler330
    Chandler330 Posts: 378 Member
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    The exercise cals on here can be way off, unless you're working out with a HRM maybe try eating back half of your exercise cals at first and then adjust if needed.
  • lchadwick3
    lchadwick3 Posts: 66 Member
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    Since you've been at this a while you won't loose the weight as fast as someone just starting. They'll be burning glycogen stores and the attached water that goes with it. Just don't get discouraged with the challenge. You've already done great and sounds like you are on your way to your goal. Good luck!
  • EJThompson2012
    EJThompson2012 Posts: 1 Member
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    Don't eat the calories earned after a workout... :)
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    EJThompson2012 wrote: »
    Don't eat the calories earned after a workout... :)

    Can you expand, as that is how MFP is set up to work and all......
  • fallingtrees
    fallingtrees Posts: 220 Member
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    Well, I'm a petite person, so MFP pretty much limits me to 1200 calories, which I can't sustain for more than a couple of days and keep my sanity. So I exercise to "earn" more calorie allowance. But I usually don't eat back all the calories.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Chandler330 wrote: »
    The exercise cals on here can be way off, unless you're working out with a HRM maybe try eating back half of your exercise cals at first and then adjust if needed.

    Also this^^^. You'll want to make some kind of an allowance for estimation error. It's actually kind of hard to estimate calorie burn which is one of the major shortcomings of the NEAT (MFP) method. Just keep in mind that if it seems to good to be true (like burning 900 calories in an hour of casual swimming), then it's probably not true. Be conservative in your estimates.
  • tavenne323
    tavenne323 Posts: 332 Member
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    With about 30-40 lbs to lose to get to my goal, (I don't have a specific goal, just an overall wellness goal) I have MFP set at 1200 calories. But I don't stress if I'm over a bit. And if I workout I usually go over a bit more. If I'm hungry (like actually hungry and a glass of water doesn't help) I'll eat something small and healthy, like an apple, before bed. I hate waking up in the middle of the night super gurggling stomach hungry. I use the 1200 calories and workouts more as a guideline, try to make good choices throughout the day, log everything, and have so far lost over 60 lbs.
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
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    EJThompson2012 wrote: »
    Don't eat the calories earned after a workout... :)

    No. The only way this is ok is making sure her NET calories don't go below 1200. If she eats 1400 calories and burns off an additional 400 during her workout, that would bring her calories to 1000 for the day... At that point, she should totally eat an extra 200 calories to get that number back up to 1200.
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
    edited January 2015
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Mommaoftwinsx2 wrote: »
    I understand that a safe weight loss is 2 pounds a week but if supervised you can lose more and still be healthy.
    well, the person supervising you is advising you not to go below 1200 calories...so in this case, no
    Agree. Two pounds a week already sounds aggressive given where you're at, and the trained nutritionist supervising you doesn't feel lower is a good idea. Eating below 1200 calories (total) while workout out, it's very challenging to meet all your nutrient goals.

    Remember your end goal is almost certainly a fitter, healthier, prettier you, and not whatever the workplace prize is up to, or some number on a scale.
  • Mommaoftwinsx2
    Mommaoftwinsx2 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks everyone!

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