Using extra calories from exercise?

kimark1
kimark1 Posts: 84 Member
edited September 27 in Fitness and Exercise
I am worried that I won't lose weight like I should if I eat the extra calories added in for the exercise. Anyone have issues with this and how did you deal with it? My mother-in-law says I should just stick to the basic calorie count and not use any from exercising. I am just getting started and have only recorded my food/exercise for about 5 days now. Thanks for the info.

Replies

  • jagianotti
    jagianotti Posts: 18
    I agree with your mother, it seems like they are giving me way too many calories and I am not taking off weight at the speed I would like. Good Luck!
  • bigredhearts
    bigredhearts Posts: 428
    this site has a built in deficit, so if you state you want to lose 2lbs a week max., they automatically put that deficit into your daily allowance so anything you exercise and get back you should eat, it doesnt affect your deficit. your body needs the fuel! if you have anymore question in the forum section "general diet and weight loss" there are stickies you can read at the top, and i would suggest you read them so you better understand the site. hope this helps!!!
  • sinceresmile
    sinceresmile Posts: 7
    I don't eat all of them... but I when I do want to eat some of the calories I burned, I only allow myself a 100-200 range.
  • agataarchangel
    agataarchangel Posts: 292 Member
    I eat some of mine back but generally just stay to the calorie count itself.

    BUT

    I do notice a difference when I don't eat any of them back- my workouts suffer that day, or the next because I simply don't have enough energy to get through my daily exercise routine!

    I think as long as you're functioning enough and not feeling lethargic, hungry, or light-headed.... you should be fine.
  • marthamae813
    marthamae813 Posts: 70 Member
    Your body WILL go into starvation mode. You need to eat those calories so you can fuel your body. Lose weight the healthy way!
  • BECav0602
    BECav0602 Posts: 200 Member
    Make sure your NET calories are at 1200 or above. If you continually are under 1200 net calories your body will go into starvation mode and start hanging on to fat it feels it needs as fuels. It also depends on how much weight you have to lose and your activity level.

    I only had about 15-20lbs to lose (down to about 10 now). I actually had to increase my calorie intake because I wasn't losing weight. I went from 1300-1600 calories and am now losing weight and can see more definition in my muscles. Remember muscle weighs more than fat so measuring yourself is always a good idea.

    So, yes eat back you exercise calories. Sometimes I eat all of mine, sometimes I don't. Just try not to fall below the NET 1200 too often. Hope this helps!
  • kimark1
    kimark1 Posts: 84 Member
    Thank you for the information. I do need to read more about how the system is set up.
  • musica814
    musica814 Posts: 301 Member
    MFP already calculates you ideal calorie deficit, not including exercise or any burned calories. So if you decide to add in exercise, it's important that you eat back the calories that you burned in order to properly fuel your body and give it the nutrients it needs to burn fat/build muscle and keep your metabolism running at a healthy rate. For example, MFP has me eating 1200 calories a day. When I exercise I burn 300+ calories, putting me at net 900. That means I need to go back and eat another 300 calories in order to get my total calories eaten back to 1200. I hope I explained that well, but if not there's a few really good threads on here about exercise calories and whether or not you should eat them back. It's a topic of much debate among some people. Go ahead and type it into search and you should get some good results.
  • pepefifer
    pepefifer Posts: 14 Member
    I'm not sure what the "right" answer is - but, I try to eat back at least half of my exercise calories (with healthy food, not cookies and junk) so that I know my body has the energy it needs. If I'm still hungry then I might eat them all back. If I'm not all that hungry or not hungry at all, then I don't eat any back. I play it day by day. But, in general, I eat about half back.
  • Xaspar
    Xaspar Posts: 726 Member
    TRUST the system ... It is set up to work. Too many people here have lost too much weight for me to totally disregard the recommendations. Really.

    Do a search for this topic and you will find hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of posts on this same topic ... There is a SCIENCE behind it. and while not everyone is the same, the human body is set up with a pretty complicated system. Before you just decide on a whim that it's giving you back too many calories, and possibly sabotage your results, do the research and give these guys a little credit. They didn't set up a system designed to make you fail.
  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
    I am going to copy and paste a response I just gave in another thread. Forgive me if I seem annoyed in it, they were using ALL the wrong words and saying completely wrong things, so I explained it carefully like I was talking to a ten year old. My "tone of voice" is not aimed at you, I just don't want to type it again.

    Here it is:

    Starting at the beginning:

    First off, BMR is the amount of calories your body needs even if you were in a COMA. The second you step out of bed, you need more. MFP then takes your BMR and adds to it an amount based on the activity level you selected. This will equal your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). This is otherwise known as "maintenance calories", or the amount of calories you should eat daily if you want to stay the SAME weight.

    THEN, MFP SUBTRACTS from you TDEE 500 calories a day if you chose to lose 1 lb per week, which is recommended, (250 for half a pound, 1000 for 2 lbs, which is only safe for obese individuals). This 500 calories is called a DEFICIT (I think this is what you are confusing with a "NET")

    This new number is your calorie goal in your diary. This number is the amount you need to EAT in order to lose the amount you chose. You do NOT need to eat LESS than that number. There is ALREADY a DEFICIT subtracted from it.

    When exercise, you are increasing the safe deficit you chose, making it potentially too large and unsafe. This is why the system has you set up to eat back your exercise calories.

    Your NET calories, which is listed on your homepage, should be EQUAL to your original calorie goal by the end of the day.

    SO if you are set at 1400 and exercise for 300, you need to eat 1700 that day to NET your original 1400.

    Those calories are there to FUEL your body for those workouts. You can't run a car with no gas. You can't run your body with no food.

    So aim to REACH your goal each day, NOT to stay UNDER it. Just try to get your diary to say zero, or as close as you can get, even if it is red. Remember you have a 500 calorie deficit off of your maintenance calories, so if you go red, you did NOT fail. You have to go 500 in the red to BREAK EVEN and maintain your weight.

    * the number 500 is assuming you chose 1 lb per week, if you chose a different goal, this number is different.

    so, your diary should say zero at the end of the day, and your NET should say whatever number your original calorie goal was.
  • theseagull
    theseagull Posts: 181 Member
    My goal calories is 1200 and I burned today 1170 !! I really really couldn't eat them ! As I thought we MUST take them. But I did my best and left 900 calories remaining.

    The ( starvation mode ) red sign didn't appear and the pridected weight after 5 weeks was about to loose 7 kg / 15lb.
    So that means we shouldn't eat again the burned calories.
  • baisleac
    baisleac Posts: 2,019 Member
    BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate
    TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure (also called Maintenance calories)
    Calorie = (unit of measurement), a unit of energy or heat variously defined. In nutrition terms, the word calorie is commonly used to refer to a unit of food energy. (The word calorie is used instead of the more precise scientific term kilocalorie.)

    BMR and TDEE are two different things..

    BMR is the amount of energy (calories) your body needs to function in a coma.

    TDEE is the amount of energy (calories) that your body actually uses (burns) each day by living your life.

    Eating less than your TDEE will give you a calorie deficit and you will lose weight.

    Eat less than your BMR and you risk slowing your metabolism down; making it that much harder to continue to lose weight and that much more likely that you will regain that weight when you get to maintenance.


    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

    Your NET calories (on your home page) should be as close to the daily goal MFP set for you as possible.

    Your REMAINING calories (on your homepage and food diary page) should be as close to zero as possible.

    MFP builds in a deficit for you based on the information you gave it: height, weight, lifestyle, goal weight loss, etc.. All you need to do is follow the calorie goals it gives you.
  • mjh221
    mjh221 Posts: 1
    If you input your personal data correctly, myfitnesspal will have given you a set calorie deficit based on how fast you want to lose weight (though it won't let you eat under 1200 calories as your body goes into starvation mode). It allows you to eat any calories you burn through exercise as you already have an inbuilt calorie deficit. As long as you are burning the amount of calories during exercise as it says, you will still lose weight if you eat them.

    Feel free to not eat them and lose weight faster, but if you don't eat enough after exercise, your body will replenish its sugar stores the fastest way it can, which is by dissolving muscle and not fat. You will lose weight, just not the weight you want. As a pound of muscle contains roughly 800 calories and a pound of fat 3500, you may be able to lose weight very fast, but this will likely be muscle.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
    No one should listen to their mother-in-law. They never know wth they're talking about regarding your life. Do what you want, but the heavy suggestion that will come from most of the community here is to eat the exercise calories. There's even a site dedicated to that very question:

    http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    You can eat them back, continue to lose weight, not feel hungry, and increase your health and fitness all at the same time.

    Where is the bad in that?

    As evidence, I have lately been eating up to 3000 a day and still dropping weight.
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
    If you follow this plan to a T you WILL lose weight. That is given that you are counting things correctly. If you are guestimating what you are eating and guestimating what you are burning then there is a chance you will not lose...but if you are accuratly counting everything, you will lose weight. Just try it out for a month and see how it goes. What do you have to lose? (weight!!) Trust me, you will lose weight. Then you can tell everyone "I told you so". :)

    YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT eating your exercise calories. (Did I make my point?) Hahaha... :)
  • connieholiday
    connieholiday Posts: 52
    Your body WILL go into starvation mode. You need to eat those calories so you can fuel your body. Lose weight the healthy way!



    Agreed!!! I eat mine and i have the worst metabolism ever, and i am still losing weight, because i am doing it the healthy way!!!
  • connieholiday
    connieholiday Posts: 52
    No one should listen to their mother-in-law. They never know wth they're talking about regarding your life. Do what you want, but the heavy suggestion that will come from most of the community here is to eat the exercise calories. There's even a site dedicated to that very question:

    http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com


    LOL!!!! thats funny stuff right there!!! But agreed.....eat the exercise calories as much as you can!!!
  • connieholiday
    connieholiday Posts: 52
    Lots of feedback here, i just would like to say it works, if you eat your exercise calories. I am living proof! Connie :flowerforyou:
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
    My goal calories is 1200 and I burned today 1170 !! I really really couldn't eat them ! As I thought we MUST take them. But I did my best and left 900 calories remaining.

    The ( starvation mode ) red sign didn't appear and the pridected weight after 5 weeks was about to loose 7 kg / 15lb.
    So that means we shouldn't eat again the burned calories.

    You CAN eat them. 2370 calories is not an outrageous amount. Make your own decisions and if you don't want to eat them, then don't. But don't blame it on not being able to eat them. Most of us got overweight by overeating to begin with. So if this site lays out a plan where we can lose weight while still EATING, then why not do it? And, if you REALLY can't eat your 1170 calories then try not to burn so much! You wouldn't drive your car 1170 miles when you only have enough gas to make it 270 miles. So why would you push your body to burn 1170 calories when you KNOW you can only eat enough calories to push it 270? If you know you are going to burn so many calories, then plan for it. It's not hard to throw in a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, a couple ounces of cheese, a glass of milk, etc (all healthy high calorie foods) that will help diminish your calories. Even a banana, an apple, etc. have around 100 calories. Throw in a couple extra of those every day. Also, if you are really needing more calories on a daily basis, then take out all your "light" foods that everyone uses as "diet" foods. Go back to 2% milk, buy regular sour cream instead of light, etc. Yeah, it may be hard to eat 1170 at night before you go to bed, but if you spread it out throughout the day, it's not that hard. Like I said, if you don't want to do, then don't. I'm not telling you that you should. But don't tell others it's ok not to eat them because that's just too many to physically eat!!
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