Calories?

Samm471
Samm471 Posts: 432 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
if you eat over your calorie goal will doing cardio balance it out ? Just curious.. I don't go over my calories but having a discussion with my friend. She thinks if you go over calories that's it & I thought if you work hard and do plenty of exercise or cardio it would make up for going over the calories is this true?

Replies

  • dbomb76
    dbomb76 Posts: 171 Member
    Cardio or any kind of exercise will burn calories. Also eating a little less for the rest of the week will balance it out as well. The body doesn't reset it's calorie clock every night. Shoot for weekly averages and you will be fine. Pro-tip, take all the extra food you ate that day and spread it out over the rest of the week. Continue to hit your daily goals and get some exercise.
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    Yes, of course. Burning calories means just that. That's like saying if you spend $1000 but were supposed to only spend $700, earning another $300 you wouldn't have otherwise earned somehow wouldn't make up for it. This is also why MFP gives you calories back to eat for exercise.

    But it's not always the healthiest approach. Or it can become unhealthy if you are not careful. It is easy to end up feeling "behind" and trying to make it all up with exercise... and it's really easy to overeat by a lot, and not so easy to burn it off if that's happening. Before you know it, you're "earning" your food and punishing yourself with exercise and trying to eat less because you ate more recently, and you can end up in a binge/restrict cycle, or totally overwhelmed and quitting trying to make lifestyle changes, or with a really unhealthy relationship with food and exercise.

    That doesn't mean you can't do it to an extent, or shouldn't think about your activity in terms of calories ever. I often take an extra walk or something if I know I'll be eating a bit more today. But if you have a day with lots of calories, it is often better to just relax and let it go, start fresh the next day, than to try to burn it all off.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    It may. It all depends on how far you go over. If you eat 1000 calories over your maintenance level, then you will hve to do a LOT of exercise to make that up. If you go 300 over your deficit goal, you can easily make that up.

    You natural bodily functions (basal metabolic rate or BMR) + activity (regular daily movement + exercise) make up your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE (how many calories you can eat without gaining). The more you move, the higher this number is.

    But it's entirely possible to eat so much that you can't possibly exercise it off.
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    There's a lot of variables that make it just easier to eat less such as how many "calories" are you actually burning, what type of energy are you utilizing when performing your cardio, what's your diet like in terms of macro/micro nutrients etc. It would be really difficult to go into the gym thinking you need to burn 500 cals cause you had that extra slice of pizza and actually burn 500 cals to equal it out.
  • Samm471
    Samm471 Posts: 432 Member
    I thought that if you were over by say 300 calories. If you eat 300 calories less and say you burned 300 calories exercising that would mean you've made up for the 300 you went over by and burned an extra 300 aswell is that correct?
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    Samm471 wrote: »
    I thought that if you were over by say 300 calories. If you eat 300 calories less and say you burned 300 calories exercising that would mean you've made up for the 300 you went over by and burned an extra 300 aswell is that correct?

    I'm not 100% sure I'm reading this right so I'm going to just say: it is straightforward math.

    300 + 300 - 300 = 300

    300 - 300 = 0

    300 + 300 = 600

    - 300 - 300 = - 600

    And so on. It doesn't matter whether it is 300 you ate, or did not eat, or burned, or did not burn.

    So yes. If you were 300 over on Monday, and on Tuesday you were 300 under, PLUS you went and burned 300 extra, you cancelled out the overage and burned 300 extra.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    Samm471 wrote: »
    I thought that if you were over by say 300 calories. If you eat 300 calories less and say you burned 300 calories exercising that would mean you've made up for the 300 you went over by and burned an extra 300 aswell is that correct?

    Yes. Provided that you're correctly measured your 300 calorie burn.

    That's the beauty of calorie counting.
  • vgrezzy
    vgrezzy Posts: 31 Member
    yes, the mfp calorie goal is about your net calories (calorie intake - exercise)
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