How many calories are OK to not eat back?

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kellyscomeback
kellyscomeback Posts: 1,369 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm torn where to put this, here or Fitness but here goes:
I did 60 minutes of a Zumba routine, 60 minute fast paced walk today and a major house cleaning jam session and noted that in MFP. I already know what I'm going to have for dinner and with a beer I'd still need to consume about 800 calories to even out for the day. This after a nearly 1000 calorie workout credit.

Is it safe not to consume the remaining 900 calories?
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Replies

  • ceschwartz
    ceschwartz Posts: 240 Member
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    As long as you don't feel hungry, I say yes. It's fine to skip them.
  • Kelly_Wilson1990
    Kelly_Wilson1990 Posts: 3,245 Member
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    I often skip the extra calories.
  • phog007
    phog007 Posts: 29 Member
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    I definitely would not force myself to eat those back. On my long run days I can burn over 2000 calories. I am not about to gorge that many back. The good news if you are hungry you have plenty of room to eat something you normally would not have room for.

    Hope this helps...
  • cathiec13
    cathiec13 Posts: 3
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    I agree, listen to your body.
    If you get light headed, have a snack.
  • charc16
    charc16 Posts: 147 Member
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    I ALWAYS have trouble with this. I work out in the morning before I go to work (~300 calories, Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred) and then I go to the gym for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour after work (depending on how many episodes of The Office I want to watch on my iPad :) ) and burn between 400 and 600 additional calories. This pretty much always leaves me with over 1,100 calories to eat just for dinner! So I am always under by around 600-700 calories for the day. So far I am still losing, but if I ever get stuck I know I am going to have to put more effort into making sure I meet the goal.

    But for now, it's working for me and I feel great! If you feel the same, I say you should be just fine.
  • jasonweinberg
    jasonweinberg Posts: 270
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    you'll be dead of starvation by the morning. lol. i wouldn't worry about "starvation mode" on the basis of one day.
  • Mandie1117
    Mandie1117 Posts: 15
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    I don't eat my exercise calories...but I have seen on here where people say you should. Personally Im torn about it. If I eat it, my body is absorbing the nutrients and such, if I work out and burn off fat and calories, why is it neccessary to eat them back? IDK
  • arc918
    arc918 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    I run long (15-20 miles every Saturday AM), so I burn 2,000 to 2,500 calories. I never eat it all back.
  • nancymmorris
    nancymmorris Posts: 310
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    My goal is always to consume about 1/2 of my work out calories back. I usually burn 1000-1500 per work out and it is very hard to consume my set calories of 1450 plus all of my burned calories.
  • mchristians
    mchristians Posts: 8
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    I hardly ever eat back my calories I have worked off. If I am hungry I eat, if I' m not hungry I don't. I am still losing. If I am wanting to maintain my goal, I might eat more of the burned calories.
  • schninie82
    schninie82 Posts: 502 Member
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    I only eat 'into' them if that's how my food workout to be over my minimum. Just make sure the food you eat for the day adds to the minimum 1200 and you should be ok. If I do a big hardcore sesh and burn 700 cals and my allowance is 1200, there's no chance in hell will I eat 1900 cals for the day! If I ate 1230, then I'm only 30 over my minimum and it works for me. If it stops working, then I'll mostly likely try and eat a little more 'good' calories, not just gorge on a mcdonalds to make them up... Hope this helps???
  • pekay
    pekay Posts: 5
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    Kel hunny, you seem to be missing the point, if you are exercising and dieting to lose the weight then good for you!!, if you have not already done so you need to work out your BMR (basic metabolic rate) the amount of calories you need to consume just to maintain your current weight.
    I dont want to insult your intelligence but if your BMR is 2000 cals, then for every 2000 cals deficit you lose a pound..... so you either reduce your calorie intake or step up the exercise to achieve this. ie, 2000 cals a day for 7 days = 14000 cals, you stay the same weight, 1714 cals a day for 7 days = 12000 you lose a pound in a week. so if you burn 500 a day in cardio exercise and dont eat it back = faster weight loss.
    Once you know your BMR all you need to do to drop the weight is stay in deficit, if you work out and burn say 500 cals its a bonus to your weight loss, dont look at it as extra calories you can consume, by all means treat yourself if you feel like it, like some have said, unless you feel weak tired or faint then leave the extra cals alone and reap the benefits.
    Dont forget you will need to adjust your BMR as you lose the weight.
  • otm25
    otm25 Posts: 106 Member
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    Kel hunny, you seem to be missing the point, if you are exercising and dieting to lose the weight then good for you!!, if you have not already done so you need to work out your BMR (basic metabolic rate) the amount of calories you need to consume just to maintain your current weight.
    I dont want to insult your intelligence but if your BMR is 2000 cals, then for every 2000 cals deficit you lose a pound..... so you either reduce your calorie intake or step up the exercise to achieve this. ie, 2000 cals a day for 7 days = 14000 cals, you stay the same weight, 1714 cals a day for 7 days = 12000 you lose a pound in a week. so if you burn 500 a day in cardio exercise and dont eat it back = faster weight loss.
    Once you know your BMR all you need to do to drop the weight is stay in deficit, if you work out and burn say 500 cals its a bonus to your weight loss, dont look at it as extra calories you can consume, by all means treat yourself if you feel like it, like some have said, unless you feel weak tired or faint then leave the extra cals alone and reap the benefits.
    Dont forget you will need to adjust your BMR as you lose the weight.

    Actually, BMR is how many calories you need to survive just laying in bed all day, not one bit active. Not to maintain.
  • katstuff11
    katstuff11 Posts: 5 Member
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    wow thats a lot of great information!
    thanks
    kat
  • Smittyinthesun
    Smittyinthesun Posts: 120
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    I keep the 2 number separate, i think its simpler.

    Ladies should be eating 1500 calories give or take 100.

    Your calorie burn is something else. If you want to maintain your current weight, then you can eat all the calories that you burn. But most folks don't want to stay where they are and are trying to drop some pounds.


    If you burn 500 calories a day more than you eat then in a week, you will lose a pound. If you do that every week you will lose 50 pounds in a year.,
  • srp2011
    srp2011 Posts: 1,829 Member
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    Kel hunny, you seem to be missing the point, if you are exercising and dieting to lose the weight then good for you!!, if you have not already done so you need to work out your BMR (basic metabolic rate) the amount of calories you need to consume just to maintain your current weight.
    I dont want to insult your intelligence but if your BMR is 2000 cals, then for every 2000 cals deficit you lose a pound..... so you either reduce your calorie intake or step up the exercise to achieve this. ie, 2000 cals a day for 7 days = 14000 cals, you stay the same weight, 1714 cals a day for 7 days = 12000 you lose a pound in a week. so if you burn 500 a day in cardio exercise and dont eat it back = faster weight loss.
    Once you know your BMR all you need to do to drop the weight is stay in deficit, if you work out and burn say 500 cals its a bonus to your weight loss, dont look at it as extra calories you can consume, by all means treat yourself if you feel like it, like some have said, unless you feel weak tired or faint then leave the extra cals alone and reap the benefits.
    Dont forget you will need to adjust your BMR as you lose the weight.

    You actually need a 3500 calorie deficit to lose a pound. In addition, MFP has already built in a deficit depending on what you said your goals are - usually 1-2 pounds per week. The reason for eating the exercise calories back is because it is unhealthy for most people to lose more than about 2 lbs per week (not just "starvation" mode - it can cause other medical problems). If MFP gave you a goal of 1500 cal/day based on a sedentary lifestyle in order to lose 2 lbs per week (with a deficit of 1000 calories per day), if you exercise on top of that, you will have a deficit of more than 1000 calories per day, and if you did this daily, you would lose more than 2 pounds per week, which may sound all great and wonderful until you run into those medical issues from losing too quickly. Not to insult your intelligence or anything.

    That said, the occasional day here and there of running a larger deficit won't hurt if you don't feel hungry so I wouldn't worry about it in this case. The general consensus is that MFP overestimates calories burned anyway, so you probably aren't as far under as you think.
  • dj_stevie_c
    dj_stevie_c Posts: 270
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    Talk to your body :) as it, "honest, are you hungry?" if not, you're fine, if your stomach is rumbling and you're shaking with hunger you should probably eat something :)
  • Forensi
    Forensi Posts: 56 Member
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    Kel hunny, you seem to be missing the point, if you are exercising and dieting to lose the weight then good for you!!, if you have not already done so you need to work out your BMR (basic metabolic rate) the amount of calories you need to consume just to maintain your current weight.
    I dont want to insult your intelligence but if your BMR is 2000 cals, then for every 2000 cals deficit you lose a pound..... so you either reduce your calorie intake or step up the exercise to achieve this. ie, 2000 cals a day for 7 days = 14000 cals, you stay the same weight, 1714 cals a day for 7 days = 12000 you lose a pound in a week. so if you burn 500 a day in cardio exercise and dont eat it back = faster weight loss.
    Once you know your BMR all you need to do to drop the weight is stay in deficit, if you work out and burn say 500 cals its a bonus to your weight loss, dont look at it as extra calories you can consume, by all means treat yourself if you feel like it, like some have said, unless you feel weak tired or faint then leave the extra cals alone and reap the benefits.
    Dont forget you will need to adjust your BMR as you lose the weight.

    Sorry but I don't really agree with this. BMR Stands for Base Metabolic Rate. Base meaning (as otm25) said: Laying in bed all day. Once you have calculated your BMR you need to add your exercise factor which this program can do for you automatically. Once it does that it will ask you how many pounds you want to lose per week, it will then give you a goal. It is your aim to get as close to that goal as possible (as close to 0 net calories). If you exercise and burn 500 cals for example you should be aiming to eat back those 500 cals because if you don't your net cals will be way too low and your body will go into starvation mode. Example: My daily cal intake is 1750 (with my deficit already taken into account). I run 10km and burn 1000 cals. My new cal intake for that day would now become 2750 (remembering if I was trying to maintain my weight it would be 3750). It is now my goal to get my net cals as close to 0 as I can.

    Now generally those people with a lot more weight to lose can get away with not eating back their exercise cals because they have a lot to lose but at some stage they will plateau and their body's metabolism will shut down and start storing fat and eating away at muscle (that's why you might still see weight loss its just not fat loss). This type of weight loss is not sustainable long term. My suggestion is for the best long term results you should try to eat back your exercise calories and get as close to 0 as you can. As ad said, he runs long distances on Saturdays. I too do that and burn 2000 cals but I seem to have no trouble eating them back (maybe its because i have a big appetite).

    Hope this clears up some confusion.

    Please remember I am no certified expert this is just what I have learnt from reading things on the web/ebooks and a bit from this website.
  • crystalinda
    crystalinda Posts: 151 Member
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    Kel hunny, you seem to be missing the point, if you are exercising and dieting to lose the weight then good for you!!, if you have not already done so you need to work out your BMR (basic metabolic rate) the amount of calories you need to consume just to maintain your current weight.
    I dont want to insult your intelligence but if your BMR is 2000 cals, then for every 2000 cals deficit you lose a pound..... so you either reduce your calorie intake or step up the exercise to achieve this. ie, 2000 cals a day for 7 days = 14000 cals, you stay the same weight, 1714 cals a day for 7 days = 12000 you lose a pound in a week. so if you burn 500 a day in cardio exercise and dont eat it back = faster weight loss.
    Once you know your BMR all you need to do to drop the weight is stay in deficit, if you work out and burn say 500 cals its a bonus to your weight loss, dont look at it as extra calories you can consume, by all means treat yourself if you feel like it, like some have said, unless you feel weak tired or faint then leave the extra cals alone and reap the benefits.
    Dont forget you will need to adjust your BMR as you lose the weight.

    Actually, BMR is how many calories you need to survive just laying in bed all day, not one bit active. Not to maintain.


    Pekay,

    otm25 is right, I don't mean to insult your intelligence but you have your info wrong. BMR, as otm said is what you need to exist with no activity.

    Kel,

    It takes appx. 3500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat (some studies indicate it may be more see: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_pound.php). MFP gives you an additional credit for calories burned during excercise, this just increases your normal daily caloric cpnsumption goal. As long as you don't exceed your new goal then you should be able to lose weight. If you do not increase your caloric intake and have a higher deficit because you worked out, those deficits will help you lose weight faster - there's your motivation to work out.
  • MyaPapaya75
    MyaPapaya75 Posts: 3,143 Member
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    I'm torn where to put this, here or Fitness but here goes:
    I did 60 minutes of a Zumba routine, 60 minute fast paced walk today and a major house cleaning jam session and noted that in MFP. I already know what I'm going to have for dinner and with a beer I'd still need to consume about 800 calories to even out for the day. This after a nearly 1000 calorie workout credit.

    Is it safe not to consume the remaining 900 calories?
    My first questrion would be did you calculate using a HRM...if not I dont think its good to even think of having an extra 800-1000 calories so I do think its best you dont eat them until you calculate using a HRM

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