I don't understand Calories! PLEASE HELP!

MrsBaker91011
MrsBaker91011 Posts: 1
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
My personal trainer says I should be taking in 1300 a day.

I am 5'1, 175 lbs, Female, 24 years old.

I want to LOSE weight. I was 125 in high school, but due to some major complications with my pregnancy, I gained a huge amount of weight and have not been able to lose it. (My son is now 7 months old)

So for example, if I eat 1300 calories and then go to the gym and burn off 600, do I go home and eat another 600 calories?
Or do I only eat 1300 a day no matter how much I burn?

I have been sticking to a fairly good diet and drinking water (though I admit, not the full 8 glasses a day) and I excersise 4 times a week but I GAINED 2 pounds last week.

My fat percentage is 36% but yet I am losing inches.

I dont understand what's happening!

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT!!!

Replies

  • rfcollins33
    rfcollins33 Posts: 630
    lol at the "do I go home and eat 600 calories" comment. :) Not exactly. MFP suggests you do eat your exercise calories back. I wouldn't suggest going home and just gorging them down. I would work them in throughout the day. Try to have your fitness/nutrition somewhat mapped out for the day, that way you can plan for days you need to be eating more cals. Good luck, hon. You'll do great!!
  • learnbygoing
    learnbygoing Posts: 103 Member
    You'll get a lot of dissenting opinions. The general consensus is that yes, you should eat back the calories that you burn while working out. So if you burn 600 extra calories, you'll eat 1900 cals that day. That's doesn't always work for everyone, though. I personally eat what I feel like my body needs. If I've eaten 1300 cals, worked off 500, and am hungry, I'll eat some or all of them back. If I'm not hungry, I don't worry about it. I'm not going to force feed myself.

    The biggest thing is to make sure you're eating the right kinds of foods to fuel your body. Clean, unprocessed, whole foods whenever possible, and LOTS of water. Other than that....I say listen to your body.
  • rfcollins33
    rfcollins33 Posts: 630
    oh and not everyone eats them back. I do now, for the most part, but when I started I didn't really and I've lost 45 lbs. So, if you want to eat them back a day's scenario would be as follows: cals burned: 500, daily intake: 1800. That's just an example if you are on a 1300 cal a day plan
  • Kristhin
    Kristhin Posts: 442 Member
    I think its best not to eat your exercise calories. Just consider the exercise an extra boost to help you out rather than something you need to "make up for".
  • jenalderman
    jenalderman Posts: 411 Member
    You should eat your mnimum calories every day. As for your exercise calories, you should listen to your body. It will let you know if it needs more fuel to keep up with the exercise. You should certainly never hesitate to eat them if you feel like you need them. You will find that the exercise will boost your metabolism and help you lose more even with eating them back. If you do NOT listen to your body and deprive it of what it needs, it will backfire in the end and stall your progress.
  • bethrs
    bethrs Posts: 664 Member
    Gains like this are necessarily uncommon. Since you are using a program designed by your trainer, I would ask them about eating the exercise calories back.

    I do and always have. MFP (and it sound like your trainer's plan as well) sets you up at a deficit to begin with, when you exercise, you add to that deficit. In theory on MFP you would lose weight without exercise. And most people suggest that you need to take in a minimal amount of calories a day and an often tossed out figure is 1200 calories (but this is definitely arbitrary and unlikely to fit everyone). So if you eat 1300 and burn 600 and don't eat anything back, your net calories for the day is 700- perhaps too low in some people's opinion.

    The gain could be from water retention, (caused by hormonal reasons, exercise or sodium intake) or it could be that your body needs more time to show a loss.

    Good luch and I hope this helped.
  • flimflamfloz
    flimflamfloz Posts: 1,980 Member
    lol at the "do I go home and eat 600 calories" comment. :)

    Yummy! A good pint of olive oil when you arrive home!

    Anyway, yes you need to eat those 600 cals from exercise back (or some of them at least!), but as said, you will need to spread them out during the day. Also, you should eat a little something before you exercise, so you might want to allocate some of these 600 cals in a fruit before you exercise.

    As for the "pound gain" / inch loss you are probably gaining muscle and starting to tone your body, so this is all good news.

    Keep at it.
  • rfcollins33
    rfcollins33 Posts: 630
    You'll get a lot of dissenting opinions. The general consensus is that yes, you should eat back the calories that you burn while working out. So if you burn 600 extra calories, you'll eat 1900 cals that day. That's doesn't always work for everyone, though. I personally eat what I feel like my body needs. If I've eaten 1300 cals, worked off 500, and am hungry, I'll eat some or all of them back. If I'm not hungry, I don't worry about it. I'm not going to force feed myself.

    The biggest thing is to make sure you're eating the right kinds of foods to fuel your body. Clean, unprocessed, whole foods whenever possible, and LOTS of water. Other than that....I say listen to your body.

    THIS!! she put it perfectly. Listen to your body. Thanks learnbygoing, reminds me not to obsess over numbers and listen to my body :)
  • solskinnzombie
    solskinnzombie Posts: 122 Member
    i stopped losing when i started eating my excersize calories back. so if i do get hungry i will eat a light snack, but otherwise, i dont make it a point to eat them.
  • cinico
    cinico Posts: 294 Member
    by what I understand your trainer wants you to eat 1300 but if you workout and burn 600 calories you only really just netted 700 calories which by what I read allot is putting your body into starvation mode! Which will work for a while but eventually you need more fuel! I am sure there will be allot of better help out there! But I did want to point out your net calories!
  • cinico
    cinico Posts: 294 Member
    by what I understand your trainer wants you to eat 1300 but if you workout and burn 600 calories you only really just netted 700 calories which by what I read allot is putting your body into starvation mode! Which will work for a while but eventually you need more fuel! I am sure there will be allot of better help out there! But I did want to point out your net calories!
  • milaxx
    milaxx Posts: 1,122 Member
    My personal trainer says I should be taking in 1300 a day.

    I am 5'1, 175 lbs, Female, 24 years old.

    I want to LOSE weight. I was 125 in high school, but due to some major complications with my pregnancy, I gained a huge amount of weight and have not been able to lose it. (My son is now 7 months old)

    So for example, if I eat 1300 calories and then go to the gym and burn off 600, do I go home and eat another 600 calories?
    Or do I only eat 1300 a day no matter how much I burn?

    I have been sticking to a fairly good diet and drinking water (though I admit, not the full 8 glasses a day) and I excersise 4 times a week but I GAINED 2 pounds last week.

    My fat percentage is 36% but yet I am losing inches.

    I dont understand what's happening!

    ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT!!!

    Check out the link in my sig. It has to be the clearest explanation of calories I have ever read.
  • JJHudgens
    JJHudgens Posts: 96 Member
    I've heard you do eat them back, and pay more attention to the net calories than anything. Here is some good information that I got once, that makes sense when knowing how many calories you've actually burned....

    "But a side note, if you track your calories for MFP for exercise, make sure you subtract out your BMR. Go to the tools section and click on BMR. Click calculate- this will tell you how many calories you would burn all day laying around. Divide that number by 24 (the hours in the day) and then divide by 60 (minutes in an hour). This will give you your BMR calories for one minute. Multiply that number times the minutes you worked out. Subtract that number from whatever your HRM tells you you burned.
    As an example....if the BMR is 1986 calories....1986/24/60=1.4 calories/minute. If you do 55 minute exercise video, my BMR for that video 76. I burn on my HRM around 750 calories during that video...sooooooooo 750-76=674 calories actually burned during that video."

    Hope this helps!

    Keep it up, you will eventually start losing! :)
  • AmyW4225
    AmyW4225 Posts: 302 Member
    I lost my weight by eating back my exercise calories. I was on 1200 calories a day, plus exercise calories. Eat when you're hungry, but make sure it's hunger and not thirst. Try to eat something every 2-3 hours. You may see a gain, instead of a loss, the day after exercise. I thinks it's related to your muscles retaining water. Make sure to drink ATLEAST 8 glasses of water/day and try to drink more on exercise days. It sounds like you're doing something right, if you're losing inches. Keep up the GOOD work!! :smile:
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
    Personally, I would have a protein shake after my workout and increase dinner calories by about 100-200. That's a tablespoon of olive oil, or 1 oz of cheese, or a handful of almonds, or a small serving of rice. That will give you about 300-500 calories (assuming you actually burned off 600).

    To make sure this actually works:

    1) Be exact in your food log - ie: weigh, measure, log every single thing
    2) Know exactly how many calories you burn during exercise

    If either one of those is inaccurate, you can skew your entire plan.
  • Cristy_AZ
    Cristy_AZ Posts: 986
    Try this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo


    or just search for exercise calories here...


    it's comes up ALL the time!!
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