Calories in/ Calories out?

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okotoks_mama
okotoks_mama Posts: 4
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,

I am hoping to get some insight and some opinions about the extra calories we burn off each day.

Since starting with MFP, i have been pretty motivated to doing cardio every day, whether it be 30 minutes on the elliptical, biking, cleaning, gardening... anything that will give me an extra 500 minimum calories per day.

MFP allows me to eat 1260 calories per day and i generally try to make sure that i consume them....but then there are the extra from the calories that i burned......

Do i eat more to consume the calories that i burned? or do i conserve them?

Classic example is today. I spent 4 hours cleaning my house (some vigorous, some light effort) and so i entered the cardio in MFP as light cleaning and received 988 calories burned. It is now 8:30pm, i am full from dinner and there is no way i will consume 1000 calories before i go to bed. I am certainly not going to down a chocolate bar or high fatty foods to burn up the calories after all the work i did today. :smile:

I am loving that i am burning off the calories and i feel great but not to a point that i want to put my body into starvation mode.....

What will give me the greatest outcome of losing weight?

Thanks so much for your advice.

Replies

  • Ashleypeterson37
    Ashleypeterson37 Posts: 347 Member
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    When I know I'm going to be working out, whether it's just vigorous cleaning or the gym, and I know I'll have A LOT of calories for the day, I try to eat a bigger breakfast and a bigger lunch so that way I don't end up with a ton of extra calories at the end of the day.
  • christine24t
    christine24t Posts: 6,063 Member
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    I don't eat my exercise calories back (at least not with intention lol, sometimes it happens though). No trainer I've spoken to has told me to do that so that is why I don't, although I can see eating them back to maintain your weight and not lose weight. What I've heard from others here makes sense - eat the calories back if you are starving or need more, but don't feel that you must eat them back.
    I wouldn't also believe the calorie counts for a lot of stuff - like four hours of cleaning is a 1000 calories? That doesn't seem right to me. I only track any exercise I do with intent and don't track cleaning, etc. I would view that effort you made as extra calories that you've burned, and not log that. But that's me and I know others have differing opinions on all this.
  • kcavities
    kcavities Posts: 18
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    exercise will not put you into starvation mode!!! don't worry about that thousand calories---LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. if you needed it now, you'd be hungry. and hey, if you wake up hungry? breakfast!

    some days, you will want to eat back half or all of your exercise calories--that's okay too. the ultimate goal is not to have an excess of calories. :)

    now, in the case of things like anorexia athletica or non-purging bulimia, an individual will severely overexercise to the point that they have a drastic calorie deficit every day and eventually their body begins shutting down important functions because body fat percentage has become so low (in a nutshell). the reason that this leads to "starvation mode" or a slow down of the metabolism is because naturally, anybody at a very low weight will have a lower BMR. gosh, i gain weight now if i eat more than 1300 calories in a day, even if i exercise (yeah, objectively i could say i'm too thin but that's not the point).

    if you remember one thing i've said remember to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. it knows when it's hungry and it knows when to stop (eating and/or exerting yourself physically)...unless you have hypothyroidism or something, in which case i am not knowledgeable enough to help.
  • arsonsmom
    arsonsmom Posts: 234 Member
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    I was told make sure your Net is 1200... So for example My goal is 1660, Food +2082, -Exercise 1076, = Net of 1006...Try to make sure your net is 1200 by the end of the day that should keep your body out of starvation mode...Becareful with counting cleaning calories though because you dont burn as many as you think...I realized that when I got my HRM (heart rate monitor).
  • KaylaShianne
    KaylaShianne Posts: 24
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    from research I have done for myself, I found that there is no need to consume extra calories for the ones you burn from exercise.

    I count my exercise as a "bonus" (and if you mess up on your diet sometime- you can fall back on those extra calories you burned).

    When you burn more calories than you consume you burn fat, so there is no need to consume more calories unless you want to maintain weight or gain weight like body builders.
  • makaylajane
    makaylajane Posts: 7
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    Id say your o.k. with just eating your daily calories and the excersize is just a bonus, so log your excersize but ignore the calories it adds on. If that doesnt work and your still hungry just munch on fruits/ veggies or drink some more water.
  • lapamperedchef
    lapamperedchef Posts: 61
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    If you're not hungry don't eat. With that being said you body burns "xxxx" amount of calories even if you just sit on your butt. For exampIe, my bmr is 1600 almost 1700 cal even if I do nothing. That is what I need to live. So If you eat whatever your recommended bmr cal and burn 500 cal that is your deficit.

    I would recommend eating before bed though. I always eat an hr before bed so my body doesn't break don't my muscle for fuel to repair and rebuild while I sleep.

    If you want to know your bmr/rmr the website to check is: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

    Hope this helped
  • angelicdisgrace
    angelicdisgrace Posts: 2,071 Member
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    I always try to follow MFp 1200 calorie intake and the rest is my deficit. I feel pretty full by the end of the night. Good luck.:flowerforyou:
  • okotoks_mama
    okotoks_mama Posts: 4
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    Thank you so much everyone for your insight. Glad to hear that there are other people feel the same.

    I always make sure i eat the 1200 per day and with trying to eat healthy (3 meals 2-3 snacks), i dont have a need to eat the extra calories burned. BUT with that being said, its nice to know that i have them there in case i want something sweet and tasty to reward myself once in a while.

    At the end of the day whether cleaning for 4 hours helps me lose 1000 calories or even 300, my house is clean and that feels pretty great! :smile:

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