I burned lots calories than I consumed.

DustinMast21
DustinMast21 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, y'all.

I would like to discuss the issue about burning more calories than consuming. In the morning at 9am, I hit the cardio hardcore for 2 hours with 5 different machines, that are 30 minutes cycling, 30 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes jogging on treadmill, 20 minutes stairs machine, and 30 minutes for round 2 cycling. All are total of 2 hours.

I burned over 1,200 calories. Honestly, I feel FANTASTIC after workout. I had some breakfast before hitting cardio and then after workout I eat lunch and dinner that would reach close to 1,000. My goal is to lose weight. Currently weight 227 pounds and wants to be under 180 pounds.

I wanted to know, is it safe with 1,200 calories burn in 2 hours and have almost no calories consumed?

Replies

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,242 Member
    No. Because you are burning far, far more calories than the deliberate ones from exercise. You burn calories merely existing. I'm a 5'4, 178lb 36 year old woman, and if I were in a coma, I'd burn around 1500 just breathing, heart beating, healing, regenerating, thinking etc etc. It's highly erroneous to think that you only burn the calories you deliberately burn.

    As a guy, you shouldn't be eating less than 1500 a day, and that's before you factor in the fact that you burned a lot of calories exercising.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,284 Member
    Not sure if I have understood the question - I think you are asking if it is ok to burn 1200 calories in 2 hours and eat nothing in that time?? Ie in the 2 hours of exercising??

    You don't mean during the whole day as I see you ate breakfast before the workout and lunch and dinner afterward.

    Seems a strange question though - is it ok to eat breakfast and then excercise for 2 hours without eating?
    Of course it is - anyone who plays a long sports game, say men's tennis or a football game, would do similar.
    Of course they would drink water during the exercise time but I presume you are doing that too.

    I am confused.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited March 2016
    Are you saying you workout for 2 hours you burned 1200 calories and consumed 1000 calories for a net -200 calories?

    This is not about meal timing it is about overall calories in and calorie out regardless of when you ate it.

    And by that 1000 calories is this all you eat for the day... ???

    Then the answer is no, just no.
  • melonaulait
    melonaulait Posts: 769 Member
    Doing nothing all day, your body still burns through 1500 calories minimum. You need to eat those 1500 calories and on top of that at least half or even all of your exercise calories, meaning your daily goal should be closer to 2700 if you do that much exercise. You will lose weight eating up to 2700.

    You can lose a lot of weight doing much less exercise as well. You don't need to do 2 hours every morning, your body benefits from having a rest day here and there.
  • BodyByBex
    BodyByBex Posts: 3,685 Member
    gia07 wrote: »
    Are you saying you workout for 2 hours you burned 1200 calories and consumed 1000 calories for a net -200 calories?

    This is not about meal timing it is about overall calories in and calorie out regardless of when you ate it.

    And by that 1000 calories is this all you eat for the day... ???

    Then the answer is no, just no.

    I should be able to EXTRA BOLD THIS!
  • mathoma94
    mathoma94 Posts: 13 Member
    You need to eat a certain amount for your exercise AND your basic metabolic rate, AKA what you burn just existing. You burn 1200 calories exercising and then, at your current weight, a bit over 2000 calories from BMR.

    This is why you should set up with MyFitnessPal and log in your status. It'll tell you, based on what you choose from activity levels (sedentary, lightly active, etc) what your "net calorie" should be each day to lose whatever amount of weight each week that you set. Activity level is NOT including exercise- that gets logged in separately as exercise on your daily logs, as does food. But I imagine for you to lose two lbs a week you'd want a net balance of somewhere around 1500-1700 (I am guessing here based on your weight) assuming you're sedentary most of the day aside from your cardio sessions. This means you need to eat 1500-1700 calories PLUS whatever you burn exercising. Then you'll lose weight quickly and safely.

    Do not starve yourself for progress- this hurts your metabolism, your muscle integrity, and proper nutrition.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Agree with the above OP. This is not healthy. You are burning 1200 at the gym - readings from machines may be inflated, how are you estimating that burn? But as others have pointed out, you also burn far more calories just from being alive, as well as the activity you do for the other 22 hours in the day. The sum of those three things is called your TDEE and that is the number that you have to eat less than in order to lose weight. For example, I'm a 5'2, 123 lb female and my TDEE is 2200. I lose weight eating 1800-1900 calories.

    You may feel great now, but it is likely you would not be able to keep up that kind of exercise intensity on such low calories. You need to eat to fuel your workouts and to lose weight in a healthy, safe manner to avoid loss of lean muscle and potentially other health risks.

    Can you share your basic stats (height, weight, age, how much you are trying to lose)? What calorie goal did MFP provide you?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited March 2016
    I second eating 1500 (at the very minimum) plus at least half the calories you burn from exercise. I would also suggest that you do not need to be doing that much exercise. I would switch it up to do strength training 3x per week and 30-60 mins of cardio on your non lifting days.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I highly doubt that you burned 1200 calories in 2 hours at the gym. Sorry.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited March 2016
    Francl27 wrote: »
    I highly doubt that you burned 1200 calories in 2 hours at the gym. Sorry.

    At over 225lbs, It doesn't seem unreasonable at all, that is 10 cals/minute, of which probably 2 would be burned doing nothing.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    I don't think 1200 is that outrageous for 2 straight hours of cardio

    I think OP needs to listen to the posters who are talking about sorting out his food intake

    you need to eat to fuel your body otherwise you will damage yourself
    also rest days
    also progressive resistance work
  • firef1y72
    firef1y72 Posts: 1,579 Member
    At 243lb I can easily burn 1000 calories during my 2 hours at the gym and only 1 hour of that is doing cardio (35mins if you don't count the rowing machine). I also struggle to get in enough calories on a gym day, sorry no matter what I do I can no longer manage 3000+ calories in a day, I refuse to even start eating things like chocolate just to get the calories in. I do normally eat over 2000 calories on those days though and try to make sure there's loads of protein.
  • brb_2013
    brb_2013 Posts: 1,197 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    Not sure if I have understood the question - I think you are asking if it is ok to burn 1200 calories in 2 hours and eat nothing in that time?? Ie in the 2 hours of exercising??

    You don't mean during the whole day as I see you ate breakfast before the workout and lunch and dinner afterward.

    Seems a strange question though - is it ok to eat breakfast and then excercise for 2 hours without eating?
    Of course it is - anyone who plays a long sports game, say men's tennis or a football game, would do similar.
    Of course they would drink water during the exercise time but I presume you are doing that too.

    I am confused.

    OP is asking if their low calorie intake is OK given their extreme exercise.

    And of course, answer is no. You must fuel your body. It will take a few days to catch up to you but you WILL see the impact on your body soon. Fatigue, poor workouts, and nutrition problems will develop. Exercise is great, but your body still needs enough fuel.
  • trinty425
    trinty425 Posts: 108 Member
    If your deficit between calories burned and calories eaten / drank is too high then you will actually start to have negative effects. No weight loss, or the weight loss is taken from your muscle not your fat, body fatigue, your focus / brain will get foggy, etc. I have experienced this in the past when I was doing extreme dieting and extreme exercising. At one point I was only eating 1,000 calories a day and working out 1-2 times a day for an hour each time on top of being way more physically active in just my day to day stuff. It didn't take long before I was essentially useless...forgetting stuff, unable to focus, felt very weak, and it took everything just to get myself out of bed and do the bare minimum house chores and care for my son (then only 1 year old).

    As far as did you really burn that many calories in the gym...it is quite possible. I use a fitbit to monitor my constant daily calorie burn...and I am also over 200 lbs. It does not take long once you get your heart rate up to start burning a fair amount of calories. Especially if you are not taking breaks...if you are being pretty consistent in constantly moving and such it isn't a hard reach to that many calories burned.

    According to my fitbit, on an average day of no exercise...just doing my normal house cleaning, cooking, etc. with a general sedentary lifestyle....I burn 2,000-2,500 calories in a 24 hour period. So, you need to keep the "just being alive" calorie burn in mind when figuring calorie deficit.

    I would agree with those above....you need to up your intake. More protein for sure.

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