Eating your exercise calories

Did you just start those exercises or have you been doing them awhile? The reason I ask is becuase sometimes in the beginning of working out you can gain before you start losing. I did. And I agree.. you are supposed to do 64 oz of water a day. 8, 8 oz glasses is the general "rule". I noticed a huge difference when I started drinking the water. Sometimes I don't get enough and my results aren't near as good.

I really don't think 2 weeks is enough to draw any sort of difinitive conclusion. I think you will find that your body is going to do whatever it wants at times and you could do everything exactly as you should and you might still gain weight. There is no right or wrong way to do this. It all depends on what your body will accept. The general though process is that if you don't consume at least a net calorie goal of 1200 per day for women you could be missing out on nutrients that your body needs. That means if you eat 1200 and burn 500 you've only eaten a net of 700 for the day. Many people can lose weight this way, many cannot.

In addition, I've seen many posts where people gain weight by eating too little. It's because your body wants more nutrition so it holds on to the fat stores it has instead of burning them.

You just have to try it out and see what works for you. Good luck!

Soo....you 'gained weight...but did you lose inches?

I've been zig-zagging by diet (I eat 1200 PLUS workout calories then the next day eat 1800 PLUS workout calories....well, I try 1800 is already so much) and I've lost 5 lbs in three weeks.

Also, what are you eating? Did you add extra veggies and protein? Or did you eat pizza and snacks? What you put into your body with your extra calories has A LOT to do with it. If you triple your carb intake...no bueno...If you added extra protein which your muscles need, then bravo

I really don't think 2 weeks is enough to draw any sort of difinitive conclusion. I think you will find that your body is going to do whatever it wants at times and you could do everything exactly as you should and you might still gain weight. There is no right or wrong way to do this. It all depends on what your body will accept. The general though process is that if you don't consume at least a net calorie goal of 1200 per day for women you could be missing out on nutrients that your body needs. That means if you eat 1200 and burn 500 you've only eaten a net of 700 for the day. Many people can lose weight this way, many cannot.

In addition, I've seen many posts where people gain weight by eating too little. It's because your body wants more nutrition so it holds on to the fat stores it has instead of burning them.

You just have to try it out and see what works for you. Good luck!

I like this answer.

I'm not an expert, but it seems very possible to me that you've put on some muscle in your workouts. Depending on when you weigh yourself and how often -- and depending on how long you've been drinking more water than you used to -- you might just be seeing normal and unavoidable water weight fluctuations. You might consider tracking your progress with body measurements every couple weeks instead of only judging progress by the number on the scale.

I always gain before I start to lose when I start working out. Stick with it and they will start to drop off. I usually eat back half (or so) of my exercise calories. Or if I eat them all one day then I won't eat them the next few times. Don't give up!!!

I too have found that eating my exercise calories leads to either less or no weight loss... and sometimes even a gain, so I am now not counting my exercise calories. I am just getting back into my fitness pal because I was in school and stressed out and that is the very time I just can't focus on my weight. I am still in school, but have only two classes left and they will be separated by a few weeks. My plan is to begin counting my calories again, because not counting them has lead to a 5-10 lb gain. Just knowing what to eat doesn't work for me... I have to see the numbers. The issue with not counting your exercise calories is that it takes food to make muscle, so if you are vigorously working out, you may have gained weight and it may be muscle weight... measure yourself to see how you progress in inches and not rely on one method to see your progress. I fall into this trap too.

Being a Massage Therapist it was always inbedded into our heads that you need to be drinking half your weight in ounces DAILY! Not 32 ounces, not 8 glasses a day, but half your weight in ounces. This is because our bodies are 70% water and if we are not drinking enough water we are dehydrating our muscles. This leads to tighness of muscles, muscle spasms, and often headaches.

Anyways as for the eatting the extra calories from exercise, I am against using them. I stay within the 1200 recommended and try not to go over because I to have noticed too that I gain weight. But then again it could be that from consistant exercise, we are gaining muscle and muscle weighs more than fat.........

Try drinking MORE water-- 64 oz per day is the minimum, but you actually need to be drinking more to make up for the water you're sweating out when exercising and to generally help flush out out toxins. Aim for closer to a gallon a day.

I know it's discouraging, but it's actually fairly normal to be a couple pounds heavier the day after a tough workout because your muscles are retaining more fluid while they repair themselves. I'm always a 2 or 3 pounds heavier the morning after a tough workout (or a salty dinner, or a glass of wine, or a day without enough water....), but it disappears after I've given my muscles a day or two to rest while drinking plenty of water, so that might be part of what you're seeing if you're working out a lot right now. It sounds like you're burning a lot of calories exercising, so your body might be holding on to all the calories it can. Everyone's body reacts differently, so I can only tell you what I've experienced-- but I ran into the same problem last fall and found that increasing my calories by a couple hundred helped me start losing again (and feeling a lot better!). Try aiming for your BMR in calories at a minimum-- that's how many you would burn if you stayed in bed all day, and a lot of similar sites argue that you should use that number as a minimum instead of 1200. It made a huge difference for me (and I have consistently eaten my exercise calories-- but I use a HRM to make sure that I have an accurate calorie count when exercising).

This is probably the most debated topic on this site. My thought on the matter is that if you look at people who maintain a healthy weight throughout their life, most do it by eating only when they are hungry. If you exercise more you'll probably be hungry more, but it makes no sense to continue eating past the point of being full. That is usually what leads to weight gain and the need to start counting calories.

I'm on1200 calories per day so when I exercise I eat my calories back, so far i've lost weight.