Eat my 'Exercise' Calories??? Yeah right!!!

Avocados,nuts,oliveoil dressings,cottage cheese 4%,whole milk, these add more cals quickly too :-)

As you become a serious exerciser, and as your weight comes down, this is something you will need to plan for and do. If you don't, you will at some point damage your metabolism and end up starving yourself while you in fact plateau or even gain weight.

There are many explanations on this site and on the internet. Here is one thread that I found very helpful in understanding WHY you need to refuel your body with the exercise calories:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing?hl=for+people+who+work+out+like+crazy

You may encounter many people who will tell you NOT to eat exercise calories, but when you encounter those people, check to see if those are people who are at goal and have been at goal for an extended period of time. Find out if they are athletes, or if they have been fit throughout their lives. Chances are, the people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories are in fact NOT fit and healthy, and unfortunately, they just don't understand.

The key to getting and staying fit and at a healthy weight, is eating right and exercising, that means refueling your body when you demand physical feats.

When people are very large, and/or they have just begun exercising, they will drop weight just from cutting calories--even if they cut too many calories. After a while however, they will get stuck. They will cut their calories more. Then they'll actually gain and become frustrated. How many people do you know of like this? I know of so many overweight people who say they work out hard and only eat 800 or whatever calories a day and can't lose weight. Then when they start eating more they will gain even more, because they have damanged their metabolism.

Please do yourself a favor, read the thread above, check online, ask athletes and/or fit people at healthy weights, trainers, etc. It's actually a beautiful thing--you can eat well and lose weight without starving.

blessings.

You may encounter many people who will tell you NOT to eat exercise calories, but when you encounter those people, check to see if those are people who are at goal and have been at goal for an extended period of time. Find out if they are athletes, or if they have been fit throughout their lives. Chances are, the people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories are in fact NOT fit and healthy, and unfortunately, they just don't understand.

QFE!

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QFE = Quoted For Emphasis

This whole eating your earned calories thing is so confusing. I asked the owner of my gym (who is the one who turned me on to this site) if I should be eating my earned calories and he said absolutely NOT! If you are trying to burn calories to lose weight, then why would you eat them again. Makes sense to me. He did say that I need to watch my fat intake and calories. (always meet my base calories) Eat lots of protein and eat more throughout the day. (like every three hours) a healthy snack, like a apple. The eating more thing is hard for me since I'm not much of a eater. He said to eat more throughout the day to keep my body fueled or my body will start to store fat instead of burn it. (Starvation mode). Anyway I just started doing this, this week. I tried the eating what I earned and lost nothing in a month and a half doing this.

My question is, are you supposed to est your excerise calories? That is one thing I don't understand, because I see people getting 2000-3000 excerise calories, and I wonder, are they or can they eat that and still lose weight?

Yes. On a normal day when I exercise, I will eat bt 1500-2300 calories. You are welcome to check in my diary for ideas, although I haven't exercised in few days because I am ill.

If you are at 1 lb/loss per week (which you should be unless you are obese), MFP already has a 500-cal deficit built in for you to lose that 1 lb., whether or not you exercise. When you exercise you need to eat back the same number of cals that you burned so that your metabolism will refuel and you can build muscle mass while losing fat. Muscle mass WILL BURN ADDITIONAL CALORIES ON ITS OWN IF IT IS FED!!! This is in addition to the 500 cal deficit MFP already built in. If you do not refuel your body, your metabolism will decrease and you WILL NOT SUCCEED.

Please do yourself a favor and read the first post in this thread:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing?hl=for+people+who+work+out+like+crazy

You will understand.

blessings.

I think the common sense factor needs to be more a part of these message boards. I know that calorie deficits cause weight loss. That's common sense. I know that calorie deficits will have different weight loss rate from person to person. I also know that there are alot of folks here looking for justification to eat more then they need to eat. I think one earlier poster said that she ran 10 miles so she was going to have baby back ribs for those burned calories. I think its wrong when people here on MFP start to think that exercise calories burned is a glory reward to eat more food. We're overweight because we have excess fuel to burn.

I TRY to eat my given calories here and some days i go over and others i don't even reach them. I figure exercise into my NET for the novelty factor but there isn't no way i can eat another 600 freaking calories to reach the MFP goal today . For one i'm not hungry and secondly my body is fine and doesn't need those calories today. I just ate a PBJ sandwich to push my calories to my daily goal.Did i need it. Probably not but i'm trying to follow the plan. Was i a lil hungry? Yes. Was i within calorie goals? Yes.

The people that need to eat exercise calories back have less then 8-10% body fat and are endurance or professional athletes not the type of people that are on a weight loss website. They don't have fat reserve for energy back up. So i agree that fit and trim athletes need to eat more to perform and recover but that doesn't apply to very few here. It doesn't apply to me for sure I have 19-20% body fat.

Men have less body fat than women. It would be an anorexic female who has 8-10% body fat. Healthy female body fat (athlete - normal) is 17-25%. Healthy males: (athlete - normal) 10-18%.

Everyone chooses to eat as they will, however the facts remain the facts. Should you desire to get and remain fit, eat your exercise calories. BTW, there is nothing wrong with the poster who chooses to eat baby back ribs after a big work out. Why not? I eat anything I want in moderation. If I want a cupcake, I will have it. Granted in general I consume healthy whole foods, and when you work out hard, you CAN eat what you like. I have been at a healthy, athletic weight for my entire life, with the exception of pregnancies.

blessings.

Just understand, that while huge deficits will invariably work for awhile ( 2 years in my case) it will bite you in the butt. It will catch up with you.

Please understand that I am not an advocate for "eating back exercise calories." I'm an advocate for feeding your body according to your fitness levels. If you were not already in a deficit, you would NOT eat back ex. cal. But you are. So when you burn 500 cal, your deficit is now 1500 cal. If you do this ever day for a year, your body starts to malfunction. Unfortunately, our fat stores are not the first thing attacked in that situation. It is lean muscle mass, and sometimes even organ tissue.

But yes. You will lose weight. You may reach goal. You might even keep it off.

But you will not be healthy. You'll just be another unhealthy skinny person, of which there are as many as there are unhealthy fat people!

I did not think I was undereating. I thought I was overeating a lot of days, which is why I cut back from 1500 to 2000 cals to 1200 to 1400. Did I lose weight? Nope. I lost energy. I did damage.

Good luck!

I agree - I can barely eat 1325 calories a day now. When I garden I burn over 1200 calories and there is NO WAY that I am going to eat that in addition to m 1325...

My question is, are you supposed to est your excerise calories? That is one thing I don't understand, because I see people getting 2000-3000 excerise calories, and I wonder, are they or can they eat that and still lose weight?

I eat between 2200-2500 calories a day and am happily maintaining 143-145lbs. When I eat less I actually gain weight. Honestly, I think my body wants me to eat MORE since I had a few days where I was closer to 3000 calories and saw a loss on the scale within a few days. I can't eat 3000 calories every day and honestly, I'm happy with my weight so I maintain at 2200-2500.