Calories Burned?!

Say you're on 1200 calories a day.
You burn 500 of those calories.
Now your body thinks you've only consumed 700 calories.
Ergo, starvation mode.

Yes; I think the same as you. What is the point of burning off calories and then eating them back on????????????

Sadly, "starvation mode" is the only way I lose weight. Eh, guess we're all different.

Because your original daily goal for what to eat is already less calories than you burn. It takes into account your height and weight and what you have put as your general activity level, and figures out what you burn in an ordinary day. Then it sets your calorie goal and 500 below that if you wanted to lose a pound a week and 1000 below if you want to lose two pounds a week.

If you exercise and create a greater calorie deficit than 1000 per day, you need to eat it back, as you stated, to fuel your body. This way your body doesn't think it is starving and start burning muscle instead of fat.

This has been one of the toughest things for me to wrap my brain around, as my weightloss attempts haven't always been healthy. I've never actually gotten my net cals up to the full 1,200 Trying to work on having the right mentality!

Bump

Say you're on 1200 calories a day.
You burn 500 of those calories.
Now your body thinks you've only consumed 700 calories.
Ergo, starvation mode.

This is so VERY wrong.

The starvation diets such as Lighter Life or Cambridge work on an intake of 500 calories a day, and encourage light exercise such as walking.

1200 calories of healthy food is roughly what your body needs to get the nutrients you need. As long as you get this, you will be fine. If you exercise on top of this, you may lose weight faster, but each person is different. You do not need to eat back your exercise calories, but if you do, you should still lose weight. I dont take back mine during the week, I do at the weekend.

Once you get into your routine, work out what works for you.

Let's be real here, 500 calories a day is not healthy and anyone doing such is not benefiting themselves.

You don't have to eat them all. But just be aware that you need to fuel your exercise. You need to have enough in you to press through your workout. I didn't eat enough yesterday, today I found it really hard to finish the cardio cycle of my workout. I was slower, I was tired. I know of old, I was basically underfuelled.

Calorie burn is also a complex business, based on afterburn, on the reality that muscle takes more energy to maintain than fat, etc etc. So it's not a simply calories in calories out formula.

I'd suggest you eat such that you do not feel deprived. Today, I apparently (I don't entirely believe this!) burned 1000 calories. There's absolutely no way I could eat that lot - I'd be sick. But I've dipped into the first 100 or so of them, and I feel good. Feeling good should probably be your guide.

I feel like we need some professional advice here...I wasn't confused before I read this thread and now I am confused. What exactly is "starvation mode" and why is it bad/good??

This is so confusing to me!

So for example.. my goal is 1200 calories. I've eaten 781, burned 785 so my net is -4.
Now that ISN'T good? Should I be shoving 1204 calories down my throat by the end of the day?

This is so confusing to me!

So for example.. my goal is 1200 calories. I've eaten 781, burned 785 so my net is -4.
Now that ISN'T good? Should I be shoving 1204 calories down my throat by the end of the day?

From what I have learnt this week you need too add 785 cals to your daily intake. If you look at your diary it will automatically calculate it for you! So in total you will eat 1985. Hope i'm working out ok!

This is so confusing to me!

So for example.. my goal is 1200 calories. I've eaten 781, burned 785 so my net is -4.
Now that ISN'T good? Should I be shoving 1204 calories down my throat by the end of the day?

Yes.

Look, it's very simple. Let's try an exercise. Go to your goals and set them to maintain weight. Now look at the calories you are supposed to eat. That's how many calories you are supposed to eat every day to maintain weight (hint, it's a lot more than you're eating now.) Now you set it to lose x pounds a week. MFP automatically subtracts those calories required to lose that weight. So instead of eating 2000 calories a day, it sets you at 1500. That equals one pound a week weight loss. So you eat 1500 calories in a day. Now you exercise and burn 500 calories. So of the 1500 calories you ate, you just burned off 500 of them, so you've only left 1000 calories for your body to use for it's normal daily functions (ya know, breathing, pumping the heart, the little things...) So now you need to eat those extra 500 calories to get back to 1500. The other way to do it, is to eat 2000 calories, then exercise and burn 500 calories, and either way, your net is 1500.

You can't do both, because then the human body panics. It doesn't understand "dieting." It works in instinct. You're eating much less. You're exercising hard, burning most of the calories from eating. Now you aren't eating any more. To the human body, it's taking much more effort to procure food, and it doesn't know when food is coming next, so it starts to slow down. One energy source for fuel is protein. Muscle is made of protein. Muscle also takes quite a bit of energy to support. Therefore, when the body isn't getting enough food, and is suddenly having to work hard to get that food (you think of it as exercising, as far as the body's physiology is concerned, you're hunting for food, and having trouble finding it,) then it starts to break down muscle, as it can convert that to energy relatively easily, and use it for fuel, and it has the added benefit of saving energy, since with less muscle, less calories are needed to support the body.

You need to eat your goal calories every day. If you exercise, you need to eat them back in order to properly fuel your body.

It's like someone else said, if your car can go 300 miles on a tank of gas, and you fill it up (eat) and drive 100 miles (exercise,) then you don't fill it up again, you can't drive 300 miles without running out of gas.

Personally, I eat back all of my exercise calories, and I even go over on my calorie goal about 50% of the time, but I'm averaging just over 2 pounds a week loss over the last 3 months.

Unless you're using a heart monitor 24/7 and you have a lab that can tell you exactly how many calories you need, then the numbers are never going to be all that accurate anyway. I use the numbers as a guide, but I listen to my body first.
Are you hungry? if yes, eat.
Did you complete all your reps and progression in the gym? if no, eat.
Your body's built-in calorie calculator is probably more accurate as long as you're eating healthy.

I try not to eat the extra cals, but instead just look at the net figure.