Eating exercise points??

LizRN2007
LizRN2007 Posts: 12 Member
edited November 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, my goal is set at around 1800 cal for a 2lb loss per week. I workout about 4-5x per week and it’s adding on 600-800 cal for my exercise each day I do that and giving me the extra cals. I have noticed I don’t eat anywhere near that many cal per day and haven’t loss much but don’t know if it’s due to not eating enough or muscle gain. Sooo..all in all, should I be eating those calories? It would put me around 1000-1100 cal per day if I didn’t and that doesn’t sound right either...HELP!

Replies

  • chispaza
    chispaza Posts: 153 Member
    Yes, you should be eating back your exercise calories. How are you measuring your intake? Do you use a food scale and weigh all solids and use measuring cups for liquids? Also, the calories that you get for exercising can often be overestimated. I tend to eat about half of my exercise calories back and that works well for me. 1200 calories a day is the minimum amount that a woman should be eating and even that is too few for most women. What are your stats and how long have you been doing this for?
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
    LizRN2007 wrote: »
    Ok, my goal is set at around 1800 cal for a 2lb loss per week. I workout about 4-5x per week and it’s adding on 600-800 cal for my exercise each day I do that and giving me the extra cals. I have noticed I don’t eat anywhere near that many cal per day and haven’t loss much but don’t know if it’s due to not eating enough or muscle gain. Sooo..all in all, should I be eating those calories? It would put me around 1000-1100 cal per day if I didn’t and that doesn’t sound right either...HELP!

    This is a very confusing post, but I can assure you that the bolded is absolutely not the case.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    What are you height/weight/age stats and what kind of exercise are you doing? It's possible those numbers are high.
  • Keladelphia
    Keladelphia Posts: 820 Member
    You seemed to say that you haven't lost much weight, it's not due to muscle gain. If that's the case you are probably underestimating the calories you are eating or over estimating your calorie burn. 600-800 calories is an extremely large exercise burn, for me it would take running 8 miles or more to burn that many calories. If you're sure that's how many calories you're burning and confident that you are tracking the calories you are consuming accurately then yes you should be able to eat them back, however, in order to make up for overestimated calorie burn from exercise many people choose to only eat a portion of them back, maybe fifty percent or so.
  • LizRN2007
    LizRN2007 Posts: 12 Member
    Sorry for the confusing post. I do around 30min of weight training, and 40-50 cardio (treadmill interval intensity and stair master mixed). I have also already lost 60lb and am kind of “stuck” despite changing up workouts. I used the WW plan before it changed and then started this. When I plug in my typical day I was only eating 800-1100 calories (and no I wasn’t purposefully starving myself) I just am not hungry. I eat a lot of low carb high protein food and am usually not hungry. That was without adding in exercise calories. I should have included that originally. But it seems to be the concensous to eat about half of the exercise Cals back
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    You seemed to say that you haven't lost much weight, it's not due to muscle gain. If that's the case you are probably underestimating the calories you are eating or over estimating your calorie burn. 600-800 calories is an extremely large exercise burn, for me it would take running 8 miles or more to burn that many calories. If you're sure that's how many calories you're burning and confident that you are tracking the calories you are consuming accurately then yes you should be able to eat them back, however, in order to make up for overestimated calorie burn from exercise many people choose to only eat a portion of them back, maybe fifty percent or so.

    I hit 600 exercise calories without much difficulty, but I'm a lot bigger than you. And for the OP to get 1800 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, she is bigger than me. So I don't doubt those burns at all.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    LizRN2007 wrote: »
    Ok, my goal is set at around 1800 cal for a 2lb loss per week. I workout about 4-5x per week and it’s adding on 600-800 cal for my exercise each day I do that and giving me the extra cals. I have noticed I don’t eat anywhere near that many cal per day and haven’t loss much but don’t know if it’s due to not eating enough or muscle gain. Sooo..all in all, should I be eating those calories? It would put me around 1000-1100 cal per day if I didn’t and that doesn’t sound right either...HELP!

    You say "haven't lost much" but sometimes people's expectations are skewed due to shows like The Biggest Loser. How many weeks ago did you start and how much have you lost?

    Is the exercise new? If so, you could be retaining water from that. I myself went up 7 pounds on the scale when I started lifting weights again. Fortunately, from reading these forums, I knew it was water weight, and sure enough, over the next few weeks the weight came back off and continued to drop.

    MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

    My FitBit One is far less generous with calories than the MFP database and I comfortably eat 100% of the calories I earn from it back.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • LizRN2007
    LizRN2007 Posts: 12 Member
    I’ve been doing this since June so no it’s not new. I have lost almost 60 total
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    When I was getting started, I had over 100 lbs to lose and was extremely inactive. My base calories were 1720 to lose 1lb/week and the exercise I pushed myself to do was a daily 25-minute walk. That was roughly 100 calories burned and I didn't eat them back. Let's flash forward 15 months.

    I've now dropped over 99 lbs. My calories are around 1420 to lose 1/2lb per week. I walk at least 90-120 minutes daily or get on a glider in my basement for 65 minutes when time/weather aren't cooperating. Three days a week I strength train for about 90 minutes (rests, warmup, and cooldown stretches included. Mostly light dumbbells and body-weight exercises). MFP tells me my exercise is burning roughly 800/day. I don't know if that's accurate. I suspect the walking burns are, but the glider may not be and strength training depends on too many variable to even guess. I eat back half of those calories, because honestly? I don't think I could fuel my current level of activity without it. Since I'm losing right around where I ought to be, what I'm doing seems to work!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    LizRN2007 wrote: »
    I’ve been doing this since June so no it’s not new. I have lost almost 60 total

    60 pounds since June is actually great. Are you sure your expectations are realistic or have you recently slowed down a lot or stopped losing weight?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    LizRN2007 wrote: »
    I’ve been doing this since June so no it’s not new. I have lost almost 60 total

    Do you chart your weight loss? I do this in Excel but lots of people use Happy Scale.

    keve4zobocb1.png

    The first 60 pounds may be lots easier than the next 60, or whatever. You may just be in a normal peak. Most of my peaks above are due to ovulating or being premenstrual.
  • LizRN2007
    LizRN2007 Posts: 12 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    LizRN2007 wrote: »
    I’ve been doing this since June so no it’s not new. I have lost almost 60 total

    60 pounds since June is actually great. Are you sure your expectations are realistic or have you recently slowed down a lot or stopped losing weight?

    This*
  • Keladelphia
    Keladelphia Posts: 820 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    You seemed to say that you haven't lost much weight, it's not due to muscle gain. If that's the case you are probably underestimating the calories you are eating or over estimating your calorie burn. 600-800 calories is an extremely large exercise burn, for me it would take running 8 miles or more to burn that many calories. If you're sure that's how many calories you're burning and confident that you are tracking the calories you are consuming accurately then yes you should be able to eat them back, however, in order to make up for overestimated calorie burn from exercise many people choose to only eat a portion of them back, maybe fifty percent or so.

    I hit 600 exercise calories without much difficulty, but I'm a lot bigger than you. And for the OP to get 1800 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, she is bigger than me. So I don't doubt those burns at all.

    OP already lost 60 pounds, stated that she is eating 800-1100 calories per day, was not eating exercise calories back already and was not losing much as it is which leads me to the assumption that she is overestimating her calorie burn, underestimating her calorie consumption or both. I wasn't saying that it isn't possible to burn that many calories but the other factors indicate that she is not, especially with 45 minutes of cardio intervals and some weightlifting.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    You seemed to say that you haven't lost much weight, it's not due to muscle gain. If that's the case you are probably underestimating the calories you are eating or over estimating your calorie burn. 600-800 calories is an extremely large exercise burn, for me it would take running 8 miles or more to burn that many calories. If you're sure that's how many calories you're burning and confident that you are tracking the calories you are consuming accurately then yes you should be able to eat them back, however, in order to make up for overestimated calorie burn from exercise many people choose to only eat a portion of them back, maybe fifty percent or so.

    I hit 600 exercise calories without much difficulty, but I'm a lot bigger than you. And for the OP to get 1800 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, she is bigger than me. So I don't doubt those burns at all.

    OP already lost 60 pounds, stated that she is eating 800-1100 calories per day, was not eating exercise calories back already and was not losing much as it is which leads me to the assumption that she is overestimating her calorie burn, underestimating her calorie consumption or both. I wasn't saying that it isn't possible to burn that many calories but the other factors indicate that she is not, especially with 45 minutes of cardio intervals and some weightlifting.

    Agreed.


    OP - there's a lot going on in your post... a lot of factors that aren't all related to your core question... but something certainly seems off with your numbers/estimates. In most cases it's either cals consumed overall, cals burned via exercise, or some combination of the two. You've lost a good amount of weight on a pretty low calorie total (taking numbers at face value). How long did that take you? Perhaps a diet break is in order?

    Otherwise, if you're confident in your numbers/logging - what's been your average daily intake for the last month? And how much weight have you lost in that time?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,226 Member
    Several things.

    You've lost very rapidly since June. If you haven't taken a maintenance break (2 weeks-ish), it may be time. Read this thread, think about whether it fits:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks

    Like others, I'm skeptical about those exercise calories. For me, an intense spin class of duration similar to your cardio burns something in the 200s of calories at a body weight in the 120s, according to my heart rate monitor. When I weighed 180-something (and was not remotely new to intense exercise, BTW), it might be in the 300s, occasionally 400. MFP's exercise database would give me maybe 20-25% more calories (which I don't see as shockingly far off).

    But forms of exercise involving intervals are really hard to estimate by any mechanism. How intense was the intensity? How rest-y was the recovery? (Rhetorical questions ;) .) I didn't see where you told us your current body weight, either, which makes it difficult to evaluate how realistic your estimates are. (That's why I wrote my weight in the examples above.)

    I do think you (generic "you")should eat exercise calories, but start with 50% and adjust based on weight loss results.

    I also didn't see where you said how you're estimating calorie intake. (If you did, I apologise for missing it.) If you're not weighing everything you eat at home, a stall is a good reason to start. If you are weighing everything, this would be a good time to open your diary, if only for a day or two, and let other folks look to see if there are any logging issues interfering with success.

    Especially if you're getting close to goal weight, small problems in any of these areas can stall progress.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    You seemed to say that you haven't lost much weight, it's not due to muscle gain. If that's the case you are probably underestimating the calories you are eating or over estimating your calorie burn. 600-800 calories is an extremely large exercise burn, for me it would take running 8 miles or more to burn that many calories. If you're sure that's how many calories you're burning and confident that you are tracking the calories you are consuming accurately then yes you should be able to eat them back, however, in order to make up for overestimated calorie burn from exercise many people choose to only eat a portion of them back, maybe fifty percent or so.

    I hit 600 exercise calories without much difficulty, but I'm a lot bigger than you. And for the OP to get 1800 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, she is bigger than me. So I don't doubt those burns at all.

    OP already lost 60 pounds, stated that she is eating 800-1100 calories per day, was not eating exercise calories back already and was not losing much as it is which leads me to the assumption that she is overestimating her calorie burn, underestimating her calorie consumption or both. I wasn't saying that it isn't possible to burn that many calories but the other factors indicate that she is not, especially with 45 minutes of cardio intervals and some weightlifting.

    Yeah, at the time I was composing that, she hadn't yet posted her exercise duration, and I had in mind longer times than "30 min of weight training, and 40-50 cardio." But we still need to know her height and weight to get a sense of the accuracy of those burns.
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