eating your exercise calories?

tree_14
tree_14 Posts: 11
edited September 19 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm new to this and I'm wondering what everyone means by "eating your exercise calories"
ex if I eat 1300 calories in the day and burn 600 calories .....how does it work?

Replies

  • tree_14
    tree_14 Posts: 11
    I'm new to this and I'm wondering what everyone means by "eating your exercise calories"
    ex if I eat 1300 calories in the day and burn 600 calories .....how does it work?
  • heather0mc
    heather0mc Posts: 4,656 Member
    when you enter your excercise, it will automatically add calories to your food diary. then you can eat some more calories and keep your metabolism going! it is pretty darn cool if you ask me!

    a lot of people only eat 1/2 of their E calories. some eat all. it seems like the ones who dont eat them are the ones who post with problems regarding not loosing weight.

    so, eat up! :bigsmile: and drink your water! :drinker:
  • Kimono
    Kimono Posts: 367
    I eat mine, or nearly all of them. I would starve on the 1300 calories. I ran on an incline for an hour yesterday just so I could eat another 840 calories. I love my exercise calories.
  • JessicaN1979
    JessicaN1979 Posts: 142 Member
    I have learned the hard way to eat your exercise calories. I have been stuck in a rut for almost two weeks and I started eating my exercise calories and I started to lose again!

    So what we are saying is eat at least 300 of the 600 calories you burned in your workout on top of your normal 1300. Hope this helps.
  • ma9321
    ma9321 Posts: 227 Member
    I was wondering the same thing. Thanks Heather! :smile:
  • tree_14
    tree_14 Posts: 11
    so basically if you eat 9100 for the whole week do you have to burn over that to lose weight? sorry for all the questions :)
  • Summarain
    Summarain Posts: 145
    9100 for the week???

    Confused on this one. Basically, if MFP says you should consume 1200 calories a day and you end up exercising that day and losing say 300 calories, you should be eating 1500 calories a day so that your body consumes the 1200 calories total. Eat all or most of the caloires you exercise off, or at least eat enough so you have not taken away from your 1200 intake.


    Simply, if you ate 1200 calories and worked out and lost 300 calories then you only really consumed 900 calories for that day, you need to eat the 300 calories so you consume a total of 1200.

    Get it?:wink:
  • tree_14
    tree_14 Posts: 11
    sounds good , i'm just wonder if you eat back the calories how do lost weight?
  • Summarain
    Summarain Posts: 145
    This boggles me as well.

    The way I look @ it to make sense is...I used to eat waaaaaaaaaaaay over the 1350 I eat now without realizing it, and then I used to eat like 900 calories a day on a "crash diet" so my metabolism would never adjust consistantly.

    Now that I am consistantly eating my 1350 calories a day and exercising, i'm forcing my metabolism to adjust accordingly. You will lose the weight. Dont worry. I know it sounds crazy, I'm going through that right now but I have faith that if I dont over eat or under eat I can increase my metabolism to where I need it to be and keep my body in working mode rather than ups and downs....:smile:
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
    Taken from the "NEWBIES READ ME FIRST SECOND EDITION" post...it's the second thread at the top of this message board:

    Here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions
    Question #1:

    Should I eat all my calories?

    Yes. MFP is already figuring a deficit for you to lose weight. This deficit is based on what you need to eat based on your everyday activity, not counting exercise. In the end, it's all about "net calories" (you can view yours under reports)

    Example: you need to eat 2,000 calories to maintain your current weight (random number)
    MFP will tell you to eat 1,500 to lose one pound per week (500x7=3500=one pound loss).

    Let's say you exercise, and burn 500 additional calories.
    UH-OH, now you are at a 1,000 calorie a day deficit. You need 2,000 calories to maintian, are already restricted to 1500, so now your net calories are a 1,000 a day. This is starvation central. Your body, which is very good at keeping you alive, will store and save calories. You WILL stop losing weight. You WILL want to throw your scale out the window.

    Eat your exercise calories. At least eat most of them.

    Question #4:
    So, if I'm eating my exercise calories, what's the point of exercise?

    Answer: (warning: extremely opinionated answer ahead)
    You don't. You can lose weight through diet alone. But, then you will be skinny and flabby. Is a model skinnier than me? OH, YES! Is she healthier than me? probably NOT. She couldn't survive the hour-long spin class that I take three times a week. Trust me. Her skin is a mess, she smokes, and she looks like crap in person. (this is a generalization. I don't hate models, but this is their lifestyle. . .I used to be a "dresser" at shows, and I saw a lot of "behind the scenes" stuff.
  • Anna_Banana
    Anna_Banana Posts: 2,939 Member
    Okay. Let me try to explain this. Lets say you want to lose 1 pound a week. To do that you need to eat 3500 calories less than what you use in a week. To simplify this we are going to just say 500 calories a day (3500/7). When you set your goals the computer decides how many calories a day you are using to do your basic everyday living. This is NOT your BMI which is how many calories you need to do absolutely nothing but lay in bed all day, and is a much lower number. Okay, computer comes up with a number, based on daily activity, weight and height, then from that number it subtracts 500. That is now what you need to eat in a day to lose a pound in a week with out doing anything different than what you are currently doing. Lets say you decide to exercise and burn 600 calories. Now your body needs more calories to do its basic functions, 600 calories more, but this is still 500 calories less than what your body is using for all your daily needs. So the computer adds that number to the calories you need to eat during the day, because your body needs them. If you don't eat them your body may feel deprived and your metabolism may slow down.

    Personally I don't look at exercise as a way to lose weight, but rather a way to make my body healthier and a way to trim it and add lean muscle. And I look at eating those calories as fueling my body so it can keep going and rebuild itself from the damage I do to it with exercise. If I don't eat those extra calories I don't have enough energy and it takes longer for my muscles to rebuild (exercising causes little rips in the muscles), also eating those calories every day helps me not binge because I'm so hungery and my body is telling me to eat.
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
    sounds good , i'm just wonder if you eat back the calories how do lost weight?

    because the recommended calories that this site has you eating are already less than it takes to stay alive. there is already a deficit.

    my numbers:
    it takes 2100 for me to stay alive each day. that's if I do NO exercise, and sit on my rump all day.
    I am eating less than that: only 1600 per day. this means I am already eating less than it takes for me to be alive, by 500 cals per day. this will addup to a loss of 3500 calories per week, or 1 lb.
    if I exercise, I will burn more calories away, and it's important, in order to keep the metabolism burning well, to eat those calories back. so if I do a workout that burns 400 calories, I have earned the right to eat those 400, in addition to the 1600 I am already eating, so I would eat 2000 on that day. If you drop your calories too low, either by not eating enough, or by exercising them away, your metabolism will slow down to conserve what you do eat, and you won't lose weight as quickly.

    it sounds hard to believe, but I am taking advice from memebrs who have lost 150, 200 lbs in about a year, so I trust that the system works. and as you can see from my ticker, it is working for me. I have been doing this for 7 weeks.
  • tree_14
    tree_14 Posts: 11
    my thing was wrong i read it wrong it says daily net calories is 1620
  • fitchick99
    fitchick99 Posts: 267 Member
    when you enter your excercise, it will automatically add calories to your food diary. then you can eat some more calories and keep your metabolism going! it is pretty darn cool if you ask me!

    a lot of people only eat 1/2 of their E calories. some eat all. it seems like the ones who dont eat them are the ones who post with problems regarding not loosing weight.

    so, eat up! :bigsmile: and drink your water! :drinker:

    I never eat em, i have no problems losing weight
  • GIBride01
    GIBride01 Posts: 328 Member
    I eat mine, or nearly all of them. I would starve on the 1300 calories. I ran on an incline for an hour yesterday just so I could eat another 840 calories. I love my exercise calories.

    :laugh: I was just got out my hiking pack to take my toddler and 2 dogs for a walk when twerp is up from his nap, plus I am going to a Yoga/Pilates class tonight. Why??? I made Buttermilk pie for Hubbys Bday yesterday, there are 6 slices left and I want one!! Them exercise calories are motivating...:happy:
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
    If you drop your calories too low, either by not eating enough, or by exercising them away, your metabolism will slow down to conserve what you do eat, and you won't lose weight as quickly.

    This is exactly the case for me. I'm 5'7", 164 pounds (now!:smile: ) and quite a bit of muscle mass. I was eating 1300-1400 cals per day, losing nothing. Now I'm eating 1500 and losing again.

    It's taken me too long (time wasted...that I get really angry about) to figure out that calories truly are energy. They are not bad. They are not the enemy. They are part of our body's natural system that we need to survive.
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
    Why did the chicken cross the road?






    ....oops....double post.
  • Summarain
    Summarain Posts: 145
    sounds good , i'm just wonder if you eat back the calories how do lost weight?

    because the recommended calories that this site has you eating are already less than it takes to stay alive. there is already a deficit.

    my numbers:
    it takes 2100 for me to stay alive each day. that's if I do NO exercise, and sit on my rump all day.
    I am eating less than that: only 1600 per day. this means I am already eating less than it takes for me to be alive, by 500 cals per day. this will addup to a loss of 3500 calories per week, or 1 lb.
    if I exercise, I will burn more calories away, and it's important, in order to keep the metabolism burning well, to eat those calories back. so if I do a workout that burns 400 calories, I have earned the right to eat those 400, in addition to the 1600 I am already eating, so I would eat 2000 on that day. If you drop your calories too low, either by not eating enough, or by exercising them away, your metabolism will slow down to conserve what you do eat, and you won't lose weight as quickly.

    it sounds hard to believe, but I am taking advice from memebrs who have lost 150, 200 lbs in about a year, so I trust that the system works. and as you can see from my ticker, it is working for me. I have been doing this for 7 weeks.

    This was good advice.:flowerforyou:
  • kendallalissa
    kendallalissa Posts: 249
    Eating your exercise cals is such a HUGE reward!!! It's also a HUGE motivator to workout more often! Like pretty much everyday, for me! I :heart: food!!!! :smooched: :love:

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