Eating the exercise calorie debate

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allaboutme
allaboutme Posts: 391 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
:wink:

I posted this in reply to someone who was asking about eating all her exercise calories when it was 1200. Then I thought maybe not everyone would see it since it was at the end of a post and people had already done their posting on the subject and I wanted some opinions.

I was thinking about it (I know dangerous) and thought our bodies are made to tell us how much food it needs to survive. For so many years we have been starving in and confusing it. the concept of calories in v. calories out is an excellent theory and logical and because we have been overeating and not exercising for so long, our bodies have become confused about how to deal with calories and needed training.

So now with the help of mfp, we train our bodies that it can depend on us to feed it enough to survive and perform regular activities on a regular basis, and we maintain a good weight. We have successfully retrained our sagging metabolisms. I would think that now that it is working properly again, it will have a built in meter of what it needs to survive, and would tell you need to consume more food because of increased exercise by making you feel hungry. It then tells us we have had enough, because we have learned to eat proper, good food, and to stop when we are satisfied (note I say satisfied, not full :happy: ). I am a firm believer in eating all of your calories, plus your exercise calories for the most part, to give your body the nutrition and energy it needs.

Your body is resiliant and meant to deal with increased energy exertion by telling you to eat more or less. It was confused because for so long we ate food, including a lot of bad food, simply for the enjoyment not because we were listening to our bodies, sometimes in fact we were ignoring it and putting more food in than it wanted or needed, pr not putting enough in when it asked it, but now we are on the right road and have trained it to work properly again.

When the question was posed I thought of an athlete. One that is really in shape and has a high metabolism. They don't count every calorie as obsessively as we do (I don't think) and they eat healthy, balanced meals and snacks and extra when they are hungry or work harder, but not calorie for calorie. Sometimes your body is meant to exert more engergy than it expends I think, it is just natural.

So if I burned an extra 1200 today in exercise, I don't know that I would insist that I eat all of them, if I had already consumed a healthy amount for the day. I would certainly eat more because I would be hungrier, but it doesn't seem logical to me to force myself to eat all of them if my body is not asking for it (remember my metabolism is healthy again)?

Just wondering how others feel? I know probably opened a whole can of worms here, but wondering if it ever gets to a point that calories in don't balance with calories out???

Replies

  • allaboutme
    allaboutme Posts: 391 Member
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    :wink:

    I posted this in reply to someone who was asking about eating all her exercise calories when it was 1200. Then I thought maybe not everyone would see it since it was at the end of a post and people had already done their posting on the subject and I wanted some opinions.

    I was thinking about it (I know dangerous) and thought our bodies are made to tell us how much food it needs to survive. For so many years we have been starving in and confusing it. the concept of calories in v. calories out is an excellent theory and logical and because we have been overeating and not exercising for so long, our bodies have become confused about how to deal with calories and needed training.

    So now with the help of mfp, we train our bodies that it can depend on us to feed it enough to survive and perform regular activities on a regular basis, and we maintain a good weight. We have successfully retrained our sagging metabolisms. I would think that now that it is working properly again, it will have a built in meter of what it needs to survive, and would tell you need to consume more food because of increased exercise by making you feel hungry. It then tells us we have had enough, because we have learned to eat proper, good food, and to stop when we are satisfied (note I say satisfied, not full :happy: ). I am a firm believer in eating all of your calories, plus your exercise calories for the most part, to give your body the nutrition and energy it needs.

    Your body is resiliant and meant to deal with increased energy exertion by telling you to eat more or less. It was confused because for so long we ate food, including a lot of bad food, simply for the enjoyment not because we were listening to our bodies, sometimes in fact we were ignoring it and putting more food in than it wanted or needed, pr not putting enough in when it asked it, but now we are on the right road and have trained it to work properly again.

    When the question was posed I thought of an athlete. One that is really in shape and has a high metabolism. They don't count every calorie as obsessively as we do (I don't think) and they eat healthy, balanced meals and snacks and extra when they are hungry or work harder, but not calorie for calorie. Sometimes your body is meant to exert more engergy than it expends I think, it is just natural.

    So if I burned an extra 1200 today in exercise, I don't know that I would insist that I eat all of them, if I had already consumed a healthy amount for the day. I would certainly eat more because I would be hungrier, but it doesn't seem logical to me to force myself to eat all of them if my body is not asking for it (remember my metabolism is healthy again)?

    Just wondering how others feel? I know probably opened a whole can of worms here, but wondering if it ever gets to a point that calories in don't balance with calories out???
  • my3kids78664
    my3kids78664 Posts: 8
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    Heck, I can barely eat the 1200 a day Im suppose to have, on the days I exercise, I just have that many more left over.

    I cant help it, if I eat another bite, I will throw up!

    I just leave them, keep loosing and chugging along. Im not going to mess with the weight I have lost thus far or what MFP tells me I will loose in 5 weeks (I absolutely love that feature!)

    Maybe my thinking is wrong but Im 18 lbs downs in exactly one month, I aint changing nothing! :drinker:
  • superduperbandnerd
    superduperbandnerd Posts: 80
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo


    Read this ... this will answer everything :wink:
  • drewzaun
    drewzaun Posts: 111
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    You seem to have a decent grasp of some of the concepts here, and have in fact hit on what I think is a key part of the equation, that of listening to your body.

    First though, I should point out there is a huge difference between training for weight loss, and training for performance. When you are training for performance it is crucial that you feed your body all that it needs in order to maintain or increase performance. Whether that is for body building or endurance sports or whatever. When you are trying to lose weight however you have actually more leeway in terms of how you track your calories. You do not need to be as precise, you just need a net loss.

    Also, there is a huge difference between a crappy diet and a good one. When you are getting good balanced nutrition your body does not need as much as when you are feeding it crap. That may account for one reason why people who eat properly also eat much less than someone who eats garbage all the time. You actually need more volume to get the proper amount of essential nutrients so you are more hungry, and crave things more. That is an idea I have anyway, but I have no evidence for it. For me I certainly notice that once I am firmly on a good nutrition plan I find that I need far less food to be satisfied when I am also working out at a light to moderate level, like when I am trying to lose weight.

    we also need to realize that not all calories are created equal, and that people who are stopping at the 7-11 for a Snickers because they worked out a little longer than they planned are doing themselves a disservice. Nothing wrong with working a little harder to get a treat, but there is, IMO something wrong with stuffing down calories for the sake of doing it, and if you need to do that grab an apple.

    Simply counting calories is not effective, you need to track your total nutrition intake, and modify your diet to one that is balanced and healthy.

    Finally, if you are eating all or most of your exercise calories, are comfortable with that, and it is working for you then that is great! Don't fix what ain't broke. However almost every day in the 3 or 4 weeks I have been here there are threads about how to fill this plan, how can I possibly eat all the exercise calories, I am stuffed already, etc. For those people their bodies are saying hey, we're good so far.

    Listen to your body. If you are hungry then eat. If you are not then don't.

    Myself about 4 years ago I weighed alot, somewhere north of 330 pounds. I got on what I felt was a pretty decent meal plan, that was also realistic for me and allowed cheating. I also started exercising and the pounds just metled away. After I had lost about 80 pounds like this I started training for performance so I could participate in events like the MS 150. I lost another 20 pounds even though I ended up about doubling my food intake just because I was hungry all the time.

    So here I am logging food now, eating almost exactly what I did before and finding my calorie total is less than what MFP says I should be at, and then it wants me to eat my exercise calories too. Well I am not doing it, because I know the plan I am on works for me.

    In a community like this one I think if I post what works for me, and you post what works for you, the next person comes along and can figure out a good plan using one, the other, of a bit of both. Or they can have their own way that also works and put that much more info up there. YMMV
  • merch
    merch Posts: 8
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    I look at cals in/cals out as a weekly average. And logically speaking you gotta have more going out than in to lose.

    On the days I exercise just a litte, I try not to eat those calories at all. On the days I exercise a good amount, I just eat some of them...basically, I look at my exercise cals as a buffer between my food journal and reality.

    I don't measure portions precisely. I probably over AND under estimate. I don't count the bite I snagged from my kid's brownie so that I wouldn't want a whole one myself. And so I try not to use my exercise cals unless I did some serious butt kicking and am legitimately hungry or have a special occasion that wil need buffer cals and therefore stepped my workout a up a notch to compensate.

    My goal overall is lifelong self control. So really, I just try to be honest with myself.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    I measure every bite. I log every exercise calorie. I have been on plateau for 4 weeks or more.

    I met with a trainer who asked me how much I exercise, then told me I was not eating enough. So my body did not give me the right signals, and I should have been eating my exercise calories.

    1200 a day is ok for short term, but I have been losing since June. I stopped eating my exercise cals because I was not hungry.

    Now I pay the price ( :wink: not really because losing weight is not the key for me!, health is!)
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    dewzuan is correct though. we each should post our experience, and then the next person can take or leave with what they can use!

    THAT is what MFP is all about!!
  • mrsyac2
    mrsyac2 Posts: 2,784 Member
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    gotta agree to disagree. some may eat their extra calories some may not some may just eat some.

    What works for me may not work for you and vice versus.

    before MFP I cut my calories down to 1500 calories and got active and dropped 31lbs (thats when I came to MFP I was tired of using a pen and paper plus I hit a stand still I wanted to try something new)

    I have picked up 3lbs because I was on a streak of not doing what I should be like working out and eating right- (going out to eat all the time is horrible)

    But I dont eat my extra calories- however if I am hungry I eat if I am not then I dont- like tonight Im shy of my calories for the day not including what I burned tonight but I am just not hungry so I will not force myself

    my calorie allowance is 1490 I have eaten 1280 I also burned 520= so MFP wants me to eat like another 730- I am not going to eat when I am just not hungry- And I dont workout just to eat- I dont live to eat I eat to live-

    Whatever calories I have left that just means a bigger deficit for me in the end between my calories burned and my food deficit
  • ivykivy
    ivykivy Posts: 2,970 Member
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    I think this is the key. You have to eat enough calories to sustain life. If you are not eating enough calories some metabolic process that sustain you will cease. Doing this over a period a time leads to organ death. You have to figure out am I eating enough to sustain my life. Your body may not know because you have confused your hunger signals by starving yourself (even after retraining since we are easy to fall back into previous patterns). For a very large person not eating all your exercise calories may be okay.. .for a while. Eventually your body will say fine I'll just shut down some stuff and start eating muscle.

    But all this to say. If you don't believe you should eat all of them you can try. If you finally hit a brick wall you know you need to eat more.
    I measure every bite. I log every exercise calorie. I have been on plateau for 4 weeks or more.

    I met with a trainer who asked me how much I exercise, then told me I was not eating enough. So my body did not give me the right signals, and I should have been eating my exercise calories.

    1200 a day is ok for short term, but I have been losing since June. I stopped eating my exercise cals because I was not hungry.

    Now I pay the price ( :wink: not really because losing weight is not the key for me!, health is!)
  • ohthatbambi
    ohthatbambi Posts: 1,098 Member
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    I just listen to my body. I am not fanatical about it. I log what I eat and I don't log my exercise. I try to eat 1500 calories a day period. There are a few exceptions (30+mile cycling rides), but mainly my goal is to eat 1500. MFP has me eating 1230 before exercise so I just aim for 1500 everyday and I am losing. That works for me. When I ate all my exercise calories and I tried this over a period of 6 weeks I gained weight (almost 10 pounds)...eating them all was a BAD thing for my body. I wish I worked, b/c I do love to eat. I wanted it to, but it just didn't. That's my take and my story.
  • allaboutme
    allaboutme Posts: 391 Member
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    Thanks for everyone's time and energy in giving me their opinions. I am at a happy weight and am going to try letting go of my obsessiveness with the calorie counting and just listen to what my body says for a couple of months and see where I end up. I eat well and I exercise. Now I want to know if I can do this without being stuck on the computer calcuting every thing that goes in to my mouth and every calorie that goes out.:happy: I agree with what most of you guys said, you have find the right way for you, it might not be the same as the right way for someone else. :)
  • purpleparadox
    purpleparadox Posts: 40
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    I eat when my body tells me it needs food, but I also try to keep track of things in the calorie counter. If my body says it's done and I've eaten all but 100 calories of what's on my counter, then cool! I notice that when I exercise more, it's easier for me to eat the extra exercise calories allotted to me. :)
  • clk238
    clk238 Posts: 48 Member
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    I look at cals in/cals out as a weekly average. And logically speaking you gotta have more going out than in to lose.

    On the days I exercise just a litte, I try not to eat those calories at all. On the days I exercise a good amount, I just eat some of them...basically, I look at my exercise cals as a buffer between my food journal and reality.

    I don't measure portions precisely. I probably over AND under estimate. I don't count the bite I snagged from my kid's brownie so that I wouldn't want a whole one myself. And so I try not to use my exercise cals unless I did some serious butt kicking and am legitimately hungry or have a special occasion that wil need buffer cals and therefore stepped my workout a up a notch to compensate.

    My goal overall is lifelong self control. So really, I just try to be honest with myself.

    hey i had a question on this before- the cals in/out as a weekly average(not daily absolute that you must-stick-to), and the not measuring precisely.. i've just started(this is my first time trying to lose weight, and i only have about 15 to lose)... so no chance to see what's working or not yet, but i know i need something sustainable if this is going to work for me. I want to be able to go out to eat once a week and not stress about trying to estimate cals and count them in my head while I'm looking at the menu. instead just try to pick a healthy dish and then when i get home to MFP, estimate the cals and see what comes out. sometimes i stay under sometimes i go over... There are lots of days (6 a week usually) where i can get in an hour or so of working out and eat under my 1200+exercise cals, and be fine. but some days(~1 per week) where i just go over. I have convinced myself that that's ok. am i being too lax about this? is the only path to sucess through a food scale on my kitchen counter and calorie handbook in my purse?? i don't want to get off on the wrong foot (either too lax or too overthetop)
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
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    all that said, I saw a thread earlier today where a memeber was advocating to a newbie that exercise calories were void in her opinion, and she tries to hit a daily net of 900 calories, no matter what she had done to exercise. I don't (always:wink: ) like to be a know-it-all, but I spoke up and told the newbie that 900 cals is not enough for an adult. I'm not gonna stay quiet in the face of bad advice.

    reasonableness and balance are the rules here (imho)
  • allaboutme
    allaboutme Posts: 391 Member
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    all that said, I saw a thread earlier today where a memeber was advocating to a newbie that exercise calories were void in her opinion, and she tries to hit a daily net of 900 calories, no matter what she had done to exercise. I don't (always:wink: ) like to be a know-it-all, but I spoke up and told the newbie that 900 cals is not enough for an adult. I'm not gonna stay quiet in the face of bad advice.

    reasonableness and balance are the rules here (imho)

    I agree with you. This is our life and we aren't just trying to lose weight, we want to be healthy and happy too. So if we lose our weight slowly while training our metabolism with enough food on a daily basis, it becomes healthy and happy and allows us to splurge once in a while without punishing us by adding a couple of pounds. I have always beleived not enough food is as bad as too much food and I still stand by that theory. Speak up if you see something seriously flawed on here, that is what it is for, to help people that want help. It can be worded so you don't sound like a know it all, but sometimes you do know more than the other person, so you need to speak up. I am not sure if some people realize how they come across when they write some messages, or maybe they don't care, or maybe they are know it alls, anyway, keep up the advice, I am taking a break for a while :) I like to help people if I can, but I don't post to argue or offend people. Some people get too worked up about stuff.

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