Day 1: PLEASE HELP ANSWER 2 NUTRITIONAL QUESTIONS

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urbanathlete
urbanathlete Posts: 8
in Food and Nutrition
Day 1 was really tough. I was still hungry at 5:30 pm, after consuming almost all my calories. I have a couple of food questions that i need to look up or have someone on here answer.

1) When I earn "extra calories" for exercising, is it more beneficial for my weight-loss NOT to eat them?

2)My goal protein total seems really low, and my goal carb number seems really high. Has anyone else experienced this? Will I still be successful if I over eat protein, and under eat carbs? Or will I be less successful because I am not feeding my body enough energy? How scientific are those totals...?

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  • vegansara
    vegansara Posts: 192 Member
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    Yes, you are supposed to eat your exercise calories. There are plenty of posts on here about why it is important, if you are curious.

    Your second question - I recommend reading the China Study if you think your protein goals are low. And yes, you need carbs - I don't know what your goals are set to, but I think the most important plan is to listen to your body and see how it feels.
  • urbanathlete
    urbanathlete Posts: 8
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    thanks vegansara! I'm not familiar with the china study. I 32yo, 6'3" and currently weight 263.1. My goal weight is 195. I let 'myfitnespal' set my nutrition goals. But that could be out of ignorance. As I mentioned, this is my first day on here.

    If U happen to have any links to the post about why it important to eat all my calories (included the earned ones) and/or a link to the China Study, I would be MOST appreciative.

    Thanks again for taking the time to help out a newcomer.
    stay well,
    michael
  • realitybytez
    realitybytez Posts: 28
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    from wikipedia:

    The China Study is a 2005 book by T. Colin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II. It examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illnesses such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration.

    The authors conclude that people who eat a whole plant food/vegan diet, which avoids animal proteins such as beef, poultry, eggs, fish, and milk, will minimize or reverse the development of chronic diseases. They also recommend adequate amounts of sunshine to maintain sufficient levels of Vitamin D, and dietary supplements of vitamin B12 in case of complete avoidance of animal products. They criticize low-carb diets, such as the Atkins diet, which include restrictions on the percentage of calories derived from complex carbohydrates.

    the vegan lifestyle isn't for everyone. and there is plenty of science that contradicts what these authors theorize.
  • urbanathlete
    urbanathlete Posts: 8
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    thanks realitybytez. I saw this phenomenal Oprah show about veganism. I definitely think that I consume way too many animal products, but I don't know if I'm ready to cut them out. I'd definitely like to start leaning into it though. Perhaps starting with small changes like 'meatless mondays' would be a good place to start. I know that if I try to anything too extreme in the beginning, I'm setting myself up to fail. But let's face it, I def want to incorporate more suggestions like this. Processed foods, hormone injected food, and other snacks certainly aren't making me any healthier. But the idea of giving up fish, egg whites, free range chicken--well, that just makes me wanna cry. :P
  • realitybytez
    realitybytez Posts: 28
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    yeah, there's no way that i could go vegan. i love barbecue way too much. but i have cut way way back on meat since i started this. i replaced one meal a day with a salad. and, i concocted my own salad dressing recipe that i really love so i have no problems sticking to that. five days a week, i'm eating high-fiber oatmeal for breakfast, but i love eggs too much to completely stop eating them. i'm eating more chicken, and less beef. for me, i rarely ever get the amount of protein that mfp suggests for my calorie guidelines. i'm usually pretty close on the carbs, and i almost never hit the number for fats. i've been pretty good at getting the right amount of fiber, but i've been reading some posts that suggest that the fiber guideline on mfp is too low.
  • rankailie
    rankailie Posts: 144
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    Day 1 was really tough. I was still hungry at 5:30 pm, after consuming almost all my calories. I have a couple of food questions that i need to look up or have someone on here answer.

    1) When I earn "extra calories" for exercising, is it more beneficial for my weight-loss NOT to eat them?

    2)My goal protein total seems really low, and my goal carb number seems really high. Has anyone else experienced this? Will I still be successful if I over eat protein, and under eat carbs? Or will I be less successful because I am not feeding my body enough energy? How scientific are those totals...?

    What I found helped me the first couple weeks was adding a lot of good fiber into my diet so I felt fuller longer. You could try that to see if you can help those food cravings.

    To answer your questions, if you earn calories from exercise its generally beneficial to eat all or most of them back. Your body needs fuel burn and having too large of a calorie deficit can and is detrimental.

    2. MFP sets protein to a minimum level, so don't worry if you go over or set it higher. Carbs are also something you need so I'd trust that number to be a good basis.
  • JJLive
    JJLive Posts: 88 Member
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    When I am still hungry and out of calories, I eat a lot of pickles, just be careful of the sodium.. they have 0 calories, and for the first couple of weeks I went thru so many jars! Now I don't need them so much anymore.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Day 1 was really tough. I was still hungry at 5:30 pm, after consuming almost all my calories. I have a couple of food questions that i need to look up or have someone on here answer.

    1) When I earn "extra calories" for exercising, is it more beneficial for my weight-loss NOT to eat them?

    2)My goal protein total seems really low, and my goal carb number seems really high. Has anyone else experienced this? Will I still be successful if I over eat protein, and under eat carbs? Or will I be less successful because I am not feeding my body enough energy? How scientific are those totals...?

    1. This is one of the big questions on this forum. My lastest perspective on this is that the question should really be "how big a calorie deficit do I want to create?".
    If you eat those calories you will have a smaller calorie deficit. This will give you more nutrition and most likely a slower rate of weight loss. I would argue that this is a good thing.
    If you don't eat those calories you will have a bigger deficit and possibly a faster rate of weight loss. It doesn't happen this way for everyone, if you eat too low you may run the risk of slowing down your metabolism, which is not something you want to do. Depending of your own situation your body may cope just fine with this larger deficit.
    If you are hungry, then this doesn't sound like a sustainable number of cals for you. Perhaps start out by eating them (after all, MFP is designed this way) but if this isn't working for you after a month or so, then you can change things up (or down!).

    Just remember that whether you eat them or don't eat them, you will still have a calorie deficit and will still lose weight, assuming you are logging accurately.

    2. You will also find a lot of discussion about whether it is better to have more protein that MFP recommends. I think it depends what your objectives are and what kind of exercise you do.
    I'm turning into a runner and everything I read about running says that you need higher carbs in this situation. I believe that if you are focussing more on strenght then you want more protein (I'm absolutely sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong here!).
    Again, I don't think there is any harm in starting out with what MFP recommends and see how it works for you.

    In general, my advice (and my opinion) is that you should just start out with the basic MFP recommendations (including eating your exercise calories) and see how it works for you. Once you've done that for a while and are used to eating less and exercising more, then you can change things to suit your own situation.
    Good luck in sifting through all the contradictory answers you will get on this thread!
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
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    Set yourself on 25-30% protein per day. For now, I would say don't eat the exercise calories unless you're hungry for them. Once you stop losing weight, then start eating them.

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