Net Calorie & excercise calories - please help!

SDMS
SDMS Posts: 36 Member
edited October 1 in Health and Weight Loss
I am quite confused about net calories and excercise calories.

My net calories are 1200. I excercised and burned 300 calories. That increases my net calories to 1500.
Do I eat the 1200 or 1500?

If I am supposed to eat just the 1500, then why workout? Is it because I can eat more? Wouldn't that be the same as not working out and still eating the 1200 calories?

And what happens if I am under the 1200 calories? What if I am under them for a while (majority of days).

Please help!!!!

Replies

  • Maggie_Pie1
    Maggie_Pie1 Posts: 322 Member
    Well, my philosophy, and it's worked for me so far, is to eat at least 1200 calories at a minimum. If by working out, you feel hungrier, then eat a little more. Some people say you *HAVE* to eat the exercise calories back and are very adamant about it, but I say listen to your body. If you aren't hungry, don't eat more. If you are, then eat more, but don't exceed the net calories.

    If the choice for you is not working out and staying with 1200 calories, I say you should still work out because your body definitely benefits from the exercise in many weighs other than what the scale says.
  • lawtechie
    lawtechie Posts: 708 Member
    My thoughts. If your goal is to lose weight, then determine what you need to eat for your every day body function. That could be 1200, that could be 1500 or more. There are websites on the web (and maybe even here) that will give you that general formula. So with knowing what you need to eat to live normally, I'd suggest dropping 500 calories off. That will give you a 1 lb weight loss per week. (7 * 500 = 3500 calories) just by changing your eating. When you add in exercise, you CAN eat more if you want to but you don't HAVE to. Any exercise you do should help with the weight lose.

    As point of reference, my base calories are 1500 and I usually fall under that. I also exercise, and unless it was a strenuous/high calorie burning one I won't eat more just b/c I exercised. I make my meals nutritious and not all junky.

    There is a point of balance though. Too little eating, too much exercise and you could starve your body into holding onto everything you eat -- no net loss.

    Good luck!
  • keleraba
    keleraba Posts: 6
    I do agree. Stick to your allowed calorie intake and if with exercise you burn calories, you don't have to eat that much extra. The rule is really: "what feels the best for you". For me personally, it is dangerous to have those "extra allowed" calories.
    I generally obsess about food and with the daily allowed calories, I have a set a meal plan for a week ahead and nothing to obsess about anymore.
  • lmarshel
    lmarshel Posts: 674 Member
    Think of it this way...if you eat only 1200 calories but burn 300 of those calories doing exercise, you're only giving your body 900 calories to function with. Pretty soon, your body is probably going to get enough of that. It's going to be tired and run down. And if you increase your workouts (as most of us are going to do, because we want to progress), you just compound the problem.

    You can try just eating 1200 each day and see how that works for you, but if you find that you are having problems start eating those exercise calories!
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