Burning calories and eating them
paulavillacb
Posts: 11 Member
Hi everyone,
So I need some light on this please. My nutritionist gave me a diet which sums up to 1,200 calories a day, along with a gym routine which includes 4 days of cardio. He even specified that if I weren’t going to excercise one day, I needed to eliminate certain carbs from the diet.
So my question is, if I burn 200 calories and then eat them, will I still lose weight? Am I doing it wrong? Will be in vain? Will it be slower?
Please help!!
So I need some light on this please. My nutritionist gave me a diet which sums up to 1,200 calories a day, along with a gym routine which includes 4 days of cardio. He even specified that if I weren’t going to excercise one day, I needed to eliminate certain carbs from the diet.
So my question is, if I burn 200 calories and then eat them, will I still lose weight? Am I doing it wrong? Will be in vain? Will it be slower?
Please help!!
3
Replies
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How did your nutritionist arrive at the 1,200 calorie goal? That is the absolute lowest that most women should go and if it isn't making allowances for your activity, it probably isn't going to be sustainable for very long.
If you eat 1,400 and burn 200 through exercise, that's a net of 1,200 calories (assuming you are sedentary otherwise). For most women, that would be a deficit and they would lose weight.15 -
How tall are you? 1200 calories is only appropriate for women who are very very short AND sedentary. However, some practitioners may low ball you, expecting you to either not fully comply or be accurate.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/
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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.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
5 -
Unless you're about 70 years old, under 5ft in height and don't weigh very much already, you will almost certainly lose weight on 1200 calories a day -and you absolutely must eat back your exercise calories otherwise you're actually eating less than 1200 a day which, over a period of time, will make you very ill. No idea why you'd need to eliminate carbs on the days you don't exercise though. And depending on how much you currently weigh and what you age / height is, 1200 sounds quite low.5
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ps - the only reason to eliminate carbs on non exercise days would be along the lines that you don't find them filling and for you they are empty calories. Carbs don't prevent you from losing weight - excess calories does.12
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kshama2001 wrote: »How tall are you? 1200 calories is only appropriate for women who are very very short AND sedentary. However, some practitioners may low ball you, expecting you to either not fully comply or be accurate.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/
***********
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.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
I'm actually 1.72 meters tall and not sedentary so, wow. Thank you so much for this, definitely will NOT be feeling guilty for eating a bit more on exercise days. Thank you!3 -
Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
5 -
--people assume you will not comply and low ball you.
--people assume you will give up fast unless you see quick results so they low ball you.
--people assume that you will fail long term so you might as well benefit from some quick results for however long they last.
It is up to you, unfortunately, to figure out something that is sustainable and long term.
Because people succeed in losing 10%+ of their weight (and keeping it off for many years)... not too much.
So people.
Watch your weight trend over time: react to the trend not to your daily weigh in--and no the answer to that is NOT to weigh yourself less often: less data points don't help with anything.
Find something that is sustainable for you and "feather" your changes instead of hammering them.
Being active and truly eating 1200 Cal a day means that very soon you will stop being as active as you think you are because you will be light headed and somewhat tired and unable to keep up with your activity level and your body will start slowing down a bit and you'll feel cold and....
Manipulating water weight (increase/decrease carbs and salt)... shows quick results on the daily scale but does nothing for one's underlying fat level.
I dunno.
I sort of believe that a deficit of up to 20% (25% while obese) is just about as fast as one should go. Usually it translates into losing somewhere between 0.5% and 0.75% of one's mass per week. Probably in the lower end of that for most people.
Let's pretend you eat around 2000 Cal to maintain--you know, like food packaging seems to think most people do. 20% of that is 400Cal... or more than 41lbs in a year.
And yes. From the ground level you might not even be able to tell you're losing at that rate because of your daily water weight fluctuations (hence the weight trend comment above)
So yeah.
Maybe your nutritionist knows something about you. Maybe they know that you won't count everything or measure correctly (and trust me, it is difficult to do if you are not using a food scale and recording things before you eat them).
Or maybe they don't!
13 -
This is a very interesting discussion. I signed onto FitnessPal about a week ago, put in my details and the "application" gave me a target of 1200 calories per day. Exactly what you were told by your nutritionist. I am 4.11 in height so based on the responses given here FitnessPal is accurate about women my height needing to eat only 1200 calories to lose weight. I also googled the meaning of sedentary as defined by nutritionists - most say if you have an office job you are sedentary. This is also me, but my goal is 3 exercise sessions a week - actually two and then I walk home once a week (so three in total).
On the days I exercise, I eat more because Fitnesspal tells me I have more calories. Yesterday I ate 1,400 calories though - from drinking kefir and lassi at night and having yoghurt (I was hungry!).
I am not sure if I will lose, but I had lost one KG by Monday this week although it could be just water. Not sure.2 -
What to do with exercise calories:
6 -
Dhahabu_Kitchener wrote: »This is a very interesting discussion. I signed onto FitnessPal about a week ago, put in my details and the "application" gave me a target of 1200 calories per day. Exactly what you were told by your nutritionist. I am 4.11 in height so based on the responses given here FitnessPal is accurate about women my height needing to eat only 1200 calories to lose weight. I also googled the meaning of sedentary as defined by nutritionists - most say if you have an office job you are sedentary. This is also me, but my goal is 3 exercise sessions a week - actually two and then I walk home once a week (so three in total).
On the days I exercise, I eat more because Fitnesspal tells me I have more calories. Yesterday I ate 1,400 calories though - from drinking kefir and lassi at night and having yoghurt (I was hungry!).
I am not sure if I will lose, but I had lost one KG by Monday this week although it could be just water. Not sure.
59" vs 67.72"
Sedentary or activity factor of 1.25x BMR (as calculated by MFP) includes "moving around" not much more than an hour a day / your first 3 to 3500 pedometer steps.1 -
Dhahabu_Kitchener wrote: »This is a very interesting discussion. I signed onto FitnessPal about a week ago, put in my details and the "application" gave me a target of 1200 calories per day. Exactly what you were told by your nutritionist. I am 4.11 in height so based on the responses given here FitnessPal is accurate about women my height needing to eat only 1200 calories to lose weight. I also googled the meaning of sedentary as defined by nutritionists - most say if you have an office job you are sedentary. This is also me, but my goal is 3 exercise sessions a week - actually two and then I walk home once a week (so three in total).
On the days I exercise, I eat more because Fitnesspal tells me I have more calories. Yesterday I ate 1,400 calories though - from drinking kefir and lassi at night and having yoghurt (I was hungry!).
I am not sure if I will lose, but I had lost one KG by Monday this week although it could be just water. Not sure.
You don’t give your weight or age so it is hard to say if 1200 is appropriate.
If you are not obese, 1200 is probably good for a loss of 0.5-1lbs a week.
Do continue to eat back your exercise, MFP has sedentary as office type work, general daily chores, and about 3500 steps.
That initial loss probably has water weight included.
Be aware that as you get lighter your weight loss will slow. This is normal, the less you weigh the less calories your body needs.
Cheers, h.
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Dhahabu_Kit, I'm only a couple of inches taller than you / in a sedentary job and I'm also on 1200 calories a day. My maintenance would be about 1400 - so as long as I'm eating less than 1400, I should lose weight, although it may be very slow. But that's NET calories. Today I think I've eaten about 1500 calories, but 300 of that is against exercise.
I track my exercise on MFP and eat the additional calories it allocates me so that my net figure for the day is around 1200. For a long time I entered about half the minutes I actually did in the gym as I thought MFP was way off. Now, as I mostly use the cross-trainer (elliptical) and that tells me how many calories I've burned; I enter the required number of minutes in to MFP to get as close as I can to that number of calories. For weights, I just enter however many minutes as 'strength training' - you don't get a lot of calories for it, so I don't worry about the accuracy. For my commute, as I know the pace I tend to walk at, all I need to know is how long I walked for and enter that many minutes for the relevant pace.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.2 -
paulavillacb wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.
How did you determine that he was legit?
If you want to lose fat, you'll be better off making sure you get enough calories to avoid unnecessary muscle loss. Without knowing how your nutritionist determined you should be eating so little, it's hard to know how much of a deficit 1,200 is for you.4 -
paulavillacb wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.
what are your stats for 1200 calories gross to be appropriate?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »paulavillacb wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.
How did you determine that he was legit?
If you want to lose fat, you'll be better off making sure you get enough calories to avoid unnecessary muscle loss. Without knowing how your nutritionist determined you should be eating so little, it's hard to know how much of a deficit 1,200 is for you.
Okay checked, he has a degree in nutrition and is certified with ISSA and other terms I don't undertand. But yes, thank you, I will take this into account!0 -
paulavillacb wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »paulavillacb wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.
How did you determine that he was legit?
If you want to lose fat, you'll be better off making sure you get enough calories to avoid unnecessary muscle loss. Without knowing how your nutritionist determined you should be eating so little, it's hard to know how much of a deficit 1,200 is for you.
Okay checked, he has a degree in nutrition and is certified with ISSA and other terms I don't undertand. But yes, thank you, I will take this into account!
ISSA certification takes 4 months of online study and costs $599. The final exam is open book and untimed. If you fail it the first time, you can take it twice (again, open book and untimed) two more times for free.
This, in and of itself, wouldn't give me confidence in a nutritionist.9 -
paulavillacb wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »paulavillacb wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.
How did you determine that he was legit?
If you want to lose fat, you'll be better off making sure you get enough calories to avoid unnecessary muscle loss. Without knowing how your nutritionist determined you should be eating so little, it's hard to know how much of a deficit 1,200 is for you.
Okay checked, he has a degree in nutrition and is certified with ISSA and other terms I don't undertand. But yes, thank you, I will take this into account!
If the other terms don't include something like RD or registered dietitian, I would not use legit as the verbiage to describe them. Dietitian is a term reserved in most regions for someone with specific training and licensure to giving dietary advice. Nutritionist in most regions is a generic term which anyone can claim regardless of certifications. I think it is entirely possible that there are people commenting here that know more than some people who have passed an ISSA certification - not to say that's necessarily the case with the person you had a discussion with.
Now, I'm not saying this is the case, but if someone was just a "bro" nutritionist and comes from a background of being a bodybuilder who got a nutritionist certificate, they're very likely to just put a woman on 1200 calories because that's the minimum. A "bro" nutritionist is someone who doesn't have much of an understanding the psychology because they've just powered through diets before, so they don't see why someone looking for results would do anything other than the calorie minimum.3 -
paulavillacb wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Nutritionist, or Registered Dietitian?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Do you have a medical reason to restrict carbs?
Did your nutritionist say anything about eating back those exercise calories to fuel your activity level?
I don't know what his credentials are haha I just know he's legit.
What matters most to me isn't losing weight but losing fat, around maybe 10 lbs of just fat and increasing muscle afterwards.
No I don't have a medical reason to restrict them.
And no he didn't say anyhting about eating them back, I guess he would've just given me more food on my plan.
For losing 10 lbs it is generally recommended to aim for weight loss of 0.5 lb/week. For building muscle, you would want to eat at maintenance or even a calorie surplus while focusing on strength training.
It is very unlikely that a GROSS calorie target of 1200 calories supports the goals you stated above - as it is considered the minimum NET calorie threshold for women.
There is also no reason to restrict carbs that goes along with your stated goals above unless you have a medical reason to do so.
Not sure why you think he's "legit" based on the fact that he has a couple of letters behind his name, but I would be skeptical of all the advice he's given you so far in that I don't feel it is congruent with your stated goals.6 -
My gut says he wants you to cut carbs so that you’ll have a bigger water weight loss (not fat loss) to lead you to think he’s more legit than he is.
Carbs are not evil. If you enjoy them and don’t have a medical reason to avoid them you might want to consider another plan. If you prefer low carb and it helps you meet your calorie goal stick with what you like. Calories are what matter for weight loss.6 -
He's too legit to quit.0
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