Eating my exercise calories

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e11xoxo
e11xoxo Posts: 86
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all,

Okay, I know I'm supposed to eat my exercise calories, but what if I simply don't feel hungry. I'm trying to eat healthy snacks to make the calories add up but I keep eating too little when my exercise calories are added. I tried to make myself eat a bigger breakfast this morning, but then I started to feel sick. Any advice?

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  • e11xoxo
    e11xoxo Posts: 86
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    Hello all,

    Okay, I know I'm supposed to eat my exercise calories, but what if I simply don't feel hungry. I'm trying to eat healthy snacks to make the calories add up but I keep eating too little when my exercise calories are added. I tried to make myself eat a bigger breakfast this morning, but then I started to feel sick. Any advice?
  • MissNova
    MissNova Posts: 563 Member
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    I personally do not eat my exercise calories, sometimes I don't feel hungry as well. Everyone is different just do what you feel comfortable with.
  • brandyb1995
    brandyb1995 Posts: 10
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    Hi, my name is Brandy and I am completely and totally new here. Unfortunately, I do not have any advice on your delima. However, I am interested to know what you had for breakfast this morning. I am NOT a breakfast person, but as you know, I need to make that one of my larger meals each day, so I a, having a real hard coming up with different options to eat. I would really appreciate your advice. Thanks a bunch!

    ~Brandy
  • jersygirl09
    jersygirl09 Posts: 18
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    Maybe I'm totally off track, but i don't eat my exercise calories. I stick to a 1600 calorie diet and that is it. I don't get why you would exercise to burn those calories and then take them back in, I don't understand how that helps you lose weight.

    I say stick to your calories, don't eat the extra especially if you aren't hungry and see how that works for you. If you need to up your calories then up them and stick to that amount. From everything I've read and learned, you're in this to burn extra calories, that is how you lose the weight.

    Just my humble opinion. Good Luck!
  • e11xoxo
    e11xoxo Posts: 86
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    Hi, my name is Brandy and I am completely and totally new here. Unfortunately, I do not have any advice on your delima. However, I am interested to know what you had for breakfast this morning. I am NOT a breakfast person, but as you know, I need to make that one of my larger meals each day, so I a, having a real hard coming up with different options to eat. I would really appreciate your advice. Thanks a bunch!

    ~Brandy

    Well today I was low on groceries, so I had a container of Yoplait Chocolate Mousse Yogurt and I tried to have a turkey sandwich (2 slices white bread, 3 slices Oscar Mayer turkey, 1 slice of American Cheese) but couldn't end up finishing it. But normally some of the things I eat are:

    bananas, oranges, kiwi, yogurt, cereal ( I like Special K), eggs ( I like to add flax seed to my eggs), peanut butter sandwich... but mostly fruit, yogurt, or cereal. I also take my vitamins after breakfast. 1 Centrum Multivitamin, 1 Nature Made calcium, and 2 Nature Made fish oil (those add up to 30 calories).
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
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    maybe you just need to eat higher calorie foods? There are tons of healthy, higher cal foods out there- whole grains, bananas, avacado, nuts, seeds, meats, cheese, milk. And of course you can simple increase your portion sizes a little on days you work out- an extra ounce of meat, a handful of berries in your cereal- it all adds up.

    I don't know much about you personally, I don't know your weight, nor your weight loss goals, so I can't say how important it is for you to eat ALL of those calories ALL of the time- but I can tell you that eating them WORKS. I'm proof. In general, if you are in the obese BMI category, it is relatively safe not to eat all of your exercise calories. Likewise if your base calories are on the high side and you're not burning that much- say you're set to consume 1600 a day and you're burning 200-300 calories through exercise.

    I don't personally understand the big issue people seem to have with eating those calories. It's simple math, guys. I would rather lose weight very slowly in a healthy way then have it all off right away but eating too few calories. Your body needs those, feed it! :flowerforyou:
  • adopt4
    adopt4 Posts: 970 Member
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    Maybe I'm totally off track, but i don't eat my exercise calories. I stick to a 1600 calorie diet and that is it. I don't get why you would exercise to burn those calories and then take them back in, I don't understand how that helps you lose weight.

    Here's why you should eat your exercise calories back if you can, or at least half of them: MFP tells you based on what info you entered that you burn 2000 cals in a day (example). So it automatically sets a deficit so it tells you to eat 1500 cals a day. That's a 500 deficit from daily living. But if you exercise, now are you burning an additional 500 cals, which puts your incoming cals to only 1000 - putting your body into starvation mode. The deficit is set to "no" exercise, otherwise you would eat the 2000 cals and burn the 500 cals in exercise and you'd be ok. See what I mean?

    If you're not hungry, that's great, just make sure you are eating enough to stay out of starvation mode. Also, eat when you're hungry, because if you are not eating enough and the feelings of hunger go away (because you waited so long) then your metabolism is slowing down... another thing you don't want to do. Eat 5-6 small meals per day, you should be eating roughly every 3 hours during the day. This will keep your metabolism up.
  • Skinnytime
    Skinnytime Posts: 279
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    How many meals a day are you eating? I really seem to be eating between 4 and six meals a day, so I really don't eat a huge amount of food at any one time, except dinner (which I am trying to change). Try nutrient dense foods. I do a 200 calorie breakfast, a 100 -200 calorie post work out snack, a 200 to 300 calorie lunch, a 100 calorie afternoon snack, and a 400 calorie dinner. It all works out to 1,200 to 1,500 calories more or less.
    I f you are happy with how your plan is going, though, I wouldn't worry about trying to add more calories.
  • ktthegr8
    ktthegr8 Posts: 479
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    When I first started doing this I didn't know how to count my circuit training as cardio so I wasn't eating those calories and I was always hungry. Then I found out I was burning 200-400 calories more than I thought. Since then I've been eating those calories and have lost more weight and I feel better. I eat them because I earned them. Listen to your body.
  • e11xoxo
    e11xoxo Posts: 86
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    In the morning I eat about 200 calories. I have a snack of about 100 calories. My lunch (I'm trying to make bigger) is about 600 on a good day, and dinner is around 300. I try to eat snacks about 100 calories each (cheese stick, fruit...). That's about 1400 calories. I go to the gym in the morning and sometimes again in the evening (for a little more cardio and weight training). Monday-Thursday I normally burn 900 calories, Friday and Saturday I burn 600, and I don't work-out on Sunday.

    I'm supposed to have a net calorie intake of 1200 calories.
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
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    In the morning I eat about 200 calories. I have a snack of about 100 calories. My lunch (I'm trying to make bigger) is about 600 on a good day, and dinner is around 300. I try to eat snacks about 100 calories each (cheese stick, fruit...). That's about 1400 calories. I go to the gym in the morning and sometimes again in the evening (for a little more cardio and weight training). Monday-Thursday I normally burn 900 calories, Friday and Saturday I burn 600, and I don't work-out on Sunday.

    I'm supposed to have a net calorie intake of 1200 calories.

    at a net intake of 1200 calories you need to be eating your exercise cals, there's no way around it. Try a bigger breakfast, it'll fuel you. a glass of milk is great if you feel too full to eat more.

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