EXERCISE VS. CALORIES

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  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    Ewww! Not an onion eater. :sick:

    Oh... and your body knows when it needs food. The feeling of hunger is an involuntary action.

    Haha I can eat them raw and love the sauteed!

    You can be full and still need more to eat tho, which is why I add fats in a lot of my meals to make sure Im getting my calories. If you have a large volume of food for little calories you will feel full, but still may need more nutrients.

    Just my take on it. Im not a fan of large calorie deficits because can increase the amount of lean body mass lost D: But I always encourage to find what works for the user! Nothign wrong with experimenting :flowerforyou:

    Well I have done a little research on that issue. Losing lean body mass is a problem for people whose body types don't have a lot of lean muscle to begin with. I have always had a lot of lean muscle. I've just never bothered to do much with it. When I started I was over 300 lbs. I don't know exactly what my body fat percentage was but my BMI was around 39. I don't need fat when I've got so much stored up already. But like you said, everybody's different and we each have to find our own way.
  • NPetrakis
    NPetrakis Posts: 164 Member
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    I eat to make sure that I am retaining my muscle mass. If you are burning a lot of calories and eating little... you will have an increased risk of losing muscle mass D: Which can lead to a "skinny fat" look. Not so attractive

    Mostly true, ensuring you have enough protein ( even on the no workout days ) contributes more to maintaining lean muscle and avoiding a phenomenon called catabolization. Other than meats, Greek yogurt or a protein isolate shake are great protein supplements and the yogurt contributes to general digestive health.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    Ewww! Not an onion eater. :sick:

    Oh... and your body knows when it needs food. The feeling of hunger is an involuntary action.

    Haha I can eat them raw and love the sauteed!

    You can be full and still need more to eat tho, which is why I add fats in a lot of my meals to make sure Im getting my calories. If you have a large volume of food for little calories you will feel full, but still may need more nutrients.

    Just my take on it. Im not a fan of large calorie deficits because can increase the amount of lean body mass lost D: But I always encourage to find what works for the user! Nothign wrong with experimenting :flowerforyou:

    Well I have done a little research on that issue. Losing lean body mass is a problem for people whose body types don't have a lot of lean muscle to begin with. I have always had a lot of lean muscle. I've just never bothered to do much with it. When I started I was over 300 lbs. I don't know exactly what my body fat percentage was but my BMI was around 39. I don't need fat when I've got so much stored up already. But like you said, everybody's different and we each have to find our own way.

    Ah makes more sense. For my size (120lbs) Im actually very very strong. Not too much LBM, so im looking to protect it in any way I can ya know :] I would say that the rule "you really should" eat your exercise cals applies the learner you get. Good point!
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    You don't have to eat back your calories. Do not eat if you are not hungry.

    So if I eat 700 calories worth of broccoli and am full all day I shouldn't eat more?

    Makes sense.

    So... If you ate 1500 cals of broccoli that would make it more ok?

    Well I sure wouldn't have any constipation problems xD

    If I was full I don't think I would be eating double? C'mon now! :wink:
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    Ewww! Not an onion eater. :sick:

    Oh... and your body knows when it needs food. The feeling of hunger is an involuntary action.

    People who are new to this need to retrain their hunger signals. The reason they are here is because they "listened to their bodies" until they became overweight...

    That seems logical, but not everybody ate when they were hungry. Some, if not most, ate when they were stressed, upset, lonely, unhappy, angry or just plain wanted to. Reminds me of the expression "your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

    I actually had to take a medication that disrupted the appetite center of my brain. I was on those meds for 3 months and gained 50 lbs. After I came off the meds, my appetite returned to normal, but I didn't lose because I didn't want to. I didn't eat food, I indulged in it. I think that is probably the retraining that really needs to happen. Teaching your brain to know the difference between a needed food and a wanted food.

    You make great points. "Teaching your brain to know the difference between a needed food and a wanted food." hits the nail on the head for how most of us started out. That's one of the very first steps.

    But what happens to some people when they start counting the calories is they feel an obsession to keep the calories as low as possible and then they start to lose their sense of how to eating again; this time in the other direction. And this can be just as bad as indulging 24/7.

    That's probably why this debate goes on forever. OF COURSE when you're trying to lose weight, you shouldn't overeat. But you also shouldn't undereat. There is a "sweet spot" when it comes to net calories and deficits. It is different for everyone and there are no absolutes. But I can tell you for sure that triple digit net calories are healthy for virtually no one.
  • Alapsley
    Alapsley Posts: 2
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    Lisa please call me, I will explain. Good Day!!!
  • fatguyweightloss
    fatguyweightloss Posts: 145
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    I try to not look at calories burned as an excuse to eat bad foods. If it was low impact exercise there is a good chance you burned fat as energy which you normally want to keep off your body. I only eat extra if I am actually hungry and then I never eat more than half of the caories I burned...

    I don't think anyone was encouraging her to eat bad food...

    I eat my exercise calories, and I still lose weight. Right now, I'm down to a little less than a pound a week, but I only have ~10lbs left. I try and fill my exercise calories with something that has a lot of protein/fiber. Like a protein bar, or some tuna, or chicken.

    It's really up to you and what works for your body. Every one is different, so experiment with it and see what works best.

    Sorry was implying the person asking the question or others were recommending to eat bad foods as well. I just commonly see this, "I just ran 10 miles this morning, I am going to treat myself to breakfast at McDonalds" (or s few donuts, etc)
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    IMO, there is some bad advice in this thread, and some other advice that is too absolute.

    *disclaimer*
    Everything I'm about to say assumes no special dietary or health "conditions"
    */disclaimer*

    Healthy weight loss comes from maintaining a healthy calorie deficit. A deficit that is too high can (and often will) result in a lower number on the scale, but there are several unhealthy side effects (loss of muscle/lean body mass being the most common). Maintaining a reasonable calorie deficit while eating correct macros will lead to healthy weight loss.

    How you get to that calorie deficit is up to you. This is where the MFP diet profile comes into play.

    The diet profile allows you to specify a number of things. The 2 we care about for this conversation are your activity level and your goal. How you set these will determine whether or not you should be eating back your exercise calories.

    Activity Level
    This is where you set your daily activity level. *Most* people set this to reflect their activity level NOT including exercise/workouts. As such, they track their exercise separately as part of their diary. MFP uses this (along with the rest of your profile data) to determine an estimate for required for daily calories - i.e. how many calories you need each day to maintain your body as it currently is.

    Goal
    This is where you set your weight gain/loss goal. MFP uses this to set a daily calorie goal to help you reach your weight goals - a calorie deficit if your goal is to lose weight, a calorie surplus if you want to gain.

    So, with all that said... how do we know if we should be eating back exercise calories or not? Well, it comes down to how you setup your profile.

    Assuming your goal is to lose weight, MFP will calculate a healthy calorie deficit for you based on age, weight, activity level, etc. That number is what you need to be NETTING each day. Period. There is no debate here. The concept of net calories is just like net income... I'm REALLY hoping that doesn't need to be explained.

    So the need to eat back exercise calories really comes down to how you determined your activity level when setting up your dietary profile. If your set activity level does NOT account for exercise/workouts (this is how most people use MFP), then you should be logging your exercises separately and eating back those calories. Why? In order to hit the calorie goal MFP set for you based on your profile data/goals. Consider this example: Your daily calorie goal is 1500cal. That number is calculated by MFP based on your profile data and is the number of calories you need to net each day to hit your weight loss goal. So you eat 1500cal. Good. Then you workout and burn 350 calories. Your NET intake for the day is now 1150, which is too low, and thus you need to consume an additional 350 calories during the day to compensate for the workout and be able to hit your goal of 1500cal for the day.

    Make sense?

    Alternatively, if you set your activity level so that it DOES account for your daily exercise, then the daily calorie goal MFP sets for you takes into account those calories burned during exercise, and as such you do NOT need to eat back burned calories. Example: Your daily calorie goal is 1850 (higher because MFP is accounting for daily exercise). So you eat 1850 calories. Good. Now you exercise and burn 350 calories. MFP already accounted for those 350 calories to be burned because of the activity level you set in your profile, so MFP already knows you burned them. As such, there is no reason to log the exercise separately, and you don't need to eat back those calories.

    I hope this clears up the whole exercise calorie question. If nothing else, it gives me a pre-typed response I can cut and paste into future exercise calorie threads.
  • llfoaa
    llfoaa Posts: 4
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    OK!!!!!!!!!....Thanks.

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