Eating Calories from Exercise

staclo
staclo Posts: 511 Member
edited September 19 in Motivation and Support
Hi Everyone,

I've been lurking here for a while, but haven't posted much yet. Anyway, I go to bootcamp twice a week now, and I'm finding it impossible to eat all of my calories from that workout. I'm burning around 600 calories, and if I try to make up for that, I get too stuffed. Tonight, for instance, I'm showing that I still have over 300 calories left, but I ate a huge salad, and really could not take another bite. Without exercise, I am allowing myself 1250 calories a day. Is that ok, or should I do something different to make sure that I consume that much? Any ideas?

Replies

  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    Hi Everyone,

    I've been lurking here for a while, but haven't posted much yet. Anyway, I go to bootcamp twice a week now, and I'm finding it impossible to eat all of my calories from that workout. I'm burning around 600 calories, and if I try to make up for that, I get too stuffed. Tonight, for instance, I'm showing that I still have over 300 calories left, but I ate a huge salad, and really could not take another bite. Without exercise, I am allowing myself 1250 calories a day. Is that ok, or should I do something different to make sure that I consume that much? Any ideas?
  • staceyw37
    staceyw37 Posts: 2,094 Member
    put more calorie dense foods into your lighter ones.

    add walnuts or almonds or raisins or avocado to your salad.
    eat a T of pnut butter--or put into oatmeal.

    this way you're adding cals but w/o the bulk.
  • LostinCali
    LostinCali Posts: 155
    I'm new too but from what I've read some people eat the exercise calories and some people don't. And most people say to do what works for you, so if you are losing then keep doing whatever you are doing because it must be working.
  • photoman67
    photoman67 Posts: 116 Member
    When you're full, you're full. Listen to your stomach. That's just my opinion.
  • dcessna
    dcessna Posts: 1
    I too am having some problems...I used to be an overeater, and now all the sudden I cannot manage to eat enough calories a day with my excercise....my trainer said that I should be having a snack in between every meal and to not forget breakfast. THIS IS HARD.
  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    Thanks for the replies, everyone! I'm trying to learn and tweak things to get the best possible results. :)
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    When you're deficit brings you to a net of 1250 and you're burning 600, you really need to eat that. It's not a matter of feeding your stomach ... it's a matter of fueling your muscles.

    Within 30 minuts of your workouts, have a glass of chocolate milk (8 oz is about 150 calories). It has the perfect protein efficiency ratio (4:1 = carbs:protein) which provides the critical building blocks for rapid muscle resynthesis (muscle recovery). But don't take my word for it. Google "chocolate milk recovery" and see what you come up with.

    You're probably drinking something after working out anyway; it might as well be something that will make your muscles happy and continue munching on fat cells long after your workout. If you're chronically short by 300, have 16oz! Your muscles will literally eat it up.

    Not consuming enough can stall your weight loss at the very least. And since you are burning so much, it could start limiting your performance.

    EDIT: Once your metabolism gets stronger, you'll start to find yourself hungry for those calories. It took me about a week after I started a program that burned close to what you're doing but it happens.
  • artschoolgirl
    artschoolgirl Posts: 598 Member
    I agree with listening to your stomach. I find that I always lose when i'm not paying attention & just focussing on exercising & eating healthy, not obsessing over a couple hundred calories.

    Best of luck with boot camp! Keep us posted on how it's going!
  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    I just googled "chocolate milk recovery," and found some good info. I actually had a glass right before that anyway. Hey, I had the calories left and it sounded good! LOL. Thanks for the suggestion.
  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    Thanks! Bootcamp is hard, but I really enjoy it so far.
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    Thanks! Bootcamp is hard, but I really enjoy it so far.

    Sounds good :smile:. If you start having it after your workouts, your muscles will thank you! It really made a huge difference in my performance when I started doing so.
  • bathedinshadow
    bathedinshadow Posts: 117 Member
    This site is REALLY big on eating back your exercise calories... but lots of sites aren't. I see the logic behind it, but at the same time.... even if you read Jillian's books.... she doesn't say to eat them all back, and this site is big on her as well! Her book "making the cut" just has you eat your maintenance. And not your ACTIVE maintenance, but your "laying down not moving a finger" maintenance. She has you eat that every day regardless of workout. So in other words, do what works for you. Trial and error. Eating all my exercise calories back, makes me stay exactly the same. I tested the theory for 3-4 months. But that is just ME. For others it might work. I eat when I'm hungry. I mean really, that is the down to basics way right. Not when I just want to eat, but when I actually feel hungry. For me, this keeps me at about 1200 calories on resting days and 1500-1600 on workout days (I burn way more than 300-400 calories in a workout). So I don't really use either method suggested. But we are all at different places and have different goals and different bodies. So it's important to test the methods yourself and find the best option. Too bad it isn't as simple as "you do this and this will happen!"
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    Maybe you should spend more time on the sites that don't focus on eating back your exercise calories if you're so against it and there are so many out there.
  • MTGirl
    MTGirl Posts: 1,490 Member
    Maybe you should spend more time on the sites that don't focus on eating back your exercise calories if you're so against it and there are so many out there.

    lol ghanie - I kind of thought the same thing! :glasses:
  • bathedinshadow
    bathedinshadow Posts: 117 Member
    .
  • bathedinshadow
    bathedinshadow Posts: 117 Member
    Maybe you should spend more time on the sites that don't focus on eating back your exercise calories if you're so against it and there are so many out there.

    So that was totally called for. Relax.

    All I'm saying is there are a lot of different methods and approaches that work for different people.

    And I do use different site as well. I like to have different kinds of ideas tossed around. If you like this one and it works for you then great. I like parts of things here and parts of things elsewhere.

    Not to mention I never said I was against. Try reading it again and you'll see I was explaining that one method (eating all exercise calories back in this case) mightn't work for everybody and she should do what works for her. Or we can just skip to the name calling since it seems like that's the route you'd rather take.
  • staclo
    staclo Posts: 511 Member
    I guess there are a lot of differing opinions out there. Hmm...well I guess I'll just have to figure out what works for me then. 600 calories is a lot of extra calories to try to consume in a day, so I'm probably not going to try to consume all of them, but I can find easy ways to add a few more calories on those days for sure.
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