Do you REALLY need to match your calories?

Hey everyone, I'm new here and have lots of questions. Mainly, is it really necessary to eat that 1200 calories a day? After exercise my calorie intake generally goes up to about 1800. I cant fathom eating that much in a day and losing weight. I usually net anywhere between 300-700 calories a day, but eat overall about 1000.

Thanks for your help!!! :flowerforyou: :happy:

Your starvation diet is self sabotage in the extreme.
Simply stated MFP has already figured out your total calories you need to eat per day to lose 1lb etc. a week. That's WITHOUT exercise. You'll notice that when you actually add exercise in, the calorie limit goes up. Why? Because it's telling you to eat your exercise calories. Large deficits aren't really good to do because while you will lose weight, what kind of weight will it be? In many cases you'll lose lean muscle tissue which LOWERS your metabolic rate even more. Then you have to eat even less to compensate for less of a calorie burn to continue to lose the same amount of weight each week.
Be efficient. Exercise hard and eat back the calories. The hard exercise will RAISE your metabolic rate and burn more fat at rest.

I eat about 1800 calories a day and burn 500-900 calories working out and I've lost a total of 75 lbs. It works. Feel free to check out my diary. I don't eat junk or processed foods and it is NOT hard to eat 1800 calories. I follow a diet that people in fitness competitions use. If I followed it exactly I would be eating even more, but they also lift more weights and work out twice a day (at least.)

As a beginner, I would do what the "experts" say and then if that doesn't work experiment with some other things.

I was not eating my exercised calories for a long time. And whenever I did eat them, I lost weight. Now over the holidays I stuck to the calories, upped my exercise and all that happened was I maintained and even gained a few pounds. A week ago, I decided to up my calories goal, and now I have lost a pound. Makes no sense to me, but it is true that your body tends to hold on to fat if it thinks you are starving it. So go ahead and eat if you are hungry! You probably are! Try adding avocados or protein bars.

i don't understand why you said father? you can't father eating that much???

Are you always a jerk or did we catch you on a good day?

I'll share my quick story for you because I believe it will benefit you to know where you'll be headed if you continue the low diet road.

I started in June 2011 based off a bet and a contest. I was trucking along and losing weight pretty rapidly every month. I started at 271 and found myself at 218 by November. Everyone I told about how much I lost was amazed and I was pretty excited at how quickly this was happening. I was averaging about 1200 calories a day eaten and that was WITHOUT my workouts. With workouts I was trying to keep my net calories less than 400 for the day. So technically my body only had about 400 calories of energy to rebuild all of the muscle I was tearing up doing extremely heavy lifting at the gym. I was getting frustrated that I couldn't get my weight to go any higher, OH and keep in mind that I wasn't TOUCHING carbs so I had 0 fuel practically. Workouts were miserable, but I endured.

Fast forward to end of November/December and I find myself at 205.5, 205.2, 205.5, 205.2, 206, 205. THE FREAKING SCALE wouldn't move and I was getting frustrated. I tried everything, introduce carbs back, carb load days, carb starvation days, changed my workout, muscle adaptation I thought, increased cardio, reduced cardio, increased lifting, bottom line is nothing worked. I would wake up run to the scale and 205. I'm an avid reader, OCD about the things I'm passionate about and I'm incredibly passionate about health now. I found an article by Martin Berkhan discussing calories and "one of the biggest mistakes people make is they eat too few calories while cutting." At first I was confused and thought "Ugh, what? I thought when you cut that is why it sucks because you can't eat calorie rich food." Boy was I wrong. After an email exchange back and forth I was recommended to read "Feed the Muscle, Burn the Fat" by Tom Venuto to learn the basic pillars of diet, muscles, fat, carbohydrates and overall just how our bodies work. BEST THING I EVER DID! What was I doing wrong? I WASN'T EATING! I had sent my body into a "Starvation Mode", which I never believed existed but I'm walking proof. My body was literally holding on to the little calories I gave it, burning my Lean Body Mass, cannot STRESS HOW IMPORTANT LBM IS, and hanging on to the fat to endure the long slow death my body thought I was going through.

January 1st, 2012 I decided to change my calorie goal from 1800, which it was set at, but actually EAT 1800 calories. I did this for the 1st and 2nd, woke up on the 3rd and weighed myself in the morning 204. HOLY SCHNIKEYS! Learning still from Tom Venuto's book I calculated my actual calories using Katch McArdle method and realized I should be eating about 2200 calories. I bumped up my calories and haven't looked back since. I smashed my plateau, immediately noticed my measurements changed pretty damn fast, body fat dropped, body responded "Holy crap Nick you're not dying, we'll get back to work burning this nasty fat immediately sir!"

TL;DR version: Eat your freaking calories, you will get stuck sooner or later. You will not be able to keep cutting calories if you only eat 400 calories. Also, if you think you're losing weight eating that little, you are, but guess what? It's muscle not fat thus creating a "Skinny Fat Person"

Hopefully you read this and my mistakes won't be repeated. I think I'll share this story in more detail in another post on the forums

I'll echo everyone who's saying you need to eat 1200 calories. You burn those just being awake.

As far as eating your exercise calories, you just need to remember that running off 300 calories shouldn't give you permission to eat a 300 calorie bowl of ice cream. A calorie will always equal a calorie; but an ice cream calorie brings you much less benefit than a broccoli calorie. Think of those exercise calories like putting extra money into savings - it's an opportunity to stock up on nutrients. Calcium to make your bones stronger, fats to make your hair shinier, etc. Pick foods to fill those calories in this order:

1. Greens (not veggies and fruits in general - literally ones that are the color green)
2. Lean protein
3. Whole carbs (oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice)
4. Healthy fats (olive oil, etc)
4. Other fruits and veggies

Think of yourself as a MACHINE and your purpose is to run, swim, bike, perform and basically just kick *kitten*! So to do that you need to give your body the right fuel. Fuel up to burn it off. Put away extra nutrients when you can so your legs can run faster tomorrow. If you just eat the 1200 but you're exercising, you're only giving your body enough fuel to be awake, breath and keep your brain on. You can't expect it to hit a zumba class without more in the tank.

I'll echo everyone who's saying you need to eat 1200 calories. You burn those just being awake.

As far as eating your exercise calories, you just need to remember that running off 300 calories shouldn't give you permission to eat a 300 calorie bowl of ice cream. A calorie will always equal a calorie; but an ice cream calorie brings you much less benefit than a broccoli calorie. Think of those exercise calories like putting extra money into savings - it's an opportunity to stock up on nutrients. Calcium to make your bones stronger, fats to make your hair shinier, etc. Pick foods to fill those calories in this order:

1. Greens (not veggies and fruits in general - literally ones that are the color green)
2. Lean protein
3. Whole carbs (oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice)
4. Healthy fats (olive oil, etc)
4. Other fruits and veggies

Think of yourself as a MACHINE and your purpose is to run, swim, bike, perform and basically just kick *kitten*! So to do that you need to give your body the right fuel. Fuel up to burn it off. Put away extra nutrients when you can so your legs can run faster tomorrow. If you just eat the 1200 but you're exercising, you're only giving your body enough fuel to be awake, breath and keep your brain on. You can't expect it to hit a zumba class without more in the tank.

What if I want some icecream with those 300 calories?

Then have some ice cream. It's your body, your responsibility, you get to make the decisions about it.

You'll miss out on some healthy stuff, you'll get to enjoy some ice cream, you'll have a body that is partly fed on sugary stuff.

*shrug*

What do you want us to say? It won't kill you, but at the same time eating all your exercise calories in ice cream isn't a great idea either.

I sometimes use some of mine for a glass or two of wine. That's not the best choice, but I make it with my eyes open.

I have only been doing this for a few days now but have a question about this.

The app has set my calorie intake at 2080 per day to lose the amount of weight that i want to shift.

I cycle to work and back most days and this burns of approx 3000 caloies.. Should i be then taking in 5080 caloies a day...

I dont think i could eat that much. What would be the best thing to do.

Thanks
Dave

Hey everyone, I'm new here and have lots of questions. Mainly, is it really necessary to eat that 1200 calories a day? After exercise my calorie intake generally goes up to about 1800. I cant fathom eating that much in a day and losing weight. I usually net anywhere between 300-700 calories a day, but eat overall about 1000.

Thanks for your help!!! :flowerforyou: :happy:

Your starvation diet is self sabotage in the extreme.
Simply stated MFP has already figured out your total calories you need to eat per day to lose 1lb etc. a week. That's WITHOUT exercise. You'll notice that when you actually add exercise in, the calorie limit goes up. Why? Because it's telling you to eat your exercise calories. Large deficits aren't really good to do because while you will lose weight, what kind of weight will it be? In many cases you'll lose lean muscle tissue which LOWERS your metabolic rate even more. Then you have to eat even less to compensate for less of a calorie burn to continue to lose the same amount of weight each week.
Be efficient. Exercise hard and eat back the calories. The hard exercise will RAISE your metabolic rate and burn more fat at rest.

+1

I'll echo everyone who's saying you need to eat 1200 calories. You burn those just being awake.

As far as eating your exercise calories, you just need to remember that running off 300 calories shouldn't give you permission to eat a 300 calorie bowl of ice cream. A calorie will always equal a calorie; but an ice cream calorie brings you much less benefit than a broccoli calorie. Think of those exercise calories like putting extra money into savings - it's an opportunity to stock up on nutrients. Calcium to make your bones stronger, fats to make your hair shinier, etc. Pick foods to fill those calories in this order:

1. Greens (not veggies and fruits in general - literally ones that are the color green)
2. Lean protein
3. Whole carbs (oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice)
4. Healthy fats (olive oil, etc)
4. Other fruits and veggies

Think of yourself as a MACHINE and your purpose is to run, swim, bike, perform and basically just kick *kitten*! So to do that you need to give your body the right fuel. Fuel up to burn it off. Put away extra nutrients when you can so your legs can run faster tomorrow. If you just eat the 1200 but you're exercising, you're only giving your body enough fuel to be awake, breath and keep your brain on. You can't expect it to hit a zumba class without more in the tank.

What if I want some icecream with those 300 calories?

Then have some ice cream. It's your body, your responsibility, you get to make the decisions about it.

You'll miss out on some healthy stuff, you'll get to enjoy some ice cream, you'll have a body that is partly fed on sugary stuff.

*shrug*

What do you want us to say? It won't kill you, but at the same time eating all your exercise calories in ice cream isn't a great idea either.

I sometimes use some of mine for a glass or two of wine. That's not the best choice, but I make it with my eyes open.

Haha! You guys are funny. Of course you should have ice cream when you want it! Though I'm with TourthePast on this one... I'd rather save the cals for a glass of wine. My point was just that you should use exercise calories as an opportunity to be even healthier.