Why you should eat your exercise calories

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  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
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    I'm still researching on this one too. If that is the case, why workout, and just not diet. If anyone with letters behind their name would like to comment, I would like to read it. Some credentials would be nice.

    Well, I don't have any letters after my name (none that would be relevant in here anyways lol) but the benefits of working out are SOOOOOO much more than just to burn calories!!

    So peeps, eat your exercise calories, MFP already factored in your deficit for you - enjoy your exercise calories and fuel your body to become faster, fitter and stronger.

    xx
  • MHunte
    MHunte Posts: 149
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    X2!!

    Like i told someone before, your body needs fuel, when you excercise you burn the fuel, you need to eat to refuel your body!! yall going to force your body into starvation mode thinking you doing a good thing, your body will retain the fat, i bet the ones who don't eat back the calories or atleast most of it hardly lose any weight or lose weight it at a slow rate and not consistant.
  • MHunte
    MHunte Posts: 149
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    I posted this a while ago, but I have been seeing more and more new members asking whether or not they should be eating them back.

    Short answer: YES!

    Here is why: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    MFP has already created a deficit for you. When you don't eat your exercise calories back you are creating an even larger deficit which can cause you to stop losing. I strongly suggest you to read the link I provided for details!

    ^^ Great article!


    This needs to be a sticky!!!!
  • whtlatina1214
    whtlatina1214 Posts: 765 Member
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    maybe im slow but i dont understand the article
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    I'm still researching on this one too. If that is the case, why workout, and just not diet. If anyone with letters behind their name would like to comment, I would like to read it. Some credentials would be nice.
    you can just diet and lose weight just fine. if you want a fit, healthy body and all the benefits that come with it - then you need to exercise as well.
  • MHunte
    MHunte Posts: 149
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    maybe im slow but i dont understand the article




    Eating too few calories can actually slow down the rate at which you lose weight. This can be confusing as all too often you are told that the way to lose weight is to eat less calories and exercise. While technically this is true, it is important to understand that your body needs a certain amount of calories in order to function. If you are eating too few calories, your body feels like it is starving. At this point, your body will actually begin to store fat and your metabolism will begin to slow down. When your metabolism slows down, it burns calories at a slow speed and basically puts your body into neutral mode. Basically, your weight loss efforts are going nowhere and you stop losing weight. The amount of calories you should intake to remain healthy depends on your body weight and activity level. Before you can determine how many calories are too few calories, you must find the amount of calories that your body needs to survive. There are many online calculators that are able to calculate this for you. These calculators generally do not include exercise. Therefore, if you do any activity at all, including walking to the car, you must add calories to this number. This is an important number and you must take it seriously. Eating too few calories below this number will cause serious damage to your body. Never take in less than 1200 calories per day. Once you determine what you need to survive, you will need to determine what calories you need to maintain your existing weight. There are also online calculators to help you with this task. After you determine what calories are needed to maintain the weight, you will be able to determine how many calories you need to lose weight. It is important to understand that you must lose weight at a reasonable rate, or your body will go into starvation mode. This is usually about one to two pounds per week. All you need to do this is to reduce or burn about 500 extra calories each day. It is important to include exercise into this equation. Try cutting back on 300 calories per day as well as burn 200 calories by exercising. Eating too few calories can slow down your weight loss efforts by slowing down your metabolism and causing serious health problems.



    Hope this helps....
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,397 MFP Moderator
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    I'm still researching on this one too. If that is the case, why workout, and just not diet. If anyone with letters behind their name would like to comment, I would like to read it. Some credentials would be nice.

    Exercise isn't for losing weight but it's a benefit from it. You can lose weight on a basic caloric deficit. You workout for several reasons; to be able to eat more as you will need more calories to fuel the body, to improve cardiovascular and physcial wellbeing and to maintain lean muscle mass which is the driver for your metabolism.

    is this true? does it really work? I'm new to all of this and really just want to lose about 10lbs.

    Here is the results of a study i did about eating more to lose more. If you note, all the women with low body fat eat 1800+ calories. So if you want to have low body fat, you need to eat like someone who is already there. And the second one is a ton of people who eat more to lose more. I will note, if you try this method, you can't only try it for a week or two. You need to monitor for at least a month.




    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395948-caloric-intake-results?hl=caloric+intake+results&page=1

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395881-people-who-lost-weight-eating-more?error_user_id=252210&error_username=psulemon&hl=eating+more+results
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    X2!!

    Like i told someone before, your body needs fuel, when you excercise you burn the fuel, you need to eat to refuel your body!! yall going to force your body into starvation mode thinking you doing a good thing, your body will retain the fat, i bet the ones who don't eat back the calories or atleast most of it hardly lose any weight or lose weight it at a slow rate and not consistant.

    "Refueling after a workout" and "eating back all your exercise calories" are not the same thing. #1 usually requires a lot less food than #2.

    There is no single correct answer, primarily because the body's response to a calorie deficit changes as one's body composition changes.

    A beginner who is large, heavy and has a high percentage of body fat can sustain a high calorie deficit with little or no adverse effects--in my experience, as long as they eat enough food (I'm talking 1400-1800 calories per day, not 1200). These people will not go into "starvation mode" (and neither will most people).

    The type of exercise program can make a difference as well.

    And lastly, as someone else noted, calculating exercise calorie burn -- yes even with a sacred HRM -- is a pretty rough estimate. If you reflexively eat back all exercise calories, there is a pretty good chance you could overeat, resulting in slower loss than necessary.

    If someone is over 200 lbs with a body fat over 30% for males or 35% for females, most registered dietitians will put them on a calorie-restricted food plan of 1400-1600 calories/day with no allowance for exercise (really heavy people might be put as high as 2000 cal/day).

    As one approaches one's "ideal" body fat level, then keeping a smaller deficit becomes necessary. But there is no hard and fast rule that says that beginners MUST eat back all exercise calories.
  • HotBodUnderConstruction
    HotBodUnderConstruction Posts: 420
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    As one approaches one's "ideal" body fat level, then keeping a smaller deficit becomes necessary. But there is no hard and fast rule that says that beginners MUST eat back all exercise calories.

    Thank you for your post. I've been assuming that the calories burned provided by MFP might be an overestimation of what I have actually burned, so I have not consumed all of my exercise calories back (just some). Glad to see that I wasn't totally off base with that.
  • cyclingben
    cyclingben Posts: 346 Member
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    I completely agree. Its all based on your weight and BMI . If i ate my cal that i burn in the gym 2 times a day i would have to eat an xtra 1000-1500 cals a day. I lost 60 lbs in 4 months and i was eating 2000 cals a day and riding 15 miles a day burning about 800-900 calories each time.
  • dos_treinta_y_cinco
    dos_treinta_y_cinco Posts: 22 Member
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    I am in total agreement
  • sweetseraph7
    sweetseraph7 Posts: 91
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    I don't get why you should eat your exercise calories - what's the point of exercising when you are suppose to burn what you're eating if you're eating your deficent then it's like you're back at square one.... eat fewer clalories and exercise more.
  • Samerah12
    Samerah12 Posts: 610 Member
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    I don't get why you should eat your exercise calories - what's the point of exercising when you are suppose to burn what you're eating if you're eating your deficent then it's like you're back at square one.... eat fewer clalories and exercise more.

    There ought to be a ripping out your hair emoticon....

    Read the article- then you'll get it.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
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    i don't eat them. i drink them.

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  • DarleneBDA
    DarleneBDA Posts: 80 Member
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    Some days with my workouts and playing tennis I am burning 1000 calories a day...
    So your telling me that I should be eating 1000 more calories ...thats alot of food to be eating...
  • laurastrait21
    laurastrait21 Posts: 307 Member
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    I think the point of this is it is important, such as on days where you DO burn very high number of calories - to eat back some of it. It's not the point to not be able to leave a little cushion for yourself, but rather just fuel your body for your workouts so it doesn't think it's starving and start making your metabolism sluggish. In order to really know how it will affect you, you have to learn your own body and the physiology of how it burns fat, which there is never a quick answer
  • madameduffay
    madameduffay Posts: 166 Member
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    I just posted on my Home page that I did not fully understand calorie deficits and was making it a goal to figure it out today, as I was sure it was a pretty simple concept.

    Then, voila, I go to the community site and here is this thread.

    Thanks!
  • Beezil
    Beezil Posts: 1,677 Member
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    Some days with my workouts and playing tennis I am burning 1000 calories a day...
    So your telling me that I should be eating 1000 more calories ...thats alot of food to be eating...

    A large peanut butter milkshake from Dairy Queen has 1250 calories. :)
  • JeanniebeanL79
    JeanniebeanL79 Posts: 96 Member
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    Thank you for that information! Very Helpful! :-)
  • Loves418
    Loves418 Posts: 330 Member
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    Ok so the 1200 calories MFP gave me is already a deficit? So if I work out and it says You earned 400 more calories by working out then I should eat them?
    I thought 1200 was what we are supposed to eat normally? Not when we are trying to lose weight. This is totally confusing.
    Sorry don't meant to make anyone pull hair out of head....I just want to lose weight ....that is all..:)

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