Eating what I lose in Exercise

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Replies

  • I am not always able to eat all back that day but I almost always go over on the days I don't exercise. It all seems to average out.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    I'm 68" tall, 209. MPF says to eat 1330 per day. However, the BMR site says t oeat 1739. I have my weight loss goal of 2 lbs per week.......

    2lbs it's a lot. Try 1lb per week. You'll probably still lose more.
  • kvreeken
    kvreeken Posts: 137 Member
    So is it a good idea to eat the calories you burn during exercise? For instance, If my Calorie goal is 1500 / day, and I exercise, I gain 700 calories from exercising, do I need to eat the extra It tells me I gained?
    Yes, eat all the calories back.
    MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
    And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
    Why?
    Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories.
    Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
    In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
    These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
    few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories
    more slowly -- and you gain weight.
    Be smart.
    Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
    The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.



    You are absolutely correct.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I am not always able to eat all back that day but I almost always go over on the days I don't exercise. It all seems to average out.

    This is fine and is how most trainers, nutritionist and doctors set your caloric intake. The essentially average out your exercise for the full week and keep your intake constant. MFP just does things a little different, they keep your daily deficit constant but at the end of the week you should consume similar amounts of calories.
  • My personal opinion is that you should NOT eat those calories you burn. But i do think you should eat something small like a cereal bar or a special K bar something with high fiber or high protein bar. When you burn calories and then eat them what is the point of working out. Like I said its my opnion I am not a fitness trainer or professional. I feel guilty when I eat what I just worked off. Hope that helps.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    dude, took a quick look at your diary. you are not eating nearly enough. in my opinion, you should be eating all the exercise calories, but besides the point, you just need to eat. how tall are you? i mean, you are 209 lbs, trying to get to 165, and MFP says that you should be eating 1,739 calories? what is your weight loss per week goal set at? if its anything more then 1lb per week, stop and make it 1lb per week. especially being in the air force, you need strength, not just skinny.

    This. I'm a 5'5# 39 year old woman, and I eat about 2000 calories a day. Even if you were a small as me, you'd need more just because you have more testosterone and muscle as a dude.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LorinaLynn/view/exercise-calories-explained-206876
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
    If you are going to offer advice on whether to eat your exercise calories or not, please be sure first that you know how MFP is set up to work.

    When you entered your goals (lose .5, 1, or 2 pounds a week), MFP deducted the appropriate calories from your daily goal in order for you to achieve this.

    NO exercise is expected or included in the calculation. It is healthy, however, to exercise and keep your muscles active, but you are not required to do so on MFP in order to lose weight.

    So, if you do, indeed, exercise, then you need to eat those calories in order to keep the original deficit per your goal. Eating too little is not healthy.

    If this does not work for you, it is likely that one or more of the following has occurred: 1 ) you aren't as active as you think you are, so the activity level selected in your settings is inaccurate or 2 ) you aren't actually burning as many calories during exercise as you think you are or 3 ) you are eating more than you are logging due to estimation errors/logging ommissions. A combination of these is usually at fault.

    Here is the formula: (Using close to my own personal figures)

    BMR - 1400 (Minimum calories needed to keep organs functioning)
    Sedentary lifestyle adds factor of 1.2 - 1680 (Total burned normally without exercise)
    Weight loss desired 1 pound per week - 3500 calorie deficit required = 500 deficit needed per day
    1680 - 400 - 1280 daily calorie goal
    Zumba class exercise calories - 400 extra calories

    1280 + 400 extra burned - 400 extra eaten = 1280 calorie goal

    So I still have my 500 daily calorie deficit (since my normal burn is 1680).

    Wiping out a deficit is extremely easy - forgot the olive oil you cooked with (-140), eat 5 fries off your kids plate (-50), guessed at the size of your chicken - (-50), just guessed at how many chips you had (-100), didn't measure your salad dressing (-100), didn't measure peanut butter (-70), didn't count almonds-just had a heaping handful-(-75). By this time, you not only do not have a deficit, you are eating at a surplus!!

    Another suggestion is to be sure the exercise you count is purposeful, fitness related exercise and not lifestyle activities (as those are included in the lifestyle factor mentioned above).

    Good luck!
  • KareninCanada
    KareninCanada Posts: 962 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo



    MFP and my trainer ultimately give me essentially the same number.... MFP says "whatever plus exercise", and trainer says 1800-2000 with exercise. The math is different but the result is the same.
  • Moonbeamlissie
    Moonbeamlissie Posts: 504 Member
    all I am saying is my husband went to the DR and was told in NO WAY should he eat back his calories... which is what I have believed all along. When you are maintaining that is another story......
  • Tonnina
    Tonnina Posts: 979 Member
    I love what she says vv
    You are going to get a lot of different answers on this and a lot of reasons why. I do not eat my exercise calorie. I used to do weight watchers and they always stressed the fact that if you did not eat all of your food they told you to you were not going to lose weight because you would go into starvation mode. However, with this last program they introduced, even they admitted that you will still lose weight if you do not eat all your food everyday. You eat until you are not hungry.

    I was researching this topic and found an article (and if I remember right it came from the Mayo clinic) that said the starvation mode thing that everybody talks about is only correct when you are talking about people who are already thin (men with less than 5% body fat and women with less than 10% body fat).

    I guess in the long run, it is up to you to figure out which way works best for you. Good luck!!

    Eat until you are no longer hungry... once this happens then you are good, you've had enough calories and should be just fine!
  • angel79202
    angel79202 Posts: 1,012 Member
    This topic is posted almost daily..with the same disagreements :)
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
    Has anybody thought there is no "one size fits all" answer to the question.

    The rate of weight loss that is suitable varies person to person, situation to situation. For those who are massively overweight why should they limit themselves to 2lb/week?
  • well for me I eat as much of them as possible .. not always all ..

    like I earned 800 more calories from excercise but just wasn't that hungry so I ate 550!
  • kaetmarie
    kaetmarie Posts: 668 Member
    I eat more when I exercise, but never all of my exercise calories ... MFP always has high estimates so people tend to assume they're burning way more than they actually are (I've seen people burn upwards of 1,000 calories during 40 minutes of food prep..ummm no). Try different things out ... if you aren't losing by not eating back your calories, eat some more ... if that's not working, keep adjusting until you find something that works for you. Eating about 200-300 more calories on days I work out hard works for me. Good luck!!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Has anybody thought there is no "one size fits all" answer to the question.

    The rate of weight loss that is suitable varies person to person, situation to situation. For those who are massively overweight why should they limit themselves to 2lb/week?

    If you 200+ lbs to lose you can safely lose more than 2lbs/week, but there are a few reasons why slow weight loss is preferred:
    The slower you lose weight the more likely you are to keep it off.
    The slower you lose the less excess skin you will have (skin may tighten along with your loss if it is slow enough).
    Losing slow will help set you up for maintenance so you don't just jump your calories up.
    Losing slower will give you more energy while losing making exercise easier.
    etc.
  • ritmeyer
    ritmeyer Posts: 136 Member
    This topic is posted almost daily..with the same disagreements :)

    Yeah, I'm relatively new here and I NEED to stop reading them. It makes me want to bang my head into my desk...repeatedly. I guess on tuesdays when I teach an hour long fitness class (650 cals burned) then do my half marathon training run (800 calories burned) then play volleyball (250 cals burned) at 1650 total burned, I'll be just fine eating my daily goal of 1220 calories...makes sense to me... ::banging head against desk:: I won't pass out at all...
  • Happyguy
    Happyguy Posts: 90 Member
    I think your body will let you know if you listen to it.

    If you feel energetic and you aren't starting to dread working out and if you aren't running out of gas part way through your workout, you are probably eating enough even if MFP says you need to eat more.
  • crystified21
    crystified21 Posts: 8 Member
    I couldn't agree more with you Max. I was running a lot training for a half marathon. Losing inches weekly, but my weight wasn't moving. I joined weight watchers, hoping they could give me some clear guidance. They told me not to eat the calories I burned, next weigh in I gained 3 pounds.

    However, I figured out how my body works. I don't necessarily need to eat them all back, but I strive to do so. If I am weak before a PM workout I drink a 100 calorie muscle milk to give me that extra energy I need.

    I make it a point to wear a HRM no matter what I am doing. Weight Lifting or Cardio. I then calculate the calories burned by my average heart rate. This couldn't be more effective=)
  • angel79202
    angel79202 Posts: 1,012 Member
    This topic is posted almost daily..with the same disagreements :)

    Yeah, I'm relatively new here and I NEED to stop reading them. It makes me want to bang my head into my desk...repeatedly. I guess on tuesdays when I teach an hour long fitness class (650 cals burned) then do my half marathon training run (800 calories burned) then play volleyball (250 cals burned) at 1650 total burned, I'll be just fine eating my daily goal of 1220 calories...makes sense to me... ::banging head against desk:: I won't pass out at all...

    duh obviously..if u can have ur body run on negative calories, you're doing it right! snort..:laugh:
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    I think your body will let you know if you listen to it.

    I ate by "listening to my body" in my 20s and ended up a scary-skinny 103# (I wasn't trying to lose at the time... didn't realize I got so little until people got concerned). I ate by "listening to my body" in my late 30s and ended up at 160#.

    My body is really stupid. It will let me skip breakfast without a complaint, and will sometimes tell me that Butterfingers make a great breakfast. :laugh:

    I prefer to use my mind and logic. And logic says I need more calories when I burn 500 extra calories than when I sit on the couch all day.
  • ritmeyer
    ritmeyer Posts: 136 Member
    This topic is posted almost daily..with the same disagreements :)

    Yeah, I'm relatively new here and I NEED to stop reading them. It makes me want to bang my head into my desk...repeatedly. I guess on tuesdays when I teach an hour long fitness class (650 cals burned) then do my half marathon training run (800 calories burned) then play volleyball (250 cals burned) at 1650 total burned, I'll be just fine eating my daily goal of 1220 calories...makes sense to me... ::banging head against desk:: I won't pass out at all...

    duh obviously..if u can have ur body run on negative calories, you're doing it right! snort..:laugh:

    Sweet! I figured it was all good...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    But seriously, some days I eat them all back, some days I don't. But I TRY to eat them back. It's really, really hard to get your mind into that mode when you have been losing weight or trying to lose weight, but we have to fuel our bodies!
  • ritmeyer
    ritmeyer Posts: 136 Member
    I think your body will let you know if you listen to it.

    I ate by "listening to my body" in my 20s and ended up a scary-skinny 103# (I wasn't trying to lose at the time... didn't realize I got so little until people got concerned). I ate by "listening to my body" in my late 30s and ended up at 160#.

    My body is really stupid. It will let me skip breakfast without a complaint, and will sometimes tell me that Butterfingers make a great breakfast. :laugh:

    I prefer to use my mind and logic. And logic says I need more calories when I burn 500 extra calories than when I sit on the couch all day.

    THIS!

    I didn't gain 90lbs while pregnant because "listening to my body" is an ability I have...
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