Surely eating more calories for exercise doesn't work?

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  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    Yes it does. And stop calling me Shirley.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Kind of the opposite. If you work out but don't properly fuel up, it's as if the workout was a waste of time and effort.

    Oooohhhh, nice.

    If you don't feed/fuel the workout, it will end up being a waste of time and effort.

    Even the most un-exercised folks have heard the idea about resting the day after doing heavy weight lifting, so the idea is there in many people's minds you need a recovery.
    It's the application when you start exercising.
  • alxdeanda
    alxdeanda Posts: 72
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    I basically had the same question..
    It's because your muscles need to recover. If you eat about your limit daily, and you work out, clearly you're burning a couple/few hundred off, but you want to reach your limit (calorie intake), so drink a protein shake after your work out, and/or some grilled chicken with a string cheese or something.

    & may I add, it's not JUST for muscle recovery. It helps speed up your metabolism, as well as gives your body the proper nutrients it needs to continue to lean and/or build muscle more efficiently.
  • sweetaj
    sweetaj Posts: 30 Member
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    ETA: And don't call me Shirley.
    :laugh: :laugh:
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    I eat +20% TDEE on weight lifting days and -20% on rest days.
  • mandacloye
    mandacloye Posts: 26 Member
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    Actually if you don't "eat your excercise calories" your body begins to "eat" the healthy muscle. There is a whole science on this issue you can research for yourself online or in a library. But eating as this site tells you is based on the healthiest and SAFEST way to do it. You aren't "just replacing what you burned off", you are giving your body what it needs to keeps going. I wish I was better able to convey this for you, but your best bet is to research, research, research for yourself. That way YOU know the answers and can perhpas help someone else in their quest for knowledge.
    Hope this helped.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    MFP has a deficit already "built into it" when you start. So you could still lose weight even if you did nothing but stay under your calorie goal. I eat my exercise calories and still lose weight.....in fact I exercise so I can eat more lol.

    Yep. This.

    Why would an app be so popular and have so many people succeed, eating their exercise calories, if it didn't work?

    i know it works, it has worked for me for the last 3 weeks, but now my ankle is better (tore a ligament), i can exercise, but do i need to 'eat back the calories' as many other posts and sources say that you should?

    http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

    so the answer is yes? Why bother doing the exercise then , if im just going to put the calories burnt, back into my system? (That is my point from the start!)

    Because exercise has NOTHING to do with burning calories or weight loss. Exercise happens to burn calories. So does everything else you do. Exercise is about getting fit and being healthy, not about burning calories. The amount of calories you burn exercising is irrelevant to weight loss.

    This website leaves exercise out of your calorie goal, so that you can exercise as much or as little as you want. You eat the calories you burn exercising, just like you eat the calories you require to work all day (ghat's why it asks for your activity level, to tell you how many calories you need to eat for a typical day.)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I eat +20% TDEE on weight lifting days and -20% on rest days.

    Now the +20%, is that like starting right after the workout for the next 24 hrs, all the meals are larger?
    I guess if you workout first thing in the morning (what are you doing up so late!) that works easily.

    But my night time ones I'd have to fiddle with that a bit.
    But good idea, I feel the urge to eat more after a heavy lifting session.
  • hymana3366
    hymana3366 Posts: 2
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    The exercising allows you to eat more - if you ate and didn't exercise you'd gain. I rather exercise and eat more than not exercise and eat less cause I am always hungry except when I am exercising - understand?
  • misskerouac
    misskerouac Posts: 2,242 Member
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    Exercise is NEVER NEVER NEVER a waste of time. It has many benefits, not just losing weight.
  • Mompanda4
    Mompanda4 Posts: 869 Member
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    Bu

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