Surely eating more calories for exercise doesn't work?

I see, so in theory i only need to do the exercise if i want to be able to eat more?

my current limit is 1200 and something, if i was to burn 250 a day and not eat an extra 250, would that be ok?

If your current limit is 1200 and you burn 250 without eating them, you are left with 950, which is far too low (unhealthy). 1200 calories (net) is the MINIMUM that most women should consume. Going lower than that, you are messing with danger.

And yes, in theory - being able to eat more is definitely one reason to exercise (it's one of my favorites!) But here are lots of other reasons, as another poster has mentioned.

-General cardiovascular health
-Building muscle
-Increasing endurance
-Improving mood
-Sleeping better

etc.

I strongly agree with BerryH and LoreleiWalks...for overall health, exercise is important. I've lost 18 lbs in 2 and half months by following the exercise, healthy eating, AND eating your exercise calories. I sleep better, have more energy, and I have clearer skin, and I have lots of fun sharing these new habits with my hubby.

I would do some searching in the forums there are loads of helpful posts that will answer all your questions and help clear things up for you. =]

Calories are measurements of energy. Your body uses energy to function. Growing hair, brain activity, heart, intestines, skin replenishment, talking, walking, sitting upright, it ALL uses energy (calories). TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the total calories needed by your body to maintain your current weight at your current lifestyle level. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat less than your TDEE, so your body will utilize the stores of fat (and unfortunately sometimes, muscle, if you don't use them and you don't eat adequate nutrition).

MFP takes your stated goal (lose 1 pound or lose 2 pounds per week, for example) and deducts the required calories from your TDEE estimate. 3500 calories = 1 pound, more or less. So to lose 1 pound per week, MFP reduces your calories by 500 per day. But under no circumstances will MFP set your goal at less than 1200 as that is commonly considered to be the threshhold for nutritional deficiency (for a female).

If you go out and exercise MORE, you are burning more calories and if you don't eat them back, you may be eating too litlle, which is potentially unsustainable and unnecessarily difficult. Additionally, if you reach your goal by undereating, it is possible that once you start eating normally again, you'll put the weight back on. And no one wants that, right? So the point is to do this slowly and healthily, so we can do it for as long as we need to, without giving up or binging or harming our metabolism.

Hope this helps.

oh dear, i made the mistake of thinking that exercise uses up fat, (therefore it'll decrease). am i now right in believing it uses up energy/calories to burn the fat?

If you exercise at about the lowest level, 50% of the energy used will be fat, 50% will be carbs. Ratio of carb usage goes up from there until anaerobic (sprints, weight lifting) where 100% is carbs.

With 3500 calories in lb of fat - you got energy to spare there obviously.

With 1500-2000 stored calories of carbs, you are limited if you keep not replenishing them day by day, because your diet was so restrictive.
Once they run out, muscle must be torn down to make glucose.
Worse than that, the liver with 400-450 cals of carbs is used up first, and it is the only supply for blood sugar the brain needs. If blood sugar runs low, muscle breakdown occurs. Even if there is more glucose in the muscles.

So you exercise 1 hr. Very light, so 50% is carb supplied. 500 cal total, 250 of that carbs.

On eating ONLY 1200 cal diet with 50% carbs, do you supply 250 calories worth of carbs, sure, 600 cal. But this doesn't even take into account ALL other activity ranging form 30-50% carb usage too. Your BMR is getting 30% carb usage, so 360 cal of carb there. Just went over 600 cal worth of carb in a diet, and never each touched rest of the day.

<--- Surely eating more calories for exercise worked for this girl.





A caloric deficit helps you lose weight.
Exercise helps lower blood pressure, improve circulation, improve overall heart health, and a million other things.

Yes it does. And stop calling me Shirley.

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.

I eat +20% TDEE on weight lifting days and -20% on rest days.

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.)

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?

Bu