Eating back exercise cals over more than one day?

xxShelxx
xxShelxx Posts: 4
edited October 1 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,
I'm relatively new to this site and am finding it really useful in helping me to lose weight - 3lbs in the last 2 weeks!! Although I get that I need to eat my excercise calories, one of the classes I do I burn a lot of cals (it's Zumba and on average I burn 650 cals). I only do that class once a week but on that day I really struggle to eat all the cals back without eating rubbish. So, is it OK to eat them back over a couple of days? - 300 extra cals is more manageable for me to eat healthily on a particular day.
If not, any help with a healthy way of eating back 650cals?
Many thanks

Replies

  • Megn133
    Megn133 Posts: 8 Member
    You really don't need to eat back all the calories you earn by exercising, and you will lose weight faster if you don't. But, I have allowed myself a little more wiggle room the day after an intense workout. The website will not keep track of that though, so you will have to do it on your own.
  • albali
    albali Posts: 225 Member
    HI
    I will be interested to see replies as I do Zumba twice a week and find it hard to eat back the calories on those days too. I eat half and then eat back all exercise calories on other days. I don't eat back the other half of zumba calories the next day though. I have found this works for me, but I don't know if there is anyone who can suggest something else.
  • babydull
    babydull Posts: 727 Member
    You really don't need to eat back all the calories you earn by exercising, and you will lose weight faster if you don't.
    That's very much debated.
    Try adding in nuts after your work-out.
    I would imagine some the next day would be ok, as would only having half, but your body will need a decent amount of protein after the work-out.
  • mari0605
    mari0605 Posts: 65 Member
    I have the same question and from the research I have done I have found out that you should be at a negative (-500) cal per day to lose weight. Hopefully someone has more information about this.

    I love Zumba!!! :love:
  • LivLovLrn
    LivLovLrn Posts: 580 Member
    I find it extremely hard to eat back my calories too (Zumba Zumba Zum-BA :laugh: ). I have been assured by several people on this site that it is ok to eat them back "after the fact". I also have been trying to "pay it forward" so to speak and eat more during the day when I know I am going to be using a lot of calories later.
  • xxShelxx
    xxShelxx Posts: 4
    Thanks for your replies. I don't always try to eat them all back, but do find I'm really hungry for the rest of that day and for a couple of days after - must really boost my metabolism!! So I guess that may be why I'm thinking of eating some back on the day after too. I just feel I'm constantly picking on these days and once I've picked at the healthy stuff, I start looking for the unhealthy stuff!! Healthy suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    I do an old version of WW (the one right before the current version).

    I lost 34 pounds initially (got lazy and put some back on). The way it works is you have a basic number of points (think calories) per day as your minimum, then you can earn more points (think calories) through exercise. You can use those exercise calories at any time over the 7-day period of your "WW week."

    It worked really well for me with points, and I'd imagine it would work just as well with calorie-counting.

    This is YOUR journey. Figure out what works for you and do it.
  • rosied915
    rosied915 Posts: 799 Member
    You're going to get 100 different opinions on this and this is my humble one:

    Eat what you burn on the day that you burn it. If you don't get it all in, forget about them. And I don't worry about eating my exercise calories back~ if I do, I do, if I don't, oh well.

    As for making up those 650 calories, try eating "regular" foods instead "diet".......

    I just read the post about eating nuts and I LOVE those 100 Calorie Packs of Almonds~ they come in Plain, Lightly Salted, etc~you could easily eat 2 of them after a Zumba class and there's 200 without trying.
  • xxShelxx
    xxShelxx Posts: 4
    Ooo, nuts! I've always classed those as 'bad' because they're so calorific - but as that what I'm looking for, I guess on Zumba days they can be an allowed treat. Yay, another incentive to exercise!!
  • babydull
    babydull Posts: 727 Member
    Ooo, nuts! I've always classed those as 'bad' because they're so calorific - but as that what I'm looking for, I guess on Zumba days they can be an allowed treat. Yay, another incentive to exercise!!

    See also: avocados.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    Ooo, nuts! I've always classed those as 'bad' because they're so calorific - but as that what I'm looking for, I guess on Zumba days they can be an allowed treat. Yay, another incentive to exercise!!

    You need to get over the "high calorie = bad/low calorie = good" mentality. A 100-calorie pack of Oreos isn't so good, but an ounce of nuts (about 160 calories) is very good. The nuts give you a healthy fat, fiber and protein and will keep you satisfied much longer. They're a great snack, as long as you measure them out and don't go overboard.

    Same can be said about a lot of higher-calorie healthy foods.
  • Diosadealimentos
    Diosadealimentos Posts: 10 Member
    Hi,
    I'm relatively new to this site and am finding it really useful in helping me to lose weight - 3lbs in the last 2 weeks!! Although I get that I need to eat my excercise calories, one of the classes I do I burn a lot of cals (it's Zumba and on average I burn 650 cals). I only do that class once a week but on that day I really struggle to eat all the cals back without eating rubbish. So, is it OK to eat them back over a couple of days? - 300 extra cals is more manageable for me to eat healthily on a particular day.
    If not, any help with a healthy way of eating back 650cals?
    Many thanks

    As many others have shared you don't have to eat them all back, so long as you get in around 1200 calories for the day so your body doesn't got into starvation mode and start holding on to fat. The way MFP is set up is to give you a 500 calorie deficit anything you don't eat up by the end of the day adds to the daily deficit of calories with the result being that you lose weight faster. Also, in my humble opinion you may not want to load up on missing calories with junk food because they are so processed and filled with chemicals/sugar that once you whet you appetite for it you may find it hard to stop once you have eaten your excess calories (at least that's what I have found for me, those kinds of foods trigger over eating). You can though allow yourself denser things that are calorie packed like cheese and nuts. Or if you find yourself grumbly and hungry eat heartier veggies, like tubers....sweet potatos, plantains, turnips will fill you nicely without spiking your blood sugar levels. Hope this is helpful. Best of luck!
  • xxShelxx
    xxShelxx Posts: 4
    My word this is a fast moving forum isn't it!! Been on others (not fitness related) and it took me ages to tot up this many replies!!

    Diosadealimento - that's how I find I am with junk foods too. Think the nuts are a definite. As it's normally a saturday morning class, may also try and incorporate an avacado or cheese into my lunch.

    Thanks so much for the replies everyone - they've been really helpful.
    xx
  • WhiteRaven
    WhiteRaven Posts: 138 Member
    Just think of it as a "Daily" thing, those extra points/calories expire at midnight (Or bed time :). It is not something that you should be rolling over day to day. When you do wake up the next morning everything basically gets reset and you start fresh.

    cheers
    AM
  • JennsLosing
    JennsLosing Posts: 1,026
    if im hungry i eat them, if im not i dont. its as simple as that.
  • ilovemyheart
    ilovemyheart Posts: 15 Member
    :smile: I use protein shakes to use up extra calories......
    I think it is important to use your calories up so that your body won't burn muscle for fuel, at least that is what i've been told
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    In short, you can look at your calories on a weekly time frame. If you go over one day, you can go over the next. And in fact, i track my calories a lot different. I eat the same calories each day. I have used the Katch McArdle formula to calculate my Basal Metabolic Rate (amount of calories you would burn if you slept 24 hours) and added in a multiplier based on my lifestyle (work out 6 days a week so I am moderately active). I have also used the below link to capture my caloric needs. I will touch on this more once I get more time to respond.


    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator

    As many others have shared you don't have to eat them all back, so long as you get in around 1200 calories for the day so your body doesn't got into starvation mode and start holding on to fat. The way MFP is set up is to give you a 500 calorie deficit anything you don't eat up by the end of the day adds to the daily deficit of calories with the result being that you lose weight faster. Also, in my humble opinion you may not want to load up on missing calories with junk food because they are so processed and filled with chemicals/sugar that once you whet you appetite for it you may find it hard to stop once you have eaten your excess calories (at least that's what I have found for me, those kinds of foods trigger over eating). You can though allow yourself denser things that are calorie packed like cheese and nuts. Or if you find yourself grumbly and hungry eat heartier veggies, like tubers....sweet potatos, plantains, turnips will fill you nicely without spiking your blood sugar levels. Hope this is helpful. Best of luck!

    I want to make one notation on this. It;s 1200 net calories. If you eat 1200 calories and burn 600 calories, your net calories are only 600 which is a bad thing. And you can say many people have lost by not eating back their calories, but I bet most of them get to a plateau somewhere weight loss program. Also, when you use this method, you have a tendency to lose muscle as your body doesnt' have enough calories to sustain a body. If you don't believe me, do a test for me. Buy some calipers, measure your body and do your method for 3 months and retest your body. And then compare your lean body mass.

    I can tell you I use the method I posted above by looking at the Katch McArdle formula and did Chalean Extreme for 90 days. I was 200 lbs and 15% body fat when i started, and after one round I was 195 lbs and 11.75% body fat.

    LBM = weight- (weight x BF%)

    Day 0: 200-(200*.15) = 170
    Day 90: 195 - (195*.1175) = 172.1

    Now, it's simple to say down eat back your calories. I suggest eating them throughout the week. If you calculate them correctly (and Fat2Fit is a great source of doing it) and your truely look at your lifestyle, you can easily turn fat into muscle which will make your stronger and tigher (aka smaller waist, etc).

    People can tell you a billion different things, but the math behind this science is the best indicator. I wil say, MFP several under estimates for me (i think like 300-500 calories because I have a higher LBM than the average person). So I just use this site to track my food. I did a custom setup in my food diary for the calories I need (3000) and doing 40% carbs, 35% protein and 25% fats.


    Hope this helps.

    Lemon
  • Soggous
    Soggous Posts: 1 Member
    Hi Xxshelxx :smile: I've never commented on a forum post before but I saw yours and thought I'd add my two cents.

    I don't worry about eating back my exercise cals, If I've done a 10-mile run in the afternoon I probably won't be able to eat 1000 cals in the evening without them being from alcohol, chocolate, or pizza, and we don't want too much of that! :tongue: I definitely wouldn't eat more cals the day after, I just forget about any excess or deficit and move on.

    I usually concentrate on eating good protein for muscle repair (lean meat or fish), and a good carbohydrate source for energy replenishment (wholewheat pasta). As long as I have a good meal I'm happy. :smile:

    Nuts and seeds ARE very good, as are avocados and shellfish or oily fish such as mackerel. One of my early weight-loss struggles was good fats vs bad fats. I just didn't 'get' it. But your body needs fat and for it to 'give up' the bad stuff you need to give it some good stuff.

    Sog x
  • crazywifewczx
    crazywifewczx Posts: 23 Member
    Ooo, nuts! I've always classed those as 'bad' because they're so calorific - but as that what I'm looking for, I guess on Zumba days they can be an allowed treat. Yay, another incentive to exercise!!

    You need to get over the "high calorie = bad/low calorie = good" mentality. A 100-calorie pack of Oreos isn't so good, but an ounce of nuts (about 160 calories) is very good. The nuts give you a healthy fat, fiber and protein and will keep you satisfied much longer. They're a great snack, as long as you measure them out and don't go overboard.

    Same can be said about a lot of higher-calorie healthy foods.

    I totaly agree with this. I do Zumba as well and we put our heart and sole into it here and well when you dance that hard you tend to stress your muscles a little and they need to repair themselfs and the bast way to help them to do that is with protein. Which happens to be so readly available in nuts. I love the plantars vanilla snack packs they go everywhere and they are only 160cals of good cals.
  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
    Yes. It's ok to eat the extra calories over a couple of days.

    If you want to eat a consistent level of calories per day, change your activity level to include your workouts. Then eat those calories per day and don't include your workouts.

    It's the same thing.
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
    I have the same question and from the research I have done I have found out that you should be at a negative (-500) cal per day to lose weight. Hopefully someone has more information about this.

    Negative 500 calories to lose weight?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    I have the same question and from the research I have done I have found out that you should be at a negative (-500) cal per day to lose weight. Hopefully someone has more information about this.

    Negative 500 calories to lose weight?
    I think they mean a calorie deficit of 500 calories. So if you bmr is 1500 calories, you are sedentary and burn 400 calories you should eat the follow.

    Tdee = 1500*1.2+400 = 2200

    From there you form a calorie deficit.

    = 2200 - 500 = 1700.

    In this case you eat 1700 calories.
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