Why Eating Exercise Calories is so important.

Im All for this. If I don't eat back my exercise calories, my loss SLOWS down to almost nothing. I do feel the pain for a PP, there was no way I could fit in an extra 600 calories last night. I ate nearly 750 at dinner. Wasn't going to happen. I do try to eat back as much as I physically can though.

No because some of the things (such as bread, cheese, etc.) I limit myself because of the added carbs, sugar, and sodium. So eating more of it would throw everything out of wack by the end of the day (at least it does for me). So discovering a meal replacement (High calories, low carb, high protien) works great!!! Thanks for the response!!!

I would like to know what you are eating/drinking to boost your cals without junk since I am in the same boat. Clean eating+intense training = not enough cals.

Thanks!

I've upped my calories recently and generally eat back my exercise calories. I eat pretty clean, very little processed foods or sugars. I found that the easiest way to up my calories without feeling stuffed is to sneak in some extra "good fats" - one extra tsp of olive oil on the salad, some avocado and I use a tsp of ground flax seeds on my morning cereal. It's also very easy to adjust if I don't work out - I just don't put the extra olive oil or avocado on. That way I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of the food I need to take care of my hunger.

I was having the same questions - I like to avoid processed foods as well, so reading those little changes you use are so helpful!

For most people with much to lose, I think this thread is offering some really dangerous advice. One of the biggest sources of weight loss sabotage is thinking that you can afford to eat more just because you worked out, especially since most all calorie estimators (including those on MFP) grossly over-state the calories burned via exercise. You see it all the time, someone does a super intense workout, then drops by Dairy Queen on the way home. Weeks go by, and they wonder why their bodies aren't changing.

example: MFP says I'm burning over 1000 cals at my jiu-jitsu classes, but there's simply no way that it's anywhere close to that on most days. If I go ahead and add another 1000 cals to my daily intake, I'll be in a significant calorie SURPLUS. Never mind losing weight, most people would start gaining if they followed this protocol.

Thanks for posting this advice. It's definitely worth trying for me since I feel like I have plateaued after my initial weight-loss.

example: MFP says I'm burning over 1000 cals at my jiu-jitsu classes, but there's simply no way that it's anywhere close to that on most days. If I go ahead and add another 1000 cals to my daily intake, I'll be in a significant calorie SURPLUS. Never mind losing weight, most people would start gaining if they followed this protocol.

I figure that the figures they give for martial arts classes are someone who's skilled going flat-out for that time period. The best I can do is an estimate -- so for a 2 hour class I may write down 30-60 minutes depending on whether it was a fairly relaxed or a fairly aerobic class.

Then I eat *those* calories. So far ... weight loss is where they say it should be, just about, so I must be estimating pretty closely.

bump

Awesome post. Its very helpful to me, I sometimes eat back exercise calories (when hugry) and somestimes not (beacuse I think it will give me a weightloss boost), well from now on I am going to spread them out over the week and eat a little more everyday rather than eating them all at the same time.

Bump

Wow! I have read many other postings about this and was totally confused after reading them. This is the best I have read because I understood it completely!!!! I realize that for the last 2 1/2 months I have been putting my body in starvation mode. I was under the impression that having 4 to 500 calories left over each day was how you lost weight. How stupid of me.

Starting today I will start consumeing my workout calories!!!!!! Thank you so much for explaining this so well!!!

This is a great explanation