Are you eating the extra calories it gives you when you exer
Nektariosmom
Posts: 69 Member
Hi, I have only been on MFP for a week. I haven't lost any weight yet but I usually don't lose weight when I diet until week two. For the women who have lost weight already, do you consume the extra calories MFP adds on after you exercise and if you do, do you still lose weight? It adds on hundreds of calories when I exercise and if I do eat them I feel really full. Are we supposed to eat all of them? I am 5'11" and my calorie allowance is 1200. What is your experience?
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Yep, but for some things (i.e. gym cardio machines) I assume both the machine and MFP has over estimated the calorie burn and eat back c200 cals per 30 mins worked.0
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I try to eat back half (I have a HRM, so it is more accurate), but I get so many calories (I get a base of 1800 plus 500 for breastfeeding)... when you add another 700-800 on top of that, it is ridiculous....0
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Yes- I usually eat most, if not all, of my exercise cals. (I also use a HRM- so I know how many cals I burned.)0
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I am 5'11 and i have an HRM so its more accuarate than what the MFP people estimate. My daily calorie goal (for a one pound loss a week) is 1660, and on average I tend to eat about 1500-1800 cals a day. I dont do anything real crazy for my workouts (mostly just 30 minutes of a run/walk or a jillian michaels dvd). i have lost plenty of weight doing this. i only ate 1200 calories for the first month or so before i realized that was insane and i started eating more and continued to lose weight... i have done nothing but up my calories ever since!0
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See, that's what I was wondering. Eating 1200 calories at my height and exercising on top of it made me feel like I could eat a horse. But if you guys say you are still losing weight at our height with the extra calories, then I would rather exercise and get the benefits of working out plus snacking and eating more. I will give up very soon if I only eat the 1200. But it does make sense. I was crazy hungry all day today. I think my body is adjusting to this new system. Thanks for your help.0
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I am 5'11 and i have an HRM so its more accuarate than what the MFP people estimate. My daily calorie goal (for a one pound loss a week) is 1660, and on average I tend to eat about 1500-1800 cals a day. I dont do anything real crazy for my workouts (mostly just 30 minutes of a run/walk or a jillian michaels dvd). i have lost plenty of weight doing this. i only ate 1200 calories for the first month or so before i realized that was insane and i started eating more and continued to lose weight... i have done nothing but up my calories ever since!
What is an HRM? Something you wear when only you exercise?0 -
Yes, I'm sorry. It's a heart rate monitor. You wear it when you workout and it gives you a much more accurate reading of calories burned based on your heart rate during the workout.0
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Personally- there is NO way I could/would/am going to stay with a 1200 calorie diet. Also at 5'11"- my cals are set to 1600, right now- and it's working really well for me.
Don't starve yourself!!! It's not worth it if it isn't sustainable.0 -
I lost weight the first 2 weeks eating 1200 cals a day...but I wanted to DIE. I got smart (after finding the message boards!) and reset my goals. I eat 1500 + plus most excersize calories. I don't have a HRM yet, I'm going to look into that because I have heard so much that MFP overestimates calories. The real trick is to plan the day out better - my problem was having 900 calories after dinner to eat and thinking WTH am I going to do now?!?! I do think that 1200 is way too low for just about everyone unless you are a very small human being...which we are not. :laugh:0
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Personally- there is NO way I could/would/am going to stay with a 1200 calorie diet. Also at 5'11"- my cals are set to 1600, right now- and it's working really well for me.
Don't starve yourself!!! It's not worth it if it isn't sustainable.
I agree! I'm 5'10" and my calorie goal is set to 1670. Seems to be working just fine. (And I'm in a lot better mood than I was eating 1200 calories--yep...I started off there too.) 0 -
Yup. I eat em' and then some :-)
By base is set at 1250 as I have a very seditary lifestyle except for my running. I almost never eat under 1500 though and quite frequently hit the 2000 mark on excercise days.
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Then, I am with you guys! I am eatin' em up!! It's supposed to be a lifestyle change not a starvation diet, right? I will update and let you know if I lose weight eating the exercise calories as I go. I am curious about the HRM now too. Thanks for your help.0
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Then, I am with you guys! I am eatin' em up!! It's supposed to be a lifestyle change not a starvation diet, right? I will update and let you know if I lose weight eating the exercise calories as I go. I am curious about the HRM now too. Thanks for your help.
That is exactly theright attitude! And your life is going to be so much happier if you are not ravenous all the time!0 -
My cals are set to 1500. I generally consume that much food a day, but on my cardio days i tend to burn an additional 500. I eat back some of it but not all. If I am full I refuse to stuff my face and feel sick just to reach a certain net. I think that is counterproductive.0
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hooray tall ladies! i'm also 5'11"
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
use that guide to calculate how much you should be eating. MFP sets their numbers rather low. since switching to the fat2fitradio's guidelines, i've been losing steadily and i manually changed my calorie goal to 1818 a day instead of the 1440 MFP suggests (that wasn't doing anything for me).
from all the reading i've been doing, it's important for healthy weight loss to eat AT LEAST your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, the amount of calories your body needs if you woke up and laid in bed all day and didn't move, basically the calories you need to be alive) ie. my BMR is somewhere between 1499 and 1540 calories, so I try to eat between 1550 and 1818 calories a day.0 -
No. I eat a range based on a deficit from my TDEE, which already takes my exercise into account. I do track exercise using a HRM, but eating it would be double counting and would eliminate my deficit. I eat several hundred calories above my BMR virtually every day.0
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hooray tall ladies! i'm also 5'11"
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
use that guide to calculate how much you should be eating. MFP sets their numbers rather low. since switching to the fat2fitradio's guidelines, i've been losing steadily and i manually changed my calorie goal to 1818 a day instead of the 1440 MFP suggests (that wasn't doing anything for me).
from all the reading i've been doing, it's important for healthy weight loss to eat AT LEAST your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, the amount of calories your body needs if you woke up and laid in bed all day and didn't move, basically the calories you need to be alive) ie. my BMR is somewhere between 1499 and 1540 calories, so I try to eat between 1550 and 1818 calories a day.
I went on to fat2fitradio and I learned a lot! That was very cool and thanks for posting the website. I am eating more from now on. I just can't get it into my mind that I am dieting and don't have to suffer. It also makes me wonder how many thousands of calories I was consuming all this time to be gaining weight. Ok, I won't think about that anymore.... So this is why this week my stomach was growling and hurting so much (even with adding in exercise calories), it was telling me my body needs more food to function. FEED ME! The human body is an amazing machine. As an update, I want to tell you guys that I did lose two pounds as of yesterday. So my advice is, 1200 calories is not enough for us tall ladies and you can lose weight by eating more. I am learning..0 -
I did all the calculations and my BMR says I get around 1700 calories and that's obviously not counting exercise...but every time I eat over that I gain weight! I am an obsessive compulsive scale watcher...I think that's one of the biggest changes I need to make, is weighing myself every morning...sometimes more than once a day. Definitely need to do it once a week, maybe once every two weeks to start.0
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I guess I am going to go against the norm but I DON"T eat back my exercise calories and stick to 1200 per day. I am 6'1 and have lost almost 30 pounds doing this. I started at 178 and am now down to 149...0
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I am the same way as this. I do not eat my calories back I burned and have lost 25 lbs. I'm 6' and stay around 1200-1500 a day and if I have cals left over I feel fine. Have about 20 more lbs to goal weight and what I eat now is efficient for energy and feeling full 0
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AGREED. I like to think of it as more of a weekly total thing. So, instead of eating back all of my exercise calories every time, I just upped my calories to .5 lb loss a week (which for me is like 1800 calories, I am 5'9''). Then, with my workouts 3-4 times a week, I am netting about as many calories weekly as I would be assigned for a much faster loss rate, but I am still getting enough food.
1200 calories is not enough for you, girl! I was doing that for a while and losing BUT and I hit a plateau because I wasn't giving my body enough to eat, and I was tired all the time. As they said, calculate your BMR, which is what your body needs for basic organ and body functions if you didn't burn any extra during the day, and I wouldn't eat below that. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/0 -
Sometimes I eat them back, sometimes not. I might bank them for later in the week to ensure I can have some alcohol or a dinner out that I don't have to find a healthier option. I don't view it as a daily process though, I'm more focused on weekly.0
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It depends.
Somedays I run and I'm like 1000 calories under and I just go to bed thinking I'll need those 'extra calories' on the weekend when I am going to be drinking beer and eating out.
Somedays, I am just SO hungry that I will eat about half of those.
So far I think I've seen better results with the latter than the former.0 -
See, that's what I was wondering. Eating 1200 calories at my height and exercising on top of it made me feel like I could eat a horse. But if you guys say you are still losing weight at our height with the extra calories, then I would rather exercise and get the benefits of working out plus snacking and eating more. I will give up very soon if I only eat the 1200. But it does make sense. I was crazy hungry all day today. I think my body is adjusting to this new system. Thanks for your help.
Definitely eat back your exercise calories. But I will say- the first 2 weeks I was starving because my stomach had to shrink. We have to eat too much food before we get that "I'm full" signal. I would suggest getting at least 1400 calories into your body for the first 2 weeks. Then, your body will be able to accurately tell you when it is hungry and full.0 -
I have kind of the opposite problem, I have become obsessed with staying UNDER my calorie count and I dont eat extra the days I work out, yesterday I ate about 800-900 calories =/ I only drink water or milk and eat mostly chicken and fruit....I am a picky eater so I dont like many healthy foods like salad and subs, love snack foods & junk thats where my problem started so I dont want to risk eating a snack and wanting more junk and then over eating....0
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