Need a little bit of help!

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kats0208
kats0208 Posts: 25 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys!
Bit new to actually having a proper diet. Been dieting for 3 weeks now, just cut down to 1300 cals per day and managed to lose 6lbs without properly exercising.
Joining a gym this week and just need a bit of help regarding diet and exercise.
If I burned 500 cals at the gym, do I eat an extra 500 cals that day or...?
I've never done all this before so just a little bit confused and would appreciate the help!
Cheers!

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  • ATLMel
    ATLMel Posts: 392 Member
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    eat them back! You've got to fuel your workout and maximize the benefit from it.
  • kats0208
    kats0208 Posts: 25 Member
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    So I'd eat 1500 that day and won't start putting back on weight?
    Sorry I'm new to all this! Thanks for the reply!
  • SteveTries
    SteveTries Posts: 723 Member
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    MAYBE - Mabye NOT


    Let me explain....


    If you do burn 500 Cals, then yes you should be recovering that by eating more than your 1300. If you don't you'll probably struggle for energy, you won't recover well and also you'll be plain hungry and might have a hard time not splurging on tasty sugary food :-)

    The reason I say "maybe not" is because many exercise machines and online calculators overestimate the calorie burn because we consumers like to be told we've burnt 1000Calories by doing 6 minutes of intense magazine reading.........

    so we should be a little bit sceptical of the calorie burn estimates. What else?

    Well, don't forget that whilst you burn 500 cals walking on the treadmill at 5mph for an hour, you'd probably be burning 100Cals sat on the couch watching TV, so you need to deduct that 100 too.

    For what it's worth, my advice would be to eat back half of the exercise calories, but to observe what happens. If you lose weight too quick, if you are constantly hungry etc go up another 100Cals or so. You'll get the balance right pretty soon.
  • cydonian
    cydonian Posts: 361 Member
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    You'll want to eat those back if your net for the day is 1300, otherwise you'll burn 500 and then be at 800 for the day. No adult female should ever be under 1200. This is why MFP is useful, you track your exercise and then eat to the goals it has set for you.
  • kats0208
    kats0208 Posts: 25 Member
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    Brilliant, thank you so much for your help! I have my induction at the gym tomorrow so hopefully I'll start losing a little more from now on!

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