I really hate how much I'm supposed to eat.
pyrowill
Posts: 1,163 Member
Without exercise MFP says I should eat about 1900 cals a day. Howeve, I've started cycling to work (12 miles each way) which according to my HRM is clocking in about 800cals each way. I've gone for a lunch time walk today (300 cals). And I have P90x in the evening to do. Tonight is Yoga which I burn about 800cals in.
So...
MFP says 1900
Cycling both ways 1600
Walking 300
P90x Yoga 800
Total 4600cals. Just to be where I should be for the day.
I really hate this. I want to train my body to eat less in general. Because there are plenty of days where I don't exercise but overeat. I know its healthier to eat more when you start exercising, but damn I hate it.
So...
MFP says 1900
Cycling both ways 1600
Walking 300
P90x Yoga 800
Total 4600cals. Just to be where I should be for the day.
I really hate this. I want to train my body to eat less in general. Because there are plenty of days where I don't exercise but overeat. I know its healthier to eat more when you start exercising, but damn I hate it.
0
Replies
-
Well, given your activity level, perhaps you should set your activity level higher on MFP and NOT eat back your exercise calories. That would spread the calories more evenly throughout the week.0
-
If you want to maintain that workout schedule, then you need to eat. What you are doing in exercise is a CRAZY HEAVY workout. 4600 calories for that schedule is not bad at all.
You are just starting exercising?
That's a lot of workout for the beginner. You really need to worry about burnout.0 -
yes, I agree with omma_to_3 In order to lose weight or see changes in your body you need to have a negative calorie burn to calories by the end of the day. MFP adds back your exercise to make you realize how much you "should eat" in order to maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight don't add in your exercise calories until the end of the day, then you will be able to stick to your daily calorie goal easier.
Hope that helped0 -
Well, given your activity level, perhaps you should set your activity level higher on MFP and NOT eat back your exercise calories. That would spread the calories more evenly throughout the week.
But the activity level on MFP is about my daily non exercising activity level surely? Which I have about right. And if I increased that then surely I would have to eat even more?You are just starting exercising?
That's a lot of workout for the beginner. You really need to worry about burnout.
No I'm not only just starting, I've done plenty just not continuously or with any amount of perseverance. I'm just trying to stick to it now.0 -
Do what you feel like doing. Look at my past diaries and you will see I almost never eat all my workout calories. Then again, I'm trying to lose the last 5 pounds which are the hardest.0
-
yes, I agree with omma_to_3 In order to lose weight or see changes in your body you need to have a negative calorie burn to calories by the end of the day. MFP adds back your exercise to make you realize how much you "should eat" in order to maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight don't add in your exercise calories until the end of the day, then you will be able to stick to your daily calorie goal easier.
Hope that helped
Forgive me but now I'm a bit confused. So lets say i clock up 2000cals of exercise in a day. But don't log it till the end. And I've eaten enough to make me on target for MFP, then add the calories from exercising suddenly I'm going to be on minus 2000. That can't be right surely.0 -
I think you are overestimating your calories burned. I am a 5'11, 200 lb man and I can only burn 200 calories doing P90X yoga. Also, your body adapts to exercise, so riding to work won't burn as many calories in the future as it will today.
BTW, why would you want to train your body to eat less? Would you rather want to start gaining weight at 3000 calories or 2000 calories? I love how I can eat 3500 calories and not gain.0 -
yes, I agree with omma_to_3 In order to lose weight or see changes in your body you need to have a negative calorie burn to calories by the end of the day. MFP adds back your exercise to make you realize how much you "should eat" in order to maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight don't add in your exercise calories until the end of the day, then you will be able to stick to your daily calorie goal easier.
Hope that helped
This also depends on how you have your goals set in MFP too. You can adjust how much weight you want to lose each week (assuming weight loss is your goal). Then it builds in a deficit so you can eat back your exercise calories and still lose the goal amount of weight.
You are working out HARD. I would say, worry less about eating back all your calories and worry more about just eating healthy, filling options when you're hungry. Your body will tell you when to refuel. You just need to learn to listen closely and respond. It will get easier!!0 -
yes, I agree with omma_to_3 In order to lose weight or see changes in your body you need to have a negative calorie burn to calories by the end of the day. MFP adds back your exercise to make you realize how much you "should eat" in order to maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight don't add in your exercise calories until the end of the day, then you will be able to stick to your daily calorie goal easier.
Hope that helped
Actually, if you use the default "set up" in MFP, it already gives you a deficit in which you will lose weight. The default is set up so you DO eat back your exercise calories because you already have a built in deficit to work with. If you don't eat back your exercise calories then you are most likely eating WAY below what you need to to lose weight. This can drop you so low at times that you are not even getting enough calories to fuel basic bodily functions.0 -
Well, given your activity level, perhaps you should set your activity level higher on MFP and NOT eat back your exercise calories. That would spread the calories more evenly throughout the week.
But the activity level on MFP is about my daily non exercising activity level surely? Which I have about right. And if I increased that then surely I would have to eat even more?
What do you have it set at currently? If it's set to sedentary, they give you a lower daily NET calorie goal. Then you exercise and eat your exercise calories back each day. If you set your active level to the highest setting instead (thereby including your workouts in your typical daily activity) it would give you a higher daily net goal. However, then, DON'T eat your exercise calories back. That would allow you to easily spread the extra calories out throughout the week.
For example, Currently, let's say you do a workout like you posted above 3 times a week and nothing else. Your daily goal is 1900 calories. So, 1900*7 + 2700*3 = 21,400 calories for the week that would be spread out like this:
1900
4600
1900
4600
1900
4600
1900
If you changed your activity level to the highest setting, let's pretend it gives you 2600 for a daily calorie goal. But then you don't eat your exercise calories so at the end of the week, you'd be at 2600*7 = 18,200. You'd have to mess with the numbers so you're not undereating, but I'm just suggesting to spread those extra calories out throughout the week rather than eat them all on workout days.0 -
yes, I agree with omma_to_3 In order to lose weight or see changes in your body you need to have a negative calorie burn to calories by the end of the day. MFP adds back your exercise to make you realize how much you "should eat" in order to maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight don't add in your exercise calories until the end of the day, then you will be able to stick to your daily calorie goal easier.
Hope that helped
Forgive me but now I'm a bit confused. So lets say i clock up 2000cals of exercise in a day. But don't log it till the end. And I've eaten enough to make me on target for MFP, then add the calories from exercising suddenly I'm going to be on minus 2000. That can't be right surely.
Yes, I was NOT recommending eating at your 1900 calories a day and not eating back exercise calories. That would be dangerous given your activity level!0 -
Seems to me you have conflicting goals. If you want to eat less, eat less and don't exercise that much. If you're like me, and want to spend every moment of spare time being active, you need to eat enough to facilitate that.0
-
Those calorie burn estimates look highly suspect to me. I think your HRM is putting one over on you. I would check those against an online activity database and see if they look reasonable to you. And check to make sure you didn't make any errors inputting your weight into your HRM.
How long was that lunchtime walk? For 300 calories, I'd expect it would have to be 3-4 miles unless you're obese. I don't burn anywhere near what you do on my bike, per mile, but I'm female.
Is the yoga in a heated room, like Bikram? That causes overestimated calories, too, in my experience.
Also, if you're doing all that exercise to lose weight faster, don't eat it all back. There's no reason your body can't use your fat stores for fuel.0 -
I trust my HRM, it's quite an old Polar though. I spend the entire cycle ride in the 170-180bpm mark so i think it's right. The walk was 3 miles. I still find this whole 'eat back or dont eat back' thing quite confusing and what MFP accounts for and not.0
-
Brain....exploding....0
-
Your HRM is broken. A 3 mile walk does not burn that much. Yoga does not burn that many calories. You need a new HRM or you need to confirm you've entered the details into your HRM correctly.0
-
are you dropping in any protein shakes or supplements here that you could use on exercise days to help with calories/recovery/pre workout?0
-
There is a reason that athletes eat 4000+ cals a day....you NEED to eat if you are going to be THAT active....otherwise you are going to end up in a world of hurt health wise. If you don't want to eat that much, cut the activity level.0
-
When I losing weight, I was eating 2,200 calories a day. Now, with my activity level, I am maintaining at 4,000 day.
I go to gym 5 days a week for 2.5 hours at a time and I also run 5 miles 3-4 days a week.
A 3 mile walk could burn 300 calories, depends how heavy the person doing the walking is. At 6'6" and 230lbs, I easily burn 100 calories a mile. A quick google search seems to show an average of 100 calories per mile for 180lb person.0 -
Your HRM is broken. A 3 mile walk does not burn that much. Yoga does not burn that many calories. You need a new HRM or you need to confirm you've entered the details into your HRM correctly.
I respectfully disagree... I walked 4 miles at 4mph last weekend and burned 400 calories (wow, that's a lot of 4's). This was according to my Polar FT4 which I've had for just over 2 years. Just because someone's walking doesn't mean they're not getting a good workout - if they go fast, especially with hills involved, there is going to be a good calorie burn.
OP, I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe protein shakes with PB added?0 -
The hell type of yoga you doing that's burning 800 flipping calories?!0
-
Sorry but if you have decided that you are going to burn that many calories per day, you need to have adequate food. Do you want me to change the laws of physics for you?0
-
I had some serious confusion about this topic. I went to speak to my company wellness contact (quailified nutritionalist and fitness in instructor).
Her questions were
How much are you eating regularly? 1400-1600 which is way under some excercise days
How do you feel? good
How much are you losing a week? 1-2 pounds
Her advice was relax and listen to your body. If you are hungry eat and make good choices. Dont overthink.0 -
Totally agree... I switched things up once I got deeper into distance running. Now I eat a static amount each day (2100) and perhaps a bit more on my long run days (maybe 300 more). That way, you're eating the same amount each day, but over the week, it averages out to be what I need for the net amount. I'm not sure if this is making sense or not - PM me if you want more info, but I really like it!0
-
that sounds like an overestimate of cals - biking burns maybe 350 cals/hour. yoga burns around the same amount, maybe less. same with walking. i would think you're burning a total between 1000-1400 cals...0
-
Your HRM is broken. A 3 mile walk does not burn that much. Yoga does not burn that many calories. You need a new HRM or you need to confirm you've entered the details into your HRM correctly.
My HRM is not broken. I weigh 230lbs and am 5ft9 with 33% BF. So I'm quite heavy. Also I would like to point out that the Yoga is a 90 minute session and its the P90x Yoga, which is ridiculously intense. And like I said in the cycle ride I am at 90-100% max heart rate for the entire hour.0 -
Without exercise MFP says I should eat about 1900 cals a day. Howeve, I've started cycling to work (12 miles each way) which according to my HRM is clocking in about 800cals each way. I've gone for a lunch time walk today (300 cals). And I have P90x in the evening to do. Tonight is Yoga which I burn about 800cals in.
So...
MFP says 1900
Cycling both ways 1600
Walking 300
P90x Yoga 800
Total 4600cals. Just to be where I should be for the day.
I really hate this. I want to train my body to eat less in general. Because there are plenty of days where I don't exercise but overeat. I know its healthier to eat more when you start exercising, but damn I hate it.
If you cycle everyday, and walk at lunch I would include these in your activity level, not exercise. So I would up your activity level to very active and not log the bike ride or the walk.
If you are set as sedentary and don't bike or walk daily then do the following:
The You are probably over estimating your calories burned especially with Yoga. HRMs will over estimate as it assumes you are doing cardio and using HR to gauge intensity. For everything else you should be backing out the cals you would have burned at rest, had you not worked out (Maintenance caloires). So if your maintenance is 2400/day without exercise you should take off 100 cals from what your HRM says for every hour worked, and I would cut the cals in half for yoga.
I will assume the cycle ride is about 45 min each way, so back out 150 cals now 1450, assuming your walk is 30 minutes, back out 50 from the walk, now 250, cut yoga in half, now 400. So you should be eating
1900+1450+250+400= 4000.0 -
I have a similar problem. I eat those calories though! The thing is that your body needs a number of calories every day to do basic functions like breathe and walk and talk (because you're using muscles to do all of those, right?). A calorie is just energy, so the basic principle of eating fewer calories than you burn to lose weight makes sense, because if you expel more energy than you take in, you're muscles will need to burn fat cells for the stored energy within them.
When you do such extreme exercise (which, I'm sure will exhaust you fairly soon if you continue to do so much daily!), you're basically putting your body in risk of starvation - which means fat storage, lower performance, and slower weight loss. The number of calories a person needs to do basic things varies, but it's generally agreed that a person needs to NET 1200 cals a day in order to do the most basic bodily function (breathe, heart beat, etc). So, when you burn all those calories exercising, you need to eat more calories in order to NET 1200 or so.
I find that it's easier to get my calories in if I snack all day. I never feel hungry, and it's just smaller meals (a lot of protein!) spread throughout the day. That actually might be easier for you to do anyway, if your schedule is so packed with workouts.0 -
Without exercise MFP says I should eat about 1900 cals a day. Howeve, I've started cycling to work (12 miles each way) which according to my HRM is clocking in about 800cals each way. I've gone for a lunch time walk today (300 cals). And I have P90x in the evening to do. Tonight is Yoga which I burn about 800cals in.
So...
MFP says 1900
Cycling both ways 1600
Walking 300
P90x Yoga 800
Total 4600cals. Just to be where I should be for the day.
I really hate this. I want to train my body to eat less in general. Because there are plenty of days where I don't exercise but overeat. I know its healthier to eat more when you start exercising, but damn I hate it.
These are ONLY RECOMMENDATIONS...DO What YOU want to DO and TRACK IT. IF it does NOT work, try something else, if it works DO it until it does not work any more.0 -
Brain....exploding....
I took a different route and am quite happy with what I'm doing. The key is to find something you can live with, that won't make your brain explode, that gets you where you need to be.
I calculated my total daily energy expenditure. Then, because I'm trying to lose weight, I calculated a 15% deficit off of that. I am highly active on a daily basis. I ride my bike to and from work, I walk a fair amount, I run, I play sports, I lift weights. Riding my bike and walking to and from places for a purpose, like going to the grocery store or whatever, I don't log as exercise, because I see it as transportation. Running, playing sports, lifting... I log. BUT, and here's the big difference, I don't eat back "exercise calories". I stay at a 15% deficit on my TDEE (which takes daily activity level into account). I am steadily losing weight and more importantly improving personal records and dropping inches so I know what I am doing is working for me. I am happy as a clam with this approach and I don't need to do crazy math. The less crazy math in my life, the better :laugh:0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 427 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions