Net Calories question

kerikitkat
kerikitkat Posts: 352 Member
edited September 18 in Fitness and Exercise
This may have been answered already, but my search fu is weak... or lazy. :glasses:

I have been faithfully eating most of my exercise calories. However, there are days when I don't exercise at all, and other days when I burn 500+ calories. So, my NET calories are always the same, but my TOTAL calories can vary quite a bit. Are there any negative points to this? Will my metabolism have a harder time adjusting to a stable level or does the exercise literally burn off those calories and fool my metabolism into believing that magic "net" number?

Today I burned a ton, so I have a ton left to consume. Believe me, with beer, I can do it. :drinker: Haha. Bad unhealthy terrible!? Yes, probably! But it brought the question to my mind...

Replies

  • kerikitkat
    kerikitkat Posts: 352 Member
    This may have been answered already, but my search fu is weak... or lazy. :glasses:

    I have been faithfully eating most of my exercise calories. However, there are days when I don't exercise at all, and other days when I burn 500+ calories. So, my NET calories are always the same, but my TOTAL calories can vary quite a bit. Are there any negative points to this? Will my metabolism have a harder time adjusting to a stable level or does the exercise literally burn off those calories and fool my metabolism into believing that magic "net" number?

    Today I burned a ton, so I have a ton left to consume. Believe me, with beer, I can do it. :drinker: Haha. Bad unhealthy terrible!? Yes, probably! But it brought the question to my mind...
  • LokiFae
    LokiFae Posts: 774 Member
    I have the same thing going on. I think it evens itself out. That's why we get exercise calories, so that our net calories consumed are always the same. I'm pretty sure that the net calories are really the ones that matter the most.
  • banks1850
    banks1850 Posts: 3,475 Member
    I'd say that depends on how you look at it. I think when you exercise there are other positives besides burning fat that happen to your body. So with that in mind, those days that your gross calories are higher because of exercise you are at a higher positive, so looking at it from that light, the other days could be considered a negative. I guess you can say the days that you aren't working out are LESS positive then days you are, but over all, any day that you stick to your nutritional requirements and don't go over on calories is a good day, just exercise adds to that good.
  • kerikitkat
    kerikitkat Posts: 352 Member
    Would it be better (albeit more complicated planning-wise) to go over a bit on my no-exercise days and under a bit on my exercise days to even out my total calories day to day?

    If doing what I'm doing works for lots of other people, I'm not inclined to mess with it though. :wink:

    edit - I guess that would basically be the equivalent of upping my activity level to "active" and not ever entering exercise...
  • mililani
    mililani Posts: 17
    Replying to the original question: I guess the calories you burn with exercise are actually burned. You need to replenish what you've used.

    As far as whether it's better to have constant calorie intake or constant net calorie intake: aren't you hungry? Doesn't hunger tell you after a long workout it's time to eat some? If that's not the case, then I wonder if you need to lose weight at all...
  • kerikitkat
    kerikitkat Posts: 352 Member
    Replying to the original question: I guess the calories you burn with exercise are actually burned. You need to replenish what you've used.

    As far as whether it's better to have constant calorie intake or constant net calorie intake: aren't you hungry? Doesn't hunger tell you after a long workout it's time to eat some? If that's not the case, then I wonder if you need to lose weight at all...

    I'm never hungry right after a workout. An hour or two later, sure, but not STARVING hungry unless I haven't eaten much all day. What does that have to do with it? Sorry, I think I'm missing your point. :smile: And no, I don't "need" to lose weight, I just want to, with getting more in shape being the top priority. Not more than 15 pounds at all.
  • edyta
    edyta Posts: 258
    Replying to the original question: I guess the calories you burn with exercise are actually burned. You need to replenish what you've used.

    As far as whether it's better to have constant calorie intake or constant net calorie intake: aren't you hungry? Doesn't hunger tell you after a long workout it's time to eat some? If that's not the case, then I wonder if you need to lose weight at all...

    I'm never hungry right after a workout. An hour or two later, sure, but not STARVING hungry unless I haven't eaten much all day. What does that have to do with it? Sorry, I think I'm missing your point. :smile: And no, I don't "need" to lose weight, I just want to, with getting more in shape being the top priority. Not more than 15 pounds at all.

    Same with me. I'm not hungry after the workout. For me days without exercise are harder because if I'm not doing anything tiring I'm more hungry and I have less to eat!
    I've seen a diet plan, I think it was in Shape magazine (which as I can see promotes health and not just weight loss), to eat 1600cals/day and have 200cals more on days when you exercise so not all burnt cals. Sounds reasonable. Sometimes it's really hard to eat all exercise calories, especially if the workout was long.

    I think the idea of eating more/less than net calories depending on exercises is good. Adding/subtracting 100-200 shouldn't do your body any harm. Of course you have to see bigger picture and look at few days not just today. I think I'm going to try that.
  • mililani
    mililani Posts: 17
    My very personal experience is that after a hard workout the only thing I can think of at all is food, which is shocking, because it's usually something different that I think of... :blushing:

    I think for people that need to lose weight, the problem is the yo-yo effect: you don't eat trying to get the pounds off, then the hunger overcomes you and you overeat. So knowing how much food (i.e. calories) your body wants at any point in time is key to avoiding the overeating. If you work off 800 calories and are on a 1600 calorie diet, your body will think it wants half a day's worth of food sometime soon!
  • astridfeline
    astridfeline Posts: 1,200 Member
    The thread about "zig-zag" dieting has a lot of interesting comments about varying the amount of calories consumed each day. Apparently this keeps your body from getting used to a set amount of calories and allows your body's metabolism to adjust to the amount of calories it's provided each day. OK I don't think I explained that correctly so maybe you can search for the thread & read it. :blushing:
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