Weight Loss Support - Calories/Exercise Q

Sorry ladies, it seems to me that lately, I am asking a lot of Q's.

Those of you who are on a predetermined daily caloric quota, do you keep the quota no matter how much you exercise? For example, I know from reading here that a lot of you stick with a daily allotment of 1,200 calories. If you burn 500 calories by exercise, do you still allow yourself only 1,200 cals or do you somehow adjust for the expenditure?

And second, is anybody going by the Daily Needs Calculator found here (http://www.nutritiondata.com/) [nutritiondata.com] - (I read about this is in the current issue of Oxygen)? I like that it allows add various types of exercises into the calculator. I enter my 40 min daily dogwalking plus 30 min jog/walk (which I do every other day but on the off days I do circuit training) and with that, it says my daily needs are 2,898 calories!!! Wholy moly! That's a lota calories, but maybe it explains why I am constanly hungry at 1700 or 1800 (guesstimated). Just curious.

well this is something ive been thinking about alot recently to.

i eat 1600 cals per day, however, i do some times eat a few more if ive exercised...

if i have a hungry day i do eat more BUT i eat the right foods... and try to lift some weights or do some stretching if nothing else to counteract it...

there is alot of stuff about this on daily plate, if you dont eat back exercise burned cals it can cause starvation mode to kick in?

im not sure!

I without a doubt keep my calories eaten totally separate from my calories burned, through exercise or otherwise.

I eat what I eat and I burn what I burn. If I happen to exercise more or move around a lot on any particular day I look at it as an added bonus.

As far as those calculators go, I totally ignore them. I (& many others) find them to be totally inaccurate and at best - a mere estimate.

As far as you being hungry at 1700 cals, may I ask what KINDS of calories you are eating. I know for me, in order to stay satisfied, I need to eat frequently and it needs to contain lots of fiber and protein.

You also say that your calories are just an estimate. I think it may pay for you to really, really track those calories carefully for a week or so and see what you are really consuming.

A lot of this calorie stuff is trial and error. With a little experimentation and some patience, you'll find exactly what it is that YOU require.

For me it depends. I don't like to be hungry. Period. I usually eat about 6-8 times a day depending on whether or not I am working. Like Robin I make sure I eat protien and fiber to help keep me full. I also drink a lot of water.

I don't use those calorie calculators. I've looked at them, but don't trust them.

I don't use the calorie counters on the machines at the gym. I work out. My body burns what it burns. Sure you can get a rough estimate on them, but I don't set my diet to that.

I started running recently and have found that when I run 3 miles in the morning I need to eat more after my run. So i eat less in the evening. I stick to 1200 or so calories most days.

Like Robin said this is trial and error stuff. My body loses weight SLOWLY, but I keep working hard and I know it will come off.

I alway keep food and exercise seperate. I look at it as eating away my exercise. If I have spent an hour burning a few hundred calories, I don't want to go to the kitchen and void it. Also, I aim for a good average for the week. Some days I am just hungrier than others or will just splurge and eat maybe 1600 cals for the day. So I will eat lower like 1200-1300 the next day to even myself back out.

I also keep food and exercise separate.

And that calculator said I needed 2416 kcal per day and that's without me adding any exercise (and I do a significant amount of exercise). Not a chance that's accurate, nope, no way, nyet. I eat between 1300 and 1400 per day no matter how much exercise I'm doing.

I hear about those people who 'eat back their calories' and I wish I could be one of them! If I don't stick to around 1400 calories a day, I don't lose. It doesn't matter how much exercise I do. So I eat lots of fiber and protein and keep the carbs to a minimum, and I work out about an hour or so a day. That's what works for me.

I without a doubt keep my calories eaten totally separate from my calories burned, through exercise or otherwise.

I eat what I eat and I burn what I burn. If I happen to exercise more or move around a lot on any particular day I look at it as an added bonus.

As far as those calculators go, I totally ignore them. I (& many others) find them to be totally inaccurate and at best - a mere estimate.

As far as you being hungry at 1700 cals, may I ask what KINDS of calories you are eating. I know for me, in order to stay satisfied, I need to eat frequently and it needs to contain lots of fiber and protein.
Signed, me! :)

I don't get the whole "eat back your workout cals" thing. The point of eating less and exercising more is to burn cals to lose weight. If you're eating back your calories, then you're not losing weight, right? I guess if you're really eating very very few calories, it would be an issue, but I suspect for many of us, it's just not.

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thats what i thought photo chick.

they harp on about it on TDP though.

ive looked back over my daily plate and i have definately been eating around about 1800 cal average this past week... and the scale hasnt budged.. im gonna lower back down and ignore the net thing again for a week and see what shakes up.

how about the body needing 200 extra cals per day during TOM.... truth or lie?

how about the body needing 200 extra cals per day during TOM.... truth or lie?

I don't know about *needing* 200 extra calories, but I will often eat them during TOM :rofl:

they harp on about it on TDP though.
Yeah, they harp on a lot of things on TDP! :rolleyes::rofl:

I generally find their forums less usefull than those here - and certainly less helpful.

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Yeah..the whole point of excersizing, besides toning up, is to lose weight. If i eat back all the calories i just burned up, how am i going to lose weight??? And i find 1200 calories helps me to lose the weight. And drinking plenty of water. It helps me flush the fluid from my body.

maybe that is why i have been at a standstill for 3 weeks. i've been eating my calories back after excersize. :(:(

Well, I'll be the odd one out, again.

When I'm very active I need to eat more. I don't know what 'more exercise' means to everyone. For me, I'm doing high intensity cardio 3-4x per week for an hour, strength class 2x per week, and pilates 1-2x on a regular basis. When I'm feeling great and bump it up to back to back classes two days a week, and commute to the gym and elsewhere on my bike when the weather permits, plus go for a walk in the mountains on Saturday and maybe a longer bike ride, I need to eat more or my strength begins to fail and I feel weak and tired. That's not acceptable to me.

I think it's a matter of priorities, too. We've had a long winter here in the Northeast, and I'd rather eat enough to fuel my outdoor activities and lose slowly than stay inside and eat less. Since the weather's started to change (and keep on changing!) I've continued to lose slowly on 1600-1700 but I feel super fit and energetic.

Also, just to add, I'm hypothyroid and lots of activity seems to keep my metabolism humming, so that comes first for me.

When I'm very active I need to eat more. I don't know what 'more exercise' means to everyone.Oh I agree that when you exercise hard, you need to eat more to fuel that. But the big thing on TDP is eating "back" *all* of the calories you burn exercising (it's how their tracker works, which I think is unnecessarily confusing).

I suspect that with the amount of exercise you're doing - both scheduled at the gym plus your walking/riding/etc - you're personally talking about more than just 300-500 calories that most of us are burning in our 45 mins at the gym.

I also suspect that even though you're eating more, you're not eating back ALL the calories that you're burning in exercise, right?

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im gonna ignore that from now on, sometimes listening to the body is best, i mean i shoot for 1600 cals, but today ive only eaten 1224? im not hungry and ive eaten all day so what do ya do?

im not force feeding myself.

I too don't understand the "eat back" mentality. If you're hungry, feed your body. If you're not, why consume needless calories. To me, its all about listening to your body. There are days when I exercise and I'm famished an hour or so afterwards. Then, there are days when I can do the same workout and not be nearly as hungry.

I'll stick to tracking what I eat, staying within my goal and go from there.

Oh I agree that when you exercise hard, you need to eat more to fuel that. But the big thing on TDP is eating "back" *all* of the calories you burn exercising (it's how their tracker works, which I think is unnecessarily confusing).



Aha. I've never used TDP so I didn't know that's what they suggest. I agree that eating back *all* those calories is not a good idea especially since calculating calories burned is fairly impossible to do accurately.

I'm also with TheBeautyWithin - there's a happy medium between figuring the math and listening to your body. I can't grab a snack any old time I'm peckish and expect to lose weight, but I know when I've exerted myself and really need to stoke my metabolic fire even if it means going over my daily calories.

especially since calculating calories burned is fairly impossible to do accurately.
Egg-zacktly! :)

And the site is set up to encourage people to overcount their exercise calories by including things like "typing" and "driving" on their list of activities. So people are sort of subtly being encouraged to count things to really shouldn't count towards calorie burning but that are just part of their base calorie needs.

It's really the only thing I don't like about the site ... I wish they'd just keep the caloried burned limited to real exercise and not subtract them from your daily intake. It makes it far too confusing otherwise.

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Can someone please tell me what TDP stands for? I am coming up with three different explanations but none of them is related to weight or eating. :?:

Can someone please tell me what TDP stands for? I am coming up with three different explanations but none of them is related to weight or eating. :?:

TDP= The Daily Plate

Their calculator tells me I can eat 2480 calories given the exercise I do :rofl: I've been maintaining almost 7 years now and have a good handle on what I need to eat. Anything over a 1600 calorie/day average and I gain.

Mel

Yeah I don't use their calculators at all. They also told me that at 170 lbs, I needed to eat 1016 calories per day to lose 2lbs a week. *eyeroll*

I tend to use the Mayo clinic calculator and then finesse it from there.

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I do eat some of mine back - the site I am using at the moment calculated I should eat 1260 calories a day to lose weight. This is doing NO exercise.

However I do anywhere up to 90 minutes hard cardio most days a week. Spin class, long runs, treadmill, weights classes etc and so yes, I do "eat back" calories burned.

I probably average out to around 1500-1600 actual intake.

The point I think these sites are making with eating back calories is that the initial calorie amount they give you is when you do no exercise. Mine is at least - it's calculated so that I would have a 500 calorie a day deficit from my "maintenance" level and thats basically just sitting on my bum all day with minimal movement.

They recommend you eat some back if you're exercising because they've already given you a 500 cal deficit through diet alone.

I'm like one of the other girls above - I know that if I didn't eat some of that back then I would be to weak to do the amount of cardio I do. There is nothing worse than that feeling!