I am new to here and am just starting to get serious about calorie counting but I have a couple of questions.
First off is it ok to eat the calories you burned from exercise? Say I have 1400 calories I can eat everyday and then I exercise and burn 400 calories. Does this allow me to eat and extra 400 calories and still lose weight? (FYI 1400 is the number that has been calculated for me to lose weight based on my height, weight and ago 1700 is what my body would need for maintain my current weight without exercise). If this isn't ok I need to stop.
I know that plans like weight watchers allow you to do this so does the same rule apply to calorie counting? do you think I should be eating those 400 calories? does it really matter one way or the other?
Secondly I wear a heart rate monitor while exercising to avoid heatstroke (I get it incredibly easily and keeping my heart rate at a moderate level is the only way to prevent it while exercising). It calculates the number of calories I burn in a given period, it is programed with my height, weight and age information as well and is one that is worn around the chest with a watch to receive the information from the monitor. The question is how accurate is this calculation? Can I rely on it as an accurate source for how many calories my body is burning?
I don't eat the calories I burn from exercise. I eat about 1500 a day based on my metabolic rate and normal activity. It creates enough of a deficit to lose about 2 pounds per week. So i choose not to " earn " more calories back with exercise. I just started though so I'm sure more experienced people can chime in.
I'm not sure about the heartrate monitor. But if it is programmed to your weight it is going to be more accurate than generic counts or the things on the machines.
Last edited by AmandaMamma; 11-16-2010 at 11:54 PM.
I don't eat the calories I burn from exercise either. I wear a HRM also and although it's not 100% accurate, It does give me a decent estimate of how much I am burning throughout the day.
*shrug* I don't see the point in eating back exercise calories... I mean, I do that exercise in part to help me create that calorie deficit that makes me lose weight, so why hinder that progress by eating back those calories burned? As for weight loss, that makes no sense to me.
I don't but I would say the answer is, you can do either. If you're already eating a calorie-deficient budget of calories, you will lose weight, whether you exercise or not. If you exercise and eat back those calories but your budget still is deficient from 'needed to maintain', you will still lose weight.
However, within the bounds of reason, if you Don't eat back your exercise calories, you'll create a greater deficiency, which Could lead to greater loss. I say 'within the bounds of reason' because sadly, weightloss isn't quite a simple as how big a deficiency we create, other things come into play too.
You and I share essentially the same statistics. Especially at our height and weight, it is ideal to try not to eat your burnt calories back. As a featherweight, I would never have been able to budge out of the 150s and 140s without maintaining a fairly strict 1200-1300 calorie/day allotment plus a 3-mile run daily.
The tough part, at least for me, was experiencing increased hunger when I first started running. Many days I did, in fact, eat ~150 calories extra, but this was still fewer calories than I burnt while running. Eventually I no longer had the additional hunger pangs.
Good luck!
I am definately struggling with my calorie intake mainly because I am hungry. Even at 1400 calories I find I am starving by night time. I am really trying to stagger my meals to make up for this but by the time I am going to bed I am so very very hungry. I burn at least 400 calories a day with exercise and end up re-eating most of them. From the perspectives presented here you make a really great point about not eating those calories.
Starting today I am going to stop eating my exercise calories and hope that my body finally adjusts to this difference. I can't stand being hungry all the time!
A little bit of hunger will not hurt you, and learning to deal with some is part of dieting, and training yourself. However, if you really are always hungry, then you might want to look at the quality of the calories you are eating. If it seems the calories are high quality (good lean protein, complex carts, etc) then perhaps you would do better on a lot of little meals throughout the day instead of 3 larger meals?
As for eating the calories you burn. It won't HURT you by any means. You can consider it a savings account of sorts. If you really need a bit more, and you have burned 400 calories, then a small 150 calorie snack certainly wont damage your daily intake, but you do want to do as little of that as you can. And also, be very careful with your figuring with how many calories you have actually burned. That is a very tricky science. You certainly dont want to cut it so close that you file away your deficit completely. Your body will adjust, and you will find the combination that works for you. Just don't get too frustrated during the initial learning process.
A couple of Questions
