Hey Chicks,

I have a question. I log my food on The Daily Plate, and it says I should be eating 1587 calories/day in order to lose 2 pounds/week, and I do. When I exercise, I am burning 700-1000 calories (I am training for a half marathon, so lots of long distance running equals lots of calories burned.) TDP says I should eat the calories I've burned, to get to a net total of 1587. However, when I do that, I am not seeing a loss! Should I only eat the 1587, regardless of exercise? My concern is that if I am eating almost 1600, and burning 900, that's only a net total of 700 calories/day, which doesn't seem like enough. (And, BTW, I am eating *quality* calories, not crap to get to a number total-- at least then I would understand!)

Has anyone else struggled with this? Any advice?

Thanks so much-- I really hoped that this intense running would help me drop pounds, but that is not working thus far.

Rose

I try not to eat the calories I burn. Loss is about deficit, y'know? Sometimes if my workout makes me hungry I will eat a bit more but not what I believe I have burned.

super cool on the long distance training!!

I usually don't... I'm losing about 2 1/2lbs per week on average... Bit I only burn 300-500 exercise cals a day. No marathon training here... lol!!

I never ate back my exercise calories, unless I did something really out-of-the-ordinary that made me more hungry. For example, major hauling of wood for a few hours to build something...I'd eat a bigger dinner. A 4 hour hike? I'd eat some of that back. But not for my regularly scheduled exercise.

I would say that if you're eating a LOW amount of calories (1200-1300) and doing a LOT of exercise, you could be setting yourself up for a stall, but you're eating at a sustainable level. The rule of thumb I use is that as long as you eat at least your BMR every day, exercise calories burned are just bonus.

If you plateau I'd add in some calories, but if you're seeing steady losses, I'd just eat what you're comfortable with. If you're STARVING on a day you had a long run, of course you should eat something extra, though, but I wouldn't plan it in unless you find you NEED it.

As a previous poster said, as long as you're not at the very low end of the calorie range (i.e. 1200 calories or something...) I think you'll be fine. I discovered after getting my GoWear Fit (like the BodyBugg) that I'm burning a lot more calories in my every day life than I had thought. But I'm still losing while eating at least 1500 calories a day and having up to 2000 calorie deficit days. If/when I plateau I plan on adding some extra calories, but for now I'm still losing and I eat more if I'm super hungry, so I'm not worrying about adding extra scheduled calories in.

So in brief, I think you're doing fine!