ok, i know that some of you count calories and i have a question.

say your allocation for a day is around 1400 calories. you intake 1300 calories and then you exercise and expend 300 calories. do you then deduct your spent calories from exercise from your intaken calories to come out with a total of 1000 calories for the day? which would then mean you need to intake 400 more to meet your original quota?

i am just confused with the concept at the moment.

I have the same question. I know NOTHING about counting calories! Thanks for asking this Daisy!

I don't really know the mechanics of this -- but on days when I do a lot of exercise I let myself eat a couple hundred more calories to reach my calorie limit or just above it. I do this because my body says so, and I listen. There are definitely days when my body says not to eat a lot, and others when I know I need a little more. I know when I was on WW they told us to eat our points we gained by doing exercise... it actually helps with weightloss because you're helping to repair your muscles after long exertion! So, I'm no expert, but I'd say at least eat part of what you burn for sanity's sake.......

I think that's a personal choice. I don't usually eat my calories from exercising unless I exercise a ton that day. I don't want to eat up all those calories I burned. If you are hungry, I say to eat but otherwise why exerise 400 calories off just to eat that much? You are wasting your exercise in my opinion. Someone on this board once said they don't use exercise as an EXCUSE to eat more or something like that and it stuck with me.

Amber

I'm going to post a general example of how I think a lot of people come up with "the number" (of calories to eat):

1) Determine the number of calories you expend in a week. You can use calculators online to get a general idea (per day, multiply by 7) though none of them are very accurate. And I believe there are also actual machines that can give a very accurate number but I don't know where/how you do this.

2) Add in the number of calories you plan to expend through exercise in one week. Obviously this also is just an estimate as you can't know for sure how many you burn.

3) Say, for example, that you get a grand total of 15,000 calories burned in one week. 15,000/7 comes out to 2,142 calories burned in one day.

4) In order to lose fat you need to burn more than you intake. So to lose 1lb/week subtract 500 from the 2,142 to get 1,642. To lose 2lbs/week you would subtract 1,000 calories but that would put you below the 1,200 calorie a day standard.

This way your exercise is already accounted for in your calculations. However, as britomart said, on heavy exercise days or when I'm unusually hungry I will eat a few hundred more calories because I think it is a signal I need more.

THe best way to look at this is: it is recommended that when dieting and exercising to lose weight you cut your caloric intake by 500 cal. a day (so if your body needs 2400 calories a day for your height and weight to maintain, you take in 1900 calories) and you exercise to burn apprx. 500 calories a day which equates out to 7000 calories a week or a 2 lb loss. So if you cut calories by 700 you only need to exercise toward 300 calories to hit the same 7000 calories a week. It is recommended that a person have a weight loss of 1-2 lbs a week for safe and effective weight loss. So if counting calories never go below 1200 calories, and get in exercise. Don't be overly hung up on the number of calories. Just use the simple equation of more calories burned than taken in = weight loss. If you happen to take in less and exercise more one day you don't have to try to make up for it or worry over it it will all work out in the end because you might go over on calories or under on exercise later in the week, or vice versa. I hope that helps.

I do all the math exact, but I never ever lose what I should so I have stopped trying to figure it all out. I try and eat under what I burn basally, which is in the upper 1400's, so generally under 1500.

OK...yeah, this is very confusing!...LoL... But Thanks Ladies!

ok - completely confused.

i do understand some of the comments, but others went straight over my head.

i suppose my one main query is as follows.

eat in 1400, exercise out 300, total calories in is only 1100 and i know that being below an intake of 1200 calories per day can be detrimental and even hinder weightloss. should i be concerned about this and make a conscious effort in get in another 100 calories for the day. i may be being pedantic and perhaps asking for arguments sake, but i don't want to sabotage my good work by something silly such as not taking in another 100 calories a day.

also, i thought 3500 calories = 1lb

will come back on tonight with my AMR and BMR, etc, for some opinions.

What you are looking for is a negative calorie deficit. If your RMR is 2200, you can eat 1200 calories per day and (theoretically) lose 2 lbs in a week. Exercise adds to your RMR. So if you burn 300 calories in exercise, again theoretically, you can eat 300 more calories and still lose that 2 lbs - because you burned 2500 calories in that day and ate 1500.

They key is knowing your RMR. The calculators online can be off, majorly. It tells me, because of my weight, I burn 3000+ just laying in bed (RMR). That's a lie. There's no way I can lose weight eating 2000 calories per day. I've been using DietPower, which I highly recommend, which calulates your RMR based on your logging of calories and you corresponding weight change. After 1 month, it lists my RMR at approx. 2200 calories. So I know that I can eat 1200, or exercise and eat more (which I do because 1200 is NOT enough for me LOL).

Its hard to decide on this. Theoretically that is how it would work Daisy...but machines are almost never reliable with the calorie counts.

I don't think you need to worry, Daisy Boo. I'm pretty sure that the guideline given for 1200 cals is because that is approximately what is needed in order to get all of the nutrients you need. It is very difficult to get all of the things your body needs--all of the vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbs etc that your body needs when you go very far under that number. Exercising doesn't influence this much, though, because whether or not you exercise you are still getting the same amount of vitamin C or whatever.

If this clears up some of your confusion, the replies to this thread are mostly saying that you have the choice as to whether you eat more because you are exercising, or whether you don't. If you're hungry, eat more, but if you don't want to then you are probably fine.

I just listen to my body, if Im hungry and my belly is growling I eat, if Im not hungry I dont eat. I eat sensibly. I dont count calories because it too much trouble as if losing weight isnt hard enough you gotta ad that the rif-raf. Ive never counted and I think I have come a long way just listening to my body