Health & Fitness
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Eating back exercise calories
Do I really need to eat back all of my exercise calories? I usually do eat most of them back, but I don't think I can/should today. MFP has me eating 1250 calories daily and if I net less than 1200 it complains about me going into starvation mode.
Since I started running and doing the 30DS about 3-4 days a week (and then just doing the 30DS the other 2-3 days), I just can't seem to eat all of the calories it wants me to. With all of my meals and exercise entered, I still have about 800 calories left over for the day. Is it bad for me to net that few calories a few days a week?
Re: Eating back exercise calories
Do you have it set to lose weight or maintain? I think if it's only a couple days a week and not a BIG caloris loss you should be ok. Try averaging it over the week.
Make sure you are eating healthy, filling foods on the days you burn more.
But that just my opinion. Who knows if I'm right lol
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You should eat back at least most of them. If you net less than 1200 calories, you won't be able to recover properly from your workouts and your body may try to cling to its fuel stores (fat).
How far are you running? I've found that MFP estimates high (IMO) for calories burned running. I've always used the one mile = 100 calories (running or walking at any speed). MFP gives me more than that, so I usually adjust down manually when I enter it. Of course, that number kind of depends on how large you are - I weight 160, so maybe it should be above 100, but it works for me. If you're smaller, you could be burning less. How are you logging 30DS? I don't have any personal experience with that, but it's 30min of mostly core work, right? That could be only 150-300 calories burned. So if your exercise estimates are off, it could be that you don't need to eat as much extra (800 calories is a lot - I wish I could eat an extra 800 per day and lose weight). It's also possible that you're underestimating the number of calories you're eating - do you weight/measure everything?
I use a HRM to estimate the number of calories burned (I also subtract the amount that I would have burned if I was just sitting around) for the running and 30DS. I also weigh/measure all of my food, so I should be pretty accurate on the calories I eat and burn.
I'm currently trying to lose weight. I keep pretty close to my recommended calories on the other days. I'm going to try to start making myself eat more on these days so that I'm not so far under. I just really don't know if I can even force myself to eat over 2000 calories unless I'm stuffing my face with cake and ice cream. Even when I eat 1400 calories a day, I'm miserably full for most of the day.
So I guess my next question is if I need to worry so much about the 1200 calorie minimum rule that I eat crappy food to just fill the necessary calories?
I wish I had that problem (feeling full at 1400). And I think you should be able to fill the extra calories without resorting to junk food. For reference, here's what I'm eating today, after burning 600 calories exercising to bring my base 1400 up to 2000:
Pre-workout:
Small bowl (1cup) of cheerios with 3/4cup skim milk (164 calories)
Post-workout breakfast:
Homemade Crustless Spinach Quiche (200cal, mostly protein and fat), w/SmartDog (45cal, 8g extra protein)
Milk w/whey protein powder (290 cal, carb and protein)
Morning snacks:
Apple (80cal carbs)
Trail Mix (300cal mostly carbs with some fat and protein)
Lunch:
Homemade Crustless Spinach Quiche (200cal, mostly protein and fat), w/SmartDog (45cal, 8g extra protein)
Large salad of romaine lettuce with 14g bleu cheese, some tomato, and balsamic vinegar (100cal)
Afternoon snacks:
Yogurt (Stonyfield Lowfat, 120cal, mostly carbs)
Lowfat Cottage Cheese (80cal, mostly protein)
Apple (80cal carbs)
Dinner:
Another salad (100cal)
200cal TBD - probably an omelet
I'm aiming for high protein here because when I eat carb-y food I go overboard and eat way too much. Right now I'm hungry and can't wait to get home and eat my 300cal dinner. I can't imagine eating less than this on a day that I work out (I usually work out because I can't stick to 1400). I am also trying to lose weight (1lb per week). If you need some high-density foods to bring up your total, try trail mix - it's not that bad for you (yes, mine has chocolate in it, but you can make whatever you like), and the nuts are high calorie. Or something fatty like avocado - just stick to healthy forms of fat.
I need to find a way to add in snacks. In the office I work in, if you bring a snack to eat during break, everyone stares you down and gives you dirty looks. There is no eating allowed at our desks either.
Do you have a recipe you use for trail mix? I'm allergic to peanuts, so I have to go with other nuts. Where do you get the nuts? Are they just the bagged kind?
What about protein shakes? I definitely need more protein in my diet and I hate eating meats. For some reason I have it in my head that unless you are a body builder, they make you fat (even though I know that's not the case).
Hmm, this is trickier if you can't snack as much - I don't know how I'd survive if I was limited to 3 meals a day. I think it just means you need to make sure breakfast and lunch are both pretty substantial (500+ calories), so that dinner doesn't have to be huge to make up for it.
For trail mix, I'm using a 1:1:1 ratio (by volume) of peanuts, raisins, and M&Ms. Probably too many M&Ms, but it's tasty that way. I mix my own because I can't eat raw almonds, and many pre-made mixes have them. For you, you could substitute in any combination of almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc, and you can play with the ratios too - maybe 2 nuts at 1:1:1:1 might be a better mix actually. I just bought a container of raisins, party peanuts, and a bag of M&Ms. Canned almonds are common, and I know that Trader Joes carries bags of various kinds of nuts. You'll probably want the salted variety, since the salt is part of what makes trail mix so delicious.
I don't know anything about pre-made protein shakes, I just mix Trader Joe's Whey Protein Powder (vanilla) into milk. If you put it in a water bottle, you can take it to work ready-to-drink - but don't forget to wash the bottle immediately so it's easy to clean. Oh, and sometimes I mix in some Nesquik (chocolate milk powder) with the protein, since it makes it sweeter and chocolatey. I would think that pre-made protein shakes would be fine, but I'd be careful about weird additives in those (I have no idea, I just like my ingredient lists short). I think I read somewhere that eating more protein helps you lose weight, but people say all sorts of things about weight loss. I'm vegetarian, so I have to work to get enough protein.
Are you accurately entering all your food and exercise? Because an 800 calorie deficit is huge.
I don't wear a HRM, but when I was using sparkpeople I was told to count the 30DS as circuit training. Which came out to be about 300 calories. So if you are supposed to eat 1250 calories plus eating back 300, but are going 800 calories under that it would mean you're only eating 750 calories per day. Which is EXTREMELY low.
I'd try to find ways to add in snacks in your day. If you want, post a typical daily meal plan and we can try to offer advice about where you can add calories.
I'm really struggling adjusting my calories to the additional exercise, but hopefully I can get it figured out soon!
Sometimes I wake up 1 hour before I have to have lunch, so no breakfast on those days. If I eat any more than this for breakfast, I am too full to eat any lunch. I can't get past the texture/smell of any type of breakfast eggs.
For breakfast:
Special K Cinnamon Pecan cereal or Cheerios (180 calories)
or
Greek yogurt with some type of fruit (180 calories)
For lunch:
Sandwich with cheese, guacamole or chipolte mayo,and lettuce. Carrots. Grapes. Goldfish crackers or pretzels. (this is on the days that I eat in my car so I don't get stuck eating lunch with a creepy person, which means no microwave for me) (~500 calories)
or
Some sort of leftover protein from dinner with carrots and fruit (400-500 calories)
or
Soup and maybe some sort of sandwich (usually on days that I don't work out) (~300 to 400 calories)
For Dinner:
It depends. Usually a protein (fish or chicken) with tons of veggies. Or some sort of mexican dish. (500 calories)
Snacks (usually right after I get home. I have 2 max.):
String cheese (70 calories)
or
Banana and/or other fruits (~140 calories)
or
Muffin (150 calories)
or sometimes on a bad day where I have enough calories
Pudding/Ice cream/dessert (200 calories)
Exercise:
Running: minimum of 350 calories burned
30DS: 250 calories on this level
an 800 calorie deficit when you're only eating 1250 is huge. How much are you running? 30DS burns some, but not a lot of calories and running on average just burns about 100 calories a mile.
Have you figured out your BRM or daily caloric needs? MFP is notorious for assigning everyone the 1200-1300 calories a day, which for most people, is way too low.
Especially if you're in maintenance mode.
j+k+m+e | running with needles
IMHO, you're probably doing your body a disservice by consistently eating at such a huge deficit. You might see losses for a bit at that rate, but your metabolism will adapt and do you no good. I know it seems weird, but you really do need to eat enough in order to lose weight.
Whether or not you eat back your exercise calories depends on the activity levels you select when you're setting up your calorie goals. If your activity level accounts for your exercise (you pick Moderately Active - Exercises 2-3 times/week for example) then you don't enter in your exercise as extra, and you don't eat the calories back. But if you enter something like Sedentary and then use a HRM to track calories burned, then yes, eat them back. (which I'd say you understand).
Based on what you put as a average day for you food-wise, I'd say you're pretty low on protein, and pretty high on carbs. Adding in a protein shake is an easy way to make up some calories and add some protein. I'd suggest looking for a protein powder that's mostly protein, like an isolate, though a protein blend might be a good option too, as you don't necessarily need the quick release of protein.
In my time here and on TK I've run into a LOT of people who were stuck at weight loss plateaus because they were eating too little. They increased their daily goals a bit and the weight started coming off again. If nothing else, it's worth trying. It's not like you have to commit to a calorie amount for the next 6 months. Try it for a few weeks and see what happens.
To get those extra calories look to things that are calorie dense, you most certainly do not have to resort to junk. Add olive oil, avocado, nuts, full fat dairy, nut butters, fattier cuts of meat, etc.
We'll just not tell H about this little fact, m'kay?