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dumb question?

ivedonethisb4ivedonethisb4 member
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in Getting in Shape
This is kind of a dumb question but I'm new to this tracking stuff...so I'm using my fitness pal to track diet/exercise. When I exercise it tells me I need to eat more and I don't really get how that works. I feel like if I eat more calories I'm defeating the purpose of the exercise. Can anyone help me out with that?
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Re: dumb question?

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    MBeezKneezMBeezKneez
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    edited July 2012
    You need to eat enough to fuel your body. If you exercise too much and don't eat enough, your body will begin to behave in a manner that is counter productive- burning fat instead of muscle, for example, or going into starvation mode if you're really undereating, which will actually result in weight *gain*.


    Edit for clarity:
    Tools like  my fitness pal  and sparkpeople have calculators that will estimate how many calories a given exercise will burn, and recommend you adjust your diet accordingly so you don't starve your body. 


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    Sjmiller418Sjmiller418
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    The calorie amount myfitnesspal gives you is based on your base metabolic rate which is with no exercise calculated in. Meaning if you eat that many calories a day even without exercise you'll lose weight. When you exercise and burn more calories you need to eat those back to make sure your body has enough fuel to function. If you don't you can send your body into starvation mode which will hinder your weightloss. Saying that I think mfp estimates high on the calories burned so I only eat a portion of those calories back and try to listen to my body on being hungry to know if I got enough. Also this doesn't mean shouldn't exercise because it will help boost your metabolism and overall health by exercising which in turn will lead to better weightloss results.
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    entropicbeautyentropicbeauty member
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    Also, just keep in mind that the MFP calorie limit is calculated with a deficit in your daily calories to begin with. Once you burn more calories thru exercise, that increases the deficit (usually to the point where you'll be under net 1200 calories), so that is why you gain extra calories.
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    hellebhelleb member
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    Not a dumb question :) I learned stuff too! Thanks!
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    mcda04mcda04 member
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    Definitely not a dumb question. I used to be overweight and despite the eating healthy and exercise I couldn't seem to get the weight to come off. I then came across livestrong.com and after entering all my information, it told me i had to consume about 350 more calories a day. I laughed and ignored it, I talked to my dietitian about it and she confirmed this is correct. the information MBeezKneez gave you is correct. I tried it and lost a total of 56 lbs. keeping a food journal really helped.
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    ivedonethisb4ivedonethisb4 member
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    AND.........TK is being dumb! It says there are 5 replies and I can't see a single one!
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