eating enough to offset workout calories?

I was reading about trying to eat your RMR (or BMR) as a minium.   On days that I excersize I generally do not - exspecially like today where I cycled and my computer says I bured 900 calories.  I only ate 2000 and my BMR is 1900 so theoritacally I should be eating another 800 calories to just to meet my BMR.    Is this really an issue or should I be happy I'm in the negative calories?

P.

 depends on what your goals are.  If you're still trying to lose weight than that's one thing, but looks more like you're in maintenance. If you're looking to add muscle and begin to improve athletically, its a good idea to begin to shrink the deficit, although there are folks who keep a deficit all the time (I generally stay around 500 calories down).  

I shoot for my RMR plus a couple hundred on hard workout days. Most days I workout I wouldn't be able to as I would be pushing 3000+.

Like today my run was 2400 calories and my RMR if about 2100, For me to hit my 700 calorie deficit goal I need to take in about 3600. I will be lucky to get 2500.

As long as I eat the right things I will have plenty of energy. Most days are like this for me but the exercise calories are about 1000 less.

Do what you can but maintain some deficit.

In general, I do not try to increase my weight loss through calories burned in exercise.  As an example, if my diet program says my BMR is 2500 and my goal requires a 500 deficit per day, I eat 2000 calories on days with no exercise.  When I go out for an hour ride and calculate my calorie burn, I tend to eat every one of those calories.  Sure there are days where I feel I can give up some of those exercise calories but I let my body tell me that.

My concern is that if I go too far into calorie debt I won't have the proper energy to do what I want and then get bummed out.  Then, as most of us know, if we do not make up the exercise calories we run into the dreaded "starvation body mode". 

On days where I get a couple hours on the bike, my total calorie intake will easily exceed 4000 and still maintain my target of 400-500 deficit calories per day.  Of course, as I lose weight, these numbers should get lower.

I'm pre-op looking for  VSG approval.  My biggest concern will be how to get enough calories in after surgery. 

I ignore all weight loss advice aimed at normies. We are not normal. We are altered.

Therefore, I went with the advice of my program and my surgeon.

My program's generic advice is to keep calories under 800 until close to goal and then slowly up them until we stopped losing. This is based on the assumption that we'll get an average of 45 min of exercise 4-5x a week.

Based on my specific situation -- training for triathlons -- my surgeon told me I needed more protein than the average bear and to eat 1 g for every pound of body weight using my goal weight (which was slightly lower than my actual weight at the time). This did raise my calories over the generic 800, but I still didn't worry about what I was burning on a specific day or what my BMR was. I ate my 120 g of protein as ordered and had plenty of energy and continues to lose weight until I got to goal.

Also, I'd be very careful about judging how many calories you burn based on online databases of exercise or what machines like your cycling computer tell you. These are just estimates and I have found them to be very off in my case. My cycling calories, in particular, tend to be much higher according to my Garmin than what I actually burned.

I figured out my calorie burn by using a HRM (and later a BodyMedia FIT). Even these are estimates but they seem to be more accurate as they take what my body is actually doing into consideration. I didn't really use them until I was in maintenance though. And eventually I just ate to my hunger and that worked even better.

 P- Love our before and after pics! Good for YOU! 

I was wondering how you were getting the numbers for your resting metabolic rate and basel metabolic rate? What calculation did you use? Also, how are you calculating your energy expenditure for exercise? Are you familiar with METS? Energy calculations are a little confusing and never perfect no matter how calculated they are...but what is so important about being fit is that your body will respond to how you treat it...translation...your metabolism will change...fat and muscle tissue will change...I've found consistency is key...getting your heart rate into the right range so that you are training your body to metabolize fat (get the fat weight off) and eating enough protein and calories to keep the muscle growing...it's a delicate balance...personal and takes more information..for instance someone who has just dropped a lot of weight may find even when they cut back calories the weight seems to plateau...someone just getting off the couch after well...a few years of using the clicker can drop weight quick with the same program...I'm not sure if this helps you or confuses you more...but I'm sure I'd like for you to get the results you are looking for. FitRd

I had my BMR tested at a fitness center.

The engergy expenditures vary - fitness machines, websites (livestrong), or my phone apps like sporty pal.  I try to use ones that input my height and weight and track distance so they can fit "me" as close as possible.

I did have a question about heart rates on the fitness machines - they have a "fat burning" level usually lower and a "cardio" level that is higher.  I haven't had time to research the difference.  I'm still pretty new so I just hop on the elipticle and tell it to do random hills for 30 minutes and it tells me when I'm done how much it think I lost.   I'm just trying to get in the habit of working out serval days per week then after that becomes a habit I'll focus on the details.  I can already see and feel the difference since i started taking it serious in February.

P.

 P-
Metabolic Rate is like the engine of an automobile and its measured by either resting metabolic rate or basal metabolic rate. RMR usually has results that are 10-20% higher than BMR. RMR or BMR are about 2/3s of your total daily energy needs. Very active people can match their RMR or surpass it with calories the work off from energy. Most gyms now offer on-site metabolic rate tests.

So here's the scientific equation for RMR:

=88.6+ (4.8 * height in cm) +(13.4* weight in kg)- (5.68*age)

height in inches *2.54= will give you height in cm
weight in pounds/divided by 2.2 will give you kg

You can take this number and then multiply by an activity factor to get the number of calories your body needs to maintain weight. 

RMR x 1.5= weight maintenance for light exercisers
RMR x 1.8 weight maintenance for moderately active

While these "scientific formulas" seem all well & good...well I only see them as an estimate. The real formula is knowing how much you are eating and how much you are exercising (intensity level and time) and then the most important question is are you getting RESULTS!

Lower intensity workouts for a longer time will help your body adapt to fat burning. That's what most of us need to get that darn fat off!!! The cardio intensity level is higher and that's the range you need to be in to really exercise your heart and cardiovascular system & make real measurable physiological changes...get heart healthy....critical step in the big picture.

Have you ever checked out a MET chart? This was a real eye opener to me. For so much time I though whether I walked or ran I'd spend close to the same amount of calories.....as long as I went the distance...so naturally I thought I'd just plod along and not push myself too hard and then tell myself I could eat the same amount as if I was some olympic athlete that covered the same distance in 10 minutes instead of my 10 hours (: Wow that MET chart depressed the heck out of me but helped me to see that I needed to pump it up (intensity) to use up more calories and not give myself such great treats at the end...because in reality...I barely burned off anything...really hate that chart ! but then things seemed to make more sense.

Anyway it sounds like you're doing great and getting the workout in on a regular basis...congratulations with all that you've done!

FitRD

I never worried about it when I was losing weight. I ate enough protein and enough calories to have the energy to do my daily activities (including exercise) but no more. I trained for a Sprint Tri on 900 calories a day and a HIM on 1200. I had plenty of energy and was healthy and happy.

The problem is, all these numbers are estimates. The online calculators that say what your RMR is often said mine was much higher than it was when I had it tested. The computers often said I was burning more calories than I actually burned. In particular, people who have  yo-yo dieted often have slower metabolisms than average and these calcultors are based on the average person.

Now that I'm in maintenance, I eat to my hunger. I was tracking everything and trying to make sure I ate as many calories as I burned. It was driving me a bit crazy, actually, and there were times  when I just got completely sick of eating because it was such a chore to keep everything in balance. When I stopped tracking things and started to just eat, I actually lost a few pounds because the numbers I was eating to were not 100% accurate. I'm a lot less stressed out about it, too.