Go for slightly higher calories with lots of exercise or lower calories and less exercise?

happyteacher
on 4/1/12 10:43 pm

Just throwing this out there for opinions. Which do you think is a better approach...

600-800 calories with an average of 600 calories burned exericising and thus your calories zero out for the day or stay under 200 or so, BUT you are able to not graze and adhere more strictly to plan

OR....

800-1000 calories consumed, 1500 or so calories burned during exericse, but grazing is a minor issue. Net calories I am better of with this option, but hate the struggle of avoidng grazing. Not sure why grazing is so much more of an issue when I work out more either.

Just curious if others out there share this dilema and how you handle it.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

1Mo: -21 2Mo: -16 3Mo: -12 4MO - 13 5MO: -11 6MO: -10 7MO: -10.3 8MO: -6 Goal in 8 months 4 days!! 6' 2'' EWL 103% Starting size 28 or 4x (tight) now size 12 or large, shoe size 12 w to 10.5 150+ pounds lost

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

Mom4Jazz
on 4/1/12 10:47 pm

VSG on 04/18/11

1500 calories during exercise is a LOT daily unless you're working out for 3 or 4 hours a day.

I generally ran 600-800 calories, with 200-600 calories a day burned in exercise.

Highest weight: 335 lbs, BMI 50.9
Pre-op weight: 319 lbs, BMI 48.5
Current range: 140-144, BMI 21.3 - 22

175+ lbs lost, maintaining since February 2012

happyteacher
on 4/1/12 10:52 pm

VSG on 12/19/11

I am using myfitnesspal as the guide on the exercise. It is a lot- I use the elliptical, a little weight lifting, and a 5 mile walk to hit those numbers. I never make it a "goal" to do that much in one day, as that would be a recipe for falure for me. But I do make a goal of at least 30 minutes of something, and I have found once I get started I usually go much longer than that.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

1Mo: -21 2Mo: -16 3Mo: -12 4MO - 13 5MO: -11 6MO: -10 7MO: -10.3 8MO: -6 Goal in 8 months 4 days!! 6' 2'' EWL 103% Starting size 28 or 4x (tight) now size 12 or large, shoe size 12 w to 10.5 150+ pounds lost

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

vacationlover
on 4/1/12 10:56 pm

VSG on 04/29/11

I think it depends on the person, and what works for you :)

I do not let myself graze. I eat 1000-1200 on most days, and work out for 1-2 hours, 5-6 times a week.

Note, I am a lot farther out than you, and stuck to a different plan for the first 6 months (600-800 calories a day). Now that I am approaching maintenance weight, I feel like I need this higher amount of calories to function at a level I am comfortable with. HOWEVER, I know that part of the reason my weightloss has slowed to a crawl, is due to this new calorie level.

CW: 130ish HW: 264 SW:254 Hgt: 5'2

Goals-Dr:159-MET Mine:140-MET!!! Final Goal: 135-MET!!!!!

W4:-22 W8:-11 W12:-10.5 W16:-12 W20:-11.5 W24:-9.5 W28:-8 W32:-7.5 W36:-8 W40:-7.5 W44:-5 W48: -4.5 1Yr/W52: -7

Ms. Poker Face
on 4/2/12 12:05 am

VSG on 06/22/11

My approach was to eat less calories (600-800 daily), regardless of how much I exercised. I know myself well enough that long term, I'm not going to be a super-athlete, nor can I sustain a 1000 or 1500 calorie burn on a daily basis for very long. That's 3 hours of running basically. I'm just not that type of person.

So ask yourself, can you sustain big calorie burns like that long term? If so, then the higher calorie equation might work for you. But if not, then I think you are setting yourself up to eat more calories sooner and lengthening your journey to goal... or falling short of goal altogether. It's easier to add calories back than it is to take them away. I started creeping up to 900-1000 calories around 6-8 months out and had to reign it back in so I could get losing again. That sucked. Now I'm back at the 600-800 range, losing slowly, but almost at goal. If I could go back, I would have stayed at that range and not let myself creep up to 1000 before getting to goal. Because, again, adding in calories is easy, taking them away is hard.

My 2 cents!!

5'5" Goal reached, but fighting regain. Back to Basics.
Start Weight 246 Goal Weight 160 Current Weight 183

Starting size: 22, 2x
Current size: 12, L

MyOwnSunshine
on 4/2/12 12:06 am

VSG on 09/13/11

I think you need to experiment to find out what works for you.

I would caution you that if you are going to use your calories burned during exercise to calculate what you should consume, you need to get an accurate heart rate monitor, because the calories that MFP gives you are not accurate and are overestimated. You would have to be exercising for greater than 3 hours with a heart rate over 160 to burn more than 1000 calories, in my experience.

I do not believe that consuming fewer than zero net calories is healthy. You will be burning your lean mass for fuel.

My advice is to do some more research. There are some very knowledgeable posters on MFP that post links to scientific studies supporting their positions on fitness and nutrition.

I quizzed my surgeon about this topic at my 6 month visit, and he stated, "Ultimately, there is no magic number of calories that determines loss or gain. Every individual needs to find the number that works for them."

The best thing that you can do is to track your intake every day and buy a heart rate monitor and track your calorie burn so you have accurate data to examine and base your decisions upon.

" I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my pursuit after Truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things." Ghandi

califsleevin
on 4/2/12 12:38 am - CA

VSG on 05/09/11

As others have noted, you have to take the calorie burn figures of these various charts with just a few grains (or kilos) of salt - I generally cut them in half before doing any kind of mental arithmatic.

Philosophically, I would go with the higher exercise/higher calorie approach assuming that this is something that you can and will keep up with. If you can maintain the habit of routine vigorous exercise in the long term, that will pay off well beyond the weight that you are losing now - it has been shown that the consistent exercise is helpful both in fighting weight regain and in putting off many of the chronic diseases often associated with aging. Combine that with a somewhat higher calorie count that can help provide you with a healthier and better balanced diet than is possible on the minimalist 6-800 calorie diet that is popular. I averaged 1000-1100 calories per day and an hour to hour and a half of vigorous exercise (swimming or weight training) per day, five days a week during my loss period and wouldn't want the loss to have been any faster (seven and a half months to goal.) Your goal weight (and implied lean mass and metabolic rates) are similar to mine, so that indicates that you do have more margin to work with calorically than a person aiming to be 120lb.

Good luck - you're doing great so far,

1st support group/seminar - 8/03 (has it been that long?)

Wife's DS - 5/05 w Dr. Robert Rabkin VSG on 5/9/11 by Dr. John Rabkin

emelar
on 4/2/12 12:52 am - TX

VSG on 11/18/10

Your BMR is how many calories you burn just by existing. Even with busted or slow metabolisms, I doubt that anyone's BMR is as low as 800 calories a day. So there's a deficit already built in to you daily calorie intake even at 800 calories a day. Add exercise to that, and you increase that deficit. Then it becomes a question of how fast you want to get to your goal weight. If speed is important, then keep your deficit as high as healthily possible, don't eat back your exercise calories. If you want more flexibility in eating and don't mind slowing your weight loss, then eat some of your exercise calories back.

For me, I've never really had a goal weight. I'm riding the train until it stops. So I get 1000 calories a day most days. On high exercise days, 3 to 4 hours at the gym, I eat some of the calories back because I'm hungry. REALLY hungry - not head hunger. I think there's a danger in creating too much of a deficit.

So figure out what'll work foy you!

(deactivated member)
on 4/2/12 2:20 am

VSG on 12/07/11

My surgeon, PCP, and trainer all agreed that I should up my calories by about 100 protein calories (e.g. 25 grams of protein) per day on exercise days. That's one protein shake for me. So that's what I do. I went from a basic 600-650 calorie per day plan to a 700-750 a day plan those 5 days I'm at the gym. The up in protein coupled with moderate exercise keeping my hear rate at a specific target for about an hour average per day has really kept my weight loss going.

I plan on staying at this intake level until I reach my goal weight.

happyteacher
on 4/2/12 11:59 am

VSG on 12/19/11

Ok, I super appreciate everybody's posts. I think I need to cut back. I have no clue why all of a sudden I am struggling like mad to stay under 1000 calories, but this is not going to work out long term. I am grazing a little at night and I need to cut that out pronto. I realized today that I lost site of the eat with at least 3 hours in between rule, so I am going to focus on that tomorrow.

Oh, and my heartrate goes to 150 just thinking about exercise so generally that probably isn't terribly unrealistic.

I am feeling like exercise should go well long term. I have been very consistent, but I still need to back of the calories.

Thanks again.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

1Mo: -21 2Mo: -16 3Mo: -12 4MO - 13 5MO: -11 6MO: -10 7MO: -10.3 8MO: -6 Goal in 8 months 4 days!! 6' 2'' EWL 103% Starting size 28 or 4x (tight) now size 12 or large, shoe size 12 w to 10.5 150+ pounds lost

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

Go for slightly higher calories with lots of exercise or lower calories and less exercise?

Our Mission

Follow us

Links

Select Photos

Go for slightly higher calories with lots of exercise or lower calories and less exercise?