Question about calorie intake/burn...

T

Tamii

New member
Probably a stupid question, but I'm going to ask it anyway lol. Is it logical to try and burn off all of the calories I eat every day through my workout alone?

According to the fitness log I'm using, I burn just over 2600 calories a day just from my lifestyle, my 30min of cardio today has burned only 339 calories. I have already eaten 964 calories today (still have dinner to go), I try to stay below 1200-1300 a day.

I thought I was supposed to be working out enough to burn off all the food I eat, but that would seem to require like 2hrs a day of cardio. I don't really have time for that. Do I need to just suck it up and start getting up at 5am to workout more, or should I let my natural calorie burn thoughout the day take care of the remaining calories?

TIA!
Tamii
 
You will cause an extreme energy deficit if you were able to actually burn off all your calories in workout alone. Your metabolism should take care of everything you eat and working out is just a bonus so you can eat more/ lose more. (of course it contributes to health)

Unless you were a professional athlete, you don't want to try and burn that many calories through working out. You will need to make a fairly complicated diet to maintain that kind of workout regime. I would say losing 500-700 calories from working out a day, 3-4 (or 5 if you are pushing it) is extremely good. You do want a resting period where all you do is maybe a half hour walk or sit on the couch. You use big muscles by running and jogging, they need time to rest.

Eating only half of what your body needs is quite a deficit, but if you were losing a large amount of weight then it would work out. As you get closer to your ideal weight, you want to get used to eating around the maintenance level.
 
Thanks for the response! I'm glad to hear that because I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to either eat that little or workout that much.
 
Just get 3-5 good days with 1 hour of working out and you should be fine for exercise. Real weight loss happens in your dieting.

45 minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 of calisthenics is a fairly good plan for just getting in normal shape. If you wanted to look more athletic, then you would have to work harder. Although you could worry about that after getting around your ideal weight.
 
If you burn off all of your calories with exercise, then what will your body use to run itself and survive??

You're making this more complicated than it is. Just pick a reasonable calorie level to eat at - the best place to start is to multiply your current weight by 10. So if you weigh, for example, 150 lbs, then eat 1500 calories. If you weigh 200 lbs, then eat 2000 calories.

Whatever calories you burn from exercise, just consider those "bonus" calories. Don't worry about trying to figure out how many you burn. Just exercise 4-5 times a week - and try to do both weight lifting and cardio to make sure you maintain lean muscle mass.
 
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