Factoring workouts into the daily calorie count

Hi everyone!
So I'm starting to understand the point of not eating too few calories in a day, as that will slow down the metabolism. But where do the workouts factor in? For example, say I eat 1300 calories in a day, and lose 600 during a workout. Now I'm at 700 calories...is that too low? Do I need to be taking in more calories on the days I work out?
Thanks for your help!

That's a good question.. I've been looking for an answer to that myself!

Yes it is too low :)

Basically what I do is choose my activity level on what I would do during a normal day without a trip to the gym. That gives me my maitenance calories. To lose 1.5 pounds a week you need to subrtract 750 cals per day...the tools on CC will help you with this.

Then...if I do a work out I log it into my "activities" and eat that much extra for the day.

example)

I need 2350 cal to maintain my current weight. I subract 750 to lose 1.5 pounds a week so I need to eat 1600 calories a day to lose. I decide to work out and I burn 400 calories...I will then add the 400 calories to my 1600 and will then eat 2000.

okay so how does it work then if your maintenance is like 1600....you subtract 750 from that and you get 850 which isn't enough and need to be on 1200  min.....then i burn 600 at the gym so does that mean I'm sposed to eat 1450 (the 850 + the 600) or the 1800 (the 1200 minimum plus the 600?) which wouldn't give me enough of a deficit according to the numbers?  I generally burn 2300 in a day with gym and dog walking etc and have just upped my intake to 1400-1500, which I figured would be okay as that leaves a 800-900 deficit between 1400/1500 and 2300. 

This may seem like a stupid question but it occured to me so here goes. What is the point or value of exercising if you turn around and have to eat the calories you just burnt off? I know it builds muscle and tones but how does it help with losing the weight?

Tankgirl,

I'm still learning myself as well.  From everything that I've learned, I think you'll be ok as long as (including exercise) you don't go below 1200 calories a day.  That means that if you are eating 1300 calories and go to the gym and burn off 300, then you should actually be eating 1600.  The deficite thing isn't an exact science, but it gives people a good point to start from.

chippertoo, to answer you question, which is not stupid at all, I am posting the following.

 the more calories you eat, in theory, the more your metabolism works. the higher the metabolism, the more calories you burn. If you work out at the gym, or at home, you burn calories. Your body's metabolism speeds up, but if you cut your calories too much, your body goes into starvation mode, and your metabolism slows.

 If you keep at a deficit of 500-1000 calories, your body will be a fat burning machine (ok maybe not litterally but you will be burning more calories) Plus the more you work out the more healthy foods you get to eat because your allowance goes up. The more healthy foods you eat, the more vitamins and minerals you consume, the better for you.

Just think if you burn 1800 calories a day doing nothing, and eat 1200 calories a day, you will burn some fat and calories, and will lose weight. But your metabolism won't be as fast as, say an athlete who need the same 1800 calories a day to maintain and burns 600 calories excersising. They now need an intake of 2400 (1800+600) calories to maintain, and 1800 intake calories for the same deficit to burn the same amount of fat and calories as the first person who did no excersise. Both people have the same deficit, but the "athlete" will probably burn calories easier because of the extra muscle.

excersise builds muscle which burns fat which helps in metabolism increase, plus it's good for your heart and lungs.

I hope it is easy to understand, if not let me know, and I'll try to revise it better. I'm a microbiology major in college right now, so sometimes I speak in "biology speak" as my family calls it.

I have the same question as chippertoo. I only burn 1787 calories per day without exercise, so I eat about 1400-1550 per day and I add in exercise to make a deficit! If I didn't I wouldn't lose weight at all! I guess I could eat 1200 calories per day to make the deficit, but why??

Thanks greyskies. That makes more sense. As I understand it you can eat more calories and healthier by incorporating exercise in your daily routine. Now that sounds too easy. lol

I'm glad to help. I have a long way to go, But I am losing at a pretty constant rate of 1/2 lb a week. I started out really slow with no excersise, and that did no real good. I started excersising and eating more, and more often, and I've been losing pretty consistantly. I just need to cut out the sodium because it makes me retain water. :)

 I know I'm losing weight because my 'skinny' jeans that have always been a bit snug are fitting without me having to stretch them out first :) it's a big accomplishment.

You might want to check out these following threads:

Thread 1
Thread 2
Thread 3

Hope that helps.

Check out this website it helped me out alot..
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/loseweigh t/loseweight.html    

Just as a warning - the calorie deficit math becomes more complicated when you are close to your goal.  For myself, I find that I really cannot have more than a 500 calorie deficit, b/c I will plateau (starvation mode) - this is because my maintenance calories are fairly low (I am close to my goal - yay!).  If your weight loss stalls for several days - up your calories or reduce your exercise (although I like to just eat more, b/c I feel so proactive when I exercise hard!).