Do I need to increase my calories when I exercise?/

Hey!! I have the lap band, and if any of you have it, you know we are only supposed to eat a specific amount of calories per day. I am trying to get into different exercises and really want to step it up. I have 2 questions, maybe you all can help me with...
1. Any advice for a exercise beginner on how to start?
2. Can I exercise efficiently and feel energized with eating 1200 cal/day? Do I need to increase it? I wanted to do the p90X but there is NO way I could eat 2000 cal/day!!
 
Thanks for any advice!!

Hi there and welcome to the fitness forum!

First off, make sure your doctor clears you to start an exercise program BEFORE you begin.

Second, I would recommend the Couch to 5K running plan. Just look up "couch to 5k" on any search engine and it will show the link to this free plan. It is amazing and fun.

Finally, you do not necessarily NEED to increase your caloric intake when you begin exercising because you may have 100 or more pounds of excess weight at this point (you don't have a ticker, so I don't know how much more you would like to lose).

That fat is simply stored energy waiting to be used up. You use it up by exercising and eating less.

THAT being said, make sure that you DO have some good, lean protein and complex carbs AFTER your workout to give your body the tools to help repair and sustain those muscles that you've just put to work!

I always have a veggie-heavy salad with 3 ounces of chicken after I've finished my morning run, but some runners swear by lowfat chocolate milk to refuel, some prefer peanut butter on wheat toast, etc. It is highly individual.

But the total calories you are taking in doesn't necessarily have to go up unless you don't have much in the way of excess fat stores. Just make sure every one of those 1200 calories counts!

Good luck and have fun!

I can tell you I stayed pretty much at or under 1000 calories through the first 4-5 months or so. �I was lifting some, walking doing ellipitcal, probably up to about 45 minutes or so. �Once I got to where I was actually jogging a couple of miles, I starting switching to "net" calories", which is what I do now. �I try to keep a net deficit of around 500, which gives me a nice slow weight loss for these last 15 pounds or so I have left. �I can tell you, on days when I do a long run (like 10-13 miles), �or days when I do a 5 miler plus an intense lifting routine, getting the calories in is not so easy, and I need to spread it out. �I do a lot of protein shakes with banana and natural peanut/almond butter. �One of my problems is even with the band, on those long runs I am absolutely famished - and famished is not a good place to be with a band (I eat way to fast and forget to chew chew chew)

I would say make sure you start off slowly and don't take on too much.  Many of us took baby steps first and then work our way up.  What do you do now?

As for calories, it depends.  I eat about 1500 when I do intensive workouts where I burn off 1000 calories or more in the session.  I monitor how many calories I burn through one of the polar monitoring devices.  

You want to stay in your range.  But only eat if you are hungry is what the doctor told me.  He said sometimes he has found some of his patients with lapband eat smaller meals when they start intensive training and thats what I do.  I get hungry more from training.

What do you want to do?  p90X is pretty intesive have you considered anything else?

I was eating 800 calories a day for most of my weight loss phase and training for my first triathlon. When I got over 5 hours a week of exercise, my surgeon had me increase my protein to 100 g and that put my calories to 900. Eventually, I got up to 1200 but I was pretty close to goal then. (And working out 10 hours a week)

You need to eat enough to have the energy to do your daily activities and no more IMO.