do i have to eat all my exercise calories?

pinkraynedropjacki

No you dont HAVE to eat them. I never get to eat all mine back. I burn closer to 1500 off a day with dedicated exercise & that on top of my already 1345 I set would make me feel so sick. I'm lucky if I can get out of the negative net by dinnertime. I'm still kickin, still healthy & well.... not hungry.

Phrick

You do not have to eat back your exercise calories, ever.

This is very poor advice and shows a lack of understanding of the MFP methodology. Unless you're just be coy or curt.

I believe that if your calorie burn is fairly accurate, you should eat back the calories. There are many reasons for this, but mainly, you don't want to create too large a deficit. It's not healthy.

Also, everyone says the MFP calories are way off. I have tested against my HRM and therefore stopped using my HRM because it was always plus or minus 10 calories. Kind of silly using an HRM when the MFP estimates are right on the money. So, I don't know what everyone is talking about with the estimates being wrong. Just food for thought.

As a newbie, I have the same question as the OP and was more than a tad worried when I saw several posts saying that MFP overestimates burn. I went online to some other calorie burn calculators (healthstatus), and am a little reassured that their numbers match MFP, almost to a tee. Here's hoping that ^^ this guy (and MFP and the healthstatus thing) is right !!

I have actually found MFP's estimates for the exercise I do (primarily walking) to be LESS than my MapMyWalk and RunKeeper apps as well as LESS than two other websites I've used to estmate burns in the past. I'm not so sold on "MFP Overestimates Burns" anymore either.

Joehenny

I eat 0 back. MFP is not my god.

caroltoms

I don't ever eat my exercise calories.