Here's why I don't eat back my exercise calories.

ShifuYaku

I started not eating them back a while ago... but I've not noticed a difference. Perhaps it's time for me to take a different route.

jamie_reynolds

my starting weight was 148. i weighed 136 this morning. i am allotted 1220 calories/day to lose 1 lb/week. It has been 64 days. i almost always eat back my calories (and i definitely go over on the weekends) - otherwise i am starving. so, eating back my exercise calories has been working well for me. thank god.

wizzybeth

Why start a new thread when this one does perfectly fine, lol.

My problem with eating back calories is I do not really believe the calorie burns I'm given....esp. when I use drastically reduced calorie burns as it is....i.e., I take whatever the website, app, or machine - (the gym elliptical does track my heart rate and I can customize it with my weight and age) - tells me I burned and I cut it in half, or even less.

And sometimes I see a loss, sometimes I just maintain. It's frustrating.

melanie899

I don't tend to eat back the exercise but I'm only walking at this point. I still get around 1200 calories eaten so I really don't feel hungry most of the time. They days that I walk and eat a normal days worth, because of the exercise, I'm usually around 900 cals deficit. Did that make sense?

I figure that I'm more likely to drop the weight if I don't eat those exercise calories.

megomerrett

I eat back. Mostly. It helps motivate me to get on the bike! I'm losing this way and don't feel depressed or restricted with what I'm eating. Each to their own. I'm only on 1200 and I'd struggle to stay at that without exercise giving me more.

North44

I eat mine back for the most part. If I have some left at the end of the day and am done eating I don't go out of my way to eat them though. I use MFP as it is set up and it works for me so I'm happy with it.

donacairns

Well it seems that some people's difference of opinion here leads to some very long threads, and as we're all grown adults can't we at least act accordingly?

Having had my say, my personal experience here is; I've not had this app very long at all, am not massively overweight but would like to be happier with my own appearance. I'm sticking to my allowance and exercising like a maniac, but not finding I'm losing weight in the slightest. It hadn't even occurred to me that not eating your exercise calories back was an option. I for one feel like bashing my head against a wall, calling myself a doofus repeatedly, giving this a try and wondering why I didn't realise that was an option.
I understand that some people feel this is not how the app was designed, by if doing everything right doesn't work for you, perhaps it's time to try a bit of wrong?