Do you HAVE to eat back exercise calories?

mathjulz

I would say that for now, you should eat them back. the reason is that you don't know what to do, and you don't want to be hungry today, then tomorrow, then the next day, then on the forth day, freak out and eat 7000 calories because you got hungry. That's what happens. It builds. I think you are mostly getting poor advice here from most of the people. you should eat them back and see how it works. If you don't lose, as you have planned, then you can change some things up. It's all about finding what works for you. Eating your exercise calories is important because you already have a deficit built in. Building too big of a deficit does cause problems with dieting.

There are lots of high calories, high protein, high fat foods that are great. Peanut butter is one. 2 servings is 400 calories. BAM! Avocados pack a huge punch. There's tons of stuff you can eat that make up what you have left. I would argue that you should eat.

When people start here, they don't really have a proper "full meter". You don't know how to listen to your body, or really know when you are hungry or full. Just go by the book and follow the program. Measure the results and make changes as needed based on that.

And this.

Bobbie8786

You don't have to do anything you don't want to. All of the stuff you read on here is OPINION. Figure out what works for you and ignore all the noise.

lucan07

You will not enter starvation mode by leaving 300 exercise calories every day, your settings are for 1lb a week, by leaving up to 500 per day you may lose 2lb a week instead, forget those spurting the "starvation mode myth!"

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

KANGOOJUMPS

NO!
NO!
NO!
NO!
NO!
NO!

FrnkLft

No you don't have to eat them back, but make sure you're taking in enough calories to sustain your activity. If you don't, you'll end up training without the fuel you need for it, and that will wear you down. Very unhealthy.

The general rule of thumb is to make sure your net calories don't go below 1,200 for a given day.

QuietBloom

I work out just so I get to eat more.

Me too.

cadaverousbones

I have seen a lot of people who eat back half of the exercise calories, since some MFP exercise calories may be incorrect. If you are not hungry don't force yourself to eat, maybe try to just get in higher calorie/higher protein snacks throughout the day to fill in some of the extra cals.

QuietBloom

You will not enter starvation mode by leaving 300 exercise calories every day, your settings are for 1lb a week, by leaving up to 500 per day you may lose 2lb a week instead, forget those spurting the "starvation mode myth!"

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

Yours is the first post in this thread yelling about starvation mode. :huh:

afat12

Eat when you're hungry

Rosylee1976

Thank you all for your contributions. I will certainly take the suggestions offered and consider them carefully. The ones that make the most sense to me are:

1. Don't eat for the sake of eating - I actually have no problem identifying when I am full so this one is easy.
2. Make better high calorie choices like nuts, peanut butter, avocados etc
3. If you feel that you need the calories, due to lack of energy, eat half of them back just in case MFP has been overly generous
in their calculations.

At the end of the day, as long as I eat most of my daily allowance, I should be fine to lose at least 1lb per week. A bigger deficit would only result in a higher loss - almost as if I had set the loss to 2lb per week. It's about flexibility also, I suppose and listening to your body. If it stops working, then I guess it is time to re-evaluate strategy.

Thanks, again, all very valuable points raised.