Should I eat them back?

Rockin2014

I´ve been sticking to a 1200 calorie plan and hardly eating back any of my excercise calories. I´ve lost 3.5lbs in 8 days but I´m worried that I might be eating too few calories. Should I eat back the 350 calories I burned while walking?

diannethegeek

A large drop on the scale isn't unusual when starting out a new diet. Usually it's nothing to worry about and will level off after a couple of weeks.

That said, MFP is designed for you to eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories. The goal it gives you already includes your deficit for weight loss. Exercise makes that deficit larger, possibly larger than your body can handle. Eating back some of those calories will still allow you to lose weight while also protecting your body from some of the side effects of extreme calorie deficits.

Now for some caveats:
If you set your activity level to active or lightly active you may not need to eat them back.
If you're depending on gym machines or MFP estimates, the calories may be overestimated. A lot of people would recommend eating only 50-75% of them.
If you're not accurately measuring your food portions (scale is best, but measuring cups are better than eyeballing) you may be eating more than you realize.

jennk5309

My opinion is that it depends on how big you are right now. I'm a small woman with not a whole lot to lose and 1200 without eating back exercise calories is fine for me if I want to lose weight at a slightly faster pace (like 2 pounds a week). However, if you are bigger, like in the 200's, or male, then no, 1200 calories is probably not enough. It's also not necessary, because the bigger you are, the more you need to survive, and so creating a deficit is not so difficult.