Eating Back Exercise Calories...???

caitlin70433

Even back in the early 1990s, when I was a 20-yr-old losing the "Freshmen 30" on her own with a calorie-counting book and a nutritional almanac, I was all about how much can I eat and still lose weight. I exercised. A lot. Most days, it was 2 hours. I shot for between 1500-1800 on those 2-hrs-of-exercise days. I lost the 30lbs in 3 months. I even ate snickers and McDonalds (albeit small hamburger and fries). Not a particularly healthy diet but I lost the weight. In short, eat your exercise calories.

ladyhawk00

MFP is different than many calorie counters/weight loss programs, or the way that many trainers set up a plan. These other plans take your “intended exercise” and use that to create a deficit, keeping your daily cal goal static. Therefore, with other plans, you would not replace calories you burn through exercise. MFP is different and you CANNOT compare them, unless you’re prepared to do some calculations to get apples vs. apples and not apples vs. oranges.

MFP was designed with the idea that many people can't exercise regularly, or at all, due to physical limitations or time. They also recognized that most people set up an exercise plan with good intentions, but as we all know, what’s planned is not necessarily what actually happens every day. So they built the site to allow for weight loss with or without exercise.

MFP creates a BUILT IN CALORIE DEFICIT, based on your loss per week goal, regardless of exercise. So when you log exercise, cals are added back in to keep that deficit stable. If you don't replace those cals, you've made your deficit larger than you (presumably) intended. A larger deficit does not necessarily mean faster/more weight loss; it is usually unhealthy and unsustainable and most often backfires, leading to feelings of deprivation, binges, irregular blood sugar levels, lack of energy, slower metabolism, loss of muscle mass, quitting, and weight regain.

People with little fat stores need a more conservative deficit to avoid decreasing metabolism and losing lean mass, and usually do better eating at least some of them back.

For people with large amounts to lose, it is less critical to eat all of them, as their bodies can withstand a slightly larger deficit. However, there are other risks to consider, such as insufficient macros and micros, and the psychological impacts.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/222019-60-lbs-in-60-days?hl=60+lbs

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works