does any one uses the extra calories from the excercise?

souki19

i have been journaling everything i eat and i usually use the extra calories from my excercise. the reccomended amount of calories that MFP gave me is about 1270 to loose two pound a week, however, i think it is too low , so i do cardio for an hour everyday and burn about 750 calories and i eat them throughout the day. this week i haven't lost anything. do you think i should just eat the recommended amount to speed up my weight lost? or would i be depriving myself?

bcattoes

Eat the exercise calories or at least most of them.

Run4UrHealth

Try both ways and see what works for you!

taso42_DELETED

The recommended amount IS your base calories (which includes a deficit) + exercise. Works every time, unless your measurements are off.

infamousmk

It's a process to figure out just how many calories are right for our own bodies.. I definitely think you should give an entire month of eating the exercise calories before you decide it's not working. It took me six weeks to start seeing any movement (scale or size).

KBrenOH

This is a hugely debated item here. You're going to find people that tell you to eat them back and then you're going to find the people who tell you not to with convincing answers from both sides. I've found that you have to do what works best for you. You may have to play with it a bit. Try it for a month with eating the calories back; if you don't see much progress.. then try NOT eating the calories back or even just a portion of them.
Everyone is different and not everything works the same for each person.

_David_

Here we go!!!!!!!!! LOL, these threads can get very heated

souki19

thank you everyone, maybe i should give it little bit more time before i cut back on the calories. well i switched my workout schedule from the afternoon to the early morning, so that might have an effect on it as well.

MissMaryMac33

Unless you have well over 100 pounds to lose, 2 lbs a week is probably too aggressive.
I would set it at 1lb and eat back at least half of your exercise... if you wear an hrm and know your calories burned is pretty accurate i'd eat back closer to all of them. If you're not hungry some days, don't do it...just a general rule.

Kaycurrier

I found that if I only eat half of my excersize calories I lose very consistantly. If I excersize and do not eat them my body holds, but if I eat all of them my body gets too much food. From what I have found, online excerzise calories calculation can be a bit off, it is only an estimate because everyone burns calories differently. So, just to be safe, I eat only half that way if it over calculated, which my doctor seems to think it is, I have not eaten calories that I didn't burn. Hope this helps! Happy losing!

Cam_

I always eat back my excercise calories - unless I have burned a *lot* of calories and am simply not hungry to eat any more calories. I just went for 1 pound / week loss also. I ended up losing more than a pound per week. You'll soon figure out what your body does. (I'm on maintenance now).

koosdel

If you have any left over... I'll take'em!

servilia

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. If I'm hungry, it's nice to have those extra calories and not go over but otherwise I don't bother. I personally don't think it's necessary for me.

souki19

i find your responds helpful... thank you

_David_

If you have any left over... I'll take'em!

Whatcha got to trade?

EarthGirlCanada

I always eat the exercise calories and it works for me. It keeps the machine working.

xraychick77

i dont even count my execise calories

ashanti1982

You have to see what works for you, a bit of trial and error but I eat most of mine back if I can but if I'm not hungry I won't force myself to eat them back as I don't want to get back into the bad habit of eating when I am not hungry, I do try and listen to my body and if I do a training session I am normally hungry enough to eat them back. It's a really hard concept to get your head around though as when I eat them back I still think I'm overeating if that makes sense but for the moment it's working for me.