Am I supposed to eat back my calories I burned?

LorinaLynn

I agree it depends on your goal. If you want to be the woman who eats very little and can brag about the number on the scale, don't eat them.

If you want to be the woman who can have a healthy, normal relationship with food, have a great metabolism, and look incredible in AND out of your clothes, eat them. You might weigh more than the woman who didn't, but who the hell cares if you're in the same size clothes?

The Sonoma jeans are size 8 that I bought when I weighed 130# six years ago. That was the result of cutting calories without understanding exercise calories. Eating that little was unsustainable, so I quit and gained weight. The Arizona jeans are the size 5s I'm wearing now at 130#, having been eating my exercise calories and averaging a total of 1800-2000 calories a day while losing weight (1500+ exercise), and around 2000-2200 a day to maintain (1700+exercise).



I'm just going to C&P this from another post today...

In my experience, the concept of eating exercise calories was the holy grail!

Every other time I tried to lose weight, I just cut calories. A lot. I thought it was the simple matter of "the less you eat, the more weight you'll lose." So when my progress was slow (usually less than a half pound a week), I blamed myself. I thought, "It's because I'm getting older. It's because my metabolism is slow. It's because I'm not disciplined enough." I felt tired, hungry and deprived, but I thought that's how dieting was supposed to be. No pain, no gain, right? I thought the only way to lose more weight would be to eat even less food, and THANKFULLY, I was smart enough to realize that would be a really stupid idea. I was only eating between 700-1000 calories a day, with a cheat day on weekends. Eventually, I quit because it just wasn't worth it.

This time around, thanks to MFP and exercise calories, I NEVER felt hungry, tired or deprived. During most of my weight loss, I averaged between 1800-2000 calories (often 1500 + exercise calories), easily twice was I was eating before. My progress was right on target. Huh... guess my metabolism isn't slow after all. Guess I'm not that old. Guess I am disciplined enough! This is the only time I ever got to the point where I thought, "You know what? I really gotta start eating more. I'm getting smaller than I want!"

The best part, is that eating more, I didn't lose a lot of lean muscle mass. Most of my weight loss has been from fat. Last time I lost weight, I got down to 130# and wore a size 8. This time, I wore that size at 140#. And now at 130#, I'm a size 4. This is how those old size 8 jeans fit now: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/449570-mfp-mythbusters-losing-weight-fast-exercise-calories-girl

Athijade

The answer is no. If you want to lose weight. Your best answer will be from a nutritionist since they know the body the best. But to eat the bonus calories will only keep you at your current weight unless you are less then 20lbs from your ideal weight then you should be eating more to fuel more intense exercises/ strength training to drop the weight. Do Not eat more with no change to your exercise.

MFP already builds in a deficit to work with based off of the amount of weight you want to lose per week (500 cal for 1 lb a week for example). As such, exercise calories are even beyond that amount of deficit. For example, to lose 1 lb a week I have a daily goal of 1730 calories. This already has a deficit built in for me to lose that 1lb a week. If I exercise and burn 200 calories, I will now have a goal of 1930. If I eat the 1930, I will STILL have that same 1lb a week deficit.

As to if you should eat them or not, that is often a personal thing. I aim to always be above 1200 (which is my 2lb a week loss amount). If I exercise and it puts me under that, then I eat them back. If I am going to be close enough to my goal already, then I might not unless I am hungry.