WHY DO PEOPLE EAT BACK THEIR EXERCISE CALS?!

I don't eat back mine. I burn between 500-800 a day and eat 1200 calories. My nutritionist told me not to eat more than 1200 a day, so I try not to

Part of the issue, though, is that while doctors may recommend 1200 or 1500 calories, they likely do with the assumption that one is doing the minimum recommended exercise of about a half hour a day.... NOT with the assumption that people are spending hours in they gym and burning 800-1000 calories.

If you're eating 1200 calories and walking for a half hour on the treadmill and burning 100 calories, not eating that back isn't that big of a deal.

If you're eating 1200, and doing an hour of spin class, followed by an hour of zumba, then coming home and doing a DVD and burning 1200 calories... you're going to crash and burn.

People also hear a phrase like, "You have to burn more than you eat," and don't take into account the calories your body is burning every minute of every day. They think they if they eat 1200 calories, they need to burn 1200 calories through exercise alone. But the body is already burning more than 1200 calories a day, before you even tie your shoelaces.

I like this and agree. Unfortunately many machines AND this site overestimates teh calorie burn of many exercises. When I work out 2 hours a day, I feel satisfied with 1500 calories, but I stay in a range of 1200 - 1700 a day depending on how I feel. If you are shaky and drained, you are not getting enough. You want energy to be able to work out AND still function AND lose weight.

Because if you don't eat them back it creates a deficit too large for your body to handle, which is the same thing as not working out and not eating at all. SMH... :noway:

Edited...

As one of my spin instructors once said... after working your body this hard for an entire hour you NEED to eat within 1-2 hours or your body will basically start eating itself.

Because MFP, unlike most calorie counting websites, doesn't include the exercise you SAY you'll do into your calorie goal. It doesn't matter if you say you're going to sit on your *kitten* 7 days a week, or run a marathon every day, MFP will give you the same base calories. Surely you understand that someone who exercises a lot needs more fuel than someone who doesn't?

When I just cut calories, when I believed that creating a large deficit was all it took to get the body I wanted, I lost weight, but too much of that weight was my lean body mass... my muscle. By "eating my exercise calories," I was able to maintain a moderate deficit, which allowed me to retain most of my lean mass and lose mostly body fat.

What that means in terms everyone can understand... The jeans on the bottom are the size 8 jeans I wore at 130 pounds about 5-6 years ago when I didn't eat enough, and the top pair is the size 5 jeans I'm wearing NOW, eating my exercise calories, at about 135-138 pounds. (Typically a 2 or 4 in misses.)



Here's me at about 130 pounds 5-6 years ago, and me at 133 pounds in February.



Then I still had a muffin top, back fat rolls, double chin, and cellulite out the wazzo. Now?



http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/494091-i-just-don-t-care-anymore

I dont get it either!

I am SO over this EAT MORE crap!

Eating more is what made us all fat in the first place!

Some days I net negative calories.

But if I am not hungry, I am not eating!

I am 35 pounds and a boat load of inches down since January 2012.

I have not felt this great in many years!

See profile pic and judge for yourself if I am "starving" or losing muscle.

Why won't this topic Die. Look if you want to eat them back and that works for you, Go for it, if you don't eat them back and that works for you Go For It!! Can we stop dictating what others should do with their bodies.