Eat the calories your burn or no?

That's a good question I am also curious on that one

I never eat my exercise calories but if I was ravenous I suppose I would.

I also would like to know what others do

I don't usually, but if I'm hungry I sure like having the extra there for me to eat.

1200calories: When I was on my weight loss journey, I only ate half my burned calories and sometimes just 25%. If I ate more than that, my weight loss stalled.

1400 calories: Now that I am maintaining, since I don't want to lose anymore I have been eating 100% of my burned calories, sometimes a little more. It depends on the scale. I check every couple of days to make sure I am the same weight. I adjust my calorie intake if my weight goes up or down.

I eat them if I am hungry. If I'm not, I don't.

Edited to add: I have my calories set to maintain my weight, so if I eat under that I may lose a little more.

When I had my calories set to lose, I ate my exercise calories. I measured my food AND wore a heart rate monitor. And I lost 50lbs.

Your goal on MFP already accounts for the deficit needed for what you want to lose, taking your activity level into account. If you really are as active as you say, you log your calories accurately, and you log your exercise expenditures correctly, you will lose your goal amount each week if you eat your exercise calories.

If you don't use a food scale and measure everything you consume and you don't use a heart rate monitor, it's likely that your numbers aren't accurate, so you won't see the results MFP says you will. For that reason, if you don't eat your exercise calories, you are more likely to meet your goal if you aren't logging correctly.

What you "should' do depends on how you have set up your daily calorie goal. MFP gives you a 500 calorie deficit per day if you have set your goals for 1 lb/week. With that in mind, anything your burn is extra and you are free to eat it and still lose 1 lb/ week. The tricky part is actually knowing how much you burn...even a HRM is not 100% accurate.

For me, eating my exercise calories back was causing me to eat when I wasn't hungry and choose bad snacks just because I could. My weight loss stalled so I decided to set my calorie goals based on my TDEE. I set it a little lower than -20% so I have some wiggle room on days I go over, like if I go out for dinner and drinks. I now just log my workout times and only input 1 calorie burned b/c I like to keep track of how much I am actually exercising.

Yep.... Have lost a few pounds eating my exercise calories back..... Best of Luck

Eat them if you're HUNGRY. Don't if you're not. Don't eat them if you just want to eat because you're bored. Some days I do, some days I don't. But I generally try to keep at least 100 calories uneaten regardless.

I like to pre-plan my day. I pretty much know what I am going to eat for breakfast, I have already made lunch for the next day and I include my snacks. So by the time my feet hit the floor in the morning I know how many calories I have left for dinner. If I know that I have 600 calories remaining and my dinner is going to be 650, I went 50 calories over my intake for the day. I usually plan to spend an hour or so working out, which gains me about 600 calories, so it isn't that I eat the calories I "gain", but I don't sweat if I had a big caloric day and end up going 200 calories over, becuase I know I am going to workout to counter them and if I don't feel up to it, I will only burn enough to get me zero'd out for the day. Does that make sense? I also look submit my diary for the day to see where my weight would be in five weeks if everyday were like today, and than I play with the numbers on my exercise to see what I need to get me to my goal.

For example, last night I was ravenous and really wanted pasta for dinner. I had more than enough calories to cover that, but apparently I wasn't in the best shape nurtionally because when I submitted my diary it said I would be 3 lbs above my five week weight than the day before....so I played with the numbers and figured out that I needed to spend XX amount of time working out to get me back to my five week goal.

A further example of my crazy rambling, I took a stand. One day it said I would weigh XXX in five weeks if every day were like today and I said FINE, everyday will be like today and I will weigh that in five weeks. Today was my first week completed and I have four more to go. It feels like an achieveable goal since it is short term and I can start again in five weeks. I am already down four lbs.

I don't eat my calories back!

Bump

I usually do not eat my exercise calories back. The exception is on the days I swim. For some reason when I swim I am always starved the remainder of the day. So like yesterday I ate most of the calories back. This is the only exercise that makes me feel like I am hungry.