eating back exercise cals: yay or nay?

Exactly, that's the point. It's not misleading, it's just the way MFP is designed. Activity level on MFP is just daily activity level (job/lifestyle), it doesn't take exercise into account. Pretty much every other calorie calculator does, hence the confusion.

Yep. Another calorie calculator would tell me to eat about 1700 to lose one pound a week.

MFP would tell me to eat about 1300 plus an additional 200-600 in exercise calories, depending on the day, which averages about the same.

Same math. Different way of getting there.

I always go to the gym before my dinner so if i burn alot there then i know that i can be a little more relaxed about what i have for my dinner. I don't overindulge but I know that i can afford to have something 'bad' if i wanted to. I never seem to eat more than 200 of my burned calories [i usually have about 900 'extra' calories after exercise]. i prefer to keep under my calorie intake and then i won't feel so bad if i go out and end up having a pint of beer or a spur of the moment takeaway with a friend. I want to still be able to enjoy my life aswell as losing weight, i just use MFP as a guideline to start teaching myself about portion control and try to keep my ED habits at bay.

I always eat atleast some...generally I eat about half of them back. I believe in eating as much as possible while losing so that I will be able to maintain on a higher amount of calories. I also don't feel deprived which definitely helps with motivation! I am able to LOSE weight eating over 2000 cals a day with the amount of exercise I do ("moderate" - I workout 5 days a week for about 40-60 minutes each session).

If you have your MFP profile set up correctly (Right activity level etc) and a realistic loss set for your target, then definitely eat those cals back.

That's a little misleading, though. If you set your activity level correctly to account for exercise, you shouldn't eat those calories back because they've already been accounted for. Logging your exercise would just be for recording purposes and shouldn't factor in.

exactly. every professional i talk to says not to eat back calories. The goal is to burn more then u take in. Why would you return them to your body. It makes no sense....

I bet every professional you've spoken to doesn't know how the MFP system works either.

I've explained it to them. They have all told me that system doesnt work. Calories in and calories out. That's the only real way to drop lbs.

If you have your MFP profile set up correctly (Right activity level etc) and a realistic loss set for your target, then definitely eat those cals back.

That's a little misleading, though. If you set your activity level correctly to account for exercise, you shouldn't eat those calories back because they've already been accounted for. Logging your exercise would just be for recording purposes and shouldn't factor in.

If you set up your MFP correctly then you still have the deficit, calories in and calories out. The calories are set up to automatically give yourself a deficit. It depends on what your put your activity level at. Put it at sedentary and eat back your work out calories. I think its easier that way.

exactly. every professional i talk to says not to eat back calories. The goal is to burn more then u take in. Why would you return them to your body. It makes no sense....

I bet every professional you've spoken to doesn't know how the MFP system works either.

I've explained it to them. They have all told me that system doesnt work. Calories in and calories out. That's the only real way to drop lbs.

Yes, I usually eat most of mine back.

If you have your MFP profile set up correctly (Right activity level etc) and a realistic loss set for your target, then definitely eat those cals back.

That's a little misleading, though. If you set your activity level correctly to account for exercise, you shouldn't eat those calories back because they've already been accounted for. Logging your exercise would just be for recording purposes and shouldn't factor in.

This is incorrect. MFPdoes not account for your exercise calories *outside of normal daily activity*, hence why it *adds* the calories to your diary in the first place. Sure, you might lose weight faster if you don't eat them, but you're just setting yourself up to regain weight later on (like most people do) IMO.

I always eat back all my exercise calories and it has worked for me. My goal is 1620 cals a day and I manage to eat them all + exercise cals and somedays could use more calories. I don't understand why people struggle to eat, guess I just like food LOL. I eat cleanly but don't deprive myself also, having the odd glass of wine, protein bars tend to be my treat. My main goal now is to be healthy by eating well and working out, I am leading by example showing my kids you can eat well look great and be healthy.

This website clearly gives me two or three times the amount of exercise calories i actually burn, so i dont eat them back but i dont restrict myself. To be honest now i am in the habit of eating the correct amount so if i want a teat and i ave exercises i know whether i am going to go over because of it.

I breastfeed and i eat back those calories but i generally dont eat back all the exercise ones.

It really is extremely simple if you get your assumptions right:

First of all, double check your BMR and TDEE to make sure it all aligns with what MFP is suggesting and then decide how you want to go about your activity level and that determines your yay or nay.

If you set your activity level NOT to take into account your exercise, then yes, you should eat your exercise calories back.

If you set your activity level to take your exercise into account, then it is already in your kcal allowance and you should NOT eat your exercise calories back.

I set my activity level to sedentary and that gave me a daily 1200 kcal goal. I do quite a bit of exercise, sometimes up to 800 kcal a day and I eat these all back and have been losing weight at a pace of 1 lb a week exactly how I set out.

If I did not eat them back, I would net 400-600 kcal on many days which for me would be unsustainable, unhealthy and frankly plain silly

I personally would be miserable if I ate any less and, very importantly, I most definitely do NOT want quick weight loss.

It may be different for people who have more weight to lose and/or have very generous daily kcal budgets to start with.

I don't log exercise because I've manually set my goal to somewhere between my BMR AND TDEE. I'm not in a rush and work to eat close to my goal weight maintenance now instead of having to increase much when I get there.

For a better explanation

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

To me, it's not a matter of all or none, I personally need 100 cals off my daily diet to be OK. I just eat that back and no more. I do not trust completely the MFP's exercise calories so I eat less. Besides, if you really look into it, you could not probably need any more.

There's nothing wrong with eating your exercise calories, but I still can't bring myself to do it lol

I read something recently that explained it for me. If you are at the baseline of 1200 calories a day, yes...eat them back. You don't want to ever net below 1200. That starves the muscles...which is counterproductive to the whole health journey. Of course you will lose weight either way...and obviously probably quicker if you aren't eating them back. But remember, it's not all about the weight loss. It's about doing it in a healthy way. You don't want to lose a ton of muscle in the process of losing weight.
If you are in a higher calorie range, do not eat them back.....you don't get allotted 1800 calories, burning 200, then eating ultimately 2000 calories.

As long as you do not go below 1200 calorie net (calories eaten - calories burnt through exercise) then I think it is okay.