Should I eat my burned calories?

You likely need a lot more than at least 1200 colries a day. Use MFP to calculate your BMR. Your BMR is the number of calories your body needs to function at total rest (to keep your heart beating, to breathe, etc.). If you are eating less calories than your BMR, you may lose weight at first, but eventually you WILL enter starvation mode, and you will hit a serious weight loss plateau. On top of that, it won't be fat you are losing, but a lot of lean muscle mass as well. It's not healthy to deny yourself the calories your body needs to function.

My BMR is 1560 cal/day, and MFP had me eating at 1350. I have found it impossible over the last several months to move past 163 pounds. In fact I actually started to gain a little weight back. Now that I'm eating at least my BMR every day, things are starting to settle back down for me, and I feel much better. Plus I'm no longer in starvation mode, so my body isn't panicking and holding onto fat.

So to answer your question, you do not need to eat back exercise calories, UNLESS the amount of exercise you do takes your total net calories for the day below your BMR. As long as you're eating your BMR, you will lose weight and will do so in a healthy way.

As for the TDEE-15% arguments, this likely will work as well, but it's a lot less complicated to just eat your BMR. Eating BMR also let's you burn more calories per day than TDEE-15%.

Good answer! Yes eat under BMR and if you plateau then you need to re-evaluate, eat more/less calories and up your workout.

Find what works for you. I personally don't eat back my exercise calories, but they are there if I should go over on my calories and even with that I don't eat them all back. I have tried eating back my exercise calories, and when I do I don't lose. So, find what works for you because everybody is different.

oh my goodness i cant cope with this i am scared of ruining it and adding more weight by eating back calories that are too overestimated...on the other hand i dont want my metabolism to slow down or my body to store fat through not eating enough calories! either way i dont trust computer generated guesses to make the right choice for me...our bodies are all so different! i understand the frustration a person who suffers from anorexia feels. so much to think about ! i have started thinking about these things all the time so worried about what i do !

You relax and accept that the estimates are probably pretty good. If the estimates are wrong, your weight loss may be briefly delayed while you and your body get on speaking terms and you can learn to listen to what it is telling you. In the meantime, start drinking plenty of water and get your macros (carbs, fats, proteins) in balance. Eat what the site recommends, including exercise calories.

Before getting all worked up about it not working, going off and trying all sorts of things and getting confused - keep it simple and try using the site the way it was designed to be used. There's a lot of good science behind the site being designed the way it is.

THIS -- must use an HRM.

LOL at all the experts on here. Go burn 1500 cals a workout and don't eat them back, see how long you last! Hint YOU WON'T.

If you search this topic, it's been answered many times.

If you have read through how MFP is set up when you started your account, you would have noticed that MFP already creates a deficit for you, regardless of exercise. Which means that even if you don't exercise you will lose weight. When you exercise, you further increase that deficit, possibly to an unhealthy level. This is why MFP tells you to eat your exercise calories back. Think of food as fuel. Your body needs fuel.

^^^^^^^^^^THIS! You can lose weight by JUST sticking to your allotted calories...Look at your NET calories for the day....Let's say you eat 1200 calories and burn 600 exercising...Your body is only getting the 600 you didn't burn off...that is NOT ENOUGH. Please Please watch your NET calorie intake for that is the important number.

Yeah but what if you have 2 - 25 pound tires of fat around your belly? Does your body just ignore that fuel source?

Way back when I was your age we never even THOUGHT about eating back exercise calories. We lost weight. We didn't starve to death and we didn't die horribly malnourished. Sometimes I think everything has to be so over thought. Eat less. Exercise. Lose weight. Pretty simple.

And lose all my muscle along the way? Be cranky and hungry? Ew, no thanks I'll do it my way. Eat 2000 calories, train like a beast, look awesome. The end.

Thank you! So true. Reading through these comments I was so shocked that people are exercising over their deficit and NOT eating ANY of their calories back. Good luck getting fat again because you won't be happy keeping that up forever.

Listen to your body. I am usually famished on my big workout days - there is no way I would be able to not eat at least some of the calories back. The bottom line is and always will be - burn more than you eat. Period.

I look forward to eating them back.

I eat them all back and I have consistently lost 2 pounds per week average for 18 weeks. My daily goal is set up to account for a 2 pound per week loss, for me that is net calories a day. I think it is very important to eat back the calories because it is really the best way to get the macro-nutrients you need if you are exercising or otherwise focus on protein consumption etc. Eating the extra calories give back what my body needs for the exercise I did to burn them off as long as my NET consumption remains at 1200. I typically exercise about 400-600 calories off a day, my actual goal is to eat as many calories as a I can but burn them off to get to the net of 1200. I do this though by eating very good whole foods as much as possible, and also breaking those calories up between 5-6 meals a day (I think this is extremely important). Again, I net 1200 daily and I eat back all the calories over that. I am 37 and have dropped from 205 to 168 over about 18 weeks using this method. I feel completely nourished and have monitored my body fat percent to make sure I am not losing muscle, i have gone from about 28% body fat to 16% body fat. The key to that is getting enough protein which I find the extra calories are needed to get enough protein and still eat a balanced diet. Some weeks I loose 3-4 some weeks I loose nothing, but that has to do with water retention and other factors, the trend is almost perfectly consistent with 2 pounds per week loss average. If there is a day that I dont or cant eat them back then its no big deal, just like there are days I go over- thats when I focus on the weekly consumption to make sure it balances out.

My understanding is that if you dont eat back your calories is that you will potentially burn more than you want which your body may recognize as starvation and you dont loose weight in a health way or you start to burn muscle. Of course this is determined by what your daily calorie goal is set up to be. Mine is set up to loose 2 lbs. for week and the decrease of calories is built into that calculation. If your goal is set up to loose 1 lbs per week or maintain this this may be different for you. I am completely surprised that following the daily calorie consumption determined by the app, tracking everything I eat and all the exercise that I have dropped the weight exactly as planned- amazing! My mother is 62 and using this app following the same principals and has lost 1 pound per week average over 8 weeks, and 1 lbs. per week is exactly what her daily NET calorie goal is set up to be. She eats back everything burned off to keep her net consumption the same daily.

Right now I am transitioning to maintaining my weight and then trying to gain .5 - 1 pound per week in muscle by doing strength training. Trying to figure out how many calories to eat to support muscle growth without gaining more fat is tricky....

I drink when I'm dry...

I'm the same height -1/2" sane weight. I had a nutrition person do my calories
And they are actually higher then what this site suggests so under goals I adjusted.

Cals 1428
Carbs 97
Proteins 171
Fats 40

Problem with 1200 is its not enough and later on will be a problm

If you search this topic, it's been answered many times.

If you have read through how MFP is set up when you started your account, you would have noticed that MFP already creates a deficit for you, regardless of exercise. Which means that even if you don't exercise you will lose weight. When you exercise, you further increase that deficit, possibly to an unhealthy level. This is why MFP tells you to eat your exercise calories back. Think of food as fuel. Your body needs fuel.

^^^ I found this very useful.

When I burn calories from treadmill I add it to MFP and it adds the 500 on top of my daily allowance. I could be wrong but I just looked at it as eating another 500.