Eating back your burned calories

I honestly eat when my body tells me to. Oftentimes, I eat my burned calories back and some days I eat none of them back. I work out at night and I am not hungry after eating 1600 calories throughout the day. If I burn 200 calories at 9:30 P.M. and I am not hungry but am still over 1300 calories, I do not care about eating the calories back. But I do eat them back if I burn more calories and I am below 1300 (this is just for my body, I know others say 1200). I have lost weight consistently now with the way I am doing it.

Is it best to eat enough calories in the day to compensate for calories burned while working out? My calorie goal without working out is 1330. Thanks!

Yes. 1330 is a pretty low goal if you are working out. MFP has given you a goal of 1300 calories a based on the information you gave it when you set up. Chances are, you told it that you were sedentary. If you are working out, you are not sedentary.

MFP gives you a calorie goal based on the assumption that any extra calories you burn through planned exercise, you eat back. Otherwise, MFP would, like other websites/calculators, give you a higher goal. The way it works, you should lose weight with MFP's goal whether you exercise or not, because the calorie deficit is built in to your goal. If you don't like the idea of eating back "extra" calories, you can include your planned exercise in your declared "activity level" which will give you a higher goal to start with.

As tempting as it is, having as big a calorie deficit as possible, to lose as fast as possible, can have some negative effects, including the risk of losing more muscle mass than you would do otherwise.

I try to eat most of my calories back. For me, I seem to lose more steadily doing that. When I don't my losses seem to slow down. I eat 1610 without exercise and 1800-2000 on the days that I do exercise.

MFP gives you a base calorie need for the days you don't workout at all (which is pretty low). If you add a workout in there, then your body is burning more calories and needs to re-fuel. Now, if you don't give your body the food/energy it needs, your metabolism will slow down thinking it's not getting the needed food/energy supply, and we don't want that to happen. Just try to only eat clean foods, and you will be eating a lot with little calories and your body will know how to burn that type of food quicker.

Sometimes I eat my exercise calories back and sometimes I don't. It really just depends on if I'm hungry or not.

Is it best to eat enough calories in the day to compensate for calories burned while working out? My calorie goal without working out is 1330. Thanks!

You may find this helpful:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

It sometimes helps to flip it around in how you think about it. Instead of 'eating back my burned calories' think of 'burning away my food calories'.

So, say you have a goal of 1400 cals for the day. And you eat 1500 (0+1500). And then you exercise and burn 300 (1500-300). That puts you at 1200.

So if you're thinking of it as eating back...
Then, say you have a goal of 1400 cals for the day. And you exercise and burn 300 (0-300). And then you eat 1500 (-300 + 1500). That puts you at 1200.

As long as you keep your daily total around the point that MFP says should be your goal, you're in a losing zone.

I'm petite and aim for about 1200 calories a day to lose a pound a week. I was always hungry until I learned to focus on eating bulky low-calorie foods, lots of non-starchy veggies, soups and stews and salads, plenty of low-fat protein. And the thing that really helped is when I made sure to get two tablespoons of healthy fats a day, usually olive oil on my salads. That really seems to help me feel fuller plus I get nutrients I'm not willing to do without. The Volumetric Diet helped me figure out how to eat healthy, lose weight, and not go hungry.