You might be better served posting this question in the main MFP forums.... From what I've seen, there is a lot of debate if it is necessary to eat exercise calories. I can tell you that the MFP numbers are designed for you to do eat back your exercise calories. The problem is being able to know exactly how many you've burnt, because really all you can get are estimates. A good HRM will help, but even that isn't totally accurate. So, personally, I've ended up usually eating back half to 3/4 of my exercise calories normally.. But, like I said, I've seen a lot of different varying opinions on it on the main boards - from a lot of people that seem to know what they're talking about. So, I'd say, experiment and find what works best for you... The only problem with that is that you should stay consistent for a period of several weeks. Just like your weight, you can't get an accurate measurement day to day because of fluctuations in various things like water retention, so you need to track over a longer period to get a true measure. That is probably why you lost weight when you went to Chinese even though you went over your calories. Also, even if you slightly go over your calorie allowance for a day, you could still be in an overall calorie deficit...

2nd the good HRM and eating about 3/4 of my exercise calories back! It is important to replenish your body ESPECIALLY after an intense workout! Your body is going to look for some nutrients to begin replenishing and strengthening your muscles. So I would look into what kinds of food you should eat after a good workout! I try to eat something with a good amount of protein after an intensive workout. I have definitely become a believer in eating some calories back! Being obese while doing the P90X program, I end up burning around 900-1000 calories a workout. When you're in that territory you gotta replenish your body! If you start to feel grumpy and grouchy then that is usually a good indicator that you need to eat something.

Yesterday after I burned around 1000 calories total, I started getting grouchy at everyone trying to cook some tuna patties to eat after my workout. My body was nutrient deprived and my attitude was reflecting that. Once I ate, I felt a lot better. So I would look for subtle indicators like that. As you burn calories you also need to make those calories back up if you want your muscles to repair properly otherwise your body may decide to eat at lean muscle mass because it is far more efficient to break down muscle when your body is starving for energy. Like everyone else says, every body is different! I'd recommend eating some calories back from my personal experiences but you should poke around and do some more research on it and make your best educated decision!

Just from my own experience I can say that I never ate back my exercise calories. I averaged a weight loss of 2lbs a week pretty consistently for 10 months. I used a heart rate monitor to get a better idea of how many calories I was burning from exercise. If you do adjust your calories or eating, give it a few weeks to really see how it affects your loss.

I was wondering this same thing...I get 1200 calories a day and I burn between 500-700 calories a night in my workouts. I usually eat back most of those calories. I was wondering if I should be doing that. It sounds like from what you all have posted that I should eat some or most of those exercise calories since I've burned them to help replenish the body. I haven't seen my scale number go down as fast as I would like, but I've noticed it in how my clothes fit. So I hope I'm doing something right! I wear a pretty good HRM watch so I get a pretty good feel of what I've burned which helps! I'm still going to check out the main forum for other opinions and ideas...thanks!!:happy: