Eating back Calories

I would say, YES! I eat them all, always have and always will. If you want to feel less full then increase your intake of healthy fat.

My understanding is that YES you should. Otherwise your body will get used to the caloric intake and go into starvation mode and conserve calories instead of burning them thus no weight loss will occur. Again, this is my understanding and it actually happen to me at the beginning I cut back so much I stopped losing all together.

It depends on your theory.

I follow my BMR/TDEE. BMR (Base metabolic rate) is what your body needs to function normally (I'm talking heart, lungs, brain, etc.), and what the hospital would feed you if you were on extreme bedrest - meaning you do no physical activity at all. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is how many extra calories your body burns being active during the day.

This is a great place to start: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

But bottomline, why would you train your body to expect less and SLOW down your metabolism?

I don't usually eat back my exercise calories, especially not if I feel full. There have been times where I do still feel hungry and I will eat something small, but this doesn't happen often and I don't feel guilty about it b/c I I did burn all those extra cals.

It explains it here:

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

It depends on what your goals are and what works for your body. Hard to answer without knowing these.

If you are full don't force yourself to eat...I mean didn't we all get fat from eating too much?

Well, we aren't all fat for one and for two...eating too much of the wrong foods is probably the more likely culprit.

For one most people are here because they are fat with the exception of people that lost and hang around and beach body coaches, second, you can be overweight from eating too much of healthy foods too. Been there, done that.

Read the stickies as you are instructed to do when joining this site. If you use the MFP method, you're supposed to eat back exercise calories. That is why when you log exercise it ups your goal. It's a ****ing goal..something to be achieved. How is the definition of goal lost on so many endless times daily.

If you read the directions for how to use this tool...well...you'd know how to use this tool. Does anyone read the ****ing instructions anymore? Guess not...everyone just likes to wing it huh.

Sorry for the rant, but this seriously comes up about a million times per day and you're going to get responses from people who know and understand this tool, as well as idiots who like starving themselves and pro-ana folks.

I understand your frustration but there is no MFP rule saying a topic can't be posted over and over. :flowerforyou:

If I am hungry I eat them or drink them :drinker: . If I am not hungry I don't. Listen to your body.

For me, if I listen to this advice, I wouldn't eat after a good work-out session -- which is exactly when I do need to eat. Being sedentary makes me hungry (stupid stomach isn't hungry it's bored) but working out makes me not feel hunger. That's just me mind you but I'm mentioning it because i hear this advice "listen to your body" alot and it's not good advice for some of us.

If you are full don't force yourself to eat...I mean didn't we all get fat from eating too much?

This doesn't really make sense. Eating enough to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit (which is what OP would be doing by eating back exercise calories) is not "eating too much" and will not make her gain weight.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I got obese - at least in part - from "listening to my body" and continuing to eat when I felt hungry, even though I had actually had enough food for my activity level. At other times, I have severely under-eaten because I have not been hungry. The other day I nearly ruined my dinner by snacking on raw vegetables beforehand. I felt full and could easily have stopped eating with around 800 calories left over but just because I felt full, doesn't mean my body had had enough energy or nutrients for the day. One day probably wouldn't have mattered, except that I might have ruined the run I planned for the next day. Some people can naturally maintain a healthy weight intuitively. Some people can't. Most people that struggle with their weight can't. That's when it makes sense to eat according to calculations.

OP - if you feel full and like you have to "force" yourself to eat more, it may help to aim for more calorie dense foods, especially things that are higher in fats (cheese, eggs, nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocados etc, smoothies & protein shakes... google "calorie dense foods" for more ideas). That way, you'll get a high number of calories in a small amount of food and not feel over-full. As you eat more, it's likely that your appetite will increase. You may also find that you get better results from your workouts.