Eating back calorie advice needed

Sounds like you are letting your mind tell you when you're hungry and not your body. Your mind will say "hey I have 150 calories left, that cookie is 150 calories, let's eat it!" Here's what I did to turn off my "brain" when it comes to my eating, maybe it will help you. Edit: oh and I forgot to say I don't deny myself anything, I just make myself eat less of it. No more whole cans of pringles, now it's just 5 chips!

1. Don't call it a DIET, makes me think of all the things I CAN'T have. Instead of dieting in the traditional sense I started by making a small change, usually on Monday morning, for the week. For example, I never used to eat breakfast, I got a box of cereal and a half gallon of milk and stashed it at work. Now I eat breakfast most every day, time permitting. I started adding fruit as a snack twice a day. Basically what I'm saying is if I try to do it all at once I generally fail, if I do it slowly I can make it lasting.

2. As far as eating back or not eating back you calories it's a huge debate. You will need to do what FEELS right for you, not what THINKS right. You have to start listening to your body and not your mind in regards to food intake.

3. I didn't want to go all out spending money on a HRM until I was sure I was making a life change and not a "for now" decision. I picked one a wrist band style (I know not as accurate as the chest strap versions) for $45 at Target. I would suggest when you are getting back on your feet, pick one up, even if it's a cheap one and get a real count on your burns.

Perhaps when you think you are hungry try sitting and meditating for about 5 minutes. Try to shut your mind out and see if you actually are hungry or if you mind says you are because you burned calories.

I don't always eat all my exercise calories back, it depends how I feel. If I feel hungry then I'll eat but keep in the limit. If not, I don't force myself to eat.
So some days I'll burn 500 calories and eat 1300 calories. Or I'll eat 1500. It just depends on how you feel, don't force yourself to eat if you're not hungry!

Yeah, this is how I want to be. Based on all the responses I don't think I really explained my problem well.

I have a very hard time with self-control. The diet itself has been very difficult for me. However, I have committed to putting everything in my mouth in the tracker, and I really don't want to see that red number there. So I can limit myself to my daily amount (difficult but not impossible). But when I add in the exercise, now I have xxx calories extra that are there. SO I eat them.

I guess my question really is 1) how do I improve my self control and/or 2) is there another way to log the exercise that doesn't show the calories. Because if I am really hungry I want to know how much I get to eat back if I want.

Also regarding the HRM...wish I could afford one. I am out of a job and just plopped $55 for a month pass to the only gym in my town. Hopefully will get enough together for next month (if I don't have a job by then). But anyway I really can't spend the extra money on that now.

I've been doing this almost 5 weeks now. I will tell you that after a bout 3 weeks, you SO SO SO won't be hungry anymore. You just gotta get through it. I actually have a REALLY hard time eating my 1600 calories per day now and I used to pig out and probably eat 2500-3000 DAILY before this. I get full SO easily on way less food. My body is just used to it now. I get to the 1600 because I know I need to but I do NOT eat my exercise calories back 95% of the time because I'm plain not hungry.
You will get through this - give yourself another week or so. Seriously

I follow the advice given on the www.fat2fit.com on BMR and how many calories I should eat every day and I don't track my exercise on mfp. I simply record the number of calories I burn from exercise in the text box at the bottom (for my own tracking purposes.)

You can eat back your exercise calories and still lose weight. Generally people say that weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. I've definitely found that to be true for me. If you filled out the questions about your activity level and stuff when you first signed up accurately, then the calorie intake MFP has set for you already programs in a deficit in calories. BUT, everyone is different and if that's how you feel this is my best advice - write down the exercise you've done throughout the day (or just record it some place other than MFP), but don't actually enter it until right before you are going to complete the diary for the day, and you're done eating. That way you can't see the extra calories throughout the day and only eat what you feel you should, and then you can add in the exercise calories afterwards.

If you plan to eat back exercise calories, make sure you are logging everything accurately and that you are using an HRM for your calorie burns rather than relying on MFP values or the machines at the gym. If you want to count those huge burns, only eat back half of your calories burned or you may find yourself at a stand still on weight loss (yes, this is what happened to me!) Now that I have my HRM, I am much more conservative on eating back my cals...

What I do is. if I burned 400 calories while excerising I try and make sure I have between 350-400 calories left at the end of the day. try not to eat back the calories you ate. you'd be ruining the workout you just had. this is a very common problem that a lot of people make. Try and and eat calories that will keep you full longer as well, so you won't get cravings. hope this helps!

350-400 calories below your maintenance level, right? Some people will eat "x maintain calories/x maintain calories" then go burn say, 300. Now it's x calories - 300 = caloric deficit. For those of us who are already at a deficit to begin with, meaning lower than our maintenance level, some usually tend to eat calories back to net our proper caloric goal. We can either a) further that deficit more or b) have extra calories to consume to our liking, whether it's for a treat, special occasion, an upcoming known splurge, etc.

I don't always eat all my exercise calories back, it depends how I feel. If I feel hungry then I'll eat but keep in the limit. If not, I don't force myself to eat.

Exactly... I would probably gag trying to eat any more on some days. If I am not hungry,, I am not going to force it.

agree with both of these plus without a hrm i dont trust the calories burned that mfp sets, so when i do rarely eat my exercise calories back i only have half at the most

or you can set you MFP to slightly active or moderately (depending on how much you work out) then just eat that amount and dont log excercise

I like this method. After upping my activity, it puts me about where I've been since I've started MFP, going from 1390 to 1540 lightly active to active. I would only eat back 1/3 or less of the calories I ate anyways with the lowered activity with the extra exercise. But, I still plan to move around more & be more active to ensure the weight loss & toning.

It's a will power, mind power thing. Eating back the calories may work if you are very disciplined logging and have a monitor to tell you exactly what your body is burning during the workouts (which I do not). I have a petite frame so I am use to normal not applying to me and don't trust it. Aiming lower than I should as a mental goal (achieved by changing my settings to sedentary which I am not) and praise myself when I actually hit my goal seems to be working for me. So I usually don't have calories to eat back . This may work for you too. It may not be the best since I am not getting my desired 1-2 lbs a week weight loss. At this moment not going back up is great!

You can go into the "My Foods" tab and create a dummy food, i.e. "Negate Exercise Calories" and have it at 1 serving = 1 calorie. Next time you add your exercise on MFP, add the "dummy food" with the # of servings = # of calories burned. That way at the end of the day you're still hitting your target, but you don't have "X calories remaining" in your face tempting you. But, you'll still have them around if you're super hungry and need them.