eating back exercise calories

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madcattonycrone1
madcattonycrone1 Posts: 18
in Introduce Yourself
thoughts. on eating back calories. because everybody. says something different. I have been eating half or more of mine back still losing. just wandering

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  • mdepko
    mdepko Posts: 283 Member
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    I look at it this way. I am in weight loss mode right now and have a lot to lose, so I don't eat back my exercise calories. I know there are all kinds of thought on this and people that will say I'm going to shrivel up, and my body will start eating my muscles....If I had muscles, I would be dieting!! LOL Seriously though, I will start eating them back as I get closer to my goal, but for now, I just ignore them
  • MsJulielicious
    MsJulielicious Posts: 708 Member
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    I have my calorie goal set at deficit based on my calculated tdee so yes I do eat back most if not all of my exercise calories.
  • ebailey710
    ebailey710 Posts: 271 Member
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    I was told by a friend (who is also on MFP) that I wasn't eating enough, which was why I wasn't losing. He asked if I was using this site, and I told him so, and what number I'm at for cals/day. He said that the cals you get are if you weren't doing anything at all and still wanted to lose weight, but if you're working out should eat all of the calories back or within 100 or so.
  • jneill69
    jneill69 Posts: 22
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    Honestly, I think you answered your own question. If you are eating them back and still losing, then you are fine.
  • RainHoward
    RainHoward Posts: 1,599 Member
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    I don't do it, ever. What's the point of exercising and burning off calories if you're putting them right back in.
  • miadhail
    miadhail Posts: 383 Member
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    Best response I can give you is that if whatever you are doing works for you, then keep doing it. When I first started, I tried it without eating exercise calories, and it worked! in fact it helped me lose the first 15 pounds. Then I realized I just felt rather weak, so I slowly ate a portion of my exercise calories. Felt abit better, still lost weight, then after some time after doing more intense exercises I thought, 'hey why not just eat back ALL my exercise calories?" and so I did, and yet I still lost weight. For me, I don't think it was so much what I was eating, but more of the lack of activity I had in my life, so I believe the fact that i was incorporating more exercise in, I was able to burn off a lot of excess calories thus lost weight regardless.

    Currently, I am sticking to a 2k calorie intake, and even then I go over since I really just eat when I am hungry, which really varies, usually more so when I am strength training.

    Just listen to your body. Everyone's journey is different. And really, no amount of calculation will ever be accurate enough, what matters is that at the end of the day you feel great about yourself. Overtime you will realise that it is more than just losing weight, it is also about being more confident about yourself, happy about yourself, and enjoying the process :)

    All the best!
  • madcattonycrone1
    madcattonycrone1 Posts: 18
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    I agree. with this I am already creating a calorie deficit. if I don't eat some of those. back the deficit might be too much. and body might want to go into starvation mode. exercise is helping replace fat with muscle. thanks for the feed back. sometimes I tend to second guess myself.

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