Do you eat back your calories exercised?

WOW how do you burn that many calories in a day

I don't eat anything back. I burn between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day from exercise so eating that back and doing it cleanly would be a nightmare.

Everyone is different so experiment to find out what works for you.

A combination of elliptical, crossfit, running, weight training, walking with a weight vest, basketball, etc. I'm extremely active.

Unless 1200 calories is the limit for a meal as opposed to a day, I would absolutely eat back your exercise calories. Otherwise you are just not doing yourself any good. You may be punishing yourself for no good reason.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/937712-in-place-of-a-road-map-ver-3-0?hl=road+map

I eat 1200 cals (or a bit lower) daily and yes I do eat a lot (not all) of my cals back. I feel GREAT and am losing consistently 0.5 to 2 pounds per week on average.

I agree. I know most people don't want to hear this because it seems almost pointless to work so hard to lose so many calories just to turn around and eat them. But, that is what you really should be doing. Maybe not all of them, especially if you're not really very hungry..no point in forcing food down your throat. Typically, 1200 cals a day is the minimum you should be ingesting. That is what your body needs to survive if you were doing nothing out of a normal daily routine. But, if you are working out and burning 1000s of calories you are going to need energy to sustain your workouts. Your body will stop metabolizing food in order to reserve energy. It's a natural reaction to being starved. Working out for an hour at a high intensity will likely burn off about 1000 calories. So, you would be asking your body to survive off of 200 cals a day. At first the math makes sense and you are calculating all of the weight you are about to lose with excitement. Until you are too tires to work out, you are moody, constipated, missing periods, and frustrated because you are not seeing any change on the scale. You are abusing your body and it goes into survival mode. You may very well lose intense amounts of weight at first. But, the second you start eating you are going to put it on twice as fast because your body is going to store if incase you starve it again. This method is ok if you are trying to lose 5 lbs in a week for a wedding or something temporary, but expecting your body to keep up with this lifestyle is like outting water in your car and being shocked that you broke down. You are much better off to be string and fit than skinny and frail! Your body will turn into a well oiled machine. Just think about kids..long day at play..they eat you out of house and home..that is how it should be. How many active kids do you see restricting their calories?? Feed your body! You deserve it!

I also agree!

No! I do not.

Looking at my reports, I went from eating 600 calories a day before exercise
(two months ago) to a healthier 750 - 1250 before exercise.

I do notice that I feel better and can run (for example) longer
before I get huffing and puffing...

I burn a minimum of 325 calories a day, even on rest days...
Today for example I burned 502 calories...

I try to have at least 150 calories left over at the end of the day...

On rest days I try to eat smarter meals...

Good luck on your healthy journey!

Seriously? You can eat under 1000 calories a day and survive? Good luck keeping your weight off.When you decide to splurge... It's going to be tough to keep that off. What's the point of setting a 'goal' of you still try to leave 150 cals/day? And what kind of meal is less than 250 calories? Your starving yourself! Seriously.

Yep, every last one of them....30 lbs less later and 1700 at minimum daily. Eat up folks, it's good for you! Oh and look at what Side Steel posted.

Sometimes I do.........Sometimes I don't........Depends how hungry I feel

Working out does make me really hungry......especially about 3 or 4 hours later

Isn't 1200 calories a little low......God I would be starving all day. I'm on over 1700 now. 5 ft 9.... Around 134lbs

How do you burn 2000 calories a day exercising? Please give me tips on how to incorporate more exercise into my day. I walk on my morning break, afternoon break and at lunch.

I usually eat them back, especially when I am feeling tired or weak. Have to fuel the body and if I am already eating at a deficit I can eat them back. I usually leave a couple hundred cals I don't eat back just to cover any errors in calculating the calories in my foods. I am in no hurry to lose, I want a permanent livable solution.

On average I burn over 1000 calories + when I workout, so being that I've been staying between 6-10 % bf I need to replenish my calories or I will lose muscle mass due to the lack of fat, so being that my goal is to gain lean mass I have to be very aware of eating properly, its hard sometimes because that means I have to consume up to 5000 calories some days and close to 3000 on rest days, bit it depends on a the goals people have if weight loss is the goal then depending on how high of a heartrate zone you are in while burning calories you may not want to eat back your calories... Oh a big part of it is watching your macros ,which also varies per different fitness goals.

When I was losing yes I ate back my exercise calories. My goal from the begining was to MAINTAIN as much LBM as possible. I have lost this weight one time before by eating 800 to 900 calories net a day and it put me in the hospital. I ended up gaining every bit back while I was trying to reverse the metabolic damage I had caused. I am now living with permanent health issues caused by my stupidity. Yes I starved myself and yes I was stupid. People can be delusional if they want but if you don't give your body what it needs you are only hurting yourself.

I lost weight the right way this time and have maintained my loss at 2400 calories a day (tdee). It will take many many more years to rebuild the muscle I lost while eating so little.

Mfp already creates a deficit based on your activity level (this is without exercise). When you exercise you are creating a larger deficit but your ORIGINAL DEFICIT IS STILL IN TACT. I don't know why this is so hard to grasp. Fuel your body and take care of it you don't do yourself any favors by under eating!

After doing this for a year I had to start eating my exercise calories- but I set my goal to lose 2 pounds per week and then eat back my exercise calories - it seems to work out though it is not fast. But then again fast doesn't matter- its not like anything changes when you reach goal!

"Do you eat back your calories exercised?"

No, I did that for many years (and then some) and it didn't work out too well. So now I eat the same number of calories every day & I don't compensate by eating more when I workout. Maybe if I were closer to my target weight I would but for now, no. Cheers!

I personally think if you are trying to lose weight and not maintain, eating back your exercise calories is a little counterproductive.

With that being said, if you are generally physically active and burning a lot of calories, 1200 wouldn't be enough daily, IMO.

Jen

I do not eat back my calories. I've also learned how to make meals filling with vegs to keep my calories down. I am always under on calories so if I do happen to want a snack I can.