Non exercise calorie eaters, please explain something to me

What does it matter? Honestly. If that's how they approach then that's they're not forcing you to do it. And if it works for them it works for them. i don't eat my calories back but i unintentionally over eat on some days. i just don't stress about it and that's what works for me.

I think, to be honest, the point has kind of been missed here. Some of you are saying you overeat one day and then won't eat back your exercise calories the next - this is still eating them back. Some of you are saying you use the TDEE method - this is still eating them back.

The people that this is targeting are the people that cannot lose the weight because they don't eat their exercise calories, or the people that net below 1200 calories because they don't eat their exercise calories. Why? MFP even warns you that amount is too low. Then said people start a thread asking why they are in a plateau. I don't think my question was unreasonable.

I just don't use the terminology of "eating exercise calories back". I also don't look at a "day", but rather trends in calories, exercise, and weight, and try to arrive at a workable balance.

I think too many people get obsessed with the idea of eating back their exercise calories right away - I had a 500 cal burn, so I MUST eat an extra 500 TODAY. And if they don't eat them back TODAY, then they're not eating back exercise calories. If they eat more tomorrow, they see it as a binge or a failure day, rather than eating back yesterday's exercise calories.

I know, I know. I should not concern myself with other peoples methods and should just concentrate on my own.

However, I would say 90% of the threads I read that say 'help, I'm not losing weight!' are made by people that are not eating their exercise calories back

Please could someone explain to me why you would join a website designed to help you lose weight, with many, many successful members, and trust this website to give you your daily calorie amounts, your macro targets, and to provide the nutritional information for thousands of different foods, yet when it tells you to eat your exercise calories back, said website is obviously out to sabotage your weight loss?

Please, for the love of God,

People have to find their own way. I think a lot of people are prone to modify systems they don't understand. Human nature maybe? Anyway, that's why folks a bit longer in the tooth are so valuable to the rest of the community.

"Many, many successful members" do not eat back their exercise calories and I know this might cause your head to explode, but they eat 1200 calories, too.

Shhhhhhh.

^^^^
This...

This is just my $.02 on this topic. While I believe your intentions of the orginial post were in the right place, I think perhaps you may have phrased the purpose of this thread inaccurately. There are MANY people on this site for MANY reasons. I can only speak for myself and why I am here. I had and still have a very sick obsession with food. I didn't know how to eat healthy or where to begin. This has been a very good learning experience on how to be "healthy". Some people simply do not feel the need to eat their exercise calories back. Plain and simple. There is no method to the madness, they simply choose not to.

None of us are perfect. We are all on here to better ourselves and quite frankly, instead of threads like this, pick 1 person that you have noticed what you said (eating less than 1200) and explain to them in depth why that's not a wise choice. They may lack the knowledge right off the bat to know what's going to work for them verse what's not. Hopefully it will create a "pay it forward" attitude. That person becomes educated then they go on to educate someone else that needs it.

The important thing to remember about weightloss is that it's an INDIVIDUAL JOURNEY. I took advice from the people that I chose to have as friends, some I didn't. Everyone will ALWAYS have an opinion about what others need to be doing. What works for me may not work for others and so forth.

I eat when I'm hungry, I'm not going to force food down.

"Many, many successful members" do not eat back their exercise calories and I know this might cause your head to explode, but they eat 1200 calories, too.

Shhhhhhh.

I eat 1200 calories ( for legitimate reasons ) and don't eat my exercise calories back and have lost just under 40 pounds in six month. 'nuff said.....

Well for me, I don't eat most of my exercise calories back because between the extra 500 calories I allow myself for breastfeeding, and the ~400 I burn a day exercising, I just don't have the appetite to want to eat 2100 calories a day. I do eat into my exercise calories though, but I'm only eating 1800 total or so a day. I'm still losing weight (12 pounds in a month). And while that amount isn't really sustainable in the long run, I've comfortably slid into a 1-2 pound loss a week now.

That being said, once my little one eventually weans, you better believe I will be eating back ALL the calories. I dislike exercise just enough, and love food wayyy too much, to only want to actually do it to be able to eat more because of it.

Because it doesn't work for me.