Should I still eat my exercise calories?

It depends on you really, I've mostly read that it may be advisable to eat back half, it still aids weight loss, but if you intend to maintain, then find a way to enjoy putting back in healthly..... You may find workingout/exercising will make you feel as if you have lost your appetite so be careful.... also be mindful of what your body is telling you......health issues sometime creep up unsuspectingly due to not eating enough....

My goal is to burn off 1-1/2 per week, been at this for 47 days I think, so almost 8 weeks and I have lost 29 lbs NOT eating my exercise calories back, that puts me at 3.6 lbs a week. I feel good and have more energy. I know that it will get harder, as I lose the weight, my calorie intake will reduce as well, I see, leave as many calories as you can as long as you feel good and healthy.

I found that I, personally, should NOT eat my exercise calories back, and that eating them back was making my weight loss go slower. Here is why.

I don't have one of those armband things to measure exactly how much I have lost, and MFP overestimates the calories you burn with any exercise, so MFP was giving me more calories to eat back than I actually earned.

I realized this because there was a month when I hurt my back and I stopped exercising. I had been alternating days of cardio and days of weights, and suddenly for a month, I had no exercise. The weight started dropping off. I realized that, without the added question of exercise calories and calories to eat back, my calorie goal and intake was much more accurate, and I have continued to lose weight quickly with this in mind.

Now if I were doing something intense like teaching 5 hours of zumba, I'd definitely eat PART of that back (or if I was that into exercise, I'd probably have an armband thingy and be able to accurately log calories burned! But anything like walking for an hour, doing weights for 30 minutes, I don't eat the calories back for minor things like that.

I lost the first 10 lbs slowly, but since I stopped logging exercise, I have lost another 10 in half the time.

It depends. Are you hungry? If you are, eat some of them back. If not, skip it. Listen to what your body is telling you. I never eat all of them back, but if I've burned 450 calories doing cardio that day and I feel really hungry, I'm totally going to have a filling snack. I just try not to eat back more than half of what I've burned for fear that the estimate of what I've burned is too high.

I do, and no problem, I lose weight.

I do. It's my motivation to exercise! I haven't found it slows weight loss. What slows weight loss is going over the net calorie target - the estimates are working well for me.

It's surely a balance. If you don't eat back exercise at all you'll end up with a deficit that's bigger than planned, losing weight too fast, and I'm reading on here that that can mean you lose more muscle. Why not try it for a while, eating right up to target? If you're not losing as quickly as you expect, cut it back a bit. Everyone's bodies are different.

I'd say you should find out for yourself.

I mean: eat those calories for a week and if you loose weight, you're loosing it in a healthier way (you don't starve yourself too much). And if you don't loose weight this way, go down to eating back about 90% of your exercices next week and see if you loose weight then and so on.

It's better to learn to know yourself better this way with your own data instead of just following some rules of thumb.

I think this is great advice. What works for one may or may not work for another.

I don't. I use the exercise as my way to creating a deficit and it makes me stick to a plan. If you eat because you are hungry then fine but otherwise don't bother.

I used to eat back my exercise calories but I don't anymore. At first for a while I ate back my exercise calories and saw results but I was pretty big (started at 147.5kg and I'm now 83.6kg) then I recently stopped seeing results so I randomly decided just to eat at or near 2,000 calories a day regardless of what I burn and it's working I'm seeing results and I'm not hungry.

As you say, calories in, calories out. Which is why I don't understand why you also say that eating back exercise calories will stall weight loss. This is the mfp system. Those that follow it eat their calories back to a 10-20% calorie deficit. Is that not enough?

I'm not sure if my viewpoint is valid though. You're clearly superior in every way, with your infinite capacity to deny your body nutrients and yet to exercise at extreme levels of intensity. I guess sad people like me, sat here, shovelling in the calories, falling victim to mental weakness and imagined lethargy, should just stop bothering to understand and to better our bodies. YMMV indeed.

I usually eat some or all of them back, depending on my level of hunger. It is motivation to exercise for me and also a way to refeed my body after a workout. After lifting I always have an extra smoothie with protein and carbs, so that is around 200 calories I wouldn't have had if I didn't workout. Also, if I have a day I know I am going to a restaurant or something, it motivates me to work a little harder in the gym so I can make up for the extra cals.

I eat when I'm hungry. So far, I had a 500 calorie deficit one day and 30something yesterday. I feel good so far. I say go by how you feel. I do workout pretty hard, so I'm mindful of that as well.

I did, and kept gaining. Now, I never do, and have lost 16 pounds. Yayyyy!

I don't think I could NOT eat at least some of them back. I am not allotted many calories by MFP, so I think I would be starving if i didn't! I invested in a HRM and i usually deduct about 10-15% from that number (it's not 100% accurate, so best to be on the safe side). Then i usually eat back 3/4 of my exercise calories, give or take. If you're hungry, eat!