eating back burnt calories

I think the philosophy is MFP will give you a net calorie goal that will help you lose weight steadily over a period of time in a healthy way. The exercise isn't meant for the weight loss, it's meant to stay healthy and fit while you are losing the weight.by hitting your net calorie goal each day.

Does anyone do this? I feel reluctant to eat up to the allowance set by my exercise as it feels im just eating what I've worked hard to remove.

Assuming that you've set up a loss target then you should reach that without exercise consumption as well. Exercise delivers additional benefits that optimise the results; cardiovascular health and retention of lean mass. You should consume back at least a significant portion of what you've burned, accepting some error due to compounding approximations.

Not eating back, therefore potentially reducing your calorie intake too far, can have a number of detrimental effects on your wider health.

I signed up and read them back in Aug, yet still dont understand :')

Here's the math...I'll use my numbers.

You require a certain number of calories per day to maintain your weight...for me, that number is roughly 2350 WITHOUT any deliberate exercise...that number just includes my basal calories (those calories that my body burns to keep me alive) and my day to day living. Exercise is NOT included in that activity level. So I tell MFP I want to lose 1 Lb per week...so MFP gives me a goal that is 500 calories less than those 2350...so 1,850 calories WITHOUT exercise and I lose 1 Lb per week....I have a 500 calorie deficit.

Now I decide exercise is really good for me so I start working out...let's say I burn around 400 calories per day. When I log that MFP gives me those calories to eat back so my goal is now 2,250 calories but I still have a 500 calorie deficit because now my maintenance number has moved up by those 400 calories as well...so my new maintenance would be 2,750 and 2,750 - 2,250 = 500 calorie deficit still.

You just have to make sure you're not overestimating burn which is pretty common...you just don't burn as much as you think you do with exercise.

Following this formula, you are using your diet for weight control and exercising for fitness.

I tend not to eat anything that is burnt.

i try to underestimate the amount of calories burnt when working out. If I am still hungry in the later part of the day I will look at how many calories are in my range without going over the goal amount. Eat back your calories only if you are trying to maintain your weight or need to gain.

Do you think the MFP estimate of calorie burn is approximately accurate? For example it shows 60 minutes of cardio/weights is a 320 burn for me. That's what I log. There were a couple references in this thread that makes me think it might not be.

There are quite a few variables and since MFP is dependent on the baseline information that you inject, and have to keep up to date, it's very much an approximation.

For CV work a Heart Rate Monitor will give you probably the closest approximation of actual burn, although even that's an approximation based on baseline and measured exertion. For resistance work, you're best to work it out for yourself, you can't measure actual exertion.

Personally for CV work I use an HRM as well as both Runkeeper and Endomondo on my phone, MFP is probably the highest assessment of burn, Endomondo is probably least aggressive. The HRM generally sits somewhere in the middle.

A HRM and watch will accurately measure your calories

The level of accuracy does depend on the type of session one is doing, and how well it's set up.

A HRM and watch will accurately measure your calories

HRMs do not measure calorie burn.

They measure heart rate, and then guess at calorie burn.

I try to eat some back. I'm set to 1200. I burned 507 today. So if I didn't eat them, or some, I would be at a net of 700 for the day and that is not enough at all.