Eat or not eat excercize calories back ?????

I eat my calories back, but not all of them. Usually try to leave about 100 - 200 extra, MFP tends to be generous in their calorie counts and I don't have a HRM so I like to leave some on.

What I would suggest doing is getting a food scale, ($10 - $20 at Walmart). I had been on a platuea for about 5 months, was exercising but not consistently loosing. Was juggling the same 3 lbs. I invested in a food scale and got a reality check, now I am back to being a loser.

Best of luck,
Joanna

If you are following MFP caloric intake guidelines yes, if you got your intake somewhere else no.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a TDEE calculator may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.

MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

The things you need to consider

1. Calorie burns are estimates. Even a HRM is an estimate (pretty good for steady state cardio). So, many users with no HRM eat back a portion .....50-75%

2. How aggressive is your weekly goal? An aggressive goal means a large deficit already. Adding exercise adds more deficit. A really large deficit (whether from exercise or goal) doesn't support lean muscle mass.

I eat back calories because I can't afford to lose anymore muscle mass (over 50). Healthy weight loss is more than the number on the scale.

MFP's program is set up to eat back exercise calories and use net calories for the day as your goal. However, that being said, the fact is that most people underestimate their caloric intake, and MFP itself overestimates calories burned during most exercises. So, unless you're measuring and logging every single gram you put in your mouth, and using a highly rated heart rate monitor which has been calibrated for you, then there's a margin for error. For that reason, most people on here advise eating back only half the calories you burn in exercise, in order to leave a buffer for that margin of error.

I agree