I don't log my exercise...is that bad?

I log my exercise, mainly because I like to hit my exercise goals on here but I only eat when I'm hungry. I have a food addiction so only eating when I am hungry is a big part of how I keep it in check. All that to say sometimes I eat them back and sometimes I don't.

I do long my exercise calories and eat them back because otherwise I would lose weight and I don't need to any more. When you set up your profile in MFP, your calorie deficit is already built in and your net calories at the end of the day is what's important. In other words, if MFP set you up to eat 1500 to lose one pound a week, if you don't eat back those extra calories, you end up losing more when you don't necessarily want to. I have preferred losing weight slowly rather than quickly, which is how I used to do it. The weight never stayed off.

The reason your should eat some of your calories back is because your calorie goal is already set at a defecit; if your losing 2 pounds a week, its a 1000 calorie a day defecit. So when you exercise, it creates a larger defecit. Sure you'll weight faster, but the weight you lose will come from lean body mass. Basically youll lose more muscle then what you should. A slower weight loss will ensure your weight loss is coming mostly from fat and not the attractive muscle that helps shape your body. But suit yourself....

I log mine but don't eat them back... I like to earn a nice deficit in cals it makes me feel good.

I think it's useful. I regularly eat at above my normal goals if I have exercises a lot that day. If I don't I find that I end up just out of energy and lounging around the next day. In the end it's better to burn fat than starve it. Mind you I wouldn't suggest eating back ALL of your exercise calories. Both MFP and exercise machines have a tendency to over estimate. I would say eat half back .. .max. IF that suits you of course. Every body is different. But I do quite a lot of exercise. To the extend that I often burn in excess of 1.5k calories on gym days. If I didn't eat back some of this I would quickly over train and burn out. But honestly if you don't do much exercise it won't make a lot of difference.

I hardly ever log mine anymore

I do write down my exericse in the blog section just for reporting purpose. Going back to last year, I can see how many days I worked out and what I did. it's kinda of proud feeling.

I just log mine as 1 but I like to keep a record of it there too.

Earning Calories back doesn't necessarily mean that you need to eat them, it's just to get a more accurate number. Your body has a relatively set number of calories it will burn in a day naturally just so you stay alive. This is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

Let's say your BMR was 1500 calories a day, and you lived a somewhat active lifestyle, perhaps now your daily calorie requirements would be closer to 2000. Eating 2000 calories a day would be a maintenance diet, any less than that would be a calories deficit in which you would (theoretically) begin losing weight, and an excess of 2000 calories would do the opposite. Of course I feel that glucose and insulin play a large role in fat production or loss as well, but let's not get into that just yet.

If you've done a ton of cardio one day, say you worked off 500 calories, your body would essentially be asking for 2500 calories in exchange for the service of keeping you alive and active on that particular day. If you are trying to put muscle on (which raises your BMR as well as your ability to burn calories throughout the day), you don't want to be at TOO much of a deficit .

Just a different perspective for you.