Eating your Exercise Calories?

So does that mean if I am eating 1200 calories a day I need to burn more than that a day?

No. You have to take into account all of the calories your body burns every day just keeping you alive, as well as the calories you burn doing everyday things like brushing your teeth.

MFP is designed for you to eat back the extra calories you burn through workouts, assuming that your profile is set up accurate and you have an accurate estimate of how much you eat and how much you burn. If you're relying on MFP or gym machine estimates for your calories burned through exercise then you may want to eat 50-75% of those calories.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

I don't eat my excercise cals because I am not sure how accurate the calories burned are to start with! I usually do 35 min cardio on the elliptical 5x a week & the machine says I burn 350-375, MFP says close to 600(which I'm certain is wrong)... So I just log what the machine says because it measures my heart rate. I don't eat them though, just in case it's off.

I never consider my exercise calories as more food I can eat. I consider it more calories I burned. Faster weight loss. If I were fit and didn't need to lose weight then I would eat the extra calories to keep myself at a specific weight. After all, when I reach my goal I have no plans to stop working out.

I never consider my exercise calories as more food I can eat. I consider it more calories I burned. Faster weight loss. If I were fit and didn't need to lose weight then I would eat the extra calories to keep myself at a specific weight. After all, when I reach my goal I have no plans to stop working out.

Just looking at your profile, you can get away with not eating back exercise cals due to your weight loss goals.

That would be pretty horrible advice for those within a much smaller window (less than 100ish) to lose. Those extra calories are needed for nutrition, fuel, etc...

OP only has 11lbs to go. To say "that's faster weight loss" to someone in that situation can be pretty irresponsible. What you could lose in a week at this point might take the OP 2 months.

You may not be eating enough calories with that amount of activity. Try upping it to 1400 calories a day (changing your setting from sedentary to light activity) and see what that does for you.

I'm kind of in between. I coordinate MFP with my Fitbit and I sometimes get extra calories on days where I run more errands or whatever and the Fitbit says I burned more than normal. Those I do not eat back. The days I work out, I do eat back some. I have some flexibility because I am only eating at a deficit to lose 1 lb a week so a few extra calories burned will still fuel my body enough. I let my hunger be my guide as to how many I eat back on those days.

Thanks I will edit my setting to light activity and see what happens

Ok I changed it to light but the calories per day still say 1200 -- anything else??

You only have a few lbs left. I'm guessing you have it set at 2lbs per week? If so, that's really aggressive with what you have left. Try changing it to 1 - .5 lbs per week.

What is your ht and wt?

I dont eat them back, I am not hungry and wont eat if that is the case. I know. I could swallow a tbs of peanut butter or something but still wont do it. Eating when not hungry was a big part of me gaining weight in the first place and something I want to leave behind.

My weight loss is constant, I sleep well, I have energy and meet my macro

Do you eat your exercise calories? If so do you still lose weight? I've been sort of eating mine but not all and have not lost weight. Just wondering if I should just stick to my calories or if I should eat all of my exercise calories - which way to go??

I set my MFP activity level to "sedentary", then manually record my HIIT workouts (both strength and cardio days), and let fitbit fill in the rest of the calories. This gives me more accurate BMR and TDEE values reported by MFP. I used to eat my exercise calories, but results didn't last long, plateaued.

Currently I'm not eating my exercise calories: adhering to a strict 1,000 calorie deficit from my TDEE (ignoring exercise -- the extra calorie expenditure from exercise just helps me along further/faster). That's about 1,300 calories a day for me. Losing about 2+lbs weekly with this, plenty of energy.

Check my diary for types of foods and macro nutrient values (I try to make sure the info is accurate).

Do you eat your exercise calories? If so do you still lose weight? I've been sort of eating mine but not all and have not lost weight. Just wondering if I should just stick to my calories or if I should eat all of my exercise calories - which way to go??

I eat back some but not all even now when I have already met my weight goal. Some days this gives me a high deficit but it works for me. You may have to tinker a bit to see which works best for you. In general, if accurately logging calories in and not over estimating calories burned, you would eat back your exercise calories when using MFP. However, the calories burned is usually over valued in the database so most are eating back only a portion. If you are using the TDEE method, then no you don't eat your exercise calories back but rather if tracking eat according to your TDEE minus your value for weight loss (10%, 15% or 20%) and record your exercise as 1. That way you track your activity without tracking the calories burned.

I always eat half of them back. It has worked with me thus far. I started at 238 pounds and I am 5 ft 3.

The answer - like everything is - it depends. If you're doing heavy lifting or heavy cardio, you definitely need to replace the macros or your body is going to enter starvation mode and you're NOT going to lose no matter what you do. Or, are you counting calories burned every time you park in the far parking lot and walk into the store, and counting calories for doing house work? I'm not saying people shouldn't count that as exercise - what you count is up to you - but I would not recommend eating 500 more calories per day if your burn is coming from normal, daily activities. You do NOT need to replace those types of calorie burn because that's already included in your BMR.

What are you refueling it WITH? If you're filling up your exercise calories with Doritos and Hershey bars, no you won't lose. Your body doesn't know what to do with fake food (I highly recommend reading Master Your Metabolism for more information on this topic). But if you're eating lean proteins, fruits and veggies (a banana post workout is excellent!), healthy fats (walnuts, avocados, etc) then YES you will lose.

When I was REALLY dropping the weight, I ate a very strict diet of real foods, six times per day, and my caloric intake was between 1600-1700 (my goal to lose is 1200). My workouts were five times per week at one hour each, 85% of max AT LEAST, burning roughly 700 calories per session. I went from size 12 to size 4 and 150lbs to 127lbs in just under 5 months. But that was no cheating, no tastes, no treats, hard (albeit not impossible) to maintain in the long term. You can argue that it was simply the calorie deficit that caused the weight loss, but I don't completely agree. I didn't keep up that regimen, gained back about ten pounds, and now I'm trying to lose it again. I don't eat a completely clean diet. My workouts are the same, but I'm eating treats. Chips, candy, etc. if I have "room" at the end of the day. Even though I'm usually under my limit, the weight isn't coming off like it was before. I'm convinced it's the quality of food (or lack of quality) that's causing it. Everyone is different, though. See if you can find that book, I think it will answer a lot of your questions.

As far as how many calories you're actually burning, get a heart rate monitor with a chest strap. That's the only way to know for sure. Everything else is just an estimate.

The amount of calories that MFP says you burn is double what you really burn. The counts are not accurate. If you use an exercise bike or a heart monitor or whatever, you will see this. My diet doctor said that if a person is a marathon runner or weight-lifting 200 lbs on a regular basis, they should eat back the exercise calories. He said a regular person who just does an hour of exercise a day shouldn't eat back the calories. My dietician said the same thing. So, I don't eat mine back.