to those who DON'T eat back their exercise calories

I've never eaten back my calories. When I first started MFP, I was working with a trainer and he had me use this site as a means of tracking what I ate, not calories in, calories out. So I followed his caloric guideline and tracked what I ate. I lost 90 lbs listening to him so it worked for me.

I eat when I am hungry. There is no way I could eat all my calories back unless I made bad food choices. I try to stay at 1200 calories. If I exercise then I eat more.

I eat them if I'm hungry but I refuse to eat them if I'm full! It doesn't make sense to me...I realize it's a very controversial MFP subject but I really think everybody needs to do what works for them. The same diet/exercise program doesn't work for everyone...if it did then everyone would be doing the SAME one with great results. I have a lot of weight to lose and it's highly unlikely that my body will go into starvation mode any time soon...when I get to the point where I'm not losing for awhile then I'll look into eating back my calories. Until then I'll do what works for me.

My allowance is 1500 a day, and I burn at about 300 - 500 a day on avg. Some days more. I do not eat those calories. Instead, I make sure the 1500 I do eat are healthy and filling. Just my opinion and what works for me. I lose weight a bit quicker this way, as my burn calculations are more each day. I am never hungry, so until I am I will keep doing it that way. Best of luck!

Wow.............I eat back my calories most of the time and you know why?? Posts like yours make me HUNGRY !!!

Me too!!! I am going to enjoy these 650 extra calories I earned at Zumba tonite!!! (Seeing as I broke my plateau by eating back my exercise calories and losing and all)

I am older, which means I have a EVEN slower metabolism than I use to...which was crawling to begin with...When I started MFP, I told myself I was gonna keep it realistic...I see people on here that are exercising NONSTOP...there is no way I will be able to do that ....for the rest of my life!...I am exercising but realistically...so my calorie intake is realistic as well...I eat good for me food that I like and healthy porportions...I know my calories goals are low, but I am not hungry...ever...I have occasional cravings and sometimes give into them...a little...but i am losing weight...not fast but going down just the same...I am starting to feel better and look better and i am not starving or ALWAYS exercising...some times i eat the exercise calories, sometimes i dont...i only eat when i am hungry and i dont eat till i am gorged....i eat sensibly...I think i am doing good...dont know, just know how i feel and what the scale says...

I dont eat them never have ...I started on Dr supervised 1000 calories daily.....but now I average on my own 1000-1500 daily give or take.. I never take into account what I have worked off exercise, housework, carrying baby around etc...I look at portion sizes and really try to stick to them if it says 2 cookies per serving then thats what I have. No more half a pack etc..lol..Ive found measuring and reading portion sizes is all I really need to do to stay accountable....this is what works for me so I go with it...if i calculated exercise I would fail because I would be counting things like getting the mail as exercise ..lol I do better when set caloric intake

Losing weight is different for everyone, if you can't eat them all back don't.

I lose a lot more weight when I exercise a lot and eat constantly, so I eat most of my exercise calories.

I don't eat all mine back, but I do eat most of them. Frankly, I don't worry about it a whole lot.

Here's the thing, those numbers are estimates. Unless you are weighing/measuring your food and being very careful about what you eat so you can log it accurately, they are going to be off. Same with your exercise calories. Unless you have a good quality heart rate monitor, you don't know if those pre-set numbers are accurate for you. I've read countless post where people have found they burn either a lot more or a lot less than the pre-set numbers. And a few who say it's very accurate.

If you are feeling fine, have energy, and don't feel run down or tired or hungry all the time, chances are you are doing just fine. If you are losing weight pretty steadily and haven't suddenly stopped, you are probably doing just fine.


So don't stress over it.

I spent the first month I was on this site not eating them back and only lost 3lbs in a month. The second month I was on here I ate them back and only lost 2lbs in a month. Since then I eat back about 1/3-1/2 of them and have been losing about 3lbs a week consistently. Total (not NET) calories I consume a day is from 1200 - 1600. I only eat 1200 calories if I'm not exercising that day. When I exercise most days I burn between 800 - 1000 calories and on those days I eat up to 400 extra calories. It's been working for me so for now I am sticking with that, but I know that I will probably have to readjust a little when I get closer to my goal. I personally don't believe that there is a 'one size fits all' way to lose weight and sometimes you just need to experiment a little to see what works for you.

I agree that (like me) if you have more weight to lose, then eating them back may not work. I try not to touch mine, I eat around 1200 calories a day. I am 202 pounds and when I exercise I can burn 800+ in one hour depending on what I do. If I'm not hungry, then I don't touch those extra calories. But, there have been days that I am starving, then I will. Last week I lost NO weight but lost 4 inches.....this week I lost 1 pound and 3 1/4 inches. So, I guess it is working , just losing more inches than weight right now .

Don't worry what people might say......do what feels right to YOU and eat only when you are hungry. I have read all the other posts on this & stressed, "Oh my Gosh, I'm not eating enough" and at that time my husband told me "THAT EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT & what works for them might not work for me".

Hope you find what works for you .

When I started this I was on an 800 calorie a day plan per doctors orders... I started at 343 lbs. and by the time the dr said I could increase my calories if I wanted to, it was 4 months later and I had gotten down to 268 lbs. - its been 10 months now and I am only at 232 lbs right now. But I increased my calories to 1200 per day. Sometimes I eat back my exercise calories and sometimes I don't. I have found that for me I need to mix it up. Go for a while under my calories and then go for a while eating most, or even occasionally, more than my exercise calories back. Sometime I exercise 7 days a week and sometimes I take a couple days off. I have also had some personal issues the last several months that have messed me up some and have halted my progress losing as well as getting pretty sick for about a month, but now I am finally back on the down trend, meaning, losing again... I think every person is different and you probably just have to play with it and see what works best for you, for your body.
What ever you do, the key is not to give up. If you have a rough day and things don't go as planned , don't beat yourself and say "the Hell with it" and quit, that was always my mistake int he past. Just pick your self up and start again tomorrow, because there is always tomorrow, and tomorrow can be better if you let, if you make it..
Just don't stress about it and do what feels best and works best for you..
Good Luck and I know you can do it, what ever your goal it, you can do it... :flowerforyou:

Honestly, I hardly never eat my exercise calories. I eat 1200 cal a day and usually burn 1000ish doing zumba and weights. on my zumba days (5 out of 7) I end up somewhere around 1600. I am pretty much vegetarian so the things I eat are very low in calories.
A typical day for me is slim fast choc royale shake (mixed with one scoop slim fast powder, 2 cups skim milk, 2 scoops benefiber and crushed ice) I put it in the freezer when I get to work, wait about 3 hrs and then eat it with a spoon--seriously it takes me until I leave to eat it cause its frozen and oh so yummy. I eat a yogurt or banana round 10am, then for lunch usually fruit (cantelope & watermelon) and air-popped popcorn (60 cal for a entire bag). If its a zumba day I eat celery w/ PB for the protein. then for dinner usually cereal & milk. Here come the calories.....I love, love, love candy. I snack on candy all day. usually the candy ends up making up about 4-500 calories of my day-I don't care, its totally worth it to me. Since I started doing the zumba & weights and watching the calorie intake I've lost 16lb--that took about 5 months.

I'm glad the extra calories are there-it pushes me to go to the gym-one of my posts I said I don't like being gone 13 hr a day and going to the gym everyday, but I love to eat and as long as I love to eat, to the gym I will have to go. Its a vicious cycle.

I'm in a crash zone right now-easter threw my schedule off-didn't get to gym sat or sun, then monday had really bad headache (probably due to the easter candy), and went to gym tue, but not wed--had to work over, then caught my sons bad cold-its in my sinuses and has been for 3 days-my head is freakin splitting open, so haven't been to gym since like last thursday---got on scale this morning out of curiosity (and to keep myself under control) I gained 5lb--in one wk, really?? no exercise and a couple crash days was all it took.

Do I have crash days, Hell ya I do. I have days where I eat ice cream for dinner and drink reg pop, but those days I just don't log and start over the next day. I think letting myself crash every now and then is what keeps me 'on a diet'. If you go forever and don't give in to some of the cravings day you'll say screw it, I've tried, it wasn't working, I'm just gonna go back to the way I was.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got. Thats one of my favorite quotes!! lol

i agree with alot of these posts- the truth is I think it works differently for everyone, just like everything else. my advice would be to try either one for a week or two and see how you respond. I was eating my calories back at first, and it wasn't working for me. But that's just me. I have read lots and lots of posts on here from people who eat back their calories and it works really well for them. I wish it was true for me cause I would love the idea of earning more than my 1200 calories!! the truth is i do let myself have a little more than my usual 1200 on days when i work out really hard, but i can't say i eat back all my calories. just find what works for you- i think a lot of it has to do with our individual metabolisms. best of luck!

I am in the same boat as you I don't have any answer yet but there is no way I can eat 2500 calories a day I am eating between 1000-1300 calories a day..please do not jump down my throat about the 1000 but I believe in giving myself a 200 calorie bump for bad measuring extra seasonings etc that I might not realize is in my food....I am guessing if I weighed 130 and I wasn't burning 1000ish calories a day it would be easier to eat back the calories. I keep reading all of the debates but honestly I think if you have a good chunk to lose like I do that we shouldn't be eating back all of those calories again just my opinion. I am also curious to hear what others have to say though

I rarely eat 1000 calories... but I'm trying to bump up to 1300 and having a hard time... like I've eaten 950 and it's 8 pm at night...don't know...but I think I'm going to make some popcorn... and call it a night!