Im not a real happy camper tonight as I read some info

Hi there, my weight loss has tapered off since I started eating my exercise calories...everyone said to eat them, I am not sure what to do either...

Well, I have lost 1 stone since I started my ftness pal in August and I have never eaten all my excercise calories (except on weekends when I went a bit over after a few voddies) and I lost weight really quickly too. I never starved myself at all and I didn't force myself to eat all my calories, I focus mainly on eating my normal 1200 calories per day and if I go a little over on the days I excercise then fine but I wouldn't force myself to eat them all - sometimes i goes up to 1600!!. (I am normally 100 - 200 calories beneath on normal days and 300-400 beneath on excercise days)

I must admit that if you are stuck and your weight isn't budging then try eating 100 cals or so over or under your normal 1200 for a day or 2 and then go back to your normal routine and see how quickly your weight shifts!! Like with everything, you need a little variety so perhaps eat your excercise calories a couple of days a week and the rest of the week eat what you can as long as you eat your 1200.

And I HAVE eaten my exercise calories, and lost 23 lbs. I even broke a plateau when I stopped losing after a 13 lb loss - when I deliberately went over my cals for a week, I started losing again.
But the caveat to that is I am only aiming for a 1/2 lb loss per week, so my deficit was only 250 per day.

You must work with your body to see what works for you. Not everyone's chemistry is going to be so precise. If you have a lot of weight to lose, a bigger deficit might be required, and therefore you may NOT want to eat your exercise cals for awhile. But the general consensus is that once you get in the vicinity of your goal weight, you might want to consider eating your exercise cals back, because your body really does need them.

I would like to add, I read an article in either Self or Fitness I think and it was saying how to get a more accurate calorie count when on the machines at the gym or at home if you don't have a heart rate monitor. That is:

When asked to enter your weight, enter in a weight that is 5-10 lbs less than you are and then from the final total burned, deduct about 10-15%. That is what I do! Granted, I don't eat all mine back but I eat enough back and leave enough (Just in case). I don't own a heart rate monitor and this method has worked well for me.

Here is my simple take on this subject.

When you go to other sites you put in your information:
age, height, weight and exercise plan

So if I submit that I will work out for 60 minutes, 4 times a week, I then received a plan to eat 1500 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week.

With MFP the system does not assume you will do your promised workout. It gives you the base of 1200 and then adds in the exercise each day, which is on average 300 calories.

This is how I have understood the system.

Because the site is a free service, with no medical professionals giving out advise, we must take it upon ourselves to become educated. Take the time to see what works for you. And use MFP as a tool...which is its intention.

I can tell you that in the past, when I have eaten 1200 calories a day, then burned 250-450 cals w/o eating them back, I have been miserable, tired, grouchy, sleepless, lathargic...and I did not stick with it for long!

Jeannie

There are other variables to consider. Are you only watching the number on the scale? Are you doing measurements? Do you notice a pair of pants/jeans fitting differently.

The scale can be deceiving. Especially for women. We retain water at different times of the month or because of changes in what we are eating. I might weigh 117 one day and the next 119, I did not gain 2lbs in one day, it's just part of normal fluctuations. I had to learn not to worry about them, just continue on eating healthy and exercising.

At one point I only lost 3lbs on the scale but the difference in how my clothes fit was amazing. I started running at 48 and within a few months my stomach got noticably smaller. But it was only a 3lb loss, not as much as what I had wanted to lose but it was the result I wanted, a smaller stomach.

You should look up all the posts by Banks and TamTastic. They know their stuff!!!! That said, i don't eat all my exercise calories back -- I only do about 70-75% of them, because i am not sure i believe the totals the equipment at my gym gives me. I want to get an HRM; if i had one of those, i would feel more comfortable eating all my exercise calories back; i would trust those numbers more. That said, 2 lbs a week is a LOT of weight to lose. I know it doesn't sound like it, and it doesn't feel like it, but it is. Some people will lose more than that in the beginning, but is mostly water weight coming off. My suggestion is this: work with the 1 lb per week loss for a couple of weeks, eat your exercise calories and see what happens. If you're happy with those results, stay there. If not, or you don't get results, move on to the 1.5 lb per week loss for a couple of weeks, eat your exercise calories and see what happens. Then, depending on how your body reacts, you can move to the 2 lb per week loss setup or not.

Heres what i found personally. For starters:
1) i LIKE to eat, and when i get to feeling like im "depriving" myself, i will binge.
2) at the 1 lb per week loss, i didn't feel like i was getting anywhere. The weight was not coming off fast enough for me to see weekly or bi-weekly results and that was discouraging. Also, it was easier to skip exercising because i had "enough" calories, and i NEED to exercise. Diet alone is NOT the way to lose weight.
3) at the 2 lb per week loss, i was constantly worried about eating more than my allotted calories, and trying to push myself to get a hard workout. My body hated it. I have enough stressors in my life and don't need my diet and exercise program to be an additional negative. So this one was just too hard and too much work for me.
4) the 1.5 lb per week loss seems to work well for me. No matter what i have done or not done, food or exercise wise, i seem to be losing at around 1.5 lb per week on average. After 6 months, this is what seems to work the best and the easiest for me. I don't feel "deprived" of food and i don't feel like i have to kill myself in the gym to get enough to eat. I enjoy my food and my workouts at this level --- and that's what its all about.

Remember, this is a journey, not a destination. If you don't learn new things along the way, if you don't have your eyes opened for you many times over, well, then, you're just not doing it right, lol. The people here are a great group. They will support you, they will hold your hand, and they will tell you the truth. GOOD LUCK!!!!!