Eating at maintenance, but not eating back exercise calories

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alexwalper
alexwalper Posts: 81
in Food and Nutrition
Is there anyone out there who has his/her calories set to maintenance, but does not eat exercise calories back, so there is still a deficit most/some days?
I was pondering doing this through the summer as I think it might keep it closer to a lifestyle change than diet for me...
Any opinions? Experience? Suggestions? :)

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  • Shweedog
    Shweedog Posts: 883 Member
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    Seems like that wouldn't keep you maintaining, but losing rather...
  • Buddie616
    Buddie616 Posts: 167 Member
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    I never eat my exercise back! If I do its not over 100 cals. I usually burn over 600 after I work out! It has worked for me!
  • Edestiny7
    Edestiny7 Posts: 730 Member
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    I was 125 lbs. when I switched to maintenance October 2010. I am now 118.8 lbs. I believe in eating back all exercise calories because if I do not, I continue to lose weight. I do not believe you could maintain without eating back your exercise calories, unless you were eating more than your maintenance calories on a regular basis.
  • scweegie
    scweegie Posts: 59
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    I've never understood those who don't eat the exercise cals back. There are 2394829048 posts on here about this subject. MFP sets my goal at 1200 cals, then i burn 500...so if i didn't eat them back I would only get a net of 700 cals in a day, not the wise, healthy choice. So instead it allows me to eat 1700 cals, leaving my net at 1200, which is still a deficit of like 700 cals a day, considering without exercise, i would burn 1900 cals in a 24 hr period. 100 cals here or there isn't a huge deal, but if you are burning serious cals, you have to eat!
  • alexwalper
    alexwalper Posts: 81
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    I would still be aiming to lose, because I still have 40 pounds to go, which is why I wouldn't be eating the exercise calories.
    I think it would be easier for me to maintain a deficit like that as opposed to already having it built in by MFP, but I was wondering if anyone else had tried this.

    edit: I am currently set to a deficit of 500 calories, which gives me 1600 to eat every day. I regularly burn between 200-500 and eat them back entirely. If I ate at maintenance but didn't eat my exercise calories, I would still be consuming between 1600-1900 a day, so I would be eating enough. No worries there; I am and would still be eating enough! :)
  • Hjchristie
    Hjchristie Posts: 6
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    Is there a way on MyFitnessPal to not add your exercise calories to your food calories, so it doesn't show all the time that I have a few hundred more calories to eat each day? I don't eat my exercise calories b/c whats the point?!

    And, I'd rather not see it combined with my food calories on here. Can I change this in the settings? I can't find it anywhere.

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