Eating back workout calories

I do not eat them back and I have lost 30 pounds in 64 days. That is just my 2 cents. I always eat 1800-2000 calories a day no matter if I burn 200 or 1000 from exercise.

I would do it after so you know if you are going to eat back how much you should. AND.. it will help you refuel your body with nutrition after it was worked out

Not sure it really matters.
Sure nutrient timing is important in regards to workouts, carbs for energy/replenish energy. proteins for recovery.
But ultimately, in my opinion just making sure you get the nutrition in...is number one.

My opinion is to eat [most of] them before you workout. Since your body turns the food you eat into energy it makes more sense to eat the majority of them before you work out.

There were so many conflicting reports that I finally asked my doctor about eating back calories. She told me not to worry about eating back calories. If I feel I little hungry then have an extra snack. I also drink a Body Fortress Protein Shot after exercising for a boost of protein for my muscles.

I eat back as many calories that will keep me within a net range of 1200-1450. It's not good to not eat back calories that will make you under 1200 because then your body just goes into starvation mode and you're doing it all for nothing. I had to learn that the hard way.

There were so many conflicting reports that I finally asked my doctor about eating back calories. She told me not to worry about eating back calories. If I feel I little hungry then have an extra snack. I also drink a Body Fortress Protein Shot after exercising for a boost of protein for my muscles.

This is okay if you have a lot to lose, once you get down to 50 lbs or so to go you should be eating them back, as your fat stores are much smaller and are harder to draw from.

I was going to say I always do it AFTER but ,when I think about it, I usually eat a little more breakfast and lunch if I know I'm going to work out in the afternoon/evening.

I eat my exercise calories back because, that way, I can eat more, lose weight and I really don't feel like I'm on a "diet". This is (hopefully) a permanent life-style change. I'm losing around 2 lbs a week and I'm feeling great, not feeling like I'm depriving myself.
No doubt, if I didn't eat back the calories, I'd lose some weight faster - but I'd be a lot more likely to "cheat" or "fall off the wagon".

I have just really started a daily walking routine a couple of weeks ago and I am still trying to organize my schedule so that I can add in Zumba (Wii) workouts with some sort of regularity. I am just getting used to having excess calories. And I don't feel confident yet that I trust the MFP exercise database for accuracy of the calories I am burning. It always seems much higher than other sources I'm comparing the numbers to. When it comes to eating back the calories I am listening to my body. If I'm not hungry I don't force myself to eat them back. If I'm hungry I'm glad to have the reserve and don't feel like I'm doing something wrong if I decide to eat them. I had gotten stuck at one weight for several weeks and had started to lose motivation but instead of throwing in the towel I added another lap to my walking routine. I'm under for calories pretty much every day now but I promise I'm not skipping meals and I don't go bed hungry.

I am new to MFP and I don't understand the "eating back" calories. Isn't the point to lower your caloric intake to lose weight in the first place? So, I normally don't eat the extra calories MFP gives when I log my exercise. I like skwilson1990's reply too!

The reason you should eat them back is that when you set up your account you picked a weekly weight loss goal, MFP gave you a caloric intake to give you a deficit each day to meet that goal without exercise. So if you exercise you make that deficit larger, and if your deficit is too large you risk damaging your metabolism, which can cause you to burn muscle instead of fat, not to mention many other negative side effects.

The program is set up the way it is for a reason, please follow the program for 3-4 weeks as intended before trying something different. If it doesn't work for you after than much time them you should try something else, but at least give the program a chance.

I agree that you have to tweak your program to do what's right for you. I never eat the exercise calories back and I am losing steadily. It's such a small amount in the scheme of things (200-400 calories) in my case, that I can't imagine it makes much difference either way. But certainly if you're hungry, it's nice to have that to fall back on.