How many of you eat your "exercise calories"?

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  • mummum2
    mummum2 Posts: 415 Member
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    I never used to eat them all! so stalled for almost 5 weeks! then started zig zagging and these seems to be working! so in reply I eat more on some days, less on others, but don't go below 1200 cals. Must also point out use HRM for cal burned and not numbers given by MFP.
  • maxinethestrange
    maxinethestrange Posts: 146
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    i do most of the time , I am already only eatting 1300 cals a day and if I burn about 500 cals a day I will end up not able to do anything , I try to leave abit of a gap just incase the exercise cals arent totally accurate .
    Lets me away with my hot chocolates and coffees without so much guilt
  • Givemewings
    Givemewings Posts: 864 Member
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    I eat most of my exercise calories back but usually not quite all. It's working for me. Have lost 12lbs in my first 3 weeks!
  • claire_xox
    claire_xox Posts: 282 Member
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    I find it really hard to eat more than 1200 calories a day (usually) so I don't use all my exercise cals. However my diet is so wrong with about 80% of my calories being dinner! oops!
    I think you should eat your exercise calories if you can, but don't use them for junk. Getting an extra 500 shoudn;t mean chocolate it should go towards protein and fiber and vitamins :)

    IMO anyway :)
  • Atlantique
    Atlantique Posts: 2,484 Member
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    I eat about half of them, occasionally eat them all. I didn't have any plateaus in my weight loss.
  • InspiredByStreisand42
    InspiredByStreisand42 Posts: 29 Member
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    I am definitely a minority here! I have never purposely eaten back an exercise calorie and I've lost 40lbs in 21 weeks (15 of those with MFP), going from 234lbs to 194lbs. I don't find it difficult to stay under 1350cals most days (except on days where I have a cheat meal!)

    My main reasons are these
    - It's working so far! 40lbs since February! I've never lost anything like this before!
    - I don't get hungry, and although sometimes I crave bad food that's really not because I'm hungry; it's only boredom... Always was.
    - I feel more energetic and less tired than I used to; I don't feel like I'm running on empty at all.
    - I understand the reasons you should eat them back, but I just can't convince my sub-conscious that it's ok as it seems like a contradiction!
    - I don't have a heart rate monitor and I'm not going to eat back what MFP tells me I've burned! I sometimes do 30mins on the elliptical and do 9.5km, then another day I do 30mins and do 10.7km, but all MFP sees is 30mins! It's not the same amount of calories burned though. I don't know what that calorie burn estimate is based on distance/speed-wise, and I'm not going to risk going over my calories regularly because I didn't know how wrong the estimate was!
  • bbbbb33333
    bbbbb33333 Posts: 1,107 Member
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    I wasn't eating any exercise calories and exercising a lot. After a while I stopped loosing weight. Saw info about starvation mode. After exercise, I was netting 900-1000 cal a day. Was told you need to net at least 1200 a day to not go into starvation mode. I now eat most of my exercise calories (1300-1400 calories net) and have started loosing weight again. 6 lbs in the last 2 weeks. So yes I eat most of my exercise calories. Usually ~ 0 - 200 calories left at the end of the day.
  • Black_Swan
    Black_Swan Posts: 770 Member
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    I eat them as much as I can, often I eat back between 60-100% of them (or more, haha). I am now in maintenance, but it seems that eating more will now bring me to the point where I actually loose more... I think eating them back helped me have a strong and fast metabolism!
  • BabyDuchess
    BabyDuchess Posts: 353 Member
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    I eat 1/2 - 3/4 of mine back. I try not to eat every single calorie back to allow for miscalculations in calories burned. I've lost weight every week since I started in Dec., 2010. I've lost 60 lbs in 6 months. I average eating between 1500-2200 calories daily. I also zigzag my calories every other day. It's all working for me and that's all I have to go by. :flowerforyou:

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