HRM-Eating back those calories

I use a HRM for my cardio workouts and I still aim to eat 50-70% of those calories back. Even with an HRM, the calorie burned estimates you get are just that - estimates. They may be less inflated than the exercise calorie numbers MFP provides, but odds are they're still inflated. By eating a fraction of those back, I'm creating a buffer against both over inflated calories burned numbers and any inaccuracies in my food logging.

For some context, my weight loss goal is set at .5lb week and I rarely go over my calorie goal (I think I've only gone over twice, if memory serves). For the past 7 weeks since I've been on MFP, I've lost an average of .4 lb/week.

I use my heart rate monitor as a better estimate than the MFP calculations. I stopped eating my exercise calories back because I seemed to stall on the weight loss. Here's a good blog on the topic: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-the-dietitian-should-i-eat-back-my-exercise-calories/

I know everyone has their system and what works for one person may work for another. I personally don't eat back any burned calories and would be doing so until I meet a few of my goals.

So far I have not be hungry, greedy yes, but not hungry. Some time I grab a single serving of a snack and drink some water, but I'm still in deficit. My activity setting is the lowest with a 2 lbs. per week goal.

I also use fitbit, which numbers are not the same as MFP. Right now I'm losing 2 lbs. per weeks consistency, but I have a lot of weight to lose.

The intention and proper use of MFP is to eat back your exercise calories. Often people will point to the MFP exercise numbers being high, and they may be. Then again, they may not be. I have seen enough people here who have lost at the rate they selected even eating back all the calories MFP gives them for the exercise they have done. The think to realize is there are confounding factors.

First, sometimes people set their activity level incorrectly thinking that they should include their intended exercise activity in the selection of their daily activity level. MFP activity level is only supposed to include your normal daily activities excluding exercise. If you include exercise you will be double dipping if you eat your exercise calories.

Second, many people log very inaccurately. They eyeball portions. They use volume measures like cups and spoons to measure solids rather than a kitchen scale. They use incorrect entries from the database. All these things and more will result in inaccuracies that almost always mean a person who isn't logging accurately is going to be eating more than they think. Then eating more because of exercise just increases how far over their calorie goal they are. If you are not logging accurately, eating all your exercise calories may take you out of a calorie deficit.

Third, there is the potential of overestimation of calories burned. The difficulty here is that often people have little idea of what exercise burns. Add to that the inaccuracy of exercise equipment especially the very popular elliptical which tests out very badly in terms of giving an accurate calorie count. Even HRM have up to a 30% rate of error. So eating all your exercise calories may severely reduce your deficit.

Probably the best way to proceed would be to eat 50% of them, and see how you are progressing over about a 4 week stretch. If your goal is one pound per week, and you are losing a pound and a half, eat back more of those exercise calories (another 250 per day). If you are losing half a pound a week, eat about 250 less per day. Nothing beats real world numbers. When you start, you don't have them. After about 4 weeks you have enough to start modifying how much you eat per day to get your goal.