Has anyone had success with eating half of their calories back?

Down 17lbs and eat back about half each day... sometimes more if I'm hungry

Eating 100% of exercise calories back (and losing weight) is the way My Fitness Pal is designed, because you got your calorie deficit before exercise.

However calorie burns are guesstimates so many people start by eating back 50%. Then as weight loss progresses - slower or faster than expected - users increase or decrease this 50%.

The problem people encounter with not losing weight is that everything is an estimate. So if 1200 is "not working" for you (if you mean little or no weight loss) eating more calories is not the answer.

Do you weigh all solids and semi-solids using a digital food scale, do you measure liquids using a measuring cup? Have you double checked your database entry selections....some of them are inaccurate. Do you put your recipes in MFP? Do you log every bite, every taste, every lick?

Your activity level is a range.....but MFP has selected one number as a starting point. Exercise (if you are logging it) should not be included in your activity level or you will be double counting.

I eat back between 25-50% of my exercise calories. That gives me a cushion in case the actual burn isn't as high as my Fitbit + MFP calculate. I have lost 20 lbs in about 2 1/2 months so it works.
1200 is minimum calorie intake for a female and usually the more you weigh the more calories you burn during exercise. If you are relatively new to calorie restriction going from 2500 or so a day to 1200-1300 a day is going to be extremely hard and the harder it is to maintain long term the easier it is to quit. I have mine set to 1200 but I have an aggressive target and know the right foods to eat to get 1200 really good, nutritious calories and can maintain that for an extended period of time until I get to my goal.
I would put your info into MFP and set your weight loss goal for .5 lbs/week and see what they come up with as your suggested caloric intake. Do that for a week or two and then adjust it to 1 lb a week once you are finding it fairly easy to hit that and not feel overly deprived. If you want to get more aggressive after 4 weeks of success then set it to a higher loss per week.

gabriellax92 wrote: »

I always thought "eat less, excercise more" so that's what I did. I tried to eat around 1200 calories a day and never ate any of my calories burned. It doesn't seem to be working for me though. I've seen a lot of people recommend to eat half of your excercise calories back and I'm going to start trying this. I've reset my calorie intake according to MFP at 1320. Can anyone tell me about their success with eating back excercise calories?
BTW I'm 24, 5'3 and 255 pounds.

I eat back 50% of MFP calories given and closer to 75% of what my fitness tracker gives me. My average loss has been on target.

I started out eating back 50% of everything and was losing too fast so I started eating back more. YMMV

I eat all of mine back (Garmin HR watch) and losing as expected. 22lb off so far

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

What do you mean by 1200 isn't working for you?

@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld & @mlinci
If I remember correctly from her other thread, she is struggling to stick to 1200. Usually binge eating at the end of the day.
People suggested that she eat back some exervise calories and that maybe a goal of 1200 was creating to large of a deficit for her.

Hi there! I put the information you provided into a TDEE calculator as Sendentary- just to maintain your weight, you should be eating 2842 calories. To lose weight, subtract 250-500 calories from that number, and you should start seeing a loss. As you lose weight that number will go down, and you might want to re-evaluate every 10 lbs or so. If you earn excersize calories, you can eat some back and I agree, I usually eat about 1/2. Just give this a shot- try it for a few weeks and if you don't see a change, then change back- but I promise that you will. I'm 47, 5'5" and started at 215.6- im now 291 eating between 1800-2200 calories a day! I walk about 10k step a day and workout a 1/2 hr. with weights 4 days a week. Add me as your friend !!!!!!

If you're not losing by sticking to 1200 calories a day and NOT eating your exercise calories back, either you are eating way more than you think you are or you have a very messed up metabolism.

Did mfp give you 1200 calories, or did you override the setting? Even set at sedentary, given your current weight and age you should be able to lose weight on upwards of 1700 calories a day. Looking at your diary, you have some days where you've only partially tracked--what's going on on those days? Also--your calories burned coming from your fitbit seem rather huge--I definitely wouldn't eat back 100% of those--check your settings and make sure that what is coming into mfp as exercise calories is what is above and beyond your BMR.