Eating exercise calories?

I say stick with your original feeling. If you have those "exercise calories" and then you feel hungrier than normal - I see them there as sort of a back-up. I don't know how others feel. That's just me. However, I don't really go off that. I try to stay within my "normal" range. It's really a personal choice, though.

I hope that you find what works best for you & congratulations on the weight lost thus far. *high five*

Jean

Hi Janie - I wouldn't eat them - however if I was planning to attend a special event - I would make sure to excersice to give me some added calories without guilt or derailing my plan.

If you're following MFP estimations, I would only eat half of them back. Otherwise, you run the risk of over-eating because for most, the estimations are too high. Get yourself a HRM asap though, and you'll be able to eat the correct amount of calories. As for boosting your intake, try higher calorie foods like peanut butter, nuts, bread, pasta, cereal, avocado, granola, beef, and eggs.

I eat them back if I am hungry and if I am not I don't.

I eat some back - depending on how hungry I am. Some days I don't feel I need them, other days I can't get enough food!! Overall I think I eat about half back over the course of the week.

I pay attention to how I'm feeling. As a rule, you should never, ever dip below 1,200 calories in a day. That's even more important if you're exercising. Otherwise, just listen to your body. Don't eat just because MFP thinks you should. If you're focusing on eating healthy, fresh foods you'll probably be fine either way.

You could try getting a HRM if you're really wanting to nail down how much you're burning. Do keep in mind though, that you should also be fairly precise with what you're eating. It's easy to underestimate bites and nibbles if you don't measure- especially if those bites and nibble are calorie dense foods that add up quickly (ie a nibble of a grape won't have much of an effect, but that tablespoon of cookie dough will.)

You should eat some of them until you can get a HRM and have a more accurate view of what you're really burning.

And after you get an accurate view of calories burned using the HRM - don't forget to deduct your normal calorie burn ( non exercise) during the same amount of time. Then when entering your calories in MFP reduce the minutes exercised to match the calories burned as determined using a HRM.

I'm SO glad you asked this, im having the same problem. If your supposed to burn more calories than u consume in order to lose weight, then why would u eat ur exercise calories? especially if you just worked your @$$ off in the gym! lol

Because the calorie deficit is already factored in from the outset lol omg jfc

I was struggling with this issue several weeks ago too. I started at 1200 calories daily, but then I would workout and burn about 400 calories daily. I thought I was doing fine by not eating back the calories. Well, I was losing weight initially, but then after about 3 weeks, I stopped losing and I actually gained 5 pounds back. I was frustrated because I felt like I was really eating well and working out like a mad woman. I didn't see the point in eating back my calories. But since I wasn't losing weight as before, I decided to give myself about 2 weeks to see what would happen if I upped my calories. I increased my caloried to 1350 and ate back SOME of my workout calories and to my amazement, I started losing weight again. I actually lost 3.6 pounds this week. I am still somewhat nervous about increasing my calories too much, but at least now I make sure that I don't go below 1200 calores NET. I understand that what works for me may not work for someone else, but I am so pleasantly suprise that this is working for me right now. I think you have to see what works for you too.

If you plan to eat all of your exercise calories, I would suggest you invest in a HRM. I find that my HRM is more accurate for me.

I was struggling with this issue several weeks ago too. I started at 1200 calories daily, but then I would workout and burn about 400 calories daily. I thought I was doing fine by not eating back the calories. Well, I was losing weight initially, but then after about 3 weeks, I stopped losing and I actually gained 5 pounds back. I was frustrated because I felt like I was really eating well and working out like a mad woman. I didn't see the point in eating back my calories. But since I wasn't losing weight as before, I decided to give myself about 2 weeks to see what would happen if I upped my calories. I increased my caloried to 1350 and ate back SOME of my workout calories and to my amazement, I started losing weight again. I actually lost 3.6 pounds this week. I am still somewhat nervous about increasing my calories too much, but at least now I make sure that I don't go below 1200 calores NET. I understand that what works for me may not work for someone else, but I am so pleasantly suprise that this is working for me right now. I think you have to see what works for you too.

If you plan to eat all of your exercise calories, I would suggest you invest in a HRM. I find that my HRM is more accurate for me.

This is good to know!!

I can understand your dilemma here. If you are working out you need to eat the extra calories so you do starve your body and never loose the weight. Then again, if your calories are wrong you do not want eat extra calories that you are not burning. I guess what I would do is make sure I definitely eat the recommended calories for some time without exercise amount. Then see how hungry you are and if you are loosing weight. If you are then you are getting enough calories, but if seem to stop loosing or am to hungry step up the calories in small increments until you get results again.