Those in favor of eating back your exercise calories say "Vr

So does drinking (at least some of) my exercise calories back work as well? I like white wine...

Not to everybody Seechrisrun1918.

It doesn’t make any sense to me.

I don't create calorie deficit to waste it by eating additional calories.

Then you don't understand how MFP works. MFP already builds in the deficit. If you aren't eating your exercise calories back, then you run the risk of that deficit becoming too large.

Couldn't have explained it better myself

Great response!! Gotta know how the site works to really take advantage of all the great tools it has to offer. Some can get by for awhile without eating them but then BANG it hits...the dreaded plateau.

There really is a logical reason many share on here to eat them back or at least 1/2. Yes there are probably a few who can get by without but if you're working out daily and eating only 1200 cals, somethings gotta give and it will likely be your energy (health!). The car having no fuel to run on is always been a favorite analogy of mine, explains it so well, hard not to understand that comparison.

I eat them back, and it's working for me.

I guess each of us needs to find out what works for us. This is a debate that will never end, btw.

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"When you have a lot to lose, your body has plenty of fat to burn and so you can get away without eating the exercise calories. The closer you get to maintenance though, you're going to have to start eating them. Otherwise, you'll either plateau or start GAINING weight".
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THIS I agree with.

And I can't wait to get "close to maintenance" to try it out!

And I do not eat my exercise calories.

Yay, 8th thread on the same subject in 8 days!

I thought we'd already reached a conclusion on this? Everyone is different, some do, some dont, but people will stick to whatever works for them!

Isn't there a sticky for this already?

Also, when eating back those calories, you have to be careful that you are not overestimating your calories burned and underestimating what you are consuming. That is very easy to do and people kid themselves about portion sizes all the time.

So does drinking (at least some of) my exercise calories back work as well? I like white wine...

Ha! I think so! I use my exercise calories as an excuse to drink my nightly glass of red wine!

In the dietary world this is called Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). I will say that the caloric values for expenditure in here are not accurate so be careful on "eating the calories expended". This is all science so there are several variables that come into play. Everyone imputting exercise in here is giving an estimate. You can research this information and you will find that it gives you MORE than most need. For weightloss the best formula is Katch-McArdle because it's based on lean body mass (muscle, bones, etc) so it doesn't matter gender etc. If your not too fat (morbidly obese) and know you LBM you can use this formula. In a nutshell it will give you BMR then you compute in activity multiplier to get TDEE then you take 20% (represents 2 lb weight loss per week) off the top of that. All in all strive for maintenance first then you can eat more. If your a frequent "dieter" all of this can be skewed for you if your metabolism is messed up because of so much yoyo dieting. Your best bet then is to work closely with a registered dietician and learn the food exchange system & a certified/degreed trainer for your exercise needs.

I was barely losing any weight until I started eating my calories back...(and I was one of those people who originally ate about half back). Just recently I started eating them back and my body began releasing WAYYY quicker! So I'm all on board for eat them back! ;o) Plus quite frankly...I don't want to be have to eat such limited calories for the rest of my life to maintain...the more the better as I want my body to run like a fiery furnace when it comes to its fuel!

I did not eat them for 8 months. I lost 56 lb. Then I plateaued even gaining a lb back and I was like WTF? I'm doing the same things I've been doing? I came on here and learned that I was starving my body. I got a BMF and realized my caloric deficit was way to high. I'm slowly adding the calories back in, I add 200 last week, lost 1 lb, and this week I added another 100 to go up to 1500 calories. I'm going to add another 100 next week and so on until my deficit doesn't exceed 1000 calories, since that is the maximum you should have. I just hope this works. I had only lost 4 lb in 6 weeks prior to trying this (had a nearly 4 week plateau) and I was getting frustrated. I still have a minimum of 53 lb to lose to get to a normal BMI.

After reading on here about eating exercise calories, I realized WW wants you to do it too, so it makes a bit of sense.

I've lost 46 pounds without eating any of my exercise calories back.

When you have a lot to lose, your body has plenty of fat to burn and so you can get away without eating the exercise calories. The closer you get to maintenance though, you're going to have to start eating them. Otherwise, you'll either plateau or start GAINING weight.

Actually, when I plateaued, the only thing that worked was to stop exercising for a week. Eating back my exercise calories did nothing for me. And before you say I probably didn't give it enough time, I plateaued for 3 months, so I gave it plenty of time. I'm currently still working out, just not as hardcore, and still not eating my exercise calories back. I've lost 3 more pounds within a week.

^^ This. I have been stuck more or less at the same weight since the beginning of June - I have consistently cycled between 136-139lbs.

I have always been a "you must eat your exercise calories back" person. However, having recently read Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto, I have recalculated my calorie and weight goals.

My maintenance calories should be 2125 - taking 25% off this for fat loss gives me around 1530 cals a day - this calculation already includes my activity level. This also ties in with something Stroutman says in more than one of his threads - the way he also calculates calories includes the exercise already.

It will be interesting to see if this gets me off my plateau...

agthorn

OMG. Your weight loss deficit is already built in to your MFP goal. We cut calories (through our daily goal) to lose weight. We exercise to be healthy and fit, and healthy fit bodies need fuel. Unless you are obese, eat at least some of your exercise calories back!! I cannot count how many people I see on these forums every day, complaining that they're not losing weight. Inevitably I look at their diaries (if they're open) and they are not eating their exercise calories back. HEALTHY BODIES NEED FUEL.

^^^ why should obese peeps not eat their exercise calories back ??? They've worked just as hard to earn them!!! I'm still in the obese category; I started 6 weeks ago and will be posting up a loss of 20-21lbs on weigh day tomorrow. I eat my exercise calories as I'm only on 1200 cals a day and I do 2-3hrs of walking a day which burns b/w 180 - 270 calories, if I didn't eat these back then I would plunge into starvation mode. Eat your exercise calories back but just research the 'true' value. I've seen some people posting up to 400 calories per hour just for walking at a slow pace which is rubbish! Good luck

Woah woah woah. I didn't mean to imply that obese people SHOULDN'T eat their exercise calories back. But rather that if you are NOT obese, you absolutely SHOULD eat your exercise calories back. If you have a lot of weight to lose, you CAN get away with a much larger deficit than someone who only has 10-20 lbs to lose, but if you're obese and you want to eat them back, you're definitely right - you earned them!