do YOU eat your exercise calories?

i eat to about my BMR, usually works out to about half my exercise cals, i feel better this way and get decent results

It depends on the day for me. I usually try to stick to my original calorie goal, so I don't somehow prolong my weight loss, but If I'm still hungry and I burnt a lot of calories, I'll eat something. I've never eaten them all back though, usually like 200 or so.

The main reason I exercise is so I CAN eat more!! lol

I dont eat mine back, im earning these excercise cals for a reason, im not going to eat them back i find i stay the same weight when i eat my excercise cals back.. And when i dont eat them back and i stick to my 1300 calorie goal, i loose 1 or 2 lbs every week or so.

I eat mine back, or I start feeling unwell. I work long shifts, so I need to make sure I can stay the course.

This is the first diet where I dont feel exhausted. I have had two tired days in 6 weeks....and those days were after hard workouts at the gym, and not eating back all my cals.

Everyone is so different on this. I think when I get lighter / hit a plateau / find a job that does not include 13 hour shifts - I might switch it up.

I eat mine back.... I lost 50 pounds 5 years ago and I didn't eat them back at that point. All the weight is back! There is only so long a person can stay on such a low calorie diet unless you want to eat salads every meal the rest of your life. I learned from experience.

I eat my calories back. I am doing strenght training so I am doing my best to have no deficite

I eat more before I go to the gym, so I have the extra calories to do the work. I train in the evening, so on my training days I eat more snacks or a bigger lunch. I still eat dinner afterwards though, but the 'extra' calories go in earlier. You can't really go by what MFP says for strength training, because it doesn't know how long your set rests are or the intensity of your workout. You have to gauge based on the difficulty. If your squats were too hard, then you probably didn't eat enough. If you're recounting the weight twice, because it feels light, then, if you didn't miscount, you ate plenty.

I eat my exercise calories back. I've lost 30 pounds, so far. I also do an intermittent fast one day a week.

I'm tempted to try IF, but I recently did a 1 1/2 day fast (required for a medical procedure) and the only way I could survive was doing weird things to take the edge off the hunger, like chugging a bottle of pure lemon juice from concentrate.

Listen to you body.. if you are hungry EAT!! I don't eat mine back everyday but i try to eat at least some of them

Exactly ^. If you're not hungry, then don't eat food just because you feel like you absolutely have to. If you are hungry, then of course eat! I try and eat back at least half of the calories I burn during work-outs. I've also found it takes away any lightheadedness if I eat a little something after a good work-out. I've been eating them back, and I've been doing pretty decently so far.

No, I don't. The times I do are when I am going out to a restaurant or there's a family party or something where I know without my exercise cals I'll be way over my daily limit.

Yes, I eat my exercise calories. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. I'm down 22 lbs in 9 weeks, so It's working for me.

Aloha my friend,I have to say eating your exercise calories can variety due to different goals ,as I am trying now to gain lean mule mass I try to always eat my exercise calories,however when my goal was weight loss I didn't eat my exercise calories I usually used supplamental protein sources to force my body to have to use my excess fat as a fee/energy source without the side effect of loss of muscle mass as which is common with low calorie diets,by doing so I managed to lose close to 100 pounds in 7months ,the hard part is feeling the lack of motivation due to fatigue,but keeping a high level of protein will help all you need to do is push past the feeling of lack of energy and push through your exercise routine,keep your fats & sugar low ,keep hydrated,and get some protein powder,like whey isolate protein for pre & or after workouts,casein protein for slow releasing protein especially at nite to help prevent muscle loss so as your body burns calories even when asleep especially after a day of hard cardio only fat us lost,its a hard path I chose for my diet but if u can follow this it will work ....aloha Keola

Rarely. I eat about 1400 cals a day, sometimes 1500. I never eat back my exercise calories cause that's extra weight loss. I have never heard anyone say anything about eating them back until i joined MFP. The whole point of exercising is to increase your calorid deficit. starvation mode only happens if you consume less than 1200 calories. Consume. you can burn thousands of calories a day and not hit starvation mode. The contestants on Biggest Loser dont eat back their calories, nor do the participants on Extreme Makeover weight loss edition, or any other weight loss show i've ever seen. I've been losing weight steadily, rarely plateau, and have tons of energy. I read books about fat loss, not gimmick books but solid information books that talk about working hard and having to eat right, no easy ways to lose weight, and none of those ever say to eat back your exercise calories. If that's what works for people that's great but it's not what works for me.

I agree and I'm gonna stop entering my exercise because it makes me want to eat more

not eating exercise cals can put you in starvation mode which will stall your weight loss as will slow down your metabolism. i recently did an experiment of eating them back, check it out here if you'd like:http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/BeautyFromPain

Everybody should go through the exercise of asking an MD about "starvation mode" and see what they say. Very divergent from a lot of the MFP common wisdom.