I'm afraid of eating my exercise calories!

I know what you mean about "what's the point of exercising if I'm just going to eat the calories back?" I hear you. I used to think that way, too. Now, though, I'm looking at it differently, in that if I exercise, I get to eat more! This helps me mentally a lot. If I find my set calories leave me feeling too hungry somedays, I honestly feel better if I go for a walk and then I get to eat more. And I have to admit the exercise does make me feel more energetic. Who knew?

Exercise has nothing to do with losing weight. The sooner you learn this truth, the healthier you will get. Exercise is to improve your fitness, improving cardiovascular health, muscle strength, and overall well being. Weight loss is all about eating properly, and part of eating properly is eating enough to fuel your exercise. Your body needs fuel to repair itself after exercising, if you aren't eating back exercise calories, your body isn't getting the proper amounts of nutrients to repair itself, and the actual exercise becomes futile, as your body needs amino acids to repair muscle tissue that get damaged during exercise. Don't eat enough protein (which is what happens when you work out a lot without eating back your exercise calories) and your body will start breaking muscle tissue down to scavenge the amino acids it needs to repair the other tissue from exercising. So while yes, you may lose weight from that approach, it will be lean muscle weight, and not excess body fat.