Eating Exercise Calories

it will be ok for a while, but it will slow your metabolism eventually, then when you do eat something extra, even if it's not over your allotted calories you will gain. beware.

Here's an excellent case that explains it well:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

You will do well to take the time to read and understand the article; it is really eye-opening.

blessings.

My personal opinion is...What is the point in excercising if your gonna eat those calories back in the long run

You can safely finish your day with a 500 - 600 deficit ... A good way to add those extra calories is by eating nuts, peanut butter, coconut oil ... think " Protein " .... just beware of late night Carbs. In order to lose weight you do need a deficit under your daily requirement ... if you eat up to max ... you are in " maintaining " mode. There is alot of info out there that supports just about any point of view. Just find what works for you !

I did NOT eat my exercise calories back until I reached my goal weight. My doctor told me not to. I lost 111 pounds, so obviously my metabolism did not "slow down" or die. I have kept the weight off and not regained an ounce in the past 21 months either. I do eat some of my exercise calories back now that I am at maintenance, but not all of them. You have to find what works for YOUR body, your lifestyle, etc. One size does not fit all. That being said, I am also 61 years of age. My metabolism is NATURALLY slower at my age.

Experiment and see what works for you. You will get lots of advice and encouragement here. Best of luck!

Of course it's okay. It's all just how you want to count your calories and designating some calories as "exercise calories" is artificial anyway. For one thing, exercise calories are not "magic" calories that work differently than other calories you put into your body.

And whether or not it will slow your metabolism or have you lose lean muscle *completely depends*.

What really matters is what kind of deficit you have -- the bigger it is, the slower your metabolism gets and also the more your returns diminish. For example, a 500 calorie a day deficit usually yields a 1 pound a week loss. But a 1500 calorie a day deficit never returns a 3 pound a week loss.

As for losing lean muscle, this isn't directly a function of your calorie deficit. If you want to minimize your lean muscle mass loss, you need to do strength training and weight-bearing cardio and you need to eat enough protein. (The defaults for protein that MFP definitely encourage losing lean muscle mass IMO.)

So whether or not you eat them depends on how you've got MFP set up and what kind of deficit they are providing for you and what the rest of your diet looks like. If you are trying to lose 10 pounds and you are eating close to your BMR already then not eating the exercise calories isn't going to cause you horrible problems unless your exercise is burning thousands of calories. If you are at 1200 calories a day (or less) and you are exercising 6-10 hour a week, then it might in the long run because that's a big deficit you are creating. Then again, if you have 100 pounds to lose, you have plenty of stored calories to fuel your exercise and those 300 from running 3 miles are easily supplied from your body's stores.

The thing is, most people under-report their calorie consumption and over count their exercise. So not eating exercise calories or eating only a portion of them can give you a bit of a cushion to account for this human tendency.

For me, I'm in maintenance and I use MFP only to track calories. I have a BodyMedia FIT to track actually calories burned. Then, I eat what I burn over the course of the week but not every day. Some days I'm over, some days I'm under. If my weight goes up a bit higher than I want, then I just make sure I have a deficit most days until it comes back down. So I'm not tracking "base" calories vs. "exercise" calories. It's all just calories. Which I either eat or eat slightly less than depending on my goals at the time.

[Because unlike other programs, MFP has a deficit built in before your exercise.

MFP isn't a weight loss program. It's a tool to monitor your food intake and exercising. You can use it anyway you want!

I try to stay around 1200 net calories most days so unless I have big plans (dinner out, etc) I rarely eat them all if any.