Eating earned exercise calories?

I usually eat some, but not all. I usually keep a deficit of 100-300 calories, but no more. Of course, I also eat a lot more than most of the people on here. Id rather build muscle strength than just focus on cutting calories to lose weight. I also don't like to be hungry!

I do not make a point of eating them. I either eat them if I am hungry, or need them to fuel my day, or leave them if I don't feel I need them.

I eat mine back and I use a HRM to track my calories burned. I find the calorie calculations on MFP for exercise are always about 30% higher than what my HRM says. Seems that many of us using HRMs have noticed the same thing. Good luck!

I never eat my exercise calories - EVER!!

MFP sets up a weight loss deficit without exercise. So by eating back your exercise calories you are maintaining the deficit that MFP gives you, which is the way it should be. Exercise is NOT for losing weight, it's for getting fit. If you exercise, and don't eat enough, you will actually make your health WORSE, even though you are losing weight, due to muscle loss and nutritional deficiencies. If you want to make sure you're losing fat, keep the deficit small, a large deficit actually causes more muscle loss than fat loss.

lol, can of worms. you would get a kick out of using the "search" function and reading some of the responses to this question. but it's more a personal thing, most say yay! others say nay! go by how you feel but don't make it a habit of having a significantly low "net" total daily

I totally agree! If I'm hungry, I eat or I drink water. But my MFP tells me on a daily basis I should eat 1680 calories. So I try to stick to that whether I exercise or not. I also don't eat and burn the same amount of calories day to day. Keeps my body from going plateauing. I lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks doing this method. So it's all a trial and error kinda thing. Gotta see what works for you!

MFP sets you up to lose weight with NO EXERCISE AT ALL.

Pardon the caps, but I see people saying they don't understand how it is set up.

That said, you would lose weight if you stick to your calorie goal and don't exercise at all.
So, exercising makes your already existing deficit even deeper. I usually eat back 50% ish of my exercise calories. I am also on 0.5 lb per day weight loss.

The one thing I can say is that if you do extremely heavy/hard exercise and burn a lot of calories, at least eat back some.

Congrats on the baby! I don't have any knowledge about losing weight while breast feeding, but there are MFP groups for pregnancy and breastfeeding, etc. if you want to get in touch with people in similar situations.

For me it depends on the intensity and duration. For high intensity workouts of an hour or greater i definitely eat back some to most my calories. For example, I went for a mountain bike ride today for 1 hr 15 min. My HR monitor tracked me at working off 710 calories. I ate about 500 of those. My reading and research on this indicates that you need to replenish your body well after exercise for better recovery, but make sure the calories are good healthy calories including a balanced combination of carbs, healthy fat, and protein. I wake up less sore the next day if I do this.

I do the same as lipglossjunkie: "I do not make a point of eating them. I either eat them if I am hungry, or need them to fuel my day, or leave them if I don't feel I need them."

Feed that baby! Eat! Eat them all back. I am eating for myself and I eat them back and sometimes a few extra for good measure!

I can't believe there are still so many people who don't understand how this site works...

I do not eat the calories that I gain from working out. I kind of view those calories as money in the bank in case I need them later in that week...LOL.

Usually I don't eat my calories back, but if I'm still hungry and I have the room for it left over, I will eat some healthy choices. Now that I set my calorie goal a bit lower than where it has been I eat back my exercise calories only when I exercise so it helps me want to exercise so I can eat a little more (trying to get back into exercising again so it's a good motivator). When my calorie intake was 1500-1600, I didn't eat back calories. I have lost weight both ways and just breaks down into what your body needs and what you want to do. There is no right or wrong answer. Try it eating back the calories for a week or two and then try it without and see which one you'd prefer. It takes time.

It took me a bit to understand how it works, because it's different. MOST sites you visit emphasize exercise as a major component so they will include the planned exercise calories in your totals. That's what I love about MFP - it takes into account that things come up and I might not be exercising for a period of time.

For anyone who still doesn't understand, the light bulb went off for me when I thought of Weight Watchers. On their plan, at least the last one I did, you were assigned a given number of points based on your weight, etc. So, if I were given 20 points a day, then as long as I ate my 20 points (and they were emphatic that you eat ALL those points) - I would lose weight.

In Weight Watchers, they would encourage you to exercise - but those were BONUS points. You were encouraged to eat them as well to enhance weight loss. :happy:

Doctors and many other professionals in weight loss & fitness recommend Weight Watchers. Their setup is just like MFP - only it is points rather than calories. That is good enough for me, so although it may seem counterintuitive - I am going to eat and enjoy those exercise calories. :drinker: