Eating back calories?

I do. I didn't in the past, but once I understood it and how MFP calculates - I decided it was best for me to do that. I have got to get my body out of starvation mode. I didn't realize how bad it was at times.

So far, I haven't lost weight but I have gained a TON of information - not just in general but about myself.

And, again, that led me to understanding that I need to eat my exercise calories.

Some people do eat their exercise calories back. Some don't. I kind of use them as a "calories in the bank" type thing. I want to stay right around my 1200 calories, but after exercising, if my body is saying to eat, I am going to eat. If I am not hungry, on the other hand, I am not eating because I exercised and people say I should. I think if you were starving yourself, you would be hungry. I am a "stay at home" wife and I get very little exercise outside of what I actually exercise on the equipment in my home. I am not going to eat if I am not hungry. I hope that helps. My advice works for me. It may not work for the next person.

For me, eating them back is necessary. I know the calorie range which makes my body happy and when I'm too low - well, it gets very grumpy. So, I eat them back. I may not eat every last one - but I do make an effort to eat back the majority of them.

Do what works for you. Keep in mind this website has already created a deficit for you when it gave you your daily calorie goal. If what you're doing works, keep it up. Just keep in mind -- most people, at some point, hit a plateau. Be willing to try something new (like eating your calories back) if that happens to you.

I am on 1500 cal to burn a pound a week, I do eat my cals back. Well some of them I usually eat around 500 cals back during work out days. My goal is to burn around 700 cals. So the way I do it is do intensive hour + work out which would be like 400-500 cals and then at night I do like an hour long yoga which for me is around 200 cals give or take. I dont really stress if I dont hit 700 cals. But during the days I don't work out I just stick to 1500 maybe 1700. My ticker is moving. So it is working for me.

Thanks everyone. I just didn't know if I would lose more weight if I eat them back or not. Also, I don't really know how the whole deficit thing works. I do know that is says that by being sedentary, I will lose 1900 cal a day and I eat back 1200 so my deficit will be 700; by exercising my deficit should be around 900-1000 calories. However, I don't understand what will happen if I decide not to eat the calories back or if I decide to. Some say it sends your body into "starvation mode" and I don't want that to cause me to not lose weight. I just don't really know what I should do, but I suppose I should just figure out what is right for me by trial and error. Thanks again, everyone!

It's up to you whether you eat those calories back or not. My personal opinion is that you are only eating 1200 cals a day anyway, I would be eating at least some of them. That is way to few cals for me to survive on every day.

A calorie deficit is the difference between how many calories you eat each day and how many you burn (from daily activities as well as deliberate exercise).

The impact of not eating them back is going to be different for everyone. Basically it just means that you have made that calorie deficit bigger.
If you are just getting started or have lots of weight to lose you might find that you lose weight more quickly.
If you don't have a lot to lose, then your body might not be getting in enough nutrition with a large calorie deficit and this can mean that it tries to work more effeciently with the small number of calories you are giving it - this can mean that your rate of weight loss slows down or stalls.

Try it and see - but lots of people here (inlcuding me) have lost weight and kept it off by eating those calories, so don't be scared to give it a try.

Eat them back or you'll lose more weight than w
hat you anticipated

Im still trying to figure that whole mess out. Im going to work on tracking for a month and then weigh and see what it says. It wants me to eat an ungodly amount of calories b/c im always working on cleaning the house and moving stuff and what not not to mention the sedentary calories i burn a day it says. So im trying to figure out right now how it works for me. But so super confused

Whoa ... what type of exercise do you do & how long do you exercise for - that is a very high calorie burn. Good on you.

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

Many thanks to Taso42 for this.

Im still trying to figure that whole mess out. Im going to work on tracking for a month and then weigh and see what it says. It wants me to eat an ungodly amount of calories b/c im always working on cleaning the house and moving stuff and what not not to mention the sedentary calories i burn a day it says. So im trying to figure out right now how it works for me. But so super confused

Maybe you would be better setting your daily activity level to "lightly active" which will give you some extra calories without you having to add all those extra activites. This makes it much simpler!

I do sometimes its the only way for me to stay under my calories sometimes lol

I don’t eat exercise calories back. Consuming exercise calories on purpose doesn’t make any sense to me. I don't create calorie deficit to waste it by eating additional calories.

If your goal is to look skinny and sick then yes you shouldn't eat it back. Those that want to build muscle and improve on fitness it is vital to eat those calories, you already have a 500 cal (Recommended by MFP) deficit without any exercise.

I think these people should give you advice based on your weight loss diet plan instead of their own. People the OP is only consuming 1200 cals a day and exercising. I am assuming here that 1200 cals is already her deficit under maintenence as her profile doesnt add much physical details about her stats. OP Read my post on page 1 then when you get to this post go back and read my post on page 1 lol...

Edit: OP you should really do some research on this topic for your self! "TDGEE" even provided you a link you can start with "http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/"

Just my 2 cents!