Do you eat your workout calories? If you do are you still lo

I have been wondering this too. According to mfp i burned over 1000 calories doing my king fu class. That's a lot of eating! I was hungry after so I did eat but nowhere near that.

I think about a super athlete like Michael Phelps. I am nowhere near his fitness or workout nearly as much as he does. But I heard a news story once about what all he eats and how many calories he consumes to keep his body fueled.

That's all you need to really think about is Food is Fuel.

I don't because
A) I stop losing weight when I do and
I'm never hungry enough to eat more

I know a ton of people disagree with this and that's okay, this is just what personally works for me. You guys can hate on me all you want, but I truly believe that (at least for me) "starvation mode" is something you reach when you are at your absolute thinnest-- it just doesn't make sense to me that if you have excess fat, that your body wouldn't burn it.

I know that I lost 50 lbs in the past by not eating my calories back, and gained a ton of muscle and held at about 17.5% BF. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Most likely, this works for you because a) you are underestimating food intake or b) overestimating exercise burn or c) have your activity level set too high. Or all three. Additionaly, it could be that your metabolism has already slowed down due to low calories so you are stuck at the lower intake. These were true for me for a very long time, as well. :flowerforyou:

I rarely eat my exercise calories, but everyone's different....do what works for you

I gain weight if I eat them. Figure this is due to either underestimating calories, or, more likely, the site's own calorie information was a little too optimistic. I've recreated the exercises I do for myself and lowered the calories significantly. It's leveled out now.

I eat them back because otherwise my body is functioning on too little. If you are already eating under 1200 even that is not enough, so take away those 246 calories or whatever and it's way too low. If you net 1200 you will lose weight cos MFP has set that at the number of calories you need to net to lose weight. I'm losing weight. I count my calories weekly rather than daily (easy if you have app as it includes a graph) so I can zigzag calories a bit and my body doesn't get into a rhythm.

I don't usually eat back my exercise calories, just because it seems rather counterproductive to my system - I haven't been able to lose weight when I do that. That being said however, I do ramp up my exercise calories in anticipation of periods when I will be eating more than usual (i.e, family gatherings!)

I've done both. I am experimenting right now because I've been stuck in the same 2-3 pound weight range for over a month, after consistently losing for ten months. I know I am close to goal but I want to lose about 13-15 more pounds. So I am trying eating more. Yup. I normally eat 1400-1500 calories a day and exercise anywhere from 200-500 off depending on the day. I usually take weekends off from exercising (unless I do a 5K) and I eat more, so my calorie average over the last four to five months is between 1500-1600. So I am increasing cardio AND weight training for the month of January, increasing calories and protein, and increasing water intake. We'll see what happens. Worse case scenario I'll stay the same and have more muscle, right?

That's the only reason I work out. Just kidding, sorta.

HAHA, I am the same way! lol

I eat my calories back. I have since I started. I was losing for the first 15 pounds while eating calories back. I haven't lost as much lately, but I didn't work out enough before Christmas and ate over my calories several times.