Should I eat my "calories burned?"

Best advice I ever had:

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

If you're looking for a healthy way to consume calories, have a half a cup of walnuts and you'll be all set. (tons of calories, but really good for you).

Wow. I love this post.

even when i was marathon training, with body composition measurements daily, and hear rate monitor constantly tracking calorie burn, i plateaued if i at my calories burned.

Do some reading by professional trainers. most will say that weight loss isn't a simple intake/output equation. forget about deficit - it's mostly about what you put into your body.

my experience supports that notion - when i dont eat calories burned, i continue weight loss - when i do - i plateau.

The primary benefit of exercise is a long term one - that is - you build strength and muscle - that will increase your metabolism over months - not days or weeks.

THink about your long term goal.

weight loss = don't eat calories burned.
building strength and increasing metabolism - eat calories burned.

Me too! I don't know why you felt the replies you got were catty though? There's some great and interesting advice here!

xxx

if you're hungry... go ahead. if not.. dont force it.

Personally, I find that I lose more weight when I eat back my calories. Good Luck!!

Doesnt eating back your calories mean your eating less one day and more the next?? So on a non-exercise day 1400 and exercise day 2000. Cant you do it over the week?? so like 4 days at 1400 and 3 days at 2000 so 11600 for the week and divide it by 7?? so approx 1650 per day??

In my experience, the concept of eating exercise calories was the holy grail!

Every other time I tried to lose weight, I just cut calories. A lot. I thought it was the simple matter of "the less you eat, the more weight you'll lose." So when my progress was slow (usually less than a half pound a week), I blamed myself. I thought, "It's because I'm getting older. It's because my metabolism is slow. It's because I'm not disciplined enough." I felt tired, hungry and deprived, but I thought that's how dieting was supposed to be. No pain, no gain, right? I thought the only way to lose more weight would be to eat even less food, and THANKFULLY, I was smart enough to realize that would be a really stupid idea. I was only eating between 700-1000 calories a day, with a cheat day on weekends. Eventually, I quit because it just wasn't worth it.

This time around, thanks to MFP and exercise calories, I NEVER felt hungry, tired or deprived. During most of my weight loss, I averaged between 1800-2000 calories (often 1500 + exercise calories), easily twice was I was eating before. My progress was right on target. Huh... guess my metabolism isn't slow after all. Guess I'm not that old. Guess I am disciplined enough! This is the only time I ever got to the point where I thought, "You know what? I really gotta start eating more. I'm getting smaller than I want!"

The best part, is that eating more, I didn't lose a lot of lean muscle mass. Most of my weight loss has been from fat. Last time I lost weight, I got down to 130# and wore a size 8. This time, I wore that size at 140#. And now at 130#, I'm a size 4. This is how those old size 8 jeans fit now: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/449570-mfp-mythbusters-losing-weight-fast-exercise-calories-girl

This is valid for "normal range" people and skinny people. For overweight and obese people the story is completely different.

For example in a very low carb diet -> ketosis what the body will burn in case of low income energy is fat 1st and then muscles.

Training very hard should be clear defined:
- training hard with long or multiple sessions but with an average HR or
- training hard with very elevated HR long or short sessions
Big differences between the two.

Again, test your body smart with food and exercise. Log everything down and over time (weeks and months) make decisions.

I'm a little confused as to what I should be doing to aid my weight loss.

MFP has me eating 1200 calories. If I eat around that but burn, say, 500, I'm only netting about 700 calories. Then, MFP says I'm going to send my body into starvation mode, which I don't want.

So, am I supposed to care about my NET calories or just focus on the 1200 intake?

Yes, for sure, or you're going to sabotage your progress.

Simply stated MFP has already figured out your total calories you need to eat per day to lose 1lb etc. a week. That's WITHOUT exercise. You'll notice that when you actually add exercise in, the calorie limit goes up. Why? Because it's telling you to eat your exercise calories. Large deficits aren't really good to do because while you will lose weight, what kind of weight will it be? In many cases you'll lose lean muscle tissue which LOWERS your metabolic rate even more. Then you have to eat even less to compensate for less of a calorie burn to continue to lose the same amount of weight each week.
Be efficient. Exercise hard and eat back the calories. The hard exercise will RAISE your metabolic rate and burn more fat at rest.