Am I supposed to eat back my calories I burned?

Yep, eat them back! Do a search and you will find many posts with the reasons why.

think of your metabolism as a car engine. you burn fuel at your basal metabolic rate...this burns what you eat at minimum each day....you exercise, you burn more....you spend more "fuel", thus the need to keep fuel in your "tank." Empty tank, body thinks you are in starvation mode, metabolism, like a car with no fuel, slows.....and you will not see the results you are wanting to see.

I would say it depends on your goals, weight loss/no - use them as your deficit. Maintenance/yes - that way you won't have a deficit & therefore will maintain

Russ

Yes! In my opinion I would say absolutely! It's worked for me, but everyone is different. Try it for a few weeks and if it's not working try something different.

The best person to answer this question is your nutritionist. Most will do a over-the-phone appointment to give you some helpful tips. When I asked mine the same question, she suggested that I eat back 200 cals for every 30 minutes of heavy exercise. She warned that although MFP is a great site and a very helpful tool, the estimates for calories burned aren't very accurate. If you have a HRM, that's a great way to be more accurate. I don't have one, and had been eating back the amount that MFP said I had burned, and wasn't losing anything. As soon as I started using the 200 per 30 minutes, I started losing wonderfully.

Eat them back, because If you burn them, it's as if you didn't consume the 1200 in the first place because once you burn them, they're gone. It'll slow your metabolism.

I've done this for a few years and had great success with weight loss by eating them back. Good luck! :flowerforyou:

Only if you want to maintain your weight. If you want to lose weight, a 500 calorie deficit will allow you to lose 1 lb/week. Make sure you eat at least 1,200 calories a day though.

You will not maintain by eating back your exercise calories as you will still be in deficit. MFP has already allowed a 500 deficit when it sets your calories for 1lb a week, even with no exercise.

The answer is no. If you want to lose weight. Your best answer will be from a nutritionist since they know the body the best. But to eat the bonus calories will only keep you at your current weight unless you are less then 20lbs from your ideal weight then you should be eating more to fuel more intense exercises/ strength training to drop the weight. Do Not eat more with no change to your exercise.

The answer is no. If you want to lose weight. Your best answer will be from a nutritionist since they know the body the best. But to eat the bonus calories will only keep you at your current weight unless you are less then 20lbs from your ideal weight then you should be eating more to fuel more intense exercises/ strength training to drop the weight. Do Not eat more with no change to your exercise.

Not true if you are already restricting.
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.
Eat and exercise. That's easy!!

I agree it depends on your goal. If you want to be the woman who eats very little and can brag about the number on the scale, don't eat them.

If you want to be the woman who can have a healthy, normal relationship with food, have a great metabolism, and look incredible in AND out of your clothes, eat them. You might weigh more than the woman who didn't, but who the hell cares if you're in the same size clothes?

The Sonoma jeans are size 8 that I bought when I weighed 130# six years ago. That was the result of cutting calories without understanding exercise calories. Eating that little was unsustainable, so I quit and gained weight. The Arizona jeans are the size 5s I'm wearing now at 130#, having been eating my exercise calories and averaging a total of 1800-2000 calories a day while losing weight (1500+ exercise), and around 2000-2200 a day to maintain (1700+exercise).



I'm just going to C&P this from another post today...

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