Eat back calories burned

Thanks. I was just reading another forum, and a heart rate monitor was recommended as being better than the MFP website. Do you agree?

MFP already builds in your deficit when you set up what you want to lose each week so any calories burned during exercise should be consumed to fuel you body for your workouts. My BMR is 2450 and I set my MFP to lose 1 lb. a week.. I consume 3200 calories a day (that is with eating my exercise calories back) and am still losing 1 to 2 lbs. a week after 31 months and 295 lbs. lost on this journey.....

That is amazing. Congrats!

MFP already builds in your deficit when you set up what you want to lose each week so any calories burned during exercise should be consumed to fuel you body for your workouts. My BMR is 2450 and I set my MFP to lose 1 lb. a week.. I consume 3200 calories a day (that is with eating my exercise calories back) and am still losing 1 to 2 lbs. a week after 31 months and 295 lbs. lost on this journey.....

Congrats on your progress. Where does MFP build in the deficit? I set my goals 2,400 it shows me what I eat lets say 2,200 and says I have 200 left. If I work out and burn 1,000 calories it tells me I have earned 1,000 calories and now I have 1,200 calories left. The theory is to eat back 50-75% so 600-750 calories.

I am very heavy - 270lbs - and my HRM (Suunto M4) gives me calorie burns for exercise about 10-15% higher than MFP - the HRM knows my weight, my max heartrate and my actual heartrate during exercise so it is probably more accurate but I log the lower figure (i.e. MFP).

If you eat back what you lost what would be the point in losing them in the first place?

I wondered the same thing, I guess its just to tone up and build muscle?

when mfp sets up your goals, the deficit is already in place. so when you exercise you make that deficit bigger.. .its not necessarily a good thing.
most plans will tell you to eat (for example) 2000 calories and burn 500 a day. to net 1500 and lose a pound a week.
mfp says "ok- you want to lose a pound a week, eat 1500 calories." "OH! you burned 500 calories, great - you need to eat those too" you still eat the same number of calories either way, you still lose 1 lb a week. mfp just leaves room for you to either not exercise (if thats your choice) or if you randomly miss a day you wont mess up your loss for the week.

MFP already builds in your deficit when you set up what you want to lose each week so any calories burned during exercise should be consumed to fuel you body for your workouts. My BMR is 2450 and I set my MFP to lose 1 lb. a week.. I consume 3200 calories a day (that is with eating my exercise calories back) and am still losing 1 to 2 lbs. a week after 31 months and 295 lbs. lost on this journey.....

Congrats on your progress. Where does MFP build in the deficit? I set my goals 2,400 it shows me what I eat lets say 2,200 and says I have 200 left. If I work out and burn 1,000 calories it tells me I have earned 1,000 calories and now I have 1,200 calories left. The theory is to eat back 50-75% so 600-750 calories.

Have a look at your goals page - you will see your maintenance calories (the amount you need to eat to stay the same weight), your daily calorie allowance and the deficit (the difference between the two).
Unless you chose "mainttain my current weight" in your initial setup, you will see the deficit here. This means that there is no need to make the deficit larger by not eating your exercise calories.

every time. i'm dialed in

I try to, I seem to be about 200 or so below everyday though, I just get to the point where I don't want to eat and I'm not going to make myself eat either. I was over once because I was sick that day and didn't get out at all. But I've only been here for a week and havent weighed myself to see if losing weight yet.

You eat them back so that your body has enough energy to do everyday things. Exercising is to get you in shape not to make it like you have eaten nothing all day.

I never eat my exercise calories back because I ALWAYS gain weight when I do and I still have enough energy to get up at 4:30 am 4 days a week to run, go to work chasing a toddler all day, come home and make dinner and clean. I don't understand how people can eat their exercise calories back without gaining.

You have to be careful with videos b/c you don't know exactly how many calories you are burning personally. The video could have the POTENTIAL to loose up to 1000 calories for the hour but probably most people will only burn 700 (for instance) A HRM could help you with this. SO to log in the full amount that the videos say you can burn and then Eating ALL those exercise calories you could be overeating. I would eat a little less 100-200 then it will give you rougly b/c you need to use some margin of error.

me!