Eat back calories burned

i do. i dont always eat them back on the day of the exercise - sometimes i just cant... but i always even it out by the end of the week.

I try really hard to do it because I want to lose the weight properly and not gain it back (58 lbs in 18 months so far. 13 to go. Woo hoo!). That being said, I'm still about 800 calories short today and I feel done - but I'm sure I'll make it up over the weekend because I'm planning on going out to eat.

Not everyday.

Some days, after a typical 800 or so cals of exercise, I'm short by up to 500-600 cals.
But I do have one planned "cheat day" per week where I intentionally splurge by 10-30% of my caloric goals for the day.

It works for me.

Hell yes, I don't see the point in depriving my body of nutrition unnecessarily.

I lost 20kg last year (about 46 pounds) and have since lost another 2 kg, although I'm pretty much maintaining at a healthy weight now. I've always eaten my exercise cals - not every single one, every day but they usually balance out over the week.

In Jan 2011, I set out to change to healthier eating habits and to find a strategy that would let me lose weight and then maintain that loss. A key part of this for me was about finding something that is sustainable. Like lots of others I've lost weight in the past but have never kept it off because I didn't set up good long term habits. Eating at a really big calorie deficit (which is the effect of not eating your exercise cals) was never going to be sustainable for me, so I didn't see the point in starting out this way.

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

I know that your body needs a certain amount of calories to work properly. If I eat what this site tells me to. I will be eating 2135 calories a day. I have a hard time eating 1400. So my question would be. If burn 800. Calories from my workout. Why am I eating those back when it takes 3500 calories to lose one pound

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?

To be fit. You already have a healthy deficit built into your daily calorie allowance, without exercise. Creating a bigger deficit is not necessarily better and does not necessarily mean you will lose weight faster. When you lose weight you should exercise (some sort of weight/resistance training along with cardio) in order to maintain your lean muscle mass. Maintaining as much muscle mass as you can when losing is a good thing because muscle burns more calories than fat (and you'll look better once you lose more weight than if you hadn't worked and maintained those muscles). If you lose weight very quickly you can lose lean muscle as well. Some will be lost with weight loss, but you want to minimize it. Losing weight more slowly while incorporating exercise (not just cardio) will help retain more lean muscle mass than losing weight quickly, so you should eat back at least some exercise cals (leaving some room for error) to keep your deficit healthy. At least, that's the way I understand it. Someone can correct me on the whole muscle thing if I'm wrong.

Whoops! I meant I do strength training three times a week! The other exercises are cardio!

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.