Do you always eat the calories you earn??

Each and every single last one of them... It helped me lose the 40 pounds I gained after I had my babies and now I've maintained that weight for almost a year... thank god it works for me... I can't imagine not eating the 3000-4000 calories I burn a week!!! I guess it's different for everyone...

That's a lie, isn't it?
Your diary is public and you don't eat your calories back.
On Saturday you had only 2 meals and 1,201 calories left! on friday 626 cal, on Wednesday 1,574 cal and so on...

Each and every single last one of them... It helped me lose the 40 pounds I gained after I had my babies and now I've maintained that weight for almost a year... thank god it works for me... I can't imagine not eating the 3000-4000 calories I burn a week!!! I guess it's different for everyone...

That's a lie, isn't it?
Your diary is public and you don't eat your calories back.
On Saturday you had only 2 meals and 1,201 calories left! on friday 626 cal, on Wednesday 1,574 cal and so on...

WOW!!!! :noway: Thats pretty crappy. :explode: Glad to see your diary is private so nobody can see, and you are going to attack somebody like that. you should be ashamed, she knows what she is doing, and she does not have to explain to anybody her methods for each day! Keep doing what works for you, and dont let people like this bother you!

I come on MFP--people tell me to eat my calories back. I go to the gym and my trainer tells me to stay at my daily caloric goal and to replace my evening meal with a protein shake (which I did not do yesterday--it was a "cheat" day, although I stayed below calories burned). Some days, like yesterday, I burn so many calories that my body pretty much tells me, "Eat or else." Other days, I don't feel as if I can poke another bite of food down my gullet.

If it weren't for my 1.3% body fat loss since last week--I'd totally lose my dieting mind.

This is why you should eat them back...

First off, you should know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). That's the amount of calories your body needs just to keep all your organs functioning... your lungs breathing, your heart beating, your kidneys and liver filtering, your spleen doing... whatever it is spleens do. It's what you'd burn if you were completely at rest, as if you were in a coma. The second you wake up, the second you get out of bed, you burn more than that. Your BMR plus the amount of calories you burn in a normal day, is your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

You need to eat less than your TDEE to lose weight. If you go into your "goals" page - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals - it will tell you what your body burns from normal daily activity. As a lightly active, 5'5" 39 year old weighing 133#, my BMR is only 1,279, but my TDEE is 1730.

Generally speaking... If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal (1000 calorie deficit). If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal (750 calorie deficit). If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal (500 calories). If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal (500-250). If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal (250).

If I wanted to lose one pound a week (in theory... I know I can't lose that much now and it would put me below my BMR), I'd eat 1230. That's 500 calories less than 1730. If I exercise like I did Friday, burning about 400 calories, my TDEE for the day is 2130. If I only ate 1230, my calorie deficit for the day would no longer be 500 calories, it would be 900, and that's way, way, way too much.

With too large of a calorie deficit, your body thinks, "Hey! What the hell are you doing to me?" It might decide to hold onto your fat. It might decide to slow down your other body functions as a way to preserve energy (ie, slow your metabolism). It might decide to use your muscle for fuel.

That's what happened to me when I ate low calorie and didn't understand that increased activity demands increased calories. Years ago, at 130#, I was skinnyfat with a muffin top and backfat rolls, and wore a size 8. This time around, eating enough to preserve my muscle mass, I'm a little more than 130# (133# at last check) and in a size 2 or 4. And as you can tell by my photos, there's no backfat or muffin top. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/449570-mfp-mythbusters-losing-weight-fast-exercise-calories-girl

My understanding is that it really depends on how much you have to lose. If you are overweight then you can have a higher deficit and so not eating them back is an option as your body has the fat to feed off, if you are close to your target weight, say 20lbs or less, then you should eat them as you need to maintain a smaller deficit to ensure you are losing fat and not lean mass.

I only have 10lbs to lose and when I wasn't eating them back I lost NOTHING, now I am eating them all back I am steadily losing.