Whats the point to exercise then?

Personally, I only eat back about half of my exercise calories.

But either way, even if you don't have any weight to lose, there are a bazillion benefits to exercise. It improves your cardiovascular health, prevents heart disease, builds muscle to help you more efficiently burn calories, the list goes on and on. Also, if a person lost 50 lbs JUST by changing their diet with zero exercise involved, they probably have absolutely no muscle definition. Weight loss is about 85% diet ant 15% exercise, but exercise is crucial to your overall health as well.

i usually eat back about half if im hungry some days i eat them all back but most days i have at least 200-300cals spare. i ate the back pretty much everyday last week and i lost no weight just stayed the same so i think i do need to eat alittle less to shift these last few pounds!

I eat back about half of my exercise calories.

Remember this though.

When you exercise, it revs up your body for the rest of the day. Even after your done exercising, your body (especially with weight lifting) is eating at that fat.

It's best to workout in the morning for this reason, but whatever works for you is fine.

Exercise is SO important.

I work on a cardiac floor as a nurse and I wish I could sit down with you all in a coffee shop and explain in detail why we need to workout.

If you aren't convinced, watch Forks Over Knives documentary.

It'll scare you onto your treadmill.

GOOOD luck!

While I can lose weight by diet alone (without exercise), I find that I look and feel a lot better when I exercise. I would rather look toned than look "skinny fat".

My appetite prevents me from eating an extremely low cal diet. Eating back some of the exercise calories lets me go about my day without food being ever present on my mind. It also helps prevent binge eating.

I also have to add that I'm not on a 1200 calorie diet. I'm shooting for 1600 which would be a 1 lb loss per week. When I add 400 calories for exercise that makes it much easier to meet my goal without feeling like I'm starving. It also means that if I come in a couple of hundred calories under my goal, I probably won't push my metabolism into starvation mode either.

But that's all just me, we each have to find our own way.

Personally, I don't lose weight without exercise. Even if I eat more calories, I can lose as long as I'm exercising. Plus exercise helps with your overall health. Helps boost your immune function. Just plain feels good afterwards!

I've been reading some people say eat back your exercise calories and some people say don't eat back your calories. I thought its supposed to be burn more, eat less to lose weight? If you eat back your exercise calories then why even exercise? That seems to defeat the purpose of exercise.

As was already mentioned above, MFP determined our total daily calorie goal that DOES NOT include exercise to lose 1 pound [recommended].
And after we complete an exercise and log it in, our daily calorie limit increases.

This is because MFP advising us to eat back those exercise calories.
Large deficits are not recommended, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In that healthy?
What happens is decreased lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS metabolic rate, making weight loss even harder.

The quick loss, low-calorie diets may do wonders on the front end, but once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly -- and you gain weight.
Think long term, and be wise.
Exercise intensely, but eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.

To lose weight you need to be in a healthy caloric deficit. There are 2 ways to accomplish that:

1) Set your daily caloric intake at a deficit
This is what most people do, and is how MFP is designed to work. You figure out your daily caloric need (TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your TDEE is 1800, you might set your daily calorie goal to 1400. That puts you in a caloric deficit and you will start to lose weight*. When you exercise you burn additional calories. These burned calories are not accounted for in your TDEE or the calorie goal you set based on your TDEE. So exercising increases that caloric deficit. The thing to watch here is how big that deficit gets. Every body responds differently, but the larger the deficit the worse it is for your body (the assumption is that the larger the deficit gets the harder it is to properly fuel your body). And this is why people recommend eating back exercise calories.

2) Use exercise to create the deficit
With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your TDEE. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your TDEE, and thus you end up in a deficit. The size of that deficit is dependent on your workouts. You burn 75cals walking the dog and your deficit is 75 cals. You burn 500 cals running and the deficit is 500.



*This is VERY simiplified and makes A LOT of assumptions, but is good enough for this conversation.



As with everything, there is some variance here. Every body resonds differently to diet, exercise, nutrition, etc. so there is some trial and error required to find your body's "sweet spot". Pick one of the above methods, do it for a couple of months and see what happens. Then you can make a couple of subtle changes here and there, do that for a month or two and see if you body responds better or worse. But always start with one of the above methods, then go from there.

Dieting makes you look good in your clothes. Exercise makes you look good naked.

You should only log exercise not covered in your activity level. If you entered sedentary for your lifestyle, then the calories MFP recommends are for a sedentary person. When you exercise, then you go beyond "sedentary" so you earn more calories. Plus, a session of intense exercise can continue to burn calories for hours after you stop.

The more you exercise, they more you can eat and still lose weight.