does anyone here eat their exercise calories?

I lost most of my weight eating 1200-1300 calories per day and eating most of my workout calories back, HOWEVER, I was borderline morbidly obese when I started. It still took me a full year to get this weight off.

If you haven't already, start strength training and upping your protein intake to 1g per pound of lean body mass. You need to know your body fat percentage to do this, so get that checked also. You should be able to get a rough body fat estimate from calipers or a hand scanner, though it may not be 100% accurate. If possible, try to go get a DEXA scan done. This will cost about $70-$80, but will tell you exactly your body composition. You can do that again in a few months to see the progress you've made.

If you aren't severely obese, I would highly recommend you taking a lower deficit and eating more. This combined with good strength training will help you retain your lean mass and keep your metabolism high as you lose weight. Plus, most of the weight you drop will be fat instead of muscle. This is a great thing and helps prevent plateaus along the way also.

More calories also means that your body can repair itself more readily after a strenuous workout. This is especially true for protein intake and weight training.

I would also suggest watching your sodium intake as high salt diets can make you retain excess fluids as well as be detrimental to your cardiovascular system.

My feelings on this:
* Eat a caloric deficit to lose weight.
* Exercise to gain good health.
Eating more calories - while maintaining a deficit (but a reasonable one) - does not negate the health benefits gained through exercise.
So yes, I eat my exercise calories.



... but hey, what do I know? I've only shed 130+ pounds, decreased my body fat from a whopping 56% to 22-ish%, and shed nearly 100 inches from all over my body...

I personally eat most of them almost all of the time. I've had a day or two where I didn't and I figure the leftover ones make up for days I have been over!

Yes.. Id go over everyday if I didn't lol

When I first began eating 1200 calories, I wasn't exercising. I found the 1200 to be difficult to sustain without feeling really hungry. It wasn't unusual for me to hit closer to 1300 or even 1350, but I still was losing weight. For the past two weeks, I've been using the treadmill (walking on an incline) five days per week. My physician told me to add the calories I burn to what I'm allowed to eat, so that's what I'm doing. It makes my diet much easier to follow. It feels good to come out a little below my total allowance for the day. The weight loss still is happening. I don't think eating execise calories is a bad idea. Obviously you'll lose weight faster if you don't eat them, but in the long run, eating them may help sustain dieting longer.