Exercise = Eat More Food?

If you are one who eats more food because you earned it, are you still losing weight?

I do and I am. This is a controversial topic on which everyone has an opinion. If my weekly loss starts to level off, I'll reconsider.

Simple as that. My question is this....when you go to the gym and do some sort of exercise you enter what you did into my fitness pal. That always increases the number of calories that you "can" eat for the day, right? Do most people actually eat more food by the end of the day "because" they exercised and earned more, or do most people just accumulate more calories but don't necessarily eat more food?

It's calories in - calories out. If you keep a steady deficit you lose weight. MFP factors in your deficit, so when you "eat back" the burned calories, your deficit is still there.

If you are one who eats more food because you earned it, are you still losing weight?

Yes.

I don't necessarily eat more food just because I "earned" it, so I can't help you with that one. But I have noticed, and this is probably a no-brainer, I eat more because I exercise. I'm just hungry due to burning so many calories during my workouts. Obviously the key is to replace those with good ones. So far my workouts have been so strenuous that I haven't exceeded my allotted amount...yet.

Yes, I eat back most, if not all, of my exercise calories. It's the only way I can survive, and I steadily lose weight.

You got it right!
I very definitely exercise so I can eat more, (OK and look and feel better too, but mostly for the food).
I usually eat almost all my exercise calories from cardio. I don't track my weight training calories and consider them "wiggle room" in case the calories for a given item may be incorrect for some reason.
You will get a huge variety of answers to your question and I hope you will find an answer that seems logical/valid for you. If you do a search you will get even more input on this hotly debated question.
Good Luck!

Train like a beast so you can eat like a beast!!

I've always eaten every last exercise calorie and still lost weight. You will find a lot of info about this if you search the forums.

Eat your exercise calories... it's not a matter of "earning" them, but more of a matter of fueling your body, since MFP sets it up for you to lose weight even without exercise.

I only eat back some, usually in the form of nuts or protein shakes.

I eat them back and I've lost 32 lbs. In the 6 months I've been on MFP I've also experienced almost 3 months of plateaus. I have recently, through research, figured out I may not have been eating enough calories...even with eating back exercise calories. And I'm upping my calories and the scale started moving again!!!

Since MFP already give you a deficit....meaning "eat these calories to lose 1 lb" then that is what you would need to eat to lose the 1 lb. If you exercise you put yourself in a bigger deficit but that doesn't always mean more weight loss. I've learned the bare minimum to eat should be no less than 1200 calories NET. I'm actually working with 1400 calories NET now and still losing!!!

You should only have about a 500 calorie deficit a day. That means the more calories you burn, the more you have to eat. Never go below 1200 calories. If you have more question, friend me or message me.

I've been a gym rat for about 10 years. During those 10 years I've managed to make the following observations:

On days where I workout, I am a lot hungrier than I am on days I don't workout. Your body will tell you when it needs extra calories, and that will happen if you workout.

When I started to watch what I eat and how much, I absolutely needed to eat back most of my calories. I would get too hungry otherwise ... and not the "my stomach is empty" kind of hungry, but the "I'm starting to get the shakes and feel light headed" kind of hungry. My body is telling me it needs more fuel because I used up so much during my workout.

I've lost a total of 20 pounds (14 since joining MFP) and I usually fall withing 200 calories (up or down) of what MFP tells me I should eat. Before I changed my goal to 1/2 pound per week from 1 pound per week, I was losing about 1.5 pounds per week.

EDIT: to be clear I eat back my calories BECAUSE I work out. I do not workout so I can eat more ... accept when I know I'm going to blow it like on Super Bowl Sunday where I worked out even more!

If you are one who eats more food because you earned it, are you still losing weight?
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I do and I am. I have been losing pretty consistently. Since Dec 17, 2011 I have lost 15 lbs.

Hell yes I eat all my calories. This girl's gotta eat Not to mention, me without a sufficient amount of food is an evil uber-beast not fit to roam among mortals. I exercise because sticking to 1200 calories a day is an exercise in will-power to which I am not equal.

Yes, it is critical to eat back some of your exercise calories (like some have said, I do not think it is critical to eat them all back, just listen to your body).

Please note: eating back exercise calories does not mean going to McDs and having a Big Mac. What you eat still matters.

You are allowed to use your exercise calories on Big Macs. Or chocolate. Or alcohol. You'll still lose weight.

Wanna see Proof?......................................... VVVVVVVVVVVVV