Do you eat your calories back?

Yes I do, and I've done quite well. :-) Started out at 165 and currently 125, 5'4". I do use a HRM to estimate my calorie burn, though, rather than relying on MFP or machine estimates.

I think it just depends on how you feel. Some days I eat mine back, sometimes I don't, sometimes only a little. If you're super hungry after a big workout, eat them back, and if your feeling fine, stick to your normal goal. Keep it simple I think from my past experience you can easily lose weight either way.

I do. I want to be fuelling my body properly at all times.

I always aim to be within 100 of goal.

Yup. I have a Heart Rate Monitor so I can know what I am burning and feel good about eating the calories back. I have found that MFP way overestimates your expenditure. If I am not hungry, I do not force myself to eat them but I find most of the time I do eat them all. On days I do not work out, once a week maybe, I find that I am starving on 1200 so I usually eat 14-1600 still. I think your metabolisim speeds up, even on down days, as you get more fit. Thus, 1200 is not enough for me anymore, makes me binge actually.

I think it really depends on how you are dieting. If you are eating at 1200 calories a day then absoulutely eat every single one back. If you have your calorie goal over 1200 I think it's ok not to eat them all back if you aren't hungry as long as you net 1200. That is how I always did it anyway.

That said, I am no longer eating mine because I'm now doing the Spike diet which operates more on a weekly defecit than a daily thing. I eat at my bmr 3 days a week (1530 for me) and those are the days I do most of my strength training. Then 3 days a week I eat at bmr minus 500 (but never below 1200 so I set my goal to 1200 those days and try to get a little cardio in to bring me under. If I don't I still eat at 1200 and don't worry about it). Then one day a week (Sundays) I spike to 2x bmr ( roughly 3000 calories for me). It isn't for everyone I'm sure but I am loving the day to enjoy myself and find the weekdays much easier knowing my fun day is coming. And most importantly it finally broke my plateua and has me losing again. All this just to say that I no longer eat my exercise calories back because with this plan I don't need to. The spike day helps keep my metabolism humming and I won't go into starvation mode. The exercise is just icing on the cake...

Edited to add: If you are following MFP strictly as it is intended and using their calculations and suggestions then you should be eating back your exercise calories. Or most of them anyway.

NOPE-and it has worked for me!

Every BODY is different and will respond differently. When I was losing my weight I had to go under 1200 calories to lose. At 1200 for 30 days got me nowhere. I lost body fat and was never in starvation mode. I work out 6 days a week-circuit training with weights and running 6.2 miles daily. Energy and Appetite control was 100%. Now I am in maintenance mode.

find what works for YOU!

Most times I dont because I get a helluva lotta calories to eat for the day to begin with so...I will say no! Although I have gone up tp 2000 calories before...yet that's still below my deficit!!! SMH what to do, what to do!?!

Yeah absolutely. I'm doing a LOT of exercise, so if I didn't eat them back, I'd really suffer and wouldn't be able to train as hard.

Saying that, I'm only in my second week, so I'll report back on my next weigh in... it might tell a different tale!

this confuses me. i thought to lose weight, you have to burn more then you take in, so if i were to eat the calories i burnt off i wouldnt lose the weight. i try not to eat them back, but if im hungry i will have a snack, but i dont eat them all back

Your body burns calories all day long just keeping you alive. There is a certain amount it uses even if you were in a coma in the hospital. Actually rolling out of bed in the morning and going about your daily activities means you burn even more. MFP calculates an estimation of what your body uses during the course of a normal day based on your height, weight, age, gender, and the activity level you programmed in. If MFP calculated that your body uses about 2200 calories per day through normal activity and you tell it you want to lose 1 lb per week, it does the math for you and tells you to eat 1700 per day to lose that 1 lb per week. That puts you eating 500 per day less than what your body burns through normal activity and thus you expect to lose about 1 lb per week since 3500 calories make up a lb of fat. The 500 is your 'deficit'. If you eat your 1700 as directed by MFP and then you exercise and burn an additional 500 calories, you have now made your deficit even larger (1000 now since you ate 500 less than your body uses AND you burned off an extra 500). So MFP says 'wait, you want to lose 1 lb per week, so you need to keep your deficit at about 500, so now that you've burned 500 extra calories through exercise, you need to eat that back to keep your deficit the same as you requested.' Basically MFP does the work for you, if it tells you to eat a certain amount, you're supposed to be eating it (or at least close to it). There may be exceptions if you have a LARGE amount of weight to lose, or if you're very close to goal and trying to get there just a bit faster, or if you are not confident in the calorie burn being listed (for example if you have to rely on MFP or machine estimates rather than a device that's generally considered to be more accurate, like a heartrate monitor or bodybugg/bodymediafit armband).

I thought the same thing...........I figure if you ate the calories back then you would stay the size that you are
I guess I go eat 1200 more calories then :-(
this confuses me. i thought to lose weight, you have to burn more then you take in, so if i were to eat the calories i burnt off i wouldnt lose the weight. i try not to eat them back, but if im hungry i will have a snack, but i dont eat them all back

Ok this makes me feel a little better my calorie goal that mfp gave me was 1200 most of the time I eat 850-900 .......and I am usually not hungry, I eat 5 times a day but its usally low calories foods such as spinach, celery, cucumbers etc......

You have to be careful with this. If you consistently eat a considerable less than your caloric net goal your body can go into starvation mode.

Once a week it's OK to not eat your calories back but otherwise you should aim for about 100-200 calories under your net daily goal. This will accelerate your weight loss but protect you from starvation mode

Interesting.. I eat this way and am always scared my body is going to go into starvation mode. I am never hungry and sometimes find it hard to eat the 1400 calories I am supposed to let alone the calories I have earned from working out.

this confuses me. i thought to lose weight, you have to burn more then you take in, so if i were to eat the calories i burnt off i wouldnt lose the weight. i try not to eat them back, but if im hungry i will have a snack, but i dont eat them all back

Your body burns calories all day long just keeping you alive. There is a certain amount it uses even if you were in a coma in the hospital. Actually rolling out of bed in the morning and going about your daily activities means you burn even more. MFP calculates an estimation of what your body uses during the course of a normal day based on your height, weight, age, gender, and the activity level you programmed in. If MFP calculated that your body uses about 2200 calories per day through normal activity and you tell it you want to lose 1 lb per week, it does the math for you and tells you to eat 1700 per day to lose that 1 lb per week. That puts you eating 500 per day less than what your body burns through normal activity and thus you expect to lose about 1 lb per week since 3500 calories make up a lb of fat. The 500 is your 'deficit'. If you eat your 1700 as directed by MFP and then you exercise and burn an additional 500 calories, you have now made your deficit even larger (1000 now since you ate 500 less than your body uses AND you burned off an extra 500). So MFP says 'wait, you want to lose 1 lb per week, so you need to keep your deficit at about 500, so now that you've burned 500 extra calories through exercise, you need to eat that back to keep your deficit the same as you requested.' Basically MFP does the work for you, if it tells you to eat a certain amount, you're supposed to be eating it (or at least close to it). There may be exceptions if you have a LARGE amount of weight to lose, or if you're very close to goal and trying to get there just a bit faster, or if you are not confident in the calorie burn being listed (for example if you have to rely on MFP or machine estimates rather than a device that's generally considered to be more accurate, like a heartrate monitor or bodybugg/bodymediafit armband).

^^^^^^

THIS!!!!! Every time. I've just come back from holiday (I've been maintaining for 4-5 months) and to shift the pound I gained I am on my BMR cals 1277 plus all the exercise cals I can get! I ate over 2000 calories today. : ) This is still a deficit for me because in maintenance I need to eat 1650 cals PLUS exercise not to lose weight.

I've heard that you should, but I also heard that you shouldn't.

My daily goal is 1300 (MFP said it should be 1200 but I was staaaaaaaarving!) and I burned about 900 calories yesterday. If I didn't eat any of the calories back I would've died (okay, not really died). That being said - I didn't eat ALL of the calories back (but about 200...).

Thoughts? I'm curious to see what others have to say.

I like this strategy. Eat what you need to feel satisfied, and let the rest go.

what's important is that it is working for YOU!

Okay if I get 2590 calories to eat to begin with and everyday I usually eat 1400-1700 then I go workout and burn 1000 calories how in the world am I supposed to eat 3500 calories??!!! That's a whole pound yet im still supposed to lose weight?! I dont think so!! Can somebody help me with this because im not understanding now!! *Lost*

You've got a lot going on here that's making it harder for you to do what we're talking about - you have over 100 lbs to lose, this means your body uses more calories during the day than a lot of us that are closer to our goal weights already and you burn more calories during your workouts than smaller people who already have lower calorie goals than you. (it takes more calories for say a 250 lb body to maintain that weight than for a 150 lb body to maintain that weight, and also generally it takes more energy to move a 250 lb body than a 150 lb body so heavier people often get really large exercise calorie burns compared to smaller people.) So you're starting out with a higher number and then your bigger calorie burns are making it even larger. Mathematically, yes, you should be able to eat that amount and still lose weight. But practically speaking, since you have a good deal of weight to lose you might be able to just eat lower than your MFP goals and start out losing the weight faster than the MFP recommendation for awhile. Do you have your profile set to 1 lb per week or 2 lbs per week? MFP automatically shows this little 'recommended' comment next to the 1 lb per week goal regardless of your starting weight, if you set your goal to 1 lb per week b/c of that, go back in and change your goal to 2 lbs per week which will drop your daily calorie goal a bit lower. Also, if you're entering your workouts and having to go by the numbers MFP gives you, I can't blame you for not eating all of that back, a lot of people have found MFP really overestimates calorie burn when they compare to their heartrate monitors.

I am so confused how this is a topic that people don't get.