activity calories

Hiya, I don't eat my exercise calories back.

No.

I realize that the program says you "gained" an extra amount of calories by whatever activity you did however if you're trying to lose weight IMO it's counter productive to eat back those calories. I still keep to the daily calorie amount for the amount of weight loss per week that is set for me.

The only time I "tap into" the "reserve" calories is when I know I am going to over indulge.

I usually eat back some of them and have been losing at a steady pace. Plus, if you eat too few calories, your body goes into starvation mode and you don't lose anything that way. You've gotta eat to lose as crazy as that sounds.

i don't eat to the calorie count on days I go to the gym. the problem is i'm gaining weight. my gym instructor tells me that this is normal as i'm going to the gym three times a week for an hour and half each session. but i'm worried that because i'm 'under eating' that my body really is going into 'starvation mode' like the warning tells u. would this mean i won't see results?

Check out the sticky posts (the ones with the red thumb tacks). They will tell you everything you need to know.

The short of it is, yes, eat most of them back. You wouldn't drive a car on empty...neither should you allow your body to run low on fuel.

Fat is fuel

sometimes I do sometimes I dont it just depends on how hungery I am. I ususlly work out of an evening after work and after supper so I usually dont want to eat them back.

Does anybody eat their extra calories for working out or walking or gardening etc. I am just starting and not sure about this. It is automaticly added to my daily calories but I don't really want to eat them.
Thanks

I only eat calories back from exercise I do with a heart rate monitor on my daily workouts. I never eat, or even calculate anything from regular daily activity like housework, gardening, etc.

I try not to eat back my exercise calories, however, if I've had an intense workout and feel hungry, I don't feel bad about eating some of my exercise calories. From all the research I've done, I understand you need to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. I've read a lot of conflicting opinions about this topic here on the forums, but in the end, you have to do what works for you. Just remember to always eat a healthy amount of calories each day.
Good luck!

I eat most of them back. There are a few days that I don't, just depends on how busy or hungry I am. Remember, you're calorie goals are already set at a deficit with no exercise, so if you don't eat them back the deficit is larger which sounds good. It really isn't though, it's better to lose slow and steady.

The system's designed for you to eat them back. If you don't want to eat them back daily, you should use another tool to calculate your calorie needs and manually input your calorie goal. Mixing and matching systems isn't a good idea.

For example: Let's look at me because I can run my own numbers. MFP tells me that to lose 1 lb/week it would be 1690, and eat my exercise calories back.

The calculator here: http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html -- tells me that my average daily burn is about 2700. So to lose 1 lb/week I'd eat 2200 daily and NOT eat exercise calories.

Either of these will end up with about the same results. What I should NOT do is take the 1690 MFP number and then not eat exercise calories. This'll put me with quite a bit more than my 1 lb/week loss goal -- which given that I'm 30 lbs from goal probably isn't a good idea. I want to maintain my muscle and lose the fat.