attention! all who eat back your exercise calories

oook.
I have always been on the " I only eat 1200 calories a day" side of the fence.
I have read the msg boards,watched people debate and call each other all kinds of silly things.
It is not my point to debate which is right or wrong. I would like all who DO eat back your exercise calories to tell me why they do, and how well it has worked for them
a little back round history on me.
I'm 23, 5'8 and 148lbs. measurments of 34,28,35 highest weight 168lbs lowest 128lbs
I have muscular arms and legs but that little belly is driving me nuts!
I eat between 12-1400 calories a day and I do not eat any sugar but fruit and some dairy ( stomach issues)
I workout HARD in the gym everyday, I follow p90x, lift some extra weights on top of that and run about 3 miles.
I also walk everywhere. It amounts to about (as mfp says) about 1000 calories a day burned.
NOW. i'm wondering if the last 10lbs won't budge because i'm not eating ENOUGH.
If this was true for you and you began loosing weight when you started eating more please give a girl some help
I'm terrified that if I eat more i'm going to gain a bunch of weight.
please help!
and please, be gentle!

I eat my exercise cals back, because unlike any other diet sites I personally know of, MFP doesn't count exercise until you actually do it and log it. I work out six times a week, for an hour or just under that and bike/walk for transportation. According to MFP, my activity level is set to lightly active and then when add in my workouts, I get the right amount of cals I need to not only lose weight, but fuel my body.

And I will say its worked. I have been working out for years. Workouts aren't my issue. Apparently listening to my body was the issue, because this baby weight wouldn't budge because I ate healthy foods, and did so when I was hungry and was maintaining. So I started eating what MFP told me I could have cal wise, and I dropped 1.6 lbs last week, after being on here for only one week, even though the only thing I changed was logging my food and making sure that defecit was there via MFPs calculations.

Because without eating my exercise calories, I wouldn't have the energy to work out the way I do.

I used to think, "Just eat less and the weight will come off," too. It didn't work that way for me. Eating the RIGHT amount did. Too little didn't work, too much didn't work. Having too large of a calorie deficit meant that I lost too much muscle and not enough fat, and ended up keeping my muffin top and back fat that I wanted to shed so badly.

The results of eating too little vs eating enough: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/494091-i-just-don-t-care-anymore

There's two ways to calculate your calorie goal. One is to take an average of the total amount of calories you'll burn - your BMR, your normal daily activity and what you burn when you exercise, then take your deficit off that. I typically burn about 2200 calories a day, so if I wanted to lose a pound a week, I'd knock 500 calories off that and eat around 1700 a day, and not count my exercise at all.

MFP doesn't factor your exercise into your calorie goal unless and until you do it. So rather than give me 1700 calories to lose a pound a week, MFP would give me, it would calculate my daily calories based on my BMR and normal daily activity, then subtract 500 calories from that, and give me around 1300 calories. Then I'd go for a 45 minute run and burn about 400 calories, and MFP would add that back on and I'd end up with... the same 1700 calories a day.

It's the same math, just with numbers added in at different times.

If you don't want to bother with exercise calories, you should at very least put yourself as "very active" on here. Better if you use another site to calculate your TDEE and use that as your calorie goal.

oook.
I have always been on the " I only eat 1200 calories a day" side of the fence.
I have read the msg boards,watched people debate and call each other all kinds of silly things.
It is not my point to debate which is right or wrong. I would like all who DO eat back your exercise calories to tell me why they do, and how well it has worked for them
a little back round history on me.
I'm 23, 5'8 and 148lbs. measurments of 34,28,35 highest weight 168lbs lowest 128lbs
I have muscular arms and legs but that little belly is driving me nuts!
I eat between 12-1400 calories a day and I do not eat any sugar but fruit and some dairy ( stomach issues)
I workout HARD in the gym everyday, I follow p90x, lift some extra weights on top of that and run about 3 miles.
I also walk everywhere. It amounts to about (as mfp says) about 1000 calories a day burned.
NOW. i'm wondering if the last 10lbs won't budge because i'm not eating ENOUGH.
If this was true for you and you began loosing weight when you started eating more please give a girl some help
I'm terrified that if I eat more i'm going to gain a bunch of weight.
please help!
and please, be gentle!

I ate my calories back since 1200 is not by any means a high calorie diet. My body and my muscles needed enough fuel to heal and to not store fat. I went from a size 14 to a size 6 sometimes 4 by eating healthy and working out from 1-2 hours at least three times a week. Since I’ve hit my goal I’ve increased my calorie intake to maintain and get a bit more defined.

Work outs where spinning at least three times a day, yoga and free weights at home.
And I didn't lose much weight until recently. So don't look at the scale, look at sizes..

Because MFP tells me to and I do what it tells me to do ... 'nuff said!

I do.
Because there was a user here when I was new, her name was _________irrelevant. And she lost like 138lbs. She told me to eat them. So I listened.

And then LOOK what happened!!! ___________________________VVVVVVV

You have to find what works for you. I burn anywhere from 300 - 5000 a day depending on my training schedule. I usually just eat the same amount every day, around 1800 calories so some days i'm above my limits, some days I'm below.

Yes I eat my exercise calories

Reason - I dont want to be weak and skinny - that is all

I feel really ill if I don't eat my exercise calories.

I eat back my exercise calories as well. At first, I was also hesitant. I figured if I ate 1200 calories, my body was getting what it needed despite any workouts (and I work out burning between 1000-2000+ calories daily). I decided to give this whole "eating back exercise calories" thing a shot a couple weeks ago. I honestly still have trouble eating back all of them, but I'm a lot closer and netting a lot higher than I was (I was SUPER in the negatives prior to that)... And guess what? I went from losing 1lb a week or two.... to losing 3-4lbs PER WEEK. Crazy stuff!

It keeps your metabolism up, on top of giving your body EVERYTHING it needs. I also feel more nourished! I'm not hungry all the time, and I feel less restricted which is awesome! PLUS, I am losing even more! It's a win-win!

I eat them so as I lose weight I don't lose as much muscle as I would only netting less than 1800. Netting too low will result in a loss of a large % of lean muscle. 1200 cals isn't enough for most people on days they don't exercise, when you add exercise you need even more.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.

FYI: My 17 month old son eats about 1200 cals/day, and he weighs 24lbs.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539912-why-eating-exercise-calories-is-so-important?error_user_id=17725808&error_username=lovemissheather

this also might help

same, i usually eat my earned points, however my trainer tells me I shouldn't. Otherwise I'm too tired and hungry. Is this the norm I wonder??

simply put if I don't eat them back. I'm hungry lol plus post work out after tearing at my muscles and body they need the nutrients to repair

BumP