To eat your exercise calories or not... that is the ??

Okay so for the last 3 weeks I've been getting yelled at cause I'm having a hard time eating 1200 calories. Then on top of that I'm supposed to eat what I get back from exercizing.......seriously? So this week I did and guess what.......I didn't lose!!! I gained .4 of a lb, but I gained. ugh!!!!!! So, no I'm not gonna do it again.

You need to give upping your calories more than 1 week - your body can take a couple of weeks to 'adapt' to the higher calories. Also, gaining .4 of a lb is nothing - it is most likely water weight. You have to have eaten 200 calories a day above maintenance to have a gain of that amount of fat.

I eat back my calories and am on a 1230 calorie diet. Yes, my ticker is correct - I just hit the 50# weight loss this week. I lose an average of 1.8 pounds per week. I should note that I wear a heart rate monitor that has a calorie counter built in. I also delete 100 calories from my calories burned, assuming that this is approximately what I would've burned just by being alive. If my HRM says that I burned 450 calories in a 1 hour workout, then I consider it to be 350 calories. Then, I eat those calories. I sometimes go a little over 1230 calories on my off-gym days because it takes about 2 days for my body to react to calorie-need changes, but not too far over.

You will lose weight faster if you don't eat back your calories, but personally I find that I have more energy to perform better at the gym if I allow myself that extra food, which usually consists of nuts, whole grain crackers or string cheese. And, I'm not as likely to binge.

Good luck and be well.

maybe you should drink them!

If I burn 400-600 calories swimming that puts me my goal at over 2000 for the day so I don't eat all of them back just because I find it really difficult to eat healthy while doing it, sure I could pick up a couple of chocolate bars but that wouldn't be good.

If it's 300 or less when I don't swim but use the treadmill, I need those calories and I most often do eat almost all of them back with healthy foods.

On days I don't exercise I sometimes go over. Like today, today I was just starving all day for some reason.

I'm set at losing one pound a week, it's only my second week though.

for me it is there as an option. I do not normally eat them back, but if I have a special night out planned that involves food I will get in extra calorie burn so that I can eat them back that one day and not blow my progress out of the water.

Been hearing a lot about eating back your calories on this site. I am supposed to have 1200 calories a day according to this site and I burn on average 1000 calories a day at the gym (according to the machine), according to this site I ate something like 1800 calories. Still didn't eat it all back and I think i exaggerated on some of the calories in some of the food I ate but tonight I feel like a complete pig. I ate way too much! Not something I want to be doing everyday

Here is my OPINION !!!!!!! Im not sure why some people seem to take it personal if you stray from this sites recommendations. There are a million OPINIONS and very little FACTS on this subject. Weight loss is simple math. Calories in and Calories out. Beyond that, there is no real exact science, just opinions. There are a million strategies to losing weight. Everyones body is different and reacts differently to diet and excercise. Find what works for you and adjust your calories according to how your body is feeling. You want eat clean, build lean muscle and allow your body to recover. I keep hearing that you will lose muscle if you have a low calorie diet. From everything I have read that isnt entirely accurate. Only in extreme cases of starvation. So dont starv yourself. HAHA. Good luck.

i like this opinion. ^

The concept here is that MFP calculates a calorie deficit based on your numbers and goals (TDEE, target loss per week, etc.). So ignoring exercise, if you eat exactly what MFP recommends, you would lose the weight you determined in your goals.

Exercise is for fitness, building muscle, etc. It is not so critical for weight loss as really weight loss is based on the calorie deficit as mentioned above.

In general, most recommendations say you should lose no more than 1 or 2 pounds a week to ensure good health and sustainability.

So, in concept, if you exercise above your general daily activity level, you will create a larger calorie deficit than what is calculated by MFP and you would then lose weight faster than you indicated in your goals. Since that may be unhealthy, the concept is that you eat back those exercise calories in order to maintain a healthy weight loss pace. You would still have a calorie deficit.

You don't waste your time having exercised - it is never wasted - as you would have improved your overall fitness.

There is also a complicating factor in the concept of "plateauing" or going into "starvation mode" if you don't eat enough calories. There is lots of debate about whether or not this is a real thing, but in any case, it is really not healthy to have too much of a calorie deficit.

But how you apply this is and how much of a calorie deficit is too much is really up to you. As you can see, lots of people eat all of their exercise calories back and succeed. Lots of people eat some of their exercise calories back and succeed. Lots of people eat none of their exercise calories back and succeed.

It is important to understand the concept, then you can work out what works best for you.

MPF calculates your calorie intake, or in this case your doctor did.... so as someone said earlier one reason to eat it back so your body doesnt go into starvation mode and start shutting down.

If you did 500 calories worth of exercise and were only on a 1100 calorie diet, i would try to eat at least some of it back.

Generally weight loss is about 2/3 diet and 1/3 exercise... but personally with the way my body seems to function, it is definitely 3/4 diet, 1/4 exercise...

i have experimented with my body chemestry by eating back all my calories for a fortnight, but i dont seem lose as much weight as if i did no workout and only ate what MFP suggested.

therefore now i try to only eat back 75% of my exercise calories to stay in the green... have some days where i am still 300-400 calories in the red when my concentration lapses... but most of the time stay in the green...

One more thing i would like to add is eating your exercise calories is not a different concept because you are trying to lose weight. It would be the same concept if you were trying to maintain.

Essentially, the more your body burns, the more fuel it requires. Once we learn to listen to our bodies better, we will feel the need for more food (hungrier) when we burn more calories and feel the need for less when we burn less.

The concept doesn't change just because you are trying to impose a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.

The majority of the people who want you to eat them back see no other option as okay or decent (and they tend to show this with anger). Asking this question is like opening a can of worms. If I exercise off 700 calories I'll eat like 1300-1400 that day instead of 1200. It doesn't matter to me...I just eat when I'm hungry. I don't try to eat them back or not (but I never eat all of them). There is a lot of conflicting advice (and it's not because we who don't eat them back don't get math). What works for me may not work for you and what works for Jane may not work for John. Experiment around and see what helps you the best. Just be careful not to overestimate burned and underestimate consumed. Also, know that MFP over calculates calories burned.

All I'm going to say is that inches are coming off like butter and the scale is dropping with me not eating them back. And to the haters, I'm not only losing muscle and I'm not a sack of fat and bones. I am more toned than ever from my exercises and diet.

The majority of the people who want you to eat them back see no other option as okay or decent (and they tend to show this with anger). Asking this question is like opening a can of worms. If I exercise off 700 calories I'll eat like 1300-1400 that day instead of 1200. It doesn't matter to me...I just eat when I'm hungry. I don't try to eat them back or not (but I never eat all of them). There is a lot of conflicting advice (and it's not because we who don't eat them back don't get math). What works for me may not work for you and what works for Jane may not work for John. Experiment around and see what helps you the best. Just be careful not to overestimate burned and underestimate consumed. Also, know that MFP over calculates calories burned.

All I'm going to say is that inches are coming off like butter and the scale is dropping with me not eating them back. And to the haters, I'm not only losing muscle and I'm not a sack of fat and bones. I am more toned than ever from my exercises and diet.

I'm convinced :-)

The majority of the people who want you to eat them back see no other option as okay or decent (and they tend to show this with anger). Asking this question is like opening a can of worms. If I exercise off 700 calories I'll eat like 1300-1400 that day instead of 1200. It doesn't matter to me...I just eat when I'm hungry. I don't try to eat them back or not (but I never eat all of them). There is a lot of conflicting advice (and it's not because we who don't eat them back don't get math). What works for me may not work for you and what works for Jane may not work for John. Experiment around and see what helps you the best. Just be careful not to overestimate burned and underestimate consumed. Also, know that MFP over calculates calories burned.

All I'm going to say is that inches are coming off like butter and the scale is dropping with me not eating them back. And to the haters, I'm not only losing muscle and I'm not a sack of fat and bones. I am more toned than ever from my exercises and diet.

Great .......I like this......

The concept here is that MFP calculates a calorie deficit based on your numbers and goals (TDEE, target loss per week, etc.). So ignoring exercise, if you eat exactly what MFP recommends, you would lose the weight you determined in your goals.

Exercise is for fitness, building muscle, etc. It is not so critical for weight loss as really weight loss is based on the calorie deficit as mentioned above.

In general, most recommendations say you should lose no more than 1 or 2 pounds a week to ensure good health and sustainability.

So, in concept, if you exercise above your general daily activity level, you will create a larger calorie deficit than what is calculated by MFP and you would then lose weight faster than you indicated in your goals. Since that may be unhealthy, the concept is that you eat back those exercise calories in order to maintain a healthy weight loss pace. You would still have a calorie deficit.

You don't waste your time having exercised - it is never wasted - as you would have improved your overall fitness.

There is also a complicating factor in the concept of "plateauing" or going into "starvation mode" if you don't eat enough calories. There is lots of debate about whether or not this is a real thing, but in any case, it is really not healthy to have too much of a calorie deficit.

But how you apply this is and how much of a calorie deficit is too much is really up to you. As you can see, lots of people eat all of their exercise calories back and succeed. Lots of people eat some of their exercise calories back and succeed. Lots of people eat none of their exercise calories back and succeed.

It is important to understand the concept, then you can work out what works best for you.

Very well put. I like this. I also eat all my exercise calories and have shrunk from a size 08 to a size 06 in the past three months.

Sometimes, as long as it's all peachy keen at the end of the week.

I burned almost 1200 calories in exercise today, and there was no way I was going to eat that much plus my net of 1560 all in one day. But I do try and keep my weekly net goals pretty damn near 1560. Our bodies don't do a tally at 10:00pm every night to decide whether to hold on to excess weight depending on what we consumed in that day only. I netted just over 1000 calories today, but I'm sure that I will make up the other 500 some calories in the 6 days ahead.