Are we supposed to eat our exercise calories?!

In a nutshell, yes, you should. However, it depends how you've set your original deficit up. The key issue is not to have a deficit that is too excessive.

I have been aiming at 1750. My understanding is that dropping more than 300-500 calories a day isn't the best idea anyway. Slower is better and more likely to be sustainable. If I am a lot under for the day I will have a snack to bring me into my 300-500 below range. The cool thing about that is I am slowly and sustainably losing the weight (8kgs in 5mths) and not really feeling like I am having a hard time. There have been a couple of days where I have bought a small pack of potato chips to bring my range up! :-)

I am not quite understanding how that would work then....

Because the calorie goal set by MFP already includes a defict from your daily calorie intake, so you would lose weight even if you did no exercise

Have a read of the stickied threads at the top of this forum to understand how MFP works.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1

Basically - you have given your numbers to MFP who should have calculated out the appropriate intake for you (you may need to tweak it). If you have this set to lose 2lbs a week then if you were to do no exercise and eat by that regime you should lose 2lbs a week.

Therefore, if you do exercise, you are effectively changing the numbers.

The calculation goes Cals in - Cals burned in the day = surplus/deficit of cals.

Since we know what the deficit should be (in your case 1000) then cals in - cals burned should always = 1000 deficit.

If you do exercise then you need to eat the matching calories to keep the equation in balance.

Hope that makes sense.

I never eat them back. Not even after a 1700kcal workout like yesterday.
I still lost 40kg, and still lose 3-4kg (7-9 pounds) per month. See what works for you and stick with it :-)

I have a limit of 1800 calories a day. I usually eat about 1400 or so. But I exercise enough to burn off about 500 calories a day. I know that one pound of fat equals 3500 calories so by creating a 3500 a week calorie deficit in eating, I will lose 1lb a week. Exercising off 3500 calories a week will help me lose another pound a week. I keep seeing though, that we are supposed to eat our exercise calories.. How will I lose then? Help?

Okay - first you need to understand that your body burns calories all day long, even at rest. The number of calories you burn each day for you to merely exist is your BMR. Your TDEE is your BMR *plus* exercise and any physical activity (for example, you may work a physical job and do a lot of activity, that is factored into your TDEE.. IF you are sedentary however, this will be lower).

When you sign up for MFP, you input your data in and it calculates your TDEE based on your weight/age/activity level (eg sedentary, lightly active, etc). It does not factor exercise into this equation. It then will give you a figure of calories to eat each day (before exercise). To lose a lb, you should create a deficit of 3500. If you have set MFP up to lose 1lb per week, then it will subtract 500 calories per day from your TDEE and give you a figure. When you add exercise, it adds those additional calories burned to your TDEE. If you don't eat those calories, you've created a bigger deficit than 3500 calories per week.

So - in summary, you don't need to eat your exercise calories back but be aware that you are creating a larger deficit than the one recommended by MFP. This may slow your metabolism (your BMR) when your body goes to use protein from your muscle instead of fat and you end up with a high body fat %.

It's realistic and recommended to aim for 1lb per week depending on how much you weigh.

One of the things I learned the hard way is...If loosing weight is controled by energy balance...then before you attempt to utilize anything here....you need to get your measurment system right. Some of the generic reccomendations on this site have folks either over reporting exercise calories or under reporting food calories....then folks hit a plataeu, and the generic answer is eat your exercise calories back!.

My advice is check to make sure you have the whole concept of energy balance right in the first place.

For instance.... unless you are genetically gifted...the calorie burn for exercise reported here are pretty much taken from university studies done on athletes....they are inherently innaccurate for at least 35% of the people here! For example...this AM I went on a 1 hr 45 min Bike Ride at 13.5 mph.....Calories determined via HRM...500, calories determined via MFP=1265 an error of 150%...so If i did this daily and "ate my exercise calories back" I would GAIN 1 lb per week! (Ask me how I know this...Arrgh!)

Same with food....if you eat very simple bland meals like Grilled skinnless chicken, baked Yams w/o butter, and steamed vegges, you would likely be dead on with food reporting(calories in). But if you eat REAL food....Like Pasta dishes, Turkey Meatloaf, Meatballs, sandwhitches with condiments or on artesian breads.....You must determine the actual macronutrient content and serving size of the dish to your exacting recipe. Using "generic recipes" found on this site will have inherent error. This is the main reason that Bodybuilders eat very bland diets and slam down all these MRP shakes....its easy to count calories and macronutrients with simple and engineered foods!

My other Rant is with the TDEE....Your BMR x F, where F is a factor depending on your activity...1.2 for sendentary, 1.3 for active ect....

Here is the problem....If you work out 5-6 days a week and use that as justification to multiply BMR by 1.5 or 1.6.....THEN also add exercise calories to your calculated TDEE and THEN eat them back...you are eating back calories that are already accounted for! So you will plataeu or gain weight.

Unless you are a Roofer, Landscaper, construction worker, Carpenter, Painter, ditch digger ect...most of us should be using 1.2 or 1.3, then adding MEASURED exercise calories(HRM, Bodybugg, Fitbit ect). At that point...eating your exercise calories back can work to your advantage, by not creating a huge caloric deficit.

If you don't own any of these devices, then use the Factors suggested by your exercise level and DO NOT use exercise calories as a means to offset calories eaten, because BY USING A FACTOR THAT ACCOUNTS FOR ACTIVITY, you have already factored those calories into your TDEE and counting them in....you have just counted them in twice! So for those that used Factors like 1.5 or 1.6 based on how many times you go to the gym....don't eat your exercise calories back!

For those of you who work strenuous jobs...landscapers for example....If you throw gym time on top of it all by all means...eat your MEASURED exercise calories back. Yes... it is possible to be an overweight landscaper if your eating He Man Subs and washin' em down with beer!

My advice....Understand what you are actually tracking and measuring, and then make sure your tracking and measuring them correctly. if you are 100% spot on your still not loosing weight...see a doctor...there are a plethora of vitamin/mineral deficiencies, sleep disorders and issues of metabolism (Metabolic Syndrome, High Cortisol levels, Underactive Thyroid ect) that can halt the progress of weight/fat loss. Your blood work should pinpoint what may be causing you to not looose weight. Been there, done that....I have both Metabolic Syndrome and Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which after 80+ pounds of weight loss...I still am being treated for both conditions...either one of these can have devistating effect on body fat accumulation if not treated and makes weight loss very difficult if not impossible(been there done that...got the CPAP machine and BS meds to prove it!)

Good Luck to all in there weight loss journey.