Exercise calories

You should eat them back, ideally hitting your kcal target everyday.

If you're targeted 1400, eating 1400 and burning 400, you need to be eating another 300-400, ideally

I almost never eat them back. I just seems like a wasted effort if I go work out for an hour, then pig out for an hour to gain all the calories back. When I work them off, I really like to keep them off.

You should eat them back, ideally hitting your kcal target everyday.

If you're targeted 1400, eating 1400 and burning 400, you need to be eating another 300-400, ideally

Why? Doesn't it defeat the purpose in a way?

Nope, as has been said above, you've already set everything you need to lose weight as long as you hit your target everyday, whether that be 1 or 2lb/week. Any more could lead to your body either losing weight unhealthily/too quickly, or not losing it at all (starvation mode).

This site has people that do and people that don't. Personally I don't eat back all of them but then I always have 1 big cheat day a week that throws off all my weight loss for the week

It should really depend on how you have your calorie goals set up. If you have a deficit built into your daily goal already or you have it set at sedentary you should eat back at least most of your exercise calories. If you have your calorie goal set at maintenance or included your exercises into your activity level then you would not want to eat back your workout calories unless you had an extreme burn.

I have a 500 calorie (one pound per week) deficit built into my daily calorie goal. That way I have a deficit whether I go to the gym or not. If I do go to the gym then I try to eat back most of those calories. I dont always eat them all back because they are just estimates and I most of the time I feel they are high.

I eat them back. I already have a pretty aggressive (2 lb/week) goal set up that sets me up with a 1,000 calorie deficit a day. That leaves me modestly hungry most of the time. I've also converted over to being a "snacker" instead of eating 3 meals a day - I eat a modest breakfast and snacks every hour starting at 11AM and going until 4PM, then supper, and a snack around 8PM.

I've tried working out and not eating the calories back, and within a couple days I reach the point where I can't maintain good-feeling workouts, I get tired, and I just know I'm not burning as many calories. I lost 30 pounds over the course of a year some years back doing this, and by the end of it I was fasting for days at a time (water only) to try to keep the weight loss going. At the end of that year, I went back to my old eating habits and ended up gaining the 30 plus another ten in a month. I gave up for a lot of years after that. And then I started in with the same stupidity, except I was at least smart enough to bring the calories back in slowly so I only gained 25 pounds instead of 40.

This time, I'm taking the time to learn to CONTROL my weight, not just lose it. When I reach my goal weight, I'll slowly increase my calories to maintenance, monitor it for a month or two, and make sure I can keep my weight fairly steady.

You may be able to skip eating some of them, or even all of them, if it's only a few hundred calories a day. But much more than that and your body will start conserving energy - the last thing in the world you want it to do.

A lot of people feel that eating them back negates any advantage to exercise. I respectfully disagree. You watch your calories to lose weight, you exercise to improve your overall health. I don't exercise to speed my weight loss any more than would increase my calorie deficit to help with cardiovascular health or build muscle.

Fewer calories = weight loss
Cardio = stamina and cardiovascuar health
Lifting = Strength, toning, and increased muscle mass for long-term calorie burn.

Weight loss and lifting are, in general, incompatible. If you're building muscle, it's very unlikely you can lose weight at the same time. But it does help lower your body fat percentage, which is really good for long-term health.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I do not normally I go for a deficite still got some areas I want to loose the fat from. Im not looking to build muscle yet anyways.