You HAVE to eat your exercise calories....

As many of you know I am a HUGE proponent of Eat More to Weigh Less. I currently consume 2550 calories a day, lift heavy 3 days a week, walk, and work on home improvement stuff. I went from eating 1700 calories a day to 2550 and haven't looked back. The inches are dropping off, the weight is following. If you can eat more and still lose, why wouldn't you?

I have tried it both ways and lost both ways so I say meh, what ever floats your boat. I upped my total cals and lost more with out eating back my exercise cals. There are so many depending factors that go into play with the whole eating back your exercise cals thing. Everyones body is different so everyone is gonna lose differently.

Not once have I exceeded my daily calories and never have I eaten 1 calorie back from exercise and I regularly drop between 1 to 2lbs a week so how can anyone say that you should eat back what you've worked off?

Create a deficit with exercise to compliment the adjustment to your diet and then eat back what you've just worked off, why?

May as well just avoid the exercise and up your daily calorie intake to what you would have lost with exercise. Nope, didn't think that would work either.

3,500 kcals excess creates a pound of fat, to lose 2lbs a week requires you to burn off 7,000 kcals which is not easy but a safe and managable regimen. Sensible diet and regular exercise will ensure this, some weeks you won't drop weight but gain muscle tone. This doesn't mean failure as you are transforming your body and more muscle burns more calories so you will lose more. It will get to the point when you won't put on as much muscle unless you lift ridiculous amounts of weight but when you get to that stage, you'll burn off more excess fat.

Along with eating junk, drinking alcohol, having treats or not being honest about what you're eating will cause most people to fail miserably and the amount of threads on here pay testament to this.

Bad eating habits and an unhealthy lifestyle are the reason why a lot of people are out of shape and overweight. You start a health plan and continue snack eating, consuming chocolate, cakes and alcohol and ask why the diet isn't working.

First off, MFP already gives you a deficit per day that amounts to 3,500 and 7,000 calories a week.. anything that you do on top of that makes the deficit bigger. Make it too big, and you will have trouble losing. You also can lose with just diet alone on MFP because that is the way it is designed.. a lot of people do it that way at first if they are very obese.

Second, you can't gain muscle tone in a deficit.. it's impossible unless you are just starting out or obese. If you aren't seeing the scale move, then it's most likely water retention from the muscles repairing themselves.. not actual muscle gain.

Three, a lot of people eat junk, chocolate, alcohol etc and have lost weight just fine. I am one of them. I refuse to give up chocolate and fast food.. because thats how my life is structured. I can't always sit down and cook a meal, so I do what I can, stay in my calories,exercise and lost 30 pounds/6 sizes.

So while what you are doing may work for you, and you may think you know it all, you don't

Everyone is different and does different things... so just be mindful of that.

Thank you!!!!!!

I hate seeing all of these threads. I really wish people would just try different things to see what works. Everyone's body is different. I always eat mine back, or plan ahead for activities by upping my intake throughout the day. It's worked great for me. I personally don't even feel well or have enough energy to do anything if I don't eat back my calories or eat them beforehand.

Try new things, experiment.

As many of you know I am a HUGE proponent of Eat More to Weigh Less. I currently consume 2550 calories a day, lift heavy 3 days a week, walk, and work on home improvement stuff. I went from eating 1700 calories a day to 2550 and haven't looked back. The inches are dropping off, the weight is following. If you can eat more and still lose, why wouldn't you?

Some people are poor? Heh, no idea. I am not passing on food, ty.

The manner in which people choose to apply it is their own choice, but honestly - a lot of thought went into how this plan is designed - trying it out as designed just seems like the logical thing to do.

My personal recommendation, which is worth nothing but I hope helps someone starting out:

Start by getting your diet under control. Regulate your caloric intake. Balance your fats, carbs, and proteins to make sure you are feeding your body well. Eat back your exercise calories if you choose to exercise - just try it to start, because you're in a learning phase at this point. Drink plenty of water. If I had to do it all over again, I'd choose "maintenance" mode for the first two weeks (no weight loss).

The first couple of weeks will probably be pretty chaotic weight-wise and otherwise just trying to get your diet under control, learning what foods you need to fuel yourself properly, and drinking enough water.

Then things should settle down a bit. Maintain this intake for a month and see if you are sustaining weight loss at the pace you set.

If you are NOT losing weight, the site has over- or under-estimated your calories burned or calories taken in. But if you've spent that time getting your diet under control (balancing your carbs/protein/fats, making sure you drink plenty, etc) you will also start recognizing the signals your body sends.

Once you have a well-established and consistent balanced diet, and if you are otherwise healthy with no medical conditions, AND you are not still not losing weight (or not losing it as fast as you had set your goal to assuming your goal is reasonable):

- If you are feeling hungry, fatigued, constantly tired, or cannot sustain good workouts, eat more. The site has underestimated the number of calories necessary to sustain a healthy metabolism for you, and you're not burning enough calories. This eating more might cause temporary weight gain for a week or two. Stick with it. It'll pay off.
* Alternatively, you can lower your calories further, but the outcome of this is weight loss through suffering. 30 years of doing this has taught me it's unsustainable, for me and anyone else I've ever met who has done this. Your mileage may vary, but I honestly doubt it. You won't be as healthy on the other side, and you won't be equipped to keep it off.

- If you are feeling energetic, happy, sustaining awesome sweaty workouts, and sleeping OK, eat less.

If you are losing weight consistently at more than 2-4 pounds a week, maybe as much as 5 if you have 100 or more to go, start eating more.

Start with eating properly, then the issue of whether you eat your exercise calories back will answer itself for you.

Honestly, I wish the site recommended people eat at maintenance for a few weeks before it moved on to weight loss. A balanced(*) diet is the key to starting a successful weight loss regimen.

(*) "balanced" can mean many things - the site's recommendation is pretty close to the typical American-style balanced diet. Low-carb eating plans can be used, but it involves some research, starting out the plan using external tools, then adjusting your goals on MFP manually.

if i eat all my exercise calories back im overstuffed and then the next day i feel like oh well i ate all that stuff yesterday so i can today too then i quit exercising and i gain it all back then i have to start over so no way will i eat em back

It depends on the person. I don't eat mine back most of the time. When I ate them back, I didn't lose a pound. I don't eat them back, and I'm steadily losing (nice and slowly, like I should). Some people have great success with it, some don't...just depends on the person's regular calorie intake/body chemistry/daily activity level and probably a million other factors.

Eat them back. Or don't. Whatever works for you.

I have about 1950 Excersize Calories per week, That is 3.25 Bottles of Wine per week-Awesome! Seriously, I have only been on this a month and have achieved the goal of 10 lbs lost. After the next month (10 lbs), I will have reached my high goal wieght. Loosing weight healthly is the key here. 2-3 lbs per week does that if your eating right. What I love about this is that I can take my quality diet and eat the right portions. Trading my calories for wine is always a good thing.

Wineaux- Wine lover that uses a glass

Does it really work though? Not being funny when I say that, but I'd like to see a follow up program a year later to see how many have kept up the good work, or how many have put it back on plus more due to losing it so quick.
The US version might already do this, but don't think the uk one does

The show "you are what you eat" does in the UK. Huge caloric drops and lifestyle changes in diet and exercise are probably closer to what we are doing than a pop culture contest.

As many have already said, just go with what works for YOU. Everyone is different and everyone loses weight differently. The goal is find a balance of eating and exercising that works for you and one you can live with for the rest of your life to keep the weight off.

I am one of the lucky people that had to eat my exercise calories in order to lose weight. If I didn't eat back my exercise calories my weight loss stalled or I gained. That's just the way my body functioned... and who was I to complain? Eat more and lose weight. Awesome! :happy:

Now that I'm on maintenance I still eat my calories back, but using my HRM to determine my calorie burn has been crucial to maintaining the right balance. The weight loss journey was all about learning what did and did not work for me so that I could maintain healthy weight... and not feel deprived while doing it! :flowerforyou:

Today I will only eat an egg and drink chocolate milk. I wonder how much weight I can lose?

The fact of the matter is this isnt a short term journey for 99% of the people on here. Do what works for YOU. That being said, there is no reason to starve yourself.

Thank you.

I've just kept it simple and compartmentalized everything. On one had I make sure I exercise. On the other hand I make sure I eat sensibly and adequately. Just worry about not going over your calories on a regular basis. If you stay under you WILL lose weight. Just have to be patient and find the right balance that works for you and your new lifestyle and losing weight.

Yeah, but the Biggest Loser really isn't an indication of the right or healthy thing to do. They lose insane amounts of weight insanely fast which can't be healthy for you.

People don't want to see "Oh great job, you lost 1 lb this week!" they want to see "Wow, you lost 15 lbs this week!" It's that whole instant gratification culture thing we have...

I don't think what they do is unhealthy only because of the massive amount of fat that is weighting to come off. Of course if me being a 135 woman lost 15 lbs. in one week, I either gave birth to a kitten or lost a limb.

Yeah but the peole on the programme are extreme cases. They need to loose weight fast or they will have an early grave. I think the Biggest Loser is a great way to kick start a healthy new lifestyle.

I have entered a biggest Loser competition in my local gym and have lost 31 pounds in 10 weeks by only eating 1200 a day and not eating my excerise calories. i have had a few bad weeks, a hen party, come dine with me night etc but to enjoy those nights I just made sure I burned off extra calories on the weekend to make up for the over eating on those nights.