for the people who successfully lost weight

You're likely hearing them talk about the eating back your calories aspect of MFP. It's a very, very common question that gets discussed many times a day around here. Basically; if you set your goals at 1200 cals a day and then burn off 800 in exercise, you're supposed to eat back your work out calories to fuel that work out. So, rather than eating 1200 cals a day you actually consume 2000. So, that's probably what they mean when they say they go way over their calorie intake. And yes, it does work. If you burn a bunch of calories through exercise but still only eat 1200 calories, you actually end up underconsuming what your body needs to fuel you and then the whole "starvation mode" issue comes in to play.

I've seen people do it both ways. Some eat back their calories all the time. Others never do it. I think many people have lost a lot of weight both ways. My personal thoughts on it are do what feels right. If I go out and burn 700 calories and am hungry afterward; obviously my body is telling me it needs to recoop and refuel and so I eat. I may not eat back all 700 (another issue is that MFP overestimates calories burned so if you eat them all back you could inadvertantly overconsume so some people eat back only a portion) but I'll eat back at least some. There are other times when I'm not hungry after a work out and I feel fine. If that's the case - I don't eat. I don't believe in forcing myself to eat when my body is not telling me it needs fuel. That's how I got into this mess in the first place, lol.

It's all really a matter of preference but both ways will still help you lose weight.

I do pretty much what it says. I rarely go over, and if I do it was most likely a special occasion. As far as the "eating back exercise cals" goes. I can take it or leave it. If I'm hungry, I will eat some more. If I'm not, than in not just gonna stuff my face to get to the number. That's just me tho

It takes a long period of time for your body to go into "starvation mode" as far as eating back your calories you should eat back a portion of the calories you burn not all of them. Your body won't metabolize muscle for days of under consumption. When the smell of your sweat changes to a bleach type smell your body is metabolzing muscle for fuel this is called catabolism the body does not have the carbohydrates to enter the second part of metabolism called anabolism thus is stays in the first phase of breaking down proteins instead of carbohydrates

I agree with a lot of what you said but not this. Your body can burn stored calories (body fat) for fuel, which is why overweight people don't starve. Ever. Their metabolisms never grind to a halt, either. It's very convenient for food-lovers to think they are in danger of starving while dieting but they're not. Eating just below your burn level is lovely and comfy and healthy and glorious but it's absolutely not the requirement many people here seem to think it is. If your energy level flags a little throughout the day, it's not dangerous. You do what you can to get by and you lose the excess weight. Whether you do it at a snail's pace or faster is up to your comfort level.

Well said. Experimenters routinely put people on diets of 400, 500, 800 and similar calorie levels in order to get quick measurable results - yet they never record people failing to lose weight or measure BMRs of 1000 or less.

I have modified my MFP but I do stick to it and the main things I have found is my water consumption is probably the most important factor in losing weight I see lots of people stick to thier MFP but not water consumption so as long as I follow it all I lose weight. But I feel it is learning what works for you everyone is different.

I have found that MFP works for me. When I was in the weight loss phase my MFP setting was 1200 calories, depending on hunger I ate back all or part of my exercise calories.
Now I am on maintenance I set MFP to active and no longer log exercise. I log all food and eat to the MFP designated target. So far so good.

I did this and I'm now doing what he does other than I log my exercise and dont eat it back but if I'm hungry I do eat and I don't worry about it as I know I will choose food correctly.

i log my food every day, i find it helps. having my diary open as well makes me accountable for all to see. i dont eat back calls my personal view is it defets the object. ive now lost 5 and a half stones but most before mfp, but my ex partner moved in we ate more i put a stone back on so she moved out. now im back on track.

I have followed MFP pretty closely. I do not go over what they tell me to eat, unless I have messed up (which isn't too often anymore). I do eat most of my exercise calories back (about 300 cals. on exercise days). It has taken me 8 months to lose 11.8 lbs because I'm so close to my goal weight.

Setting aside the whole starvation mode debate for a moment, the basic premise of weight loss is to consume fewer calories than your body requires-requiring your body to turn to existing energy reserves to make up the difference. Theoretically (not including the whole BMR/starvation mode debate), the greater the difference between your calorie intake and your calorie requirements, the faster you will lose weight-again, theoretically.

Like many, many people on mfp, I am here because I really like food-particularly "bad" food, and have eaten at the opposite of a calorie deficit for many, many years. While I could probably force myself to eat 1200 calories a day (or less), I don't have to eat that little to lose weight. As long as I eat fewer calories than my body requires, I will continue to lose. There's a big difference between what my body requires and 1200. And as previously mentioned, I like food-and it's substantially easier for me to stick to a "plan" that allows me to eat-kind of a lot. Am I losing weight at the fastest possible rate? Nope. But am I adjusting from decades of overeating nothing but crap and into eating better and at a healthy level? Yes. And I'm doing it in a sustainable fashion. For those of us with years of bad eating habits, finding our way to healthy & sustainable eating habits is more important than speedy weight loss (IMHO).

So I eat more than 1200 calories a day. And I lose weight. And my mfp tells me to eat more than 1200 calories a day as long as I set it to lose less than 2lbs a week. So theoretically, I am "following" mfp-but I'm not at 1200 calories a day.

I have lost all except for 6 of the 42 + kilos following MFP and carefully balancing my input and output. I set my activity level to sedentary and tried to log all of my exercise and ate back most of my exercise calories most of the time. I made sure that I exercised every day for approx one hour a day. I have recently moved into maintenance (almost 4 weeks ago) and so far have been ver successful at maintaining. Just prior to moving into maintenance I bought a fit bit - I am so happy with it as it makes maintenance easier.if anything I have to make sure that I eat close enough to my allowance as I have lost a further .2 kilos since starting maintenance and I really don't want to lose more