Should a morbidly obese person eat back exercise calories?

I don't really have an answer for you, just a thought or two, Perhaps you are building muscle? That may play in there somehow. The eatting back the calories always throws me for a loop. To be honest, for myself I'd rather not eat them back.

You "might" have gained a litle muscle but what's more likely the cause is water retention. When you change your activity in any way (more time, more intensity, more weight, etc), this causes damage to your muscle tissues which is usually felt in the form of muscle fatigue and soreness. While this is happening, those muscle tissues are retaiing water as part of the healing process and therefore you weight loss may stall or slow until your body gets used to it.

There's no way to say for sure how long it'll take for the body to adjust but it's usually the same as any other changes - could take a week or two, could take a month or two. Be happy that you're still losing and that you're getting fit and stop worrying so much about hitting that absolute goal.

However, I added strength training to my exercise routine right around the same time my weight loss has slowed.

Your thoughts? I really want to get back to losing 2 pounds a week.

I would think you are adding more muscle and muscle weighs more. How do you feel is the big question. If you are hungry I would think your body is saying it needs a little extra otherwise if your not hungry don't eat.

I don't eat them all back. Usually I will eat back maybe a quarter of my exercise calories. I lose pretty steady at about 2 to 3 lbs a week.

Sometimes I eat my exercise calories back and sometimes I don't. It really depends on how I feel and how much my body needs the fuel. With that being said if I do eat my exercise calories back I try to make it a healthy protein. As others said your muscles may be just retaining water from the change in your routine. Finally, if you are really worried is there someone at the gym you can speak to? Or did you tape yourself prior to starting the weight training. Sometimes when working out hard the tape measurements are the best to go by - you may not be losing weight but you are probably losing inches and at some point that will show back up on the scale. Good luck and whatever you do don't get discouraged. :flowerforyou:

I'm also a stickler for thinking, if you're hungry, eat, if not, then don't.

I totally agree with both of your posts....
From previous weight loss journeys, I have found that many times I had lost inches when I wasn't losing pounds - and, If you're not tracking your measurements, it can be discouraging...
I have just started with MFP & find that there are times at the end of the day when I have calories left & am not hungry - so I don't use those calories (often extra calories that I got from exercising). I am trying to "retrain" my thinking & not eat when I am not hungry.

I eat them back but usually not on that day. I normally have one day a week where I have heavy calorie consumption and that is when I eat them. I think we get used to how easily we can lose weight being obese and then as we get smaller it isn't as easy, which is discouraging.

I agree with -

It's water

Wait it out

And eat 'em if you need em

My friends and I were talking about this today. What I do is go by the calories I'm supposed to burn each day. Say I'm supposed to burn 700 calories everyday and I burn 1000 at the gym. According to this program I'm allowed to eat those 1000 calories back but I just eat what extra I burned, in this case it would be 300. I have a long way to go as well, good luck!

If you have put all your info into MFP accurately, and you are confident that your calories consumed and calories burned are being logged accurately, then yes.