I just signed up here in early May, so I haven't been here that long yet. A lot of people, including myself have posted on the threads debating whether to eat one's exercise calories back or not. But what nobody seems to have mentioned yet if this changes at menopause and after or not. Since our metabolisms and hormonal status has changed, does anyone here fear eating all their exercise calories back, and adhere strictly to the default 1200 calories that MFP has a lot of people set at? There seem to be 2 schools of thought about this, one being that one messes up one's metabolism if one doesn't eat one's exercise calories, and the other being that in order to lose weight, one shouldn't eat them back. Maybe it just varies according to one's individual biochemistry, which being menopausal/post-menopausal is included.
Since I work out pretty comprehensively, I can't imagine sticking that closely to 1200 myself. I've been averaging eating 1400 calories a day, and eating only half my exercise calories back. I also tend to come under with my carbs even though I'm not on a low-carb diet as such. Going low-carb, although it does move the weight off in short order, is not sustainable for me because the minute one eats any carbs, the weight will come right back, but most of all, going low-carb sets me up for overeating them. However, if I don't think about "going low-carb", my carb intake is reasonable and pretty clean to boot(as in unrefined sources, and keeping the refined ones to treats only).
Thoughts, anyone? Thanks in advance!