Do you eat your exercise calories or leave them alone?

I emailed a former contestant from the biggest loser the other day asking this same question, and she told me to leave them alone, if you should get hungry just fill up on veggies

and eat protein with every meal that helps keep you full

MFP says I should eat 2200 calories but I only allow myself 1800 and I stay full just by eating lots of fiber and protein

Eat them up - YUM!

A lot of people don't get this... When you set up your MFP profile (personal data, activity level, how many pounds per week you want to lose), MFP gives you a calorie deficit based on this so you can lose weight without exercising. Once you do exercise, you create an even larger deficit. Too high of a deficit and you're not eating enough to fuel the basic functions of your body and therefore you're less likely to burn fat and weight loss will likely stall. Even if you do lose the weight, you're doing it in a very unhealthy way and will likely gain back quickly once you stop your extreme dieting/exercising.

Personally I eat my BMR (1500) plus whatever I earn exercising. I use an HRM though, not what MFP gives me for numbers, so I know it's fairly accurate. If you go by MFP's numbers, I'd still recommend eating some of them back but maybe lower it to 1/2 or 2/3rds. So say MFP gives you 600 calories for an hour of walking at 4mph. You can safely eat back 300 to 400 of those calories without worrying about an overestimate

I eat them back if I'm hungry....which I usually am after a 3-5 mile run......LOL
I don't force myself to eat them back, though. I eat when my body tells me I need to eat.

Why do people make this so complicated? If you are hungry, EAT. If you are not hungry, don't force yourself to get those extra calories in. That doesn't even make sense to me lol.

Here is why you must eat -

Your brain
Your lungs
Your heart
Your liver
Your kidneys
Your pancreas
Your veins
Your skin
Your immune system
Your speech
Your hearing
Your wanting to change the channels on the tv
Your not being able to find the controller
Your crossing the floor to try to figure out how to do it from the screen
Your accusing your wife/husband/partner of hiding the controls
Your walking on the remote in bare feet
Your loud cursing
Your eventually changing the channels on the tv
Anything else I left out

..... this all takes fuel to run. Like a car engine needs petrol, diesel or electricity when it is in motion, 'uman beans (us) need a minimum amount of calories to function. Except we need it all the time, not just when we are hopping around the front room in agony cos we stepped on the sharp edged remote with our little tootsies.

You must burn about 3500cals to lose a lb. A 1000cal a day (7000cal a week) difference between calories burned by living and exercise will mean you lose 2lbs a week.

So if it takes 2200 cals to keep your engine ticking over, eating 1200 with no exercise will mean you lose 2lbs a week.


If you exercise, you use up your cals that your body needs to keep the engine running so you have to eat those to keep you in peak condition. So eating your engine ticking over level + your exercise cals burned keeps your body in tip-top condition and makes you fitter too. WIN.

I currently eat about 1800 to 2000 cals a day and lose 1-2lbs a week.
My ticking over level is 1280 and I exercise another 700-1000 cals on top of that, most of which I enjoy every mouthful of eating back.

You need to work around with the figures and find out what works for you.
Some people need to eat up to +350 cals more to lose more (I call them 'lucky bas ... tards') and some have to eat down to -350 cals outside of the range recommended on MFP to lose weight.
Some have to eat more protein to keep them fuller for longer.
Some have to eat more carbs as they already have very active lives outside of exercising to lose the weight.
Some have to take a serious look at their sodium levels

Personally, during my TOM, I take my weightloss goal down to 1/1.5lbs per week because I get so hungry. Works for me and I keep on losing.

Read the motivation stories in the success / motivation forums for the 'how I did it' accounts. They tell a consistent story of eating back your exercise cals.

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Eat as many of them as it takes to give you the energy to keep working out. Besides, they are the ones that test the best

I have found that I'm not as successful if I eat my exercise calories back. I leave them, but if I am hungry and they are there, I by no means starve myself. They are more of a buffer if I feel I need more food, but not necessarily what I have to eat.

I am 50/50 depending what day of the week it is. During the week I mostly stay in my calories and the weekend is where they help out. (pk&sk)

I'm not eating back exercise calories now because I've manually changed my caloric intake number to my TDEE-15%, so I already have my normal exercise number worked it. Since I'm eating under my TDEE, I don't feel bad about it if I DO eat a little of it back.

If you are using MFP's numbers, you should eat back a portion of your calories burned- not all, because it's inaccurate what they have for a burn. I'm starting to lose decently now that I've actually done up my numbers and am working with them instead of counting on MFP's numbers.

This is a really good resource if you want to do your own numbers: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Eat! And then some on most days! But seems to work for me

If you don't want to eat them then I suggest you change your activity level to active or very active. This will give you more calories each day and essentially averages out your exercise cals for the week, instead of day to day.