Are you really suppose to eat BACK your work out calories?
 

I downloaded the lose it app for my iphone, and love it. I just don't understand why I would want to eat back the calories I burned while working out. Seems so..counterproductive to me? Any thoughts?

Short and simple: you can, but you don't have to. All that means is that if your goal is to create a 500 calorie deficit, you can eat more when you work out to create that same deficit. Basically, you'll lose weight at the same rate but eat more if you are eating your burned calories. If you don't eat them, you'll lose more.

The important thing to note is that if you are creating more than a 1000 calorie deficit, it is not considered healthy weight loss. If exercise puts you at a higher deficit than that, eat some of the calories back to ensure healthy weight loss and no muscle loss :-) I hope that helps!!

Originally Posted by ValentineNicole:
Short and simple: you can, but you don't have to. All that means is that if your goal is to create a 500 calorie deficit, you can eat more when you work out to create that same deficit. Basically, you'll lose weight at the same rate but eat more if you are eating your burned calories. If you don't eat them, you'll lose more.

The important thing to note is that if you are creating more than a 1000 calorie deficit, it is not considered healthy weight loss. If exercise puts you at a higher deficit than that, eat some of the calories back to ensure healthy weight loss and no muscle loss :-) I hope that helps!!

How do I know what my deficit is in the first place. I try to actually EAT 1150 calories a day. That is suppose to help me lose a little over 1.5lbs a week, but I also run on the treadmill and usually burn around 300 calories, that leaves me with a total of 850. If I weren't working out and just eating 850 calories a day, I KNOW thats not healthy, but if the low number is because I worked out, that should be ok, right?:?: