[Belease]

I measure mine! I'm in this to lose weight, I'm not going to be dieting and exercising like this for the rest of my life. I work out really hard and really watch what I eat, so just like mkendrick, I want to know exactly what I'm eating and what I'm burning off. It all depends on what you're in this for. I have a strict deadline (my wedding), so that's added motivation.

Robsia - it's not about eating what you've burnt off, it's simply keeping track of what's going in and out!

Anyway, mkendrick, I use Foodfocus to measure my calories. I ignore what the calories on my exercise bike and stepper say and just input what it says on the website. Also, if I do something like Wii Fit or EA Sports, where it tells you how many calories you've burnt, I stick that number. For example, my stepper today told me I burnt 500 calories, but the website said it was more like 200. So I took the lower number, figuring that any excess is a bonus. I'd rather underestimate than overestimate.

It sounds like you're making lots of cautious adjustments - I have to say I'm not that conscientious! But, I have lost weight with this method, so I'm sticking with it.

[Robsia]

Originally Posted by Belease

Robsia - it's not about eating what you've burnt off, it's simply keeping track of what's going in and out!

I was responding to the OP's comment about adjusting her calorie intake depending on how much exercise she has done.

[Belease]

I guess it all depends on what you're eating and how much exercise you've done. I think you're assuming the OP eats the calories she's burnt, and I'm just assuming she sometimes does that and sometimes doesn't. But still, even if you do exercise and eat the calories, as long as you're in deficit you're still losing weight, and toning muscle, etc. So I guess that would be the point of doing it that way!

[AmandaPlus4]

I just go by what LostIt on my iphone tells me, and it's worked great for me.

And FWIW, I always eat back my calories and have been very successful with it

[mkendrick]

Thanks for the comments, guys

And yes, in my OP, I did say that I adjust my calories that I eat for the day around what I have burned. I do not eat calorie for calorie...if the machine tells me I burned 200 calories, I'm not going to eat a 200 cal candy bar and call it even. But I'll definitely eat on the higher end of my calorie range on days that I know I've burned a lot. Today, I am TOM-crampy so all I could get myself to do at the gym was walk on an incline for 45min. I'll probably eat mid-range calorie-wise, around 1400. Yesterday I was an energizer bunny and did 45 min on the elliptical, 30 min jog, 30 min strength training, along with a busy day. I ate 1700 cal yesterday. Saturday, I studied on the couch all day and ate 1200. I don't plan my calorie zig-zag cycle, and I don't plan specific workouts. When I do, I start feeling resentful and unmotivated ("ugh, it's Monday, do I really have to run 5k??") so I just do the exercise that I feel like doing. Then adjust calories accordingly.

I realize that my calorie counting style is not very accurate. And I don't need it to be really accurate with the calories burned either. It's really just an estimation and a way to record/plan to make sure I have a deficit everyday.