Ok, I'm a bit confused. I've been calorie counting now for a while, but I'm just now starting to incorporate some good exercise. I track on livestrong.com. I can also track my exercise on there too. What I'm confused about is if my limit of calories is 1500 and I track 500 calories burned, do I need to eat another 500 calories to make up for that burn or am I aiming to burn as much of that 1500 that I can?? I hope I'm making sense...haha!

Until you get to a certain point you do NOT need to "eat back" your exercise. (marathoning, competitive sports or bodybuilding, daylong hikes, etc. )

When you are exercising you may need to pay more attention to when and what you eat to fuel exercise properly.

If you are finding you dont have enough energy to exercise and/or are not recovering well between exercise sessions then you can look at adding a few more calories strategically placed but in general not more than 1/2 of the burn.

You don't need to eat back that 500 calories you burned from the workout, but at the same time I wouldn't over do it with exercise and try to net '0' calories for the day. If you have a tough session and are still hungry, then have a little snack after that's high protein like nuts, a shake, or some jerky.

It depends on YOU. I eat back most of my calories because I walk dogs 90+ minutes a day, everyday. I also do a video or treadmill 5 times a week. I am also very active besides exercising--and by active, I mean I do not watch TV 'cause I don't sit still long enough to watch anything. I am losing 1 1/2-2 lbs a week, so it works for me. You will need to experiment with your diet for yourself.

Thanks for this thread, i was wondering the same thing. So far i have not been eating back what i burn and it seems to work for me.

I do weight watchers, and track my activity points. I will sometimes eat some back over the course of a week, but in general I don't.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I usually don't worry about tracking my exercise and I just plan for my 1500 daily calories. However, I know the more active I become the more calories I should consume. Right now I have my calculator set at light activity and it is calculating less calories. I guess if I start stalling or whatever then I will try different things. Thanks!

See how your rate of weight loss turns out with your current eating and exercising patterns, as well as how healthy and satisfied you feel on them, and then adjust upward or downward as need be. Weight loss is a slow process, you have plenty of time for fine-tuning.