Eating back your calories - who does it???

[sushee]

I didn't count calories during my weight loss, but I would probably say that no, I didn't eat back my calories when I was losing. I ate the same on the days I was exercising and the days I was resting, and I believe my calorie intake sat steady at between 1200 and 1500 cals a day whatever day it was. Some days I burned off 500 cals on my bike and I would not eat those back, as far as I'm aware. To be honest I actually couldn't eat those back with a well-restricted lapband, even if I wanted to.

I eat my exercise calories back now though because I don't want to lose weight anymore. So because I'm exercising for fitness, I try to make sure that after accounting for calories burnt, I still sit on about 1200 cals a day (Total cals - exercise cals), which, on an exercise day, means I eat about 1500 - 1700 cals for maintenance, which is doable on a loose lapband.

Also, remember, losing weight is essentially calories in < calories out. You have to burn off more calories than you're consuming. So to me, eating back your calories doesn't make sense.