Calorie advice

gargoyle999

I'm in my 4th week of eating better and exercising. I'm still trying to find my calorie "sweet spot". Looking for some feedback on calories. I know there is a lot of debate here on eating back exercise calories, so far I haven't been eating back any (except for a couple days at the beginning when I was really hungry..haha). I used the calculator on freedieting.com. It gives me my current BMR as 1918 calories, MFP is the same. I'm going to exercise at least 5x per week plus I do not have a desk job and work on my feet and walk a lot during my 12 hour shift (work 3 days one week, 4 the next). My exercise is between 500-1000 calories a day. And if the temp in MN ever gets out of the 30's I may get to mow the lawn and do some yard work this year so I'm looking forward to burning even more doing that.

Anyway, for "extreme fat loss" (which is what I want..haha) freedieting shows my target at 1800 calories. What do you guys think about that?

Should I just try to eat 1800 no matter what my exercise calories are? Do you think 1800 is too low with the exercise and I'll be in "starvation mode"

The site also gives a "zig zag" cycle that is 1800 most days but one day 2160 and one day 1981. Has anyone seen better results doing something like that?

I know a lot of you have been doing this much longer then me so thought I'd get some input. Thanks!