Eating calories from exercise?

drusilla126

Can I get some input on this? I am soooo confused. I got reading about eating back exercise calories and am now worried I've put myself into starvation mode despite being careful to make sure I stayed over 1200 calories. I figured eating less and exercising more equals weight loss and the bigger the deficit the more weight lost. This concept of eating back exercise calories seems so bass-ackwards when I'm trying to lose weight but I guess it makes sense. If I'm burning say 300 calories and only eating 1200 I'm really forcing my body to have 900 calories to get through the day.
I'm going to feel weird eating so much now but I'll have to find a way to deal with it lol But I'm confused because they say if you build muscle it burns calories while you're at rest...so then you're burning more calories and might fall under 1200 net calories again. ARRGH my brain hurts! How many calories does being confused burn?

Pebble321

I'm sure you should burn a few more for being confused - have an extra almond!

Check this out, it might give you a giggle but has some good links:
www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

(Or I could give you my standard answer:
If you are using MFP to calculate your calories, then you should be eating extra when you exercise.
If you are using another method to calulate your calorie allowance, then probably not because most other methods already account for exercise, which MFP doesn't do).

drusilla126

Awesome why didn't I think of just typing in that web address? lol
Well when I started I had just read about the starvation mode thing so I was just adding up in notepad and trying to stick close to 1200.