Some people "eat" their exercise calories and others don't. I find that after I burn a lot of calories exercising, I am really hungry afterwards, so I try to limit myself to eating only half of my exercise calories or fewer. Some days, that's a struggle!

Losing weight is all about creating a deficit. If your TDEE is 1800, but you are eating 1300, you are already at a 500 calorie deficit. So if you run for 30 minutes and burn 250 calories, you would now have a 750 calorie deficit. Still with me? The bigger your deficit the faster you lose, but only to a point. If you have to large of a deficit for too long, you will eventually start to plateau. Since you daily intake is pretty low, I would recommend eating back your exercise cals if you are hungry. If you are not hungry, don't eat them. There are many ways to create your deficit. For me personally I do like to eat more on days I workout. I set my calorie goal lower though at 1130 so I still have a large deficit. My TDEE is closer to 1400, but if I eat that many AND eat back exercise cals I don't lose. Since I typically burn about 300 calories a workout, I end up eating around 1400-1500. I know a few other girls who leave their intake at 1400-1500 calories, but don't eat back exercise calories. They essentially have the same intake I do, just do the math different, but really it works out the same. To me it's more of a mental game, set your calories up in the best way that helps you stick to your plan. My extra calories on workout days are like my "reward" for working out. It gives me something to look forward to. For those others who just have a consistent intake, I think they prefer it because there is less math involved. I hope this is making sense!

Thank you for all the information, it's all been a bit confusing until now! That's a great conversion! I'm excited to be here and look forward to all the advice and support!

I always ate most of them back. Sometimes when I have a larger calorie burn, I'm not hungry THAT day and don't have all of them, but let myself eat a little more on other days.

My "natural" appetite is screwy. If I'm busy mentally and physically, I can forget to eat and not be hungry at all. Five o'clock could come around and I'd realize I hadn't eaten all day. If I'm bored, I want to graze and munch all day.

Years ago, when my 18 year old cat had kidney failure, and I spent pretty much all my free time coaxing her to eat, giving her medication, giving her fluid treatments, checking on her... I often forgot to feed myself. After she passed, I had so much "free" time that I filled that void with fun sized candy bars. :frown:

So, really, listening to my body and only eating when I felt hungry is what once got me down to a too skinny 103 pounds at one point in my life, and listening to my body and only eating when I felt hungry also got me to a chunky 160 pounds.

Following MFP's calorie guideline and eating exercise calories got me in the BEST shape of my life. I trust the numbers more than my "gut" instinct.