Exercising & calories

I normally eat back half my exercise calories and never let my intake go below 1200 (unless I'm sick or super stressed or something in which case I make up for in the next day) Normally on days I exercise my intake is at least 1550 calories because I am extra hungry on those days, on days with higher burns it might be even more then that. The general rule of thumb is your net calories should be around 1200. Some people think you have to eat back every exercise calorie, I personally do not. I think you just need to keep your intake high enough to sustain your exercise. But you also should not deprive yourself. If you burn 400 and are hungry for 400 more calories then you should eat them all back.