Eating Above TDEE?

Are you calculating your TDEE as sedentary? I'd do that and then add exercise separately and decide whether you want to eat it back or not. Unless you do some really strenuous exercise which it doesn't sound like you do there probably is no reason to eat those calories back especially the walking to classes part.

To maintain you really need to play around for a bit to find out where the balance is for you. If you see the pounds creeping back then you have to cut back, if you continue losing then you need to add a bit. No calculator will be bang on accurate for everybody.

TDEE when using activity level is a simple multiplication. It does not account for exact exercises and usually is not a very good tool to use over sedentary. It is better to calculate TDEE yourself on a day to day basis.

Your TDEE is total expenditure so your question doesn't make sense. eat at your TDEE to maintain:
BMR + daily activities + exercise = TDEE

Okay, so your TDEE is 2,200 .

You told MFP your activity level and age, height, etc.... so they calculated your perfect deficit . which leaves you to eat 1,800/day. Don't eat back exercise calories, BECAUSE you already told mfp your activity level...those calories were estimated in....if you want to eat back exercise calories - enter that you're sedentary so MFP doesn't get confused.....good luck

Why would she want a perfect deficit if she is trying to maintain?

Something might be off. But not necessarily. On average, you should be below your TDEE if you're doing it the "MFP way". Another option is to count calories the TDEE way. Here is an explanation:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

I've come to the conclusion that this whole "eating back your excercise calories" thing is stupid. I can understand that for some people it motivates them to exercise. But, if you find your TDEE, that's all you ever need to eat for the rest of your life, and just remain active and you'll stay healthy and fit. Makes it easy rather than trying to figure out how many calories this or that exercise burned and if you should eat more as a result.

Hmm. I suppose you've never trained for an endurance event, where your week 1 needs might be dramatically different from your week 16 needs. Also, your TDEE changes due to a variety of things, age being a big factor. So, it's not all you need for the rest of your life once you find it, at all.

Anyway OP, my suggestion is you to use the links given in this thread, but all of the estimation methods are just estimations- you're going to need to test it out, and adjust according to gains or losses. If you start with a reasonable estimate, you won't gain or lose much, so try it for a week or two, if you've gained 1 lb over two weeks, subtract 250 from your estimate. Eventually you'll hit on the right number. Because the loss/gain potential is pretty small, there's little risk in just trying and adjusting. It's not like you can get that far off track.

Your TDEE is total expenditure so your question doesn't make sense. eat at your TDEE to maintain:
BMR + daily activities + exercise = TDEE

Okay, so your TDEE is 2,200 .

You told MFP your activity level and age, height, etc.... so they calculated your perfect deficit . which leaves you to eat 1,800/day. Don't eat back exercise calories, BECAUSE you already told mfp your activity level...those calories were estimated in....if you want to eat back exercise calories - enter that you're sedentary so MFP doesn't get confused.....good luck

This doesn't apply to the OP but your assumption on MFP and exercise calories is not correct. In MFP's model, exercise calories are not already factored in. You earn 'em to eat 'em. That is why when you log exercise MFP increases your calorie budget for the day in order to maintain the projected deficit.

Yes, it's fine to eat above your calculated average TDEE (as used here on MFP) if your exercise calculates in while at maintenance. (Try to log only 85% of exercise as a good general rule).

For example, today I ate over 3200 cals, my TDEE is about 2700. Today's specific expenditure plus base would be in the 3600-3700.
So by eating well above my TDEE I'm still maintaining a small deficit and will continue to lose very slowly. I'm actually slowly going to maintenance since I've upped my activity to train for a half marathon. If I were at full maintenance I'd be eating a 1000 calories above TDEE on days like today.