How many calories?

I am back monday to starting to count calories and workout. I am so confused on what to do.

Do I eat 1200 calories, the 1200 plus my exercise calories? I did see people doing a 20% reduction of their TDEE.

What has worked for you?

Do it smart.

Select an activity level in your profile that is correct. Don't think playing it on the safe side and selecting Sedentary is better. Most find that a 40 hr desk job is actually in the Lightly Active zone without any exercise, which is how MFP works.

Select 1 lb weekly loss as recommended. If you have a lot to lose, it'll end up being more anyway.

And then to keep that 1 lb weekly loss deficit on a daily basis, you log your workouts and eat the extra calories back that day, or slide some into the next day if desired.

That keeps the deficit at the recommended 1 lb weekly.

If you have a steady workout routine that is not variable, you can indeed eat the same thing every day and just balance everything out evenly. Usually makes for eating better, you always know what you've got.

Here's the way to do that. Spreadsheet to tract your progress, and get your stats and figure your goals.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

Im a physiotherapist assistant so on my feet a lot. I just put my activity level to light active and it says I get 1300 calories.

In that environment, easily lightly active, probably more, but you can't pick inbetween levels. Hence the TDEE deficit method being popular.

Anyway, I can tell right now you'll ask folks at work you expect to know, if you should eat back exercise calories.

And they will say No, why would you.

Why?

Because you didn't describe how MFP works. You selected an activity level with NO exercise expected, planned, accounted for, plugged into any formula.

A deficit is given from that.

Those exercise goals are just that, goals - they aren't used in the math for what you eat at all.

Now ask them again, if you already have a healthy deficit, should keep it or make it bigger with exercise by not eating those calories back. That's where yes you eat it back comes into place.

You've seen it then, does a body under too much stress behave properly as expected and desired?
If a person is told to lay off pounding exercises and they don't, does their injury get better at all, or as fast as it could if done poperly.

I just started to do my MFP recommended calories. I am always under, but try to hit it as close as I can. I do now eat back my workout calories, and find that I am much stronger and have more energy.