Do i eat 1200 calories PLUS ones ive earned exercising??

Yes.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Also reading the rest of the links in this thread will help you.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

assuming that picture of you is recent, you are no where near obese (more like a healthy weight), and in most cases where that is the case, yes you should eat your exercise calories.

Not knowing how tall you are, I can't make an accurate judgement on whether 1200 calories is to little. What did you set your goals at?

Yes.......Eat those. With the exercising you've done, you've burned off calories, so in reality you need to eat more to compensate for what you've burned off. That was confusing to me at first too, but I found the more I exercise, the hungrier I really am. Also........I've noticed that after I've worked out really hard I don't want to eat junk. I want to replenish my body with healthy, all natural good stuff. So........my advice to you would be to use those extra calories they're giving you for fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and healthy grains. You've earned it, but make it count! Good Luck!

Technically you are supposed to eat those calories, but personally, I don't always. I just don't see a need to "force feed" myself the extra calories if I'm just not hungry. I read that if you switch up and eat more calories one day and less the next, it tricks your body and keeps you from going into starvation mode. (Zigzag diet) :flowerforyou:

this is exactly what i was going to say.

/Quote Dyma- Yeah i think thats part of my problem. i figure since ive earned an extra 400 calories i can go home and eat a cheeseburger and fries because 'i earned it'.....i need to stop eating the crapy food. I do manage to always stay under my 1200 calories though...so does it really matter what you eat as long as u stay in that range? /Quote


some say its calorie in calorie out but if all your eating is junk you're body isn't going to get what it needs and your going to burn out easier and crave the crappy food more which makes it easier to fall prey to your old habits. Remember this is a lifestyle change so you don't want to never eat a cheeseburger again, however its not healthy to associate food with rewards nor eat cheeseburgers everyday.

dm, even at 5'1" with "15 lbs" that still may not be enough. You have got to remember, 2 lbs a week isn't right for someone slightly over weight. I don't know your numbers so can't guess if it is right for you, but personally, if you have 15 to 25 lbs to lose, I would set my deficit at between 250 and 400 calories and eat all of my exercise calories back. This is a slightly conservative approach, especially if you haven't done so in the past, but it should work for you, it'll take a little while to lose the weight, but once it's gone you'll already be in the right mindset for eating healthy, and there won't be a big shock to your body when you move from weight loss to maintenance, which is where many people falter.

If you really want my advice, the best I could give you would be, go have a professional body fat % test done. If you're above 25% then you can concentrate on losing fat mass (this can be done with a small deficit), if you are above 30% then you could probably have a larger deficit (about 400 to 600 calories per day), if you're below 25% then you have to look at a very small deficit or even no deficit combined with a diverse and very vigorous activity schedule.

Of course nutrition is going to be the main thing in any case, eating not only the right amount of calories, but the right types is crucial as you near your goals, you can be the worlds best calorie counter, but if you continue to make bad choices with the calories you are given, then you'll really have a difficult time losing additional fat mass.

Such a good question I've been wondering the same thing!