Calories questions with weight lifting.

It's very hard to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. That doesn't mean it's impossible though. For weightlifting you want to feed your muscles to help them recover and grow. For dieting you want to create a calorie deficit. MFP is pretty accurate in regards to calories. I've double checked this by wearing a hr monitor an entire day as well as when I workout.

You can eat your calories back, as MFP is already giving you a calorie deficit. However, if you're not hungry, then don't eat. Sometimes I eat mine back and other times I don't. What I would suggest if you want to build and lose at the same time is try replacing some high carb meals with protein rich meals. Protein breaks down into amino acids which your body uses to repair muscles after a workout. Make sure you're getting about 1g of protein per lb of lean body mass. (there's plenty of calculators on the internet for this). MFP gives you a decent minimum of protein requirement but not enough if you're going big in the gym. (in my opinion) I've been doing this since September last year. Since April alone I've lost 3% bodyfat. All while doing heavy weightlifting and little cardio.

Now, I did hit a fat loss plateau, or so it seemed. I took two weeks off weightlifting to heal (tendonitis in elbow) and ran 20 miles a week. I dropped another 10lbs, but I'm sure some of that was water as I also cycled off my creatine at that time. Either way, it shocked my body and I'm back to where I feel I should be as far as progress.

If my main goal is muscle growth and fat loss, then at 184 at 5'7 should my calories be 1400- 1800? Also, i have been told by numerous people not to eat my exercise calories back but I am burning like 600 average a day. i had been eating about 2000, with an average of 1-2 pound loss per week. I strongly believe in the eat more to lose weight method. However when so many 'experts' tell me other wise, i get confused.
I am doing Chalean Extreme. according to her booklet I need about 2400 calories a day minus 500 for my deficit which is about 1900

I would not worry about "muscle growth" at this point. If you are doing resistance exercise and protein intake is adequate, your muscle mass will be fine and, with your numbers, fat loss would be a more productive goal at this time.

For that purpose, a calorie intake of 1400-1800 should be fine (w/out eating back exercise calories), with closer to 1800 on the days you work out and closer to 1400 on the days you don't.