Calorie intake

It depends on your activity settings. If you set it to sedentary, your deficit is already factored in so you should eat back at least a portion of exercise calories. If you set your activity level to lightly active or active, then don't eat back exercise calories.

Just a note that none of the activity settings on MFP include exercise. The very active and other settings refer to daily life, as in your job and day to day regular activity, plus what your body needs just to survive.
MFP figures your daily calorie needs without exercise and then creates a deficit. That is why when you log exercise, it suggests you eat those calories back. If you don't, you are creating a large deficit. For a number of reasons many people suggest maintaining a modest deficit.
There are issues with the estimations, sometimes they can be high. Some people will eat a portion (I always suggest starting on the higher end, like 3/4 of the number) back. Some eat all and are just fine.

The more active you are, the more important it is to fuel your body. It also depends on what you calorie intake/weight loss per week goal is. If you only have a small deficit, you may be fine with a little exercise and not eating it back. But if you are at the bottom of the calorie goals, with a huge deficit to start, its really a good idea to eat at least some of those calories back.

:flowerforyou:

It depends on your activity settings. If you set it to sedentary, your deficit is already factored in so you should eat back at least a portion of exercise calories. If you set your activity level to lightly active or active, then don't eat back exercise calories.

Just a note that none of the activity settings on MFP include exercise. The very active and other settings refer to daily life, as in your job and day to day regular activity, plus what your body needs just to survive.
MFP figures your daily calorie needs without exercise and then creates a deficit. That is why when you log exercise, it suggests you eat those calories back. If you don't, you are creating a large deficit. For a number of reasons many people suggest maintaining a modest deficit.
There are issues with the estimations, sometimes they can be high. Some people will eat a portion (I always suggest starting on the higher end, like 3/4 of the number) back. Some eat all and are just fine.

The more active you are, the more important it is to fuel your body. It also depends on what you calorie intake/weight loss per week goal is. If you only have a small deficit, you may be fine with a little exercise and not eating it back. But if you are at the bottom of the calorie goals, with a huge deficit to start, its really a good idea to eat at least some of those calories back.

I guess I was oversimplifying. When I had my settings at lightly active, I didn't count walks to the store or light activity towards my calorie goal because it was already factored in. I only counted vigorous exercise and ate only a portion of calories back. Thanks for clarifying.

Exactly. I just wanted to clarify because many people are confused by this. Its not very clear in the set up.

I think it's different for everyone. I just finished insanity up and I was doing 1500 calories a day. That was about 300 calories less than what MFP was telling me I should eat. But with 1500 I was losing about 2 lbs a week which was a healthy amount. You probably just need to try different amounts of calories for a few days and see what works best for your body.

It makes me slightly nervous hearing all these people say they only eat some of their calories back. I almost always eat back all my exercise calories. I've never had a problem losing weight this way and have lost weight consistently according to my stats and goals. There will be days that I don't eat back any of my exercise calories, or all of them, or just some, or even go over some days! I try to listen to my body as much as possible. Some days, I'm hungrier than others and that affects how many exercise calories I eat back. However, I don't log strength/resistance training or walking, which I do a lot of. I workout a lot and only log my cardio.

I don't think you should have a problem eating your exercise calories back. MFP designed your goals so that you CAN eat them back, it's the healthy thing to do.

There is nothing wrong with eating all of them back. I've always done the same. The problem people often run into is overestimating their exercise. When you are getting really high calorie burns, I'd be more cautious with eating them all back.