Questions about calories

Hello! I am trying to buy my food for the week and I am on a 1800 calorie diet (It is what finally works for me). My question is how do I account for the extra calories I am going to need when I work out? That is one part I always seem to mess up. I either eat too much on recovery or don't eat enough before and I get reaaaaallly sluggish, tired and cranky. I want to be a success this time, but I feel like I need some help. Thanks! :flowerforyou:

When you log workouts in MFP you get an estimated number of calories added back. Many people eat a portion of these calories back to get to what MFP calls "net" calories. People generally start by eating a percentage back....50-75%......use this as a test to see if more (or less) calories are needed. Calorie burns are hard to nail down.

You can eat the calories anytime of the day. I workout after work, so I add them throughout the day.

If you don't like the up/down of exercise calories you could use TDEE less a percent. TDEE would include your workouts as an average throughout the week.