This is not another SHOULD I eat my exercise calories post..

If you do exercise a lot, you may first want to get a HRM, if you don't have one already, that also tracks calorie expenditure to get a reasonable figure. A lot of people unknowingly overestimate their exercise calories:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/normal-weight-men-and-women-overestimate-energy-expenditure-research-review.html

Then if you're still finding yourself coming up 500-700 below, then you may want to take in more quick carbs pre-workout for fuel as well as to consume protein post-workout to help fuel your muscles. A whey protein shake after a workout would be a good idea. And you may want to consider having cottage cheese (I do a casein protein shake) in the evening before bed to help continue muscle growth/maintenance while you're asleep.

Thanks.

I do have a HRM. It doesn't do calories, but I do average my calories out using a calculator that bases the calculations on my height, weight, average HR, age, and sex. I then take whichever calculation is lowest, that or MFP calculation. I know that I am estimating my Spin classes very low. So I am probably eating even less than I need to.

I have also lost 14 lbs in 35 days, so I am losing pretty quickly. I am worried I am going to stall soon. I don't want that!

The protein shakes are a great suggestion. I hate cottage cheese though.

One other thing to think about is front load your calories at breakfast especially if you are burning a consistent burn on your workout...you can log your excercise before you do it so you can budget out your calorie intake and always adjust your burn calorie count up or down based on the actual workout. I always workout prior to dinner, so I know how many calories I can play with at dinner time.

I do this as well because when I first started out, I wanted to know exactly what I had to work with. I am still finding it really hard to eat this much. I work out at night as well, so I have a lot of calories in the morning, and then a lot at dinner. I think I need to bulk up my lunches too.

My calorie goal is already 1500, so with a 500 calorie+ workout, I need to be consuming 2000. I am finding that really hard.

I also live in a very walkable area, am a stay-at-home mom, don't have a car, and walk EVERYWHERE. So that is why my burns are so high.

I am new here and your topic title got me interested! Apparently a lot of people must ask if you should eat your calories earned from exercise! And now I need to know the answer! lol I too exercise every day i aim for 300-500 cal burn but dont eat them all back. I do dip into them for sure tho. I am allowed 1230 cals a day and I am finding that I manage ok but the exercise helps me have a snack or two. To help boost your intake what about adding flax seed meal to things...I put it in my oatmeal every morning and its a great way to add cals and its so good for you!

I have another question....after you add in your exercise what does it mean on your home page when it says Net= x number...this also confuses me.

I will tackle this one first. MFP already calculates a deficit for you, based on how much you want to lose. When you signed up, you put in a lot of information about yourself; weight, height, sex, how much you wanted to lose, fitness level, etc. The deficit MFP gives you is based on all these factors. If you choose to lose 1 lb per week, MFP builds in a 500 calorie/day deficit in your daily calorie allotment. I may be over simplifying this, but this is how I understand it. (It took A LOT of reading to finally get all this, so don't fret!). My daily calorie goal is 1500, and that is based off of lifestyle and wanting to lose 1.5 lbs a week.) This 1500 calorie allotment already has a deficit of 750 calories/day in order to lose 1.5/week. This seems to be my magic number. I only actually lose about 1 lb/week doing this. I lost a lot of weight in my first two weeks. Now it has evened out quite a bit.

Because I have a deficit for healthy weightloss already built into my calorie allotment, I need to eat all the calories I burn (or at least a good majority of them). If I eat too few calories, I may go into starvation mode and stall, or my body will burn my lean muscle for fuel in order to hold on to the stored fat. I don't want this to happen. So I need to eat all my exercise calories.

This will answer your second question. Net is the calories that you have consumed when you do the equation Calories Consumed - Calories Burned! If I eat 1500 calories, and then burn 700, I am only netting 800 calories and that isn't good for my body. I hope that helps. I may have over simplified. there are a lot of great resources pinned at the top of this forum and then at www.shouldIeatmyexercisecalories.com

what happens if you change your lifestyle to "active" and then stop tracking the calories that you are walking to and fro. Just track the sweating workouts. I wonder if that would make a difference for you.

I suggest this also. If you live in a walkable community and walking is part of your lifestyle, then your activity level should reflect that. It sounds like yours should be set to Active. You would then skip logging walks to the park, store etc. as workouts and only log any activity that you do that extends beyond your normal every day activities. I would adjust your activity level and work with the new numbers for a couple of weeks and see if that makes a difference.

I don't always log my walks, but I did today. I already have my lifestyle settings set to active because I am on my feet a lot, workout for an hr+ 5 days/week (Spin 3x+/circuit training 2x/jogging 2x), and am not anywhere near sedintary. I have been working with the 1500 cal/day number for 2 weeks now. I will stop logging my walks and try to do a few of the other suggestions in order to get my calories up. Thanks for the suggestion.