How a calorie deficit works?

Option 1:
TDEE is maintenance. It should include all exercise you intend to do. Take 500 off that number for 1 pound a week (250 for 1/2 pound a week). If you want to log exercise in MFP....override the calorie estimate to zero. Because TDEE less 500 is close to your BMR....your are fairly close to goal.

Option 2: Use MFP values based on activity level (before exercise). Choose 1 or 1/2 pound a week. Then log your workouts.....eat back 50-75% of the calories given. MFP over estimates calorie burns.

Either method theoretically gets you back to the same starting point.

kaylarosas21 wrote: »

Do you have to eat back your calories? Also do you usually have to eat above or below your BMR?

You should eat back calories so that your body has the fuel it needs to power them and the amino acids it needs to repair things that are temporarily damaged by exercise (in other words, to adapt to it). But many calculators vastly overestimate the calories that are burned in exercise; hence the common advice to eat back 50-75%. (After a few weeks, adjust that percentage based on your actual results.)

Whether you eat above or below BMR depends on your height, weight, activity level, and desired weight loss. If you're an active person, you should be eating well over your BMR in order to have a safe, sustainable level of weight loss (1-1.5 pounds per week, unless you have over 75 pounds to lose). A sedentary person who doesn't exercise might eat somewhat below BMR, especially if he or she had a lot of weight to lose.