too many calories?? Help!

I feel like I would have to eat all day.....

That's the secret of the universe.

But seriously... Your calorie deficit is already factored in, so you will always be consuming 500 or 1000 (or whatever you entered) less than you burn. And that's why you will lose weight. Whereas, if you don't eat up, you're making your deficit larger, which will probably work for a while, if you have a bunch of weight to lose; but over time, it will slow down your metabolism and your progress.

Just eat what you feel happy with - I NEVER eat ALL my exercise calories, and lost 26lbs since Jan - you can relax a bit with your diet after a good burn though... whatever works well for you! Some days I burn 2000+ what do I do? Eat 4 big Macs....?

I have been doing MFP for a few weeks but not following the calories they want me to do but I want to do it right.

If you're not following the calories MFP allots, than you're probably not doing it right in the first place. Losing weight is all science -- MFP is based on this science. If you eat the amount of calories MFP sets for you, you absolutely will lose weight.

Double post.

Figure out how many calories you actually burn in a day and you'll see that what they suggest is significantly lower. This tool is pretty helpful: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced, plus there is a weight loss tool you can use after you figured out your expendiature at the same site (http://www.health-calc.com/diet/weight-loss-calculator).

The reality is you probably should eat all day - 5-6 meals spread out throughout the day. Doing so keeps the metabolism furnace burning hot all day. Another resource I've found very helpful is fat2fit radio - a series of podcasts all about healthy eating and living. their motto is "eat like the thinner person you want to become" and that really resonates for me. This short podcast gets to the heart of your question: http://www.fat2fitpowertips.com/2011/05/power-tip-4-eat-how-much/.

Good luck!

Well the thing is your body burring calories by you just being awake but once you add workouts you will burn more calories. MFP tell you to eat so many calories because your body needs it I know it is crazy how can you eat more and still lose.. The trick is to eat healthy calories not empty calories and some days you might not reach your calorie goal for the day and other days you will go over just keep with it and you will lose the weight. If you still can not understand how your body works go on websites and see the break down of calories http://caloriecount.about.com/ is a good site where you can enter your info and it will tell you how many calories to eat is you workout or not workout.

Hope this helps... good luck!!

I only eat 1/2 my calories burn on my plan. I don't eat all the calories that I have earned. But when i was seeing an obesity doctor he told me I needed to play with the whole calorie aspect. I have been put on a caloric intake of of 1600-1800 by personal trainers, worked my butt off and won't lose weight. Frustrated and when I spoke to my doctor he told me, not everyone is "Textbook". you need to play with your calories. So some people need more, some need not as much pending each indiviual metabolism. So when he put me on 1200 calories that was the trick for "me" at first I dropped the weight like crazy but THEN, recently as I have built muscle and increase my cardiofitness and now am healthy and fit, I have fired up my metabolism and with just eating 1200 calories I hit a huge plateau, so remembering what he said and joining MFP, I added another 200 calories to my diet or 1/2 of what I burn that day, I am dropping the weight again. But I do understand that eating those extra calories is hard because I struggle eating those extra calories also.

Hey I've been eating about 1600 Cals a day fro about a month now. It's really great and my pal is great for tracking things. I'll walk you thought a nomal day for me. When I work out and MFP says I can eat more cals i dont I jsut stick to my 1672 a day: I hope this helps you.
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with a little milk
1 slice of whole grain toast
1 tbps peanut butter

Morning Tea
Fruit Smoothy
1/4c frozen berries
1 small banana
1/4c yoghurt
1 kiwi fruit
1/4c milk
cashews and rasins about 1/4 in total

Lunch
whole grain wrap
shaved chicken
lettuce
grated carrots
thin strips of peppers
1/2 tbsp mayo
mustard
apple

afternoon tea (afterwork snack)
1 slice mulitgrain toast
1/2 tbps peanut butter
1/2 banana

Dinner
250g home amde chilli with heaps of veggies in it (peppers, onions, grated cattors, grated succhini, chillis, mushrooms)
2 cups of salad

Snack
strawberry Jello

It looks like a lot of food but it's really good healthy filling stuff with small meals though out the day you're never really hungry and this is really working for me. Hope this helps.

Just eat what you feel happy with - I NEVER eat ALL my exercise calories, and lost 26lbs since Jan - you can relax a bit with your diet after a good burn though... whatever works well for you! Some days I burn 2000+ what do I do? Eat 4 big Macs....?

Agreed!

You are not really eating 3000 calories a day because you "took away" those calories by exercising.
If you eat 1600 calories, then burn 1000, your body ONLy gets 600 calories.
These may help
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories
or
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/167971-eating-exercise-calories?hl=eat+exercise+calories#posts-2234524