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Some of the MFP exercise calories are inflated (and don't match the numbers at the gym), so you might only eat half back. I eat them back if I'm hungry, otherwise I don't force myself to eat.

I only eat back some of my exercise calories, maybe around half. I'm still losing a pound or two every week so when I get closer to my goal I'll have to be more exact with measurements and burned calories, etc. but it works for now.

As far as what has helped through the journey, I got ANGRY. Angry at the thin people who seem to avoid or cringe at overweight people, as if they will "catch" the fat. Angry at the stores who do not give their Plus Size departments the same attention as the Misses and Juniors and Mens. Angry at myself for letting me get 70 lbs overweight and not doing something sooner. Angry at a relative who had gastric bypass and didn't tell anyone about the surgery - she told them she was losing weight through diet and exercise. And I became terrified that I would be sick and broken down and frail and obese when I get old.

I found MFP on the internet and figured I would give this "logging" b.s. one week. If it was too much of a pain I would stop and figure out a different way. Holy Cow! It worked!! And it is not nearly as inconvenient as I assumed it would be. And I'm steadily losing weight and I've made friends here online who are also at some point along the journey and know the struggle.

MFP's calculations assume you will eat your exercise calories, so (OP) you have it right. If you set your MFP activity level correctly in your MFP profile based on your occupation and daily life (not including exercise), and gave MFP a weight loss goal (like 1 pound a week or whatever), the calories it gives you as a goal have that amount of weight loss built in. So, if you work out (burning more calories), you eat back your workout calories to stay at that same calorie deficit and weight loss rate.

Some people worry that MFP over-estimates exercise calories, so they eat back only part of them. Some people want to lose even faster, so they eat back none of them.

If you have a slow weight loss rate target with quite a bit of weight to lose, and do only a small amount of exercise (say, 100-200 calories-ish), it's probably OK to eat back few or no exercise calories. But if you have relatively little weight to lose, or have a very aggressive weight loss rate goal (2 pounds a week), or exercise many hundreds of calories daily, it would be a healthier idea to eat back at least some of the exercise calories.

Regardless, it is best for your health if you fine-tune your goals after a month or two of weight loss, once you get past the initial bigger weight drop some of us see in the first couple of weeks, and at least one monthly cycle if you're young/female, and are able to see your actual weekly average weekly weight loss.

Your body can only metabolize a certain number of calories per pound of body fat each day (30-some calories per pound of fat, I believe). If you lose weight faster, you have greater risk losing more lean tissue (such as muscle) in addition to fat.

So, if after a period of time you're losing more than about 1% of your body weight per week, you should either increase your calorie goal, or eat back more exercise calories. (It's always OK to lose more slowly.)

Personally, I estimated my exercise calories carefully, and ate back virtually every one of them, while losing 60+ pounds in 10-11 months, with my activity level set at "active" because that's where it needed to be in order to get MFP to calculate an accurate calorie goal for me.

But everyone is different, so your results should guide your goals, as soon as you have enough results to use as a guide.