What's the point?

If I am hungry, I eat. If I am not hungry, I don't eat. I'm not going to starve myself and I'm not going to stuff myself.

I, too, think the body knows best and I am going to start listening to it.

If I eat 1200 calories and do my normal workout my day would look like this...1200-950=250 left to fuel my body ALL day. After a while doing this everyday, because I don't have a huge amount to lose, my body will start to freak and think I don't have enough food. The point is to get at least 1200 to fuel your body to walk to the car, breath, cook dinner, you get the point. If you eat 1500 calories and only burn 300 per day by all means skip eating them back but don't think that if you go as low as you can on calories you will lose faster.

I use MFP to create a 500 cal deficit built into my daily calorie intake, so I always eat back my exercise calories. I try to net the number MFP has set for me. It's not because I trust the all-knowing MFP robots behind the curtain, but that I know that I have a tendency to overdo things, and it becomes a slippery slope if I don't have a stable program to keep me in check. So, if I started having a deficit of 100 at the end of each day (in addition to the 500 auto), the next day I'd shoot for 150. Then 200. I used to find under-eating addictive, and that's not healthy. I also know that by eating a set, reduced, but still healthy number (enough for my body to properly function on), I still lose. But I have to eat my exercise cals to do this. It seems counterintuitive, but it's not, since MFP builds in that deficit. When I wouldn't eat enough, I stopped losing weight. Now I eat to lose, not live to eat, haha.

(Obvi, this is just what works for me. I can only speak from my own experience.)

Also, speaking to the masses, your deficit and whether you eat your exercise calories back depends on where you are compared to your goal. I've read that if you have a lot to lose, it's fine to not eat those exercise cals back. If you're closer to your goal weight, you have to be more careful about maintaining enough calories IN so your body knows it's ok to still let go of that poundage.

The closer you are to your goal weight, the more of a difference it makes. When you have 200 pounds to lose, you can afford not to eat back every exercise calorie. But when you're trying to lose, say, 15 pounds, your body is functioning differently and your metabolism is much more sensitive to small numbers of calories.

^^^ THAT!

I also work a wacky schedule 5pm - 3am. I work out at 3-330am when I get out of work for about an hour (typically burn 400-700 cals) I go home, have my protein shake. Relax and I'm in bed by 5-6am. So there isn't anywhere for me to add those calories in.

Just have to change your food choices a little bit. Increasing cals doesn't mean increasing volume a lot. A lot of people who have trouble meeting cal goals tend to fall short on healthy fats. Good fats are necessary! Add in natural oils (olive/canola), nuts and nut butters (almond, pistachios, walnuts), and avocados. And just increasing cals by 50-100 for each meal/snack adds up. Just takes some practice. It's a learning process.

Sometime I eat back my calories and other times I don't. The thing is that MFP already calculates a deficit so I feel I would still lose weight if i eat some.
For example, let's say my BMR is 1600 cals. MFP tells me to eat 1200. That's a deficit of 400 cals
If I don't excercise:
Net Calories=1200 consumed-0 burned=1200 at a deficit
Let's say I excercise and burn 500 cals:
Net calories=1200 consumed - 500 burned=700. at a deficit
Say you eat back your calories
Net calories=1200 consumed +500 excercise calories consumed -500 burned= 1200 still at a deficit.
I would say that if you are not at a calorie deficit regimen and are trying to lose weight, then don't eat your excercise calories.
However, If you are already on a calorie deficit, such as MFP, then I feel it's up to you to eat them back. I do it based on how i feel.

I don't eat my exercise calories. I have lost 50 pounds using this wonderful site to journal calories and have support. I am not saying that MFP is wrong. It just never worked for me...Individual metabolism and bodies are different.