How much exercise calories am I supposed to eat?

As someone who eats 1200 calories, it only feels like a lot on super sedentary weekend days when you're sitting on a couch like a blob (e.g. my Saturdays). During the weekdays, between working, lack of sleep, and exercise, you're going to need energy (aka food) to get through the day. And at such a low number, you'll want to avoid undereating (much different and more serious set of problems) and choose to have a diet that hits a lot of good macros if possible or a well balanced nutritional profile, so eat at least 50% of your MFP calculated exercise calories and then adjust if the weight loss is too rapid. If you have a heart rate monitor like a Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Watch, etc, they're usually more accurate, so aim for 60-75% and adjust.

julie20170512 wrote: »

Thanks guys. I am eating almost 100% of my exercise cals right now, will cut down to 50% and adjust from there.

Are you using a trending weight app? How long have you been eating them all? Have you been losing weight? How much faster or slower than expected is your loss rate? Is the loss rate you've selected appropriate for the current amount of fat you have available to lose? Is the loss rate you have selected such that your % deficit off TDEE is not excessive ? Is there some reason that you know already that you cannot afford to eat back all of your exercise calories?

All these percentages are guesses.
You are guessing as to what will be more reflective of reality.

If you count your food intake accurately... you are more likely to be able to eat most if not all of them.
If you tend to forget to log the occasional drink or two... maybe even 50% will be too much.