HOW do you eat back burned calories??

For starters what are you basing that number on? Fitness trackers and calorie burn meters on machines are well known to be overblown. What most people do is start out assuming that you're only actually burning half that amount and then slowly increasing how much you eat back until your weightless is at the desired rate. In terms of how to add them back when you're stuffed, go for low volume but calorie dense things like olive oil (I add it to salads or dips).

Even allowing for water weight your tracker is clearly not that off given your losses so far. So yeah, just add in calorie dense things, perhaps things you've restricted. If there's room for them and you can moderate then go ahead and eat all those delicious calories.

Tacklewasher wrote: »

First, congratulations on the weight loss and realizing your actual results are too aggressive. So many seem to miss this.

If your 1200 calories are a good base of nutrients macros etc., then I'd splurge. Eat those things that people will criticize you for. Wine is good (if you like wine). Desert. Nuts are good to get a lot of calories with low volume (be careful and weight them out, they have a lot of calories). I've got mini Mars and Snickers bars and my exercise calories go to those.

But make sure your 1200 is filling your nutritional needs.

To be honest though, there is little room on 1200 calories a day for splurges and still get appropriate nutrition.

Well, your beans do have protein in them. If, at some point in the day, you can add some grains, potatoes, etc.; they'll give you a complete protein. Split peas, green peas, and lentils also contain it.

Full-fat dairy would also be a decent source.

eeyore9990 wrote: »

I am 2 months in on this and I eat "normal" foods (have cut way back on processed stuff and am avoiding "diet" foods). I eat 3 meals and at least 1 snack per day, but because I'm being very conscientious with regard to portion sizes, I'm eating right around 1200 calories per day.

And I'm FULL and satisfied.

(I used to eat MAYBE two meals per day, but very heavy on processed and fast food so high calorie/bad fats.)

Apparently I should eat back the 300-500 calories I burn exercising every day. (I just learned this, which explains why I've been losing more than 2 lbs per week the last several weeks.)

How do I do that when I'm already satisfied?

.

She's losing more than 2 lb/week, so is likely logging okay.

OP, you've gotten some good suggestions already, so I won't repeat them. I will say that before I started logging I was undereating like you are and felt great. When I saw how much I was eating, I added in some indulgences that I'd cut out -- having chicken roasted with the skin on, bones in, having a little cheese in an omelet or on a salad, eggs and not egg whites, allowing myself to have olive oil again (in moderation), nuts and seeds, occasional chocolate, more smoked salmon. Not saying yours will be the same as mine, but the result of this was (I think) that I remained happy and satisfied with my now more varied and interesting diet for the whole period of time (around a year) I planned to lose and could easily transition into maintenance. At first the excitement of weight loss can take over, but I think it can result in you getting bored and burning out especially if it stalls a bit if you are too restrictive or decide that dieting means nothing just a little indulgent.