Calorie Counting....I'm confused.

you are supposed yo eat back all of your calories... ALL of them, even the ones you burn off

Definitly eat all the 1400-1500 cal. Also try eating a larger breakfast you'll find very quickly that if your not eating enough your gonna start feeling very tired and un-motivated.

Your "suposed" to eat your exercise calories but I think its down to the person. 300 is low but you did say it was around 3 so I'll assume you ate more after that which would bring it up.
I'm targeted 1200 too and I tend not to eat my exercise cals if I can help it (which unfortunately isnt often!)
Just try to get above 1000 else its unhealthy for your body and you'll just end up hording calories.
Hope this helped!

If you're set at 1200, and then you go out and exercise and burn.. let's say.. 300, then you should actually consume 1500 (1200+300). MFP counts for this, though. As long as you're in the "green" on your calories for the day, then keep eating and fueling your well deserving body! Everyone is different, though. Just do what seems to work for you! :flowerforyou:

I'm new to this site also. It does sound odd to eat them back.

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but what's the point of burning those calories if you're just going to eat them back? Again, sorry if that's a stupid question, but I know nothing about nutrition and fitness.

when your calories go into deficit your body goes into starvation mode, and weigt loss will be hendered

Oh gosh, here we go again.

I personally don't eat back my calories unless I feel more hungry than usual. Some people are going to tell you that you absolutley HAVE to eat them back, but really, you don't have to, it wont hinder your weight loss either way. Do what feels best for you.

:happy:
LOL This must be a pretty popular, heavily debated topic...

VERY popular, VERY heavily debated...

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but what's the point of burning those calories if you're just going to eat them back? Again, sorry if that's a stupid question, but I know nothing about nutrition and fitness.

When MFP gives you a calorie goal, your weight loss deficit is already built in to that goal. Because the site knows people might say they're going to exercise 7 days a week, and only actually go three times. So if you tell the site you want to lose a pound a week, the calorie goal it gives you is ALREADY 500 calories below what is needed to maintain your current weight. If you DO exercise, it adds those calories back to your goal so that you don't create a calorie deficit that is too large.

i am also put at 1200 calories, i usually workout for about an hour a dad in which i burn about 700 calories. since i am all about numbers, instead of putting all of burned calories in and eating them all. i usually put about 400 and eat it. so i usually eat about 1600, however, if i feel hungry i eat more and i feel full i eat less. i don't like depriving myself you have to do what works for you and something that you can stick with

it wont hinder your weight loss either way

Tell that to the dozen people who post every single day asking why the scale isn't budging, and inevitably when you look at their food longs they're not eating back exercise calories and thus have a net that is too low for their bodies.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, yes, you can get away with a bigger deficit. It will almost certainly catch up to you at some point though.

I was wondering the same thing!:laugh:

Whether you're Team Eat My Exercise Calories or not, here's the thing...you don't want your NET calories to go below 1200. That can be dangerous and unhealthy for your body. So let's look at some hypothetical numbers.

Say you need 2000 calories to simply stay the same weight you are, given your normal activity level. If you wanted to lose one pound a week (one pound=3500 calories), an appropriate deficit would be to eat 1500 calories a day. You'll burn 500 calories just by doing what you normally do in a day because you're eating less than your body needs to maintain weight.

But, let's say you exercise and burn 200 calories. Now, to keep that same deficit, you COULD eat 1700 calories and still be on track for losing one pound a week. If you didn't want to eat your exercise calories, your deficit for that day would be 700. The normal 500 deficit plus the extra 200 you burned.

Make sense? Yes, it's a heavily debated topic, and you could use the search function, but I hope this helps...
And let's not forget...sometimes, our bodies just don't understand basic math. Plateaus will happen. Just because what you've been doing has worked doesn't mean it'll continue to work. Your body will just get better at processing whatever calories you're giving it.