Does my body know best?

Workouts can supress appetite. If you can't eat all of them on workout days, look to eat them on your rest days - balancing the calories out over the week.

Eat nuts/seeds, beans, brown rice - all these will bump up your calories.

Eating 5-6 smaller meals daily is key for me. I can never feel hungry or watch out. I have rolling up turkey and cheese to replace the sandwich I used to eat and I love it. I agree there are some days when I am hungrier than others. On those days I try to have extra healthy snacks.

I was told by a nutritionist to add up all of your calories for the week (not what you eat, what you are supposed to have) and then subtract from that number what you eat. Then you know where to stay. This also helps when you get in a stand still and can't lose anything, it tricks your body. So for clarification purposes at 1200 calories a day that's 8400 for 7 days...and you know you get more calories when you work out...add those in to the weeks total. One day eat 1200 and one day eat 1500 just make sure you have come close or you hit your weekly calorie calculations.

Good Luck!

When you hit the "complete this entry" what message do you get??? MFP will tell you if you are eating too few and what will happen if you do. Pay attention to what it says when you complete your dairy for the day. It will say, You will weigh XXX in 5 weeks if you keep eating like today BUT>>>.....and give you a message. Read it. Pay attention too it.
Also under "tool" look at your BMI which is what you need to consume for your vital organs to function. That's if you never get out of bed or move. Don't sabotage your weight loss and cause a binge. Eat your calories and YES, eat your exercise calories!!!

When I tell people to listen to their bodies, I'm usually thinking more about things like "Are your hair, nails & skin healthy? Does your digestion usually work smoothly with no problems? Are you able to sleep well and soundly?" If your answer to any of those is "no," then your diet may not be giving you the right balance of nutrients. And when it comes to exercise, your body will usually use pain to tell you when you might be overdoing it. So in these cases, yes, listen to your body's signals when it tries to tell you that something's wrong.

I like the idea of learning to listen to your body's needs but not its cravings. However, that's easier said than done. It's not just an empty stomach that sends "hunger" signals to the brain: it's hormones. Chemicals. And whenever the chemical balance in your body is thrown off or changed a little, it will affect those hunger hormones too. As you've noticed, exercise is one of the things that releases hormones that affect your hunger. Many women notice increased hunger cravings at certain times of the month for the same reason. So in those cases, "listen to your body" might not be good advice.

On days when you're having problems with hunger & cravings, I would suggest eating fewer carbs, because they digest and burn very quickly. Instead, try eating more fat & protein, which digest more slowly and burn more slowly and steadily. You will stay full & satisfied for much longer that way. Also, the body finds it difficult to store protein (it can, but it doesn't like to). So if you eat more protein than you can burn for energy, it is likely that the extra will be used to build muscle, hair & other tissues, or else it will simply pass on out of your body. So if you have to go "over" on your calories, it's best to do it with protein.

So, my advice? When you're ravenous like that, try snacking on higher-protein choices like a hard-boiled egg, a cheese stick, some Greek yogurt, a handful of nuts, or some grilled chicken or fish.

Good luck to you!

Is there any reason not to listen to your body and save those exercise calories for your rest day, when it's asking for them?

This. Think of your calorie intake and burns on a weekly rather than a daily basis. I always make sure I eat a healthy amount on my big workout days, but will happily carry some over to the next day, when I'm often extremely hungry. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it evens out over the course of a week.

This will work with some metabolisms, but not others. If a person has a very efficient metabolism, then yes, s/he can use the weekly total. Those same people may be able to save up all their calories and only eat one big meal a day, and it won't have a negative affect on their health. If your body is efficient at storing and retrieving calories as needed, then the timing of when you eat doesn't matter so much. If you're one of those people, great.

But then there's the other extreme, people like me whose bodies *don't* process things very efficiently. I have to take care to watch my calories (particularly carbs) not just on a daily basis, but even per meal. I have to eat 6 times a day and make sure to spread my calories & carbs out evenly among those 6 meals, or else my blood sugar spikes & crashes (which causes cravings). It is estimated that as many as one in four overweight women suffers from some level of insulin resistance, and for us, the timing does matter.

In this case, you could get a doctor to analyze your metabolism, or you could just use trial and error. If you use a weekly total as the other posters suggested, and it works for you, great! Go for it! But if you try that for a month or two and can't lose weight that way, then go back to counting the calories by day or even by meal. Everyone's body is different, you have to figure out what works for YOU. Good luck!