going CRAZY on how many cals I should eat????

What is most confusing is not figuring out how many calories to eat, but accurately estimating exercise burn. There are many many sites that have calculators to find your BMR and the numbers will be fairly close, and give you a good range to start at, but then you have to figure out your activity level. This is where I get stuck. There are so many variables. How much did I exert myself during that workout? What was my heart rate? If I exercise for 60 minutes 6 days a week, but sit on my butt the rest of the time, am I lightly active, moderately active? What if I workout twice a day? It's kind of funny actually.

Side note. I have noticed that MFP numbers tend to be significantly lower than what you will find elsewhere.

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What is most confusing is not figuring out how many calories to eat, but accurately estimating exercise burn. There are many many sites that have calculators to find your BMR and the numbers will be fairly close, and give you a good range to start at, but then you have to figure out your activity level. This is where I get stuck. There are so many variables. How much did I exert myself during that workout? What was my heart rate? If I exercise for 60 minutes 6 days a week, but sit on my butt the rest of the time, am I lightly active, moderately active? What if I workout twice a day? It's kind of funny actually.

Side note. I have noticed that MFP numbers tend to be significantly lower than what you will find elsewhere.

You need to figure out your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) which is your BMR plus the calories you use just doing normal activities. What you do is, you add your exercise you do working out to your TDEE, and THEN you subtract calories based on how much weight you want to lose. A deficit of 500 per day is 3500 a week, and that will be a loss of 1 lb.

So... simplified...

(TDEE + Exercise/Workout) - 500 = Daily Calories

Make sure that this "daily calories" number is not below your BMR. You need to eat AT or ABOVE your BMR so that your body functions correctly. It might take a little bit of googling, but there are online calculators that will help you determine BMR and TDEE.

I hope this helped! Looks like everyone else has given you good advice too. Just remember to eat enough and you should be fine. I personally have increased my calories and I'm still losing weight at a fast rate. Don't be afraid of eating more. And good luck, you're doing great!

Ok so if my BMR is 1459 and my TDEE is 1747 then 1747+700(running and strength training) = 2447-500 = 1947 so I should be eating 1947calories. But on the days I don't work out it'll be 1747-500=1247 which is below my BMR of 1459 so you are saying I should be eating a minimum of 1459 calories a day when i'm not working out and not 1247?

Was that estimate of TDEE for sedentary, meaning non-exercise TDEE?
From the fat2fit site? Otherwise the math doesn't work out correctly for TDEE from BMR, and that must mean you have little to lose because that site bases the suggested TDEE to eat at on your goal weight. Which means 500 is too great a deficit, and actually on their site, they already did a deficit, you don't add to it. Read the paragraph above the chart.

If so, you at least got the right idea of adding back exercise and then taking deficit off.
But wouldn't the effect be exactly the same if you took off the deficit and then added on exercise, as you describe too?

Guess what MFP does?

Exactly what you described. And you end up with exactly the same result of eating below your BMR, if you select 1lb weekly.

Now, here's the great thing, your daily non-exercise calorie burn is not limited by your selection of sedentary, it likely will burn more. I don't think I've never seen one comment from people wearing the FitBits and BodyMediaFit's that their non-exercise day's TDEE was ever at or less than the sedentary they had originally selected. They all found they burned much more.

But the effects of underfeeding, wherever that may fall for you and cause a stall, can be averted by the concern you have, netting above BMR.

Since you are describing exactly what MFP does anyway, just select Sedentary (if that is true non-exercise day, perhaps lightly active), and use goal of 1/2 lb.
That should make a daily net goal of slightly at/above BMR.

Then log exercise calories best estimate, and eat them back.

You just did what you described, and stayed above BMR.

Benefit now is when you lose weight, MFP will adjust the goal down automatically.

The fat2fit method basically balances the energy needs over all the days, so some days may indeed be at/below BMR, balanced by eating the same amount on rest day and being over.
Oh, the fat2fit activity levels for days means hours basically, 3-5 hrs week, 1-3 hrs, ect.

Wow so detailed. Thanks.
I got my BMR from several websites and they all averaged around the same number.
I went to the fat fit site and it said my BMR was 1456 calories. For sedentary 1705 calories and light activity 1954. I’m a stay at home mom but I’m always gogogo. So its around the same numbers and yes I put sedentary.
I lost 75lbs through WW and made goal of 145 last month but I want to lose 8 more lbs. I’m 28, 5’6, 143lbs and I want to be 135.
So try to lose 1/2lb and not 1lb is what you are saying. Ok sounds good. I have an outdoor gps watch I use for running and an indoor hrm I use for weight training so my calories burned should be a little accurate.

Yep, 1/2 lb selected as a figure anyway. After a few weeks you'll see what it really is.
Of course, with lots of exercise, you are likely to see body improvements first which will balance fat loss showing up on the scale.
So be prepared with measurements now. The fat2fit site Covert bodyfat method uses the most measurements to compare with later.

Also, which GPS watch? Does it have HRM too?

And what is HRM? Because most are going to over-estimate anaerobic workouts, like weight lifting or true HIIT. They think you reached the high HR aerobically, so many spikes up to a high HR looks like good calorie burn. But in reality that high HR was reached anaerobically, and the calorie calcs are for aerobic activity.
Now, it just may turn out that your post workout fat burn during recovery makes that estimate accurate - but really no need to feed and replenish the fat burned later.

I have a MIO GPS watch which also calculates hrm and a Timex heart rate monitor. My GPS watch doesn't work inside so I use my Timex for weight training but I only log in 1/2 the calories it says I burned. I log in my full calories for running which for a 5mile run said about 544 but for 1hr of P90X my Timex said I burned 644 but I only logged 1/2 of that as that didn't seem right. Right? I mean 644 in 1 hour of strength training seemed like a lot even though it was intense.

Hmmm, just reading through this and find it really interesting. Does it make a huge difference whether you're massively overweight or you are very fit already? What if you only want to loose the last pounds? Is it the same calculation then or do you need to pay even more attention to eat ALL exercise calories back? I have the feeling my body won't let go of anything if I do not give it loads of good food.
I am 5'4'' and 127.2 lbs, would be nice to go down in bodyfat a bit... makes me faster at running!