Help me understand...

 Calories. I've been getting mixed signals on how add up the number of calories I consume/use in a day.  For example so far today I have ate about 900 calories, but I worked out hard at the gym and burned close to 600 calories, so I subtract that from the 900 correct? Or I guess I add the 600 I burned to the total number or calories I that is my daily goal? An example: my daily goal is 1,200, so I would I add the 600 to the 1,200? 


I'm so confused and this is turning into an algebraic equation! There's a reason I'm a social worker! We don't do math. LOL!

Daily is 900 calories.
Food consumption is 700 calories.
Exercise creates 300 calories.

So available calories as (Daily - Consumed + Exercise)
So (900 - 700 + 300) = 500 calories remaining


Personally though I don't add the exercise to the daily total, but that is just me.

there's also an iphone app called "lose it" that calculates it for you.

1200 calories sounds high for someone still trying to lose.  Many people maintain on that amount of calories.  Are you still losing when you consume that many or do you usually eat 900?  I do not think you should count the exercise towards your calories (unless you have had your RMR calculated and wear a Body bugg type thing, the calories burned by exercise is hard to measure).

I think I stuck to around 900 until I was done losing.

Laura

 I think my doc and his nurse would lecture me if I only ate 900 calories a day. I'm still loosing about .5 lb to a 1lb a week on the 1,100-1,200 calories I eat. I found that if I don't count the calories I burn, I will actually end up in a stall b/c I work out intensely and burn a great deal of calories while at the gym and don't consume enough calories otherwise, in other words my body goes into starvation mode.