How many calories should I have on days I workout?

Ok so I have a question about my calorie intake on workout days.  I currently have my activity meter set at light activity and it tells me that my burn for the day will be 2180 (I'm 5'7 with a medium frame and weigh 168lbs) and I try to eat around 1400-1500 calories a day to continue losing weight. 

Now I know that I should eat more on days I work out, but I'm not exactly sure how much more (100 calories? 250 calories?).  On days when I just do easy yoga for an hour, I don't even bother to think about eating more but usually my workouts burn around around 550-650 calories a session and I was wondering, given those numbers, how much you think I should eat.  Could really use some advice. Thanks.

Well, if you enter your stats in the burn meter, I guesstimated your age at 30, so it would be more for someone younger and a little less for someone older, and it said that you burn 2400 with moderate activity. Being that you currently were assuming 2180 and would eat 1400-1500, I would say add an additional 200-250 calories to your diet since you are burning more than you previously thought. This is with moderate activity entered, a 550-650 calories workout session would probably classify as vigorous activity so this may even be an underestimate of how much more you could safely eat. I would shoot for 250 though and work from there. Hope this helps!!

Chrissy, thanks for the help.  I was kind of always hungry on workout days, but had a fear of undoing my good work by overindulging.  I try and eat healthy but even with making sure I snack on good for me foods, there is still a possibility to overeat (especially cause dried fruit has so many calories for their size).  Now I think I'll up up my calorie intake by about 200 and try to hit 1700 on workout days.  I'm 23 by the way.

being younger will give you even more cushion to work with as far as calories are concerned. What is your ultimate goal?

being younger will give you even more cushion to work with as far as calories are concerned. What is your ultimate goal?

I have a question about this. I am also 23 and I am really into working out. I get lots of exercise and eat very healthy foods during the day, but I eat horribly at night. I just haven't gotten control of my snackiness yet. There have been many days in the last week where I've eaten 3,000+ calories.

My question is, may I eat my base calories of 1200-1500 even though I'm working out for just a few days to get back on track? I don't think I'll go into starvation mode since I've been eating so much lately. Am I right?

chrissy: my ideal weight would be 145 but i will be happy with something between that and the low 150s. 

raynsong:  your body system might not go into starvation mode but you'll probably be super hungry and after being at your base level for a couple of days, just give in to the temptation and snack a bunch at night, taking you back to sqaure one.  If I were you, I'd try and take it down gradually.  plan and portion out your snack at night and before you go and get another snack, ask yourself if you're really hungry.  this strategy really helps me since i'm one of those mindless eaters, in addition to a nighttime snacker, and there have been times that i have eaten over 500 calories of almonds in one sitting while reading for class, just so i have something to do.  now i just try and drink cups upon cups of tea to keep me awake instead.

thanks for the advice. i also drink a gallon or so of tea a day and that has helped me a lot sometimes. i will go for low cal foods that i can eat a lot of. for example i had a huge spinach salad for lunch, with strawberries, red peppers, pears, radishes, onions and lite sesame ginger dressing. it was only about 200 calories including the dressing but i was stuffed afterwards. i will try to stick to that over the next few days, of course including a few higher cal, protien packed foods as well. hopefully that will get me back on track and make all my (lots and lots) of excerice work for me!