do you guys do this?? arghh mass confusion

hi guys

after recovering from sort of ed i put on a some weight and am ready to lose that now - safely and healthily may i add.

Now what i am confused about is this...

I am aiming to eat 1200 calories a day. When i exercise i add on to this figure eating back what i have exercised.

I am trying to do an hour of cardio 4-5 days a week with weights every other day. Now i know the machines are innacurate at the gym, but if use their figures and just dont add on any more calories for the weights, will that be ok?? i tried working it out on here but the options arent available for miles/kilometres and strides p/minute and resistance etc

So, if total cals burned = x and i do weights ill eat back x calories.

If i dont do weights, do i eat back x - 25% ????

whats a good % to take off??? i dont want to undereat and i definitely dont want to over eat - well maybe not overeat but you know. its my 23rd bday in feb and i really want to look at least a little trim. help pleasee

what do you guys do??

thanks in advance

What I would do is go ahead and count all calories the machine says plus the weights.  It might make your deficit a little smaller, but you will still lose weight.  And chances are, what you really want is to tone, not necessarily lose weight.  Which means not really restricting your intake, just keep with where you are and keep working out. 

thank you

i shall try that and see how it goes!

Ignore the numbers the machines give you. They are incredibly inaccurate. If you want to be precise, enter the exercise into the activity log.

Personally I eat the same amount of calories every day, so I don't have to think about eating exercise calories. Simply find a reasonable amount for you (1400 calories, perhaps) and eat that amount every day. It simplifies things immensely.