Calorie/Exercise Question

My calorie goal is 600. I would have no problem with that except for protein shakes bumping up my calorie count. 

So I've been walking, biking, lifting weights, and entering it into MyFitnessPal. It seems like it gives me back a lot of calories, but I have no idea.

For example, today, I "spent" 588 calories on protein drinks, vitamins, and a meal and a half. Then I walked for 70 minutes - about 3 miles, so not very fast. I also did some weight lifting and crunches. The app tells me I've burned 421 calories. 

So, should I eat another meal? Obviously, I won't eat 400 calories before bedtime, but can I have a salad? Or do I go by the original count and call it a day?

You cannot rely on apps to give you the right information..You can surely have another light meal like a salad or soup ,which would be low on calories and would not give you a feeling of heaviness...

Good going on the exercise.  I also use MyFitnessPal and find it so much easier to so my journaling.  I would think though you should stick with the eating plan given to you by your doctor without adding anything extra.  My doc wants a minimum of 45 minutes aerobic exercise along with the eating plan - no snacks, nothing extra.  At 7 weeks out the scale does go down (a bit slower than I'd like but it is on the downward trend).  Also Myfitness is not completely accurate with the exercise calorie count as it can vary from one person to the next, weight, gender, intensity, metobolic rate among other things are factors which can change the number substantially.  

Keep on your plan and keep on exercising!

Follow your plan that's been put together by medical and nutritional experts who know your medical history and are treating you. Not what some entrepreneur with an online web site who never even met you says to do!  

Don't get me wrong. I love MFP. It's great to enter in a food and have it know all the nutritional values without you having to look them up and then it does all the math for you.

But I don't let it do my thinking for me or tell me what my plan should be. And I never ever listened to it for what it said my calorie burn would be for exercise because it was always TOO HIGH on that (compared to all the other calculators that used things like my heart rate and so were much more accurate).

MFP gives 'vanity' calorie burn rates. I find they are about 50% over inflated. My nutritionist does not want people to 'eat' their calories until they are in maintenance for the most part. 

Agreed. I used MFP to count my protein mostly for the first 9 months.

Until I started training for a full marathon, I never ate the calories I burned. I still don't, but I allow for up to 1,500 and sometimes a bit more on hard core exercise days. Yesterday I ran 21k, and I will be spinning today, so my totals are around 1,400.

But I didn't start playing around with calories eaten, until calories burned until this year....and i'm 2.5 years out.

Btw, I was talking to a friend about this today. This friend has never had WLS and was just using MFP to track his calories so he could lose some weight he picked up when he stopped training after doing an IM but continued to eat for one.

He also *****ed about the whole 'exercise' calorie thing and how it doesn't really work unless you do mild and consistent workouts. For example, if you workout 3x a week and do something for an hour or so that burns about 300-500 calories, it's easy to eat that back. But then he goes on a bike ride on Sat. and burns 1500-2000 calories and -- now what?! He can't eat 2000 extra calories in *ONE DAY* without gorging and forcing it and also getting his body to crave more calories on the other days.

Everyone we were having breakfast with agreed the idea that you have "balance out" your calories every day and that you have to eat all your "exercise" calories (but not all the other calories you burn) is just silly and that our bodies don't really work like that. Basically, if it all balances out over 3-4 days, it's good. And exercise calories aren't special magic calories that *must* be replaced -- to your body, it's ALL work. Going for a bike ride isn't different from going shopping isn't different from volunteering for 10 hours and being on your feet that entire time.