Should I eat back exercise calories?

So you've just ran a 5k or completed a HIIT workout- you've got your blood flowing your endorphins going and to boot you've burned 500 calories! Do you add those calories back into your diet for the day? Or do you stick to your bodies baseline of calories burned without any extras? This is a debatable topic depending on who you're talking to and what your goals are. Although there are some people - usually men or women who do Olympic lifting or cross fit that are trying to gain muscle mass that will eat back their calories to get their desired results. The average person working out is doing so to maintain and or loose weight. Here are a few points on why the average person should not add back in exercise calories-

BMR-

Weight loss is math calories in minus calories out .. easy to figure out. The first thing you need to be aware of is what your basil metabolic rate is (BMR- calories you burn everyday just by existing- on Average in the 1,800-2,200 depending on gender - weight - height and muscle mass). You can loose weight without working out just by creating a deficit in the number you're taking in as opposed to expending by just living. So if you're working out and burning 500 calories a day and eating you BMR calculation let's say 2,000 - you're putting your body at a 500 calorie a day deficit which is a perfect rang for long term attainable weight loss. 

Starvation Mode-

Now you want to be sure you're either cutting your daily calories and adding back in your exercise calories or eating your calculated BMR calories and not cutting exercise calories. If you cut both and put your body at a calorie deficit over 500 calories a day your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto your extra weight rather than loosing it. Which can really mess up your metabolism over time not to mention make you really crabby if your starving yourself to that level. 

Like I said weight loose is math - for every pound of fat you want to loose you have to burn 3,500 calories! So depending on how much weight you have to loose you have 3,500 extra calories to burn as backup energy for a reasonable calorie deficit!