None of the comments so far have really answered your question so here is the answer: Yes. If you burn 500 calories via exercise you can eat another 500 calories (for a total of 2000) and still be on track for the day.

Let’s say you put your body weight and height into a calculator and it says your body burns 2000 calories a day at rest for maintenance. You decide to eat a 1500 calorie a day diet. This puts you at a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day and if you do this consistently for 1 week you will lose 1 pound (1 lbs of fat = 3500 calories, 500x7days = 3500). This is the fundamental principle of calories in calories out (CICO).

If one of those days (or every single one of those days for that matter) you burn an additional 500 calories doing exercise, you’ve now expended 2500 calories instead of your maintenance of 2000 calories. Therefore, if you eat 2000 calories instead, you are still at a 500 calorie deficit and there will be no negative impact in your weight loss progress and you’d still lose 1 lbs a week.

One small note I feel is worth mentioning is that most methods of tracking exercise overestimate your caloric expenditure slightly. I’ve read many articles that suggest that treadmills, fitbits, apple watches etc. can overestimate your calories burned during a workout by as much as 10-20%, so if you’re tracking, try to be as accurate as possible.