Just ran across this article which seems to correlate to another article I was reading in Eating Well Magazine yesterday discussing the fact that calories in are not all created equal... It takes more energy to process unprocessed foods versus refined food. Which makes sense. Which means even though you only ate 1200 calories - if it was all unprocessed whole foods - you'll burn even more calories actually consuming that food versus eating the same 1200 calories consisting of refined foods.
All Calories Are Not Created Equal