Calorie intake, being under, over..bad??

1200 really isn't enough to fuel your body if you want to lose weight, and especially if your exercising on a regular basis..say you burn 500 calories per gym session..and your 100 calories under anyway..that means really your only eating 600 calories a day...and to put it in a basis way that's not enough fuel that your body needs to burn fat..

do you mind telling us how much you weigh...your goal weight etc?

First, the goal that MFP gives you does not include exercise. MFP has created a deficit for you already, which is likely somewhere between 500-1000 calories per day.
So on a day you eat 100 extra calories, you are still in a deficit of 400-900 calories.
On a day you eat less, your deficit is larger.
Now, on top of that you are exercising. Are you eating those calories, or leaving it. If you are eating them, see above. If you aren't, you are creating a larger deficit.

Also, keep in mind, this is all just an estimate. Your BMR, your TDEE, the food you consume, the calories you burn. As accurate as you try to be, you may have eaten 100 calories less than you logged, or maybe 100 calories more. There will be days where it will be more than you are logging, others where it might be less. 100 calories one way or another isn't going to kill you. Don't put yourself in the mindset that you "must" burn it off. Aim to have it balance at the end of the week. Aim to get close, you'll never be exact.

Unless you are looking to get into competitive level [hence daily micromanagement], your best bet is figure out your weekly caloric intake & do your best to remain at under as at the end of the day calories in vs. calories out = weight gain or loss.

Your deficit is when you burn more calories in a day than you eat. That's what makes you lose weight. You want a deficit that is big enough to make you lose, but not so big that you don't get adequate nutrition or lose muscle in the process. You want to keep as much muscle as possible because it helps burn more calories and it's what gives you a fit, healthy look when you get down to your goal weight.

So when MFP calculates your deficit it doesn't include any exercise. If you exercise you need to add back the extra calories so that your deficit isn't too big. Also eating too little means there's a risk of stalling out on your progress.


Also read this:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Could you explain the first part a little more?
Sorry, again, I am new to this site..

Me?

Simply put, the calorie goal MFP gave you is at a deficit already. It means if you eat that, and don't work out, you will lose weight.

When you signed up for the site, you put in all your information. MFP figured out what your BMR is (your basal metabolic rate). This is what you burn just to live, I mean, think lying in bed all day not moving. On top of that we burn calories just in day to day life, walking to the car, brushing our teeth, etc. MFP takes into account your job (you selected that one), but does not account for exercise in this formula as most other calorie calculators do (this is a big distinction that causes a lot of confusion here).
That is why when you log exercise, MFP tells you to eat those calories. Most other calculators account for exercise in their formula.

MFP took your BMR, figured in your daily activity based on your selection and came up with an estimate of how many calories a day your body needs (assuming no exercise). Lets say this number is 2000. That means at this number, with no exercise, you will neither gain or lose weight.
Then you chose a calorie goal -.5, 1, 1.5, or 2 lbs a week. 1lbs a week is 500 calories less. 2lbs a week would be 1000 less. So if your number was 2000 and you chose 1lbs a week, MFP would tell you to eat 1500 calories. So if you do no exercise and eat 1500 you should lose weight.

So my point was - if your weight loss goal is set to 1lb a week, and you eat 100 calories over what MFP suggests, you are still in a deficit of 400. If it was 2lbs a week, you would be at a deficit of 900.
If you are exercising on top and not "eating" those calories, you would be at a greater deficit.

Is that clear? I am trying to be.

Good for you for sticking to your number goals! I know especially when I first started, it felt like the end of the world if I was 80 calories over. Listen to your body and keep grounded; you know a few hundred calories doesn't equal a pound, and it will be okay as long as you stay focused. Welcome to MFP!!

I'm often over or under by a hundred. That's not going to kill your weight loss. Making sure you're getting enough fuel to carry you through day is what makes or breaks the bank as far as under being bad.

Okay, MFP pretty much automatically sets calories for everyone to about 1200 calories. But that isn't always the way to go because the number of calories people should eat depends on each person. Weight loss is a simple matter of math.

The number of calories you should be eating relates to two things: BMR and TDEE. You'll see those abbreviations all over this site. You said you are really new to this, so forgive me if I over-explain things and don't take it as an insult.

Calories are a unit of energy. Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories (amount of energy) that it would take to fuel your body if you were in a coma: that is, the bare minimum energy required to make your organs function and keep you breathing.

TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is your BMR plus however many calories you use walking around, talking, getting the mail, whatever. So the total amount of energy in calories that you use in your normal daily life. Go to scooby's workshop website someone mentioned above and figure out your TDEE (just follow the instructions). TDEE tells you how many calories you should be eating to maintain your weight at its current level.

To lose weight, you should be eating about 20% BELOW your TDEE. So if your TDEE is 1800 calories, you should be eating 20% fewer calories to keep your body functioning efficiently and still lose weight. 20% of 1800 is 360, so subtract that and eat 1440 calories to lose weight.

Now, if you go to the gym and burn 200 calories and enter that into MFP, it gives you 200 extra calories that you earned-- you should try to eat those calories because that creates 200 calorie deficit on top of a 360 calorie deficit, so at this point you're 35% under TDEE which isn't giving your body enough calories to function efficiently.

If you end up eating over your calories on any day (doesn't matter whether you work out or not for this), by say 100 calories, you are fine, because remember, to maintain your weight you have to eat your TDEE and your calories are set at 360 under TDEE, so you still will lose weight. Maybe not as much as you wanted or as fast as you wanted, but you're still under.

So basically, you have a buffer zone. Once you figure out your TDEE, you can eat all the way up to that point and not gain any weight. TDEE is usually a lot higher than people expect, so once you figure it out for your weight/height, etc, don't freak out. Simply subtract 20% from that, make that number your goal, and don't freak out if you eat a little more, because you still have all that wiggle room up to TDEE.

Hope that helps, and I apologize if I explained anything you already know, but it's important to understand the way this works to be successful. Good luck!

Edited to add (ETA): Once you figure out your calorie goal (and I pretty much guarantee you it will be higher than what you have now), you can manually enter it into MFP and adjust it for your own body.

Okay, MFP pretty much automatically sets calories for everyone to about 1200 calories. But that isn't always the way to go because the number of calories people should eat depends on each person. Weight loss is a simple matter of math.

The number of calories you should be eating relates to two things: BMR and TDEE. You'll see those abbreviations all over this site. You said you are really new to this, so forgive me if I over-explain things and don't take it as an insult.

Calories are a unit of energy. Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories (amount of energy) that it would take to fuel your body if you were in a coma: that is, the bare minimum energy required to make your organs function and keep you breathing.

TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is your BMR plus however many calories you use walking around, talking, getting the mail, whatever. So the total amount of energy in calories that you use in your normal daily life. Go to scooby's workshop website someone mentioned above and figure out your TDEE (just follow the instructions). TDEE tells you how many calories you should be eating to maintain your weight at its current level.

To lose weight, you should be eating about 20% BELOW your TDEE. So if your TDEE is 1800 calories, you should be eating 20% fewer calories to keep your body functioning efficiently and still lose weight. 20% of 1800 is 360, so subtract that and eat 1440 calories to lose weight.

Now, if you go to the gym and burn 200 calories and enter that into MFP, it gives you 200 extra calories that you earned-- you should try to eat those calories because that creates 200 calorie deficit on top of a 360 calorie deficit, so at this point you're 35% under TDEE which isn't giving your body enough calories to function efficiently.

If you end up eating over your calories on any day (doesn't matter whether you work out or not for this), by say 100 calories, you are fine, because remember, to maintain your weight you have to eat your TDEE and your calories are set at 360 under TDEE, so you still will lose weight. Maybe not as much as you wanted or as fast as you wanted, but you're still under.

So basically, you have a buffer zone. Once you figure out your TDEE, you can eat all the way up to that point and not gain any weight. TDEE is usually a lot higher than people expect, so once you figure it out for your weight/height, etc, don't freak out. Simply subtract 20% from that, make that number your goal, and don't freak out if you eat a little more, because you still have all that wiggle room up to TDEE.

Hope that helps, and I apologize if I explained anything you already know, but it's important to understand the way this works to be successful. Good luck!

Sorry OP - I hope this doesn't confuse you -

But doesn't Scooby's workshop account for exercise? So if you follow their numbers, you wouldn't eat the exercise calories?

That is why I didn't use TDEE in my explaination, because my understanding is TDEE includes BMR, daily activity and anticipated exercise activity. MFP doesn't include exercise activity, so it isn't really TDEE.

I may be mistaken though.

Oops, I should have mentioned. When it asks for your activity level, put "desk job with little exercise," and the numbers should all work out. Here is the calculator:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

Hi and welcome to MFP! I started logging my calories towards the end of February and it has been a tremendous help. Everyone's metabolism is different and what works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for another. I tend to overestimate my calories because I know that in many situations, when eating out or at someone's house, I might not have the correct and exact nutritional information. I also know there are going to be times when I naturally go over and in the grand scheme of things, I realize that balance is key. I have however read many times, that it is important to meet 1200 calories a day or your body goes into starvation mode. I have gone through phases where I was truly not hungry and could not eat all 1200 calories. I am not going to force mysef to eat. I suggest that you 1. don't get caught up with 100 calories +/- 2. weigh yourself every week and then analyze your results. There have been weeks where I had a deficit of 2,000+ calories and was lucky if I lost a pound and other where the deficit was much smaller but the pound lose greater. The longer you track, the more information you will gain on what works for you personally. Best of luck to you. I weighed 185 when I started this journey. I now weigh 125 lbs. You can do it!!!