"under her calorie goal"

You are certainly not eating anywhere near enough., you should not be netting under your BMR. Have you set to lose two pounds a week? If so change that to one or half a pound. Or have you set your activity level wrong or are you not adding enough calories for your workouts?

3500 cals = 1 pound, so to lose two pounds a week, you would need to eat 7000 cals under what your body burns in a week. That's the math, though I don't think it's sustainable.

Can I jump in? I am new to this and am going backwards. I too have a 1200 calorie allowance and exercise almost every day. I had a deficit in calories for the total week of just over 4,000. I teach spin classes and this has contributed. Sad thing is, I have gained a pound a week by doing this. Calorie wise this is not possible. Can you help clear my confusion? I am going backwards. Basically I need to know this. Do I eat the calories as MFP says, or do I personally cut back by 500 calories a day to lose one pound in a week? Also, does MFP accurately calculate workout calories?

Can I jump in? I am new to this and am going backwards. I too have a 1200 calorie allowance and exercise almost every day. I had a deficit in calories for the total week of just over 4,000. I teach spin classes and this has contributed. Sad thing is, I have gained a pound a week by doing this. Calorie wise this is not possible. Can you help clear my confusion? I am going backwards. Basically I need to know this. Do I eat the calories as MFP says, or do I personally cut back by 500 calories a day to lose one pound in a week? Also, does MFP accurately calculate workout calories?

Water weight. You are doing exercise and asking your body to make improvements, which usually has little to do with weight loss, but gain of water weight.

MFP already has a daily deficit, go look at your Goals page to see the math when no exercise is counted in.
You do exercise, you eat it back. Same deficit amount is there daily that way.

I don't get it either. If you are eating back all the calories you burn then why are you exercising? Not to create a larger calorie defecit to lose weight?

I don't get it either. If you are eating back all the calories you burn then why are you exercising? Not to create a larger calorie defecit to lose weight?

Exercise has many more benefits than just burning calories for weight loss.

Don't cut so hard unless you are willing to regiment your diet so you get all the nutrients your body needs for health - lean protein and veggies only supply a small selection, you also need dairy, oily fish, other healthy fats, a pile of mineral and fibre rich foods.

You may find being well nourished whilst losing two pounds a week easier if you bump up your physical activity and eat some of those calories. Be sure you are getting your 10,000 steps every day at any pace and divided through the day; take your daughter to the park with a frisbee or ball or go bowling or other active hobby. Since you are carrying an extra 80 pounds once you are able to work up to a one hour workout you should be able to burn 500 calories if you push yourself. If you can afford a gym membership classes are a great motivation - Boxercise, BodyPump, Spinning and circuits training are all tough.

Exercising doesn't just burn calories whilst you train, if you work at high levels you can boost the metabolism for up to two days, one study suggested high intensity intervals burns up to twice as much fat as steady state workouts. When you are sore from a strength session you have damaged the muscle fibres, it costs energy to repair that. Also you help maintain or even build muscle mass, this dictates how firm/ soft you will be and affects your metabolic rate. Dieting alone is associated with quite a high level of muscle atrophy, that is more pronounced the faster you try to lose.

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

Don't think that anybody has given you this link yet. This gives information on working out your BMR ad TDEE and also gives calculators to work those numbers out. It will also give you an indication of what your calorie goal could be for a healthy weight loss.

Hope it helps

Can I jump in? I am new to this and am going backwards. I too have a 1200 calorie allowance and exercise almost every day. I had a deficit in calories for the total week of just over 4,000. I teach spin classes and this has contributed. Sad thing is, I have gained a pound a week by doing this. Calorie wise this is not possible. Can you help clear my confusion? I am going backwards. Basically I need to know this. Do I eat the calories as MFP says, or do I personally cut back by 500 calories a day to lose one pound in a week? Also, does MFP accurately calculate workout calories?

MFP can only 'guess' your calories based on how hard you claim to work and for how long. Get a heart rate monitor that calculates calories for more accuracy. Ask an experienced personal trainer to measure your bodyfat with calipers at one of the gyms you teach at, forget the scales given you have an athletic lifestyle.

good info here

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

To lose weight in a sustainable way that will not rebound back with a few more friends you should be eating less than you burn each day. Your body burns calories just to stay alive this is your BMR or basic metabolic rate - this is the number of calories you would be feed if you were in a coma. Your total daily energy expenditure TDEE is you BMR + what you burn for daily life activities + what you burn when you exercise. You should not eat below your BMR. You should not go above your TDEE. The link shows you have to calculate you TDEE so you will know what your maintenance calories are.

Take the time to do your measurement and calculate your body fat% it is very important to getting and accurate TDEE.

http://www.gymgoal.com/dtool_fat.html

If your BMI is in the obese range you can safely take a 30% cut from your TDEE, If you are over weight then a 20%cut is doable, when you are within 10 pounds of your goal you need to drop down to a 5-10% cut from TDEE.

Look at the activity descriptors and choose the one that fits your activity - do not assume that you are sedentary - this applies to persons that are bedridden. If you are up and about and are doing a work out a few days a week you are at least lightly active. If you get in 10000 steps a day in addition to your workouts you are active.

If you follow the roadmap settings then you deficit and your exercise burn is built into a single daily calorie goal. You do not ned to chase back after your exercise calorie if you do it this way. You will need to redo you TDEE calculations for every 10lbs down.

If you follow MFP plan and have set yourself up with a realistic weekly weight loss goal then only the deficit is included in your calorie target. As you exercise you will need to add back in the calories you burn to maintain a daily calorie deficit that is not too large. If your deficit gets too big it will slow and even stop your loss. You would need to eat to your NET calorie goal.

MFP does this because not every one can exercise due to personal issues but they can still lose weight by having a calorie deficit.

I don't get it either. If you are eating back all the calories you burn then why are you exercising? Not to create a larger calorie defecit to lose weight?

You are exercising to improve health - everyone needs exercise, even when not on a diet, for heart health, muscular endurance for everyday activities, posture, and longevity. If you diet and don't exercise you will weigh less, but possibly lose muscle tone and not improve your overall health very much - your body fat percentage will be lower at the end if you also do strength training and your heart will be the better for it if you do cardio. You will be heathier and look better at a later age than if you only dieted. Plus you won't feel or look good if you are undernourishing yourself to lose weight, and you will slow your metabolism. Better to exercise!

My understanding of it is that MFP sets your calorie goal based on your profile answers and no additional exercise. You said you wanted to lose 2 pounds a week so it said for you to lose that, eat 1200 calories assuming you aren't doing any additional exercise. However, if you do workout, then MFP says, "OK, you earned extra calories. You can eat more if you like." So as long as you have set a realistic goal weight for your body type (which only your doctor can really tell you) and don't have any other medical issues that could impede weight loss, you should do fine following the suggest calorie count and eating a little extra when you work out. If you want to be below your calorie goal, that's up to you.

Also be aware that MFP won't suggest anything lower than 1200 calories because in general anything less than 1200 calories isn't seen to be medically adequate for a person's basic regulatory, bodily functions (and they probably don't want to be open to any lawsuits by suggesting too low of a calorie count). But there are people who get by on just a 1000 calories a day - me NOT being one of them.

Also remember that the 2 pounds a week is an average. Our bodies are quirky and I can tell you from my own experience losing 80+ pounds that I'd have a week where I'd lose 4 or 5 pounds and then two or three weeks of no weight loss (but definitely inches lost). So don't expect your body to burn exactly 2 pounds every week. 80 pounds is a lot to lose and I was where you are now. Just stick with it, change up your food and fitness routine ever so often to give your body a new challenge, and be forgiving of yourself.

Thanks, I think I get it. The two pound gain is getting me confused. I teach spin classes and a water aerobic class so I know I am getting the cardio exercise. I am adding in the weights. I feel very healthy for my age, but I don't want the scale to climb.

When you change up your exercise program your muscles respond to the extra work by holding water as they repair/rebuild. This is temporary and will pass. Focus not on the number on the scale but on your measurements and you body fat%. They are a better measure of how you are doing. There are plenty of threads that show how pounds do not reflect how your body looks. Muscle takes u less space than fat so you can look smaller, wear a smaller size and weight the same or more than you started out at.