Calories or net calories??

The way I understood it was that the 20% cut from your TDEE already has your exercise calculated into it so you should not eat back the calories you burned from exercise......If I've got it wrong someone who;s been around longer please correct it but I think that is how it goes

It depends what you put for your TDEE. If you are using the "sedentary" or "lightly active" number, then you should focus on the NET calories and eat back your exercise.

If you are using the TDEE that reflects your exercise in it, then you would eat just the gross calories you have set.

Does that make sense?

Edited to add: At 1500 calories I'm guessing you did it with no exercise, so you should eat those calories back.

IMO you should eat back your exercise calories. It is calculated like this (for a guy my size and daily activity not including exercise)...

Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity 2,360 calories/day (Basal Metabolism and Daily Activities
To Lose two pounds per week you much burn 7,000 more calories than you consume.
Daily Calorie Deficit 1000 calories
Goal Calories 1,360

Now...say I exercise and burned 500 calories. This would add to my calories per day. That number now becomes 2860. Minus 1,000 calories for my deficit and I can now consume 1860 calories and still lose weight at 2lbs a week. They say that any higher of a deficit is not good for you. People on here will disagree as I'm sure you will get lots of opinions....

But if you calculated TDEE with no exercise then you do exercise then you do need to eat them back.

I always eat some if not all of my exercise calories back

If you have customised your calorie goal as a cut from your TDEE, then you are no longer following MFP as it was designed to work, and you should not eat back exercise calories. So, forget about the "net" calories. MFP gives you a goal that does not include any planned exercise, which is why you should add that on top. I am assuming that when you calculated your TDEE, you factored in the exercise that you do, so you don't want to count it twice. If you did not count your exercise when you worked out your TDEE, then you should eat back exercise calories and look at the "net" calories.

Ohh ya makes sense now! I wont be eating back exercise calories no wonder i havent been losing much weight!! Thanks

This is right IF you factored in your exercise to your TDEE. 1500 seems very very low. Also depending on your weight it may be too ambitious to cut 20% from TDEE. If you've only got a few pounds to lose (that would result in a lower TDEE) you may want to go for 10-15% instead.

If you have customised your calorie goal as a cut from your TDEE, then you are no longer following MFP as it was designed to work, and you should not eat back exercise calories. So, forget about the "net" calories. MFP gives you a goal that does not include any planned exercise, which is why you should add that on top. I am assuming that when you calculated your TDEE, you factored in the exercise that you do, so you don't want to count it twice. If you did not count your exercise when you worked out your TDEE, then you should eat back exercise calories and look at the "net" calories.

Ohh ya makes sense now! I wont be eating back exercise calories no wonder i havent been losing much weight!! Thanks

This is right IF you factored in your exercise to your TDEE. 1500 seems very very low. Also depending on your weight it may be too ambitious to cut 20% from TDEE. If you've only got a few pounds to lose (that would result in a lower TDEE) you may want to go for 10-15% instead.

^This is a very good point. You are already a healthy weight now (according to BMI anyway) so a 20% cut may be too aggressive.

I always eat some if not all of my exercise calories back

So where do i need to set my calories? I'm 26, 5'2, 134lbs and want to get to 122lbs. I exercise 5days a week, 3Xweekly heavy strength for an hour and 15mins cardio, 2Xcardio days where do HIIT or go spinning....Where should i set my calory goals and should i eat back or not eat back calories burnt?

Maybe i'm eating too much but feel free to check my diary

Ok, so calculators vary, but using the fitnessfrog one, I got your TDEE to be 2172 - that's with you at "moderate exercise eg. exercising 3-5 days a week). A 20% cut from that gives you 1738 ish calories a day. I think a 20% cut would be too aggressive for you though, so personally I'd aim for something in the region of 1850-1950 a day. That's up to you though. For these numbers, you would not eat your exercise calories back.

1500 definitely seems too low to me if you're not eating your exercise calories back, but would probably be reasonable if you did eat exercise calories back.