Eat calories burned?

Yup!

When MFP calculates your daily goal, they only take into account your personal stats, how many pounds per week you said you want to lose and your set activity level (non exercise). Therefore when you exercise, in order to avoid creating too high of a calorie deficit, you need to eat back at least half, if not more of the earned calories.

With such a specific goal, you may want to invest in a good Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) to help give you a more accurate calorie burn. Some can even be used swimming if you're careful.

Good luck!

Because your calorie consumption goal already factors in a deficit. So if you burn extra calories, you need extra fuel.

I'm confused. If you're trying to lose weight (and I definitely am), why would you eat back the calories you burn?

With such a specific goal, you may want to invest in a good Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) to help give you a more accurate calorie burn. Some can even be used swimming if you're careful.

Let me go ahead and elaborate more on this one.
Please don't risk it if the HRM is "water resistant".. That's basically taking a gamble on your money and there's a high risk that it may get wet and thus damaged, rendering it useless.
Water resistant is not the same thing as waterproof.
If you decide to go swimming with one, make sure it's waterproof up to certain depths, etc.

I currently weight 135lbs (which I am happy with-but have put a MFP target of 126lbs, just as it sounds nice to me) & I am 5ft 6inch.
I am more focused on decreasing inches, bodyfat and generally getting fitter.

I have worked out I need 1400 calories per day.
I am starting a fitness plan of going to the gym for 30-45mins (4days a week) and go swimming 1hr (1day a week). Should I eat the calories I burn off? I was told I should not have more than a 300 calorie deficit, does this sound about right?

Thanks again!

Short answer: Yes, you should eat your exercise calories back.

Long answer: In my opinion weight loss and strength/fitness are two separate goals with two separate requirements. Weight loss requires that you have a caloric deficit which you have calculated with MFP 1400 calories will provide. Fitness and strength on the other hand require exercise and fuel in the form of food which you can calculate roughly with online calcs or a heart rate monitor. You can do both at the same time by getting 1400 calories NET after eating back the calories you burn from your exercise because you need to fuel your fitness and strength gains. Exercising just to burn calories so you can have an even bigger deficit is not going to help you achieve the goals you listed off it will instead hinder your progress in terms of fitness and strength.

I'm confused. If you're trying to lose weight (and I definitely am), why would you eat back the calories you burn?

To lose weight you eat at a caloric deficit. To gain strength and improve cardiovascular fitness you exercise. Exercise requires fuel in the form of calories which if you don't provide will not give you the desired improvements to strength and fitness. If you are only interested in weight loss and not in strength or fitness then just don't exercise and only eat at a deficit. If you exercise but don't fuel that exercise then you are sort of wasting your time because you are essentially tearing your body down with the exercise without giving it any fuel to repair and build back up stronger.

Thanks everybody! This has been so freakin' confusing for me! I have tried so hard to NOT eat back any of my calories burned because I thought that the less you eat, and the more you burn, the more weight you will lose. And unfortunately, I'm not losing any weight, and actually GAINED a half pound last week after working out for two hours per day, and staying at or under my 1600 calories per day. I could just never wrap my head around eating back the calories you burn when you're trying to lose weight. I still don't understand it, but everyone is telling me the same thing, so I'm trusting the majority here