Help needed please, I really don't understand this!

If you eat 1200 and exercise for 500 your net is 700 (1200-500). In order to keep your net at 1200, which is the calories given to you based on your goals, you must eat the 500 you burned back.

Eating 1200 and burning 500 would have the same effect of eating just 700 and not exercising, which is not enough for anyone.

Put another way If your goal is to lose 1 lb/week MFP puts you in a caloric deficit of 500/day. If you burn 500 your deficit is not 1000 (500+500), which is more than your goal, so in order to meet your goal you must eat back the 500 to keep your goal of 500 intact.

MFP calculates a deficit for you when determining your daily calorie allowance. This means that if you do no exercise you will lose weight because you are already burning more than you are consuming. If you burn off extra calories, you really should eat at least some of them, usually most or all of them-- always enough so that your net number is at least 1200. Net calories (listed on your homepage on the right hand side of your DAILY SUMMARY box), is an estimation of how many calories you are giving your body to run on in a given day. So if you eat 1200 and burn off even just 200 through exercise your body is only getting 1000 calories to run on. If you hit the "goals" button (under the MY HOME tab) you will see an estimate of how much MFP estimates your body burns through normal daily activity. This number is usually about 1700-1800 or higher. So you can see how dangerous it can be to let your body try to fuel 1800 calories worth of activity with only 1000 calories- it's just only over 1/2 of what your body is expecting.

I have to say that I'm still not sure I really understand. I'm so thick!

I've gone to the Goals page and it says 1,200 in red letters. I've also gone to the reports tab and looked at nutrition/net calories and it doesn't look like I've met 1200 so far.

Basically, should I just ignore "net" and go with "my home" tab??? - ie at the moment it says:

Goal 1200 Food 841 Exercise -92 = net 749

and in big green letters it says Calories Remaining 451.

Shall I just eat what it says I've got left (ie 451) and not worry about the rest?

I'll be cycling home from work so it's likely that that number will change again.

Thanks all...

Your calories remaining should be 0 or withing 50 under or over, in order to meet your goal. Simply put eat your exercise calories, or you cannot meet your goal (you may exceed it or come under it but to meet it you must eat all of your calories)

Again eating 1200 and burning 500 (700 net) would be the same at eating 700 and not exercising, which in not enough for anyone

I am actually taking a nutrition class by a well respected nutritionist. She says that you need a Min of 1400 calories to get the nutrient.... But the nutrients don't disappear because you exercise... The most important thing is to pay attention to your body. If you are getting enough nutrients and you don't feel hungry, then don't eat back all of the calories. If you feel yourself getting cravings or hungry, then you need to eat more. Only you know your body, so pay attention. A diet doesn't work if you're hungry or not satisfied.

Nutrition is only a part of it the other part is if your goal is to lose 1 lbs, and you are set up to lose 1 lb, you must eat the cals back in order to lose 1 lb, otherwise you may lose more as your deficit is bigger or you may lose less if your body thinks its starving. But the main point is you must eat them to meet your goal as the goal is based on a daily caloric deficit. To keep the deficit the same everyday you must eat the exercise calories on the days you do exercise.