Do I really need to eat my gross calories?

I have been a member if MFC since the end of August. I think I have been religiously logging all the calories I consume. I was logging all of my exercise calories, but that was based on the calorie count on my Y’s treadmills. As I found out from a previous post I made, the Y’s calorie counts are notoriously wrong. At the group’s suggestion, I purchased a Polar F6 heart rate monitor. As it turns out I was over counting my calories by a factor of 2. When I started the program, I read that I should be eating my gross calories (net calorie goal plus calories consumed). No wonder I was not losing any weight, I was eating too much! Now hopefully with a better calories burned count should I still be eating my gross calories or can I run a deficit (consume less than my gross amount) so I can lose weight a bit faster? Any suggestions?