Daily Goals: To stay under, or to meet them?

As far as nutrients, yes, you are supposed to hit the goal for an appropriate daily value of vitamins and minerals. I.E., you should try to eat nutritious foods that contain those nutrients. If you consistently cannot hit certain goals, i.e. calcium, it might be good to supplement them if you feel the need.

I agree though, that the charting is more than just red and green numbers! There are gray areas, so to speak, but MFP doesn't really reflect that.

I look at it like a game of Blackjack in a casino: You want to stay under your calorie goals, but come as close as possible to them while still staying under. Assuming you're logging accurately and that your goals were set up properly, coming close to them each day will allow you to fuel your body to lose weight at a steady, sustainable, healthy rate. If your goal is 1800 and you're eating 1750, great. If it's 1800 and you're eating 1200, not great.

As for the rest of the goals, some are goals you want to come in over (the "good" stuff) and some are under (the "bad" stuff). Don't get me wrong; all these nutrients are both good in the right amounts and bad in the wrong amounts. But some of them are things that most people don't have enough of in their diets, so you want to strive to get at least the amount in your goal. Others are things that people typically eat too much of, so you want to strive to eat at most those amounts.

For best results, aim to get at least the target of:

• Protein
• Fibre
• Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats
• Vitamins A and C (others, too, though these two are most commonly tracked on food labels)
• Potassium (note that most food labels don't include it, so MFP won't be accurate)
• Calcium
• Iron

And try to come in under the target of:

• Carbs (though no need to go super low-carb unless you have other health reasons for doing so)
• Saturated Fat
• Trans Fat (aim for 0 or as close to as possible)
• Sodium
• Cholesterol
• Sugar

Don't stress about every single macro every single day -- focus on calories, for starters, and on feeling full. If you come in around the right number on a weekly basis, then variations from day to day don't matter all that much. And unless you have medical reasons or blood test results from a doctor that indicate you should pay particular attention to specific vitamins or minerals, most of the time you can assume that you'll do fine with a healthy diet.