excersise vs caloric goal whats the deal? anyone have any an

Eat your exercise calories and don't stray under 1200 cal/day.

It's a little more complicated than that, but MFP is right. You would have to do that EVERY day for an extended period of time (I'd say 1-2 weeks) before your body will go in starvation mode. It's okay if you are under every now and then, not that I'm advocating it, but I just wanted to let you know. One day of under eating won't put you in starvation mode. Just don't make a habit out of it. You should really try to avoid going below 1200 NET calories per day though, because going into starvation mode will actually cause you to gain weight.

MFP adds calories to your day because you're supposed to eat back what you burned through exercise so you can lose your goal per week. If you don't eat them back (or only eat some of them back) you should technically lose more weight per week than your weekly goal. I said week a lot. I don't always eat mine back (and if I do, I don't eat ALL of them back).

I had trouble wrapping my head around this too. None of us are starving!
I stalled at 9 lbs lost for almost 3 weeks, and was feeling run down. Since I added some exercise calories back, I have more energy and have begun losing again. My calorie goal is set at 1200, and I was exercising 600-800 calories daily, netting only 400-600 calories, ran out of steam and hit a plateau. Now I try to net at least 1000 calories, I can't bring myself to eat back ALL of my exercise calories...but for now I seem to have found a happy place. Might have to tweak it again down the road.

A lot of diet plans recommend learning how many calories are required to maintain your GOAL weight at your current activity level, and eating 20-30% less than that for fat loss (30% only if you have a lot to lose). I have found this to work for me. There are several BMR calculators online, I like this one:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Bottom line, no one can make you eat your exercise calories, but you should listen to your body. If you are running on empty it will only slow your progress and potentially make things worse in the long run. If you are exercising effectively you will need to feed your body. It's finding the right balance for YOUR body that is the challenge.

Hope this helps!