any personal trainers, etc that can give me guidance?

It all depends on what you're doing and how active you are when you're not working out. Your age, height, and sex also play a factor. I don't follow the MFP rules, I follow whatever workout plan I'm doing. OR I'll calculate on my own. It's a pretty basic formula and you can google it

When I checked out the Mayo Clinic information, it was giving you the calories you should eat to maintain your weight. Therefore, if you're looking to lose weight you need to create a deficit. In other words, if you eat 1750 on days you don't exercise and 1900 on days that you do, then you shouldn't see a change in your weight at all.

Essentially the two programs are giving you calorie counts for different purposes. Mayo is helping you maintain and MFP is helping you lose.

I'd recommend following MFP. Which means that on days that you don't exercise you should eat around 1250 calories (follow MFP if you like) and on days that you do exercise, eat back those calories.

I know it seems counterintuitive to eat back your exercise calories - but I have seen a much steadier and faster weight drop since I started eating more.

Hope this helps!

1200 sounds pretty low for you to me. Are you eating that amount easily? I would suggest eating what the Mayo clinic suggested. I am guessing you have MFP set at a 2 pound loss? The 1200 they give you is the generic number they pretty much give everybody.
Sounds to me like The clinic gave you a number with a deficit included. I say try it for a few weeks. A lot of people find they need to eat more (a controlled more) to lose. Why starve yourself if you don't have to?

Not a trainer, but I understand the math.

Based on your info, your BMR (the amount of calories needed to sustain your bodily functions if you laid in bed all day) is 1662. You have a desk job, so based on MFP's definition of daily activity level *outside of exercise* you are sedentary. We multiply 1662 x 1.25 to get 2078. This is the amount of calories your body needs to SUSTAIN your current weight,

You want to lose weight, so we subtract 500-750 calories from that number. A 500 calorie per day deficit will equal 1 lb a week in weight loss, a 750 calorie per day deficit will equal 1.5 lbs a week. So depending on your weight loss goal, your daily calorie calorie goal is somewhere between 1328 and 1578.

Now you're probably asking "Why did MFP give me 1200?" I'm almost certain you told the program that you wanted to lose 2 lbs per week. That would require a 1000 calorie deficit per day, and based on your daily needs to maintain, would mean you would have to limit yourself to 1078 calories per day. However, the website does not let you set a daily calorie goal below 1200 - so it just defaults to 1200 if your goal is too large.

And then we factor in exercise. MFP does not account for exercise *until you actually do it* - remember, your weight loss goal is built in through diet alone. So once you log exercise, MFP adds those calories back to your daily goal to keep you at your consistent 1-1.5lb per week weight loss. Dipping too low on calories (either by setting too large of a goal through diet alone, or through a combination of lowered dietary calories plus exercise) is not sustainable in the long run - especially as you get closer to your goal weight.

When I checked out the Mayo Clinic information, it was giving you the calories you should eat to maintain your weight. Therefore, if you're looking to lose weight you need to create a deficit. In other words, if you eat 1750 on days you don't exercise and 1900 on days that you do, then you shouldn't see a change in your weight at all.

Essentially the two programs are giving you calorie counts for different purposes. Mayo is helping you maintain and MFP is helping you lose.

I'd recommend following MFP. Which means that on days that you don't exercise you should eat around 1250 calories (follow MFP if you like) and on days that you do exercise, eat back those calories.

I know it seems counterintuitive to eat back your exercise calories - but I have seen a much steadier and faster weight drop since I started eating more.

Hope this helps!

I disagree with your assessment as maintenance for someone 230lbs would be much higher than 1750, it would probably be closer to 2250, so there is the 500 cal deficit.

I was just going with what the Mayo Clinic said. I plugged in the information she gave us as well as my own. For her I received the exact recommendations that she did. For myself, it showed eating about 500 calories over what MFP is having me eat with my weight loss goals in mind. The math at least worked for me. That's all I was sharing.

When I checked out the Mayo Clinic information, it was giving you the calories you should eat to maintain your weight. Therefore, if you're looking to lose weight you need to create a deficit. In other words, if you eat 1750 on days you don't exercise and 1900 on days that you do, then you shouldn't see a change in your weight at all.

Essentially the two programs are giving you calorie counts for different purposes. Mayo is helping you maintain and MFP is helping you lose.

I'd recommend following MFP. Which means that on days that you don't exercise you should eat around 1250 calories (follow MFP if you like) and on days that you do exercise, eat back those calories.

I know it seems counterintuitive to eat back your exercise calories - but I have seen a much steadier and faster weight drop since I started eating more.

Hope this helps!

I disagree with your assessment as maintenance for someone 230lbs would be much higher than 1750, it would probably be closer to 2250, so there is the 500 cal deficit.

I was just going with what the Mayo Clinic said. I plugged in the information she gave us as well as my own. For her I received the exact recommendations that she did. For myself, it showed eating about 500 calories over what MFP is having me eat with my weight loss goals in mind. The math at least worked for me. That's all I was sharing.

Is this the link people are using? http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598 Because I actually think it's wrong somewhere. It says right at the beginning "Use the calorie calculator to estimate the number of daily calories your body needs to maintain your current weight." And when I give it the same information for me and use the same definition of "activity level" that MFP uses (daily activity outside of dedicated exercise) it tells me exactly the same number that MFP gives me for maintaining my weight - 1650. But when I put in the OP's info (who weighs 100 lbs more than me) it only gives 1750 for maintaining, which logically cannot be correct.

thanks for all the replies. i have set my MFP to lose 1.5 lbs per wk, so it is now giving me 1500 calories a day. i can surely survive on that. at 1240 I was WAY too hungry.
ONE MORE QUESTION .... I told the MFP I do 10 min of exercize 7 days a week and it told me to eat 1,500 cals per day. Just to be sure I am doing this right, this means I eat 1,500 calories per day. Is this 1,500 already taking into consideration that I will do this exercize? Does that mean I do NOT log it in the exercise log, or do I still need to log it in each day? If I DO log it in, do I eat back what I earn in exercise or not?
I apologize to everyone. I must be dense.

MFP does not take into account your planned exercise with respect to giving you a caloric intake, you are supposed to eat back the calories you burn to keep your daily caloric deficit at the level needed to attain your weekly weight loss goal. So if you burn 200 cals, you should eat 1700 on that day, if you don't workout you eat the 1500 to lose the 1.5lbs/week.