Beginners - How hard are you hitting the workouts?

You don't want to hit too hard on workouts because of enthusiasm. It takes about 2-3 weeks just for the body to start acclimating to exercise and people that try too hard in the beginning end up with major DOMS and possibly a strain or sprain of muscle or joints. Always work within your realm of fitness level. It's fine to up it little by little and don't try to compete with others out of ego.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Why are you trying to keep your calories levels "down to 1200-1450"? MFP will have given you one number, not a range. What did MFP give you? That's how many you should be eating. And you should be eating that many PLUS your exercise calories.

I'm not a "noob"...but I don't "workout" all that much. I'm active and exercise regularly, but while any workout is exercise, not all exercise is a "workout"...I like riding my road bike and mountain bike...I like going for walks...I enjoy a good hike or doing some rock climbing, etc. I am active most days of the week. I hit the gym 2x per week to lift weights, and really those are my only "workouts." Most of my exercise is just being out and active and enjoying life.

In terms of "making a difference" I assume you're talking about weight loss...99.9% of that is in the kitchen...it's your diet. Unless you're an athlete or training like one, the energy expenditure for exercise (even as intense as it feels) is fairly nominal relatively speaking

Regular exercise (being an active person) is very important to your overall health and wellbeing and can make weight management efforts (whatever that may be) somewhat easier in that it gives you some wiggle room...but there's no need to kill yourself in the gym or whatever. People tend to get very enthusiastic early on and overdo things which often leads to injury, and very commonly burnout, especially when their "results" for all of that hard work don't reconcile with expectations...mostly because those expectations are all weight loss related. The reality is that regular exercise and fitness should be approached as something to be engaged in regardless of whether you're trying to lose weight or not...it doesn't default to weight loss...millions of people (who don't need to lose weight) exercise on the regular because it is extremely beneficial for their health and wellness and basic functionality in life.

When I was a "noob" and didn't really know what to do or how much to do, I found it very beneficial to layout some actual fitness goals that were in no way related to losing weight. To that end, I found structured programs to be highly beneficial in basically laying out what I was supposed to do and when to help me achieve those goals and not do too little or too much. For me, that meant a structured lifting program for the gym and then a structured running program...and later when I determined I didn't really like running, a structured cycling program. I also signed up for various running events and then cycling events which gave me further purpose in the training I was doing beyond just exercise for the sake of exercise.