Goal calories and Net calories

Hey y'all. I did some digging because I couldn't get my head around that whole "GOAL" calories and "NET" calories thing in the "Your Daily Summary" box on my home page. Here's what I think I found out.

I knew that GOAL calories are the number of calories your body needs to do what it does and that "NET" calories are what you eat minus exercise. The rest was a haze.

The GOAL calories are calculated from both your Basal Metabolic Rate and Daily Calorie Needs which in turn are based upon what you specified as the number of pounds you want to loose per week; the amount and duration of your exercises per week; and other information.

When you created or updated your diet profile and selected your weekly weight loss goal of 1.0lb, 1.5lbs, or 2 lbs , MFP took that information and calculated the amount of calories your body will need to consume in order for you to lose your desired number of pounds per week.

(This was the hard part for me to get since I grew up equating weight loss with eating less). You can eat more if you exercise more as long as your "NET" calories equal your "GOAL" calories. For people like me who are just starting out, when your NET calories equals your GOAL calories, you will continue to drop 1.0lb, 1.5lbs, or 2 lbs week after week.

I'm not a nutritionist, not a myfitnesspal employee, I'm just this guy trying to get skinny. I'm not even sure if what I wrote is accurate but at least now I have the whole "GOAL" calories and "NET" calories clear in my mind. Hope this helps.