Deficit

Your net should be what your food goal is, so 1220.

Net = calories eaten - calories burned.

The easiest way to look at it is you are supposed to eat back most or all of your exercise calories. So you should eat 1220 regardless. And on the days you exercise, you eat those calories to. So you eat 1220. If you exercise and burn 300 you eat those too. So on that day you should consume 1520.

Edit -

So total your total calories eaten should be around 1765. 1220 + 545 = 1765.

1765 (calories eaten) - 545 (calories burned) = 1220.

It's seems to me that the 1200 mark may mess with your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight. I am having the same issue. My goal on here that was assigned says 1650... but for a guy my height (6'4") I feel that may be a little to low.

I am thinking about talking to physical trainer where I work out to see if he would know more about where I should be.

But unless I got absolutely crazy and eat out - it seems like at the end of the day it's already hard to eat the 1650 that I should be consuming.

Anyone else have this problem? Find yourself coming in under your goal daily?

1200 is not a magic number. A shorter female with not a lot of weight to lose, 1200 may be fine. Although to be very clear - I really don't think that people should just arbitrarily decide that should be their intake, it is low for a lot of people, even women. .
Eating too few calories WILL mess with your metabolism, but 1200 may be enough for certain people. Others, it simply is not. It is important to be eating enough.

Your calorie goal will depend on what you selected as a weight loss goal. There are a number of online calculators you can use to figure out how accurate MFP is. It is just a general suggestion. Dont forget, that includes a deficit already, depending on how much per week you chose to lose.

No, I dont have a hard time coming in at my goal. I find often when people complain about that, they are still selecting low calorie versions of foods where they could have the full version and help meet their goals easier. Things like olive oil, nuts and nut butters, seeds and other calorie dense foods are easy additions that help fill in those calories.

I work hard some days to get to a net of 1200, my goal is 1650 and I exercise every day, so netitng 1200 can be a challenge, doing some more research on high value food that is low in sodium, lol, try that!

This does get confusing. My goal per day is 1200 calories so what I've been doing (since I joined here) is trying to stay under the 1200 by eating fewer calories and burning them during exercise. So, I thought I needed to always be under the 1200 at the end of the day to lose...am I wrong? I just read a post that said if you burn 300 (for example) calories then you need to eat 1500 for the day. I thought that would be to maintain your weight. Any enlightenment would be awesome!! Thanks

yes this is wrong. Your goal is 1200, not to be under but to hit 1200, on days you do no exercise. On days you exercise you need to eat your 1200 plus the cals you burned otherwise you will not be fueling your body properly.

To maintain your weight you would have to eat maintenance calories plus the cals you burn from exercise. If you have a goal to lose 1 lb/week and MFP gave you 1200 cals, your maintenance is actually 1700 (1200+500), so if you burn 300, you would have to eat 2000 to maintain, or 1500 (1200+300) to lose 1 lb/week.

eating 1200 and burn 300, is like eating 900 and not exercising as 1200-300 = 900- 0, which is not enough for anyone.

It is really quite simple eat all of the calories that show up on your profile and at the end of the day aim to be within +/- 100 calories remaining (either over or under)