I feel like I am lost...

How I have understood things, is you don't want to eat your calories back that you earn through workouts, in addition you really wanna stay within the suggested cal intake...you're doin great mama keep up the good work! Also what helped me is I bought a dig scale and started watching only the ounces, those ounces add up to pounds over time! Good luck and keep your head up!

Why the 1200 plan? Did you choose that number? Have you tried using MFP's guided goal?

Right, don't say you're on any kind of MFP program.

You are fast approaching self-sabotage.
Just get started right by going into settings to Update diet/fitness profile.
Set your goals for 1 lb weight loss per week.
NO MORE!
And eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies.
Do both cardio and resistance exercise.

AND EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES!
Remember, this is not a race, and you can reach your goals if you stick to a good plan as recommended on this site.

You have many people here ready to lend support, answer qustions and discuss any challenges.
You can do this.

All Is Possible!

Great advice

I have always ate most of my exercise calories back and I have lost the weight. Do what feels right for your body. Try eating them all back and if you are still loosing then stick with that. There is no reason to starve yourself!

Personally I started hitting plateaus after a little while on 1200 and it took 1-2 months to break. I'm now on a plan where I'm NETTING 1200-1300 which means no matter what I exercise I eat back enough to get me between 1200-1300. I'm breaking this plateau and I think my body was not happy with being under 1200.

You have to find what is right for you but you also need to remember that your body is a machine and without the right type and amount of fuel there will be problems either with loss of muscle, loss of energy, less weight loss/plateaus, etc.

Why the 1200 plan? Did you choose that number? Have you tried using MFP's guided goal?

That's the number MFP spit out after I told it I was 182 and wanted to get down to 130 with a loss of 2 pounds a week. Even at that, it says I will be losing about 1.3 pounds a week and not the full 2 pounds.

I have myself listed as sedentary because I have a desk job, but I do walk almost 2 miles a day to and from my office to the train station (that I do not list in my exercise).

You should change your activity to moderate. MFP does not want you to look only at your 8 hours a day you spend working, but rather the whole day. If you are active (ie - walking to and from work each day), then you need to consider that with your caloric intake.

I am using the calories burned from the machine at the gym, which is a little bit lower than what MFP spits out. SO today, I burned 501 calories but I only recorded it as 375.

When should I start eating back all of my calories? I know it's not healthy to go below 1200 which is what I am doing now. I am 178 pounds wanting to get down to 130 or so. I am also going to start lifting when I pick up that book everyone talks about.

As you get closer to your goal weight, you should set MFP for a lesser weight loss/week. We're at about the same place and I recently switched to a goal of 1# loss weekly which upped my calories a bit. This is good to do so your body is well-fueled. You may find you will do better eating even a bit more calories daily once you start lifting. You might need to experiment a bit on that.

Food intake and exercise burns are all guesstimates (even if you are using a HRM) so I'd say using the 75% method is just fine as it gives you a buffer. I generally do something similar. If your weight loss stops and you reach a long plateau, you may need to up your calories a bit to stoke your furnace.

Anyway, as long as you're losing at a healthy rate of 1-2# weekly and don't feel fatigued (which can happen if your body isn't properly fueld), your probably doing just fine.