Still confused about net cal etc.

Hi all, I am very new to this and have been reading all of the posts reference eating back exercise calories etc. and am somewhat embarrassed to say that I am still confused. My daily calorie # is 1200, my BMR is 1447 and I earn 280 of exercise cals per day. Should I be eating a total of 1447 cals per day (my BMR) or 1480 cals per day (1480 - exercise of 280 = 1200). Also on days where I don't exercise should I be at 1200 or my BMR of 1447? HELP please!

I can tell you what I'm doing and maybe it will help with the numbers some. My BMR is 1,321 and I am moderately active so my TDEE is 2,047. I deducted 20% from the 2,047 to get my goal of eating 1,638 calories. I don't eat my exercise calories using this method unless I burn a lot and my net goes below the 1,321 BMR.

Yes, you will get different approaches here since the BMR/TDEE kind of doesn't follow the "eat back your exercise calories" MFP approach. My opinion is that our BMR is what our bodies need just to run all of our basic organs/systems and we shouldn't eat below that. You will still lose fat eating above your BMR (as long as you are below your TDEE) because you are at least somewhat active throughout the day burning calories.