I think I understand net calories..little help please?

You are correct!

I think you're on the right track though I'd argue with your semantics. If you want to lose weight at the rate MFP assigned you (or you chose, depending which applies), yes, you'd 'eat back' your exercise calories.

Your body is not really 'left with 786 inside it'. Your body has all the calories you ate today and all the calories you've eaten in the past and haven't burned off, but rather stored. If you have 30 lbs. to lose, figure 30 x 3500 = 105,000 calories of body fat you need to burn off to lose that 30 lbs. You can use that fine for energy needs for today. What you don't want to do is EAT (not NET) less than 1200, or create a lot of deficits greater than 1000 calories/day. That latter is where the exercise eating usually kicks in.

I think you're on the right track though I'd argue with your semantics. If you want to lose weight at the rate MFP assigned you (or you chose, depending which applies), yes, you'd 'eat back' your exercise calories.

Your body is not really 'left with 786 inside it'. Your body has all the calories you ate today and all the calories you've eaten in the past and haven't burned off, but rather stored. If you have 30 lbs. to lose, figure 30 x 3500 = 105,000 calories of body fat you need to burn off to lose that 30 lbs. You can use that fine for energy needs for today. What you don't want to do is EAT (not NET) less than 1200, or create a lot of deficits greater than 1000 calories/day. That latter is where the exercise eating usually kicks in.

I'm glad that you explained that...... but sometimes a simple answer is better absorbed, haha

but yes, 786 calories are what's left for your body TODAY!

You can chose to eat back your exercise calories or not. its your choice. I did not for the longest time & continued to lose weight. even when MFP re-calculated my calorie intake to 1200 a day, I still did not eat my exercise calories. I still continue to lose weight. Once I learned more about net calories, I did decide to eat my exercise calories back most of the time. but sometimes I felt like there was no way I burned that many calories, so I chose not to eat them back.
you body is different from the person next to you. starvation mode or your body storing food doesn't just happen overnight. just like it didn't happen overnight that we gained a bunch of weight to make us heavy or whatever.... so if you eat less than 1200 ONE DAY, its not that big of a deal. just like having a "cheat day" every once in awhile isn't going to hurt you overall.

http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/2009/03/mtyhbusters-starvation-mode.html

I don't think our bodies really work on the basis of "today's calories" but if it makes it simpler to think of it that way, that's probably ok. Just be sure you know that how you lose weight is by using up "yesterday's calories" today or tomorrow. At some point you have to create a deficit to tap into those stored calories. Sometimes people talk like if you don't eat your BRM plus exercise calories you will die or not have the energy to finish your workout. That would only be the case if you had no "yesterday's calories" saved up.

I don't think our bodies really work on the basis of "today's calories" but if it makes it simpler to think of it that way, that's probably ok. Just be sure you know that how you lose weight is by using up "yesterday's calories" today or tomorrow. At some point you have to create a deficit to tap into those stored calories. Sometimes people talk like if you don't eat your BRM plus exercise calories you will die or not have the energy to finish your workout. That would only be the case if you had no "yesterday's calories" saved up.

I agree. And that might be the case if we had absolutely nothing to burn, but I have a lot of fat to burn off, so my body is in no way starving itself.