question on how many cals I should be consuming..
 

I've been using the Loseit app on my ipod touch. It's got a level of 1429. I also input my exercise and it then subtracts the calories burned from what is consumed and then gives me a total. As long as I have a deficit at the end of the day does it matter if I go over the 1429 or should I watch that number closer?

It depends on how quickly you are trying to lose and how active you are. A small calorie deficit means a slower weight loss.

adding to that, a too big calorie deficit can also bring weight loss to a halt.

experiment, see at how many calories you're comfortably losing 1-2 pounds a week and readjust over time

Just so I'm understand this right...

To maintain I'd need around 2300 calories. So anything under that is a deficit right? I don't need a defict in the number of calories I'm eating right now right? Just from the maintaining number?

I'm kinda confused..

There are so many ways to play the game. Personally I get my cals from freedieting which includes a little bit of extra cals for exercising in general. I then also use the lose it app to track and input my exercise there, but I don't eat back my exercise cals because I'm already using a factor for that. I think you'll find most people don't "eat back" the calories they've burning off exercising. You just have to play with and see what works for you. When I exercise a lot and eat less calories I lose slower, but when I increase my cals a tad and continue the same exercise I lose faster, but that is me. I would start were you are comfortable and if you are too hungry add. Check out freedieting.com there's are great calulator there.

The sparkpeople.com site will give you a range to follow according to your age, height, current weight, exercise, etc.

My range is 1200 to 1550. I like having a range.

It depends on how you set up the "LoseIt". In the Goals section, if you chose "Lose 1 lb a week" or whatever, it will calculate what it thinks your regular daily burn rate is based on your weight and height, and give you an allowance with an appropriate deficit built in. (For 1lb a week, it should be 500 calories less than what it thinks you are burning.) As you lose (or gain) weight and put it into the tracker, you will see it recalculates your calorie allotment based on your new weight.

So 1429 is what it predicts you should stay at to lose, if the formula works for you. You do not have to stay extra UNDER 1429. (If you want to find out what it thinks your maintenance calories are, you can plug in "Maintain" in Goals and it will show you that.) Different web sites use different formulas so you can try some of the ones suggested above to see the variations. If you think you actually need more or less you can add or subtract from the formula manually in the "Goals" tab, in 100 calorie steps.

You could try to stay around 1429 for a week or two and weigh. If you are losing close to the amount predicted and not crazy with hunger, stay with those calories. If your loss is different than predicted, possibly you are not burning the same as a "standard" formula. You can go back to Goals and lower or raise the allowance manually (or you can do something like exercise more to burn more).

I don't try to hit my allowance exactly every day; some days I go up to 200 over, some 200 under. I just try to make sure the unders and the overs cancel each other out over a week. When I started out at about 180lb it gave 1500 to lose 1b a week and it turned out to be pretty accurate for me. It took me several weeks to adjust and learn to eat so as not to get hungry on that amount though.