Calories!

Hi everyone! I am hoping you can clear something up for me. For such a long time I was under the impression that 1200 calories per day with exercise is the best place to start to lose weight -- even Jillian Michaels recommends this method. However, now that I am more active on Tumblr in the "fitblr" (fitness tumblr) crowd (which is huuuge, by the way) I am hearing different things.

It feels like 1/2 of the information on the internet says 1200 calories a day (for a woman, at least) with exercise and maybe 2 "cheat days" a month.

And the other 1/2 says to find your BMR (the amount of calories your body burns just being alive), multiply it by your activity level (1.2 for sedentary, 1.375 for lightly active, 1.55 for moderately active and 1.7 for very active) and then subtract 500 to 1000 from that (so long as you don't go below your BMR) and eat that amount of calories to lose weight. And also that eating below your BMR will force your body into starvation mode soon no matter what.

So, what is true? Is 1200 calories and working out the best method (I know this is different for everyone but in general) or is 1200 so low that you will inevitably either go into starvation mode, hit a plateau ASAP or both?

Thanks in advance. Sorry, I am a weight loss noob! Any advice and tips you could give me would be amazing! :)

Cross-posted around a little.