Day one

I'm working on a total of 40 lbs. But I'm going to try breaking it down in smaller, shorter goals. I started one week ago ... my first goal is 10 lbs by June 13.... I have a big family gathering then! Good luck!

I have re-posted this multiple times : I was using MFP for a good 6 months before I found these posts so it is a bit of a personal mission of mine to pass them on to other people who are just starting or struggling.

My standard suggestion/tip is to do some reading and buy a kitchen scale!!!

Visit this links about building Habits.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ihad/view/the-power-of-habit-part-1-why-habits-matter-688130

arditarose and blankiefinder‌ Nailed it when it comes to Logging accurately and selecting food using the search feature.

arditarose wrote: »

Weigh your eggs and find the appropriate entry. Two eggs at 50 grams is typically 140 calories. If you cooked them with olive oil, add that as well.

blankiefinder wrote: »

if I haven't found an entry that lists the grams, I keep looking for a different entry. This [ Enter Food ] item is already listed a bunch of times. Better to edit and correct one that is already there than add to the database mess that exists now.

JPW1990 wrote: »

Go to the database and look up something like poptarts or doritos. You'll see an asterisk before the first letter of every food on the list. When you look up something like tomato or chicken breast, there should be at least one entry without one, that's official from MFP via the USDA site or similar, and a bunch of others entered by users that start with the asterisk.

When creating or editing a Food item from the existing database my Personal Bias is to Edit an existing Entry and enter the nutritional values based on grams ( 100 gm ) as it makes the portion size math easy. Especially when you use a scale and WEIGH EVERYTHING. Don't log 2 eggs as it is a subjective number, where 50 gm. is very concise.
Re-train/calibrate your mind as to what a portion size is..
You will be surprised how small some portions look when you start to weigh them out. The average cereal bowl I have in my kitchen will hold 2-6 portions.

For Nutritional values start with the values from the product label and Cross Reference/Confirm it with the un-biased nutritional information from the USDA web site at 100 gm.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

Visit the Eat-Train-Progress group and read the pinned topics. If you click on the little STAR you can bookmark the topic for future reference.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress

Read the information at these MFP post. They have links to multiple very good reads.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/getting-started

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1 ( Thanks Stef for this great post )

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1069278/acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6/p1

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/the-next-step/[/quote]

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/32259100#Comment_32259100