Hello!

amypearce2022

Hi all!
Newbie over here!! 😊!
Started my calorie deficit and exercise on Monday!
4 days working hard and starting to get myself into a routine!
Any tips or advice with using mfp would be fab!
Wishing you all success in your own journeys 😊

TX375

Good luck Amy. I started back to a structured plan Monday as well after some time off. Best advice... to ensure you're in a caloric deficit track your portions carefully, ideally with a scale. Very easy to be significantly off track otherwise (ask me how I know )

soymilkmilo

all the best with your journey, hope you have a fabulous year

Lietchi

It's a good idea to start reading some of the most helpful threads stickied at the top of each subforum, for example:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-health-and-weight-loss-must-reads

Aside from that, my advice is:
- take things one step at a time. Sustainable weight loss takes some lifestyle changes and habits are best changed gradually to allow them to 'stick'.
- Weight loss is not linear. Look at the long term trend, don't panic if your weight sometimes goes up.
- Don't make things harder on yourself than necessary: don't choose an agressive rate of weight loss (slower=more food=less hunger), don't force yourself to do exercise you dislike (the best exercise is the exercise you'll actually do), don't eliminate all of your favorite foods (learn to fit them into your calorie allotment). The easier you make it on yourself, the more likely your new habits will stick and the less likely you'll give up.
- weigh your foods (it's more precise) and make sure you're using accurate databse entries (the database is crowd-sourced, there are many wrong entries)

Wishing you success!