Gotta say, MFP is disappointing more each day

AmyRhubarb

Hahahaha - so much entertainment in such a short time! :drinker:

lizzyclatworthy

I haven't got time to read whole thread (tho if there were 2 rage-quits i may come back to.it) Everyone should spend a week hanging out in the message boards before they start. I.learnt so much here!

AmyRhubarb

Mean People of MFP strike again: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1088600-dear-mean-people-of-mfp

amandalj

I agree with this, but just going to mention that when I joined up I never clicked on the 'Community' tab, had no idea there were helpful posts, and for the most part I just used my iPhone app which doesn't link to the forums at all. I think there are probably a huge number of people who use the site to log foods but never venture into the forums - it took me over half a year before I realised it would be worth looking at!

THIS.

I've used MFP on and off for a while now, and I (like OP) was bee-bopping along eating 1200 calories a day wonder why the heck I wasn't losing any weight. I've just recently started browsing the forums and it was a huge eye opener.

In OP's defense, (as well as mine), a lot of diet books you pick up these days seems to put women on a 1200 calorie a day diet so when I saw that was the number MFP gave to me I thought it was normal. It wasn't until I went on the forums that I realized you need to EAT MORE FOOD!

Ultimately, however, I do agree that it is user error more than anything. (I was also guilty of this as well, so please don't take offense!)

ETA - didn't read through everything to see OP deactivated. Oops!

Kotuliak

Yes, perhaps I shouldn't have been putting my health into the hands of a free website.

Leskent, you're absolutely right about that. You shouldn't be putting your health into the hands of ANY website, free or not! Common sense is the key, no matter what you do.

Obnoxa

Oh, I missed the rage quit. Meh, her loss.

christa279

Perhaps I give the general population a bit too much credit?

Yeah, probably.

I was thinking the same as you, especially with her being a mom to 4 kids, I would imagine she's come across something about nutrition.

BinaryPulsar

I didn't read all the additional comments yet.

Just to be clear, if you have never tried to diet or lose weight via calories then you may not be informed. When I joined with 5 or less pounds I wanted to lose. I was like...Ok, sure, I'll lose two pounds in a week and be done. Now, obviously, as I said, after a couple days I knew I could not keep up my active lifestyle as a professional dancer and fitness enthusiast on that. But, seriously, I never paid attention to calories because I had learned that was a slippery slope into disordered eating that I wanted to avoid. And when I joined I honestly did not know what this was. I saw a friend liked it on FB and wanted to check it out. And in the process I learned that calorie counting is not to be feared as I once thought.

I never learned about weight loss or how many calories a small person like myself needed. I just ate nutritious food and stopped when I'd had enough and never went crazy with portion sizes. And it worked great for over 3 decades.

I did, however, always log and count protein in a written journal and looking back at my logs I see that I was often eating 2500 to 3000 calories a day to maintain a weight of 100 pounds as a professional dancer.

This does not make me uneducated. It makes me a dancer that wanted to avoid disordered eating.

BinaryPulsar

Just to explain...when mfp gave me 1200 that seemed normal since all my life people would say to me: "Someone like you probably eats 1200 calories a day."

Also when I was a teen I went through 6 months of eating spinach and strawberries until I weighed in the 80 pound range with health problems, no period, and passing out falling out of the shower. I can tell you that is no way to live mentally or physically (for someone with no fat reserves). And that was why I always ate plentiful after that experience.

lynn_glenmont

OP deactivated her account. Too much Bashing here.

Actually, she said she was quitting because she felt like the MFP "program" gave her bad advice. So she was off to the gym to talk to a real person, from whom, based on my experience, she has perhaps a 20% change of getting good advice. I might be overly optimistic.

paperpudding

I don't quite get the snark about OP deactivating - posters said things like If this site is not for you, don't be on it - then seem to get upset when OP takes herself off it.

I think the MFP tool leaves some room for improvement too and the forums do sometimes have people replying with uneccesary snarkiness.

Some seem to hold their snark as a badge of honour even.

SixPack17

For such a minimal goal of 15lbs, inputting that you want to lose 2lbs a week is A LOT! I'm trying to lose 30lbs at 1lb a week. My caloric allowance is 2080 a week with a goal of 2200 calories to burn. I can achieve that with 3 decent workouts in a week. You pretty much set yourself up for failure. Try changing it to half a pound a week and I bet you'll have an easier and more enjoyable time reaching your goal.

1234terri

at 5.5 weeks you need far more time to really give this a good analysis. And I never eat back my exercise cals..if I can manage. I don't give a hoot what other people say here..I never do and it's one of the only ways I ever lose weight. Do what you need to lose weight, your way. Don't always pay 100% attention to all the many folks who have very firm ideas how about YOu should lose weight. Just keep at it. Give it a good 3-4-5 months before you give up or stay grumpy. hang in there.

skittlesnhoney

I don't think OP is around anymore, but just in case.

I believe MFP's 1200 calorie level it set you to would be NET calories. So if you exercised and burned 300 calories a day you would actually be eating 1500 calories. That's what they mean by "eating back your exercise calories".

For 15 lbs. a week I would set your weight loss expectations to .5 a lb. a week.

Or set your exercise level to sedentary and then eat back your exercise calories.

Sharon_C

I think this is a great cautionary tale for everyone. Don't blindly put your trust in a free website. Or even a paid website. Do your research. Read, read, read. Educate yourself.

I was trained as a journalist and have a background in research. Don't trust one site. Always use multiple sources. Collect as much data as possible.

fast_eddie_72

With such a low weight loss goal, losing two pounds per week is so so so unrealistic. The tool is limited by what you tell it. Change your goal to 1 pound or .5 pound per week and it'll up your calories accordingly.

Absolutely. It's a tool. 2 lbs. a week is a lot. But especially for someone only trying to lose a few lbs.

Like blaming a hammer for bashing you in the thumb.

fast_eddie_72

MFP is way too vague. It doesn't tell you what the recommended weight loss rate is for your weight (it says 'lose 1 lb a week' is recommended though). Neither does it doesn't explain having to log exercise calories and eat them back. There's a lot of room for improvement overall.

Okay, that's not a bad point.

Having said that - MFP told my wife 1,200 lbs. too. Like it tells any woman who puts they want to lose a lot of weight fast. After about three days, she figured out that she couldn't do that on a regular basis and fiddled with the settings to come up with something more reasonable.

Vailara

It's not just people who want to lose weight fast, though. Like many people, if I put in a goal of 1lb a week, then I'll still get 1200. It IS misleading. Of course, MFP allows me to put in 2lb a week, but I'd lose weight at actually the same rate as if I'd chosen 1lb a week. That might just make me feel like I was failing. In fact, even 1lb a week doesn't give me a 500 calorie deficit, so the system isn't doing what it lets us think it's doing! I do wish MFP would talk us through it.

The OP here did adjust her weight loss goal to 1lb a week, and was given a target of 1270 calories. It's hardly any different to her 2lb target of 1200 calories. It's misleading for beginners.

As for eating back exercise calories being obvious - I don't think it is. MFP asks us to enter our exercise goals when setting up our profile. I believe that often people think that if they put in their three gym trips a week, then MFP is giving them a calorie allowance based on that. There would be no need for them to add in exercise again, unless they were planning to use MFP to track exercise.

It would be simpler if MFP simply left that information out of the profile. MFP doesn't need to know how often you plan to exercise, or even what your goal weight is (it doesn't seem to use that information). But because MFP asks for the information, some people are going to think that their calorie goal is based on that information.

Don't get me wrong, I think MFP is great and have been using it in my own way for a long time. But I think there's room for change in how it's set up for new users.

RamonaFr

No advice, just want to say that Norovirus really sucks and I'm glad you feel better now.

florentinovillaro

1) It's not the website's fault that you set your goal for 2lbs/week loss when you only have 15lbs to lose. That's your own fault. Set it to .5lbs/week. 1lb/week, TOPS.

2) You blaming your 1200 calorie diet for passing out is just silly. 1200 is low but not THAT low. There are people here eating 500/calories a day for months at a time, fasting for days at a time (0 calories a day) and they aren't passing out. I'm not saying that any of this is a good idea, but you have to have some pretty serious issues to just randomly pass out. Issues like having a virus that causes you to vomit a lot, resulting in poor nutrition, dehydration and passing out. OH WAIT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. You admitted yourself that you were dehydrated, and fluids were given to help you recover. What does that have to do with 1200 calories/day diet?

Stop trying to push blame onto a simple website when the issues are entirely your own.

^ This.