Hi I am new here and I need help with something.

cassandralee2591

Hello everyone,

I am trying to get more healthy and have been on and off here again again, and this time I am really ready. I have been watching food documentaries on netflix and some of them really scared me, that I decided to make a commitment to the change. I need a good support group , for the people around me , while nice and friendly; they are not ready to make a change.

So anyways I am just looking for a helpful support group and I was also hoping that someone could tell me how I can change my calorie intake on my food diary if at all possible.

Thank you so much!!!

dirtnap63

Go into goals at the top of your home page. You can go with recommended or custom set.

Just remember documentaries usually only tell one side of the story. Good luck.

VelociMama

Go into goals at the top of your home page. You can go with recommended or custom set.

Just remember documentaries usually only tell one side of the story. Good luck.

This.

Start out slow and easy. Set a reasonable weight loss goal and work on sticking to your calorie budget first if you need to. Don't feel like a failure if you can't eat perfectly at first.

MB_Positif

You need to make your food diary public if you would like people to make suggestions. Set your loss at 1 pound per week and stick to your calorie goal. Good luck!

binkybabe

Hi! Welcome to MFP. I am also new to this group, and I see that the others have already answered your question! My sister and I have noticed that, on some food items in MFP, the calorie count is inaccurate....a litlte lowl So, just to keep ourselves honest, we also use the calorie counter on Sparkpeople.com. It's just another helpful tool!

Feel free to add me to your friend list.

MB_Positif

Hi! Welcome to MFP. I am also new to this group, and I see that the others have already answered your question! My sister and I have noticed that, on some food items in MFP, the calorie count is inaccurate....a litlte lowl So, just to keep ourselves honest, we also use the calorie counter on Sparkpeople.com. It's just another helpful tool!

Feel free to add me to your friend list.

If you find things that are wrong or not in the database you can add them. Hope that helps!

auroranflash

Hi there,

MyFitnessPal sometimes sets your default calories too low (depending on what you said your goal for pounds lost per week). MFP set me to 1200 and that was too low for me, so I changed it to 1400, then 1600, and now I am up to 1800 calories a day. It depends on your activity level, current weight, etc. A bigger deficit is not always better, as it can make your hormones screwy and actually cause you to lose weight more slowly because your body adjusts to the lower calorie limit and will want to hold on to any extra calories you give it (assuming you've been eating too little for too long). It can be very frustrating at first figuring out what works.

I usually suggest people run their numbers through a calculator such as this one:

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

... to get another possible idea of how many calories you need to eat daily to have a deficit and still lose weight while making sure you're getting enough to eat for your plan to be sustainable. You can manually adjust your goals by clicking the "Goals" link at the top --> Change goals --> Custom. MFP also tends to set protein lower than most suggest. I have mine set to 40% carb 30% fat 30% protein and it seems to work well.

Good luck with your plan. Don't forget to take notes as you go - it really is more of a science experiment than anything. Test certain calorie goals and activity levels, see what works for you, and have patience. If you are putting in the work, you will see results.

Best of luck.

cassandralee2591

Wow thank you everyone!!!