my food diary

Hi I'm pretty new here and am wondering if I can have some advice on my food diary? There isn't that much on it yet, but I eat pretty consistently. I just want to make sure i'm doing the best things I can to lose weight the smart way and not just cutting calories along with important things as well. Thank you!!

First, how did you set your goals? If you truly only need to lose 20lbs, I hope you set it to lose 1lb per week.

Why are you not eating your exercise calories? You should try to eat at least half of those.

You seem to be doing a good job of hitting your macros! Please don't worry about going over on protein though. MFP sets the protein goal far too low in most people's opinion, especially if you are exercising. I'd recommend that you shoot for around 100g of protein per day to preserve as much muscle as possible while losing weight.

Overall, it looks pretty good. It would probably be a good idea to work using fewer products that are processed. You don't have to try to change everything at once. I just set one goal a week, like getting more veggies in, and then build on that goal the following week, etc.

Basically, how it works:

MFP calculated the number of calories that you use to get through a normal day without intentional exercise(i.e a workout).

Then it subtracts calories from that number. For a loss of 1lb per week, they subtract 500 calories.

So "your normal daily calories burned" - 500 = Your Daily Calorie Goal.

MFP wants you to be at that 500 calorie per day deficit (which was built into your goal) every day, whether or not you exercise. So if you exercise, it adds those calories back to your goal.

Oh I see, I was confused because it says in my normal daily activity I burn something like 1600, I tried to set it for 1lb a week but that would put me somewhere around 1100 calories and MFP doesn't recommend I we eat less than 1200. (confused cause I couldn't get lower than .8lb per week projected losses) Thanks again

MFP won't let women go below 1200 a day or men below 1500, because it is extremely difficult to get full nutrition that way.

I'm in the same boat as you: I'm on a 410 calorie per day deficit because any larger would put me below 1200.

Last year, I started in late February and lost 39 pounds by the end of July.

Then I banged up my knee and stopped working out, which soon led to eating badly, and then my knee was better and I kept being an idiot. When I realized I had regained half of what I lost, I rejoined. Started again about 2.5 weeks ago.

It really does work if you stick with it and are honest about your diary. You can do it!