How am I doing so far? What can I do differently?

try NOT eating your exercise calories. Stick to 1200 calories period. I know people will bark about it and say it's not how MFP was designed etc etc etc.

I say try it for a week or two and see if you see results. Then maybe only eat HALF of your activity calories.

try it, if you find it not working or not feeling well, then stop and go back to the "MFP way"

Similar to above but I would say only eating up to 50% of those calories back as MFP tends to over-estimate calories burned. I doubt you're burning nearly 1,000 calories in a zumba class.

I'm no expert, but I'll try to help. Based on your diary, the problem may lie in that you're not eating enough consistently. 1200 should be your minimum (not your upper limit), particularly if you're working out 4-5 days a week. Your body needs fuel not only to maintain basic function, but to build muscle and burn the excess fat. If you're not hungry, try adding in a couple of high density, high claorie snacks like nuts, fruits and the like. Good luck. If you keep at it, the weight loss should come. If it doesn't, then you probably need to consult a medical professional. Also, try to log religiously at least in the beginning so that you can get a true picture of your nutritional and exercise profiles.

I think those nonlogging days may be derailing you. Since I joined, I've been gaining and losing the same 2-3 pounds, but I have had a few nonlogging days along the way.

I've decided to be consistent with logging so that I have as accurate of data as possible, and I suggest you do the same. Try to be as accurate as possible without driving yourself crazy.

I've also been eating only about half of my exercise calories because I don't trust the estimates.

Start logging properly - use the recipes function so you can can 'reuse' the recipe. For the first time you may it weigh and measure everything. The MFP calculation guesstimates your BMR and TDEE based on your weight and self reported activity, IMO the categories are poorly explained (sedentary is under around 6000 steps not doing absolutely nothing), if you then guess at your food we can't give any sort of sensible advice because you could be massively over or massively under.

If possible check your calorie burn in Zumba with a heart rate monitor because I'm not convinced you will burn that much, and mix up your workouts so you are not doing the same thing day in day out. The body gets more efficient at a given exercise when you do it regularly, efficient means way fewer calories burned.

Should be eating nine servings of fruit and veggies in the full rainbow of colours, three servings of dairy each day, oily fish regularly, plenty of fibre and mineral rich foods (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds). You seem to be eating way over 10% of daily calories as processed/ sugary/ refined junk - up to you if you do that as daily or save up for a cheap meal but not both unless you sole goal is weight loss at any cost (assume not since your posted in Food and Nutrition). Never undereat your fat or protein or fibre (start tracking this), MFP numbers are minimums not optimal, and never net under your BMR.

Hey, good for you for changing your life and becoming healthier! The beginning is the hardest part because you're breaking old habits and creating new ones. That's never easy for anyone. Some advice:

1. The water thing didn't matter to me so much for weight loss. I can force down about 6 cups per day and that's about it. Anything more and I feel like I'm going to drown in it. Just drink as much as you can and it will be enough.

2. Keep improving your logging skills. When you make homemade meals, you can use the "My Recipe" feature and put in all the ingredients, # of servings, etc. and it will calculate it as accurately as possible. With that said, when you're cooking be sure to use measuring cups/spoons and a digital food scale (comes in very handy for meat). By using the scale I learned that I was eating at least twice the amount of meat than I should've been eating. Log everything, cheat meals included. I've tended to scale back cheat meals because they were blowing my weekly averages.

3. Lift weights! You will see results so quickly if you're consistent. There are lots of threads on here about strength training. Just do a search. With that said, keep doing Zumba too because it's wicked fun and burns tons of cals.

Something I've found really helps me is to plan my meals in advance. I went about this by keeping a food diary for a week without planning anything - just logging what I happened to eat, every morsel of it. After this, I sat down to review what I'd eaten and to be honest, sitting down to really think about what you're eating, what you should/need to eat and what you will eat really helped put all of this stuff on the table clearly and concisely. I've never really had a bad diet as such, but I noticed I was getting too much sugar by way of fruit, plenty of excess calories and "bad" carbs through snacking on the wrong foods (oh god, but I love those Karelian pasties) and while my veggies were up to scratch I wasn't eating enough protein.

After this, I've had my whole week's basic meals & snacks planned - I've kept it varied and tasty, included lots of protein, one treat day (i.e. a few pieces of chocolate or, my favourite, salty liquorice for afters), limited my fruit nomming to breakfast smoothies, etc. etc. and I've found that knowing what's for dinner and having everything ready in the fridge has helped me HUGELY in sticking to eating right and getting the right amounts of everything! My boyfriend also knows exactly what to get from the shops just by looking at the fridge door - no more grabbing ready meals for lack of better ideas

Eventually I assume I'll be able to better judge my own nutrition without too much advance planning, but for now, this is my battle strategy. If you're having problems with popping out for fast food, keeping your caloric intake at a decent level for you or eating dodgy things because they just happened to be on hand and you were hungry, give this a go. Might help with that self-discipline