I have questions for those who have been successful.

Female
27
228
CW 187
GW 140
APRIL - JAN = 9 MONTHS
1200-1900 CALORIES
NO
I DIDNT EAT BACK MY CALS.

i set a pretty low cal intake at first. now I am back up to 1500-1800 cals.. I do not eat my cals back and I do not feel hungry.
I do not eat the best so I know my loss is slow.. I am ok with that because my lifestyle is not ready for a full change on food yet.

42 lbs and over 21 inches lost so far.

M/F? Male
Age? 55
Height? 6 ft 3 in
Start weight? 284
Goal weight? Initial was not a target weight but was to lose 1 lb on average a week for 52 weeks
Time it took? So far (9 months into journey) have exceeded the 1 lb a week. Currently average losing about 1.5 lbs a week.
Aloted daily calories? Varied. Started at about 2100 calories a day as weight is lost this goes down. Currently about 1980.
Did your aloted calories change with loss? Yes, see above.
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? In general no but sometimes yes.

M/F?
Age?
Height?
Start weight?
Goal weight?
Time it took?
Aloted daily calories?
Did your aloted calories change with loss?
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories?

THANKS in advance!

female
52
165cm
86kgs (2.2lbs per kg)
64kgs (current 65.7kgs)
5 months
1200
no...always 1200
and no...not unless I was absolutely starving, then I'd only eat back a small portion of them
Good Luck on your journey

M/F?
Age?
Height?
Start weight?
Goal weight?
Time it took?
Aloted daily calories?
Did your aloted calories change with loss?
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories?

THANKS in advance!

M
42
5'9"
370+
200?
still going 12 months in
2100
yes
every damn exercise calorie that I could(only reason to exercise)

M/F? Female
Age? 28
Height? 5'4"
Start weight? 169
Goal weight? 130 (CW 129)
Time it took? I worked on it on and off over the last 2 years
Allotted daily calories? at least 1400
Did your allotted calories change with loss? Yes, I increased them as I went
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? Yes


Edited for spelling.

M/F? Female
Age? 51
Height? 5' 4.5"
Start weight? 131
Goal weight? 120 (this was a total guess when i started)
Current Weight - 108
Time it took? 7 months
Allotted daily calories? 1400 when losing - now 1600 on maintenance
Did your allotted calories change with loss? yes, once on maintenance
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? yes.

Also like to add - eat healthy foods and move! Regardless of what type of exercise you choose - keep moving! Yes, some types of workouts are better than others but you have to do what motivates you so that you'll keep doing it.

M/F? Male
Age? 24
Height? 6'1
Start weight? 198
Goal weight? 155
Time it took? 1 year
Aloted daily calories? Started around 2200 for the beginning of the year, eventually worked down to 1,600. Also switched to a very sedentary job and had to cut working out back to 3 days a week.

Did your aloted calories change with loss? Yep!
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? No, I never input workouts into MFP. I watched and "listened" to my body over the weeks/months.

M/F? Male
Age? 45
Height? 5' 10"
Start weight? 250
Goal weight? Just start losing and went from there
Stopped losing and started maintaining? 162. 88 Pounds lost.
Time it took? 10 months
Aloted daily calories? Whatever MFP alloted
Did your aloted calories change with loss? Yes, I reset my goals every Sunday. After I weighed myself.
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? Very Very Rarely

THANKS in advance!

EDIT: I use MFP religiously.

Female
22
5'1"
160 lbs.
Was 120, then 110, now the number doesn't matter. My goal is to reduce my body fat to ~15%.
Exactly 1 year to get down to 109 lbs.
1370, but see below
I only started using MFP right before I hit 109 lbs., so I was at 1370 for just a few weeks before I upped to TDEE at 1780.
I try to, but I find that it's quite a lot to eat. I do my best to net at least 1500 cals at the end of the day.

M/F? F
Age? 29
Height? 5'4
Start weight?147
Goal weight?130 now 127
Time it took?4 months
Aloted daily calories?1250 plus exercise calories
Did your aloted calories change with loss? No, thought it would but i had less to lose
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? I ate until I was full, never went to bed hungry. So I ate more some days and less others. It is easier for me at a maintenance level to eat most of my calories ( within fifty) because I workout less. Also, I made sure not to be under 1200 unless I was sick.

F, 51 yrs old, 5'2". Started around 180-ish, goal was a lowest of 128, I did hit it. Realistically 130 is better, and I've bounced up to it. Fat to Fit website says for my age and height 128 is on the low end for me, and my body agrees. (Another good website is My Body Gallery for realistic visuals)
It took about a year set at 2 lbs a week loss in this program. At the last 10 lbs when I realized it was taking much longer I raised my calories to 1/2 lb loss a week and thats how I lost the last 10 lbs, by eating more.

As I got fitter I burned less calories per expercise at the same intensity, I ate back ALL of my exercise calories. Half way through the year I got a Heart Rate Monitor and that was motivating me to exercise more plus harder, as well as motivating me to burn off what I overate. Because I could exercise to the overeating amount and then stop. Instead of trying to convince myself to get up and exercise more it seemed more managable. My calories burned were more accurate, so I felt more comfortable eating up to my goal amount. I realized I was doing some exercise at a higher rate than MFP database, and some at less burnage. So I felt more in control of my hunger as I ate enough.

Additional things I learned: Eating too little and my weight loss stalled. There was a "sweet spot" of how much I needed to eat. Predictible plateaus before every loss. Intense and longer exercise did not make me lose faster, more often it also stalled my weight loss. Though, I felt I was getting fitter when I did it. Consistant logging and being honest with myself was more important than being awesome and then having "cheat days". I didn't have cheat days. Occasional spikes in eating did nothing at all. Occasional is once every several weeks or longer. If I was really true to logging then it took about 4 days to see a pound drop. The last 10 pounds took months longer than I expected, but fitness was happening all along. Take your measurements and put them in the "check in" NOW because inches happen when there seems to be no progress. It's motivating and realistic instead of feeling like you are doing things right and stalling. So is logging all days, good or bad, so you can see "reports" and your mind can't tell you "but I did everything wrong, so I must just never be able to lose". Your mind lies. Keep pictures, too. Because the mirror lies and you won't believe how far you came some times until you look.

M/F? F
Age? 26
Height? 5'10"
Start weight? 220 lbs
Goal weight? My initial goal was 155. I met and maintained this for nearly a year but lost some ground in the fall and gained about 8 lbs. Now I'm back to losing again and aiming for 145 lbs.
Time it took? about 15 months
Allotted daily calories? 1500-1700 when I initially lost the weight, now around 1450.
Did your allotted calories change with loss? Yes, once I was close to my initial goal I started eating close to maintenance, I was losing a pound every three weeks or so.
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? Yes, I always eat back some but rarely do I eat all. Almost every day I'm burning 300-600 calories with exercise so that allows me to set my calorie goal quite a bit lower than I'd be happy eating. When I enter my exercise times I see what MFP gives me for calories burned and then manually enter 80% of that number, since I feel like MFP overestimates calories burned.

Another habit that has been essential to my successful weight loss maintenance has been calculating my calories weekly as well as daily. I wouldn't be able to live a happy, balanced life if I couldn't go out to eat and drink with my friends a few nights a week, which means a way bigger calorie intake Thursday-Saturday. So I offset this with my Sunday-Wednesday eating habits and keep a Google Doc that calculates my average intake throughout the week.

M/F? - Female

Age? - I was 28 when I started & now I am 29

Height? - 5 feet 6 inches

Start weight? - I fluctuated between 176lbs and 180lbs

Goal weight? - 125 lbs

Time it took? - 8 months

Allotted daily calories? - 1200

Did your allotted calories change with loss? - No my calories never changed always 1200

Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? - I did eat back my exercise calories in the beginning but I wasn't getting very good results. So I stuck with my 1200 a day and I did great. (& I still do) Also I would never starve my self, I would go over 1200 if I worked out extra hard but never more than 1400. The one thing that I think was key for me was I would always make sure that every day I would have proper fruits, vegetables, whole grains and dairy.

Successful in what, hitting some arbitrary goal weight?

No need to be trollish. When you know you have a lot of weight to lose it helps to have a number to work toward, even if it is arbitrary. I think most of us adjust our goal number throughout the process anyway. We all have other weight loss aims besides a number on a scale, that's just the easiest one to quantify.

M/F? F
Age? 26
Height? 5 feet 6 inches
Start weight?177
Goal weight? 130 (current 146)
Time it took? (May-Jan) 8 months to where I'm at currently
Aloted daily calories? Started at 1200 (not eating back exercise calories), now avg. ~1400)
Did your aloted calories change with loss? yes
Did/do you eat back your burned/worked off calories? not at first, currently yes