Not Losing Weight - MFP calorie counter correct?

What are you doing to burn 500-900 calories a day?

Are you weighing and measuring your food? Are you logging everything you eat and drink?

Are you willing to open your diary?

It sounds like you're doing what you're supposed to do in RE to eating back your exercise calories, etc...but here's the thing...do you weigh/measure your portions and ingredients or just eyeball? When I first started out, I wasn't really weighing or measuring anything...I'd have a grilled chicken breast and log it as a serving when in reality, the average chicken breast is closer to 2 servings. I was also just eyeballing thing like cereal...I'd just fill my bowl up and call that a serving, etc. The scale didn't budge obviously.

I didn't really start seeing results until I started weighing and measuring everything...I mean everything that goes into a recipe, etc. Also, if weight is an option, use it rather than the measurement...it's more accurate...i.e. when you just measure, you can cheat with a lot of stuff by just stuffing it down into the measuring cup...dicing it up smaller, etc.

Also, do you use specific recipes in the data base and specific products...if you make your own recipe are you using the recipe builder or are you using some generic, "homemade chicken soup" in the data base? I haven't had any problems with very specific items in the data base, but if you're doing a lot of estimating by using "homemade chicken soup"...well, that can cause a lot of problems because who knows who's recipe that was...how much of whatever they put in, etc. If you do a lot of your own stuff, you really need to use the recipe builder.

Lastly, you have to remember that weight loss is not linear by any stretch of the imagination...particularly if you're only a few weeks in, you don't have enough data points to know how much weight you've truly lost or if you've truly gained fat (you most likely haven't). Your body has very natural weight fluctuations throughout the day and from day to day. For example, I'm 5 Lbs heavier today than I was for my official weigh in 2 days ago...I assure you I didn't gain 5 Lbs of fat in 2 days. Per the math, it's pretty much impossible. For me, it's the fact that I had a very intense workout on Saturday after coming back from a week long break to nurse a minor injury...I'm sore as all hell today and my muscles are holding on to a ton of water for repair. You're going to have natural fluctuations with water retention/release as well as the timing of food in/food out. Also make sure that you're consistent when you weight in...i.e. same time and under the same conditions each time. This is because you can fluctuate substantially throughout the day...I'm usually heavier at 7:00 AM than I am at 5:30 AM even though I haven't done anything except shower and get ready for work...it's just the way it goes.

Also remember that 1 Lb of fat = 3,500 calories roughly...that's science, not opinion...it's the same for everyone. So, for you to have gained 2 Lbs of fat, you'd have to consume 7,000 calories over your maintenance level of calories for whatever period of time...this is why I know I didn't gain 5 Lbs of fat in 2 days...no way I could eat 22,500 calories in 2 days. When you're losing slowly at 1-1.5 Lbs per week goal, it can be difficult to really see the results right away because the body can easily have natural 5 Lb weight fluctuations...I didn't really start noticing much until I started weighing daily and plotting those numbers on a graph and looking at it over a long term trend..i.e. 4-6 weeks +.

How do you know how much you're burning? Are you using the gym equipment to tell you because it's usually vastly incorrect. If that's the case invest in a HRM and you'll get a much better reading.

Are you keeping an eye on your measurements? I would certainly suggest doing this. Sometimes you might not lose anything but you'll get smaller. It actually means you're gaining muscle which is a good thing.

If you're doing that much work you're also ripping up your muscles, so you might be retaining water. Make sure you're 1) drinking enough and 2) giving yourself a rest day. You really need time to recover from session like that.

Okay, the problem does not appear to be with the calorie counter.

I believe the problem is that you do not know how many calories you should be eating. The MFP calculator is not accurate unless you know how to handle your body, and MFP doesn't teach you much in that regard from the get-go.

Put your age, height, weight, etc. into this calorie calculator and it will give you the correct number of calories to eat. Calculate it for TDEE-20% for fat loss.

When it asks for your activity level, you can do it one of two different ways. If you would prefer to see all the calories you burned, log those, and eat them back (I do it this way, I find it motivating), calculate it with your activity level at desk job with little exercise.

If you would prefer not to log your exercise, and just eat a set number of calories every day regardless of exercise, calculate it with the appropriate amount of exercise you do every week.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

Question: Can you manually adjust the calorie calculator on MFP?

Yes, you can. Go to "my home" then "goals" and choose manual settings.

Good job for eating your exercise calories back. What's your height, weight and age? I would bet you should be eating more than 1200 calories. Plug your numbers in here and get a better idea http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/. MFP often defaults to 1200 calories if you put in that you want to lose 2 pounds per week.
I started thinking 1200 calories was the way to go and it wasn't. Now I eat 2300 on an average day when I work out.

^^ This. I don't think most people eat enough - myself included, for too long! I was gaining weight for eating too little, and the forums are full of stories like mine, It takes time to click, it seems!

Compare your mfp stats to this: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/ . Read every word, do every calculation. Stick to it for a week. see how it goes. Best of luck!

You can open your diary without divulging any personal information that you don't want out there... we might be able to pinpoint something based on what's on there. Open it?

You can open your diary without divulging any personal information that you don't want out there... we might be able to pinpoint something based on what's on there. Open it?

Yes, I also don't see what an open diary would tell us about you except... what you eat. Pretty hard to track you down on that
Go on, it makes it a lot easier to help you out

Please take a look at this and start here. Never eat 1200 if you don't have to.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8017-in-place-of-a-road-map

IMO it sounds like the exercise cals are maybe over estimated?

Or you are eating a little bit over what you think you are eating.

when I was 175 lbs I thought I didn`t eat a lot and that I was working out hard at the gym and could not understand how my weight kept going up. Then I got real honest about it all and the weight started coming off slowly but surely.

I'm against eating your exercise calories. You can easily calculate your exercise calories wrong. Plus it has never worked for me in the past.

I recommend not eating your exercise calories, or eating half back and see what happens.