Does it work like it says it does?

It does work. I went from September to December last year JUST going by MFP guides. I consistently lost more than it said I would, and I wasn't missing out on foods by any means. I integrated my FitBit (birthday present) in December and it's just another tool to help me along in my journey.

It does if the user is realistic about goals, and uses the system the way it's designed - meaning if you've got 20lbs to lose, setting your goal to lose 2lbs a week isn't a good plan, and when you exercise, you are supposed to eat those calories back, bringing the net calories up to goal.

Looks like your 1lb a week goal is a good plan. Just remember that your daily goal without exercise has you at a deficit, so you should eat to goal & you'll still lose. That's why MFP adds exercise cals back into your goal when you log it, they expect you to eat those back so you're not at too great a deficit.

Patience and moderation. It works.

It worked for me, I punched in my stats, and tried to exercise each day. I started just after Christmas 2011.
The biggest thing for me has been eating ENOUGH (not living on tuna & lettuce leaves as I have done in the past).
Next has been changing some of the things I eat, and spending those calories more wisely (sometimes :blushing: ) Eating normal foods, as I am going to be doing this for life - it is not a "diet".
Measuring everything - I bought some little digital scales. Portion size is important. Don't go with "average" or "medium" - these things are arbitrary - measure!
Trying to get some exercise each day.
Logging in every day, being honest.
Not expecting miracles eg "Lose 10 kgs in five days" rubbish

Go check out some success stories, especially those that give you some hints and information.
Lots of people combine MFP with other things, but for me calorie counting, better choices, and some movement have lost me 28 kgs, most of it in the first four or five months.

You CAN do it if you decide you want to.

i did follow it to begin with, not anymore.. had me set way too low

Like a lot of women I started with my goal set at 2 lbs a week...the dreaded 1200 calories. I lost 6 lbs in 10 days and then it came to screeching halt. After a couple of weeks of no loss I adjusted to 1 lb a week which bumped it up to 1570 calories (now 1510 because I'm smaller) a day and have been losing weight consistently since then. I lose more than 1 lb a week, too - 5 lbs since March 1. At 1200 calories a day my body went into stasis or starvation mode or whatever they're calling it now.

No it does not work like that for everyone.,.. but for the vast majority of people it WILL. If you have a metabolic/hormonal imbalance then the math will not add up for you in the same way that it does for everyone else.

Yes, it works, IF you are totally honest about what you eat (a scale helps), how active you generally are, and how much you exercise.

That said, there are a few qualifications. Many exercise databases, including those on MFP, are optimistic about how many calories people burn during exercise. If I were using MFP's estimates of how many calories I burn, I would reduce them by a third or so. I measure calories consumed in exercise by using a carefully calibrated heart rate monitor.

Moreover, MFP's activity levels aren't that precise. I am not quite "sedentary" but I'm probably closer to that than "lightly active." And people vary in how much energy they extract from food (based on their intestinal microbiome, among other things).

The upshot is that I've set MFP to have me lose 1.5 lbs./week, and I've actually lost more like 1.15 lbs./week over the last 9 weeks. I'm content. It's a tool, and like all tools, it's useful but has its limitations. If I really wanted to lose 1.5 lbs./week I'd need to either tweak it or eat a couple hundred fewer calories each day than MFP tells me to. But I'm content with my current progress, and as a tool to record calories consumed and expended, MFP works better than anything else I've found.

I believe it does work, but the calories it recommended I eat I thought was too low (1,534). So I upped it to 1800 it seems to be helping. I was losing weight at the 1500 something but I think it's' the metformin I'm taking that's helping me lose weight. Those of you who don't know what met is, it's medicine for diabetes.

It worked for me, I punched in my stats, and tried to exercise each day. I started just after Christmas 2011.
The biggest thing for me has been eating ENOUGH (not living on tuna & lettuce leaves as I have done in the past).
Next has been changing some of the things I eat, and spending those calories more wisely (sometimes :blushing: ) Eating normal foods, as I am going to be doing this for life - it is not a "diet".
Measuring everything - I bought some little digital scales. Portion size is important. Don't go with "average" or "medium" - these things are arbitrary - measure!
Trying to get some exercise each day.
Logging in every day, being honest.
Not expecting miracles eg "Lose 10 kgs in five days" rubbish

Go check out some success stories, especially those that give you some hints and information.
Lots of people combine MFP with other things, but for me calorie counting, better choices, and some movement have lost me 28 kgs, most of it in the first four or five months.

You CAN do it if you decide you want to.

:

I have mine set to half a pound a week, and then try to get a bit below what it says (but not too below) and I am currently losing on average 1 pound (or 1/2 kg) a week.

It is slow, but better than anything I have tried before!

It does work. The BIG CAVEAT is that you will not consistently lose one pound (or 1/2 lb, or whatever your goal is) each and every week, which makes some people freak out and question the whole thing. You are much more likely to not lose one week, and then lose more the next week, and then not lose for three weeks, then have a big loss, then gain half a pound, then lose one pound...etc etc etc. But overtime, the predictions are accurate.

NO - it didn't work for me............well not at the start at least.

I did what a lot of people do and chose to lose 2 lb a week - I want this now attitude, right! - and I also chose the wrong activity level for myself and then to cap it all I was scared to eat back my exercise calories - I mean I wanted to lose weight didn't I.

I did lose weight for the first 4 weeks and then everything stopped for 3 weeks. zilch, nada, zero. I started to see that people were using different methods and decided to follow In Place of A Road Map. I immediately started to lose the weight again and have been doing so steadily since.

I decided one day to check my numbers again with MFP to see what the difference was and lo and behold, if I input the correct and sensible amount per week to lose and input my correct activity level, it comes out around the same number.

So the short answer is that it can work, so long as the user has input the correct data and follows the method correctly and eats back exercise calories (or at least some of them to allow for overestimation)

Exactly this. I found I could not do 1200 a week but 1400-1600 was feasible and I do eat back my exercise calories unless I am saving a deficit knowing I have an event coming up but my weekly average is pretty consistent. Set to lose 1 pound a week and averaging out pretty well. The last six months included a 3 week holiday where I ate and drank pretty much what I wanted to. Straight back on the deficit once I got back and exercising 3x a week which is about right for me and gives me time to recover from the weight training. Go for it! I am so pleased I did this. Probably another year to go before I reach my target weight but I can live with that...