I'm always in the red no matter how hard I try on MFP. :(

disregard sodium and sugar intake and watch carbs/fat/protein totals

It takes practice. You have to work at it.

Eat more natural alternatives and if you do go over allow your body to process it. Don't get too hard on yourself. These things will happen but unless you are training competitively it will not make or break your weight loss. Watch your calories, fats, sugars, and sodium.

Hope this helps.

manage your calories and macros, not your micros (unless medical condition warrants it). Also, you can adjust your macro settings to whatever...MFP's defaults are pretty low on the protein and high carb.

I go over sugar a lot because of fruits, so I learned to ignore it.

I really watch my protein and my fiber (Medical reason for the fiber), you can always change it under your setting. I took sugar off completely, as that's not where my issue is.

Sodium I track just for my own sake, not that I'm into really salty foods or anything. It causes water retention though, which is weight gain.

1: UInless you've rebalanced the default macro goals, MFP sets some pretty poor guides for people working out, particularly protein.
2: If you have rebalanced, it's a guide, not a bible. Be within +/- 25% and you're fine.
3: When you sweat, you lose sodium. It doesn't hurt to replenish it, but MFP doesn't increase sodium goals for exercise.
4: If you do go over on sodium it's mostly going to lead to water retention, which will appear as increased weight. Just account for this when you weigh in. Don't go crazy crazy crazy over (3x or more day after day after day) or it could lead to other problems.

Try focusing on getting some raw foods you might like, veggies and fruits. Also I found the flaxseed crackers really help me feel full. The fiber is great and will give more balance.

The default protein recommendation for MFP is on the low side. I set mine manually and its about double MFP's recommendation.

I don't pay attention to the sugar. I track carbs, which includes sugar and most of my sugar comes from sources that have a high nutrient value like fruit.

Sodium I keep an eye on but not too worried about going over as I don't have a medical issue. If you really want to keep it down, find the items you eat that seem to have a lot, and find alternatives.

MFP doesn't know anything about protein. if you go over, that's normal. you SHOULD be over on protein. as for sugars, a banana can put you over MFP's intake guideline. have you ever heard of someone getting fat off of apples and bananas? as for sodium,the cardiologist I see tells me that if you don't have high blood pressure, just try to stay under 3,000mg. if you do have high blood pressure, then you tweak your diet.

Meeting your Calorie targets is by far the most important, hitting carb/fat/sugar targets is far less important.

Going over on protein is almost never a bad thing

The ultimate thing here is your calories, it doesn't affect your weight loss if you're in the red in anything else. The only thing is if you go too much over on sodium, you will retain water which will show a gain on the scale, but it'll just be water weight.

I'm glad to see that people disregard the sugars. This is only day 2 for me... I like this a lot so far but it's crazy how quickly I go over in sugars...Is there really sugar in Romaine lettuce, or is there a glitch in this part of MFP's tracking?!

Apparently so. Around 1 g per cup.

This is what I do when I am adding new foods (I have verified most of my common foods and just use that list) I go to this site -
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2475/2

You will also find this is the same data the MFP uses, i.e. not the user entries, the actual MFP data, which for some reason is not easy to find (it does not have an asterisk) I have learned that if I search by the same name, I can find it much easier, like "chicken, leg meat, skin, raw" and you will find the entry that is the same as this one
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/poultry-products/714/2

disregard sodium and sugar intake and watch carbs/fat/protein totals

Yeah, pretty much this. I go over my protein all the time, but how can I ingest 1g of protein per lb of lean muscle when mfp has me around 90? Crazy. As long as it's not bad stuff you're ok. Sugar can be a no-no depending on the source, as high fructose corn syrup has no place in a healthy diet. Natural sugar is bad, but keep it limited as it will impair fat loss. Sodium (salt) is one that can get you. If you're sweating a lot all day then going over is probably a good thing. The one thing we were told in Army basic training when it got really bad hot out was to put an extra salt packet on our food. It helps replenish what you lose. Aside from that, if you find you're consuming lots of it then make sure you're drinking plenty of water. That'll help flush it out a bit. Just watch what you're doing, look at your diary and see what foods pushed you over. Perhaps these are foods you can cut out later down the road as you learn what works and what doesn't.

Are you eating pre-packaged and/or prepared food a lot? That'll make the biggest difference if you prepare foods from scratch or move towards less prepared stuff.