You guys really like to over complicate things.

I knew this would be a hot topic, but didn't think it would get this heated in here. Anyway I just came back and read all the pages, seems like the majority are agreeing with me, and the ones who don't agree with my post, seem to be quoting my age instead of trying to prove me wrong.

Wrong. The ones that don't agree with you take issue with the fact that you seem to have everything all figured out in a neat little package....a neat little package that you and some others seem to fit, but what of the rest of us?

If you were a little longer in the tooth, you would know how wrong you are and be grateful for the good health you enjoy that allows you simple addition and subtraction to get you to your weight loss goals.

Again, this thread has nothing to do with age. If you find your maintenance and then lower your calories, you WILL lose weight. You keep saying I'm wrong, but don't prove me wrong. I don't get it lol.

Because it's a long story and I've got better things to do with my time :huh: Eventually you will understand...or not...doesn't matter to me.

Edited.

Ah, the arrogance of youth having all the answers. Like we haven't seen this many times before. Like we weren't in your shoes many years ago when we were the ones with all the answers. And in 30-40 years when you in our shoes and you know you won't have all the answers.

Time is the great equalizer. We've seen this play before.

Don't be hatin, OP is speaking the truth.

While everything is technically correct, there are a lot of nuances missing.

"Just eat under maintenance" would be a whole lot easier if we had a little plug we could attach to the nearest analysis machine and get the correct maintenance calories. A lot of thing affect the human metabolism. Quitting smoking could cause one's metabolism to slow down, as could hormonal imbalances, age, nutrition (or lack) or a myriad of other factors.

And, in reality, if all it took was a bit of education to lose weight, we wouldn't be in such a pickle as a nation. The diet industry wouldn't be a million dollar market. Dr. Oz would still be performing heart surgery. :laugh: There's so much emotion and motivation tied up into what we eat and how much we exercise that it's easy to plug a quick fix and have tons of followers flock to you…

And then to get shamed when you ask a "simple" or even "stupid" question … well, no wonder some people quit before they've begun.

there is a handy dandy machine called a scale that you can weigh yourself on and will give you an output reading of your weight....you then eat at a certain level..if you gain a little reduce...if you maintain for week or two guess what? You have found maintenance...oh, and if you lose that would be your cut level...

I believe this wiz banger of a gizmo runs on batteries too...

then what do I do when I find my maintenance and lower my amount like you say and I still plateau for like 1 month? this has happened to me many times I have gone from 1800 as my maintenance and then lost 5lbs plateaued for another month and lowered to 1500 as it was going on to 1 month and 2 weeks no loss and then lost like 1.5lbs. I don't eat any of my exercise calories back, so what the hell xD

well as you lose weight you need to recalculate your maintenance level once a month or so...If you go from 175 to 170 then your maintenance level is going to be lower, so that would explain the reason for the plateau and then the reset...

Were you logging everything when you were not losing? Were you weighting everything?

I assume that someone on MFP weighs and logs everything...

The only thing I see in this thread is saying that OP is young so he doesn't know anything. I haven't seen anyone prove that he is wrong in any way, in fact everyone with success stories in this thread agree with OP.

Exception:
I have a "success story" and I do not agree with him.

What if I said you don't count. Cause reasons that are totally unrelated to the conversation at hand.

What "reasons" might those be?
There are several "conversation(s) at hand".