those who have lost 30 pounds and more...

I eat the calories that MFP calculates, I also exercise hard daily and eat back my calories.

So MFP calculate 1650 calories per day for me to lose my weight, I track all food no matter how small and my exercise and aim to hit the 1650.

Works for me. When I stray from MFP I don;t do as well, I suppose I am less honest with myself on the food.

I've lost 65lbs to date and up until recently when I joined mfp I didn't even track calories I am eating every 2-3hrs. Making sure I have around 4oz of protein with each 'meal', a carbohydrate (eg..1/4 cup dry oatmeal or 1/2 cup of fruit, and at maybe two 'meals' a fat (healthy oil/nut butters etc..) I'm trying to keep my fat low. My macros are around 40%carb 40%protein 20%fat. Clean eating..no processed foods, limit salt, just real food. Now that I found mfp I just love it! I can punch in my food, set my macros and adjust my diet through the day as needed. No more guessing if I have been in a calorie deficit. I love it too because if you fall off plan a bit in a day you can adjust your other meals accordingly so that you meet your goals for the day. I work out 5days a week for around an hour. HTH

1200 for first two weeks. 1500 until I reached my goal weight and now 1900-2300 per day. I need to say though that I work out for at least an hour a day so that is why my calories are higher. I run marathons and other races so I have to be very careful not to eat too little which results in weight loss but that loss is muscle. I enjoy working out and in fact it is how I relax but since my level is not for everyone I would say you could probably go with 1500-1800 per day depending on your amount of physical activity. MFP should be able to give you really good advice as far as that goes. I've kept this weight off for 6-7 years so I'm here to say it can be done :happy:

I'm right on the cusp there ... my ticker says 29 today. I HAS said 30 but I keep sliding around slightly, those ups and downs (I weigh in every day and my scale connects wirelessly, so my MFP is updating daily as well).

I lost 15 pretty quick and easy as soon as I started counting calories. My goal was to eat around 2000 and it's a struggle to keep it at that (I still eat a lot of yummy but empty calories). My activity level is quite high (I have a Fitbit and my average burn is often 3000+).

The next 15 has been much slower - I don't feel like I've changed much in eating/exercise.

I've been keeping a complete history of EVERYTHING ... I have my calorie counts, burn counts, exercise, etc. from every day since June 2012 on my blog http://jenbsjourney.blogspot.com/ ... it's in the sidebar "Daily Doings" with weigh-ins and weekly recaps every Friday.

I lost 85lbs on the ketogenic diet eating 1250 calories a day for 9 months. That was between April 2012 - January 2013 when I hit my goal.

From January 2013 and onward I have raised my calories to 1500 and I am the exact same weight over a year later when i hit my goal weight of 180lbs.

I also go to the gym now 6 times a week weightlifting as of December 2013

I've averaged between 1700 and 1800 a day using TDEE - 20% method and lost 53+ to date (in about 11 months, with some of those months being "off the wagon")

I've lost 46 pounds since the end of June last year, slightly slow and steady perhaps but actually averaging out around 1.5lbs per week... something like that.
I use the MFP method and tend to eat back most if not all of my exercise calories. I walk 90 minutes 5 days a week and try to add extra exercise on some of those days too.
I usually end up eating about 1800 calories per day, depending on what my exercise has been.
I am also a bit cheeky and often don't log at the weekends and engage in beer drinking and meals out. Not something I'm willing to give up TBH and hasn't affected my progress very much. I also try to eat healthily but "clean" is not a word I would associate with myself! Often have a bit of chocolate, nope not the dark stuff or a bag of crisps! I also try to eat as much protein as possible but don't do low carb or anything like that.
Consistency and accountability is key. Some weeks the scale will have you tearing your hair out. Oh well, think about how deeply you can breathe, how much better you feel.
There isn't a trick, and I'm sure many people have been much stricter and had great results. But I believe it needn't be torturous.

I eat about 1300-1500/day. More or less depending on how much I worked out that day - I just try not to go over what MFP says by more than 100 cals. and never eat under 1200.

I do not "diet". I don't even do IIFYM or anything like that - I just eat whatever I want without going over the calorie limit. I'm not cutting cupcakes out of my life forever so I figure I'd better learn how to eat them when I'm losing/maintaining if I want these changes to stick. I'm a year and a half in - so far so good.

I started at 254 and I'm down to 154-156lbs (weight isn't constant as I'm sure you know and a size 8 from a size 22. Still losing fairly constantly.

First 50 pounds, 1200 calories (not net) and a vegetarian running 4x a week for 30 minutes. Now, 1750-1900 (not net!) calories and still losing weight doing C210K, fitnessblender and a strength traing program. I lost 5 pounds last week and 3 this week so far. I'm trying to fix my diet cause that's where the magic happens

I've kept 40+ pounds off over the past year. I follow my MFP calories as close as possible. I started out eating 1800+ and am now at 1600+. When I ate 1200 or below, I lost weight faster, but gained it back just as fast. Slow and steady is proving to be the key for me.