Setting A Caloric Deficit

I'm not sure I understand the question. ANY deficit is a deficit for fat loss. Additionally, if you're following MFP's calorie target, that already has a deficit built in (unless you set your goal to maintain your current weight) so there's no need to set any different deficit target.

I'll give you a tip.

As you shrink - remember to reset your goals. As I got closer to my goal, I was too hungry on the tiny calories I had set to lose 1 lb a week. Once I was 6-8 lbs away - WHY do I need to lose so much so fast, that's not going to be something I can do long term. I upped my calories and I still lost (slower) and wasn't hungry.

Looking at your profile it appears that you have 100+ lbs to lose still so you should be ok in the mean time with a goal of 2 lbs / week if you are happy staying there.

I also saw you have lost about 15 lbs already (congratulations on that by the way),have your losses so far been in line with what you are expecting based on your loggin?

I found MFPs calculations to be pretty accurate for me as long as I was measuring my exercise as accurately as I could. If you are not seeing the losses you want then first I would go through and make sure you are doing everything as accurately as you can (weighing your food, using a HRM to get burn estimates, and have your activity level set correctly). Once you are sure you are logging as accurately as possible then you can start tweeking the numbers to get the results you want.

Thanks for the suggestions and info! I’ll go in and take a look at those numbers. I currently do some strength training when I work out: planks, various exercises with weights, mountain climbers, etc. I also do interval training. When I used this app awhile back, a Dietician recommended that I shouldn’t add the exercise into the daily goal because it’s not accurate enough. So I only log food and water intake. I used the MFP recommended daily goals when setting this up. I entered that I do 60 minutes of exercises a day, but I never add exercise on my daily goals. Perhaps that could be making a difference.

I currently use the MFP suggestion for my daily caloric intake. Just wondering if anyone is familiar with how to set a caloric deficit for fat loss? I know that in order to lose 1 pound of fat, you've got to burn 3500 calories more than you take in. But as I've been reading, it seems that several other factors are part of this as well.

You are smart to be concerned.

Contrary to the other comment that any deficit is for fat loss, that is total BS, you can easily burn off muscle mass if too great a deficit, and you can cause your body to adapt to low calorie eating by slowing down and wiping out some of the potential deficit you could have had. Wouldn't that be a bummer, having potentially an extra 1 lb you could be losing weekly while eating more?

Take the 2 lb loss, you are good for that.
Go in to your Goals and notice how many grams of protein are recommended by default, double those grams and change the % to make it happen, keep the fat where it was, and let carbs fall slightly.
And then get some strength training in, don't have to be lifting, but compound moves using all the muscles in the body will have the ability to retain muscle mass - which you really don't want to lose.
If you do want to lift, you are in special place right now at the start - you can actually add muscle while losing fat - that will be impossible later.
Then eat back your exercise calories, at this point at least 80% of them.
Strength training logged may appear to be small calorie burn compared to cardio - but that is correct during the workout, it'll burn more fat during repair.
Walking and jogging flat the speed mentioned in the exercise database description is right on too. Swimming is usually really good. Most other stuff, unless it has specific pace description you matched, can be very off.

Your dietitian is not aware of the way MFP was designed to work. What she say is correct for other sites where your eating goal actually includes planned exercise. MFP doesn't.
Your setting up fitness goals had NO bearing on the diet goals for what you eat.

If you are blindly following MFP recommendations for eating level without knowing where or how they came about, why not blindly follow the same goals when used properly and logging exercise?

I'm not blindly following... That's what questions are for and I'm rather new to this. I wasn't saying it's wrong to log exercise in, I just choose not to. The dietician suggested not logging my exercise because the results aren't accurate enough. I've seen people log 700+ calories just for a leisurely mile walk. And I've seen where it gives extra calories. Not sure how to describe it, but some people's daily calorie goal fluctuates. I'll definitely put some time into figuring this out. Thanks.

I meant blindly following your normal goal that was given to you. "I currently use the MFP suggestion for my daily caloric intake."

The part without exercise added.

You had no problems or questions about the original daily goal, but by your questions you don't understand how the system works.

That is blindly following something.

Your questions were about other aspects of fat loss, which is great, education always better.

Your daily goal should fluctuate if you are using the MFP tool correctly. When you burn more you should eat more. That should be intuitive.
To lose weight you must merely eat less than what you burn.

If bigger was better, stop eating and get it over with.

Whatever reasons you come up with that they may not be a good idea, those exact same reasons exist if you make the deficit too big constantly. You may not be aware of that, but it's true.

Same as you purposely not taking in some needed vitamin or mineral. If you did none, you'd expect some quick problem or effect to show up.
Well, exact same thing happens when too low with it over a longer time. Just takes longer to show up, but it will.

As to other people posting large calorie burns, does that mean the method is wrong to use then?
People die driving - so we shouldn't drive?

If someone is claiming 700 cal for a mile walk, then I'll bet dollars to donuts (which no one gets to eat), that they either don't eat back their exercise calories so it doesn't matter, or their post says 700 "including walking a mile" with other unstated stuff.

Several folks in this topic besides me pointed out how MFP works when used correctly (almost every tool can be used wrong, may not get hurt, but usually doesn't work as well or at all), just scan through some of the stuff.

If you want a daily non-fluctuating goal based on your actual planned workouts and your specific stats, use the spreadsheet on my profile page, Simple Setup tab and Progress tab only, using stats you should know.