Confused...

MFP won't recommend anything below 1200 per day. Since you're petite and close to your goal weight, adding exercise to the mix will be very important. 1200 per day works for me, but I allow myself to go over if I'm genuinely still hungry. Listen to your body, eat filling and high protein foods, and create a calorie deficit (try using a BMR and TDEE calculator) and the weight will come off. Just have patience!

I'm confused.

To lose .5 lbs a week MFP says I should have 1200 calories
To lose 1 lbs a week MFP says I should have 1200 calories
To lose 2 lbs a week MFP says I should have 1200 calories

Should I have to eat less to lose 2 lbs a week than .5 lbs a week??? And so many posts here on MFP say that 1200 is too low for anyone - that's why I went to change it from 2 lbs a week to .5 lbs a week, hoping to get a higher calorie allowance that everyone seems to say I need. But it still left me at 1200....

I'm 4'11", 118 lbs, and have a desk job - sedentary.

I am also under 5 feet tall and my BMR is 1310, which means that to lose weight with a sedentary lifestyle even at a daily deficit of just 100 calories ( which allows me to lose less than a quarter pound a week without exercise ) I also get 1200 calories. If I wanted to lose ...even just half a pound.....I would have to eat less than 1200 and I am not going to do that. We have to accept that even though we are not the " special snowflakes " some people make us out to be, that at the same time we do not fall within the general parameters of what is assumed about weight loss and calorie intake in relationship to size.
We also have to accept that unless we just want to exercise hour upon hours to have more calories available, that with a smaller body we just cannot eat the same amount of calories than people with an average or large body can. It took me a long time to accept that I just can't have and also don't need the same calories as a woman who is 5' 4" or even more.

I'm not big on 'exercise' either. One thing I've liked about using a Fitbit is now I just focus on being active enough. What that means for me, is moving enough throughout the day to at least hit 10k-12k steps and get 30+ VAM. Of course the VAM are also cardio, aka exercise, but somehow thinking about it differently has helped me.

So I guess I have to stay between 1200 and 1400 a day. Really wish I could lose up to 2 lbs a week... This is barely going to be .5 lbs a week, if that... So to lose my last 13 lbs is going to take a full year, at least.... And others losing at 2 lbs a week will have 13 lbs lost in just 3 months... So frustrating.

From a different perspective: Maybe you should be thankful that you aren't obese, so you don't have the weight to be able to lose 2 lb per week. When I graduated from "obese" to "overweight" my calories went down too. And once I graduate from "overweigh" to "normal" weight, I'll be able to eat even less, and thus lose weight at a much slower rate. We will all get to the point you are at, but we're all starting at different points.

I wish I didn't let myself go to become obese, but I did, and weight comes off faster the more you have to lose. I can't wait until I am closer to the normal range and my weight comes off slower.

don't forget those are net calories

move more = eat more

What I do - using MFP & Fitbit.

I set my lifestyle as lightly active for MFP, and turned on 'negative calorie adjustments' for the info MFP gets from Fitbit. I want to be at least lightly active - so if my adjustment is negative I need to move more. As the day progresses and I add activity (steps) the # gets better until I can end the day with exercise calories extra.