Want to use MFP correctly.

Are you getting your water in?

Yes, I'm drinking at least 2 liters of water a day.

Hers in the one post you acknowledge?

How can you not see that you're eating too little?

There is no way he is eating to little, not at this point anyway. He is big enough that more then 6 lbs should have come off.

OP, are you weighing and measuring your food? This is a very important part of weight loss.

How tall are you and what do you weigh right now?

Hello,

I'm a 32 year old male from Orlando, Fl. I am fairly overweight and have been using MFP for about a month now and I was losing weight at first but stalled out recently. I've been updating everyday and even inputting meals in advance to make things a little easier. My meals have been relatively healthy with lots of veggies and protein and I've been working out 5 times a week for about 30 - 45 minutes each session (I burn around 500 exercise calories according to MFP). MFP says my calorie goal is 3132 but even with all the food I consume my calorie intake is usually within the 1100 range excluding exercise calories burned. I've been reading on the forums about net calories and how they should be at least 1200 calories a day otherwise it hurts your metabolism. I've upped my calorie intake recently to an average of 1800 - 1900 and my net calories are around 1100. I want to lose 2lbs a week and was hoping someone could tell me if I'm on the right track or if there are things I need to adjust to reach my goals. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

It is indeed all about using tools correctly.

Some tools used wrong may have some positive effect, usually have no usefulness, and sometimes can hurt the user.

Go back to your settings and don't try to do it yourself if you have no knowledge and experience. Which if thinking 1100 is good outside direct Dr or lab observation, you don't have that yet.

Setup your non-exercise activity level honestly - you really a 45 hr a week desk job/commute?

Select 2 lb weight loss goal, confirm final goal weight and starting weight and gender are correct.

Now log your exercise, and eat back 90% of the reported calories burned.

Go in to your MFP Home - Goals - Custom (you've already been here, haven't you).
Note the protein grams given.
Lower the carb % until that protein grams is double, leave fat % where it's at.

Now meet your daily goal.

And if you think it's impossible to meet, rethink what "healthy" has to mean, and go for sustainable. Because you aren't going to get to eat this much again.
Full fat items are just fine, especially if they have protein. Ice cream is fine - if you can stick to 2 servings. Later you'll only get 1.
A beer is fine.
You start limiting the food you think is allowed, you'll likely fail. There are obvious ones that you can leave out when you have much less calories, or if they make you hungry.
But eating too little will also make you not hungry - but because hormones are screwed up, not because your body doesn't want the fuel.

As you lose 10 lbs, MFP will ask to adjust your eating goal, of course say yes.

That is using MFP correctly.

When you get to 40 lbs left to lose - select 1.5 lbs weekly.
To 20 lbs - 1 lb weekly.
To 10 lbs - 1/2 lb weekly.

@awesomeguy: I'm 5'11 and my last weigh in put me at 368.6lbs.

MFP says my calorie goal is 3132

I came up with closer to that 3100 being your sedentary energy expenditure.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
The above link calculates BMR, which is what you burn basically if you were in a coma. MFP uses a multiplier of 1.25 for sedentary. I got 3169 to be exact.
Subtract 500 calories from it to lose 1 pound per week or 1000 calories for 2 pounds.
To lose 2 pounds per week eat about 2169 calories a day.
If you exercise, then you can log it and eat back at least 50% back. (Because it has overestimates)
For every 10 pounds you lose, you will want to adjust your calories.

Yes, I'm drinking at least 2 liters of water a day.

Hers in the one post you acknowledge?

How can you not see that you're eating too little?

There is no way he is eating to little, not at this point anyway. He is big enough that more then 6 lbs should have come off.

OP, are you weighing and measuring your food? This is a very important part of weight loss.

Ah, so 1100 calories isn't too little?

You are correct. 1100 calories is to little. I meant he is not eating just 1100 calories, inaccurate counting. If he was he would have lost more then 6 lbs. Although how he could be off by that much is beyond me. You guys are much more knowledgeable about this then I so I will leave it to you now :happy:

I looked at your diary and you seem to be logging accurately. That's important, especially to log everything including all water. The others know alot more about how much you should eat to lose weight healthily. Wishing you all the best, and don't give up.

Yes, I'm drinking at least 2 liters of water a day.

Hers in the one post you acknowledge?

How can you not see that you're eating too little?

There is no way he is eating to little, not at this point anyway. He is big enough that more then 6 lbs should have come off.

OP, are you weighing and measuring your food? This is a very important part of weight loss.

Ah, so 1100 calories isn't too little?

You are correct. 1100 calories is to little. I meant he is not eating just 1100 calories, inaccurate counting. If he was he would have lost more then 6 lbs. Although how he could be off by that much is beyond me. You guys are much more knowledgeable about this then I so I will leave it to you now :happy:

He's logging "MFP's exercise burns" so those are too high. If he's inaccurate logging food + adding too many exercise calories then he's not losing because he's not in a deficit.

Exactly MFP calories burned is way too high. For instance I rode my recumbent bike which has a HRM and tell calories burned. For the one hour program I did, the bike's computer showed 306 calories (it varies for this program depending on my intensity sometimes I get as much as 330). MFP showed 529 calories for a one hour low intensity stationary bike. Now I was pretty tired after the ride so most people would probably have logged it as at least moderate, bumping the calories up even more.
I see my friends logged huge calorie burns for things I know couldn't possibly burn that much.
MFP needs to get real on their calories burn estimates.

You had mentioned watching your sodium and sugar levels. I am often over my sodium levels, too, but I try not to stress on that macro too much. I do try to watch and not go crazy over the level allotted, but I also just try to get at least 8 glasses if not more of water in a day to help balance that out!

You want to be drinking 1/2 your body weight in oz.....of water per day.....so I weigh 220 lbs right now (approximately....last weight in lol) - I should be consuming 110 fl. oz. of water daily....which is basically just under a gallon per day.......

Now I don't know where I've gotten this from, it was either Mens Health, or webMD a couple years back......one source I just found was http://www.watercure.com/faq.html