Please help me understand

Eat what you want but stay at a calorie deficit. You can't exercise off a bad diet. Make sure you're eating back your exercise calories. Don't cut out an entire food group as this is not sustainable long term especially if it includes foods you enjoy. Fat is not your enemy- your body needs fat just as it needs carbs.

Check out this forum: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Also, open your diary.

Eat what you want but stay at a calorie deficit. You can't exercise off a bad diet. Make sure you're eating back your exercise calories. Don't cut out an entire food group as this is not sustainable long term especially if it includes foods you enjoy. Fat is not your enemy- your body needs fat just as it needs carbs.

Check out this forum: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Also, open your diary.

OP, take a look at this link. There has been much success from this and it will take a you a bit to digest and understand it but THIS WORKS. Good luck, you have got this!

Log your food - you may find that while you're eating the right amounts of food, the quality of the food you're eating sucks!

See a dietitian - they can help you with your nutrition & fitness goals catered specifically for YOU

Don't listen to ppl who haven't been there (friends). MFP is a GREAT resource in ADDITION to the nutritionist.

Drink LOTSA WATER!!! If you think you're drinking enough - you're NOT!

:flowerforyou:

Eat what you want but stay at a calorie deficit. You can't exercise off a bad diet. Make sure you're eating back your exercise calories. Don't cut out an entire food group as this is not sustainable long term especially if it includes foods you enjoy. Fat is not your enemy- your body needs fat just as it needs carbs.

Check out this forum: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Also, open your diary.

This helped me out a lot!

Basically what all the others said.

You talk a lot about what kinds of food you eat, but very little about HOW MUCH you eat.

Weight loss is all about calories in < calories out.

You can cut out whatever food "type" that trips your trigger (tho it's completely unnecessary to do so) but if you're not eating less calories of whatever it is you're still eating than you're burning you won't lose weight.

1)Measure, weigh and log the calories in your food. 2)Calculate your TDEE. 3)Make sure 1) is less than 2).

I have a friend who told me im eating all the wrong things to lose weight and that is why I am stuck at 253-255lbs. He is saying I need to cut out all fat and carbs. and I have a cousin telling me that I need to eat more to lose weight. I don't know what to do. I rarely eat fat and eat a small portion of carbs as it is. Can anyone help me understand what I'm supposed to do because this is getting really discouraging and frustrating when I workout and eat less than my calories that MFP tells me to eat. I have a bad knee so I cant do squats and my friend says that is keeping me from a good workout. I just don't know what to do.

Eat more fat? Seriously though, fat is GOOD for you. Maybe just not in the form of deep fried foods and cakes and cookies. 40% of my diet comes from carbs and healthy fats(each), only 20% comes from protein. Although I am working really hard to get my protein above 20%!

The quoted link other posters have mentioned is kind of the gold standard of tips/guides. It really does have great info in it. You might need to eat more, you might need to eat less, you may even need to switch up your routine for fitness. (you can lose weight without doing squats- I have a bad knee and I avoid them like the plague!)

its hard to say without more info. From my point of view finding your BMR and TDEE is the best place to start. Your BMR tells you your minimum to eat and your TDEE tells you your max- where you settle between the two is your choice. Those number can change so check in every 5 lbs or so, or if you change your lifestyle.

Can anyone help me understand what I'm supposed to do because this is getting really discouraging and frustrating when I workout and eat less than my calories that MFP tells me to eat.

Based upon this statement, I'm assuming that you have been using MFP for a while and have stalled now. As others have said, opening your diary would perhaps help us to give more specific advice.

1 - You are doing the right thing. Tracking food and eating at your target calories will cause you to lose weight assuming you are doing it accurately. This is more important than eating less fat, less carbs, more protein, or any other generic do this not that type of advice.

2 - If something is working right then you are either unknowingly eating more than you think or perhaps your calorie goal is not correct. Here is a good read on logging improvements: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

Your friends mean well, but they are just confusing the issue. Keep in simple - I'd suggest you re-evaluate if you are truly logging what you eat accurately and if you are eating an appropriate goal. Feel free to open your diary and give us you age, height, and weight if you want confirmation on your calorie goal.

Good luck.

I know three ways to do this. And you're friends seem to be trying to mash them all together. I don't think it works that way.

1) Eat roughly balanced macros. 30-30-40, 25-25-50, just pick something with the numbers all roughly in the middle of the scale. The point is to include moderate amounts all three macros within your diet. This seems to be what most of the more outspoken people on MFP do because it allows them to more-or-less eat what they want within their calorie limits. It's also the default MFP setting. So if you use MFP guided tools to set your macros, it will follow a scheme like this.

2) Eat low fat. It's based on an outdated idea that eating fat makes people fat. It's also been tested again moderate- and high-fat diets and hasn't performed as well. But there are still people who swear by it. I think the macros are something like 15-20% fat, 25-30% protein, and the rest carbs - or somewhere in that ballpark.

3) Eat low carb. This is based on the idea that carbs cause an insulin reaction which reduces your body's ability to burn fat. It's still highly controversial but, again, lots of people swear by it (I'm one of them). The idea is to eat enough protein to maintain your muscle mass, limit your carbs (usually pick a number less than 100 grams) and eat the rest of your calories from fat.

Pick one of those three, and stick with it. Give it a month or more before switching techniques.

My second piece of advice is stop asking your friends. They don't seem to know. Go to the experts, the people that study this stuff 40 hours/week for weeks or years on end. Such people usually write books:

The simplest method is #1. This is because all the information you need about it is on MFP in the help guides and the forums. And you have the freedom to mostly eat what you want.

If you're gonna try #3, you need to pick a book or two and read up on the science. There's a transition phase that can be brutal, so you need to be aware of. Try Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes, or The Atkins Revolution, or google it to find more book recommendations.

I personally failed miserably on a low-fat diet. So I have no good recommendations on this one. But I'm sure there are others on here that can point you to resources if you want to go that route.

That's what I like about my fitness pal. In the food diary it tells me how much I need in fat, calories, sodium, etc. Weighing and measuring your food is super important too. I agree, you should take your measurements every month. The scale is fickle but not the tape. Good luck on this journey!