Help!!

1) Can you make your diary public?

2) What are you doing @ the gym?

How do I make it public? And I do two bootcamp classes which are 40 mins long and then i go on my own one day on the treadmills steppers etc

Go here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Select 'Public' towards the bottom of the page and Save Changes.

You need to eat more - 800 calories a day is ridiculous. You're 5' 8" and could probably eat twice that.

You need to eat more - 800 calories a day is ridiculous. You're 5' 8" and could probably eat twice that.

AT LEAST. I'm 5'3", 120 lbs, and I eat 1575 to lose. OP can definitely eat >1600.

I would set your weight loss goal to no more than 1 lb per week, make sure your activity level is set correctly (hardly anyone is truly "sedentary"), and eat! You will do better in the long run if you develop healthy habits now re: amount of calorie intake rather than going on crazy fasts of <1000 cal per day for several days, followed by a 2-3 day binge because you couldn't take the hunger anymore.

Good luck to you,

If I ate 1200 calories how much would I have to burn off in the gym ?

Let me give you an example. I'm 5'8" tall, 31 years old, and weigh 175 pounds. I lose 1 pound a week averaging 1800 calories a day with no serious exercise. You can lose weight on 1200 calories without burning a single one off at the gym.

Here is a good place to start

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

OP, your ticker says you only have 19 pounds to lose. Is that correct? If so, you should be aiming to lose either 0.5 pounds or 1 pound per week. Weight loss can take awhile, and with that few pounds to lose, you won't see 2 pounds per week coming off like someone who had 100+ pounds to lose would. You need to find an intake level that you can sustain for months -- if you pick a crazy low goal, like 800 calories, you can keep it up for a week or two before you either get sick, exhausted or too starving to function.

The other thing to consider is that people often need to drop their intake again as they get smaller. (This probably won't be the case for you if you truly only have 19 pounds to lose, but you might hit your goal and want to lose more). If you start off at 800 calories, what would you do if you hit a plateau halfway through and need to drop further to break it?

You can totally still lose weight before September, just not all of it! Realistically, you could lose 4-8 pounds, which is definitely better than nothing.

If you tell MFP you want to lose 0.5 pounds a week, how many calories does it give you?

You are eating more than you think or log.

Yes. Diary is CRITICAL. (You get used to it) You would be surprised how many calories things have and how quickly they add up by day's end. MFP is pretty good about having a lot of food already noted, so use the search. I look up on a few other websites too, measurements, etc. I don't own a food scale. I mostly used cups/half cups vs ounces. But different things work best for different people.