My Fitness Pal is really pissing me off

I'm 5'5" and 175 and I get 1370 per day here. The difference in calories at Sparkpeople is that their site ASSUMES you will be working out, so you have a range of calories you can eat. What I love about MFP is that I can "earn" more calories by working out and it really keeps me motivated to get out and exercise every day.

Make sure you have your current weight/goal weight, height, gender, DOB, lifestyles, and projected exercise set correctly.
I am female, 182 lb with a goal weight of 135, 5'5", and don't do anything dureing the day (sedentary) cause I have a desk job, and plan on working out 5 days/week for 45 min each and set my goal to lose 2 lbs/week, so it has my deficit at 1200. If I change it to less loss per week, my cals go up. Maybe you just need to reset it?

make sure you didn't choose sedentary. Always choose 1 higher than you "think" you should choose, because they tend to estimate way low here. I have mine set to very active and eat 1600 a day at 5'2", 106 lbs.

Set it to lightly active and 1/2 lb a week and see what it says. Also make sure you have your height and weight right in the system, that could screw it up.

Maybe there's an error? For me it's 1310 per day (I'm 5'8"). They want you to eat less than the calories you'd consume lying in bed all day doing nothing. For me that's 1400 (just a normal day at work they said was 1700). I can't remember where I found the 1700 after a quick look, but you can see the other number if you go under tools and select BMR. I think as long as you consume less than that you'll continue to lose weight.

As for advice, yeah, even for me, 1310 is a pretty low number. I would pick one meal where you have something super low calorie. For me, I had 1 packet of the Quaker Oats instant oatmeal, which is around 170 calories. The oatmeal sticks with me long enough to get me through lunch (I'm also a heavy gum chewer to pass the time between meals. Also, drinking a lot of water will keep you feeling full). If you can consume a 200 calorie or less meal that still leaves you with 500 calories for the other 2 meals, more filling.

Obviously I don't know your eating habits, but avoid soda and fast food like the plague. Even regular restaurant food. They're super high cal. Don't know if you like fish, but it's often 1/2 if not 1/4 the calories of beef, chicken, or pork. You can often eat the same amount of fish but get 1/2 the calories and get full.

Another thing is eating raw fruits and veggies inbetween meals to stay full. I have a friend doing Weight Watchers and she says raw fruits and veggies (so no dip, no fruit canned in syrup, etc.) doesn't count against her on the point system. They have some calories, but I'd bet if you ate those inbetween meals, they wouldn't affect your goals to lose weight negatively.

Honestly you can probably lose weight doing a 1500 cal diet, but it will be more slow. Just in case you didn't realize, if you exercise you can eat those calories. So if you're limited to 1200 and you burn 500 exercising you get to eat 1700 total for that day.

Best of luck. Maybe you can start with a 1300 calorie diet for a couple of weeks and see how that works for you? Everyone's different, so it may take some experimentation.

LOL. I just went to look at my setting because I hadn't looked at them since I set up. I just lost 30 calories a day. So now I'm at 1340. Dang...

The "burned from normal daily activity" figure is key here. (it's based on your height, weight, age, and activity level, and gender)

Take an example of my friend who signed up for MFP. She had less weight to lose than me, and is also a few inches shorter.

2lbs per week is a 7000 calorie deficit per week, or 1000 calories per day. If MFP expected her to burn 1900 calories per day from daily activity, and you follow the "don't go below 1200" rule, the MAX deficit she could have per day before exercise is 700 calories (1.4lb per week).

So even if she said she wanted 2 lbs a week, it would not be possible for her (w/out exercise) because her daily calories burned minus 1200 is not enough of a deficit. If you don't have much left to lose, your body probably won't be burning as many calories from daily activity as it used to, so the best you can always do is whatever deficit you get from a 1200 calorie goal + exercise.

Could the 1200 be a default floor of calories that MFP set so that people didn't give themselve too aggressive of goals?

In other words, some people simply don't need to be trying to lose a certain amount of weight per week because it would be unhealthy so anything that would take a person below 1200 MFP simply sets it at 1200 anyway. (theory I don't know).

From what I read in the OP, she only weighs 140 and is trying to lose 20 lbs, how much could she safely lose in a week?

My calorie goal is 1220, but my average calories are 1468 (after exercise are added back and eaten).

Other sites will tell me to eat 1500, then burn 300 per day, to get my 1200.

The reason that 1200 is the minimum here is for health reasons. And it's generally heatlhiest to exercise and eat those calories back, giving you a reasonable quantity of food each day. I bet if you ask people whose goal is 1200 to find out their average eaten over the last 3 months, it would be a LOT higher (after exercise is added back and eaten).

I have used Sparkpeople in the past and I did not see the results I am seeing now. I think that it has everything to do with lifestyle.