Help with calorie deficit

You can add some calorie dense foods in such as cheese, peanut butter. My DH is now maintaining the 40 lb weight loss he had through using MFP and he is having a hard tim eating enough calories. He snacks all day now on cheese, nuts, fruit, pretzels, etc; healthy snacks but more calorie dense. I'm glad you came here and realized what was going wrong. Maybe try using full fat milk or salad dressing to up the calorie intake. I really don't know; I still am in the weight loss mind set but hopefully more people will have better advice. Good luck!

There are sooo many topics on this. Just take a look around ladies.
MFP has a calorie deficit calculated in. So if you eat all your calories it gives you and don't work out you will lose weight. If you exercise your body uses the fuel you gave it and it leaves you with pretty much nothing. Which means you have to eat more in order to keep your body functioning they way it should. If you don't it will leave your body with a too big deficit which means it will think you're short on food and it hangs on to the fat you already have in order to survive.
It's all really simple once you get the hang of it.
I try not to burn too many calories each day so i actually can eat them all but on days i know i am going to eat more calories (eating out, bday party etc) i will burn off more so i don't overeat.

Hope this makes sense to you. You NEED to eat in order to lose weight

To lose weight, you need to have enough calories going into your system for it to feel like it can 'give up' what it is hoarding.

I am 5'6" tall and weigh 168 pounds... female.

The female body needs approximately 1200 calories to properly sustain the organs, muscle, nervous system, etc. So, you should not eat less than 1200 calories per day.

let's take a look at a few factors and go from there ... Fact: approximately 500 calorie deficit every day for seven days equals approximately 1 pound of weight loss. (3500 calories)

So, how do you determine your calorie deficit? First go to your goals page and look at the right hand box on the top, it says "calories burned from normal daily activity" If you have it set to sedentary, it will say something near the 1800 - 2000 range.
Mine is 1810 at 5'6" and 168 pounds.... Then think about how many calories you are burning that day. (Example 300 for swimming a half hour (made up figure)) Add that to your daily burn: (1810 + 300 = 2110). So I need to eat NO MORE than 1630 calories for that day to keep the 500 calorie deficit and lose at the one pound per week pace. (If I wanted to lose 1.5 pounds per week, I would subtract 750) and if I wanted to lose about two pounds per week (then I would subtract 1000 calories) BUT that would put me below 1200 calories for the day, which I try to avoid because I want to feel better at the end of the day. So I give myself the window of 1200 to 1610 calories for that day ... and generally try to err on the side of the 750 deficit area (around 1360 calories). Since I have such an aggressive goal (2 pounds per week) the computer has me set up with the lowest amount of calories I can eat and still fuel my body properly.

A lot of people will say don't eat back your calories, but I am already sitting at the low end of calorie intake so this method helps me to figure out where I should be eating. And since I don't exercise every day and work at a desk job, I use sedentary and just do the calculations when I need to.

If this seems like a lot of calories, then perhaps eating several smaller meals throughout the day may help you get in more fuel for your body... I have my chart set up for three meals, two snacks and a dessert... I divide my daily calories up between each of these meals, so that the snacks and dessert are about half the calories as the meals and go from there.

I hope this helps
~Namaste

Edit: I didn't note in here, but I have been told by my nutritionist and seen in several difference help sites etc.... Any more than a 1000 calorie deficit will cause that 'hoarding' instinct in your body to kick in, so I try not to go with a deficit higher than that.

bump

Increase each meal/snack by 25-50 cals. It usually only takes a week or two to get adjusted to a higher intake. Also, increase healthy fats from natural oils (olive/canola), nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts) and avocados. All high cal, but healthy. Try drinking more milk, a protein shake, a fruit smoothie - a lot of times it's easier to drink more even when you aren't that hungry.