tips and tricks

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177910/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest

And

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177907/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest

"Use MFP to set your calorie allowance based on your goals and current weight, adhere to it, and throw in some exercise if you feel like it" is the only tip I needed to lose (almost) 50 lbs.

There really aren't any tricks.

My tips:

Eat healthy food
Exercise
Get enough sleep
Keep an eye on your calories daily at first, then try weekly and monthly reviews.

Put your stats into MFP, set your goal to 1 lb per week to get your calorie goal. If you don't have one already, buy a food scale and start using it. For the first week, just measure and log everything you eat and drink. Then look back over the week to see where all your calories are going and where small changes will make the most difference.

Try pre-logging your days, it helps me.

Be patient, and don't give up when you have a bad day or don't immediately get the results you want. Good luck!

I burn 600 calories when I sleep for 8 hours...

Then again, my BMR is probably higher than whatever magazine article you quoted. If you want to lose weight, educate yourself with facts. That is the only tip you really need. After that, it is all execution (and accurate execution at that), and tricks may come into play, but it is all about finding out what works for you.

Best tip is to log food and stay with in your calories. I think the tricks come into play to try to make lower calorie, tasty and filling meals. For me it's substituting vegetables for pasta. Luckily I don't love pasta. I do love sauce though. So I just make whatever kind of sauce I want and add meat or shrimp and then add cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini or string beans. When I have stir fry, I use about 1/4 cup of cooked rice. I genuinely enjoy mashed or pureed cauliflower and turnips. Luckily I love salad with grilled chicken or almonds and found Bolthouse dressing, so I have a filling low calorie lunch every day. Breakfast is typically an egg white omelette. The canadian bacon I use is 40 calories for 2 pieces and lower sodium.
For snacks I use Kim's Magic pop and have it with hummus or peanut butter. You can always find lower calorie ice cream that is still good. A dixie cup is usually 100 calories or so.

I don't meal plan per se, not long term anyway. But I try to do it on a day to day basis. I take stock of what I have in the house, if there's anything I particularly want to eat, and how all my food for the day will work together calorie & macro wise.

So for example, if I have fruit & yogurt for breakfast I will have a sandwich for lunch. If I know I have salad or soup for lunch then I can have an English muffin for breakfast.

Granted this is a little easier for me because I bring both breakfast & lunch to work with me, and it's a lot of the same things, but it's still a good strategy. I also pre-log. So I know how many calories I have left for dinner and have all day to brainstorm what I will make.

Just be mindful. That's sort of the only tip I can think of.