New to MFP - very different to diets I’ve done before.

It may be a bit shocking at first but calorie counting can be quite liberating once you get the hang of it. All of the programs you mentioned are built on a premise of telling you exactly what you can and can’t eat, and by following their plans diligently you should lose weight. But weight loss comes down to a calorie deficit. They are helping you achieve that, by following a prescribed plan; but not giving you the full details of what is the real driver of your loss.

With calorie counting and MFP, you have all that control. You can eat any combination of foods you want and with accurate logging and a reasonable target you should also meet your goals. You can play with the foods that fill you up, you can plan ahead for higher calorie days by banking calories, you can try out different meal plans (low carb, low fat, paleo, etc) but logging consistently and accurately gets to the heart of why those other diets work.

I noticed it looks like you’re at a 1200 cal target - do you mind sharing your stats, how much weight you’re trying to lose, and what rate of loss you chose? 1200 is the lowest calorie target MFP will provide and is not necessary to go that low for most people. Additionally, MFP is a NEAT program which means exercise isn’t included in your goal. If you do exercise, you’re meant to log and eat back some of those calories as well so that you would never go below 1200.

Read the stickied most helpful forum posts at the top of the getting started section they have a wealth of information in them.

Good luck and have fun!