I need help! I’m new to MyFitness Pal

Good luck!! working out makes me want to eat healthier.

My suggestion would be to do your due diligence before you jump in with both feet - read the stickied posts in each forum, which will help you learn to separate fact from fiction (of which you will find quite a bit both on MFP and in general) as regards weight loss, nutrition, and fitness.

Resources that I find particularly helpful include:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/872212/youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/all-diets-work-the-importance-of-calories.html/

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

And don't be afraid to add friends - the community aspect here is one of my favorite things about the site.

steph6556 wrote: »

Hello! I just learned a valuable tip from another helpful member that I’ll pass on to you. If you want to see progress make sure to set your activity level lower than you feel your activity level is. Example, if you feel you are very active then set it at lightly active. Then when you add your exercise for the day you will not end up eating too many calories. MFP gives you too many calories and before I understood this I ate back my exercise calories and have not seen any weight loss. It was more like maintenance calories. I hope this helps!

I don't think this is accurate advice. Some people do find that the calories MFP recommends are too high, but others find they're too low. Many others (including myself) find that it is just right. The best advice is to set up your account as accurately as possible, including choosing an activity level that seems like a good fit for your lifestyle. You can then monitor your trend over a few weeks and make necessary adjustments. There's no reason to deliberately begin by trying to eat less than you need.

I believe the issue in your situation is that you chose your activity level *including* intentional exercise and then also logged the exercise and ate the calories back. Double dipping like this will prevent someone from meeting their goals, but it isn't a valid reason for people to set up their account with inaccurate information. It's just a good reason to understand how MFP is designed to work.