website frustration- RMR and predictions...

For me its a lifestyle choice and its good to be aware of what your eating and if your losing is't that still a step in the right direction.

First of all, this website gives an RMR, which is resting metabolic rate and includes calories for your normal daily activities like housecleaning, walking to and from the car for work, taking care of kids, etc. That's why you have to pick an activity level at the beginning when you sign up. Most websites use BMR, which is basal metabolic rate and doesn't include calories for your normal daily activities. So, when comparing to most websites, you're comparing apples to oranges. There are some other sites that use RMR, but they may be using a different formula. There are several of them and they will each give you a different result. There isn't one formula that has been proven to be 100% accurate for everyone. The secret to calorie planning is to find a formula you like and that seems to work for your goals and stick with it.

Second, the estimate of weight loss is an estimate of what it will be in an ideal world. Unfortunately, our body's don't just burn fat nor do we just store fat that causes weight gain. Up and down fluctuations in weight can be from too much salt causing water retention, or from adding strength training causing storage of glycogen (which is stored in 3x as much water), or from losing water when we cut those things, or from constipation or diarrhea, or any number of other things. If you're losing and maintaining the losses, then it is working, regardless of the estimates.

When it comes to weight loss, there is no black and white. It's all shades of gray. You just have to find the shade of gray that works for you and stick with it.

Grats on your weight loss, Ashlee! Good luck on the remainder.

I'm a little curious about all of this too. I just started using MFP about a week ago (not to lose, but to maintain weight I've finally gained). First, a little history:

A few months back, I quit smoking and started going to the gym. At that time, I weighed 110 (at 5'6", that was too low, but until recently, I had never, regardless of diet, been able to get above about 118). Since my goal was to get to my 125lb ideal weight, I started eating a lot more protein (some of it coming in the form of protein bars I eat after my workouts). For the first week or so of this, I used Calorie Count, but I didn't care for it "grading" my food. I just wanted to get a base for how much/what I was eating. I got bored of tracking it after a while, though, and stopped. After that, I hadn't paid much attention to my diet or my weight until my clothes began to get too tight. (Unbearably so about a week or so ago.)

Thus, I decided to use MFP when I discovered that it has a printable version so that I can print out my log for when I eventually bother to see the doctor. Now, when I signed up, I filled everything out appropriately, my weight was 124.5 (yay!) and it spit out the RMR of 1720 calories per day to maintain. I "get" more for days I go to the gym, which is only 3 days per week, but not *that* much. This week, I have averaged 2300 calories per day. My weekly weigh-in put me at 124 even (a loss, although probably insignificant given my scale only showing half pounds). I had *hoped* it would self-adjust, but it didn't. But it does make me laugh when I see things like: "If every day were like today, you would weigh 137 in 5 weeks."

What MFP *is* doing for me is showing me that I eat a lot of really crappy food, oh, and that eating Krusteaz fat-free cranberry orange muffins have a lot of calories when you munch on them all day long.