nutrition or just calories???

I don't stick to the exact. It's an aim -- trying for perfection is excessive. But I do try and get close. When I don't have enough fat/protein I feel hungry again much more quickly.

I did raise the protein because I feel better when I eat more protein than MFP allocates. I'm going for 45/30/25 carbs/fat/protein. Once I manage to ditch my soda habit for good I'll probably shift a bit more into protein.

I agree with cmriverside. Following the calorie counter will get you where you want to be. Hesitant stress on "will" there.

The nutritional information is there to make sure you reach your goal and reach it well. Honestly, you could eat nothing but chocolate cake and still lose weight, assuming you're below your calorie limit. Things like that have been done before. But how you feel, your energy levels, how long you feel full after eating, the speed at which you lose the weight... all those things will be at their best "presumably" if you follow the nutritional guidelines. Like susannamarie said, your particular needs may not match exactly, but they're guidelines.

For the sake of blood-pressure, I'd say definitely track the sodium. Saturated fats are another thing that need to be watched. 1500 calories worth of fried food and butter (thank you Paula Deen) are going to be loaded with Sat Fats, and you don't want that.

Should you follow Nutritional guidelines too? Yes, but it's not the end of the world if you're over or under by a marginal amount. They're there to help.

I changed my goals from what MFP set and I generally try to stay around 1,500 calories (eating back half or more exercise cals too), 100+ g protein, 25+ g fiber and try to get 100%+ iron. I track my fat and sodium levels, but it's pretty rare that I ever go over. I don't even worry about carbs or sugars since the majority of mine come from fruits and veggies.

Hello I was wondering if everyone just goes by their calories for the day or do they also stick to the exact cals,protein,fat, carbs etc that mfp recommends I have been doing this for a week but I just look at the calorie content nothing else will this effect my weightloss or do I have to eat the recommended grams of protein, carbs etc that mfp has set if I am honest I like just looking at the food calorie weather its 100 or 200 cals or whatever and don't really care about the grams of carbs or protein in it I'm worrying that I should be looking at these as well as the cals ???? Could anyone answer this please

Don't worry about it too much for now. You lose weight based completely upon calories in versus calories out. But you can get cravings if you don't get nutrition, so these other things are a bit of a guideline.

the fact that you can change them yourself though, means they're not really that hard and fast. Try to make sure you're getting 2 cups of vege a day inclusive of leafy greens, and 1 or 2 pieces of fruit in there and you should be fine.