If you are staying under your calorie limit and it is set properly, you WILL lose weight if you give it time (at least 2-3 weeks). Water weight will fluctuate a lot which is why you need a few weeks to really tell.

It doesn't matter what kind of calories they are, a calorie is a calorie for weight loss purposes. And being "deficient in something else" isn't going to stop you from losing weight.

As far as being healthy, you don't want to eat too many sugars. However, since fruit sugars are non-added (as long as you are eating fresh fruit) sugars, they shouldn't technically be limited by the daily limit on MFP, it is the processed sugars you need to watch out for because they cause insulin spikes since they have no fiber with them like fruit.

I am assuming you just haven't give it enough time. Be patient.

Leaving the meat in your diet is actually a good idea, or at least replacing it with a high-protein substitute if you want to go the vegetarian route. High protein + high veggies + reasonable amount of fruit generally makes me feel pretty good.

As far as being healthy, you don't want to eat too many sugars. However, since fruit sugars are non-added (as long as you are eating fresh fruit) sugars, they shouldn't technically be limited by the daily limit on MFP, it is the processed sugars you need to watch out for because they cause insulin spikes since they have no fiber with them like fruit.

So since there is a lot of sugar in fruits, do we ignore that total when we add that to our food diary if we watch our sugar intake?? This may be a stupid question, but can the sugar in fruits cause us to gain weight?! I'm sorry if this has been answered, but I'm trying SO hard to increase fruits in my diet, but SCARED about all the sugar in fruit to go hardcore into it yet.

Thanks MFP friends

As far as being healthy, you don't want to eat too many sugars. However, since fruit sugars are non-added (as long as you are eating fresh fruit) sugars, they shouldn't technically be limited by the daily limit on MFP, it is the processed sugars you need to watch out for because they cause insulin spikes since they have no fiber with them like fruit.

So since there is a lot of sugar in fruits, do we ignore that total when we add that to our food diary if we watch our sugar intake?? This may be a stupid question, but can the sugar in fruits cause us to gain weight?! I'm sorry if this has been answered, but I'm trying SO hard to increase fruits in my diet, but SCARED about all the sugar in fruit to go hardcore into it yet.

Thanks MFP friends

Yes, you do ignore those non-added sugars in your daily diary. It's unfortunate that MFP works that way but it does, it's not complex enough (yet) to sort out added and non-added sugar and it is a big confusion point for many. What I did was create a "food" that was 0 calories but negative sugars, and at the end of each day I add that "food" in with however many units of non-added sugars I ate: so if a banana is 14 gs and that's all the non added sugars I had, I put it in for -14 gs sugar so my MFP sugars total shows what I ate for added.

Nothing can "cause you to gain weight" EXCEPT extra calories. Not fats, not protein, not sugars. You could sit there all day and eat however many tablespoons of brown sugar that would equal your daily calorie goal (for me that would be about a cup and a half), and you would STILL lose weight (you WOULDN'T feel very good or be healthy at all though). But interesting question, because this is a problem with the Weight Watchers plan, fruits are "0 points", so you can eat as many of them as you want and technically stay under your goal, even though one banana is 100 cals a pop. But if you eat to many "free" fruits in a day...well you may be on your way to gaining weight because they have calories in them....

Bottom line: don't worry about the sugars in fruits. Fat on your body is made of extra calories that your body didn't burn so it is holding on to just in case of a famine. Calories, NOT sugar, not chocolate, not chicken. It doesn't matter where they came from, it only matters how many calories it has to lose weight (being healthy though, it definitely matters where they came from).

It's all about calories baby.

BTW, if anyone is interested, I found this great article by the Mayo Clinic on sugars:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/added-sugar/MY00845

Good points:
"Have fresh fruit for dessert instead of cakes, cookies, pies and other sweets."

"Check the list of ingredients. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. So if you see sugar listed among the first few ingredients, the product might be high in added sugar. Know that sugar goes by many different names, though — it may not be easy to spot added sugar even in the ingredient list. (then includes list of sugar names) "

Wow, this was very enlightening! I'm a huge fruit eater (mixed fruit shake in the morning with no sugar; pears, apples, bananas in the afternoon, etc) and I've always been worried about being negative in my daily sugar count. What a relief! Thanks so much!