is this site realistic

I do think the site is reliable to an extent. It can only do so much.

I use a HRM and a food scale to keep track of my food more accurately.

I use this site to keep myself accountable for my food intake but I rely on my pedometer for my calories burned from walking. Be careful of pedometers though make sure they filter out steps that arent real. I need a place to keep my food diary so I know what I am really eating. If i am in doubt about the calories I just cross check.

There are two ways to approach the site and its calorie counting method:

1. As a meticulous, rigorous accounting for calories in/calories out calculations. Folks with this mindset get HRM's and food scales. WHich helps them get closer to *knowing for sure* that everything is accurate. (It can also be a wonderful disciplining tool.)

2. As a way of developing an eye towards appropriate portion sizes of various foods and to make better decisions. Deciding to have more vegetables and less rice in that stir fry once they realize what a reasonable caloric serving of rice actually is. Realizing that that "healthy" bran muffin has a zillion calories and having an omelette instead. Getting a general sense of what it takes to "burn off" that 1/2 a pizza, and deciding to have something different. 100% accuracy is less important than getting enough of the right feedback to change habits and make better decisions.

Many of us are a mixture of the first and second perspectives, and it changes as we go. But I think the important thing to underscore is that both ways of looking at it seem to work, for most people, most of the time. Just look at all of the MFP success stories.

Every food item gives members a chance to confirm or deny the nutritional values stated so you can check the accuracy. The calories reported for running 8 minute - 9 minute miles and for cycling 14-16 mph and 18-20 mph are within 10% of the calories reported on my Garmin HRM.

100% accuracy is not necessary for me since I use this site as a way to track the quality of food I eat rather than the actual calories. But I feel confident the numbers are accurate as can be expected.

I've been more successful in changing my lifestyle thru mfp than any other "diet" I've ever tried. I always do check the nutrition info and submit changes when I find one incorrect. As far as non-packaged foods, I usually check a couple of sites to see if the info is pretty close.

Also, I recheck restaurant info as these too can change time to time and I update those in the database with the date the info was updated.

I do think that mfp over estimate calorie burns, so I bought a HRM and plainly in my case mfp was over estimating. Also, I use my Wii calorie burns rather than the mfp numbers.

For exercise accuracy on calories burned, you can get yourself a HRM! Without one, you can do what I do - I always enter under my actual time of whatever I do. For until I get my own HRM! They make them now that do NOT strap around your chest, just watch style. Shop around.

I asked my doctor about exercise tracking on here. He said that's it is inaccurate so don't do it. That was fine by me. I haven't tracked it from the start, yet if thought it was a good idea, I would have done it.

It might be beneficial to track your exercise, not for calories burned, but just for the sheer pride of putting it down and making it official.

I don't believe the exercise counts. I'll get way more winded jogging than biking for the same amount of time, and yet the calorie burn will be the same...

I believe exercise matters a lot. I do not believe that I would have had the success I've had without a ton of exercise. MFP is based around net calories so you need to have some idea of what you expend in order to calculate the net. If you stay in a deficit you lose weight but my experience is that if you stay in too far of a deficit for too long then you may well plateau, which for me I got out of by actually eating more and keeping up the exercise. The other huge advantage of exercise is the toning aspect. As you lose weight and inches you'll want to tone the up, plus I believe that if you are exercising regularly and using your muscle then your body is smart enough to burn fat and not muscle. HRMs are available starting around $20 on Amazon, I personally use one by New Balance (I think it was around $60) and a lot of people like Polar and I have a friend that has a Pyle that seems to work fine. You need one with a chest strap (the ones without don't work well in my experience, mine works with and without chest strap but not nearly as well without plus you constantly have to check your HR to make it work). Ideally you should be putting in (and updating) your weight, height, sex and age so it can calculate calories burned accurately for you. There are lots of other features you may like but this is all that's necessary. Mine allows me to set training zones and will track how much time I spend in the zone, over the zone and under the zone as well as average HR. I find this interesting to monitor when I play basketball or other activities like that. That's what has worked for me and what I will continue to do. I guess it may depend on what your definition of exercise is. I really only count exercise activities where I'm working fairly hard and getting my heart rate up, working up a sweat (unless I'm swimming or something) and will feel like I've done something when I'm done. Now that being said when I first started it didn't take nearly as much to feel that way as it does now. I only write this to try and be helpful and share my experience over the past year. I'm not an expert or a doctor but I've lost 100 lbs and I am a firm believer that it is a combination of diet and exercise. I also firmly believe that over time (months, not days or weeks) I have a zone that I need to be in to lose, if I eat too much or too little or exercise too little (I suppose you could exercise too much if you don't allow your body to recover or injure yourself, you do need to take 1-2 days off a week from heavy exercise) then weight loss stops. For example if I were to eat 1,200 calories a day but burn 600 in exercise then I might stop losing weight after awhile and I'd probably also feel tired all the time and have difficulty focusing, however if I ate 1,800 calories per day and burned the same 600 then I'd lose a little over 2 lbs a week a feel great. That's an example based on my own personal experience.