Is weight loss simple maths or more?

It's more. Different things work for different people. What works for me might not work for you even if the math says it should. So you find something that works & keep at it until it doesn't.
If you got by math, they say people who consume 200g of carbs a day will be fat. I eat high carb & I've lost 50lbs.
Just do what works for u. And yes, u can eat whatever u want & still lose weight as long as u have a cal deficit. That part is math. But don't expect to get abs or anything of the sort while u eat crap.

I guess if you want to lose pure weight then it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you create a deficit

But if you want to be healthy.... well that's a different ball park...
That's why this website is called "my FITNESS pal" and not "my SKINNINESS pal"

Your body has two types of fat, one is visceral and subcutaneous. Visceral is the lovely stuff that deposits around the stomach in men and around the thights and backside in women.

Back to class I'm afraid - subcutaneous fat is under the skin wherever the skin is, it's the stuff you can grab by the handful wherever it may be and the stuff measured by calipers to work out % fat.

Visceral fat is deposited within your torso around organs and you need an MRI scanner or the like to see it. While a lot of it will push out your belly, it's within the muscle wall :

I guess if you want to lose pure weight then it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you create a deficit

But if you want to be healthy.... well that's a different ball park...
That's why this website is called "my FITNESS pal" and not "my SKINNINESS pal"

really nice point! Though most of us are striving to get skinnier, it is not inevitably connected to getting healthier. So please don't eat only Twinkies and Coke.... I mean you can, but you will look unhealthy and not feel as good as when you work out and have fun outside!

This is a new lifestyle challenge for most people, I go by the rule 80% healthy and 20% (indulgence foods) so don't cut out the foods you love just try to moderate them to make sure you have healthy protein to build muscle and plenty of macro nutrients in your healthy food choices. Good luck

Much more.

I would suggest people read more about fat metabolism in humans than rely on the unproven "create a xxxx deficit and lose xxxx lbs" thing.

I think of it like this. If you make better type of food choices you have better control of your blood sugar and get less urgent signals to eat the more sugary foods.So it should be easier to stay on your healthy weightloss track.
I've done the eat anything route as long as the deficit is there.I just ended up with lbs down and bellyfat not moving.I was stressing my body to store a fat supply around my middle.
My body did exactly what its designed to do,stored that easy access fuel right where I could get at it.So technically I've been fooling myself with exercise and bad diet.Plus I thought I could eat more to fuel my exercise!!!
By the way, If exercise alone did it I would be an "elite athlete" now.
Its taken me so long to process the idea that the type of food you consume has a big big impact.I knew the theory just couldn't commit to the practical.Finally have had my "LIGHTBULB" moment

I don't think weight loss is simple maths, at least not from my experience. I"ve been doing mfp calorie counting for 3 months and the last 2 weeks of that my weight did not budge - neither up nor down. I was eating religiously at my calorie goal exercising hard 5 times a week. How is it mathematically possible not to lose during a regime like this? All water weight - for 2 weeks? I don't think so. I think the body is very smart and adapts to whatever calorie and exercise regime you continue too long. Because after the 2 weeks I changed my routine, eating 300 cal more and exercising only 3 times a week - BOOM - 1 lbs weight loss every day for a week. So from my experience you need to shock your body with new things ever so often.

I would even go as far as asserting that weight loss is also very connected to your psychology and your mood. My weight loss always slows down when I'm trying extra hard to break through this goal or that number on the scale because I'm so grim and depressed. As soon as I stop caring and eat that Snickers I've been dying for 4 weeks, guaranteed the scale is down next day. Happens to me every time.

I can't prove any of this in biological terms or the like. But I stuck religiously to the mfp schedule and had good result for 2 months only, after that, the "maths" didnt seem to make sense anymore so I decided to go by "feeling", which works better for me now.

I don't think weight loss is simple maths, at least not from my experience. I"ve been doing mfp calorie counting for 3 months and the last 2 weeks of that my weight did not budge - neither up nor down. I was eating religiously at my calorie goal exercising hard 5 times a week. How is it mathematically possible not to lose during a regime like this? All water weight - for 2 weeks? I don't think so. I think the body is very smart and adapts to whatever calorie and exercise regime you continue too long. Because after the 2 weeks I changed my routine, eating 300 cal more and exercising only 3 times a week - BOOM - 1 lbs weight loss every day for a week. So from my experience you need to shock your body with new things ever so often.

I would even go as far as asserting that weight loss is also very connected to your psychology and your mood. My weight loss always slows down when I'm trying extra hard to break through this goal or that number on the scale because I'm so grim and depressed. As soon as I stop caring and eat that Snickers I've been dying for 4 weeks, guaranteed the scale is down next day. Happens to me every time.

I can't prove any of this in biological terms or the like. But I stuck religiously to the mfp schedule and had good result for 2 months only, after that, the "maths" didnt seem to make sense anymore so I decided to go by "feeling", which works better for me now.

good read. its really interested me that you say when you give into what your body wants like the sugar of chocolate bar, your scale adjusts the next day because you ate it. I wonder should i do the same thing Esther?.. im only starting eating for once now, usually starve for week or 2 after bingeing but it doesnt lose me any weight so im eating calories everyday and hopeing for a loss, what do you think .. junk food allowance or stick to the nutrients?

I don't think weight loss is simple maths, at least not from my experience. I"ve been doing mfp calorie counting for 3 months and the last 2 weeks of that my weight did not budge - neither up nor down. I was eating religiously at my calorie goal exercising hard 5 times a week. How is it mathematically possible not to lose during a regime like this? All water weight - for 2 weeks? I don't think so. I think the body is very smart and adapts to whatever calorie and exercise regime you continue too long. Because after the 2 weeks I changed my routine, eating 300 cal more and exercising only 3 times a week - BOOM - 1 lbs weight loss every day for a week. So from my experience you need to shock your body with new things ever so often.

I would even go as far as asserting that weight loss is also very connected to your psychology and your mood. My weight loss always slows down when I'm trying extra hard to break through this goal or that number on the scale because I'm so grim and depressed. As soon as I stop caring and eat that Snickers I've been dying for 4 weeks, guaranteed the scale is down next day. Happens to me every time.

I can't prove any of this in biological terms or the like. But I stuck religiously to the mfp schedule and had good result for 2 months only, after that, the "maths" didnt seem to make sense anymore so I decided to go by "feeling", which works better for me now.

good read. its really interested me that you say when you give into what your body wants like the sugar of chocolate bar, your scale adjusts the next day because you ate it. I wonder should i do the same thing Esther?.. im only starting eating for once now, usually starve for week or 2 after bingeing but it doesnt lose me any weight so im eating calories everyday and hopeing for a loss, what do you think .. junk food allowance or stick to the nutrients?

Just to be clear, I am not advising you give in to what your body craves and treat that as healthy dieting. I think you can only afford to relax your standards a little after you've had some dieting experience, you've eaten healthy for a couple months and seen how you body, your mood, your digestion and everything else changes. Because with that comes an incredible new awareness for your body which will help you to make decision like that, like ok now I will have this piece of chocolate. For example, when I started dieting I used to crave pizza and doughnuts and cookies. I tried to create lean versions of these foods and put considerable energy into creating healthy fast food classics. But the longer I do this, the more my taste changes. Now I crave a fresh fuit, or broccoli, or black olives, things like this. It happens maybe once every two weeks that I get a chocolate craving and then I will make a choice to have it or not.

So essentially, yes do try different things and experiment because the greatest benefit of that is you get to know your body and listen to its signals and you learn to love your new lifestyle etc. But be very careful in the beginning and try to stick to mfp recommendations as much as possible.

Edit: To be even more clear, when I get a chocolate craving its not connected to some need for refined sugar my body has, because it doesn't need any of that ever, but its clearly my psychology and my emotions and my dissatisfaction with something else telling me I need that piece of chocolate to soothe myself. I used to deny that to myself and get more depressed - which can hinder your weight loss. So I wasnt really recommending to eat what you crave but more to make sure you keep happy and motivated - by changing things up a bit every now and then.