I’ve also found it helps me regulate my snacking - if I can’t be bothered to calculate the calories for the bits of food that my son has left on his plate, then they’ll go in the bin rather than my mouth! If you do this, especially at first, then you’ll get a good insight into where you can cut calories and how those little snacks that seem insignificant can soon add up. This means weighing/measuring your food, down to the number of grams of butter you’ve spread on your toast. The main thing with MFP is to be a worthwhile tool you have to be really rigorous with inputting EVERYTHING. If you’re using the MFP calculations for expenditure based on exercise type and duration then I’d take them with a massive pinch of salt as these tend to be a massive overestimate. I find that heart-rate based expenditure is close enough, although tends to be on the high side. If you’re using power to calculate expended calories then this should be fairly accurate.

I then use Garmin Connect synced to MFP in order to add any calories expended from exercise. I set my base calorie requirements by selecting an activity level of sedentary and putting in my target weight loss per week.

Lose it vs fitness pal