Hello All

I am not new to calorie counting but skeptical about it. I have tried WW in the past and have used both loseit and MFP in the past. Both times to no success. I think I lost 2 lbs in a month on loseit. But I also have tried drastic diets and lost weight only to gain it back quickly. I want to try somethin that is a lifestyle change and I dont want to loose hope.
I am 38 5 ft and weigh 136

Well, for starters you're going to lose weight a bit slower because you don't have much to lose. Someone who has say 50-100lbs is going to lose it faster in the BEGINNING. You may only lose 2lbs a month, but given your height and weight you want to lose, it's going to take some time. Have you found out what your BMR is? LoseIt! figures that out for you when you put your information in. But to lose 2 pounds a week seems like far too much given your information. You don't want to eat so little as that wouldn't be healthy (unless doctor supervised). Find out your BMR, what your calorie deficit needs to be to lose around .5-1 pound a week. I think aiming for 2 pound loss a week is setting yourself up for hardships. Just my opinion.

You will require less calories to lose weight, whether you count calories, count WW points or eat prepared diet meals , it is all the same thing, they all have less calories.
PS Counting calories for me is a lifestyle change.

I'm down 40 pounds in 7 months from calorie counting so a skeptic I am not. Now that doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone or it'll be the same for everyone, I just know it works for me. I also know that I've had some months where I only lost 2 pounds and others where I lost 8+, pretty much doing the exact same thing.

It make take awhile for you to figure out just exactly how many calories your body needs. Even though there are hundreds of sites that'll tell you eat X to lose Y, they're all super generic. You have to play around with the numbers to figure it out for yourself. In the 7 months I've eaten a range of calories and needed to switch it up a couple times when I hit plateaus and it took A LOT of time to realize what exactly it was my body needed. And I still don't have it perfect. Try and stick with it for longer than a month and whenever you switch calories up make sure you stay there for 3-4 weeks before deciding if it works or not. Our body goes through so many hormonal changes throughout a 4 week period that it's hard to determine if it's working or not in a shorter period of time.

Good luck!

Thank you all its very helpful. I do have to accept that I am impatient having said that. I am told by MFP that I need to get 1200 calories a day to loose weight. Ill try and be more realistic and aim for 1 pound a week and see what happens

When you do not have much to lose, even 1 pound a week can be difficult. So don't be panic if the weight starts to be come 1 pound every 2 weeks. Its normal. it sucks... but its normal!