Starting again

vickyj29

Hi, I did mfp a few years ago after having my second son and the results were incredible, I have never felt as well as I did and even ran a 10k! 3 years on I've got a 1 year old baby and have really struggled to lose the baby weight and have also had a lot of extremley stressful things going on which haven't helped me stay motivated.

I want to start again today as well as get my husband to do it too, I get told 1200 calories a day by mfp but don't know if that's enough or if I should work out my tdee, as I've not been eating great recently I find I gain weight very quickly . I'm really determined to get back on track but just need a bit of advice on how to start again without gaining too much back, I miss feeling so healthy and so confident.

modeski

First, congrats for making this choice to get back onto MFP. IMHO you should definitely work out your TDEE so you're armed with as much info as possible from the get-go. I also just started again a few weeks ago...five *years* and 20Kg/40lb heavier than I was back then when I stupidly gave it up after a couple of months. The only way is down!

vickyj29

Thanks for the support and well done to you too for getting back on it, as you said the only way is down. I'm going to sound naive here but as last time I lost weight it was with 1200 calories I'm concerned that with my tdee/bmr calories working out higher that I will gain rather then lose.

4legsRbetterthan2

it looks like you only have about 20 lbs to lose based on your profile? make sure you are set for a rate of loss appropraite to your goal, in your case you should be looking at 1lb/week and not reaching for the 2lb/week rate.

since you are worried about a little bit higher calorie goal making you gain, it might be worth logging for a week exactly the way you eat now, just to put things in perspective. I now realize that prior to MFP it really was super easy for me to eat 3-4000 calories a day. That is why I was gaining, and I am losing on 1600 calories a day.

Liftng4Lis

Welcome back. Remember that the 1200 is a base and you will be earning more through exercise.

c2111

Hi there welcome back, I've come back too after a break following a car accident, I gained about 5 kg, anyway I originally lost 16 kg using mfp and following the 1200 logging my exercise and eating back half of my cals earned I generally eat about 1400 a day, more importantly it's what I eat. I try to eat clean, get into the lemon water and have a bit of health overhaul I guess which I enjoy, I like planning my foods the day before, and discovering great healthy recipes to try, good luck on your journey, you did it before, so you can do this, feel free to add me, share diaries

vickyj29

Thanks for all your help, I will log everything I eat and see how I go this week and if I'm not losing I will up my calories and see how I get on. This is why I love mfp, everyone's so supportive.