please help me speed up weight loss
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You seem determined to make something simple as complex as possible!
Stop with all the nonsense of clean eating, Paleo/Primal, exclusion diets, categorising food as good or bad, short term challenges. It really isn't helping you is it?
Your logic isn't actually logic I'm afraid - it's just a bunch of beliefs and fads.
Log your food accurately, choose an appropriate calorie deficit that is sustainable and do some exercise that you enjoy.
Losing 14lbs in 6 weeks is very aggressive and unlikely to be a good idea when you don't have a great deal to lose.
Suggest you read the sticky threads in the Getting Started forum.
This +1, saved me the effort of having to type it. OP you are all over the place, so its no surprise that youve swing from one thing to the other and none of them have worked. Its about you and your approach. If you calorie count properly then you will lose weight over time. You need to absorb the simple basic concepts and then you will start realising what your misconceptions are over a number of topics. If you have only 6 weeks then you need to get to grips quickly with things so imo you can lose about 5-10lbs between now and your holiday. Get smart and lose the rest when you return by being consistent.
Nope slimming world works but giving you the illusion of freedom and statistically people still eat at a deficit. MFP is calorie counting laid bare, no gimmicks.
By all means try to lose 2lb a week, but you will find it hard to create an accurate 7,000 calorie a week deficit. Nope 2stone isnt a lot to lose when compared to several people on these forums who are 300lbs +.
Keep it simple, do the basics well, be realistic and you will lose weight.
OK thank you 999tigger. Yes I agree I am all over the place. My friends would agree with you there. I had hoped that I could knock "diets" on the head with this clean eating, but it seems it was just one more fad. Albeit one that made me feel more energetic and younger and my skin glow! (although that might have also been in part due to stopping drinking).
I will focus on this one key thing you have all told me: keep it simple, energy in energy out. Thank you
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This. All this low carb paleo clean eating isn't needed.You seem determined to make something simple as complex as possible!
Stop with all the nonsense of clean eating, Paleo/Primal, exclusion diets, categorising food as good or bad, short term challenges. It really isn't helping you is it?
Your logic isn't actually logic I'm afraid - it's just a bunch of beliefs and fads.
Log your food accurately, choose an appropriate calorie deficit that is sustainable and do some exercise that you enjoy.
Losing 14lbs in 6 weeks is very aggressive and unlikely to be a good idea when you don't have a great deal to lose.
Suggest you read the sticky threads in the Getting Started forum.
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Part of your problem is that you want this to be a short term quick fix. If you think that way you are heading towards yo-yo weight loss/gain which is not healthy. You also won't be very happy because when you are heavier you will feepl bad and when you are losing you will feel deprived.
If you overeat due to emotional issues get counselling to deal with those instead of self medicating with food.
You need a plan where you choose to eat things you like in moderation within the calorie levels that let you maintain the weight best for you.
Finally you didn't gain this overnight. Trying to lose it quickly sets you up to fail and feel bad. And even if you have success you will feel so deprived that you're likely to "let go" and gain back.
How about a vacation where you can have the satisfaction of knowing you are on a path to long term control.0 -
PS
That's why I kept the picture of the unicorn rainbow kitten fairy. There's no magic fix. No fairy dust. Choices lead us to overweight and our choices let us lose. No magic and no quick fix.0 -
leanne_townsend wrote: »
OK thank you 999tigger. Yes I agree I am all over the place. My friends would agree with you there. I had hoped that I could knock "diets" on the head with this clean eating, but it seems it was just one more fad. Albeit one that made me feel more energetic and younger and my skin glow! (although that might have also been in part due to stopping drinking).
I will focus on this one key thing you have all told me: keep it simple, energy in energy out. Thank you
There's no reason why you can't eat "clean" and count calories at the same time, is there? In fact if you want your calorie deficit to be as high as possible while remaining healthy it makes sense to cut out any junk so you can get the required nutrition on fewer calories (i.e. no wasted calories).
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Chrysalid2014 wrote: »leanne_townsend wrote: »
OK thank you 999tigger. Yes I agree I am all over the place. My friends would agree with you there. I had hoped that I could knock "diets" on the head with this clean eating, but it seems it was just one more fad. Albeit one that made me feel more energetic and younger and my skin glow! (although that might have also been in part due to stopping drinking).
I will focus on this one key thing you have all told me: keep it simple, energy in energy out. Thank you
There's no reason why you can't eat "clean" and count calories at the same time, is there? In fact if you want your calorie deficit to be as high as possible while remaining healthy it makes sense to cut out any junk so you can get the required nutrition on fewer calories (i.e. no wasted calories).
Love this!
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leanne_townsend wrote: »thanks both. What does "halve MyFitnessPal database burns" mean? (sorry)
I think what they mean by this is to only eat back half of the calories that MFP recommends based on your activity. Folks have said that MFP overestimates how many calories are burned, and so if you follow that and eat back all of the calories it recommends it will be too many. I would have to agree with this also because in the past I ate back what MFP recommended and didn't lose as effectively. Good luck and enjoy your trip!
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2 stone is 28 pounds. With so little to lose, you should lose 1 pound a week, otherwise your goal will be too aggressive and it will be hard to get all of the nutrients your body requires.0
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ok thanks all. I will try and stick to "clean" but with the odd small bar of 90% dark choc thrown in for good measure! Also I will reintroduce carbs as I am missing them so much! I actually can't wait to have a small baked potato, one of my faves.0
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I set my loss rate at 1 pound a week and MFP gives me 1220 cals per day. I eat pretty much all of my exercise calories back and eat 1600 on average per day. I've lost 8 pounds in six weeks. I eat a wide variety of foods that I enjoy including treats in moderation. Feel free to take a peek at my diary.
Good luck to you!0 -
I've been using MFP for 40 days so far. I started with about 2 stone to lose and I'm down almost 21 lbs so far. I'm losing 0.5 lb per day. I haven't had to make any drastic changes to my diet. What has changed is that I am consuming a lot less milk and there have been no mid-afternoon snacks on whole tubes of Pringles. I'm trying to increase my daily consumption at the moment, because I really don't need to keep losing weight this fast.0
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leanne_townsend wrote: »ok thanks all. I will try and stick to "clean" but with the odd small bar of 90% dark choc thrown in for good measure! Also I will reintroduce carbs as I am missing them so much! I actually can't wait to have a small baked potato, one of my faves.
Unnecessary^.
Caloric deficit equals weight loss. It's that simple.0 -
thanks North44 I will take a peek for some ideas
doylejohnpaul wow that is a FAST weight loss! How many calories is it allowing you per day?
Liftng4Lis - it might be unnecessary but I would like to stick to mostly clean and natural foods with the odd treat thrown in. Unnecessary or not I've been feeling a lot younger and more energetic lately so if I can keep that going then all the better My treats this week are going to be a mini bar of Green and Blacks each night:
http://www.naturalcollection.com/shop/green---blacks-milk-miniature-collection-180g-by-green-and-blacks/?PCode=DSGPESS15&gclid=CjwKEAjws5CrBRD8ze702_2dyjYSJAAAJK9yykKCa9xJXMRuyQucYMSLy1eQEtf3EokxkKRxpJbITRoCpl7w_wcB
Sadly the kids found out about them so I gave them the white choc!
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p.s. I'm down 1.4lb overnight - but I did put a lot of weight on overnight at the weekend after a meal out in a Brazilian restaurant
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I know it's exciting to see scale movement but would you be as equally disappointed as you are pleased with an increase of 1.4lb
What you have there is water weight fluctuations
And you will need to look at your overall trend, over time (6-8 weeks) to judge actual rate of loss
And it's the hardest mental leap understanding that, particularly as women, we don't have a weight but a weight range ...sodium, change up in exercise, hormonal fluctuations around ovulation and period all give water weight fluctuations generally around 3-5 lbs
Just keep going ...if you're a daily weigher be one who is firm in the knowledge that you're tracking fluctuations and looking for a downward trend over time
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ok good advice, thank you rabbitjb 0
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leanne_townsend wrote: »doylejohnpaul wow that is a FAST weight loss! How many calories is it allowing you per day?
It surprised me also. MFP put me on 1200 calories per day initially. I am male, 6'1", 47 years old and weighed 200 lbs 6 weeks ago. My job is completely sedentary, but I do have to look after a 4 year old boy. I have seen many people saying that 1200 kcals leaves them really hungry, but I have found it surprisingly easy to do.0 -
doylejohnpaul787 wrote: »leanne_townsend wrote: »doylejohnpaul wow that is a FAST weight loss! How many calories is it allowing you per day?
It surprised me also. MFP put me on 1200 calories per day initially. I am male, 6'1", 47 years old and weighed 200 lbs 6 weeks ago. My job is completely sedentary, but I do have to look after a 4 year old boy. I have seen many people saying that 1200 kcals leaves them really hungry, but I have found it surprisingly easy to do.
Well done! I tried the 5:2 and actually managed that for a while (but felt it encouraged me to be a piglet the rest of the time) so I keep telling myself that 1200 calories is easy compared to that
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doylejohnpaul787 wrote: »leanne_townsend wrote: »doylejohnpaul wow that is a FAST weight loss! How many calories is it allowing you per day?
It surprised me also. MFP put me on 1200 calories per day initially. I am male, 6'1", 47 years old and weighed 200 lbs 6 weeks ago. My job is completely sedentary, but I do have to look after a 4 year old boy. I have seen many people saying that 1200 kcals leaves them really hungry, but I have found it surprisingly easy to do.
@doylejohnpaul787 OMG. That's a glitch, you should not be eating less than 1600 and at your height and weight considerably more
Please go to the website, not app, and reset your settings
You need to eat more0 -
doylejohnpaul787 wrote: »It surprised me also. MFP put me on 1200 calories per day initially. I am male, 6'1", 47 years old and weighed 200 lbs 6 weeks ago. My job is completely sedentary, but I do have to look after a 4 year old boy. I have seen many people saying that 1200 kcals leaves them really hungry, but I have found it surprisingly easy to do.
Men should not be going below 1500 (1500-1800 being the low ranges), women below 1200 (1200-1500 being the low ranges)
If MFP is "allowing" a male to go to 1200, you've run into a bug.0 -
What works for me is to set the daily calorie goal at where it would be if I was at my target weight and not eat any calories back (because the calories used measurements are over-stated anyway). So I'm 6'1 and at my target weight of 82 kg I need 1700 calories a day. So I'll eat 1700 calories a day, mostly from meat and vegetables (I love stews and home-made currys without the rice). With vegetables I can eat huge amounts without a lot of calories so I don't go hungry (a pound and a half of vegetables has maybe 150-300 calories depending on which ones). On top of that I do a lot of low pulse-rate exercise.
I read an interesting article about a top athletics coach who recommended people who lose weight to do lower intensity exercise because the body burns fat while exercising that way. It goes against everything I've ever learned as you burn way fewer calories that way and it's all about calories in vs. calories out. Well, not according to him. He says that if you are doing high intensity exercise you burn off carbohydrates which the body can replenish really easily, while low intensity exercise burns fat, which the body doesn't replenish easily.
Anyway, I've looked back at my training logs and found that when I've done a lot of running I've gained weight or at least not lost any, while when I've been doing a lot of walking the pounds have come off. So I quit my running program on May 1st (I was doing 20 miles a week) and have replaced it with 1-2 hour walks every day except every 3rd day I do half an hour of running. I'm losing about 2 pounds a week now.0 -
It is not a glitch as such. I wanted to lose some weight and read on the NHS site that you could safely lose 2 lbs a week, so when I came to MFP I input my data and it calculated a TDEE of 2200. It subtracted 1000 from that and told me I needed to consume 1200 kcals/day. Despite being largely sedentary, my TDEE is evidently a bit higher than 2200 (based on how much weight I have lost so far).
The thing is that it has not been much of a struggle at all to achieve the goal. I am finding that I am only hungry just before meals.0 -
Posted twice0
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Hi OP! So many things. I hope you can wade through the whole post
Obviously you're all over the place; but, you have finally recognized it, which is good!
Regardless of what happens with THIS holiday, you have the next holiday, and the one after that, and the one after the one after that, and the rest of your life. Will you reach your goal in 6 weeks? Probably not; BUT, you WILL finally gain some understanding of what is going on with your body; and that is empowering!
Most of us will not succeed in our long term weight loss goals; but, if we understand MFP and the concept of Calories In vs Calories Out, we at the very least have A CHANCE to succeed!
If you want to continue to record your weight every day, and especially as a woman who also has to deal with hormonal changes during the month, I strongly recommend that you record your weight using weightgrapher.com (allows manual importing), or trendweight.com, (happy scale on the iphone), or use a spreadsheet that creates a trendline out of your daily weight ins (http://scoobysworkshop.com/measuring-progress/ the link is halfway down the page or you can direct link: http://d16kc6rd0714uz.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ProgressChart.xls)
The trend lines allow you to focus on your actual longer term weight movement as opposed to getting caught up in single day salt or exercise change induced water gains, or TOM fluctuations.
WARNING: you have been low carbing. When you re-introduce carbs back into your life you WILL be gaining back water weight.
When you first started on your low-carb diet you initially "lost" a lot of weight. That weight was, unfortunately, not all fat. An appreciable amount of that weight loss was water, released from your body as your ready reserves of energy were being used up. When you reintroduce carbs, you will regain this water weight.
There is nothing wrong with clean eating for health or nutrition purposes; but, if you are trying to lose weight, I think you should do your clean eating only if you enjoy it, if it is filling, and if it is calorically appropriate for your goals.
Healthy nuts and healthy oils are NOT calorically thrifty. Neither are some fruits, or other healthy items. If you want to lose weight and eat at a deficit you MAY have to moderate them so that they fit within your budget.
And Mars or Snickers bars (favourite examples here), are not calorically thrifty. But sometimes they make you happy enough that you may be willing to pay the caloric price.
The key here is to be willing to evaluate the cost-benefit of EVERYTHING you eat so as to arrive on what is appropriate for you at each particular moment of time. You are always looking for a "caloric bargain"
And the cost-benefit equation CHANGES--all the time. The cost-benefit of ice-cream first thing in the morning, is NOT the same as the cost-benefit of ice-cream after 1,000 calories worth of exercise assuming you've met your protein goal!
You also mentioned some diet where people lose weight while eating unlimited somethings. Most of these "diets" are predicated or relatively low calories overall and an "unlimited" relatively low calorie item that still comes with some built in limitations!
Examples: unlimited cabbage soup, unlimited veggies, unlimited fruits <-- you can still overeat on these items especially if you make the wrong choices and chose calorically denser items, but most people will self limit either due to boredom, due jaw-ache (have you tried chewing on celery for a few hours?), due to bloat (more celery?), or due to diarrhea from eating too much fiber or what have you (try eating a whole watermelon)!
The mantra of eat less (reduced Calories In) and move more (increase calories out) is true.
Especially in the beginning, if you haven't been very active, you can easily see results from even "low level" exercise such as purposeful walking. Get up a bit earlier and walk for a half hour in the morning before heading to work. Go for a 40-60 minute walk during your lunch. Go for another half hour walk as soon as you get back home. And, hey, if you're a keener, throw in another walk after dinner! Yes: all this will cut down on your other down-time. But for most people, it CAN be done.
Anyway: my personal viewpoint is that losing weight is the easy part. Maintaining the weight loss the difficult one.
As such, I see little to no point in doing things to lose weight that I am not willing to continue doing during the next five to ten years! And all the stuff you've been doing during the past few months does not sound like something you can keep doing for the next five to ten years!
So, take a deep breath and try to find a path that you can follow for more than just a few weeks, or months!0 -
I read an interesting article about a top athletics coach who recommended people who lose weight to do lower intensity exercise because the body burns fat while exercising that way. It goes against everything I've ever learned as you burn way fewer calories that way and it's all about calories in vs. calories out. Well, not according to him. He says that if you are doing high intensity exercise you burn off carbohydrates which the body can replenish really easily, while low intensity exercise burns fat, which the body doesn't replenish easily.
Anyway, I've looked back at my training logs and found that when I've done a lot of running I've gained weight or at least not lost any, while when I've been doing a lot of walking the pounds have come off. So I quit my running program on May 1st (I was doing 20 miles a week) and have replaced it with 1-2 hour walks every day except every 3rd day I do half an hour of running. I'm losing about 2 pounds a week now.
That's interesting, but the facts can be slightly misleading...
A higher percentage of your calorie burn is from fat at low intensity.
But your calorie burn is much higher at high intensity.
For example
if you workout at 50% of your max heart rate (low intensity)
you burn 7 calories per minute
90% of those calories are fat
So a 60 minute workout = 378 calories from fat
if you workout at 75% of your mhr (high intensity)
you burn 14 cal/min
60% of those are fat
So a 60 minute workout = 504 calories from fat
or you could do a 45 min high intensity workout to get the same fat burn 1 hrs @ low intensity.
Glad you have found an exercise program that works for you though!
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leanne_townsend wrote: »p.s. I've been logging - do you guys make your diaries public so people can advise, or better to be private?
I keep my diary private to just people who have friended me here on MFP. If I wanted the forum in general to tell me why I'm not losing weight, I'd expect to open it up, but I don't care to engage in that type of critique personally. And letting random trolls shout gotcha because I indulged in some "impure" snack a week ago is just silly.
Either way, I wish you great success. You've invested a lot of time buying into the paleo/clean eating fad. You'll need to adjust to trying to suss out the good points that are buried in those fads, and what is simply overwrought rules and hoodoo to encourage you to buy stuff because you'll fail otherwise.
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doylejohnpaul787 wrote: »It is not a glitch as such. I wanted to lose some weight and read on the NHS site that you could safely lose 2 lbs a week, so when I came to MFP I input my data and it calculated a TDEE of 2200. It subtracted 1000 from that and told me I needed to consume 1200 kcals/day. Despite being largely sedentary, my TDEE is evidently a bit higher than 2200 (based on how much weight I have lost so far).
The thing is that it has not been much of a struggle at all to achieve the goal. I am finding that I am only hungry just before meals.
@doylejohnpaul787 that is an unhealthy approach which is contradictory to WHO minimums
You will find it difficult to be getting adequate nutrition at that level; you will burn through more LBM than you need to and find maintenance harder. That is if you don't crash and burn which is more likely when you go on a deprivation diet
I would advise you to re-assess your path, it is not about hunger and willpower..what kind of protein and fat minimums are you hitting in grammes on that low a target?
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I read an interesting article about a top athletics coach who recommended people who lose weight to do lower intensity exercise because the body burns fat while exercising that way. It goes against everything I've ever learned as you burn way fewer calories that way and it's all about calories in vs. calories out. Well, not according to him. He says that if you are doing high intensity exercise you burn off carbohydrates which the body can replenish really easily, while low intensity exercise burns fat, which the body doesn't replenish easily.
Anyway, I've looked back at my training logs and found that when I've done a lot of running I've gained weight or at least not lost any, while when I've been doing a lot of walking the pounds have come off. So I quit my running program on May 1st (I was doing 20 miles a week) and have replaced it with 1-2 hour walks every day except every 3rd day I do half an hour of running. I'm losing about 2 pounds a week now.
That's interesting, but the facts can be slightly misleading...
A higher percentage of your calorie burn is from fat at low intensity.
But your calorie burn is much higher at high intensity.
For example
if you workout at 50% of your max heart rate (low intensity)
you burn 7 calories per minute
90% of those calories are fat
So a 60 minute workout = 378 calories from fat
if you workout at 75% of your mhr (high intensity)
you burn 14 cal/min
60% of those are fat
So a 60 minute workout = 504 calories from fat
or you could do a 45 min high intensity workout to get the same fat burn 1 hrs @ low intensity.
Glad you have found an exercise program that works for you though!
@Ty_Floyd I'm pretty sure that fat burning hr zones were debunked years ago ...like 2009.. It's a marketing myth from the machine manufacturers that simply won't die0 -
leanne_townsend wrote: »thank you all! You make it sound much easier (although it's not easy eating 1200 calories when you're not used to it but I will get used to it. That's what MFP says I should be consuming).
You can eat more if it's right stuff. Please don't starve yourself, some of the advice on here to just eat less so you're in deficit is plain bad advice. Your body needs fuel so train well and eat well it's that simple. Start with healthy fat breakfast, eggs/smoked salmon/avocado etc. Focus on higher protein and reduced carbs throughout the day, apart from after your workout when you should increase you carb intake for that meal.
Fat has got 9kcal energy/gram, carbs 4kcal. What does that tell you - don't be scared of the right fats they help to shift it!
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doylejohnpaul787 wrote: »leanne_townsend wrote: »doylejohnpaul wow that is a FAST weight loss! How many calories is it allowing you per day?
It surprised me also. MFP put me on 1200 calories per day initially. I am male, 6'1", 47 years old and weighed 200 lbs 6 weeks ago. My job is completely sedentary, but I do have to look after a 4 year old boy. I have seen many people saying that 1200 kcals leaves them really hungry, but I have found it surprisingly easy to do.
@doylejohnpaul787 OMG. That's a glitch, you should not be eating less than 1600 and at your height and weight considerably more
Please go to the website, not app, and reset your settings
You need to eat more
I'd also throw in doylejohnpaul787 started at just outside a normal weight and shouldn't be trying to lose 2lbs per week. Especially if they've been losing at 2lbs per week the passed 6 weeks, because they would be within a healthy weight range.0
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