Noob

pigbox

Hi all. I'm new to MFP but not to the life-long aggravation of weight loss. I'm a 41 year old lady. Tall and formerly athletic. About 50 pounds to lose. I'm on a 1200 calorie a day/ exercise 5x a week plan. I'm finishing up my first week. I feel accomplished - setting a tough goal and making progress is great. I lost 5 pounds which is great. But I'm also crabby and hungry. Depriving myself of pizza and cocktails is the pits. Trying to re-frame - healthy people eat like this - and so if I want to be a healthy person this is what that looks like. My user name is a combination of my cats' nicknames. Yeah, that's what we're doing here Nice to meet you.

arditarose

You could eat more than 1200 calories and have pizza once in awhile.

pigbox

Thanks, arditarose. My issue in the past has been letting myself off the hook too easily. Like, "Oh it's cool to have pizza today because I had a salad for lunch and I'll run tomorrow." That mindset really hasn't helped me at all. It seems like this level of restriction, at least to start, is what I need to get things re-set. Once I make some more progress it'll be easier to let go once in a while I hope.

arditarose

pigbox wrote: »

Thanks, arditarose. My issue in the past has been letting myself off the hook too easily. Like, "Oh it's cool to have pizza today because I had a salad for lunch and I'll run tomorrow." That mindset really hasn't helped me at all. It seems like this level of restriction, at least to start, is what I need to get things re-set. Once I make some more progress it'll be easier to let go once in a while I hope.

I understand. I bought peanut butter today and I'm already thinking about who I can give it away to. But with calorie counting, it's more specific. So you're not just saying to yourself "I ate a salad, so I can have pizza". That means nothing to me. I can eat a 200 calorie salad or a 700 calorie salad. If I have room for a 400 calorie slice of pizza and I want it, I can have it. It's not even letting go. Just math.

pigbox

There's such a thing as eating one slice of pizza? I'll need to work on that Thanks for the support!

arditarose

pigbox wrote: »

There's such a thing as eating one slice of pizza? I'll need to work on that Thanks for the support!

bahaha. I know. Or two. Or one, with a salad

musicandarts

You could add you dinner pizza into the log in the morning, and then work out to get the calorie deficit. I also try to eat a low cal lunch on days I eat pizza.

kscarf1

It sounds like you're off to a great start! I started a 1300 calorie diet five weeks ago. The first few weeks it seemed like I was hungry all the time. It's gotten better, plus I've learned to eat smaller meals so I can have little healthy snacks (yogurt, Fiber One) between meals. For lunch today I had one (one!) slice of pizza. So anything is possible! Feel free to send me a friend request if you are looking for weight loss buddies. Take care!

Aemely

pigbox wrote: »

About 50 pounds to lose. I'm on a 1200 calorie a day/ exercise 5x a week plan. I'm finishing up my first week.

Are you logging and eating back most of your exercise calories?? Are you sure you really need to be at 1,200 calories a day? I would guess that's a bit low unless you are already pretty thin or very short. Let's just imagine you are 180 lbs. 5'7"... Scooby's calculator estimates that you should be around 1490 cals. (not including any exercise!) to lose about .7 lbs. a week. If you up the loss to 25%, which Scooby's will complain about, it still has you at 1400 cals. a day. Check it out! You may indeed be overdoing it. Slow and steady wins the race by being sustainable!!

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Also, from experience, be sure to eat good fats and protein regularly to keep from getting hangry! Eating breakfast every morning and eating protein at lunch has been a key to my success thus far!

pigbox

I am logging and eating some of but not all of my exercise calories. I'll think more about that next week. Thank you!