Harder than I thought... is this normal?

trswallow

You should use the first weeks/month as a time to learn and gain some experience without holding it against yourself. I think most people new to calorie counting would be better off if they just logged what they eat for the first week without a calorie goal. This would allow people to understand how many calories they are used to eating and set a more realistic initial calorie goal.

If you are used to eating 3000+ calories and then cut your intake to 1200, so you can lose 2 lbs a week, you are going to feel like crap and want to quit. It might be better to eat at maintenance for a while before going to weight loss levels.

I don't deny myself anything, but I have cut somethings mostly out of my diet so that I can use the calories elsewhere. For example I rarely eat pasta, rice, or bread for supper. This allows me to have fried onions, cheese, and occasionally a high calorie dressing on my salad. I have dessert almost every night by watching calories earlier in the day or by doing cardio.

It's about figuring out the system and working it. If you want cake then have cake, but first look up the calories and figure out what size serving can you afford. Maybe have a 1/2 or 1/4 size piece instead of a full piece.

HannaSusi

Sweetie_1103 wrote: »

Thanks everone... I know all this of course.. and I realize I might have overreacted... it's just that weight has always been a sore subject for me...

This is one of the reasons why I think MFP is so amazing. It has de-sensitized me to speaking about my weight. I used to HATE even thinking about the number on the scale, I wouldn't have even dreamed about telling someone else about it. I avoided weighing myself. Sounds like denial? Oh it was.

We are all in the same boat here. Some further along the way, some just starting this journey. Here you can talk about food, feelings, weight, progress and setbacks to your hearts desire, and nobody is going to judge you! You can do this.

tomnev1

Sweetie_1103 wrote: »

I'm new to fitness pal. I'm just a week into it. and I've been really motivated. Counting calories hasn't really been a thing for me but with this program it seemed that I was finally doing something right this week and was looking forward to keeping it up. It was actually fun.

This morning, I allowed myself to eat a slice of cake and when I saw how many calories it ate up and what I was going to have to give up because of that piece of cake, it's like everything that had motivated me this week became everything that got me to feel so depressed and down on myself. I can't seem to stop the tears from falling and I'm wondering if I should just give up and go back to the way it was... but then I think of how much I hate my body right now and that I shoudn't give up. Is it normal that this feels so intense? Hopefully I won't have many days like today... I'm emotionally drained.

Looking forward to hearing from others about this.

Don't beat yourself up over one piece of cake. Start again.

Getting fit and healthy is hard.
Being overweight and unhealthy is hard.


Choose your hard!

kraymike

It is hard at times. Please stick to it it will be worth it. I definitely have had times like this. Just last week I went out for a meal for Father's Day. When I got home I went onto the restraunts website to find what I had just consumed was 2,500 calories! In just one sitting. I was shocked but the very next day I started again calorie counting and I've lost 2.5 lbs since. One piece of cake, one bad meal or one bad day will not ruin things. Just start again tomorrow. It gets easier and becomes the norm.

kraymike

HannaSusi wrote: »

Sweetie_1103 wrote: »

Thanks everone... I know all this of course.. and I realize I might have overreacted... it's just that weight has always been a sore subject for me...

This is one of the reasons why I think MFP is so amazing. It has de-sensitized me to speaking about my weight. I used to HATE even thinking about the number on the scale, I wouldn't have even dreamed about telling someone else about it. I avoided weighing myself. Sounds like denial? Oh it was.

We are all in the same boat here. Some further along the way, some just starting this journey. Here you can talk about food, feelings, weight, progress and setbacks to your hearts desire, and nobody is going to judge you! You can do this.

Yeah for ages I was in denial and wouldn't get on the scales. One day I did and I was utterly shocked. 5 weeks later and I've lost 14lbs and I've still had the odd really bad meal and went on holiday and ate like a pig but soon as I got back I said right that's it, no more eating like that.

jennifer_417

The thing about weight loss that almost no one wants to admit is that...it's hard. You're just starting, so you have a learning curve ahead of you. You'll have to make changes that will become second nature...eventually. You'll figure out how and when you can have cake, or other things you enjoy, but it'll take time.
Hang in there, sometimes it's just hard.

reeves45

cwolfman13 wrote: »

You're ready to give up after a week and one piece of cake? Really? Get a grip...if you think you're going to be 100% perfect all of the time for the rest of your life and if you can't be, you're just going to throw in the towel, you're never going to accomplish a damned thing. Let go of the all or nothing mentality, it will fecking destroy you.

I'm 3 years into this madness...guess how many pieces of cake I've had along the way....hint...lots of cake. You need to wrap your head around the FACT that this is a long and slow slug fest...your health, nutrition, fitness, etc is not just for this week or next week...these things are life long endeavors...you will never be 100% perfect...you just strive to be the best you can be today and to do a bit better tomorrow...that's all you can do.

There will always be holidays and birthdays and parties and BBQs and random nights out getting sloshed and *kitten* is going to happen and you're going to miss workouts, etc...but guess what? In the grand scheme of things, if you're doing things "right" most of the time, these other things become pretty much irrelevant...maybe look at the bigger picture of things.

Bingo!!