Been on this site for year. Frustrated.

999tigger

Am sure theres loads of good advice above. On reading your post then if you have veen on MFP for 2 years then did you not pick up some of the common sense advice floating around? Theres tons of misconceptions in your post about weight loss and im not sure you are helping yourself in either your understanding or your approach. What stands out is you need a balance and methodical approach that can deal with the mistakes you have made in the past and ensure you dont stall. A good read of the sexy pant threads will show you how weight loss works and it then becomes up to you how quick or slowly you wish to lose.

If you are getting ravenous that just sounds your diet or your deficit need readjusting. You cna just as easily lower your deficit.
If you stop logging then thats just you not following the basics properly, its entirely your choice.

before starting imo you should be considering the whol journey and that means getting to target.

maillemaker

I This is because after about 3 months, I end up getting ravenous and eating everything in sight and I stop logging my calories. It's like my body is fighting back. I understand that losing weight too quickly can cause you to regain. The general advice is to lose weight slowly, if you want to keep it off. It's hard for me to lose weight slowly when I lose weight faster than I am supposed to based on myfitnesspal's estimated calories. I know that the common sense thing to do would be to raise my calories, but I guess I am afraid I will raise it too much and not lose any weight or lose weight TOO slowly. ANYWAY, I want to do this RIGHT this time!!! I am also thinking about using set point theory, which is the theory that our bodies have a set weight that it likes to be at, and when you lose more than 10% of your body weight, your body increases your appetite so you will regain the weight you lost and get back to your point. Anyway, I would like to lower my set point, by losing 10% at a time, and then going on maintenance for awhile, and then losing another 10% and so on... The problem is that the literature on set point says it takes about 6 months of maintenance to reset your set point. Ouch! That would take forever... I'm wondering if 2-3 months on maintenance would do the trick? Has anyone else had these problems? Anyone else tried the set point method or switched between weight loss/maintenance to increase their success?

You are correct! Your body is fighting back! It's called "Adaptive Thermogenesis".

Our bodies monitor Leptin levels. Leptin is made by your body fat. As body fat declines, so do Leptin levels. This triggers a response in our bodies to try and preserve the falling fat stores. It does this by increasing hunger feelings, and by increasing skeletal muscle efficiency about 20% which results in an overall metabolic reduction of about 10%-15%.

Unfortunately, the effect is long-term. It's been extrapolated out for years. The only thing that has been shown to reset these hormonal-neural responsivities is surgery.

This is why most people, like yourself, fail at dieting long-term. They just can't tolerate the body's defense mechanisms and eventually give in.

There is evidence to suggest that exercise, particularly vigorous resistance training, might counter the metabolic reduction. But I think the hunger is always going to be there. You body wants those Leptin levels to go back to where they were.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673773/

tomatoey

kpkitten wrote: »

I'd suggest setting MFP up for a slow loss - 0.5-1lb per week - and monitoring that for a month to see if you lose at an OK rate. If you're losing too quickly, up your calories and remember that you have to up them quite a lot to suddenly put weight on or stop losing. Having a smaller deficit will make it easier to stay on track as well, because you can fit more things into your diet and are less likely to end up depriving yourself of anything.

Every 6-8 weeks, eat at maintenance for 1-2 weeks. Give yourself a diet break. You could do it to coincide with a holiday, or a week where everyone has a birthday! You should combat the increase in appetite or the "I want to eat forbidden foods" urges that come from eating at a big deficit for a long time. Just remember not to let maintenance drag out for longer, and not to treat it like an excuse to eat anything going!

this

maillemaker

I This is because after about 3 months, I end up getting ravenous and eating everything in sight and I stop logging my calories.

Oh, I meant to address this. This has been my downfall in the past, too. It is very easy to fall off the horse and then adopt a mindset of "Oh well, I blew it, so there is no point in going on." Or, "I blew it today, so I'll just blow off the rest of the week and start again next week."

You have to avoid this at all costs. When you are dieting, you have a built-in calorie deficit every day. For myself, I am targetting a 1000 calorie per day deficit. So even if I go over my daily allotment of calories by 500 calories (big bowl of icecream, say), I still hit a deficit for the day!. Even if you blow it by 1000 calories, you just hit maintenance!. The trick is to just start over tomorrow, and keep logging to stay honest and focused.

I find that once I stop logging I have thrown in the towel and buried my head in the sand. DON'T DO THAT!

It's OK to fail. What you have to do is start over every day. It's going to take years of hitting a calorie deficit more days than you don't to lose the weight.

auddii

maillemaker wrote: »

I This is because after about 3 months, I end up getting ravenous and eating everything in sight and I stop logging my calories.

Oh, I meant to address this. This has been my downfall in the past, too. It is very easy to fall off the horse and then adopt a mindset of "Oh well, I blew it, so there is no point in going on." Or, "I blew it today, so I'll just blow off the rest of the week and start again next week."

You have to avoid this at all costs. When you are dieting, you have a built-in calorie deficit every day. For myself, I am targetting a 1000 calorie per day deficit. So even if I go over my daily allotment of calories by 500 calories (big bowl of icecream, say), I still hit a deficit for the day!. Even if you blow it by 1000 calories, you just hit maintenance!. The trick is to just start over tomorrow, and keep logging to stay honest and focused.

I find that once I stop logging I have thrown in the towel and buried my head in the sand. DON'T DO THAT!

It's OK to fail. What you have to do is start over every day. It's going to take years of hitting a calorie deficit more days than you don't to lose the weight.

A really good mental cue is to compare eating too much to forgetting to brush your teeth. If you forget one day, do you stop brushing for the next six weeks because it's a lost cause. Man, I sure hope not...

jhard728

soapsandropes wrote: »

Losing weight quickly won't cause you to regain weight. Not establishing good and sustainable habits are the cause of you gaining weight (see you getting ravenous and not logging calories). Changing your habits takes time. If you don't make long term changes in your behavior you are always going to wind up back where you started.

This is exactly what I was thinking, almost word for word. I have been at it for 16 weeks and have lost right around 15 lbs. in the past, if in that time frame I hadn't lost 30 - 40 pounds I would have given up and stopped at the first heart attack shack and crushed 3 double burgers and a small fry. This time around though I am focusing on healthy and sustainable lifestyle changes that will allow me to lose weight but also maintain that once I get to my goal weight.

I had a few beers this weekend after our soccer games in a tournament we played and I haven't cut out any foods completely other that really trying to eliminate deep fried foods from my diet. I believe that by not calling anything off limits I am able to still enjoy the things I love to eat and I don't have to go a train wreck binge session once I finally get my hands on that (insert trigger food here).

My point is that you can do it and be successful but you have to focus on long term instead of quick results.

Best of luck to you!

melaniefave41

Your body will signal hunger no matter how many calories are ingested if you are deficient in nutrients. If you are seriously struggling, I would highly recommend that you seek the advice of a registered dietitian as opposed to sorting through all of the opinions on here.

Bshmerlie

Just eat at the maintenance level of your goal weight. If you are finding that hard to do than readjust your idea of your what your goal weight should be. Beacause there is no point in losing the weight if you can't eat at the maintanence level to stay at that weight.

beatua1

I struggled with the something similar to what you are mentioning. I wanted to lose weight fast so I could get back to eating how I wanted to eat (which was well above maintenance calories). So I had this consistent pattern of losing weight, getting to some goal weight I had set, and then gaining it all back within a few months or years. Another important note is that likely a far too large percentage of what I was losing was muscle because I was restricting too many calories and not getting enough protein.

I have started over recently (since I got my fitbit), and I am now trying to very closely monitor my calories in versus calories out. I am also closely monitoring my macros to be sure I am getting enough protein especially.

The other thing I am doing is have some food I like, which may not be the most healthy (i.e. not very nutrient dense), regularly but in very moderated portions so that I can still hit my macro goals. This means I will have 30 grams of potato chips or 40 grams of candy on many days (almost every day in fact).

What I have seen is I don't have a constant crave for more food, nor for the foods I like, and I am still losing weight consistently. I think (it is still early of course) I have made a positive lifestyle change that will be sustainable for me because I am eating a reasonable amount of food, I am not always hungry and I allow myself to eat very modest portions of the kinds of food I really like along with a lot of other food that is nutrient dense.

I offer this to you as an example of what one other person has done that has worked well for them, and that I think will be sustainable for my life. I hope you may be able to take parts along with a lot of the other good advice you have received to put something together that will work well for you.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I will admit I am no expert on the subject, but I am happy to provide my perspectives.

ninerbuff

Honestly, all you have to do is change the way you habitually eat. Extreme doesn't usually last which is why weight regain is inevitable for the majority who attempt it. Also COMMITMENT makes the difference. Most just desire to lose and don't really commit to the process and lifestyle.
As for set point, I've not found any scientific evidence to truly support the theory.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

maillemaker

As for set point, I've not found any scientific evidence to truly support the theory.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673773/

brianpperkins

maillemaker wrote: »

As for set point, I've not found any scientific evidence to truly support the theory.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673773/

Not quite ... nice try though.

PAV8888

maillemaker wrote: »

I This is because after about 3 months, I end up getting ravenous and eating everything in sight and I stop logging my calories. It's like my body is fighting back. I understand that losing weight too quickly can cause you to regain. The general advice is to lose weight slowly, if you want to keep it off. It's hard for me to lose weight slowly when I lose weight faster than I am supposed to based on myfitnesspal's estimated calories. I know that the common sense thing to do would be to raise my calories, but I guess I am afraid I will raise it too much and not lose any weight or lose weight TOO slowly. ANYWAY, I want to do this RIGHT this time!!! I am also thinking about using set point theory, which is the theory that our bodies have a set weight that it likes to be at, and when you lose more than 10% of your body weight, your body increases your appetite so you will regain the weight you lost and get back to your point. Anyway, I would like to lower my set point, by losing 10% at a time, and then going on maintenance for awhile, and then losing another 10% and so on... The problem is that the literature on set point says it takes about 6 months of maintenance to reset your set point. Ouch! That would take forever... I'm wondering if 2-3 months on maintenance would do the trick? Has anyone else had these problems? Anyone else tried the set point method or switched between weight loss/maintenance to increase their success?

You are correct! Your body is fighting back! It's called "Adaptive Thermogenesis".

Our bodies monitor Leptin levels. Leptin is made by your body fat. As body fat declines, so do Leptin levels. This triggers a response in our bodies to try and preserve the falling fat stores. It does this by increasing hunger feelings, and by increasing skeletal muscle efficiency about 20% which results in an overall metabolic reduction of about 10%-15%.

Unfortunately, the effect is long-term. It's been extrapolated out for years. The only thing that has been shown to reset these hormonal-neural responsivities is surgery.

This is why most people, like yourself, fail at dieting long-term. They just can't tolerate the body's defense mechanisms and eventually give in.

There is evidence to suggest that exercise, particularly vigorous resistance training, might counter the metabolic reduction. But I think the hunger is always going to be there. You body wants those Leptin levels to go back to where they were.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673773/

Muscle efficiency gains are because of extensive exercise not because of leptin levels.

There is other research that points to the effects being smaller, shorter lived, and longer lived.

Full consensus there is not.

However, there is a good enough indication of the possible existence of these effects that reverse dieting at the end of a long period of caloric restriction is probably a good idea, and the existence of adaptive thermogenesis would be one of the arguments against larger deficits and faster weight loss.

There is also enough of an indication to (in my mind) make it a bad idea for people with a normal fat %s to restrict calories for no good reason, especially if they could achieve their goals through increased exercise instead.

Then again adaptive thermogenesis seems to be a controversial enough topic where consensus seems to be hard to reach.

In my mind, a 15% penalty while substantial, is a no brainer for someone approaching Obese 3 levels!

The possibility of a 15% reduction to your base metabolism to go from a bmi of 20 to a bmi of 18.5.... not so much of a no-brainer.

maillemaker

Not quite ... nice try though.

Perhaps you could elaborate on which part you disagree with?

Muscle efficiency gains are because of extensive exercise not because of leptin levels.

That's not what the study says. Muscle efficiency gains are because of reduced Leptin levels (probably among other things) that are a result of reduced body fat levels. The body tries to conserve body fat stores and one way it does this is by increasing skeletal muscle efficiency by roughly 20%, which results in an overall metabolic reduction of 10%-15%.