What I wish I knew when I was just starting out

allunits

All of you amazing life-changers who have succeeded in amazing ways, what do you wish you knew sooner/when you were just starting out? Might be a nice way to share with those looking for inspiration and a helpful nudge this New Year.

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt

CICO. This would have saved me two ish years of sheer frustration!

kgb6days

How much better I feel eating healthy and being more active

yesimpson

How to ignore bad advice from others when what I am doing is healthy and is working for me.

zoeysasha37

These are the myths I wish I would've ignored-

Carbs are bad they make people gain fat - myth( some people with medical conditions may need to worry about carbs ) but carbs do not cause people to gain or prevent them from losing.

You must eat only 1200 to lose- myth
( I suffered for a while be cause I believed I had to starve to lose ,its not true . again, if someone was very old and very short then maybe they would have to eat 1200 but I'm neither )

Its all about the scale - myth.
I've saw people at 110 lbs look terrible, loose hanging skin and flab ! And I've saw people at 180lbs with abs ! So its not all about just seeing a loss on the scale. Those people that are only concerned with seeing a fast loss, may be in for a rude awakening once they hit goal weight. Incorporate a strength training program early and slow and steady weight loss !

So save yourselves the grief and don't believe the myths. For weight loss, cico ! Don't fear carbs. There's some evangelists on here that will claim keto and low carb cures every ailment and caused them to lose tons of weight. Don't be fooled by these derpers , they are as crazy as they sound !

zoeysasha37

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt wrote: »

CICO. This would have saved me two ish years of sheer frustration!

Love !

20months

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt wrote: »

CICO. This would have saved me two ish years of sheer frustration!

THIS!! Only instead of 2 years, make it 20+!

godlikepoetyes

Just be kind to yourself. No matter what, do not punish yourself or "whip yourself into shape!" Just be kind and keep listening to yourself. You know will figure out what works for you.

empressanaleah

godlikepoetyes wrote: »

Just be kind to yourself. No matter what, do not punish yourself or "whip yourself into shape!" Just be kind and keep listening to yourself. You know will figure out what works for you.

Love this. Thank You!

Dolcedia

Great advice!

allunits

Great advice. But what is CICO?

danielleeu

allunits wrote: »

Great advice. But what is CICO?

If I'm not mistaken, CICO is Calories In/Calories Out.

Healthy_4_Life2

danielleeu wrote: »

allunits wrote: »

Great advice. But what is CICO?

If I'm not mistaken, CICO is Calories In/Calories Out.

Yep!! That's what it stands for..... And.....so true!!

fractalsonfire

That its not actually that bad to diet. I thought i'd be suffering but i can still enjoy most of the things i usually eat. Just gotta cut out the snacking and bad drinks.

Lacey0903

Don't eat back your exercise calories (most days)
Weight loss is not linear.
Water weight is a pain in the *kitten*.

mummyzena

That there is more than one way to achieve your goals and as long as you are still heading in the same direction it doesn't matter how you change the way you eat to fit your life at that time.
Also fitness goals give you more satisfaction than a number on the scale.

vixtris

It all comes down to the basic math of calories in and calories out. Burn more calories than you take in, and how many more you burn will determine your rate of loss. Accuracy matters. Don't half a s s this *kitten*. Don't listen to what others say about 'counting calories is unhealthy.' Counting your calories accurately by weighing with a food scale, and using a heart rate monitor to give you a more accurate calorie burn during your cardio workouts will give you the best results.

PrincessLaiba

i wish that i would have known to take it one step at a time and to not listen to what people say and that you dont have to leave everything that you want and the most important thing portion control its a game changer

arditarose

I keep trying to think of something but I can't. I had fun learning everything along the way.

MrsMizart

Just keep at it - a blip is nothing more than that, a blip. It's not a derailment so keep at it :-)

yrieves

Love your body while working toward the body you want! Take it one day at a time or else it can be overwhelming and easy to get off track. Know that you can do it by yourself and don't listen to bad advice! You know your body listen to it and do what works for you!

allunits

These are all wonderful. Thanks for clarifying CICO!

getitamb

Take care of yourself. And do what works for you. As long as it's safe.

Runagain_4

I'm a little more than halfway to my goal weight now. When I was a third of the way to my goal I wrote the post in the link below, which is what continues to work for me. Best of luck with your goals in 2016!

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10280116/trust-in-the-process-the-results-will-follow

Peter_Brady

Don't obsess about the scale and incorporate strength training from Day 1

AnnPT77

Carefully weighing and logging food (1) is not obsessive, (2) takes negligible time once you learn the tips & tricks and make it part of your routine, and (3) provides very, very useful information.

agzram

Runagain_4 wrote: »

I'm a little more than halfway to my goal weight now. When I was a third of the way to my goal I wrote the post in the link below, which is what continues to work for me. Best of luck with your goals in 2016!

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10280116/trust-in-the-process-the-results-will-follow

Wow! Great post and great tips!!

AdrianChr92

Squats and oats

MerinneW

I guess I always knew, but I wish I had actually taken it in - this is for life. You will never eat 'normally' (or what was 'normal' to your overweight self) again - or if you do, well guess what, you'll soon be overweight again! Weight loss is like a card palace - takes a fraction of the time it took to build to knock it down again. So frankly, if you don't think you can live like this (whatever your programme is) long-term without being miserable, either find another path, or get used to being big and learn to love yourself that way.

I just killed off about two years' worth of denial in two months of eating pretty much whatever I wanted - all the compliments I received on my weight loss went to my head, I stopped weighing myself, stopped monitoring my intake and abiding by the rules of my chosen programme, had an indulgent Christmas period and bingo - I'm back practically where I was when I started. Time to start rolling that rock back up the hill again...

So don't 'diet'. Change your lifestyle. For good. Yo-yo effect is a b***h.

By the way, from personal experience, low carb diet is actually very effective for weight loss, simply because it is so much harder to eat the same amount of calories from protein-rich foods as you can from carbs. The difficulty is keeping it up for life, especially if like me you love bread and pasta. Low carb and CICO are not actually antithetical, and people who promote low carb diets are not necessarily barking. It's about what works for you. Something else I wish I'd known before I started is that while MFP is a really useful aid to changing how you live and eat, especially the motivational success stories, there are a lot of people on here who are certain that they have found The One True Way and are more than happy to slag off anyone who disagrees/has a different way (see posts above). Ignore the negativity, explore the options with an open mind, and if you find one that makes you happier and healthier, then go with it.

vrojapu

I wish I had known...

That small changes are better than big ones because they are easier to incorporate into life and last longer
That habits, and not willpower, are the key
That protein is so helpful
That writing down what I'm thankful for (even unrelated things) goes hand-in-hand with increased exercise time That varying my routine as often as I can for as many things as I can keeps me on track
That losing weight is a very happy journey, not a hungry, anxious (insert negative emotion of choice here) one

And most of all, that MFP is my BFF...

Triplestep

"Diet" is not a dirty word. Someday this will be second nature ... just "the way that I eat." That's already started to happen. But at the start, there's really no difference between making small changes to your eating habits and what we used to call "going on a diet". It's OK that it doesn't feel like a "lifestyle change" from day one. If healthy habits came naturally to you, you would not be overweight. If it helps you to feel like its a "diet" to get started, then go ahead. Don't let anyone edit or censor you - just know that you'll never go back to the way you used to eat. I'm guessing that's OK or you would not be here!