Introduction & General Questions :)

rebeccachobat

Hi everyone! I have been on myfitnesspal for a while but I hardly ever post to the forums. I'll give you a little backstory, I am 23 years old and I work a sit down office job. Back in 2014 I went on a weight loss drug called Qsymia and with the help of that and eating relatively low carb I lost nearly 35 lbs (going from 213 to 180). Well I fell off the wagon when I went back to school and ever since starting this new job and having a relatively sedentary lifestyle I am very sad to say I am back up to 210 lbs. Gaining 30 lbs over the course of a year is devastating to me when I worked so hard to lose it.

My job has a personal trainer who comes by Monday through Thursday to have group fitness classes with us (I have started attending those more regularly lately) and he also does personalized meal plans based on BMR. Based on his recommendations, if I wanted to lose approximately 2 lbs per week I would need to eat about 1200 calories per day.

I am not objective to this, I am just looking to make it as easy as possible. I was thinking about replacing my breakfast and lunch during the week (or possibly the weekend as well) with convenience meals such as Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice and then having a more "hearty" dinner in the evenings. I was thinking by doing this I could keep my food intake to about 500-600 calories during the day and then eating the remaining calories at dinnertime when I cook a home cooked meal for my husband and I.

I wanted to get your thoughts on this matter, I know it's kind of extreme but to be honest I'm kind of desperate and I really need to learn portion control because obviously I didn't learn anything the first time.

I also know there's a diet out there called The Simple Diet, and I've considered following something close to that plan as well but with having a good dinner to keep myself satisfied and not feel like I'm eating processed food all day every day.

Let me know your thoughts and thank you in advance

janejellyroll

Why not choose a more reasonable goal (1 pound a week) and eat more? It sounds like you might be setting yourself up for failure with a goal that is too aggressive.

rebeccachobat

janejellyroll wrote: »

Why not choose a more reasonable goal (1 pound a week) and eat more? It sounds like you might be setting yourself up for failure with a goal that is too aggressive.

I've tried many different things in the past and honestly, I don't know what it is with my brain chemistry but the more extreme the diet is the easier it is for me to follow. I find that when I have more "leniency" then I tend to go overboard if that makes sense...

erinc5

I'm not gonna comment on your calorie goal. If you want to eat 1200 for a little while, then whatever.

But - on your meal timing - It is not extreme to save calories for dinner. I do this quite often. Many days I only have a few cups of coffee and some tomato soup with cheese (sometimes I also have a snack of almonds or something) while I'm at work and then I save the remaining calories for dinnertime. On weekends, sometimes I only eat a yogurt around 1 PM and then have all the rest of my calories for dinner (1,400 calorie wing and beer splurge!!!). Saving up calories and having big meals like that makes me feel like I'm cheating the system, but I'm staying under calorie goals, so it isn't cheating. I do work out and I eat around 1500-1600 per day, so if you plan it right, you can really splurge!

Meal timing doesn't really matter, however, if your goal is 1200, then do please eat the entire 1200, don't starve yourself all day and then say you're "too full" to finish dinner. Eat the 1200 calories. If you are uncombortable eating big meals, then you'll need to spread your calories out better.

ilex70

Bad news is you gained weight back. Good news is you can take it back off.

I've recently increased my calories, but I stuck around 1200 for a couple of months. I started at 211 Dec.7, last check I'm at 188.

I eat somewhat as you have described, less during morning and early day and more in the evening. And I used a lot of frozen dinners for awhile which I often supplemented with some extra frozen veg.

My diary is open if you want to peek. I would say most of the month of January should look a lot like what you are describing.

dubird

My advice? Don't look at this as a diet. You've done diets, and they didn't work. What you need to do is change your eating habits instead. This is a much slower process, but at the end, you'll have the tools and knowledge to KEEP the weight off. Diets tell you want to eat to lose weight but don't teach what you need to sustain the weight loss. Learning about calories and portion sizes will start you on the path to being able to adjust your eating yourself, which is what you need to keep the weight off.

This doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing deal, either. It's ok to start small and build. I wouldn't start with 2lbs a week, 1lb is probably more reasonable for you. It'll be easier to adjust to and you're less likely to have to deal with hunger.

Time of day you eat also has no bearing on weight loss. If you're someone that does better with several smaller meals, then do several smaller meals. If you want to stick to 2-3 meals and a snack, go that route. What you can do is break up your calories so there's a limit to each time you want to eat, then plan from there. That's pretty much what I do; I have a set calorie for breakfast (i eat the same breakfast most days because it's easy and portable), a set limit I don't go over for lunch, and the rest for the evenings. That usually leaves me about half my calories for dinner and snacking afterwards, which works for me. It's good to try things people have said, but no eating plan works for everyone. If you try something different, like a low carb diet, give it a couple weeks and then ask yourself "do i want eat like this the rest of my life?" If the answer is no, it's not for you, and that's ok. You need to find a system that works FOR YOU.

rebeccachobat

Thank you everyone! all of your responses have been very helpful, I really do appreciate it!