I have a question.

Mrsacosta190

I started my weight loss journey about 4 weeks ago, it's been rough and I haven't stuck to it like I should. I've lost 10lbs. I weight 230 now and I'd like to weigh 150-160, I was up to 246 a few months ago. I'm a nurse and always on the go, I go to the gym minimum 3x a week, the classes I attend burn 700-1000 calories. Anyways my question is, do you feel guilty when you eat? Like at all? I almost want to starve myself sort of I guess....my trainer said to consume 1200 calories and my doctor says 1500. I hardly ever get past 1000 honestly. I'm either hot or cold. There is no in between for me...I either eat everything or nothing at all. I'm so tired of being this big and I can't stand to look in the mirror. Help me.

arditarose

The best "diet" you can have is the one you can adhere to. You will not be able to survive on 1000, or even 1200-for very long. So if you can't stick to it, will your weight loss be successful?

Pick a calorie goal you can be consistent with. Eat food. Don't feel guilty. It is a beautiful thing and our bodies need it. You're in this for the long haul.

queenliz99

Eating is important. Eating the most and still losing is the winner.

Mrsacosta190

arditarose wrote: »

The best "diet" you can have is the one you can adhere to. You will not be able to survive on 1000, or even 1200-for very long. So if you can't stick to it, will your weight loss be successful?

Pick a calorie goal you can be consistent with. Eat food. Don't feel guilty. It is a beautiful thing and our bodies need it. You're in this for the long haul.

Do you eat strictly healthy stuff or whatever as long as it's below calories?

seska422

Mrsacosta190 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

The best "diet" you can have is the one you can adhere to. You will not be able to survive on 1000, or even 1200-for very long. So if you can't stick to it, will your weight loss be successful?

Pick a calorie goal you can be consistent with. Eat food. Don't feel guilty. It is a beautiful thing and our bodies need it. You're in this for the long haul.

Do you eat strictly healthy stuff or whatever as long as it's below calories?

There's a middle ground between those.

I eat what I like and I don't eat what I don't like. I try to meet my macros and get my vitamins and such. Within that, I eat whatever I want and stay at or slightly below my calorie goal.

I treat my calories like a budget and decide if eating something fits in with my goals and how many calories I have left or need to save for later.

arditarose

Mrsacosta190 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

The best "diet" you can have is the one you can adhere to. You will not be able to survive on 1000, or even 1200-for very long. So if you can't stick to it, will your weight loss be successful?

Pick a calorie goal you can be consistent with. Eat food. Don't feel guilty. It is a beautiful thing and our bodies need it. You're in this for the long haul.

Do you eat strictly healthy stuff or whatever as long as it's below calories?

What is "healthy"? A healthy diet consists generally of nutrient dense, whole foods. But 20% can be discretionary calories used however you want. I definitely lost weight eating ice cream and oreos.

Alatariel75

seska422 wrote: »

Mrsacosta190 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

The best "diet" you can have is the one you can adhere to. You will not be able to survive on 1000, or even 1200-for very long. So if you can't stick to it, will your weight loss be successful?

Pick a calorie goal you can be consistent with. Eat food. Don't feel guilty. It is a beautiful thing and our bodies need it. You're in this for the long haul.

Do you eat strictly healthy stuff or whatever as long as it's below calories?

There's a middle ground between those.

I eat what I like and I don't eat what I don't like. I try to meet my macros and get my vitamins and such. Within that, I eat whatever I want and stay at or slightly below my calorie goal.

I treat my calories like a budget and decide if eating something fits in with my goals and how many calories I have left or need to save for later.

That final sentence is exactly how I feel. Just like my household budget, once my adulting is done, I can splurge a little. Most of my calories are spent making sure I get my macros and nutrients (lean meats, whole grains, dairy, lots of vegetables etc), then I can 'spend' some calories on things like ice cream, which aren't nutritionally devoid by any stretch, but aren't generally consumed primarily with heath and nutrient goals in mind.

PaytraB

arditarose wrote: »

The best "diet" you can have is the one you can adhere to. You will not be able to survive on 1000, or even 1200-for very long. So if you can't stick to it, will your weight loss be successful?

Pick a calorie goal you can be consistent with. Eat food. Don't feel guilty. It is a beautiful thing and our bodies need it. You're in this for the long haul.

This.
Pick a sustainable goal (start with a 1lb/wk loss) and eat that many calories a day for a month or two. Be vigilant, weigh your food and stick to the calorie limit. It doesn't matter what you eat, as long as you eat the calories (more on this below). Weigh yourself every week and track your progress. In a couple of months, you'll see what your average weight loss/week is and can adjust from that if you want and/or are comfortable trying to lose more per week. First, just get used to logging, weighing and following a regime.
As for the question of what to eat: there are no "bad" foods. We all like a treat once in awhile. However, what we eat is important for our body's health. So try to aim for about 80% healthier foods and limit the processed type foods to 20% (or less). Don't fret it too much. We all eat snacks that aren't good for us; we just have to learn to eat these things in portions and limits.

VictoryGarden

I'm no expert, but what I've read from other MFP'ers is that the "starvation/binge" thing is common. Up your calories a bit to avoid the starvation thing, and that should help reduce the binge part.

But to your original question, yes, I have sometimes feel "guilty" when eating, but if I know I've made smart choices, that helps a lot. Eat to live, not live to eat!

sanfromny

First off..if you have a trainer then u have some pretty intense workouts. U need to eat. I guarantee u you're not eating enough. St my top weight I was 220lbs at 5'2. I'm now 160. Getting close to my goal and i take 1300-1400 cals a day. Slowly but healthily. 1000 cals is gonna do nothing but make you feel like crap. If you are a nurse you should know this is not healthy and you need to fuel your body. Life is not an episode of the biggest lose and you didn't put that weight on in a few weeks so you can't expect to take it off that quickly. Slow and steady....and eat. Relax

blueboxgeek

I'm a similar weight to you and am not working out as much as you and I am losing weight slowly a 1600 calories a day. As I lose weight I might need to drop that a little but I love food so am going to eat as much as I can while still losing weight, it's a win \ win situation then lol.

I eat chocolate most days, but I also eat other nutritionally dense foods and aim to hit around 100g of protein a day too. If you up your calories to where you can have nice food that you feel comfortably full with, and a treat here and there then you are much more likely to stick with it

jacklifts

alternate day fasting?

Sued0nim

Mrsacosta190 wrote: »

I started my weight loss journey about 4 weeks ago, it's been rough and I haven't stuck to it like I should. I've lost 10lbs. I weight 230 now and I'd like to weigh 150-160, I was up to 246 a few months ago. I'm a nurse and always on the go, I go to the gym minimum 3x a week, the classes I attend burn 700-1000 calories. Anyways my question is, do you feel guilty when you eat? Like at all? I almost want to starve myself sort of I guess....my trainer said to consume 1200 calories and my doctor says 1500. I hardly ever get past 1000 honestly. I'm either hot or cold. There is no in between for me...I either eat everything or nothing at all. I'm so tired of being this big and I can't stand to look in the mirror. Help me.

10lbs in 4 weeks is a very good loss so you are definitely doing something right ...keep going, it gets easier

Your classes will not be burning as much as you think they are - for that kind of burn you're looking at 90 - 120 minutes of intense cardio, just be careful if you're eating back exercise calories and only eat back half until you have 6- 8 weeks of data and then you can judge if you can eat more

No I never feel guilty when I eat - but I do feel like I have a learning curve
- why am I so hungry, how can I change what I've eaten to make sure I'm not as hungry? Can I afford to eat x within my calories, how can I save enough calories so I can go out with my friends at the weekend? I have 200 calories should I have a snickers ice cream or do I want something more substantial like egg on toast. You know the important questions.

Do not starve yourself you will crash and burn

1200 is too little for anyone - if you were following MFP you'd probably get that allowance but then you eat back exercise calories (see 50% comment before)

1500 could also work - I lost most of my weight eating 1500-1800 calories

You've got this. Stop being so hard on yourself. This is a lifestyle change you need to make it work for your life

amusedmonkey

I do understand this all or nothing mentality, but ask yourself, will it work for you in the long run? Instead of seeing yourself as this fat person in the mirror, imagine yourself at your goal weight trying not to regain. How would you eat? Think of weight loss as training wheels for maintenance. If you have any undesirable diet quirks or obstacles it's the perfect time to work on them or learn to work around them. You don't really want all of your hard work to go waste just because you opted for a quick route that does not teach you how to eat for the rest of your life, do you?

Scamd83

the classes I attend burn 700-1000 calories.

How do you know this? Is that what they've told you you are burning? For sake of comparison, a professional/soccer player can burn about 1000 calories over 90 minutes of play.

ilex70

The best calorie goal is the one you can stick too.

At your current weight you can drop 2 pounds a week safely (no more than 1% of body weight).

So 1200 is the floor, per your doctor 1500 is the ceiling. You might plug your info into MFP and see what number it spits out.

If your workouts are really hard then eating more those days is reasonable. You could do 1200 rest days/1500 work out days.

Or just grab a number in the middle that satisfies you...1300-1400.

Not quitting is the key.

Do try to avoid thinking of food as "bad". I get that it is tough to do.

The thing is that I expect at some point you will want to find "normal" for you. The more normal you can be during your weight loss the better.

What is normal going to look like? Do you plan to continue strenuous workouts from here on out? To eat only "healthy" food every day for the rest of your life? Are those things realistic?

So if normal means a favorite regular treat, maybe chocolate, then better to figure out how to fit that in now. If normal is a weekend night out with friends, start thinking about how to make that work.

My normal is coffee with oh-so-evil coffee creamer. I know it isn't healthy at all.

Decided I wasn't going to quit it and I haven't.

Down 26 pounds as of this morning.