HELP! I am totally new and totally clueless!

PamWOhio

Hi Everyone. I am new to MFP, Dieting and have been completely sedentary for the past 6 years. I got a Garmin Vivofit 2 and firs day only managed 1/2 a mile at a brisk pace and then next 2 days I did 2 miles at a very brisk pace. Logging all my food is teaching me a lot but yesterday and today my shins are KILLING me. Please tell me that will get better but I am going to be useless getting my steps in today. I do have a question. MFP tells me different calories I should be taking in depending on how much I walk but I need to know if it is ok if I take in less. I have only been doing this for 4 days and haven't even reached 1200 calories...let alone the 1400-1700 they tell me to take in depending on my activity for that day. I do not like many veggies or fruits and am eating eggs with a piece of cheese, a piece of toast with no fat butter spray and even 1 piece of bacon and I get so satisfied, I am usually not hungry by the next time I am supposed to eat. Yesterday was the worst...I only took in 700 calories. I could really use some friends and some advice. I lost 5lbs in 4 days which is great but I also know day to day that number can go up or down so shouldn't even be weighing in as often as I do. The excitement is too tempting though. Anyway, nice to meet you all.

kgirlhart

I weigh daily and log it on Libra which is a trending app. If you have an iPhone you can use Happy Scale. There is nothing wrong with weighing daily. I find it helpful because it helps me to not worry over the daily fluctuations. Women especially have lots of water weight fluctuations due to their menstrual cycle, exercise and high sodium meals can also cause water retention. As long as the graph shows me that my weight is trending down then I know I'm on track. (Actually I just switched to maintenance 2 weeks ago, so now I'm trying to get my graph to straighten out lol). The shin splints will get better. Make sure you are wearing good shoes and just keep on walking. Mfp is designed so that you will have a built in deficit so if you do not do any exercise then you will still lose weight. Then when you do exercise you earn back calories so that you stay at the deficit that you chose. Exercise calories can be over stated so a good rule of thumb is to start by eating back half of the exercise calories and then after about 4 weeks if you are losing at a faster rate than expected you know you need to eat back more and if you aren't losing as fast as expected then eat back less. Unless you have a medical reason to cut back on carbs, sugar or gluten etc, then you can continue to eat the things you always ate. You just need to limit your portions and make sure that you aren't eating more calories than you want. You will kind of naturally limit the foods that are high in calories and don't fill you up and keep you satisfied. You do need to try to reach your calorie limit as often as possible. Going under too many times isn't good because you may not be getting all the nutrients you need if you do so, especially if you are set to 1200 calories. And if you do not already have a food scale then you should really invest in one (you can get one at Walmart, or just about anywhere for $10-$15.) Good luck!

PaytraB

Are you weighing your food? You should be eating more for nutritional purposes.
How many eggs? How large a piece of cheese? How thick the slice of toast? These items alone could add up to 700 or close to it. You won't know if it's not weighed. You may be eating more than you think you are.
What is your weight loss goal/week? How much do you have to lose in total? 1200 calories is pretty low; you may have an aggressive goal.
Ease into exercise. Going from sedentary to 2 miles of brisk walking is a leap. Start slow to give your ligaments, tendons and muscles a chance to sync up together. The shin splints will go away but you may not get them at all if you take things slow.

PamWOhio

Thank you so much, ladies. Ok, for all the questions. Yes, I will get a food scale. I was just measuring so I could at least be close to what MFP says for the nutritional info. Standard thickness wheat or white bread, standard thickness deli american cheese, 2 large eggs and even a piece of thick cut bacon in there. If I only do a half mile of walking like I did yesterday, MFP is telling me I should go 1420 calories...I usually have several hundred left at the end of the day. So FAR, I haven't gone over on anything like carbs, fat sugar, etc. I totally changed everything. I was a bad fast food and convenience food eater before and would snack on sweets like cookies. I haven't had any of that. the only sweets I have had in the past 4 days is a snack cup of sugar free pudding. I LOVE chicken breast so made several lbs of it in the crockpot and it is in a tupperware in my fridge. I boiled chunks of potatos in chick broth too and I love it. I did put a tablespoon of sour cream with chives on the potatoes and a piece of havarti cheese on the chicken which after boiling in the crockpot are small pieces....4 oz approx. I am a cheese lover and I do enjoy meat. Can I still continue to incorporate these things safely? I know the chicken is good but my husband bought a pair of new york strips and I would LOVE to have one on my birthday this Saturday. For a few years now I was also drinking about 9 bottles of beer a week. I haven't had any for almost 2 weeks. I was also drinking soda stream cola at the rate of 2 liters a day which is 35 calories for 8 oz. I still allow myself about 16 oz a day because I am having a hard time sticking with only water. I have always disliked plain water but am getting used to it. I was surprised to see that a large part of my carbs a day are coming from that cola. I know I am all over the map talking here but I am so new to all of this and I never paid attention to what I should or shouldn't eat so I am learning so much in such a short time. Right now I am coming in low on everything...I usually have a lot of carbs and fat left at the end of the day so I am hoping the 1-2 pieces of cheese I am eating a day is ok. I think I am also going to go to a tsp of margarine on my toast instead of a bunch of pumps of fat free spray...it might be fat free but the sodium in it is horrible compared to the actual margarine. I will definitely invest in a food scale so I can be even more accurate but they usually have exactly what I am having in the database. My husband made grilled ham and swiss sandwiches the other day and I had 1 for dinner and I input all the components in separately to get more accurate nutritional info. I won't be doing that again though. Although the calories in the ham wasn't bad the salt there was HORRIBLE too but I am drinking as much water as I can so don't know if I need to worry about the salt as much as the fat and the carbs. Feel free to scold me for anything here I am doing wrong because I need to learn and your help is very much appreciated. I am only 5'3" tall and was up to 204 lbs. I was very happy with myself at 150 but it has been many years since I was there. Ideally 130 would be great but 150 is my goal.

kgirlhart

I am one who believes that you can eat anything in moderation as long as it fits in your calorie goal. (Unless you have a medical reason to avoid something). I still eat out and have fast food and convenience foods regularly. I am more likely to snack on Greek yogurt than candy bars, although I like the Chobani flips which are yogurt with candy in them so they feel like candy to me. I still drink my coffee with real sugar and half and half. I will not compromise on that so I just work in 2 cups per day (which is 140 calories per day). If you really want the soda then it shouldn't be too hard to work in 70 calories per day for 16 oz of it. But as time goes on you may find that you don't want to "waste" calories on it. Either way is fine. I eat something sweet every day. But the amounts I eat of sweets is a lot smaller than it used to be. I treat the protien goal as a minimum and let the fats and carbs fall where they may. I don't track sugar at all. I also don't worry too much about sodium. I have never been one to add salt at the table and I don't add too much when cooking since my husband has high blood pressure and does need to watch his sodium. I do notice when I have a high sodium meal then I might retain a little water the next day, but it will even out and drinking lots of water is good. I don't worry about carbs. I still have beer, not every day although I could fit one in every day if I really wanted to. I have started drinking it a little more since I've moved to maintenance and get a few more calories now. I cannot imagine why you wouldn't eat the new york strip on any day, especially on a special occasion. My advise really is don't try to be too restrictive with what you eat. As long as it fits in your calories you can eat whatever you want. I think that you will find that if you spend all calories on sweets then you will be hungry so work in a few sweets and make sure you fill out most of your diet with good fats, protien and foods with lots of fiber. My starting stats were similar to yours. I was 195 and 5' 4.75". I just recently hit my goal and moved to maintenance. Mfp gave me a goal of 1200 but I changed it to 1300 and ate back most of my exercise calories. You can do this. It may take a little time, but you will definitely get there if you stick to it.

PamWOhio

Thank you so much. I have never been a huge sweet eater...just a little something every couple of days was enough so that wasn't an issue. Mine is with CHEESE. I love cheese and sour cream on my baked potatoes. I haven't had any in the few days I have been doing this but I will be making some mac and cheese here soon. That and mashed potatoes are my comfort foods. I don't know why but MFP has me at 1420 calories when I only do about 1200 steps but if I do 4200 steps, it raises my calories to over 1700. It doesn't matter because the most calories I have taken in the past 4 days is just over 1200 but was usually right around 1000-1100. I am not used to not being hungry all the time..just drinking more water seems to be helping a lot with being hungry. Where I am going to have problems is I used to have some sort of freezer meal at least once a day and although the calories might not be bad in them, I swear that an entire days worth of sodium is in a couple of them....lol. I like the Stouffers Baked Chicken because it is only 220 calories but it is loaded with salt like any other frozen or canned meal. When I do my walking, I do it very fast. Hubby measured and figured out my stride and speed and I do it at 4 mph until yesterday and today...with these shin splints and the horrible humidity outside, I am not moving as fast or as much. French fries are going to be another tough one. Oven ones suck and we averaged deep frying a batch once a week or so so I think I can still do that on occasion.

PamWOhio

kgirlhart, can I ask yoiu how long it took you to meet your goal?

kgirlhart

It took me about 10 months and my goal was 60 pounds so I averaged around 1.5 per week. I'm with you on the cheese. I did low fat many years ago and I was able to lose weight, but I was really sad because I missed cheese. I do pretty good sprinkling shredded cheese on my baked potatoes and not using too much. Mac and cheese is harder because I usually want more than I can fit in, but I just have it occasionally and it works out. I think 1420 calories sounds good. I found my walking calories to be pretty accurate, but if you want to just eat back about half to start with then that is a good idea. You should eat back some because mfp doesn't include the exercise in your goal. I know what you mean about the frozen foods. You do kind of have to watch it because they often have more sodium than you think. I have been using my crockpot and making skinless boneless chicken thighs. It is really just as convenient as the frozen foods and I have that a lot for lunch. My son has been home from college for the summer so I have been making french fries more frequently. I think as long as it isn't a daily thing then it all works out.

pinboman

PaytraB wrote: »

Are you weighing your food? You should be eating more for nutritional purposes.
How many eggs? How large a piece of cheese? How thick the slice of toast? These items alone could add up to 700 or close to it. You won't know if it's not weighed. You may be eating more than you think you are.
What is your weight loss goal/week? How much do you have to lose in total? 1200 calories is pretty low; you may have an aggressive goal.
Ease into exercise. Going from sedentary to 2 miles of brisk walking is a leap. Start slow to give your ligaments, tendons and muscles a chance to sync up together. The shin splints will go away but you may not get them at all if you take things slow.

I agree with the above start slow... it is not a diet it is a way of life.
I joined mfp because I was not eating enough.
Water water and more water lol.... try a drop of lemon juice with it or maybe a few frozen berries.
The salt is a killer, but not all fat is bad.
You can keep your low fat this and diet that.....
Good luck

PamWOhio

I cooked 2 3lb bags of tyson boneless skinless breasts in the crockpot the other day. I used to use italian dressing when I did that but I used chicken broth this time with some spices and then pulled the chicken out when it was done and put several cubed up potatoes in the broth and cooked those. I even put a tablespoon of sour cream with chives on 2/3 of a cup or so of potatoes when I have a piece of chicken and it is REALLY good. I even throw a piece of havarti cheese on my chicken since I have been doing well with the low fat. My first test will be to see if I can work in a good cheeseburger and still stay within calories for the rest of the day...HAHAHAHA

hypodonthaveme

I can not add anything new from what was already said. I will say, it IS Possible to lose weight. It does take some time to figure things out. In a couple of weeks you will be weighing your foods like a pro. You will find yourself stressing less. It is a personal journey. You will learn so much about how your body works for you, how foods and your body react, you will gain confidence and self esteem, you will become stronger physically and mentally. It's quite the journey. Never pass up a date night with the spouse. Just plan ahead and make sure the calories fit into your goals. Enjoy the journey.

Bad days will come and they will go. Just get up the next morning and put yesterday behind you. Every day is a new day. You can do this!

PaytraB

PamAngyalWilliams wrote: »

my husband bought a pair of new york strips and I would LOVE to have one on my birthday this Saturday.

As long as you are weighing and logging everything you eat & drink and it fits into your calorie allowance, you can have anything you like. Have that steak and enjoy every bite.

SueInAz

Have you tried plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream? I absolutely love it and eat it on baked potatoes and tacos and anything else I might use sour cream for. It has a lot of protein, too, and I'm always looking for ways to up my protein intake and this is an easy one! I added an artichoke dip mix to some this weekend and I've been using it to dip the baby carrots I often have with my lunch. Yummy!

If you're having trouble meeting your calorie goals avoid the "light" and "skinny" foods. Ditch the spray butter and use real butter. Use creamy salad dressings, etc. It's an easy way to get more calories without actually needing to eat more.

PamWOhio

Don't need salad dressings..I can't put anything leafy or stalky in my mouth or I gag....lol. I think it was from Mom forcing us to eat salad when we were little or something but even if a small piece of lettuce makes it in a taco, I FIND IT...lol. I heard a lot of people use the greek yogurt in place of sour cream. Does it taste really similar because I really like my sour cream.