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jboatright
Posts: 5 Member
I have been above 200 lbs for about 4 years now. I have recently started getting SERIOUS about losing weight. In the past 2.5 months I have lost about 13 lbs (which is pretty good), but no matter what I seem to do I can't seem to drop below that 13 lbs mark. I've changed my diet within the last 2 weeks to a more whole foods plant based diet and still haven't seen much change in my weight.
I decided to make this post to see if anyone has any advice on how to successfully lose weight when you are over 200 lbs.
I decided to make this post to see if anyone has any advice on how to successfully lose weight when you are over 200 lbs.
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Replies
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its not what you eat, but how much. Learn to weigh everything on a digital food scale. cups for liquids.
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What you eat is a lot less important than how much you are eating. Calories in vs. calories out for weight loss.
What is the calorie goal that MFP is giving you? Are you hitting close to that goal every day? Do you have "cheat" meals or days? Are you exercising and adding that into MFP? Are you eating those calories?
How are you validating your calorie entries? Do you use a food scale all of the time, measuring cups (less accurate) or eyeballing your portions (really inaccurate)? How are you validating your exercise calories?0 -
What you eat is a lot less important than how much you are eating. Calories in vs. calories out for weight loss.
What is the calorie goal that MFP is giving you? Are you hitting close to that goal every day? Do you have "cheat" meals or days? Are you exercising and adding that into MFP? Are you eating those calories?
How are you validating your calorie entries? Do you use a food scale all of the time, measuring cups (less accurate) or eyeballing your portions (really inaccurate)? How are you validating your exercise calories?
Im gonna try to answer all the questions.
It gave me about 1350 (don't remember the exact number cause I changed it) I went in and changed it to about 1250. I usually hit that every day. I don't have set "cheat" meals or days, but that is not to say that I don't give in to temptations every once and a while. I am exercising but I do not add them to MFP, so that I will not eat those extra calories.
I usually do the bar code scan and count out everything. I don't really eat meat, dairy or any animal by-products anymore so I don't use my food scale that much anymore. And my exercise calories...I usually just go by my fitbit.0 -
1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.
2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.
3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.
4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.
5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.
6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.
7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.
8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.
9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
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jboatright wrote: »What you eat is a lot less important than how much you are eating. Calories in vs. calories out for weight loss.
What is the calorie goal that MFP is giving you? Are you hitting close to that goal every day? Do you have "cheat" meals or days? Are you exercising and adding that into MFP? Are you eating those calories?
How are you validating your calorie entries? Do you use a food scale all of the time, measuring cups (less accurate) or eyeballing your portions (really inaccurate)? How are you validating your exercise calories?
Im gonna try to answer all the questions.
It gave me about 1350 (don't remember the exact number cause I changed it) I went in and changed it to about 1250. I usually hit that every day. I don't have set "cheat" meals or days, but that is not to say that I don't give in to temptations every once and a while. I am exercising but I do not add them to MFP, so that I will not eat those extra calories.
I usually do the bar code scan and count out everything. I don't really eat meat, dairy or any animal by-products anymore so I don't use my food scale that much anymore. And my exercise calories...I usually just go by my fitbit.
When you're giving into temptations you're logging them and staying under your calorie goal, correct?
You aren't eating some things, which is fine, of course, but is there a reason you aren't weighing what you are eating? Everything has calories, although some things certainly have less than others. If you think that packaged food is the exact size listed on the package every time you'll be pretty surprised if you start weighing it.
If you're using oils and fats when you cook those definitely need to be measured and logged. 1 -
jboatright wrote: »What you eat is a lot less important than how much you are eating. Calories in vs. calories out for weight loss.
What is the calorie goal that MFP is giving you? Are you hitting close to that goal every day? Do you have "cheat" meals or days? Are you exercising and adding that into MFP? Are you eating those calories?
How are you validating your calorie entries? Do you use a food scale all of the time, measuring cups (less accurate) or eyeballing your portions (really inaccurate)? How are you validating your exercise calories?
Im gonna try to answer all the questions.
It gave me about 1350 (don't remember the exact number cause I changed it) I went in and changed it to about 1250. I usually hit that every day. I don't have set "cheat" meals or days, but that is not to say that I don't give in to temptations every once and a while. I am exercising but I do not add them to MFP, so that I will not eat those extra calories.
I usually do the bar code scan and count out everything. I don't really eat meat, dairy or any animal by-products anymore so I don't use my food scale that much anymore. And my exercise calories...I usually just go by my fitbit.
When you're giving into temptations you're logging them and staying under your calorie goal, correct?
You aren't eating some things, which is fine, of course, but is there a reason you aren't weighing what you are eating? Everything has calories, although some things certainly have less than others. If you think that packaged food is the exact size listed on the package every time you'll be pretty surprised if you start weighing it. If you're using oils and fats when you cook those definitely need to be measured and logged.
This.
If you eat it, you need to log it. You can get an extra few hundred calories/day just from fresh non-starchy vegetables if you eat a lot of salads. If you are eating starches (breads, potatoes, grains, etc), that number can be huge if you pretend they don't exist.
x2 on the oils and packaged items, too.1 -
jboatright wrote: »What you eat is a lot less important than how much you are eating. Calories in vs. calories out for weight loss.
What is the calorie goal that MFP is giving you? Are you hitting close to that goal every day? Do you have "cheat" meals or days? Are you exercising and adding that into MFP? Are you eating those calories?
How are you validating your calorie entries? Do you use a food scale all of the time, measuring cups (less accurate) or eyeballing your portions (really inaccurate)? How are you validating your exercise calories?
Im gonna try to answer all the questions.
It gave me about 1350 (don't remember the exact number cause I changed it) I went in and changed it to about 1250. I usually hit that every day. I don't have set "cheat" meals or days, but that is not to say that I don't give in to temptations every once and a while. I am exercising but I do not add them to MFP, so that I will not eat those extra calories.
I usually do the bar code scan and count out everything. I don't really eat meat, dairy or any animal by-products anymore so I don't use my food scale that much anymore. And my exercise calories...I usually just go by my fitbit.
Even if you aren't eating meat, dairy, or animal by-products, you're still eating foods with calories and your weight loss will probably go smoother if you're accurately estimating how much you're eating. Food scales aren't just helpful for those eating meat and dairy -- as a vegan, it was an incredibly helpful tool for me when I lost my weight last year (and one that I'm still using while maintaining my weight loss). When I began weighing, I realized I was way off on foods like rice, bread, oats, peanut butter, potatoes, nuts, and fruit.
Can you lose weight without a scale? Many people can. But cups and measuring spoons are much less accurate than a scale, so it's something to consider.2 -
Guess I am still a bit of a weight loss dummy lol
Thank you everyone for responding and being so helpful! Looks like I'll be purchasing a food scale tomorrow! I always figured that what was writing on packages was right, but now I'll know for sure 2 -
If you were doing something that worked for the first 13 pounds it would continue to work until your goal weight, just stick with it and don't be impatient. If you are constantly second guessing and changing your diet that isn't going to help you its just going to frustrate you.
The above all goes with one big caveat which is you need to make sure you are eating enough. So many people approach weight loss as some sort of cross they have to bear and they basically starve themselves to try to rush through it as quickly as possible. If that is your attitude then you will fail.
Set a small deficit, don't change your diet completely just change your portions and how much you eat and just continue to live your life...don't become obsessed. You don't need to switch to "an all plant whole foods diet" that sounds incredibly restrictive, overly complicated, difficult and like it would be extremely low calorie which is not actually what you want for long term weightloss.
The diet you use for weightloss should naturally transition into your maintenance for the rest of your life. Don't choose a diet that you wouldn't be happy continuing for the remainder of your life. Do you want to eat nothing but "whole food plants" the rest of your life and nothing else? If no then you probably shouldn't make that your diet.1
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