4 weeks

Giuliaborg

Hi all!
I have been using Myfitpal on and off for a while when I wanted to lose some weight, but I always found hard to be consistent for a period longer than few days. I thought opening a discussion and sharing the journey would make it easier :-)
I am 1.63 cm and 62 kg approximately, I'd like to lose 4 or 5 kg. I am not planning to lose 4 kilos in a months and I do not want to eat too little because I think this would make me nervous and too worried about food and obviously hungry. The app suggested me 1300 calories per day for losing 0.5 kilos per week, and I am following this.
I am not doing any sport at the moment for a small injury I had during my judo training, but planning to go back to the gym in the next days or weeks.
My challenge is to log in everyday the food and to remain within 1300 calories for 4 weeks and see how it goes. I would be happy to lose 2 kg in this period but even a bit less would be fine. I noticed many of you are using lb, but being from Europe I am not very confident with lb!

Giuliaborg

Hi all again!
Just a small update!
I am keeping on track with the log in and the calories limit. Yesterday I arrived back home and my flatmate prepared a delicious apple cake! It smelled so good but I haven't tried, and I had a slice today for breakfast then!
Tonight I am going out for dinner with a friend, I decided for a thai restaurant hoping to find something not too caloric. If you have suggestions they are welcome, I was thinking of a vegetable stir fry with cashew nut and plain rice...

ActionAnnieJXN

Greetings to you from across the pond, and welcome to MFP! Are you all set and ready to go with a food scale and measuring cups and spoons so that you can accurately determine your amounts? This has been a critical part of my own program and I highly recommend it.

The apple cake sounds marvelous and I would have eaten some too, I'm sure! The way I would have gone about fitting it into my day would be to carefully search through the database for the item that most closely matched the cake, then ate an amount weighed out on my scale that I thought would leave me enough for my other meals. For the dinner, one thing to keep an eye on is the cashew - nuts are highly caloric and add up quickly!

Not to say it's "off limits", that's the beauty of this program - all things are permissible, we just have to use our reasoning abilities to make it all work. For example, I wonder if maybe chicken or perhaps bean curd might be more filling and go further than the cashew for the same amount of calories or less? That's the kind of thinking I have to do regularly in order to keep things moving in the right direction.

Some days are more successful than others, of course, but it's doable, and actually, the challenge can be quite enjoyable! Wishing you much success in your weight loss journey - please feel free to send me a friend request if you'd like. :-)

conniehv40

I have trouble logging everything, everyday. That is my goal... I like the attitude of "do it for 4 weeks". That might make me feel less overwhelmed. I start today, with being honest and true! I think it keeps me more honest with myself with the amount of water I drink as well! log

tinkerbellang83

Hey if a weekly weigh in would help fell free to join our group and add me a a friend, I've logged in daily for 40 days now (7kgs off so far ) and have an open diary. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/118368-friday-weigh-ins-2017

Giuliaborg

Hi @ActionAnnieJXN !! And thanks for the welcome!
Yes I always weight everything when I cook by myself, which is very often. And I always bring a lunch to uni prepared by me so that I know what is inside. However I am also worried that I will be obsessed with weighting and single calories, so I try to keep a balance. I generally weight everything, but sometimes if I find for example "1 slice of homemade apple cake" on the database then I don't weight it. I know I won't be precise that way, but my mental health is precious to me too :-)
Thanks for thai suggestion!!! I try to avoid meat but I never heard of the bean curd and I look for it on the menu!

@conniehv40 yes I thought it was good to start with 4 weeks and see if I can ménage it and how it goes. I don't wanna feel forever on a diet honestly... but maybe some people would disagree.

Thanks @tinkerballgang83 I'll add you and I'll also have a look at the open diary! Well done for the 7 kilos, in 40 days that's impressive!!

Giuliaborg

Good evening everyone!
Just went back home and surfing the internet a bit before sleeping. It is midnight here, but I can see many of you are from the US so must be some time in the day for the majority of you now :-)

I was wondering if it's fine to use this discussion as a kind of diary, to keep myself motivated and exchange views with the others... or is there another section of the forum for that?

Anyway I will keep posting here in the meanwhile.
I've been to the thai restaurant and has been a lovely dinner! I think we enjoy a special dinner even more if we have to "deserve" it by saving calories. I went for a vegetarian yellow curry with a portion of plain rice and it was delicious. My friend also ordered 2 starters and I tasted a mini dumpling of the size of my eye... weird comparison I realised while writing... let's say small than a walnut, it sounds better right?! Portions weren't too big and this was 815 calories according to MFP, so I was 100 calories above my target (1400 in total) which feels still fine to me.
I wanted to walk for 30/40 minutes but today London is absolutely freezing and I have a strong cold, so I then decided not to, I didn't want to feel in obligation for saving 100 calories, and getting the cold worse. I'll try to walk or run tomorrow.

Good night everyone who took the time to read here!!

tinkerbellang83

It's a little more than 40 days (10 weeks now) I just took a break over christmas and new year from logging as I was travelling all over the UK visiting family and friends. So weight kind of maintained through that couple of weeks. Still I'm pretty happy with my progress so far.

ktrulez

Giuliaborg wrote: »

Good evening everyone!
Just went back home and surfing the internet a bit before sleeping. It is midnight here, but I can see many of you are from the US so must be some time in the day for the majority of you now :-)

I was wondering if it's fine to use this discussion as a kind of diary, to keep myself motivated and exchange views with the others... or is there another section of the forum for that?

Anyway I will keep posting here in the meanwhile.
I've been to the thai restaurant and has been a lovely dinner! I think we enjoy a special dinner even more if we have to "deserve" it by saving calories. I went for a vegetarian yellow curry with a portion of plain rice and it was delicious. My friend also ordered 2 starters and I tasted a mini dumpling of the size of my eye... weird comparison I realised while writing... let's say small than a walnut, it sounds better right?! Portions weren't too big and this was 815 calories according to MFP, so I was 100 calories above my target (1400 in total) which feels still fine to me.
I wanted to walk for 30/40 minutes but today London is absolutely freezing and I have a strong cold, so I then decided not to, I didn't want to feel in obligation for saving 100 calories, and getting the cold worse. I'll try to walk or run tomorrow.

Good night everyone who took the time to read here!!

i dig your diary approach, nice touch to it as you can talk about the positives and negatives of your 4 week challenge. on the side note those dumplings are rather small.. a size of a walnut? that is like miniature!

Machka9

conniehv40 wrote: »

I have trouble logging everything, everyday. That is my goal... I like the attitude of "do it for 4 weeks". That might make me feel less overwhelmed. I start today, with being honest and true! I think it keeps me more honest with myself with the amount of water I drink as well! log

That approach certainly helps me.

If I thought I had to log forever ... I'd probably quit right now. But logging for a limited time is so much more manageable.

I'm on a diet break this weekend, but on Tuesday I'll get back into it again for 3.5 weeks, and then I'll be on another diet break. I have a small amount of weight to lose and I hope to lose about half of it in those 3.5 weeks.

Giuliaborg

ktrulez wrote: »

i dig your diary approach, nice touch to it as you can talk about the positives and negatives of your 4 week challenge. on the side note those dumplings are rather small.. a size of a walnut? that is like miniature!

Yes @ktrulez they were really small and crunchy! I just found a pic in the internet to show you! But without the meat on the side, they were on a bed of undressed salad.


@Machka9 hello! thanks for visiting here! Yes also the idea of staying on a diet forever is depressing to me. Eating healthy and not too much is okay, but I'd like to be more spontaneous in the quantity and quality of food when I am not counting calories. I'll wait for you to be back logging on Tuesday, enjoy your weekend in the meanwhile!!

Giuliaborg

Good morning!
Today was the first weight in day since I started my 4 weeks journey, and I lost 0.6 kg!
So I'm now 61 kg (my height is 1.63 m)
I am very happy of the result, I was out for dinner 3 days in a row: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but it worked anyway. I'll just try to keep doing more or less the same this week.
It's 8:30 in the morning now and I am already tired, I slept very bad tonight because of my cold and I guess also because of the Sunday evening feeling.
Anyway I have a nice day planned for today, and I am going to a board games night later, which is one of my favourite events and always good fun.
Yesterday I went back to the gym for the first time after the judo injury and it was fine! I might do the same today, running is great for the endorphins feeling :-)
Have a good day!

callsitlikeiseeit

you know theres a blog function on this site, right?

Giuliaborg

@callsitlikeiseeit not really to be honest! :-)
I have been looking for a section where I could post a diary like discussion but haven't found it. I saw there is a blog where MFP posts articles about weight loss, healthy eating etc, and maybe some users have a person blog where they also write articles about specific topics. There is also something like a journey diary blog? Thanks!!

callsitlikeiseeit

Giuliaborg wrote: »

@callsitlikeiseeit not really to be honest! :-)
I have been looking for a section where I could post a diary like discussion but haven't found it. I saw there is a blog where MFP posts articles about weight loss, healthy eating etc, and maybe some users have a person blog where they also write articles about specific topics. There is also something like a journey diary blog? Thanks!!

Giuliaborg

Oh yes thanks a lot @callsitlikeiseeit for taking the time to do this! :-)
You're right! I think I will stick with my diary here anyway, I feel it is more immediate, while people seems to write more "meaningful" things than just a diet diary there.

ktrulez

nice progress giulia, keep at it!

Giuliaborg

So, just a quick update here about good and bad things of the first ten days, because yes today is day number 10!!

I am at uni now but I'll probably head home soon, I wanna do some food shopping and maybe a new t-shirt for the gym. I was looking at myself in the gym mirror and pants and t-shirt weren't matching at all ...I know, who cares, but I need an excuse for buying myself a present!
Yesterday I had my dinner at before 7 because I was going to meet friends soon, and didn't want to eat pub food. So, well done, but by the time I arrive home after the pub it was midnight and I was starving. I ate something like 10-15 raisins, then prepared myself a camomile and left the kitchen because it was getting dangerous staying there hungry.
Something I don't like about counting calories and logging food, is that I spend loads of time and mental energy thinking about food, what to eat for lunch and dinner, playing with calories in my mind...
I invited people over on Sunday and we'll prepare, cook and eat tagliatelle together. I can't wait, not sure how I'll do with the diet and colories, probably I'll make it a maintenance day!

Giuliaborg

The last time I wrote here was saint Valentine! I did go for shopping in the end, but instead of gym t-shirt I bought a nice dress, black with some small flowers.

This morning I am proudly half a way of those 4 weeks, and the scale today told me I lost one kilos in the last week! So I am 60 kg now. Pretty excited to see a weight starting with "5" soon if keep doing well.
I followed the diet all week except for yesterday, when I invited friends over and we prepared home pasta together (tagliatelle!!) and we ate them with tomato sauce. There were sweets and some other stuff brought form my friends, and for one day I just decided to eat what I wanted without weighting or logging.
I will follow again 1300 calories for one week, and then I'll see next Monday how is the weight. I might increase it to 1400 if I still drop one kilos because I felt quite hungry some day of the last week.

Giuliaborg

Hi all!
The 4 weeks are now over, and I lost 2 kilos in total, from 61.6 to 59.6 kg. I am very happy with the results, and some of my clothes already fits better.
I will be away for some days in the next months and I will keep logging food on and off when I am home in London. I hope I will be able to maintain the results in the next months, and I'll do another "round" of diet probably in April
Thanks for the support!! :-)