Gonna try this again and hope it takes

godskreature2

Well let's see, another 10 lbs and I will be 300 lbs of fun. . . not
So I got a food journal, a regular journal and a timer and I know I can do this.
Last year I was put in the hospital for 2 months and in that time I managed to lose about 20 or 30 pounds. Yes I gained it back plus some but I think . . if I can watch my portions and eat resonably this is doable. Afterall in the rehab I was on a "regular" diet and was losing like crazy and that was without a lot of excursise. I think even with dessert, the meals came out about 300, 400 calories a pop. I'm going on the assumption to keep things about 1200 calories a day . . a little over won't kill me but that's just ball park.

Iwantahealthierme30

I always lose weight in the hospital too. You could probably go with a lot more calories and have it be more sustainable. 300-400 cals a meal isn't really sustainable especially at your size, you'd be hungry.

Rickster1967

290lb starting weight? you'll never cope on 1200 that's for tiny people

you'll lose on 1800 I bet

mysteps2beauty

Good for you.

I was wondering since you are here did you answer all the questions for your profile, inputting information to determine how many calories you can eat given your height, current weight, activity level? It is so important and will help you get the right amount of calories. In the beginning most everybody is hungry when they are eating less calories than what they are use to. But if you are inadvertently eating less calories on a guesstimate, you are going to be hungry longer than you need to be. So go back under your profile and fill in the information, that is if you want to succeed. Just gotta stay the course. And read Success Stories thread. Soooo many people heavier than you or I, lost soooo much weight. They just did the work, for a long time.

You can do it, just don't try to reinvent the wheel. The tools are here.

BradR_82

I agree. Shoot for 1800 a day, you’ll still lose like crazy but not go crazy yourself!! Once you lose weight and it becomes more difficult, I’d wean down to 1200 per day.

I’m not a doctor or nutrition expert, just my opinion!

sharondjs

godskreature2 wrote: »

Well let's see, another 10 lbs and I will be 300 lbs of fun. . . not
So I got a food journal, a regular journal and a timer and I know I can do this.
Last year I was put in the hospital for 2 months and in that time I managed to lose about 20 or 30 pounds. Yes I gained it back plus some but I think . . if I can watch my portions and eat resonably this is doable. Afterall in the rehab I was on a "regular" diet and was losing like crazy and that was without a lot of excursise. I think even with dessert, the meals came out about 300, 400 calories a pop. I'm going on the assumption to keep things about 1200 calories a day . . a little over won't kill me but that's just ball park.

1200 is way to low and as you said your just guessing the hospital meals are those calories , if they were set by a dietician they would have been more around the 1600 to 1800 hundred calories mfp uses the same standards as national set standards for your country .
again im not an expert only someone who was over 300 pound and have lost 100 pounds i started on 1680 and there were days i was starving ( well i thought 1 was lol ) I eat 5 or 6 times a days drink a tonne of water , that took a while to build up to , but water is your saviour and a good set of kitchen scales i still measure and weigh most things as eyeballing it just doesn't work at least not in the beginning.
good luck and remeber each day is a new day to try as is each meal

JulieSHelms

I agree with what everyone is saying. I started at 300 lbs and didn't get to 1200 calories till somewhere like 210 lbs. I think I started at 1750 calories.

dw920004

Sounds like you are off to a great start but I agree with the other and you need to eat more calories. You will still lose weight like crazy . I till my boyfriend this all the time he want to eat the amount I do but we are on two different calories counted we eat the same things just different amount . But good luck with what every you do and I hope to see your great progress.

godskreature2

Thank you for all the advice . . . Yes I did the profile and yes it says I can eat more, which is why I'm not that much of a stickler, but keeping it on the low sider vs the high side works better for me personally. Being able to write things down and keep tabs should be helpful and if I eat all 1600 calories I'm not going to be beating myself up . . just a matter of perspective.

Rickster1967

working out a whole day of food and pre-logging it in the app is really useful

you can then play around with portion sizes, ingredients and macros to get a satisfying day of food

So, having set your daily calories and macros, you could design your favourite breakfast, enter it then see what that leaves you for the rest of the day

1600 is still gonna be low

BradR_82

One more comment on that- if you set your calorie intake too low off the start, people tend to give up easier because it is harder to maintain. Better to sustain 1-2lbs/week than drop 5-10/week and give up.

tinkerbellang83

1200 is not nearly enough for someone who is almost 300lbs.

To put it into context I am 220lbs (was 255lb) and lose eating 1700-1900 on sedentary days and up to 2400 on active days. I have lost 35lbs last year and maintained for a couple of months (give or take a few pounds at Christmas/New Year)

Undereating is the surest way to failure from either quitting because you're starving and bingeing it all back on or making yourself sick if you try to do it long term.

Please read this post, it explains how your calorie allowance is calculated and why it's important not to create too large a deficit, which is what you are proposing.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

kommodevaran

godskreature2 wrote: »

Thank you for all the advice . . . Yes I did the profile and yes it says I can eat more, which is why I'm not that much of a stickler, but keeping it on the low sider vs the high side works better for me personally. Being able to write things down and keep tabs should be helpful and if I eat all 1600 calories I'm not going to be beating myself up . . just a matter of perspective.

Keeping intake on the low side does not work for you. It's dangerous. What's dangerous about eating too little, isn't that it doesn't work, but that it seems to work - for a while, until it doesn't. And then it really, really, doesn't. If you weigh 290 pounds, your maintenenance calories is around 2900. You have to be disciplined to eat less, but also to not eat too little. You get a calorie target to hit because you need it. Don't try to play the system. 2000 calories isn't that much food, so you have to be careful not to eat more, either because you get hungry or bored or upset, or because your logging is off. You have to be a stickler if you want this to work.