Going nuts over how to diet
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I just realized I have been in and out of diets here since 2012 and still not figuring out best healthy options.
Problem is you put too much faith in diets and not too much on calories. Once you acknowledge that calories is king when it comes to weight loss, that's when the rest becomes easy. When I go on a cutting phase, I don't ask myself "What is the best diet out there to lose weight?", I simply select foods that I enjoy while making sure I hit my protein minimum, I make sure I get some fruits and veggies for fiber & micro nutrients and if I have room left, I'll include some junk foods because at that point, all my bases are already covered. I get the best of all worlds there, there is no need to follow a strict diet, diets are not important for weight loss, calories are. It sucks enough that you have to be in a deficit, but why make it more restricting by restricting foods that you love??? All it will do is make you miserable and then you end up quitting. Diets are just tools, nothing else. People make them out to be bigger than they really are.21 -
I just realized I have been in and out of diets here since 2012 and still not figuring out best healthy options.
That's called "paralysis by analysis".
Don't overthink it. Eat a reasonably balanced diet comprised of foods you enjoy and stick to your calorie goals. Don't make things more complicated than they have to be and don't let 'perfect' be the enemy of 'good'. Weight loss isn't always easy, but it's simple.13 -
Yes I was going to say plug the food in before you eat it. I do that every morning before breakfast to plan my daily eating to make sure it is balanced and I'm not starving at the end of the day. Also eat whole foods as much as possible, prepped at home.
One MAJOR setback is that I rarely or don’t cook at home though I am slowly trying to do more breakfasts (learning to cook slowly) I eat out 90% of my meals.
Okay so I eat out too (a lot). It's not optimal but you can absolutely lose weight doing it. Pick something off the menu and find a match in the database. Limit your portion size.
I believe it's been said but... relax. You don't have to be perfect to lose weight and you don't have to choose the healthiest option (whatever that means). If you're going to make this thing stick, you have to start thinking long game. Are you planning to obsess over your food choices for the rest of your life? If the answer is no, then take it easy. Eat what you like, just eat less of it.
ETA: Typo.3 -
1. pick a method of weight loss
2. monitor your results.
You must like your diet...and you must lose weight doing that diet. If those two goals are met... you found your path.3 -
Dude, relax. I understand that you have a house full of carbs. Freeze the bread. The noodles and ramen will last forever. It sounds as if you know how to eat. Just learn how to count calories using the food diary here, and you'll be ok.I have tried Juicing and forced myself to drink the Doctor Oz Cleanse for 3 months (I know it is 3 days but I lost weight and could still eat the trash I liked)
I go nuts trying to figure out the proportions (%) of Carbs, Fat, and Proteins and the smallest thing would hurtle the numbers out of scale.
I am now looking into Keto/Paleo to see if I can make it work (90% of the food in my home is Carbs so I have A LOT of food to toss out like my loaves of bread, noodles, raman, etc.)
I started yesterday and right off the bat my first breakfast was wrong, I ordered what I THOUGHT was a healthy low carb meal and it was at 6% carbs... UNTIL I had the 1.5 cup bowl of fruit that put me at over 100% Today was better with 3 poached eggs, 2 grilled center cut pork chops, 4 slices of tomatoes and 2 glasses of unsweet tea I have so far 3% carbs but am afraid to eat anything else today. How do you figure out the needed Calories, the right Macro percents, and such, I am obsessing and frustrated and have never stayed on a diet more than 8 months. I just want to lower my sugar and cholesterol, get to 180 pounds (Internet says I should weigh 165-170.
Hint, Gatorade is just as sugary as Coke. If you want to drink flavored stuff, choose unsweetened tea, black coffee, and sugar-free sodas.7 -
Ok lets use today as an example and see if you can help me understand what I am reading. And how to enter info for best results.
Goal Calories 1,510 Food 1,378 (Only ate one meal today), Calories Burned Exercise 1,238 (based on 165 min of Pickleball) My Total steps today so far including Pickleball and I have a Service dog so I estimate 60+ min walking Dog was 11,500 steps
(I have ONLY reported the Pickleball not walking the dog or Steps for the day)
My Home page daily summary says I have 1,370 calories remaining under this it say 1510 goal | 1378 Food - 1238 Exercise = 140 NET
What does the NET represent? The Calories remaining?
Do I report the total steps at end of day or just the activities I did?
I assume the 1,370 calories remaining are calories I COULD still eat today and still maintain my weight loss goal. Am I correct in this assumption.0 -
Don't diet. Just log, and keep your portions under check.2
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Calories remaining are calories you can still eat, yes.3
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Ok lets use today as an example and see if you can help me understand what I am reading. And how to enter info for best results.
Goal Calories 1,510 Food 1,378 (Only ate one meal today), Calories Burned Exercise 1,238 (based on 165 min of Pickleball) My Total steps today so far including Pickleball and I have a Service dog so I estimate 60+ min walking Dog was 11,500 steps
(I have ONLY reported the Pickleball not walking the dog or Steps for the day)
My Home page daily summary says I have 1,370 calories remaining under this it say 1510 goal | 1378 Food - 1238 Exercise = 140 NET
What does the NET represent? The Calories remaining?
Do I report the total steps at end of day or just the activities I did?
I assume the 1,370 calories remaining are calories I COULD still eat today and still maintain my weight loss goal. Am I correct in this assumption.
Your NET calories should be close to your daily target. When they say eat less than you burn, it isn't meaning that your activity calories have to be more than you daily intake. Your body burns calories just from living.
For now, aim to eat your daily target, and then 50-75% of your exercise calories. The reason for not eating them all is that MFP in particular, but also some activity trackers will overestimate your calories burned, so leave some of them on the table.
Over time, you can use your real life results to determine if you should increase or decrease your consumption of burned calories. If you are losing faster than you expect (except the first two weeks), then increase your calories. If you are losing slower than you expect, then decrease your calories.
Remember that faster loss, although it sounds good, can lead to more muscle loss than you would like. Aim for a safe loss per week (about 1% of your body weight). So it should be slowing down as you get closer to goal.
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What is your gender and current weight, height, age? What is your current goal weight if known? You seem to be putting up some pretty large deficits. How often do you play pickleball? is that singles? doubles? How competitive are your games? Do you track using an MFP exercise entry or using a fitness band?0
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You mention that it is really hard to stick with a diet plan for too long. That is pretty much universally true. Most diet plans are either too restrictive or simply don't fit individual lifestyles well enough to be sustainable. So before you fight with this new low carb option, I have some suggestions to make things easier.
Break things down into individual behaviors and habits. Instead of looking at this as an all at once, or all or nothing proposition, find ways to break things down into smaller and more sustainable habits. That makes it much easier to pinpoint where something is not working, and fix it, rather than staring at the whole jumbled mess of NOT WORKING. Plus, when you do backslide, you are less likely to drop everything, just one or two habits, that can then be fixed again. Otherwise, trying to everything at once, means that you are likely to leave out something important (like weighing food), and pay excessive attention to things that aren't. (Like fiber drinks, juice cleanses and apple cider vinegar)
Don't demonize foods that don't actually make you feel bad. Obviously if you have food sensitivities avoid those things, but don't cut out all your favorite goodies because they are not "healthy". Think of your calories as a type of currency. You should purchase the nutrient rich stuff first, budget for regular treats, and don't waste any calories on stuff you hate, even if it is theoretically good for you. If you are going low carb, fine, but don't treat carbs as the Devil, just give the non carb foods a much higher priority.
Log EVERYTHING.
Don't JUST weigh (with a scale is best) everything you eat, also write why you are eating it (i.e, lunchtime, hungry, kind of bored, out with friends, watching tv) and how you are feeling right before, right after and an hour after (hungry, comfortable, normal, full, very full bloated, drowsy, OMG I am so damn sick of this crap I want to throw the whole plate out a window, etc).
This gives you a baseline pattern for your normal habits and routine. From there, it's just a matter of experimenting. Are you very full after dinner? Cut back on a few things. Does lunch leave you bloated and gassy after an hour, try less or no mayo, and see if there's something you don't mind dropping each meal (fries, or cheese, or maybe only 2 tacos instead of 3).Are you starving an hour after dinner?Maybe more fats during.
It's amazing how quickly these small and easily sustainable changes will add up to big calorie cuts. Only cut or change one or two things at a time, until they become habit instead of trying to do everything at once. That way they become individual habits instead of one big "diet".
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What is your gender and current weight, height, age? What is your current goal weight if known? You seem to be putting up some pretty large deficits. How often do you play pickleball? is that singles? doubles? How competitive are your games? Do you track using an MFP exercise entry or using a fitness band?
Male, 53 years old, 212 pounds, 5'10" MY Goal weight is 180 ponds "Ideal Weight" according to internet is 165-172 pounds. I try to play at least 4 times a week for 2-4 each time. Only play Doubles I am a 3.0 player but mostly play against 3.5-4.0 level players. I use Gear2 watch for my steps, and Have made a MFP Exercise entry for Pickleball using 60 min at 450 calories burned.0 -
BMR is 1803, or 1.25 Cal per minute.
MFP sedentary is: 1.875 Cal per minute (bmr x 1.25)
MFP lightly active, active, and very activer are, respectively, BMR x1.4, x1.6 and x1.8
By placing 60 min of pickleball at 450 Cal you are implicitly naming it an approximately 6 MET activity.
Badminton, social singles and doubles, general is a MET 5.5 activity (2011). It used to be considered a MET 4.5 activity in the past (2000 and 1993). Competitive badminton is considered a MET 7.0 activity.
Paddleball casual is considered a MET 6 activity, and paddleball competitive a MET 10. Tennis doubles is considered a 4.5 to 6.0, tennis hitting balls a 5.0.
In general I would say that there exists support to call pickleball a MET 6.0; but if I were concerned with over-estimating, and considering that it is doubles, I would consider reducing the level to about 5 or 5.5
When you tell MFP that you exercised for 60 minutes of pickleball for 450 Calories, MFP tells you that you should eat those calories.
But MFP is sort of silly in that they forget that they've already assigned to you, even if you picked that you're sedentary, at the very least BMR x 1.25 Calories for each and every minute of your day.
In your particular case, your sedentary calories per hour are 112.5 So, using the 450 value, and assuming you told MFP you were sedentary (and you didn't choose lightly active, active, or very active), your "true" net calories to eat would be 337.5, or 75%
So, between the fact that longer duration activities have not had their base calories removed, and the fact that people tend to under-log their food calories... you can see where the "eat half your exercise calories and re-evaluate based on your progress" comes from.
Now, here is my relatively "contrarian" advice.
Aim to eat about 2500 calories a day as accurately counted as you can. (incidentally this would be an approximately 20% to 25% deficit off of your TDEE based on the approximate levels of exercise and dog walking you've indicated you do)
Keep your activity level at the 11+K "step" mark. Plug your weigh ins into trendweight.com or libra for android or happy scale for iphone. Adjust based on your "rolling" 3 weeks or so of results aiming to lose between 0.5% and 1% of bodyweight a week ON AVERAGE.
Review your food log and evaluate the "benefits" you get from your food choices and improve your selections over time. (momepro gives a very detailed explanation on how to do this above. Personally I look at things at a more basic level: Did that make me fairly full and happy? Then good. If not, how about I eat the other thing that did make me fairly full and happy? OK: maybe I add in some nutritional goals... but it took a few months to get to be THAT advanced
)
Reduce your deficit even more as you enter the bottom half of the overweight range.
You are currently shooting for a 50%+ deficit based on your discussion. That is excessive.11 -
I think I chose Lightly active, I do a few Pickleball Tournaments a year and try to play folks better than me to prepare for those tournaments.1
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You are over thinking and over complicating this.
Log your foods on this app accurately and consistently.
MFP will calculate how many calories you need to eat to lose xlbs a week. Eat those calories and if you exercise, eat some of those back as well. That's all you have to do. Counting calories works.5 -
You are overestimating the calorie burn from the pickleball.
Include your walking calories.
Eat your minimum calories including those earned from exercise.3 -
BMR is 1803, or 1.25 Cal per minute.
MFP sedentary is: 1.875 Cal per minute (bmr x 1.25)
MFP lightly active, active, and very activer are, respectively, BMR x1.4, x1.6 and x1.8
By placing 60 min of pickleball at 450 Cal you are implicitly naming it an approximately 6 MET activity.
Badminton, social singles and doubles, general is a MET 5.5 activity (2011). It used to be considered a MET 4.5 activity in the past (2000 and 1993). Competitive badminton is considered a MET 7.0 activity.
Paddleball casual is considered a MET 6 activity, and paddleball competitive a MET 10. Tennis doubles is considered a 4.5 to 6.0, tennis hitting balls a 5.0.
In general I would say that there exists support to call pickleball a MET 6.0; but if I were concerned with over-estimating, and considering that it is doubles, I would consider reducing the level to about 5 or 5.5
When you tell MFP that you exercised for 60 minutes of pickleball for 450 Calories, MFP tells you that you should eat those calories.
But MFP is sort of silly in that they forget that they've already assigned to you, even if you picked that you're sedentary, at the very least BMR x 1.25 Calories for each and every minute of your day.
In your particular case, your sedentary calories per hour are 112.5 So, using the 450 value, and assuming you told MFP you were sedentary (and you didn't choose lightly active, active, or very active), your "true" net calories to eat would be 337.5, or 75%
So, between the fact that longer duration activities have not had their base calories removed, and the fact that people tend to under-log their food calories... you can see where the "eat half your exercise calories and re-evaluate based on your progress" comes from.
Now, here is my relatively "contrarian" advice.
Aim to eat about 2500 calories a day as accurately counted as you can. (incidentally this would be an approximately 20% to 25% deficit off of your TDEE based on the approximate levels of exercise and dog walking you've indicated you do)
Keep your activity level at the 11+K "step" mark. Plug your weigh ins into trendweight.com or libra for android or happy scale for iphone. Adjust based on your "rolling" 3 weeks or so of results aiming to lose between 0.5% and 1% of bodyweight a week ON AVERAGE.
Review your food log and evaluate the "benefits" you get from your food choices and improve your selections over time. (momepro gives a very detailed explanation on how to do this above. Personally I look at things at a more basic level: Did that make me fairly full and happy? Then good. If not, how about I eat the other thing that did make me fairly full and happy? OK: maybe I add in some nutritional goals... but it took a few months to get to be THAT advanced )
Reduce your deficit even more as you enter the bottom half of the overweight range.
You are currently shooting for a 50%+ deficit based on your discussion. That is excessive.
Every bit of this post is spot on.
For further context, I am 2 years older than you, 1 inch taller and weigh 205. I am in a relatively small deficit right now as I set a higher goal weight than I started with. (I've also gained back 10 pounds of my original loss while lifting weights and slightly bulking - hence the higher goal weight - I'm interested in body fat % much more than some "healthy BMI"). I can lose about 1 pound per week on 2100 calories with less activity than you. Now I'm on a small cut to go back to about 190 - only a much better 190 than I was 6 months ago.
When I weighed 245, I had roughly the same activity level as you and easily lost 1.5-2 pounds per week averaging about 2300 calories per day. I'm not sure, based on your numbers, that you have that much to lose, but even so, as PAV says, your deficits in the example you state seem very excessive. At your activity level, if you log and weigh accurately, I would guess that you could easily lose the weight you want at 2000+ calories per day.
Last recommendation: don't rush this. Learn how to do the weighing and measuring accurately. Then ease into a deficit. And remember, it's the food that matters much more than the activity. Get the accurate logging right, fuel your activity adequately and then work on your deficit. In that order.5 -
I was obsessing over carbs as well but had to take a step back because it was getting ridiculous. I wouldn't focus so much on carbs from fruits or veggies but more from breads, pastas, flour, etc. That being said, I make sure I put most of my focus on Protein and fiber as those are what will fill me up. Although the carbs still bother me, I at least know that when I am eating fruits and veggies, I am getting vitamins and needed nutrients that I need from those carbs vs. that of breads pastas etc.0
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You are overestimating the calorie burn from the pickleball.
Include your walking calories.
Eat your minimum calories including those earned from exercise.
I choose 450 calories per hour as my estimation based on MFP listing for Badminton casual at 429 and competitive 667 at a weight of 210 pounds. I am not playing a slow casual game with seniors. I tend to play most of my games with 25-60 year old energetic fast moving hard hitting players. So if you know I am over estimating PLEASE give me a better calorie burn estimate as I have no clue and would rather be lower than the actual number but close.
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The MFP community is so patient and helpful. Thank you all for putting up with my OCD on this subject. Sadly EVERYTHING in my life is overthought and paralysis by analysis ridden. I always think I have to do things perfect but at the same time no confidence so I loop in and out of doing, not doing everything.7
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