Who has used MFP only for weight loss?

agrube1968

Just trying to get an idea of who all has only used MFP for weight loss. And what I mean by that is only tracking calories and not doing low carb, weight watchers, etc.

I have another forum post about how did you lose your weight and the majority of the people done calorie counting.

So I'm just wanting to see who all has done just calorie counting (and if you added in exercise - how much and how often) and how much did you lose and how long did it take? (also feel free to share before and after pics if you have any)

I have done it all; weight watchers, tops, Atkins, keto, slim fast etc. I tend to do well for awhile on those but then I feel deprived and when I do slip and eat something I shouldn't then I feel guilty and then end up binging and then I end up gaining back all I lost and then some.

So I've decided to only do MFP and log everything I eat and drink and try to stick to my calorie budget and slowly add in exercise. I just feel I will be more successful this way because if I want a piece of cake or a piece of candy I can have it as long as I have the calories for it and wont feel like I am messing up. I want something that I can live with long term and I just can't do the others long term. I know it might take me longer to lose the weight this way but I didn't put the weight on overnight so I know I wont lose it overnight.

One more thing; did you have an "AHA" moment? Something that made you say "That's it I am going to do this and nothing is going to stop me". If so please share! Thanks!

kami3006

I started 5 years ago...I eat what I want and use a scale to fit it into my calories. I lost 25 lbs, averaging 1/2 pound a week, which was my goal. I've since run a couple bulk/cut cycles and have maintained doing the same thing. I also log and eat all of my exercise calories.

I view my protein and fat as minimums and let the carbs fall where they may. I also prelog calories for an evening snack/dessert of whatever I please. Using MFP this way has been an easy and quite liberating process.

steveko89

When I started using MFP in 2012 I took the approach of eating normally and logging everything. I soon saw where I could make easy and sustainable calorie swaps (mustard for mayo, two cookies instead of five, etc.) and started to get into a deficit. This worked really well for me and I dropped 8 lbs the first month and 12 total by the end of month two. That was really all I needed to lose (178 to 166, 6'1, male, 23y/o at the time). I really liked the daily habit and kept trying to get leaner, bottoming out at 159 right before getting married 6/22/13. There wasn't any branded method to my madness and I wasn't even using a food scale at the time, I simply went from paying 0% attention to what/how much I was eating to caring/thinking about how much I was putting into my body. At this point I was picking an choosing some P90X workouts to do a few times/week but not doing the whole program or following their nutrition plan.

I'll say I've had two "a ha" moments. The first was just a general realization I'd gotten a chubby after working my first real job out of college for a few months. 85% travel with a coworker who liked to eat and not paying any attention resulted in a gain of 20-30 lbs in less than three months. After Christmas I started doing P90X and existentially "eating better" and lost some of that weight before finding out about MFP.

The second occurred in 2015. I'd gained maybe an extra 10-15 lbs since getting married and thought about trying to get back down to 160, which I would later learn is lower than the "ideal" weight range for my height. It occurred to me that I wasn't necessarily happier with how I looked at that weight and needed to add muscle to really look how I wanted; to do so I started strength training and gradually learned to disconnect scale weight with my goals.

Since then, not much as really changed in how I use MFP; I don't follow any prescribed diet or methodology, simply eat requisite to my goals and follow a prescribed lifting program. My weight bounces around in the 170s but I'm stronger, healthier, and feel better in my own skin than I ever did at 160.

sgriska

I’m just using MFP to track my calories and that’s it. I just started walking on my lunch hour a few weeks ago, but the bulk of my loss was with only restricting input.

LivingtheLeanDream

Me! I lost the weight I needed to by tracking my calorie intake on this app and moving more in 2012. Been maintaining that loss ever since still counting calories, albeit not as strictly

My aha moment: I had to find a way of eating to lose weight that was sustainable and not boring or restrictive - and I did! I still eat all the foods I love but obviously keep the portions small of the calorie dense ones.

stewarm01

I use this for calorie counting but I do walk 6x week.

emalethmoon

I used this website to consistently log my calories and I lost 90 lbs. Then I stopped and gained 40 back. This site works for me and walking away from it does not.

I will say that trying to hit 10k steps a day, and/or running 30 minutes 3 times a week helps, but only in that it helps me eat a little more. It's more about the calories than anything.

jdubois5351

Discovering MFP was a relevation for me. I never realized how simple (not easy, though!) it could be to lose weight. I've never seriously done any other diet program, as I'm not extremely overweight (never saw the need to). Turning 50, I decided I wanted to go back to the old me, which was 73 instead of 89 kg. So here I am, just tracking calories and doing a lot of walking as my only form of regular exercise. Since June 20th, I've lost 6.3 kg.

ceiswyn

Pure calorie counting finally got me to lose all my excess weight. That’s 16 stone. I was 27.5 when I started, and now I’m (on average) 11.5.

I do a reasonable amount of exercise, but that’s partly because exercise is easier and more fun once you’re no longer morbidly obese I started VERY small (think a five minute walk, twice per day) and slowly ramped up to the point where after an hour’s BodyCombat I kind of fancy another class.

I did have a lightbulb moment of sorts, but I can’t explain it; it was more of a sudden moment of combining a lot of different bits of information and realising that I COULD do it, I just had to want it badly enough. And I wanted it very badly indeed.

Here are my before and afters:

amusedmonkey

I do MFP only. So far, I'm down 114 lbs. I didn't really have an AHA moment that made me change the way I dieted. When I needed to lose weight I immediately gravitated towards calorie counting and nothing else because I like numbers and I'm not the kind of person who would give up pleasure when it's not warranted. It was my first and last (so far) attempt at weight loss. If by AHA you mean what made me want to lose weight, it was my blood tests which put me at near diabetic. I knew I had to do something and keep doing it before it advances.

Dieting-wise, I did have mini AHA's. Whenever I tried something and it felt easier than the alternative for a certain situation, I called it a win and added it to my working strategies. I collected several of these over the years which helped me make my diet flexible enough for any situation. Not exactly pure calorie counting without considering food choices, but also not exactly a set of dieting rules. It's more like "I have this situation, I have these choices, which choices feels easier and more appropriate right now?"

Deviette

I was (and still am) very active, that's why I didn't realise that I'd gained as much as I had. And that it wasn't okay. My aha moment was when I stood on the scale randomly, on a whim, and saw 75.1kg. Aka, the highest number I had ever seen on the scale.

So I started counting calories. I was fairly vigorous to begin with. Meticulously logging every single thing that went into my mouth. I eased up eventually when I was trying to work out if I should log green tea as 1 or 0.5 when I only drank half a cup, when it was only 1kcal anyway. That was not worth the hassle and I was happy with my rate of loss, I now don't log "normal" drinks as I don't drink a lot of them, and they're low cals (eg, tea, coffee, "diet" drinks)

My partner was very against it initially. Counting calories has a very bad rep in the general populous. Associations with disordered eating is normally what people think when you say that you're calorie counting. Strange considering other diets (significantly less healthy ones, mind) don't get the same association. Anyway, once he realised that I wasn't suddenly making massive changes to our lifestyle (no more takeaways, no cakes or anything in the house for example) I think he eased up. In fact I don't think he's been complaining too much at all, yesterday he informed me that he's also lost weight (which he did need to do a little) thanks to my "healthier" cooking.

I am currently just over 50% of my way through my journey. I've lost 6.7kg over 135 days. That time includes 1 week-long holiday where I ate all of the things (and drank all the things); lots of BBQs; several family events; 2 weekends away; 1 wedding; & 1 week diet break. There have been days when I've massively over eaten, sure. I've not been perfect at any point and by any sense of the word. My logging has been patchy on occasion and lazy on others. But I have taken the "better" approach to losing weight. By that I ask myself if this is the better choice or not. I can justify things if something is better. It is fine to go 100kcals over my goal, because that is better than eating at maintenance. It is fine to eat at maintenance, because that is better than eating in excess (what I was doing before I started). I have good days and bad days, but most of those bad days are still a win, because they are still better than how I used to eat.

What I have not done it ramp up my exercise schedule. In fact, since July I've actually been doing about a 60-90 mins less activity than I did previously (because of variation in training times). I knew that suddenly upping my exercise was not a sustainable and permanent change I could make in my life, so I didn't rely on that for my weight loss. I kept to my exercise levels the same and worked on lowering my calorie intake instead.

hmaddpear

Me! I lost almost 80lb in 2013-2014 with just calorie counting on MFP and exercise.

SW: 238lb
FW: 160lb




I got within 20lb of goal (140lb) and fell off the wagon. I stopped logging (and logging in) and I ended up putting on half of what I'd lost over the next four years. I'm now back to pick back up what I started.

While I was losing, I netted around 1650kcal a day, and the lost the first 50lb with just walking for exercise. I then started a Couch to 5K running programme, and still run to this day, although with various illnesses and injuries I've had to keep restarting.

I only started logging because I was so sure I wouldn't lose weight and I needed something to show doctors what was going on. Hah. Instead, sticking to the plan meant that I lost weight in the predicted manner (within normal weight fluctuations). I even set up a complicated spreadsheet that balances targeted weight loss against theoretical weight loss against actual weight loss and the lines match up pretty well.

FrostysHouse

Me. I've lost 40 lbs since March. I aim for daily totals below 1,600 calories, but at least within the 1,600-1,800 range (my 1.5 to 1-lb loss per week zone). I haven't found it terribly difficult, which has surprised me. While I'm more mindful of how much I'm eating, that calorie range allows room for foods I like. I try to keep my servings moderate and emphasize fruits and veggies, but nothing is off-limits. If I'm going out for dinner or craving dessert, I log those first and budget the rest of the day accordingly. If I overshoot my goal one day, I tighten things up the next. I use the tracker as a guideline for portion control, but I'm not obsessing over every calorie and ounce. I weigh myself daily and also log that -- I like the routine, and WOW, do I like watching the numbers drop! Also, seeing the normal fluctuations helps me keep in mind that this is a work in progress.

Once I got in the groove, I found smaller portions satisfying, and in fact eating larger servings now feels physically uncomfortable. My aha moment was more a gradual process of feeling uncomfortable and unhappy with my size, and finally hitting the point (around 320 lbs) where I was ready to do something about it. It took a long time to get there. Now that I'm moving more easily and my knees hurt a lot less, one day soon I'm going to start exercising.

dwbeaco1956

Hi, Calorie counting with MFP has been the ONLY successful method I found to control my weight. I say 'control' because I don't expect to stick ridgidly to calorie counting after hitting my goal as it's natural for motivation to wane after a while. I'm happy to relax a bit when I've made target, alway in the knowledge that I can 'switch on' control when I see things getting out a whack ! The only continuous discipline is to 'weigh in' regular.
I think the system is a good motivator if the individual has a competitive nature and, as long as you are honest with recording, it also encourages excercise as the additional calories can be regarded as an immediate 'reward' for the effort at the end of a day.
Long term weight control is always more difficult simply because enthusiasm/motivation leave you at some point. The key to maintaining a healthy weight over a longer period of time is to enjoy the additional activities introduced for losing weight so that the increased excercise amounts to a lifestye change.
Easier said than done but finding a sport or activity which burns calories and is really enjoyable is much more sustainable than simply controlling intake. (Which EVERYONE gets fed up with eventually!!)

Machka9

I've wanted to lose a little bit of weight a few times in my life.

Each time I did the one thing that made the most sense to me ... I ate fewer calories than I burned. And in order to do that, I tracked my calories as best I could, and exercised a bit more. Each time I lost the weight I wanted to lose.

The first time was when I was about 17 ... back then, I had to find calorie information in my mother's medical texts, women's magazines, and library books. I wrote up a list of foods and their calorie counts.

Then I maintained for a while.

The next time was when I was 23. Same thing again with the books etc..

Then I maintained for a long time.

Next I was about 40, and by then there were some online sites ... FitDay, Daily Plate etc. Difficult sites to use. I used one of them for 3 weeks, and by then I had a good idea what I needed to eat ... and lost the weight.

Then I maintained for a bit.

I again when I was 43 with a beta version of Daily Plate that didn't work very well, but I used it for 3 weeks, and then (again), I had reminded myself what I needed to eat ... and lost the weight.

And maintained for a while.

And then I came here when I was 48 in 2015 ... and found MFP was a much more user-friendly site, so I lost a lot of weight.

jessicarobinson00

Calorie counter here..been here since March 2014. From 183 to 128 (+/-) now. I hit maintenance in October 2015 and now I find I log back in randomly to reign it in a little when I push my weight range too far. It works...whether I'm physically logging it not, I find I tend to calorie judge items in my head now and I know when I'm over.

kgirlhart

I just used MFP and counted calories. I started in late September of 2015. I lost ~76 pounds and I have been in maintenance for about 9 months. I actually called maintenance in July 2016 after reaching my original goal of 60 pounds lost. I started out with just walking and counting calories. I added in some yoga and after I hit my original goal I decided that I needed some fitness goals so I downloaded the C25K app and started running. I am a lot more active now and I can eat more in maintenance than I expected to, but I think that moderating and tracking my portions has been the key to my weight loss. I have never done low carb or weight watchers. I did lose weight in the 90's doing low fat, but it was way too restrictive and I gained it all back plus some. I don't ever plan to restrict any foods again (unless I have a medical reason). I will only restrict calories. I really didn't change what I eat. I just changed my portion sizes. I eat bread and sugar and processed foods. I only eat foods that I like that I consider to be worth the calories. I do try to hit my protein goal so I eat a lot of Greek yogurt now. I never really ate it before and didn't know how much I liked it until I started trying to increase my protein. I didn't really have an AHA moment. My youngest child went off to college and I had some time on my hands so I started walking his dog. Then after looking at some photos I decided that I was going to start tracking my food and everything just fell into place.

Vicham76

I started MFP July 10 of last year. I have gone from 380 to 225.1 in that time. I chose to eat 2200 calories per day as this is the amount i would need to consume (at a healthy weight). I tried to add some sort of exercise for 30 minutes 5 days a week such as taking a walk or using a rowing machine.

VeryKatie

Um. It's all I use now. I used WW in the past but it wasn't sustainable for me so I switched (MFP only since 2014). I don't do specific diet types. Does that count?

jdwayne59

Calorie counting only here, but I do log any normal daily exercise like yard work or lengthy walks. I have lost 12 lbs over the past thirty days. My AHA! moment was when I was setting up MFP, after answering the questions and telling it I wanted to lose 1 lb. per week it gave me my recommended calorie intake of 2,030 and that really blew me away. The AHA was realizing that my target intake had to be way less than what I had been previously eating and finally figuring out that I was probably eating between 3,000 and 4,000 per day beforehand. Most of us do not even realize how many calories we consume in a day but MFP keeps that in the forefront of your mind and makes losing the weight very easy.At this point I usually have over 100-200 calories banked at the end of the day and I rarely ever get to the point where I feel very hungry. And banking the daily calories over the course of a week will allow you to "eat dirty" at least one, maybe two meals on the weekend. Once you figure out a daily routine for meals (mine are usually pretty much the same throughout the week) you will see the weight drop quickly. Breakfast - 3 large boiled eggs halved, topped with sriracha and diced tomatoes along with six Ritz crackers. Lunch - Smoked Turkey (Oscar Mayer, 4-5 slices) on Arnnold's smooth whole wheat bread with 2 tbsp. Miracle Whip, sriracha and slice of tomato. Instead of chips with the sandwich I eat celery sticks. Dinner - Varies. By this point in the day I have MANY calories left because the other two meals have only put me around the 600-700 mark and I can eat a whole foot long black forest ham sandwich from subway if I choose and still have a few calories left over for snacking later if I feel the need, but usually don't and bank the calories. If you like Subway they have a very handy nutrition calculator that you can use to build your sandwich before you go in to order. Once you get in the habit it is very easy to lose lots of weight very quickly and if you make it a habit then there's really no need to ever stop. Just make sure you drink lots of water. I drink NO soft drinks, only water, coffee (with cream and sugar once in the morning) and a light beer 4 or 5 times a week along with a meal. Hang with it and you will be surprised at how easy it is to meet and exceed your goals. There will be mornings that you step on the scale and see that you are a pound or two more than you were the day before but do not let that discourage you, stick with it and you will most likely see that on the next weigh in, you are down those pounds and another one or two as well. Do your weigh in once a day in the mornings before any caloric intake and stay away from the scales throughout the rest of the day because there are many mitigating factors that cause your weight to vary during those times of the day/evening. Good luck in your endeavors!

mph323

I used MFP to lose 50 lbs. and maintain for 6 months so far. I don't follow any particular way of eating - I make sure I hit my protein and fiber minimums, get a reasonable amount of fat, and don't worry about carbs. I still weigh and log, and plan on continuing for the foreseeable future.

I did very little exercise when I first started, due to working full time with a long commute, and lost over 30 lbs mostly due to just staying at my calorie goal. When I retired I was able to incorporate more activity, but I also increased my calories to compensate, and continued losing at the same rate (a little under .5 lbs. per week) until I reached my goal in Feb. 2018.

My Aha! moment was the realization that I was sick, unhappy and on the edge of missing out on the rest of my life if I didn't make a commitment to losing weight, and later, getting more active. I wrote a bit about it in my profile if you want to take a look for more detail

I hope you stay, and give yourself permission to enjoy life while you pursue your commitment to a healthier you! Eat food you like and be social with your friends. Trust the process.