Break the black/white thinking
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Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
To maintain weight you must eat your exercise calories - whether you label them as such or not.
That's why your advice gets so much negative feedback, it doesn't actually make sense.10 -
Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
They are not actually dislikes - they are disagrees. It isnt a personal like/dislike thing - people disagree with what you are saying.
So do I - and I will explain why....
Sure, some people can lose weight without calorie counting and dont like using an app (although hardly being chained to an app, rather an emotive exageration there
) - and if that is you that's fine.
It doesnt make it good advice for everyone else though.
it isnt how MFP works either - so probably fair to assume most people who are on MFP forums are intending to use MFP method.
and then you go on to say focus on food you like and activities you enjoy, as if it is calorie counting OR doing that.
Which of course it isnt - most people on here are probably doing both - ie calorie counting AND finding foods/activities they enjoy.
and of course it is an estimate to a degree - nobody claims otherwise. Have never heard anyone claim their logging was absolutely 100% accurate to the last calorie.
Not getting how that extrapolates to Dont do it at all.
and "Is your life a diet or a lifestyle" just sounds an empty sound bite to me - It is a diet/way of eating/lifestyle/whatever you want to call it.
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Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
Two weeks?
Anything can work for two weeks. You can go on the banana - lemon juice - chocolate cake diet for two weeks and lose weight. You can do the asparagus and Happy Meal diet and lose weight for two weeks. You can do the Game of Thrones and Popcorn diet for two weeks and lose a few pounds.
Are you sure the "no calorie counting, just do you" approach would work for 6, 12 or 18 months?
It's best to be very, very humble with diet advice. Most diets fail right after the honeymoon phase - 2 to 6 weeks. Many people can't even begin to make intuitive eating work; I am one of them. Counting calories and eating back exercise at least mimics what the body's actually doing with the food, and treats it as an algebra issue, which is what it is.6 -
@igfrie, i think you misread the above: I believe he is saying that he is at goal and has been maintaining for two weeks.
I would be more interested in his approach once his maintenance crosses the two year mark. And even more so when it crosses the five year mark.8 -
Many years ago I lost about 30-35 pounds doing weight watchers. I was getting fed up with it and decided to take a break and maintain without counting anything. I still exercised and was careful not to overeat- just ate when I was hungry and stopped when I was full. At first, it worked and I was incredibly impressed with myself. No counting, no weighing, and I'm still maintaining! However, the weight was creeping on. I gained about 15 pounds before I finally admitted I needed to be counting/weighing everything.
If you eat just 200 extra calories every day, you'll gain about 20 pounds over the course of a year. Most people aren't going to notice 200 extra calories per day as far as feeling "too full" or anything like that. There are also many foods that are calorie dense but not necessarily that satiating. I'd much rather spend a few minutes per day logging foods than trying to guess and then wait and see if I gain weight or not.6 -
oh I dont doubt that there are people who can lose, and can maintain, without calorie counting - so not disagreeing that such works for KHMcg.
I still disagree with the advice he gave OP - for the reasons I already explained.6 -
@igfrie, i think you misread the above: I believe he is saying that he is at goal and has been maintaining for two weeks.
I would be more interested in his approach once his maintenance crosses the two year mark. And even more so when it crosses the five year mark.
It looks like you may be right about that. Still, like you, I think intuitive eating is bad advice for most people. At a minimum, anyone who's on a diet site (like MFP) has or had issues eating the right amount of stuff.
I can't think of any other challenging aspect of life where people believe the key to success is to not measure anything and just roll with it until success happens. It's like telling someone to go in the kitchen and whip up a Beef Bourgoigon without a recipe, by only paying attention to how much of each ingredient you feel should go in the pot. Specifically, someone who's wrecked every meal they've ever tried to cook LOL10 -
Yes that is a good analogy.
There are people who can cook without recipes or without measuring ingredients - I myself make soups with a rough recipe in my head and I do not measure the ingredients.
But I wouldn't answer someone's question of how to begin cooking with 'i make soups without a written recipe or measurements so you can just start by making anything by guess work.'7 -
paperpudding wrote: »Yes that is a good analogy.
There are people who can cook without recipes or without measuring ingredients - I myself make soups with a rough recipe in my head and I do not measure the ingredients.
But I wouldn't answer someone's question of how to begin cooking with 'i make soups without a written recipe or measurements so you can just start by making anything by guess work.'
Heh. I maybe would tell people to make soup like that, even beginners. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? A short-term learning experience, or some food waste (assuming one avoids consuming actual poison).
I wouldn't tell someone with a history of weight gain or iffy nutrition to manage eating in such a slap-dash way, though: What's at risk is more important, and you may not realize you have a problem until long after the fact. Calorie counting isn't the only possible method, but it's the most sensible one to give advice about on a calorie-counting site.
Reaching goal weight is swell. Kudos to anyone who does it. Statistics suggest maintenance is the harder go, though. The test of time - 2, 3, 5, 10 years - matters.
Different lifestyles work for different people. Being snarky or dismissive about other people's (non-dangerous) choices is . . . well, that would be snarky or dismissive of me to say, wouldn't it?
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Leaving aside the cooking analogy - because analogies can get taken too far and I think we have made our point with that one - yes I agree different lifestyles work for different people.
I didnt think there was any snarkiness - I acknowledged that what KHMcg is doing could work for him and for some others.
It still was not good advice for OP and I disagreed with his thinking so.3 -
paperpudding wrote: »Leaving aside the cooking analogy - because analogies can get taken too far and I think we have made our point with that one - yes I agree different lifestyles work for different people.
I didnt think there was any snarkiness - I acknowledged that what KHMcg is doing could work for him and for some others.
It still was not good advice for OP and I disagreed with his thinking so.
I didn't think you were snarky or dismissive, just for the record.
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Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
Two weeks?
Anything can work for two weeks. You can go on the banana - lemon juice - chocolate cake diet for two weeks and lose weight. You can do the asparagus and Happy Meal diet and lose weight for two weeks. You can do the Game of Thrones and Popcorn diet for two weeks and lose a few pounds.
Are you sure the "no calorie counting, just do you" approach would work for 6, 12 or 18 months?
It's best to be very, very humble with diet advice. Most diets fail right after the honeymoon phase - 2 to 6 weeks. Many people can't even begin to make intuitive eating work; I am one of them. Counting calories and eating back exercise at least mimics what the body's actually doing with the food, and treats it as an algebra issue, which is what it is.
6 weeks now at maintenance.0 -
Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
Two weeks?
Anything can work for two weeks. You can go on the banana - lemon juice - chocolate cake diet for two weeks and lose weight. You can do the asparagus and Happy Meal diet and lose weight for two weeks. You can do the Game of Thrones and Popcorn diet for two weeks and lose a few pounds.
Are you sure the "no calorie counting, just do you" approach would work for 6, 12 or 18 months?
It's best to be very, very humble with diet advice. Most diets fail right after the honeymoon phase - 2 to 6 weeks. Many people can't even begin to make intuitive eating work; I am one of them. Counting calories and eating back exercise at least mimics what the body's actually doing with the food, and treats it as an algebra issue, which is what it is.
6 weeks now at maintenance.
Congratulations, but generally maintaining is something that is measured in years, not weeks.3 -
Its 6 of one or half a dozen of the other.
MFP goal of 1200 daily assumes you earn extra for exercise - and you indicate (not in what I quoted, but its in your post) 3-5 workouts weekly. Those 3-5 workouts weekly are counted in the TDEE so would account for the 300/day difference between MFP's 1200 and the calculator's 1500. Its assuming the workouts burn an extra 2100 per week.
If you feel that is too much (2100/week for workouts) then cut it in half, assume 1350 is more accurate than 1500. And either eat 1200 + extra for working out, or set goal manually to 1350 daily and do not worry about workout calories (because they are reflected in the 1350) as long as you feel satisfied/energetic on what you are consuming.
Planning is helpful, and hopefully you'll build an arsenal of food choices to fall back on for when plans go awry.laurosaurusrex wrote: »
I know it's low, but MFP set me to 1200 calories a day. I checked a TDEE calculator and that gave me 1500 calories for a 1 lb. loss a week which I know is probably more realistic and sustainable. But of course, my mind has a hard time embracing that.
Just wondering if any of you could share your words of advice or support or wisdom.
I really do appreciate it
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Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
If I could do that I wouldn't have weighed twice what I ought. I must weigh/measure my food so I know how much to eat. More importantly, I log it and keep count of how many calories I am ingesting a day. I know how I weighed so much. I ate twice as much as I needed.3 -
Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
Two weeks?
Anything can work for two weeks. You can go on the banana - lemon juice - chocolate cake diet for two weeks and lose weight. You can do the asparagus and Happy Meal diet and lose weight for two weeks. You can do the Game of Thrones and Popcorn diet for two weeks and lose a few pounds.
Are you sure the "no calorie counting, just do you" approach would work for 6, 12 or 18 months?
It's best to be very, very humble with diet advice. Most diets fail right after the honeymoon phase - 2 to 6 weeks. Many people can't even begin to make intuitive eating work; I am one of them. Counting calories and eating back exercise at least mimics what the body's actually doing with the food, and treats it as an algebra issue, which is what it is.
6 weeks now at maintenance.
That is excellent. Keep doing what you are doing unless it stops.
It proves nothing however. I would never counsel anyone to do exactly what I do in relation to food. I wouldn't even recommend logging the exact same way I log. My system is based on my habits, my strengths, my weak spots, and how I want to live and eat now and, as it is planned right now, at least 5 years from now. It may be forever but I do not like to plan that far out. Future me may need or want to do something different.
I try to encourage habit and mindset changes in others and hope they will figure out their specifics through experimentation/trial and error.6 -
Don't weigh your food. Don't eat back your calories. Concentrate on learning how much and what to eat that helps you lose and maintain. Then keep your active lifestyle. Focus on finding foods you like and activities you enjoy.
Yep I still feel this way. Give me more dislikes please. I don't want to be chained to an app. The app is just a tool to learn and correct.
BTW I do this. Never weigh my food. Never eat back calories.
Two weeks at 100% goal and moving to maintenance now. Calories and macros are estimates at best anyways.
Is your life a diet or lifestyle?
You are giving educated, trained behaviors to the novice. It might as well be a test. If that behavior is your recommendation for the OP’s success, then state how you achieved this behavior, how it became successful for you, and what steps OP should take. Otherwise, your statement is pointless.
Don’t be a d.
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