Don't know what to eat to lose weight

caitwence300
caitwence300 Posts: 14 Member
in Motivation and Support
I've doing this 1200 calorie a day for the past 14 day's been basically eating whatever I want but less and in my budget but weighed myself today and I actually 2kg I'm so stressed what the hell am I supposed to do😢

Replies

  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    Why are you at 1200? Is that what mfp gave you based on your rate of loss? Possibly that’s too aggressive for what you have to lose and you could be causing excess stress on your body (and misery to yourself and a good chance of giving up).

    Weigh and accurately track everything. Remember that it isn’t a race. Consider a lower rate of loss. Make sure you get adequate rest as not enough sleep can cause additional water retention.
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,531 Member
    Try calorie counting. It works. In theory you can eat anything and lose weight if you control the portions. But there’s a very big problem that trips up a lot of people- living with it.

    No one can really tell you what to eat. I could tell you what I eat, but you may hate it. So you need to look at what you like, crunch the numbers and see how might make a workable plan you can live with.

    There’s a fairly long learning curve and a lot of trial and error. Weight loss is mostly about problem solving and persistence. Avoid any plan trying to get you to eat specific foods or combination of foods. Avoid anything promising x number of lbs in y number of days. There’s no weight loss secret to be discovered, calorie counting is well known. Try it. It can work for you.

    Ps. You really do need to use a food scale.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    +1 suggestion to use a scale. I love my little Escali.

    There is no food that will make you lose weight all on its own - no, not even celery, it's a myth that chewing celery burns more calories than the celery itself provides. All food represents "calories in." But, here's the thing, your body burns calories just to keep you alive, even if you're sitting completely still and just breathing - that's "calories out." No matter what you eat, if the caloric value of that food is less than what your body needs to keep you going about your business, your body will have to start burning its fat stores to get the rest of that energy it needs, and voila, you've lost weight.

    Think of your body's energy budget like a bank account; the fat on your body is a savings account, and calories from food are deposited into the checking account when you eat. Going about your daily routine costs $X per day drawn from your checking account, and the goal is to overdraft so that your body has to dip into those savings to pay its daily Being Alive fees. Way back in humanity's halcyon days of hunting and gathering and persistence predation, this savings account was a feature, not a bug. At that time, the Being Alive fee was much higher, so it was good to have that savings account for backup. These days, most people don't need to work nearly as hard to acquire food, but evolution is slow and still thinks we're stalking antelope and foraging for berries.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    What cwolfman says above.

    Some questions that could be relevant (you don't have to answer, they are for you to think about). What was your starting weight? How certain are you about that? Did you weigh regularly before starting this? Did you weigh at any point between now and two weeks ago? Same scale, same time of day, same clothes? Could the time of the month be affecting your weight (it doesn't affect all women the same way at the same times). Have you started exercising or increased the amounts? All these things could explain weird fluctuations.

    I like weighing daily to get familiar with the weird up and downs.

    As for the 1200, did you log what you ate before, so you can have a sense of how much of a cut it is? It could be too little for you (although that wouldn't explain not losing unless that causes you to have days of overeating due to too few cals). If you open your diary we'd have a better sense.

    You had it right that you can eat whatever you like and lose, if the cals are in check, but of course you will want to pay attention to what is filling and helps you feel energized, as well as nutrition (for health and sustainability).

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