At Goal & Successfully Maintaining. So Why Am I Doing This All Over Again?
springlering62
Posts: 9,465 Member
Many of you know me from the boards. I’m going to cut right to the chase with a before (May 2018) and after (July 2021)photo. MFP works.
I wholeheartedly believe in MFP’s philosophy of CICO (calories in/calories out). I’ve been successful with it.
So why am I “starting over”?
During his annual physical, my beloved’s doctor told him that he’s medicating his weight, as much as his conditions and that weight loss could eliminate the need for some of his meds. Hiding my mental fist pump,I leaned in hard on doc’s words and whispered sultrily,”and I want Beloved by my side for as many more years as possible.”
Beloved said, “All right then. Let’s do this. Make me an account on that phone thing you use.”
I find myself in the very odd position of being successful at both loss and maintenance, yet “starting over”, temporarily assisting with a new account and a new goal.
I thought I would share some of my observations as an experienced MFP user, helping a newb find his way through through the befuddlement of getting started- which is the hardest part of the whole process.
I’m planning to update here, as we discover ways to make this more user friendly for him, and hopefully for you, too.
I sincerely hope this will help someone. Please feel free to post questions.
I wholeheartedly believe in MFP’s philosophy of CICO (calories in/calories out). I’ve been successful with it.
So why am I “starting over”?
During his annual physical, my beloved’s doctor told him that he’s medicating his weight, as much as his conditions and that weight loss could eliminate the need for some of his meds. Hiding my mental fist pump,I leaned in hard on doc’s words and whispered sultrily,”and I want Beloved by my side for as many more years as possible.”
Beloved said, “All right then. Let’s do this. Make me an account on that phone thing you use.”
I find myself in the very odd position of being successful at both loss and maintenance, yet “starting over”, temporarily assisting with a new account and a new goal.
I thought I would share some of my observations as an experienced MFP user, helping a newb find his way through through the befuddlement of getting started- which is the hardest part of the whole process.
I’m planning to update here, as we discover ways to make this more user friendly for him, and hopefully for you, too.
I sincerely hope this will help someone. Please feel free to post questions.
154
Replies
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Getting set up.
This was much easier than I remember three years ago. Either MFP streamlined the process, or I’m familiar with the process now. It was extremely simple.
We began by setting him up as a brand new account on his own phone. MFP literally walked us through it in a few simple steps.
(If you already have an account, you can accomplish the same thing via the Goals tab.)
Sex, current weight, height, activity level, goal weight, how much do you wish to lose per week? BL (“Beloved”) wants to lose 50.
I know from experience here on MFP that it’s not a good idea to go higher than that unless you have a very large amount to lose. Being greedy for fast weight loss causes frustration which causes binging, which causes frustration, an unhappy cycle that leads to a high % of failure.
We agreed to set his loss at 1 pound a week, explaining that he had the option to slow down at any time, especially as he gets closer to goal.
One thing I did not like that MFP did was defaulting to the first part of his email address as his user ID. Other websites stopped doing that years ago, for obvious security reasons.
We immediately went in and changed his user ID. Unfortunately you only get one change, and we’ve used it within the first five minutes. Arrgggggh. Hope BL is happy with his choice.
MFP gave BL a daily goal of 1870.
“How many do you get?”
“2200 before exercise.”
Cue the suspicious, disbelieving grunt. “You’re smaller than me. You’re female. That doesn’t seem fair. How come you get so many more?”
“You can’t compare yourself to me. You shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone else. It all boils down to a few factors but mainly activity level. I get 8-10,000 steps a day just walking around the house, not including my two daily walks, workouts, weight training. Your phone recorded 1834 steps for you yesterday. I’m also in maintenance, whereas you are in loss mode.”
A pound is roughly 3500 calories. MFP calculates a 500 calorie per day deficit to lose a pound a week. That’s 7x500=3500 deficit to lose a pound.
If BL wanted to just maintain his current weight, he could eat 2370 calories per day. Since we set him at a pound loss per week, MFP automatically calculated his goal at 500 calories per day less, hence the 1870.
MFP does all the math for you. It’s very, very simple and very effective.
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and now your hubby has entered our crazy world!
WONT THIS BE SO MUCH FUN??????????
dont answer that.
welcome aboard Mr. Spring26 -
Eek 1870 steps! Are you planning to invite him on your walks? Maybe now that he has the numbers in front of him he will see the benefits!
Anyway bravo to him making a change a good luck!7 -
1870 steps.
It is what it is.
If he doesn’t want to walk, I wouldn’t push it.
But…. If he wants more calories …. There is an obvious option there. 😁
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In all fairness, he can’t carry his phone during tai chi or the Fit Generation class he’s doing while the pool is closed again. He’s already making the connection.
We’ll be getting him an Apple Watch shortly to track his workouts, and better record steps. Waiting to hear what new superpowers the 7 will have when Apple does the product intro in a couple of weeks. If it has the sugar monitor that’s been rumored, that would be worth waiting for.15 -
Or fitbit or Garmin where the daily calories actually transfer correctly over to MFP (most of the time if everything is working.. vs 0% of the time when Apple is directly connected 🤬)5
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springlering62 wrote: »In all fairness, he can’t carry his phone during tai chi or the Fit Generation class he’s doing while the pool is closed again. He’s already making the connection.
We’ll be getting him an Apple Watch shortly to track his workouts, and better record steps. Waiting to hear what new superpowers the 7 will have when Apple does the product intro in a couple of weeks. If it has the sugar monitor that’s been rumored, that would be worth waiting for.
I wish Apple Fitness+ would include Tai Chi.
Also? I am also hoping against hope for the non invasive glucose monitor. But I don’t think it’s going to happen this time around.
Kitten.4 -
Reviewed my husbands logging and found a couple days he overcharged himself by 200+ calories.
I had created and saved a smoothie we both like as a meal.
(You’ll find the meal and recipe function on the main menu. The meal actually works better for me as a recipe saver, because you can alter the ingredients easier, rename the dish, and add as many notes as you need to it.)
To save the hassle of micro amounts, I set it up as a full recipe and reminded him to change his serving size to “.5”. He forgot.
It might be a good idea to get him a little more invested in making snacks and smoothies, so he has a clearer idea of ingredients and quantities.
He had also logged his lunches in, using some sketchy entries.
MFPs food entries are crowd sourced, which means many are incomplete, wrong, or even deliberately mis-entered for….ummm…..various reasons. (I’ve seen whole cakes listed as 50 calories and other similar fantasy foods.).
Double check the entries and compare them to other similar entries. “Scott’s Jello Recipe” may be great for Scott, but Scott may have his own spin on the instructions on the box. Ditto for someone who entered “deli tukrey slices”.
Always question the accuracy.
All in all, he’s doing super well!!!20 -
Here to swoon over beloved and fist pump in support of you both being on here...this "phone thing" 😂😍13
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Seriously enjoying this thread! You are very amusing, thanks for the fun read.4
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BL made a 750+ calorie breakfast this weekend. Realized his mistake by dinner time. Had enough calories left for the day for a reasonable dinner but that was all of them.
He studied his phone, and then his head popped up. “Hey, can we get some calories if we go for a walk?
He burned over 200 on his walk and I made him a giant smoothie of cashew milk, yogurt, cacao powder, zero calorie waffle cone syrup, and a buttload of ice for about 105.
(You can “buy back” calories via exercise. Many successful MFP users suggest eating back only half your exercise calories, to allow margin of error, especially for new users.)
The next day he thought ahead and planned his calories out for the day. He had nearly 500 left for after dinner, so got another smoothie and a bowl of yogurt cheesecake pudding. And an extra dinner roll, too. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
If I could only convince him to pre-log his meals. That’s been sooooo helpful for me, especially when I need to make changes on the fly. But he’s already reached the “thinking about it” stage, and that’s awesome.37 -
It's so awesome that he got his wake-up call and is ready to make some changes. My SO and I started our fitness journey together, but he doesn't seem to need to log everything like I do. For me, I need that motivation of logging everything. I stopped logging back in 2020 when Covid first came here, and I gained almost 15lbs and lost a lot of muscle definition. So I can also attest to the fact that sites/apps like MFP work.11
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This is one of the best threads I've seen pop up with inspiration and advice lately!!
Unbelievably inspiring!! Thank you so much for sharing and hope you keep it updated regularly.
You, alone, are amazing but to encourage your beloved(I love that
) and walk beside him the whole way, is awesome as well. Not enough hearts to let you know how great it all is.
I'm sure a lot of the bits of advice you offer will help others, nuggets of wisdom and trying this or that.
I also have to add a thought that I've had ever since I saw the head stand picture. You are awesome!! I'm jealous you can do a head stand. I couldn't have done one in my better days.
Way to go in every way. 11 -
springlering62 wrote: »But he’s already reached the “thinking about it” stage, and that’s awesome.
that usually comes right before the 'pre logging' stage.
but you and i know that
I bet he comes around to it
LOL
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »But he’s already reached the “thinking about it” stage, and that’s awesome.
that usually comes right before the 'pre logging' stage.
but you and i know that
I bet he comes around to it
LOL
Or perhaps not I've been here for two years, I still don't do it! 9 -
Part of losing weight means trying new foods, or taking a new look at old ones.
Many people don’t care for sugar-free products. I’ve found them to be a godsend. But you never know what you’ll get.
I add half an ounce of Jordan’s zero-cal chocolate waffle cone syrup to our smoothies, along with some Trader Joe’s cacao powder. It makes them taste like ice cream, which makes them a treat.
Last night we boiled a couple pounds of shrimp. (If you didn’t know, you can have a serious pig out on shrimp for not many calories, and they’re a great protein booster. )
We were looking forward to trying the sugar free cocktail sauce from one of our favorite brands.
Epic fail. It tasted like the ancient bottles of insecticide smelled in my dad’s old shed. Yuck yuck yuck.
BL was vastly disappointed. I didn’t know what to do, so pulled out a lemon and just squirted it on the shrimp.
To our surprise, we really liked the lemon better than any cocktail sauce we’ve had.
So, we’re both still learning.
(Lesson learned: order bulk of products you already know you like to get that free shipping, and only get one bottle of whatever it is you’re wanting to try. I ordered three bottles of this noxious cocktail sauce. 🤦🏻♀️)
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I LOVE Jordan’s Skinny Syrup! I use the fruity flavors with club soda, mint and lime as an alcohol alternative.7
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »But he’s already reached the “thinking about it” stage, and that’s awesome.
that usually comes right before the 'pre logging' stage.
but you and i know that
I bet he comes around to it
LOL
Or perhaps not I've been here for two years, I still don't do it!
sometimes i do, sometimes i dont. i usually know in my HEAD what im doing, if nothing else LOL but.... ive been here almost a decade at this point, so.... yanno .... whatever LMAO2 -
Greetings All - I am new to the group and so inspired by Spring’s transformation! How fortunate your Hub is that you are willing to help. I look forward to sharing the journey!3
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Shrimp tip, buy some Hidden Valley ranch dressing powder, sprinkle on shrimp and broil in oven, flip over and do it again. They taste HEAVENLY for almost nothing.25
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »But he’s already reached the “thinking about it” stage, and that’s awesome.
that usually comes right before the 'pre logging' stage.
but you and i know that
I bet he comes around to it
LOL
Or perhaps not I've been here for two years, I still don't do it!
Year 6. Pretty much never pre-log, didn't even when losing, other than a rare what-if on the last meal of a day if I know I've painted myself into a tight corner earlier in the day. I know other people swear by pre-logging as an essential success factor. I don't agree. I think it's an optional style thingie that works best for many, not for all. I don't think I've *ever* prelogged a whole day. 🤷♀️
I vote that if Spring's husband was smart enough to marry her; and now has been smart enough to realize that calorie counting can be a useful thing for him, too; then he's smart enough to figure out whether he wants/need to prelog, vs. it would annoy him as much as it would annoy me.
Call me optimistic (for once). 😉
This thread is better than a TV drama.27 -
BL logged an hour fitness class using the MFP “add exercise” function. MFP calculated 794 calories burned. Huh?!
Adding a Tai Chi class was good for 450+.
No way, Jose. I’ve done that class with him many times and I can’t see it.
I think this explains some of the puzzlingly super high calorie burns reported by some of my MFP friends on their automated feeds.
MFP is set up for you to eat your exercise calories back. Many users buffer reporting errors by eating half of them. But if your exercise calories are wonky, you can see the problem.
If you feel like you’ve plateaued or aren’t losing fast enough, take a look at your calorie burns and ask here on the forums or one of your trusted, more experienced “friends” if the calorie burn looks accurate. You can PM any linked friend if you’re too shy to ask publicly. The other users here are so good about answering and sharing.
Better yet, invest in a fitness tracker. There’s tons out there at all price points, or you can buy used ones off Marketplace, etc. Borrow one from a friend or family member and give it a test run.
It’s pretty easy to connect and sync a tracker with MFP and let technology do the work* for you.
We are waiting for the Apple Watch 7 launch in a couple weeks to see how we’ll add to and shuffle our trackers. (Holding our breath to to see if the rumored sugar monitoring will finally be a reality.)
BL has pooh-pooh’ed the value of a tracker until now (he’s silently muttered “obsessive” under his breath at me more than once). Now he “gets” the value of accurately recording his calories.
(*some trackers require a break-in period to sorta learn your metabolism and habits before they become as potentially accurate as they may be. That’s my simple explanation.
Oh, and you’ll also discover trackers generally report far fewer calories than the calculators built into gym equipment. My own watch records 1/3 fewer calories burned than the treadmill at my gym, even when I do take the time to enter my age and weight prior to starting a session. My watch even calculates about 20% less than my own home stationary bike, which has been exclusively used by me.)4 -
springlering62 wrote: »BL logged an hour fitness class using the MFP “add exercise” function. MFP calculated 794 calories burned. Huh?!
Adding a Tai Chi class was good for 450+.
No way, Jose. I’ve done that class with him many times and I can’t see it.
I think this explains some of the puzzlingly super high calorie burns reported by some of my MFP friends on their automated feeds.
MFP is set up for you to eat your exercise calories back. Many users buffer reporting errors by eating half of them. But if your exercise calories are wonky, you can see the problem.
If you feel like you’ve plateaued or aren’t losing fast enough, take a look at your calorie burns and ask here on the forums or one of your trusted, more experienced “friends” if the calorie burn looks accurate. You can PM any linked friend if you’re too shy to ask publicly. The other users here are so good about answering and sharing.
Better yet, invest in a fitness tracker. There’s tons out there at all price points, or you can buy used ones off Marketplace, etc. Borrow one from a friend or family member and give it a test run.
It’s pretty easy to connect and sync a tracker with MFP and let technology do the work* for you.
We are waiting for the Apple Watch 7 launch in a couple weeks to see how we’ll add to and shuffle our trackers. (Holding our breath to to see if the rumored sugar monitoring will finally be a reality.)
BL has pooh-pooh’ed the value of a tracker until now (he’s silently muttered “obsessive” under his breath at me more than once). Now he “gets” the value of accurately recording his calories.
(*some trackers require a break-in period to sorta learn your metabolism and habits before they become as potentially accurate as they may be. That’s my simple explanation.
Oh, and you’ll also discover trackers generally report far fewer calories than the calculators built into gym equipment. My own watch records 1/3 fewer calories burned than the treadmill at my gym, even when I do take the time to enter my age and weight prior to starting a session. My watch even calculates about 20% less than my own home stationary bike, which has been exclusively used by me.)
Do remember that heavier people get higher burns. Since he’s a man and overweight he is burning more than you for the same activity.
I actually use the outlandish MFP estimates and successfully maintain that way. However, I also have myself set to sedentary, which isn’t necessarily true, so probably the underestimate from that and the overestimate from the exercise average out.
This is just a theory, but I feel like the estimates work better for people who are sedentary in any case, because what you’re recording is the difference between that activity and no activity - for you. The difference between literally lying on a chaise with my feet up and dancing hard for an hour is going to be more than the difference between trotting around shopping, cleaning house, and dancing for an hour. The fit person person who isn’t sedentary may well think “Gee, that walk was barely even doing anything, I don’t think I earned that many calories for it,” and be correct because they basically walk every moment of the day. While for a very unfit person whose normal is 1800 steps a day, a walk is a distinct difference from the norm.16 -
rheddmobile wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »BL logged an hour fitness class using the MFP “add exercise” function. MFP calculated 794 calories burned. Huh?!
Adding a Tai Chi class was good for 450+.
No way, Jose. I’ve done that class with him many times and I can’t see it.
I think this explains some of the puzzlingly super high calorie burns reported by some of my MFP friends on their automated feeds.
MFP is set up for you to eat your exercise calories back. Many users buffer reporting errors by eating half of them. But if your exercise calories are wonky, you can see the problem.
If you feel like you’ve plateaued or aren’t losing fast enough, take a look at your calorie burns and ask here on the forums or one of your trusted, more experienced “friends” if the calorie burn looks accurate. You can PM any linked friend if you’re too shy to ask publicly. The other users here are so good about answering and sharing.
Better yet, invest in a fitness tracker. There’s tons out there at all price points, or you can buy used ones off Marketplace, etc. Borrow one from a friend or family member and give it a test run.
It’s pretty easy to connect and sync a tracker with MFP and let technology do the work* for you.
We are waiting for the Apple Watch 7 launch in a couple weeks to see how we’ll add to and shuffle our trackers. (Holding our breath to to see if the rumored sugar monitoring will finally be a reality.)
BL has pooh-pooh’ed the value of a tracker until now (he’s silently muttered “obsessive” under his breath at me more than once). Now he “gets” the value of accurately recording his calories.
(*some trackers require a break-in period to sorta learn your metabolism and habits before they become as potentially accurate as they may be. That’s my simple explanation.
Oh, and you’ll also discover trackers generally report far fewer calories than the calculators built into gym equipment. My own watch records 1/3 fewer calories burned than the treadmill at my gym, even when I do take the time to enter my age and weight prior to starting a session. My watch even calculates about 20% less than my own home stationary bike, which has been exclusively used by me.)
Do remember that heavier people get higher burns. Since he’s a man and overweight he is burning more than you for the same activity.
I actually use the outlandish MFP estimates and successfully maintain that way. However, I also have myself set to sedentary, which isn’t necessarily true, so probably the underestimate from that and the overestimate from the exercise average out.
This is just a theory, but I feel like the estimates work better for people who are sedentary in any case, because what you’re recording is the difference between that activity and no activity - for you. The difference between literally lying on a chaise with my feet up and dancing hard for an hour is going to be more than the difference between trotting around shopping, cleaning house, and dancing for an hour. The fit person person who isn’t sedentary may well think “Gee, that walk was barely even doing anything, I don’t think I earned that many calories for it,” and be correct because they basically walk every moment of the day. While for a very unfit person whose normal is 1800 steps a day, a walk is a distinct difference from the norm.
I mean sure, but Mr. Springle still probably didn't burn 700 calories in an hour at a group exercise class, if he just started doing this five minutes ago. That's wild.
I love this developing saga and am having a great time reading it, please keep updating @springlering62 8 -
Hijacked BL’s phone this morning, hooked it up to the Bluetooth scale, and made him weigh in.
He’s one of those who abhors the scale, so I had to put my matronly foot down and say, “yes, you did fit better when spooning (old people’s definition), but let’s make it official. Step thine butt upon yon scale.”
He was pleasantly surprised to find, ten days in to MFP, he’s down several pounds. I could already tell from the (old people def!!!!!) spooning.
So, being the totally anal private in-house personal diet coach glued to his *kitten*, I nit-picked his loss for him, lol.
First of all, his loss is fantastic! Win!!!!!!
But…..
Don’t expect it to continue at this rate. It won’t. 😢
Many people have quick losses the first week or two. Satisfying and wonderfully motivating, but can create unreasonable expectations. This is generally your body shedding water weight related to reduced carbs early on. It’s not “fat” loss.
Fat loss comes with adhering to the CICO (calories in/calories out) program you’ve set up for yourself via MFP.
BL mentioned yesterday being sore in a couple of places from the new workout routine. (His gym’s pool has closed due to the uptick in Covid here, so they’ve offered replacement classes to his group, hence he’s working new muscle groups.)
When your body is sore, your magically wonderful body will retain water, intuitively directing it to the sore or injured areas for healing.
You can literally gain many, many pounds of water weight overnight following an injury. I’ve seen forum posts saying as many as ten.
Anyway, many new users enthusiastically throw themselves into both calorie counting and unfamiliar exercises at the same time. Ever done the duck walk because your thighs are so sore after squats?
Well, guess what. Welcome to water retention, and temporary water weight gain.
Are you picking up a trend here? Water!!!!!
Have you been stressing over the scale fluctuating, even though you’re carefully counting?
Sore muscles. Salty snacks. Fast food. A carb heavy day. Airline travel. Long car trips. Constipation. Dehydration.
Any of these can affect or be affected by the water in your body, leading to short term ups and downs.
Next time your weight shoots up a pound or two, don’t panic. Reflect on what you did or are the day before.
Who knew? Water is the fountain of life and it’s within each and every one of us!
22 -
PS: since he’s sore, I’ll be expecting another pound or two to drop off as he recovers. I haven’t told him. That should be motivating so we’ll let it be a little unexpected surprise. 😇14
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awesome job mr spring!!!!!!!!!!!1
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I hear you. I've been helping my husband lose weight as well. problem is he refuses to track so I basically have to go with "learn what a reasonable portion looks like" and always read labels. He is down about 50 lb and has 25 more to go. it has been a very slow process.
Making my own dressings and sauces has resulted in a much better product IMHO, both the flavor and the nutrition profile.12 -
I hear you. I've been helping my husband lose weight as well. problem is he refuses to track so I basically have to go with "learn what a reasonable portion looks like" and always read labels. He is down about 50 lb and has 25 more to go. it has been a very slow process.
Making my own dressings and sauces has resulted in a much better product IMHO, both the flavor and the nutrition profile.
Humblest props to you both. It’s a challenge to be informative and supportive, and not come off as bossy and pushy. Or mean. Or critical. Or as the Calorie Nazi.
I’ve told Mr Spring about this thread. He refuses to read it lol. Probably a good thing.17 -
My husband absolutely loses his tiny mind any time the scale goes up due to water weight. I can say, “You literally just now told me your quads are so sore you can barely walk, of course you have water retention,” or, “You told me last night when we ate all that sushi that the soy was gonna make you gain water weight,” and he will still be a total drama queen about how he doesn’t see the point in logging and trying to lose if he’s just going to gain three pounds in one day. Total. Drama. Queen.20
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