How is it going?

chrismacboy

Hello everyone! How is everyone doing with My Fitness Pal app? I have good days and days that are not so good. Like right now not exercising much due to a knee injury.

Anyone here have similar issues?

JaysFan82

Loving it. Down 51.2 pounds since Feb.24 . I log into my app multiple times a day. I also track all my food the night before. I work a lot better with structure. So far so good.

AnnPT77

I have had similar issues, and still have some. I'm 66, have been here on MFP since age 59 (just less than a year to lose from obese to healthy weight, the other 6+ years to maintain a healthy weight since).

I've had various phases where I was injured, had surgery and needed to recover, or otherwise couldn't be as active as usual. That's kind of how life is, y'know?

One of the things I like about MFP is its standard process of getting a basic calorie goal (before considering intentional exercise), then logging exercise when it happens and eating those calories, too. With some time doing this, I have a pretty good understanding of how I need to eat to accomplish my weight goals when I'm doing normal workouts, no workouts, or occasionally higher than average workouts.

As far as good days and bad days, I'm not sure exactly what you mean. For sure, there are some days when I eat over my calorie goal, other days when I eat under it; some days when my nutrition is stellar, other days when honestly there's more pizza, beer and ice cream than (non-pizza-topping) veggies. I was still able to lose weight, and maintain a healthy weight long term.

IMO, a couple key things to realize viscerally are that:

1. Bodies don't reset at midnight. The implication is that I'm over goal some days, under others, and average out over a week or so to where I want to be (on either calories or nutrition) that's going to be just fine.

2. The majority of our days determine the majority of our bodyweight and fitness outcomes. The unusual days are a drop in the ocean of life, as long as they're relatively rare. The implication is that I can have a food-indulgent holiday or vacation, and as long as I get back to my normal healthy routine, things are likely to work out fine over the long haul. I usually see a scary-big water retention jump after a day or few that's way over calorie goal, but it drops off over a week or so, and the actual fat gain is minimal to zip/nada. **

** Illustrative story here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope#latest

Personally, given the above context, I don't really think of things as "good days" vs. "bad days". I try to mostly have an active life (not just healthy exercise that I personally find mostly enjoyable for its own sake, but also a "bias toward movement" in daily life **). I try to hit my calorie goal most of the time, and hit my personal nutritional goals most days (but certainly on average over a typical week).

** More about that daily life movement thing in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

Figuring out how to eat and be active in ways that are enjoyable (or at least tolerable) and practical, that can be practiced and become daily routine habits, has been key for me.

I encourage new/repeat people here not so much to try to make weight loss (or fitness) happen fast, but rather to figure out how to make it as easy and sustainable as possible, via comfortable new habits. Having habits that pretty much happen on autopilot, when life becomes complicated - because it will - has been helpful. Things aren't always perfect, but they don't need to be - they just need to be good enough most of the time, y'know?

As an aside, I'm a low drama person: The whole rhetoric that's so common around weight loss, with melodrama about "good foods", "bad foods", "cheat days", "junk food", "superfoods", blah blah blah - I think that's a distraction from the core important issue of finding an individualized happy, practical life that balances appropriate calories, reasonable overall nutrition, tasty/practical/affordable food choices, enjoyable movement, and more.

Weight management is not an epic battle between good and evil, and being overweight is not a sin we need to suffer in order to expiate. Strict, oppressive eating rules, and miserable, punitive exercise are absolutely optional, and can even be counterproductive.

Best wishes!

annliz23

I am getting there slowly but if I push it to much I have knee and hip issues so slow and steady. Good luck.