Hello!!!

susanpf

Hi. My name is Susan and I’m fairly new to My Fitness Pal. I’ve been using the food log and the exercise tracker for a little while now but have not been utilizing the whole program to my benefit. I’ve recently gone through some medical issues and am now ready to get back on track with more dedicated health and fitness for myself. I’ve never used community support in any program I’ve ever participated in and it might be nice to do so. I think it will help with motivation and support to hear suggestions and ideas and to hear success and setback stories to help keep me grounded. Looking forward to this journey and hoping for success even though I know it won’t happen over night! Just going to keep positive thoughts and work hard to reach some goals I’m setting for myself.

nossmf

Welcome to the MFP forums, Susan! Within these threads are packed the wisdom of thousands of success stories of people who have lost weight, regained health, and transformed their lives.

The two key words you need to breathe in: honesty and patience. Honesty with yourself; did I remember to log this food? Did I really eat one helping or three? While some people are able to control their food intake without logging, for many people here on MFP, accurately logging is the difference between losing weight or no change. Nobody needs to see your log but you (depending on what privacy setting you use), but be honest with yourself.

And patience, patience, patience. You didn't reach your current self in one night; you won't reach your dream self in one night, either. Social media tries to convince you there's a path to lose outrageous amounts of weight in just days, but that's either blatant outright lies, or an extreme diet which can screw up your body chemistry in sometimes dangerous ways, and IF the weight falls off like claimed, it's almost certain to come back (often with even more on top) after the diet "ends".

We here at MFP are not promoting a "diet" in the sense of a short-term change of eating or moving which will be abandoned after you reach your goal. We want to encourage you to make a permanent lifestyle for the rest of your life, one which has you meet your nutritional and exercise goals for a healthy body along with some of your preferred foods for a happy soul.

Take a look around the forums, you'll find posts of people sharing success stories, surprises they discovered along the way to losing weight or building muscle, tips on how to get enough protein or which exercise program is best for you, and so much more. The "search" function is not always helpful in my experience, but the top couple posts in most forums are basically bookmarks to the most helpful threads, as voted upon by other MFP forum users. Look around at what's been written, and if you can't find the answers you're looking for, please ask!

Again, welcome!