New member

rachelwilliams770

Hello,

Nice to see support here. My weight has gone up recently and I can't get back on track. I'm only one person I can't work and exercise cook dinner and volunteer plus I'm in school too with kids so I'm on the struggle bus. I was exercising non stop and only eating 1 meal a day. Now I eat 3 meals a day and it fuels my brain for school. I'm tired of starving myself and killing myself at the gym, but I don't know how to get the weight off.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10935572/new-member

How to get the weight off? How about very gradually? That's usually how most of us put the weight on. Reversing it can work.

It sounds like you have a super-busy life, so anything you can do to simplify your plans will help, and that can include simplifying the weight loss.

It sounds like you started with an extreme plan, and that backfired . . . which extreme weight loss plans almost always do, unfortunately. Clearly, you've learned from that, which is great, and you now know some ways to improve your path ahead.

I don't really know much more about your thought process now, but just in case, I'd suggest considering an easy, gradual plan. I think logging food, if only for a week or month at first, can provide useful insights. But if even that's too difficult, it's not the only option.

Keep in mind that losing weight has only one requirement: Getting calories eaten a manageable bit below calories burned. That's true whether we count the calories, or not. We burn calories just being alive, doing home chores, doing that volunteering and parental stuff, and more. Exercise is great for a body, but it's optional for weight loss. Weight loss can happen entirely on the eating side of the equation. If exercise is added, even little bits here and there - 5 or 10 minutes now and then - can help. So can manageably increasing daily life activity, all that "take the stairs", "stand instead of sit", "park further from the store" kind of stuff, which doesn't take lots more time.

Further, it isn't necessary to eat so-called diet foods, permanently cut out whole types of foods wholesale, or anything like that. It's only necessary to burn fewer calories. That can be done eating reasonably filling foods we enjoy eating, find practical and affordable.

I'm old enough to remember when calorie counting wasn't practical, so no one did it. Some lost weight anyway. How? If they thought about it, they knew which foods were really calorie dense: Baked goods, candy, alcohol, fried foods, etc. They ate less of those, smaller portions or less frequent consumption of them. They watched the scale. If weight didn't drop over a few weeks, they cut back a little more, tweaking their routine day-in, day-out habits, and repeating them. When the scale started dropping, they hung in and kept going with those habits. Yes, it takes persistence and patience.

That kind of thing can still work. Counting the calories can make things a little more predictable, but it isn't absolutely essential.

Wishing you success, because I predict the quality of life benefits will be major, long term!

totameafox

Weight loss is more about how you eat rather than how much you exercise. You can't out exercise a bad diet (way of eating). You need to take a good look at what is important in your life. If you are over extending yourself then you may need to cut back on something. You can also check and see how you can stream line things. Can you cook meals a head of time? Depending on the age of your children, can take take reasonable tasks. It would benefit them to teach them how to eat healthy and be active as well. Do you have other people you can also ask for help?

Something has to change. I hope you figure out what you can accept changing.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/147555-speak-friend-and-enter