Help! Losing Hope!

TwoPointZero

How long should I give this method before moving on the next? If I stay with doing what I am doing should I continue it for 1 week, 2 weeks before upping my calorie intake?

This is a good question. I generally think that once you change one factor in your routine (calories in, or amount of exercising), waiting 2-4 weeks to see results would be a good idea. If you aren't too sure about how fast your body reacts, then split the difference, and wait 3 weeks.

QueenBishOTUniverse

Ok, glanced through the other posts so here's my $0.02:

1. Weigh your food (like everyone else said)

2. Log as accurately as you can

3. Consider upping your calorie intake only once you are 110% certain that you have been doing 1 & 2 correctly for at least two weeks and are ALSO having issues like hunger, weakness, low performance on workouts etc. (I personally could not subsist on 1200 calories, but first you need to make sure that's actually what your intake is...)

4. With the amount of weight you want to lose, consider that 1/2 a pound per week is a completely reasonable rate of loss.

5. If you make any major changes to what you are doing, give it AT LEAST a month to let things adjust. I stalled out for almost 6 weeks when I added in weight training to my routine. Right now I am only losing 1/2 lb per week because I am also 14lbs from goal. It is completely normal for me to go 4 weeks with no weight loss, and then drop 2 lbs in one week, repeat each month....

6. Read up on the sexypants post which was linked earlier. I personally have switched to TDEE since I find it easier to plan and eat for the same number of calories every day rather than having to adjust my calorie intake from day to day. If you are consistent in your amount of activity from week to week, you may want to consider switching to TDEE as well.

ETA: My diary is completely open, feel free to glance through and see what I am doing food and intake wise.

turtledove773

Thank you everyone for your comments! Besides the Polar HRM that cost $$$$ any others out there that you can recommend? I do not need anything fancy.

Also this scale thing.. I am totally confused on how to even use it in conjunction with MFP? Can anyone explain how you input stuff into MFP after you have used the scale?

QueenBishOTUniverse

Thank you everyone for your comments! Besides the Polar HRM that cost $$$$ any others out there that you can recommend? I do not need anything fancy.

Also this scale thing.. I am totally confused on how to even use it in conjunction with MFP? Can anyone explain how you input stuff into MFP after you have used the scale?

For any solid foods (meats, rice, vegetables etc.) you will just want to weigh it before cooking and then enter the weight in to your food log. For example, I'm making tacos tonight, for the tortillas I'll just enter how many I plan on eating, but for the ground beef and cheese I've already weighed the cheese and know that I have 4 oz and I'll eat half since my husband will get the other half. For the ground beef since it's already in a 1lb container I can just split it in to four equal servings and enter 4 oz or a 1/4 pound. I would also consider weighing the sour cream, but I probably won't bother with the lettuce and tomato since those are not likely to make a huge difference in my calorie count. If you are eating something that is already packaged or measured out in a single serving, you won't need to worry about this, but for anything that is an ingredient and you are only consuming "part" of the package, measure it.

Basically the issue is that using measuring cups etc. for most solid foods is VERY inaccurate. Using an actual scale and entering the food by weight instead of volume will give you a much better idea of how much food you are really consuming. Also 28g = 1ounce, you might see both listed in the food database, but always try to stick with foods in the database that allow you to enter your food by weight.