MFP People: I need some of your awesome tips and advice!

Ranimalove

I just looked in the mirror and I feel HORRIBLE.

I have been working out every day doing 30DS and sometimes yoga and pilates. How strict do I really need to be with my diet in order to actually see results? I truly think I am a healthy eater and have been for a long time. I slip up here and there, like the occasional few french fries on the weekend or something else high in fat or sugar. But really not that often. Once a week (sometimes twice max) but it's still not that much. Is this really that wrong? Do I have to commit to 100% healthy food ALL the time? It is just not realistic for me (I am a huge foodie and enjoy my cheesy foods!)

I am going on vacation next Sunday and was hoping to see a bit of toning at this point (I am on day 20 of 30DS) but see nothing. I need help/motivation/support/tips/advice! Please!

randomtai

Do you weigh and measure all your food? Do you log everything you eat accurately? It is hard to tell with a closed diary. You need to be a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Ranimalove

Do you weigh and measure all your food? Do you log everything you eat accurately? It is hard to tell with a closed diary. You need to be a calorie deficit to lose weight.

I do log all my food. So wait. If my calorie goal is 1270, I have to burn MORE than 1270 a day in exercise alone?... or would I just have to do a bit of exercise on top of the regular calories my body burns on a daily basis...?

navyrigger46

Can't see your diary, don't know your stats so it's a little hard to give you advice, but to your point about "healthy" food. What exactly IS healthy? Pizza is healthy, so is salad, a cheeseburger is healthy, so is an apple. Food is just food, and this all boils down to calories in versus calories out. You can have a look at my diary, I have fast food once or twice a week, I also have salads. What you eat is irrelevant because everything comes down to calories. Weigh your food, hit your calorie goal, and exercise.

Rigger

Ranimalove

Can't see your diary, don't know your stats so it's a little hard to give you advice, but to your point about "healthy" food. What exactly IS healthy? Pizza is healthy, so is salad, a cheeseburger is healthy, so is an apple. Food is just food, and this all boils down to calories in versus calories out. You can have a look at my diary, I have fast food once or twice a week, I also have salads. What you eat is irrelevant because everything comes down to calories. Weigh your food, hit your calorie goal, and exercise.

Rigger

While I disagree with your statement that what you eat is irrelevant, I understand your point. Yes it is about calories in versus out. I thought that I achieved that, but now I am not sure. Also, sorry about the diary. I have only been using this website for ~20 days so I didn't even realize. I will open it up to the public.

navyrigger46

Okay, looking at your diary (I assume everything is accurate) If you don't have a food scale get one and use it. Your net is a bit low on most days, and you don't have a lot to lose, so you probably need to eat more. Your protein is a bit low, looks like more than 60% of your calories come from carbs, personally I would try to balance that out a bit more. I'd also recommend doing some strength training.

Rigger

Ranimalove

Okay, looking at your diary (I assume everything is accurate) If you don't have a food scale get one and use it. Your net is a bit low on most days, and you don't have a lot to lose, so you probably need to eat more. Your protein is a bit low, looks like more than 60% of your calories come from carbs, personally I would try to balance that out a bit more. I'd also recommend doing some strength training.

Rigger

Okay, great. The protein thing could very well be true as I am a pescetarian and most days I do not eat any animal proteins at all. So getting all the protein I need can be tricky and sometimes I just assume I have gotten it from the various legume and greek yogurt I eat. Also, I know it says it's all cardiovascular, but the 30 Day Shred program I am doing combines strength, cardio, and abs. And I have read so many success stories from this program that I thought it would be enough, along with my yoga+pilates classes a couple of times a week. Any further strength training you would recommend, specifically? Thanks for checking out my diary and offering your advice!!

RunMyOregonBunsOff

Have you been losing weight but just not seeing it or feeling more flabby after losing some weight or not losing any weight at all?

trishfitllc

Hi, i saw your post and wanted to reply with some sound advice, i feel as though you are undereating, but without knowing your height and current weight and body type and amount of daily activity, i can jsut give you some general guidelines,,,,based on today's journal you are eating the majority of your macronutrients based on carbuhydrates and your sugar grams are very high for someone who wishes to lose weight and or change their physique. agave nectar, which better than HFCS is still jsut SUGAR, as is a banana and lactose in the greek yogurt. i'd try to gut your daily sugar in half, and split your macronutrients 33/33/33, and i feel a 1300 calorie diet is VERY low and will be difficult to maintain....your body reaches a set point and leptin levels get VERY low at low calorie levels ...your body's repsonse to wanting to protect it'self from starvation = FAT STORAGE :-( try more like 1450-1500 calories (or go to iifym.com and calulate your BMR and TDEE to determine YOUR calorie needs) but REALLY lower the sugar, so 33% carbs is 124g, protein also 124g and healthy fats 55g daily. and limit sugar to 30g or less, can count ALL sugars even in fruits and veggies....all food are NOT equal...you'll soon see that fresh berries and apples are much lwoer in sugar and higher in fiber than bananas and tropicals fruits....you'll want to split these macros into three meals and perhaps two snacks daily and try to get protein/carbs/fats at EVERY meal....your first meal of a granola bar is not setting you up well to eat well for the rest of the day. for example if you had oatmeal, egg whites and a nut butter serving all mixed together, you'd be full, have energy to get through the morning and be less inclined to reach for mroe sugar by eating complex carbohydrates that keep your insulin levels steady....lots of sugar and high fat meals affect your body's ability to properly process/produce insulin which ulitmately regulates fat stores.....i often see clients struggling to lsoe body fat even when they only have a few pounds to lsoe....most often from udnereating and overexercising....you body needs fuel and add strength training to boost metabolism! you are VERY young, it;s totally possible to have the physique you desire. but your body needs to fuel, high octane fuel, to run efficiently! good luck to you!

kiwitechgirl

I do log all my food. So wait. If my calorie goal is 1270, I have to burn MORE than 1270 a day in exercise alone?... or would I just have to do a bit of exercise on top of the regular calories my body burns on a daily basis...?

When you put all your stats into MFP it sets your calorie goal with a deficit already included. If you exercise, the you gain more calories to eat. You certainly don't have to burn 1270 - your body burns more than that just keeping you alive. For example, I am on 1410 a day. Today I had three and a half hours of roller derby training and burnt almost 1000 calories, according to my heart rate monitor; I couldn't quite manage to eat all those back but I ate about 750 of them back, meaning I ate 2100 today but my net calories (eaten - burned) was about 1200.

cebreisch

I have been working out every day doing 30DS and sometimes yoga and pilates. How strict do I really need to be with my diet in order to actually see results? I truly think I am a healthy eater and have been for a long time. I slip up here and there, like the occasional few french fries on the weekend or something else high in fat or sugar. But really not that often. Once a week (sometimes twice max) but it's still not that much. Is this really that wrong? Do I have to commit to 100% healthy food ALL the time? It is just not realistic for me (I am a huge foodie and enjoy my cheesy foods!)

You don't have to be 100% "clean" all the time, but it really does come down to you have to burn more calories in a day than you eat. A few things:

1: Get a fitbit. This will sync with MFP. On the Fitbit website, you can get a chart of how much you're eating vs the calories you burn. As long as the burn line is above the eating calories line, you're going to lose weight.

2: Eat more protein and fiber. Being a pescatarian means you're going to have to get creative in that realm. I don't know all the "rules" to it, so the only thing I think I can safely suggest would be Chocolite Protein bars (www.healthsmartfoods.com). They have about 10g protein, 10g fiber, they're sugar free, gluten free and about 100 calories. They've helped me a LOT.

3: It's all about choosing your doom. Deciding what you REALLY want on your pizza and whether or not your willing to add veggies to it...When you have that cheeseburger, are you willing to not have the bun so you can afford to have fries? (I know - pescatarian - but you get the idea....)....when you go to Red lobster...are you willing to forego the cheddar bay biscuits for the baked potato or vice versa? All about choices. You don't have to be perfect, but try to make wiser choices if at all possible.

4: Realize you're human and you will stumble. Just try not to fall all the way down.

Good luck!

Ranimalove

Hi, i saw your post and wanted to reply with some sound advice, i feel as though you are undereating, but without knowing your height and current weight and body type and amount of daily activity, i can jsut give you some general guidelines,,,,based on today's journal you are eating the majority of your macronutrients based on carbuhydrates and your sugar grams are very high for someone who wishes to lose weight and or change their physique. agave nectar, which better than HFCS is still jsut SUGAR, as is a banana and lactose in the greek yogurt. i'd try to gut your daily sugar in half, and split your macronutrients 33/33/33, and i feel a 1300 calorie diet is VERY low and will be difficult to maintain....your body reaches a set point and leptin levels get VERY low at low calorie levels ...your body's repsonse to wanting to protect it'self from starvation = FAT STORAGE :-( try more like 1450-1500 calories (or go to iifym.com and calulate your BMR and TDEE to determine YOUR calorie needs) but REALLY lower the sugar, so 33% carbs is 124g, protein also 124g and healthy fats 55g daily. and limit sugar to 30g or less, can count ALL sugars even in fruits and veggies....all food are NOT equal...you'll soon see that fresh berries and apples are much lwoer in sugar and higher in fiber than bananas and tropicals fruits....you'll want to split these macros into three meals and perhaps two snacks daily and try to get protein/carbs/fats at EVERY meal....your first meal of a granola bar is not setting you up well to eat well for the rest of the day. for example if you had oatmeal, egg whites and a nut butter serving all mixed together, you'd be full, have energy to get through the morning and be less inclined to reach for mroe sugar by eating complex carbohydrates that keep your insulin levels steady....lots of sugar and high fat meals affect your body's ability to properly process/produce insulin which ulitmately regulates fat stores.....i often see clients struggling to lsoe body fat even when they only have a few pounds to lsoe....most often from udnereating and overexercising....you body needs fuel and add strength training to boost metabolism! you are VERY young, it;s totally possible to have the physique you desire. but your body needs to fuel, high octane fuel, to run efficiently! good luck to you!

Thank you for your advice! The thing is, I gave MFP all of my information and that's what it came up with for me. I weight ~118 and am ~5 feet and 2 inches. So I am short. I am NOT overweight but I want to tone my body and maybe get a bit thinner. I carry my weight in my chest, and in my thighs and a bit in the belly. I just figured the calculation they gave me of 1270 was accurate so that's what I have been going by. Since I am a pescetarian and dont eat meat other than seafood, I eat the greek yogurt for protein. I also eat a lot of legumes which I have heard turn into carbohydrates, but I think they are still healthy for me to eat? The other thing is I just don't even have the time to sort out all of that - like you split it up and ensure you eat all of that every day. I dont know where anyone finds the time to watch their diet THAT closely and strictly. I have been taking a more relaxed approach and just being generally health-conscious and not eating crap. Yes the granola bar was a bad start but most days I eat high fibre cereal with almond milk or greek yogurt, or once a week a poached egg. I am a full-time student in an extremely stressful and difficult program in university so when I am not studying or exercising I am sleeping or eating and I just do not have the time to be that strict with what I eat and ensuring I eat all the macro nutrients in proper percentages I'll have to figure out another way... Thanks again.

Ranimalove

Have you been losing weight but just not seeing it or feeling more flabby after losing some weight or not losing any weight at all?

I have not been losing any weight. My weight stays at an almost constant 118 but fluctuates between 116 and 120. I might be losing inches though but I haven't measured myself because when I measured the first ten days into the 30DS program nothing had changed. I'll see where I'm at by the end of it, in nine days.

randomtai

You need a food scale.

It's simple either you are overestimating burns or underestimating calorie intake. That simple.

trishfitllc

it's not as hard as you think, and you are already food journaling, which is the hardest part, ….so how much more work is it really just to eat better foods with less sugar/carbs and get in more protein, even from fish and eggs would be awesome….

go to this site, use the iifym calculator, change your goals/settings in MFP to what you calculate at iifym, and that's it! if you don't have time for that, you aren't obviously willing to do the work it takes…..so feel free to keep eating the way you are and nothing will change! and yes, you need a food scale, eyeballing it is obviously not working, it never does. people ALWAYS overeat. and legumes and such don't turn into carbs, THEY ARE CARBS….WITH A LITTLE PROTEIN……..yogurt is mostly lactose (anything that ends in "ose" is sugar by the way) with a LITTLE PROTEIN, UNLESS IT'S THE PLAIN GREEK YOGURT WITH NO FUIT OR FLAVOR ADDED.

good luck to YOU!

http://iifym.com/about/