New to the Forums

swinginchandra

Hi Everybody!
I've been using the myfitness pal android app to track my calories on my phone all this year, but I've only just recently discovered the website!
I started out in January at 206, and I'm now down to 176! My end goal is somewhere around 130.

I signed on today to read the forums, because I went out for dinner last night for my birthday, and splurged on a meal for the first time in months! Ginormous burger, and fries... I still feel full! I was curious if it's healthier for me to try to eat really light today to make up for all the extra calories, or if I should be just carying on with business as ussual!
But I was really glad i did, because reading through all the posts, I confirmed my suspician that I've been eating too little recently. When I first started I kept to about 1100 to 1200 calories pretty well, and didn't really exercise at all. But this last month I've been running about 3 miles every day, and eating less and less. I'm so close to 170, a plateau that I haven't been able to beat since I was in highschool!! I'm so excited to get under that weight... But I've found that I've been losing weight less and less quickly - and I think it's because I've only been eating like 800 to 900 calories a day, and not eating back any of my exercise calories. I want to start eating 1200 calories a day again, I know it's healthy, but I'm sorta irrationally scared to gain back some of the weight I've already lost... I'm going to try to work up to it gradually, and be really good about exercise! It's so counterintuitive that eating more could help me get over this plateau!!
Anyway, nice to meet you all!!!

Amy

yenohamk

Welcome to the forums!

I think that burger will do you "good." If not for the greasiness and yumminess, then at least to tell your body that you're not starving. 800-900 is a danger zone, and is most likely contributing to your decline in weight loss. 1200 calories is not a weight loss death sentence. I started this website at 1200 calories, and I try to get close to it, and have steadily lost weight since. Rumor has it that even at 1200 calories, this program has put you at a deficit so that you should lose weight, so if that's the case, you're doing yourself a disservice by only getting in 800 or so. EAT (more)!! Up your calories and let your body know that it's okay to lose the weight. Because at this point, it may be holding on out of fear.

Best of luck to you!!

M_lifts

hello and welcome

well done on your weight loss so far! and yikes 900cals is not enough to live on! so dont worry about the burger, i think it probably gave your system a bit of a shock which u needed! please dont go below 1200 as u wont get out of that plataeu. the deficit has already been created for you by mfp, so by not eating the minimum amount you are putting your body into starvation mode. Plus u exercise loads as well so def need to eat more.

i think we all worry about eating too much but you have to remember that you need to fuel your body a lot better to get fitter

swinginchandra

thanks guys!

One thing I'm really going to try to do is break my 3 meals into 5 smaller ones to keep my metabolism up... and that's a good way to sneak in the extra few hundred calories too!

Nice to "meet" you all!