What the heck was I eating before???

ignatiusreilly

Now that I've been on MFP for 11 weeks (down 33 lbs), I wish I had spent a week or two first tracking my calories under my old habits. I'm male, 5'-10", 231 lb, with a current pre-exercise daily limit of 1695 calories. What's astonishing to me is that I haven't had a day yet where I'm walking around hungry or feeling deprived. I generally have been making very healthy eating choices, but not a day goes by that I don't have my chocolate and (not "or"!) my ice cream - and lord knows that Blue Diamond almonds and I have become very good friends! If I can do that and still average a 3 pound loss per week, it only leaves me wondering how many calories I was eating before in order to drive my weight up to 261... Thankfully, I plan to never actually find that out.

myfriendamy

I'm with you! since I started MFP 5 weeks ago, I've rarely felt hungry! I actually tracked an average "before" day and WHOA! I want to say it was close to 3,000 calories! insanity. I had under 1,600 calories today, I ate well and I didn't feel hungry at all.

I have my sweets/ice cream every day (WW instead of Ben and Jerrys!) and I haven't felt deprived at all we can do this!

lstnlondry

wow! would that be scary to log in my old way of eating! Although there wouldn't be a way to keep track as I ate ALL day and way too much!! I'm happy for you and proud OF you for joining MFP!

Obstinate07

Now that I've been on MFP for 11 weeks (down 33 lbs), I wish I had spent a week or two first tracking my calories under my old habits. I'm male, 5'-10", 231 lb, with a current pre-exercise daily limit of 1695 calories. What's astonishing to me is that I haven't had a day yet where I'm walking around hungry or feeling deprived. I generally have been making very healthy eating choices, but not a day goes by that I don't have my chocolate and (not "or"!) my ice cream - and lord knows that Blue Diamond almonds and I have become very good friends! If I can do that and still average a 3 pound loss per week, it only leaves me wondering how many calories I was eating before in order to drive my weight up to 261... Thankfully, I plan to never actually find that out.

I was thinking about that last week. I had to be consuming 2000+ calories a day because I went from 155 to 210 within a couple of months. Now, I can have 1300-1500 calories a day and feel fine and sometimes feel like am eating too much.

Atleast40

LOL, we could so be eating buddies. Chocolate, ice cream, those chocolate dusted almonds, Yes, YEs, YES! Seriously though, congratulations on your progress so far. Keep up the good & sometimes hard work to becoming a healthier you : )

ignatiusreilly

...those chocolate dusted almonds, Yes, YEs, YES!

The chocolate dusted almonds are indeed excellent, but don't forget the Smokehouse, and the Wasabi, and the Habanero. There are still a few other varieties I need to try! btw, Walmat has a great price on the jumbo bags of Blue Diamond...

missxchelly

I ALWAYS think this. I'm just like, "Wow, what the hell was I doing to my body before." I feel bad for people eating hella bad stuff just because I know what its doing to them. I can't believe we used to eat that way. Blegh!

cherubcrnp

I tracked my food intake for a month before I saw a dietitian.....I was amazed....was nearly 3000 calories. I thought I was eating healthy. I was grazing. When I joined MFP that all stopped. I eat 3 meals a day and sometimes 3 snacks. I always drink my water which I never did before. It is scary to think about what I was eating before.

Pam aka Cherubcrnp

inlander

I hear you here. As long as I eat more than 1,200 or 1,300 calories I seem to do fine hunger-wise and still have a loss, albeit nowhere near a 3 pound per week loss. CONGRATS!

redraidergirl2009

I hear that, I was eating a lot of fast food and restaurant food. I looked, and the taco tuesday special was a whopping 1100 calories and the sodium was off the charts. I feel younger since i cut a lot of crap. How sad is that?

TexasNurseMom78

I am in that same boat too! I think I was eating so much fast food, like 2-3 times a day before. Now even when I have a day where I eat "badly", as long as my overall week is ok and in range, i still either stay the same or lose.

chevy88grl

I don't know how many calories I was consuming before, but I think for me it was more about WHAT I was eating.

I consume 2200-2500 NET calories now and am maintaining my weight (143-145lbs), so I know my body needs a lot of calories in order to function properly.

I truly believe the Mt Dew, cake and cookies were what contributed to my weight gain and is what held me at that weight. Because I actually think I may have been consuming right around the same calories I am now - but I'm eating far better now.

wildon883r

I haven't gained weight in years but i had to reduce calories to get to where i'm at now. I don't know that i've reduced my eating by a whole lot. I've always pretty much eaten non processed foods. I gained all the weight i had by years and years of overdoing it. I don't voluntarily exercise at all although i get enough where i work and doing things around the house. I don't eat candy. I basically stopped drinking soda pop 5 years ago and if i split one once a week i'm lucky. I don't go to buffet restaurants much anymore. I know i could eat two whoppers (670 calories each), or big macs (540 calories each) while splitting a large fry with my wife. I used to go to Golden Corral and pig out to an uncomfortable level and two hours later get me a Peanut Buster Parfait (710 calories) at DQ for no good reason lol. The differnence now is i basically eat half of the fast food i used to and i never ate much fastfood to begin with. I have no idea how many calories a day i used to eat. It's pretty closed to what i eat now on average. Someone above posted gaining 50 lbs in a couple months . How in the world sheesh. It took me 20 years of marriage and over eating to put on that much.

ClaireShepherd

Three little words for me sum it all up....

Cheese and Bread

pixlamarque

I would love to just one day plug in a *typical* pre-MFP food day just to see the numbers. And then, of course, delete it and go on with my day. I live in Baton Rouge now, but until recently lived in New Orleans as well and I still work in Metairie at least a day or two a week. I am sure that other cultures revolve around food, but I have lived many places and never have I seen everyone's world revolve around food like it does in New Orleans. You are either eating out, drinking out, or discussing where and when you will eat/drink out next. There is just such a resturant culture here, not the fast food thing, but real resturants. That is fun and wonderful, but it creeps up on you and hits you in the head with a plate of chargrilled oysters. Now that I live in BR I don't eat out much (who wants to when the choice is Red Lobster or Chili's?--if I'm going to blow some calories I don't want chain food!). I am focusing on eating healthy (I am trying to eat more and more clean, luckily that seems to go hand and hand with eating more healthy). The next thing will be to focus more on exercise. I see people bigger than me who are completing 5Ks and that just makes me feel like a slob. But truly, it is just amazing how much better I feel. Even if I don't lose any more weight, feeling better alone would be worth it.

pixlamarque

Oh, and by the way, your screen name rocks! It also gives me that queasy remembering Lucky Dogs feeling in my tummy.