Help, I Keep Messing Up!

annibelz247

Ruined my diet again!!! So annoying! Been trying on and off for a few months now but tomorrow I am determined to start and not stop my diet! Going to eat around 1200 calories a day, exercise at least 4 times a week for at least 50 minutes too! Need to be at 120lbs by December! Praying I can do this finally, really need to feel good about myself again! Do u guys think I will be able to lose around 35lbs by December if I do what I said above? Please help! Need your success stories! How many calories do u eat, how long till u saw results? I am going to incorporate tiffany rothe & rosemary conley exercise routines into my daily workout. Im 5"5 and around 160lbs right now. Please help

DanaDark

Do what MFP says.

Set the goals using MFPs calculator, then manually set your protein intake to 20 to 30%.

From there, log ALL your food and exercise. Doing it this way, you should eat back exercise calories.

I would suggest setting it to 1lb a week (which is healthy and realistic).

You won't make it to 120 by December, but you will be much closer. The way you suggest is the CLASSIC crash and burn method. Throwing calories to the floor and exercising a lot will get you losses for about 2 weeks, after that, you'll stall for 3 and then give up in a fit of rage.

zitandemanu

bump

BeckyLH

You can definitely lose 35lbs by December but you do need to stick at it! I personally don't eat back exercise calories but it really depends on the individual

TavistockToad

The first thing to do is stop dieting and make lifestyle changes that you will continue to do for the rest of your life...

BeckyLH

Also, track here everyday!

Katahna

If you use a diet that isn't on the verge of being un healthy you will do much better, start off with say 1600 calories, and taper it down over a couple of months so you can adjust to eating practically nothing =]

seabuckaroo

replace your grains with veggies and eat sweet potatoes and brown rice for carbs (fruit too). Make sure at least 1/2 plate is veggies and 1/4 meat 1/4 starch. Eat 1200-1600 calories and start running/jogging/vigorous cardio (p90X?)

mermx

Hi aninibelz,

depending on how much weight you have to lose then it could be possible? I went to take a look at your diary, I hope you don`t mind, but it is only open to your friends. I see you have a lot of friends. Do you have some that run good diaries? Maybe PM them for some help, that`s what friends are for :-)

What works for me is keeping a small amount of friends that I can PM or look at the diaries to see what they do and get a little motivation or inspiration :-)

seabuckaroo

Also as soon as you get refined grains and sugar out of your diet, you will crave them much less.

seabuckaroo

one more thing, its a big one : DONT DRINK ALCOHOL....IT IS A DIET KILLER! sucks, I know.

dansls1

The first thing to do is stop dieting and make lifestyle changes that you will continue to do for the rest of your life...

This! And worry more about weekly totals rather than the daily total, especially if you eat back some portion of your exercise calories.

auntiebabs

The good news is you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better.

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me. (I swear this saved my life.) I was happier once I gave myself a range:

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.

---

(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

---

I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal. (No hard science here, but I credit the zig-zagging calories with preventing plateaus.)

--As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
--As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

6) I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.
Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. )

Food is not the enemy.

Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time, now the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck

michelle_mareshfuehrer

I'm 5'4", 165 lbs. I have PCOS, so my situation is a little different (it is MUCH harder to lose weight and much easier to gain it than for a normal woman) but I have lost about 5 lbs. over the last month by eating more vegetables and doing Turbo Fire. It's about 1 lb. per week which isn't necessarily as fast as I'd like to see it come off, but it is realistic. If I continue at this rate, I can be at my goal in 7-8 months.

mermx

I lurrve the mods, that was so quick :-)))

lmelangley

First of all, breathe! You can reach 35 lbs by December, and you can do it without starving yourself. Beware the 1200 calorie "magic number" - it doesn't work that way. Although it works for some, my personal experience is that if I eat 1200 calories, I stop losing altogether. I'm not nearly as active as you are and I still need to eat 1300 plus calories to lose. Everyone is different, and you don't want to starve yourself. You have to fuel your body or you'll lose muscle.

Put in your information to lose 1-2 lbs a week and eat the number of calories MFP suggests, and also eat back most of your exercise calories. Remember to have protein with every single meal (good Greek yogurt is an excellent source if you don't like meat) and go easy on the carbs. And, if you find you're hungry, eat. This should be about becoming as healthy as you can be, not about punishment or starvation.

Crochetluvr

I dont know. We ALL want the weight off, like, yesterday. Its taken me 9 weeks to lose 16 pounds. But we all lose weight at different rates. The thing is to NOT eat TOO little because you think you will lose faster. You may, but you wont keep it off. And that is the real goal....keeping it off.

auntiebabs

Do you WANT to lose 35 lbs by December or
Do you NEED to lose 35 lbs by December?
WHY the big deadline?

Lose slow learn about nutrition, put healthy before skinny.

Think about your long-term health (I know that's hard at 19)
The slower you lose the more likely you are to maintain.
Learn healthy eating habits now.

Don't get into the yo-yo dieting cycle.
When you lose then gain it back more often than not you gain back more than you lost.
So you diet again and lose only to gain it back plus even more
and on
and on...
before you know it you are in your 50s and the doctors are talking to you about serious health issues.
At that point getting past the sense of desperation is much more of a challenge.

Restybaby2012

COME ON ANNI!!!!!!!!! You can do this. I'll be your cheerleader even.!!!?!!! You have 5 months.....you CAN do this.......just do it right. Im thinking 1200 might be too low but..........

YOU
CAN
DO
THIS!!

ShaSimone

I don't know a lot just from this post but beating yourself up for 'messing up' isn't helping. 5'5 and 120 pounds seems very low in my very humble opinion, but your weight is your business.

If you have your calories set at the rock bottom number of 1200 and exercise for 50 minutes eat back those exercise calories please. You won't be doing your body or your overall health any favors by eating too few calories.

12skipafew99100

Yes you can IF you do what you said above. Don't be too hard on yourself for messing up once in a while. But you will need to have consistent regular deficits on your calories. Its a marathon baby!