Help Needed Please! :(

BGM325

I started "dieting" on January 15th. I began by eating breakfast everyday (never did that before, and I'd spend the day snacking on crappy food.) and having Weight Watcher Smart Ones for lunch & dinner. Then I found MFP and after doing some reading I decided to cut back on the WW foods although I still have them for lunch or dinner once or twice a week. I began exercising on January 26th (also something I hadn't done regularly in a looooooong time!!) and by early February I was down 10lbs. I began tracking my food here on MFP and stopped counting WW points. I was doing the recommended 1200 calorie MFP diet and feeling pretty good about it but then I started reading the boards and the varying opinions and questioning myself on whether I was doing things wrong. Add to that the fact that it's February 25th and I haven't lost a single pound since the original 10. Sometimes I'm up 4 and then then down 3 the next day so that was starting to pi$$ me off so I stopped getting on the scale. I am losing inches, my clothes are way looser and I'm fitting into a pair of size 6 jeans that hadn't seen the light of day in way over a year so I'm not complaining but there's always room for improvement, right?!

My exercising has consisted of a daily 2 mile walk, which I've recently upped to 3 miles. (On weekends I do 4) I do some bike riding and some jump roping but not regularly, just every now and then to shake things up. I'm currently doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, I'm on day 10 of Level 1. It was kicking my butt in the beginning and I'm still seeing a difference in my body so I will stick to it even when I feel like I'm on the brink of death. grumble

So then this week I figured out my BMR, TDEE, etc thanks to http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ & so I plan to eat my BMR which is 1437 (my TDEE is 2228) and since my suggested daily calories are at 1783 I was thinking I could eat between 1437 to 1783 calories a day. How's that sound?? When I was doing the 1200 calories a day I would sometimes eat back my exercise calories but eating between 1437 and 1783 per day I don't see the need to add back my exercise calories since that would give me back 300-500 calories per day. I eat 3 meals, a mid-morning snack, and afternoon snack and a dessert/evening snack at around 9ish.

My question is: Do I need to tweak my plan? Is it good? Bad? Too much? Too little? Suggestions welcomed!! Thank You!

Confuzzled4ever

Sound like a good plan. that's how I understand TDEE to be. I dont' follow that method just yet.. but I hope to one day be able to eat that much consistenlty!

As for weight loss versus inches lost.. you *are* losing fat. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat, but fat takes up more space the muscle. That's why the scale isnt' moving but the inches are dropping off. So if the inches are dropping, but the weight isn't dont' worry about it. You are toning and strengthening your body and you are losing fat and converting it to muscle (which is what you want!)

Doesnt' matter when you eat, as long as you have enough energy and aren't hungry.

I'd cut back on the premade foods as much as possible. They are a good starting place but it's way better to eat whole raw foods and cook from scratch. After 2 weeks, you'll never look back. LOL

I haven't really lost weight in a few weeks either, but I can feel the muscles and the strength there and I know I have lost inches, since I had to buy much smaller clothes. Even my boyfriend says I look totally different then when we met (a mere 4 months ago). So embrace the changes and dont' focus as much on the weight, it will come off, but inches are arguably more important anyway.

BaconMD

You should eat between 1780 and 2000, going by your TDEE.

Do not be afraid of food.

twoss9112

Don't be afraid of food. Eat the good fats, eat veggies, protien, light meals some days, always eat breakfast. Minimize or cut out "white" foods (white bread, rice, etc - use whole wheat, brown rice etc where possible).

Keep the crap food away. It's that simple. Sure a McDs cheeseburger is "only" 300 calories. But it's crap. Eating low-calorie crap doesn't make the crap ok. Don't deny yourself treats, just work them into your daily count. Sub out treats - instead of ice cream, a tasty cup of yogurt. Instead of plowing through a whole box of girl scout cookies (since it IS that time of year), eat 3.

You're always going to be tweaking your plan, that's the thing - it's a process. Soon the plan will become LIFE and you will have found a huge array of food choices that let you keep in line with your origianl plan.

If you go a few cals over, it's not the end of the world. Think of it this way - 3500 calories = 1 lb. You cut by 3500 per week, you lose 1 pound, so it stands to reason that if you ADD 3500 calories (500 per day above your TDEE), you will gain. Most people, on a not so good day, certainly aren't going to go over by 3500 calories in one shot! Or even by 500 above TDEE. The other day I went a little over what I usually like to stay at so, ok, I'm eating a little lighter today and I will do a little extra cardio tonight than I'd planned. Not a big deal. If I go over for a day or two (because weekends can be difficult sometimes for me) , I usually take a couple days and choose my super low cal things and put them all into one day so I can eat regular meals and not break the bank. Instead of the 250-300 cal breakfast I will choose other items that let me keep it to 200-250, and so on with lunch and dinner.

If the clothes fit better and are looser and you can get into things you could absolutely not get into before, then you ARE on the right track.

Ignore that scale. Ignore it ignore it ignore it. It will only frustrate you. I only get on it once every few weeks (2-3) just to see what's doing, but I don't go by it daily or even weekly. Too many variables that will affect it.