Anyone want to be honest with me?

fvolley

try following Bob Harper's rules to weight loss. it helped me and still does. And try not to think of it as dieting..i know it's redundant and can be quite annoying to hear but try to think of it as a lifestyle change.

rule 1. Drink a large glass of water before every meal -no excuses
*** Good to help overeating and to ensure you are actually hungry and not thirsty

rule 2. Don't drink your calories
**** If you have the calories and want to drink them go ahead.

rule 3. Eat protein at every meal or stay hungry and grouchy
*** Protein, fiber and fat keep you feeling full for longer.

rule 4. slash your intake of refined flours and grains
** While a good guideline you can still consume those things

rule 5. Eat 30 to 50 grams of fiber a day
** Good advice

rule 6. Eat apples and berries every single day (every single day)
*** Eat whatever fruit you want. Nothing special about apples and berries.

rule 7. No carbs after lunch
** NO, bad rule. Eat carbs whenever you want them as long as it fits into your calories.

rule 8. Learn to read food labels so you know what you are eating
** Good job Bob

rule 9. Stop guessing about portion size and get it right - for good
*** Great! Always weigh foods and use measuring cups for liquids.

rule 10. No more added sweeteners, including artificial ones
** Nothing wrong with sweeteners as long as you don't have a sensitivity to them.. don't listen to the so called experts that claim they will kill you and give you cancer.

rule 11. Get rid of those white potatoes
** While there are more nutritious choices, nothing wrong with white potatoes provided you are in your calories.

rule 12. Make one day a week meatless

rule 13. Get rid of fast foods and fried foods
** Fast foods and fried foods are ok now and again provided they fit into your calories.

rule 14. Eat a real breakfast
** Only eat breakfast if you are hungry. Don't force yourself to eat if you aren't hungry. Eating breakfast doesn't start your metabolism or anything.

rule 15. Make your own food and eat at least ten meals a week at home

rule 16. banish high salt foods
** Moderation.... drink extra water

rule 17. Eat your vegetables - just do it

rule 18. Go to bed hungry
** NOt everyone can or will... it's not bad to eat before bed as long as you don't have sleep issues because of it

rule 19. sleep right

rule 20. plan one splurge meal a week


hope this helps!

See my notes above... I dislike Bob Harper along with Jillian Michaels. Don't eat white potatoes, don't eat close to bed, no carbs after lunch? Bob is not a nutritionist.

Thank You for that. I just skimmed over it the first time when I said I agreed and did them. Now That I really took a look IM NOT LoL. I will take your notes to heart and do a better job.

TillyTick

I bet you are beginning to regret asking! Well you get nothing if not lots of advice on MFP ????

gtowneddie

Of course you can, one of the hardest things to do is to DENY that the stuff (being nice) we shove in our mouths, looking innocent and harmless, can be lethal for weight loss - have you ever read the packaging for a bag of cookies - 2 cookies and you have to get on the floor, elliptical or treadmill for 30 mins! BUT, I take it as that if I hadn't overloaded in the past, I wouldn't have to suffer now - pay the piper time! It is worth it, tho. Stay strong and when you see someone with hips taking over the sidewalk, know that it's not you this time :embarassed:

NattyCANTOO

I agree with now_or_never1's comments about processed foods and lack of whole foods after checking out your food diary. If cooking meals is a struggle due to time constraints, try making soups. Use low sodium broths (chicken, vegetable or tomato) and add fresh veggies, lentils, beans, ground turkey, chicken, barley, herbs...basically whatever you want! I do this a lot when I know it's going to be a crazy week. Soups give you a lot of room to experiment with flavors you like, allow you to control the calories you put into it, they're filling and usually provide meals for several days. Be sure to use the recipe function on MFP to know the total recipe calories.

Kelly_Runs_NC

If I'm reading correctly, it's only been a week - you will need to be patient and give it at least 3 weeks.

Also, you may not be eating enough. Even at 150 and 5'11 I eat 1600 + exercise calories to lose weight. I think your deficit might be too high.

Unless you are lactose intolerant, it's not the cheese, hun. Eating 1380 calories at 220 pounds you are definitely in a calorie deficient, so unless you are eating like 2400 calories of cheese a day, it won't affect your weight loss...

^ this. AND it took at least 3-4 weeks before I saw any difference. Step away from teh scale...stay with the program and the resutls will come. BE PATIENT!!! I promise.

rob1976

This isn't a sprint we're on here folks. It's a marathon.

"Weight loss, like life, isn't a marathon. It's a dance. You just have to ensure that you are taking more steps forward than back."---Me

Warchortle

dairy in general causes people to bloat, so if you're exercising your water intake probably is higher plus the sodium in cheese.

silvergurl518

first off, congrats on joining! but if you started a week ago, it's going to take a lot longer than a week to see/feel results. slow and steady wins the race.

elyelyse

I am not good at "making" good meals. Everything has to be quick and almost like "grab and go". Guess I am going to have to really start putting in some actual effort with my food.

yup. it's almost impossible to keep a handle on things like sodium unless you prepare things yourself. It's a lot harder to control everything, really. Someone may have mentioned this (i didn't read all 7 pages) but you can set aside a few hours one day a week to prepare meals, put them in single serving containers and stick them in the fridge and/or freezer. then you have your quick meals when you need them, without the added sodium, artificial flavoring, and preservatives.

Markguns

I guess I am expecting INSTANT results. I do this every single time I diet. This is why I fail. I just assumed I wouldn't GAIN during this time. That's all.

It's not a DIET -- That is why you fail -- it's a change in Lifestyle! Give yourself a month before you start "freaking out" about the scale. :bigsmile: Then you will see it works... slow n steady. I have to remind myself of this, as I want to see the scale go down every 3 days, it doesn't! Sometimes it goes up, as much as 5 lbs. So stay the course and maybe eat a little more. Get ride of the processed foods, make it yourself. Say no to fast food = fast weight. Get moving

josuediaz

I guess I am expecting INSTANT results. I do this every single time I diet. This is why I fail. I just assumed I wouldn't GAIN during this time. That's all.

THIS was my life. No instant results...FAILURE! I took a year to love me for me. Once I did that, and built up some confidence in my body, my mindset changed to wanting to be HEALTHIER rather than skinnier. Is it frustrating to not see the scale move sometimes? Yep, but I FEEL better. I am STRONGER. I am getting HEALTHIER! I find victories each day to concentrate on (like when I tried Greek yogurt and didn't die, lol). Oh, and find your inter patience. Read the success stories. It can take a year or more to lose 50 lbs. I really had to fully understand that to be ready this time.

Read the posts here. Do your research on TDEE. You are very likely eating too little. But use these forums and this community to learn as much as you can and then do what feels right.

Do it for health reasons like it was posted here. Then do it to challenge yourself, challenges like WTF I want to be able to do more than one mountain climber without feeling that I would have a heart attack. Just wait and wait. I was 416 pounds and it took almost a month of exercising hard, boot camp style, to loose 16 miserable pounds, but then a month after I was down 66 total and as of now I'm down 130.

There is also two ways to do it, the formula is very simple calories in vs calories out, but you have to eat at least 5 times a day to get your meatbolism going, do not starve yourself out. Create the deficit through exercise. Remember, if you don't eat your body becomes catabolic or in laymans term it will think that it will starve to death, thus holding fat as its energy source. This will make your body loose muscle and not fat and you want to have it the other way around. One pund of lean muscle burns 50 calories just by existing, so you want to gain as much lean muscle mass as you can,so your basal metabolic rate goes up and you have to work less. So eat, eat, eat and burn, burn, burn.

I rather be sore than sorry, I believe in that. I had a trainer once said to me: " When you trained, run as if somebody were chasing you, lift like something just fell on you and eat like somebody else".

Hopes this helps.

livingfortheone

We focus too much on calories. Sodium will make us retain water... and water has weight.
So.. when you are tracking your food, watch your sodium.
Also, make sure you are being honest with yourself as you track.
If it hits your lips, it makes the list!

Continued success on your journey

-Ken

So okay. I was doing quite well and then BAM! here I am today at 220. WTF! That's me gaining! I am eating my calories and I even started exercise this week. My calories are set to 1380 a day. I eat them. I will eat a little more IF I exercise and IF I am hungry. I am 5'7 and I started MFP about a week ago. Boo. I am so pissed off. The only thing I can assume is maybe because I actually exercised my body may be retaining water or maybe I am building muscle lol. I am not sure.

You DO NOT have to handle me with kid gloves. I just want some ideas as to why this is happening. Shouldn't I have lost a little weight?

I am also thinking maybe it could be the cheese. I love my string cheese but it might be time to cut it out of the ole' diet plan.

Anyway if anyone has time could they take a look and tell me what they think?

jadethief

Agreed! I need to be drinking more plain ole' water. In your opinion is diet green tea and those little crystal light flavor packets okay for my water too or should I just take the plunge and do plain water?

All fluids count. Just be sure that you log the calories too (if there are any).

Some people will tell you that only plain water counts, but adding something (crystal light, a tea bag, etc.) to it doesn't transform it into something different.

Missellaneous02

I saw that you said you are not good at cooking meals. Me neither. You should research some websites and cookbooks that have healthy recipe’s. A co worker recommended SkinnyTaste.com to me. I find all of her recipe’s delicious and easy to cook since she takes step by step pictures as well as instructions.



Edited because I didn't realize originally other's had already said this.

Francl27

Main issue I see with your diet is a lot of 'unhealthy' processed things. Because the box says 'healthier' or 'lean' doesn't mean it's really healthy... like those veggie straws, kashi 'go lean' chocolate bars and sugar free stuff... and it's so much cheese. You also seem to go over too much. I would probably be starving if I ate 1500 calories of that stuff too though. You're wasting your calories on popsicles or Kashi bars that don't fill you up.

You'll never be able to maintain a diet with that food, and I doubt you're getting enough nutrients either.

Going through your diary -

Replace those snack bars with something more nutritious (really, do the fiberone fiber bars only have 5g protein?). Buy pure protein bars like KIND, Luna or Quest. I have one for breakfast and it keeps me full for 2-3 hours.

Veggie straws, popsicles and rice cakes - pretty much empty calories. They're fine occasionally but not when your diet mostly consists on them.

I hate cooking and I'm not one to make fancy stuff, but it's just as easy to get a can of tuna, or chicken, nuke some frozen veggies or some eggs. Sure, I use shakes and protein bars as well, but I try to have yogurt, fruit, veggies, meat, fish as well. I barely see any of those in your diary.

redraidergirl2009

I want to add that I used to eat more meat I stopped because I picked up a diet book that looked interesting and read it. It turned out to be a vegan book and they totally HATE meat. They said the way it is processed these days can actually make you more fat. So I have been staying away since then.

That somewhat true, most meat is pumped full of chemicals and extrahormones and modified. If you don't want to eat it I don't blame you. I'm vegetarian. But your diet was very poor for a vegetarian. You should vary proteins and foods from kashi and a strawberry or two here and there. Try having a big salad for lunch with dark greens like spinach, you can add in beans, edamame, nuts, fruit, anything and still keep it low cal. The green in it will bulk up and are low in calories and high in nutrients. You don't have to cut put ypur cheesw sticks if you don't want to, but just stop relying on them as a staple food source.

LadyMustard

Two biggest things I noticed being said: eat a bit more calories, and eat more wholesome foods.

Here's some things that you (and your daughter) might like to try. They have a bit more calories, 250-500 depending on what ingredients you use, but they are very filling and have lots of vitamins and proteins.

~Take some raw chicken breasts, trim the fat. Grill it up in a skillet with a very small amount of olive oil and some garlic. If you have a foreman grill or something similar that would work well too. Add the chicken to the top of salads to make a tasty dinner salad or put them in wraps with a spring mix lettuce blend, a little bit of low fat cheese, tomatoes, finely diced onions, peppers, zuccinni, whatever... You can get different flavored wraps at the store too (tomato basil, spinich, whole grain... you name it, they have it). VERY easy to make, since all you're doing is grilling up chicken and throwing veggies into a wrap.

~http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/garden-chowder-2

FAMILY FAVORITE!!!
To make it healthier:
~Use 3 cups no/low sodium chicken broth instead of the cubes to reduce sodium.
~Use ANY 5 cups of veggies that you want. Try to avoid corn though, since its high in calories and carbs and low in anything else.
~Use skim milk, though it will make it a bit more soupy than chowder-y, it still tastes good.
~OMIT THE CHEESE. If you want it, sprinkle it on top instead of dumping 3 cups straight into the pot.
~You can make this in a pot on the stove. Saute the onions, dump the ingredients in, let it simmer. Add the milk.

TRUST ME!! Even your husband will want some of this stuff. It makes your house smell absolutely divine and is full of veggies, nutrients and protein. Just make sure to follow the substitutions to cut the fat and sodium. A little over 300 calories per serving as is, the substitutions will push down the fat, sodium, and maybe another 50 calories.

tammycolbert

I noticed when I was only eating 1300 calories a day I wasn't losing any weight at all, I was gaining. I was told my body was in starvation mode so it was storing what I was eating. I bumped my calories to 1700 and I lost 6.5lbs in one week. I don't get my period so this wasn't a water weight issue. I don't think you have enough calories. When I started this journey on Jan 7. 2013 I weighed 262lbs, I am now down to 247 as on March 11. I also only weigh myself 1 a week, every Monday morning. Maybe try bumping up those Calories.

fvolley

Main issue I see with your diet is a lot of 'unhealthy' processed things. Because the box says 'healthier' or 'lean' doesn't mean it's really healthy... like those veggie straws, kashi 'go lean' chocolate bars and sugar free stuff... and it's so much cheese. You also seem to go over too much. I would probably be starving if I ate 1500 calories of that stuff too though. You're wasting your calories on popsicles or Kashi bars that don't fill you up.

You'll never be able to maintain a diet with that food, and I doubt you're getting enough nutrients either.

Going through your diary -

Replace those snack bars with something more nutritious (really, do the fiberone fiber bars only have 5g protein?). Buy pure protein bars like KIND, Luna or Quest. I have one for breakfast and it keeps me full for 2-3 hours.

Veggie straws, popsicles and rice cakes - pretty much empty calories. They're fine occasionally but not when your diet mostly consists on them.

I hate cooking and I'm not one to make fancy stuff, but it's just as easy to get a can of tuna, or chicken, nuke some frozen veggies or some eggs. Sure, I use shakes and protein bars as well, but I try to have yogurt, fruit, veggies, meat, fish as well. I barely see any of those in your diary.

Your right. And as I was sitting here my daughter is asking for popsicles. I wonder why? Because I eat them. So I got off my fat butt and made us boiled eggs, bananas, and carrots. I CAN do it. I guess I just needed this post and everyones kick in the butt to make me see the error of my ways.

fvolley

Two biggest things I noticed being said: eat a bit more calories, and eat more wholesome foods.

Here's some things that you (and your daughter) might like to try. They have a bit more calories, 250-500 depending on what ingredients you use, but they are very filling and have lots of vitamins and proteins.

~Take some raw chicken breasts, trim the fat. Grill it up in a skillet with a very small amount of olive oil and some garlic. If you have a foreman grill or something similar that would work well too. Add the chicken to the top of salads to make a tasty dinner salad or put them in wraps with a spring mix lettuce blend, a little bit of low fat cheese, tomatoes, finely diced onions, peppers, zuccinni, whatever... You can get different flavored wraps at the store too (tomato basil, spinich, whole grain... you name it, they have it). VERY easy to make, since all you're doing is grilling up chicken and throwing veggies into a wrap.

~http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/garden-chowder-2

FAMILY FAVORITE!!!
To make it healthier:
~Use 3 cups no/low sodium chicken broth instead of the cubes to reduce sodium.
~Use ANY 5 cups of veggies that you want. Try to avoid corn though, since its high in calories and carbs and low in anything else.
~Use skim milk, though it will make it a bit more soupy than chowder-y, it still tastes good.
~OMIT THE CHEESE. If you want it, sprinkle it on top instead of dumping 3 cups straight into the pot.
~You can make this in a pot on the stove. Saute the onions, dump the ingredients in, let it simmer. Add the milk.

TRUST ME!! Even your husband will want some of this stuff. It makes your house smell absolutely divine and is full of veggies, nutrients and protein. Just make sure to follow the substitutions to cut the fat and sodium. A little over 300 calories per serving as is, the substitutions will push down the fat, sodium, and maybe another 50 calories.

You are right and I will make these totally.

I am taking someone else's advice about my boyfriend too. I will make my healthy meals for me and my daughter he can eat them or kiss my butt. LOL