Throwing in the towel, sort of
backonbandwagon
Posts: 36
I've concluded I don't have what it takes to get my body to drop some poundage. Success in weight loss has solidified it's place next to trigonometry, the other thing I am sure I am genetically not designed to succeed at.
Perhaps if I never sniffed a cookie for the rest of my life or lived through summers without any ice cream (or vodka coolers), my body might relinquish something, but would I really want to live a life like that? Probably not. I've tried, but I'm not convinced that "Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels". That would be boring.
Still, I am committed to entering my food intake for the simple reason it keeps me accountable. I can't complain about my weight if I have just logged a 1700 calorie day. That would be stupid. And I am now not going to complain about the scale not budging if I continue to stay between 1200-1400 calories/day - I've accepted (um... working on it) that is the way it is. I'm done trying to find the "magic formula" to get this ridiculous metabolism to budge. That is depressing.
No expectations, just using MFP as a journal from now on. :ohwell:
Perhaps if I never sniffed a cookie for the rest of my life or lived through summers without any ice cream (or vodka coolers), my body might relinquish something, but would I really want to live a life like that? Probably not. I've tried, but I'm not convinced that "Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels". That would be boring.
Still, I am committed to entering my food intake for the simple reason it keeps me accountable. I can't complain about my weight if I have just logged a 1700 calorie day. That would be stupid. And I am now not going to complain about the scale not budging if I continue to stay between 1200-1400 calories/day - I've accepted (um... working on it) that is the way it is. I'm done trying to find the "magic formula" to get this ridiculous metabolism to budge. That is depressing.
No expectations, just using MFP as a journal from now on. :ohwell:
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Replies
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I hear that you are very frustrated. Metabolism is a joy to play with(read sarcasm). By continuing to track your food, you can make subtle changes to your plan that will work for you.
One thing I've done different this time and its working for me is to not eat after dinner. I haven't changed much else, but that seems to be working so far.. Summer is the hardest time for me too. That's when I have holidays with the kids and we eat whatever we want.
{hugs} Know that we are here for you.0 -
Forget the scale numbers, forget all the pressure of commitment, and forget about counting calories. Just make it a point to start replacing foods with fruits and vegetables.
You DON'T have to commit to never eating ice cream again, but if you make it a point to get a fruit based desert, you wont WANT to eat the ice cream as often. If you plan to have a homemade peach sorbet, or a banana/date/cinnamon smoothie, or something like that, after dinner every night, you will not want the ice cream.
You still get to eat and you still get to enjoy dessert!!!
Eat more fruit and vegetables. For each bite of fruit and veg you eat, that's a bite of something with a higher calorie density you don't have to eat. You don't have to give up satiation or sweetness to lose weight and be healthy. Eat more fruit. Eat more vegetables.
Eat more fruits and vegetables. Seriously.0 -
Well, I was motivated to pass up a DQ Blizzard opportunity tonight. Think I'll whip up some frozen strawberries and non-fat Greek vanilla yogurt tomorrow night, though.
Just do the best you can, right?0 -
Wait a minute... what's wrong with a 1700 calorie day? I lost pretty much all my weight eating that much or more. You might have been making all this way too hard on yourself, and have much better success eating a normal amount of food.0
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Well, since you are trying to be accepting of not being able to lose weight, why don't you just try eating more? Why not set your plan to maintenance and see if you really can maintain on the higher calories. If you can, wouldn't that be great to be able to eat 500 or 700 more calories a day and still maintain? If you can't, then you can try something else.
Maybe after you actually try maintenance calories for a while, you can work on creating a deficit again and then see if you lose any more weight.0 -
I agree - a 1700 calorie day is not horrible at all. I've had days that were 5000 calories - not that I'm proud of it. But you are on to something in that journaling is a great habit and one that will help you understand yourself and possibly identify patterns. I say kudos to you! And when/if you want to make changes, you will have all of the information you need close at hand.0
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Wait a minute... what's wrong with a 1700 calorie day? I lost pretty much all my weight eating that much or more. You might have been making all this way too hard on yourself, and have much better success eating a normal amount of food.
This this this0 -
Forget the scale numbers, forget all the pressure of commitment, and forget about counting calories. Just make it a point to start replacing foods with fruits and vegetables.
You DON'T have to commit to never eating ice cream again, but if you make it a point to get a fruit based desert, you wont WANT to eat the ice cream as often. If you plan to have a homemade peach sorbet, or a banana/date/cinnamon smoothie, or something like that, after dinner every night, you will not want the ice cream.
You still get to eat and you still get to enjoy dessert!!!
Eat more fruit and vegetables. For each bite of fruit and veg you eat, that's a bite of something with a higher calorie density you don't have to eat. You don't have to give up satiation or sweetness to lose weight and be healthy. Eat more fruit. Eat more vegetables.
Eat more fruits and vegetables. Seriously.
^^THAT^^^ Well said!! I love real fruit smoothies for dessert and without milk! Just water, blackberries, cherries and a frozen banana!! MMMMMMMMMM!! Much better than ice cream any day and guilt-free!!0 -
Daily exercise is the key to being able to eat 1700 calories and still lose weight...also, make sure you are careful about actual calorie counts on your burns...invest in a good HRM and use it faithfully! Log your food, maintain the deficit that MFP sets for you and you WILL lose weight (unless you have some unforseen medical issue that is preventing this!)
YOU CAN DO IT! DON"T GIVE UP!0 -
1700 calorie a day diet!! I'd swell :noway: To clarify I'm not an ice cream addict by any means - just enjoy a good one once or three times/summer. Cookies are definitely my stress food/comfort of choice. Thankfully life has been pretty grand lately for the most part so I haven't had any "6-cookie-moments" for a while.
I'm just going to continue to track my intake. When those weak moments hit, logging definitely tempers down those gluttonous moments. I don't have a good heart rate monitor but I do use the My Tracks app when I walk so I know exactly how long I've been moving, the distance covered and moving speed.
Think my mood is a bit exacerbated by my friend's current weight loss success. Seriously, she is worse than Oprah but right now she looks amazing and she wants to give me her "fat" clothes. I don't want her fat clothes, but am not stupid enough to turn down some really nice clothes :grumble: Her husband told me the family had Chinese food for dinner the other night but she had a huge plate of cucumbers. ew - I mean I love fresh cukes and a good salad but they aren't designed to compete in the olfactory with Chinese food. Why do families do that? I would love it if my family could eat a dinner salad a couple times per week and not have basically a mutiny take place-husband included.
And that is the other thing - I was grumbling :grumble: about my non-success and my husband just looked at me and said he loved me :smooched: I don't think he really likes it when I am *****y/hungry, feeling sorry for myself because I can't have/choosing not to have what my family is eating, or being frustrated with my non-success. WTF am I doing this for again? oh right, because I know I should have/want a lower body fat % and I just don't know how to get there efficiently with the feedback my body has given me for as long as I can remember.
I'll stop downloading now. Thank you all for the support and words of encouragment! :flowerforyou:0 -
Ok felt that way before but go through it try not to over try but lets use basic math.
Ice Cream is now breakfast buy yourself diet shakes already make in a can, get some frozen fruit my $1 store sells it dump in blender blend for 2-3 minutes. Drink is awesome you drink it slower so brain reads food in!!!! Have another with lunch as well.
Eat lunch and dinner but mix up the # of calories you eat daily 800 worked for me but might be to little for some people to do regularly but if you kick start metabolism with 800, 1000, 1200, 1000, 800 on a rotating shedule should break plateau. Buy 80% of groceries from outer aisles - Inside aisle are bad! If buying from inside aisle nothing higher than 100 calories / serving. So buy Salsa on Mexican aisle put back the cheese wiz and chips.....
Your dedicated enough but overwelmed by it all0 -
Try logging just what you'd normally eat for a week or so. You might be surprised.
When I gained weight, it crept on slowly... like 20 pounds over the course of 2 years. I imagine for most people, it's about the same. What that means is that my eating wasn't THAT bad. I was gaining, on average, less than a quarter of a pound a week. Less than four ounces. So I was only eating, on average, about 200-250 calories above what it required to maintain my weight. And really, it was more a matter of not burning enough calories because I wasn't active enough.
So, if it took 2000 calories to maintain my weight, and I was eating a little over 2200, there's no need to cut my calorie consumption almost in HALF to lose weight. Cutting it to a total of about 1800 (ie 1350-1500 plus exercise calories), plus becoming more active, gave me enough of a daily deficit to lose on average of one pound a week.
On the other hand, years ago, when I tried to just cut my calories to under 1000, weight came off painfully slow and I quit for the same reasons you did. But I've found that EVERYTHING I thought I knew about weight loss was WRONG. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/709987-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics0 -
I hear ya... I've been feeling the same way but decided to try again today. Hope you have a blessed day that is full of unexpected happiness.0
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I am completely rubbish at sticking to a calorie goal of say 1200. Or even when I put it up to 1300 I still failed. And every time I failed I thought - may as well give up because I am rubbish at this.
Now I am trying to do NROLFW. I am part way through stage 1, and following the guidelines in the book and some reading around (that thread on 'in place of a road map' is great) my daily calories are set to 1500 and I allow myself 1700 for workout days. I don't add food for other exercise, because I don't really do any.
Part of the reaosn I have changed my daily goals is because every time I say to myself, damn, screwed up failed again, I am moving further and further away from the mentality that allows me to stick to this. By having an achievable goal (amazing how easy it is to have the odd beer and 'binge' into the 2200 calorie level) I am able to see firstly how much I should be eating in general, and secondly, my body does not rebel.
And I eat stuff. I have always been a cook-from-scratch girl and I love my vegetables and the odd ice-cream. I fin as I get older I'm just less interested in ice cream but that's just me and I'm not about to deny myself.
Try eating 'normally' for a bit. Try and see exactly how much you are eating and think about improvements you can make. Then gently eat a bit less of everything. Don't take things out of your diet, just think about what you are eating, and above all -ENJOY your food!!! So many times I am seeing on here 'food is just sustenance' and it makes me sad. Food is heaven. Food tastes GOOOOOOOD!!! Eating with friends and enjoying a beautifully made dish is what life is all about.0 -
your post made me a bit sad... but you have to do whats right for you.0
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Try eating 'normally' for a bit. Try and see exactly how much you are eating and think about improvements you can make. Then gently eat a bit less of everything. Don't take things out of your diet, just think about what you are eating, and above all -ENJOY your food!!! So many times I am seeing on here 'food is just sustenance' and it makes me sad. Food is heaven. Food tastes GOOOOOOOD!!! Eating with friends and enjoying a beautifully made dish is what life is all about.
Totally agree!
For me, it was about eliminating foods, but adding foods.
Instead of saying, "I'm going to stop eating pasta," I add a pile of frozen vegetables to any pasta dish I have so I'm eating less pasta. I'm still eating the same volume of food, but it's lower calories and more veg.
Instead of 400 calories for two Pop Tarts for breakfast, I have a 300 calorie bagel from the bakery of the grocery store. Feels like more food, tastes better, but less calories. Or I'll have a little bit of Nutella and/or peanut butter on an English Muffin for even less calories.
Instead of a candy bar, I have chocolaty protein bars. Tastes the same, satisfies the same urge, but instead of 200 empty calories, I'm getting 10-15g of protein.
Instead of scooping out a tiny half cup serving of ice cream, which looks pretty sad in a bowl, I have an ice cream sandwich. Automatic portion control. And when I want ice cream, it's the flavor that I want. The volume doesn't matter.
Instead of pizza.... Ok, there's no substitute for pizza for me. But instead of having it 3-4 times a week, I have it once or twice. And I make sure it fits my calories that day. And I take the smaller slices, leaving the larger slices to my husband. So I'm still eating half a pizza, but maybe only 45% instead of 50%.
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Have you seen a doctor about it? To gain on 1700 is pretty unusual...0
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I hear ya! I started MFP in March 2012. I am at the age of hormonal menapuase so I found this had alot to do with my emotions and sleep. I almost gave up twice, but had friends on here who helped me stay. I said," Its too hard to figure out, its so confusing,, why aren't I losing? everyone else is."
.I kept tweeking my nutrition,changing my calories, my diet etc. for months it seemed to stay the same.. i kept saying Whats the point? Mfp says in 5 weeks I should be at a such an such weight..wasn't happening..I got into vitamins and minerals, menaclear for the hormones, and iodine drops for my thyroid.. then someting odd happened, since I was sleeping better, my mood was better,the vitamins gave me more energy..and even tho its taken 6 months, I have still lost.. Not a big fabulous amount for 6 months, but my journey hasn't been that bad, I still had my weekly sambuca, occasional cookies etc. i just logged them and worked around the calories and still had what I enjoyed for the day.
I learned how to not fry as much but broil and bake and boil. I measure and weigh every thing to make sure what I eat is a portion and not a mound. Simple changes and today I look back at the times when I was mad about not losing I laugh, because now the scale says, yes I have lost. it might be two years, maybe not.. I just know if you don't get too stressed about it and continue to follow a good pattern IT WILL COME OFF>
maybe not in a record time, but those people who are miserable eating things off the wall ,you know they can't continue to eat that way forever,, they may lose fast,, but while you are still losing, they will have gained some of theirs back.
We want everything to happen now...slow and steady is the key... enjoy each day take a day at a time and KEEP LOGGING! Stay active continue to have supporters on here it does help! Stay focused it will come0 -
What I've gathered from your profile --- So you're 2 months in, without an open diary. You don't want to 'get fit' you just want to change your shape? But you want to lose your back fat, butt, and stomach?
I think you may need to reasses your goals. I'm sure you can lose weight if you reshape your thought process.0 -
It doesn't have to be losing weight/getting fit OR eating food you like. For some people, it is. Some people choose to cut out all high fat/high sugar/processed food or whatever. You don't have to if you don't want to though. I had some really yummy (and generously iced) chocolate cake yesterday. The day before, I had a glass of wine. Just over a week ago, I had Chinese takeaway and quite a lot of vodka. Today, I'm down about 2.5 lbs from two weeks ago. That's not to say I don't care about a healthy diet - I really do, and my diet is much, much better than it was when I was gaining weight. I concentrate on getting lots of protein, fibre, healthy fats, water, vitamins and minerals.... and meeting my calorie goal. I eat the foods I really like (certain things less often and in smaller portions) and I'm losing weight.
I don't know why you're struggling to lose weight, maybe your calorie goal needs tweaking. Maybe there's an underlying medical reason. Honestly though, you don't have to live a lifestyle that makes you miserable to lose weight.0
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