The Most Important Thing You Have Learned From MFP

That everything I had been taught as "common sense" about losing weight and getting fitter was a joke. The eat less and move more, restrict your diet, stick to these spot training moves was just a bunch of advertising bull**** that magazines, DVD's, and some personal trainers use to suck you in so that they can try to feed you a quick fix until they hand you the next quick fix . . . brain washing is what it really is . . . nothing but a heap of bullsh*t.

Hard work, eating enough to achieve the results you want, lifting heavy, and working the heart will get you everywhere.

[I've also learned that I hate the word journey]

You can troll people by starting posts with "paleo" or "Dr. Oz"

I learned:

- Poe's law hasn't stopped being true.

- a lot of people have very irrational fears of sodium, MSG, and artificial sweeteners.

- some people have a very unhealthy relationship with food, and see food in a very different way than I do.

- some people attach their giant bloated ego and self-worth to everything they attempt, think they should be superhuman and set goals accordingly, and then consider any outcome less than total perfection to be some sort of horrible character flaw that deserves self-loathing and/or punishment.

- what FUPA means. (And thigh gap.)

- food can serve two functions, to nourish the body and to provide pleasure, and that almost all foods do only one of those. Many people get fat by being extremists and eating foods that only do the latter, and then respond by being extremists in the opposite direction and becoming afraid of eating anything for pleasure. But by finding a reasonable balance between those two, you can nourish your body with good foods and also enjoy pleasure foods while maintaining good health.

- picking up heavy things is awesome!

- you don't have to have ever set foot in a gym to appreciate gym memes.

Diet and exercise actually work!

And after spending about a day here, I was ready to never hear "lifestyle change" and "journey" ever, ever again. If I didn't care about wasting calories on alcoholic beverages, I could get hammered so fast by inventing an MFP drinking game using those two terms :-).

I have learned so many valuable things from my friends here on mfp. I think the most valuable one is that I actually do not have to be perfect and that I will always have an opportunity to make better choices and won't throw away all my hard work on one bad choice. Losing the all or nothing mindset is extremely difficult to do after so many years of yo-yoing.

That I was eating way more calories than I realized.

I've learned that I'm not alone. I've learned the importance of paying close attention to what I'm eating and what it does for me. I've learned that there are people out there who have hot bodies, who make me a little jealous and self conscious, but it turns out that some of them used to be like me. They know what it feels like to be in my shoes. And it is totally possible to look like that if I put my mind to it.,

The most important thing I have learned from MFP is portion control.

I used to eat at least 2-3 servings and thought that it was alright because there was lots of vegetables in it or something silly like that. I would lie to myself and so I got nowhere.

MFP really has changed my life.

What's the most important thing you have learned on MFP? Mine is that you don't have to starve yourself to lose weight! Actually, it's much better if you don't!

This. I learned about BMR, TDEE, calorie deficits and macros and i never understood any of that.
Before i joined MFP i had been on a diet for 8 months and was actually undereating without being aware of it! Since I'm still brainwashed to think that I have to put very little on my plate I'm sticking to MFP to eat the right amount of food.
I've never felt hungry, not even when I was undereating, but now I feel so much better because my body is getting the proper nutrition according to my current weight, physical activities and sports, and my goals.

I'm so happy that I joined!