New, with some questions

mtj1963
mtj1963 Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi, I am a 49-year-old mother of two (ages 11 and 14), married for 22 years to my best friend. I'm normally right around the top of my healthy BMI range, but put on a few pounds over the holidays, and would rather be closer to the lower end of the range (I'm 5'7", so that would be around 145). I've used Livestrong/My Daily Plate for tracking before, but have heard lots of good things about MFP, so I'm giving it a try! I enjoy running, horseback riding, hiking, and watching my kids' activities. I telecommute for work, so have quite a bit of flexibility. A few questions for anyone who cares to answer them:
1. The calorie range MFP gives me for losing a pound a week (~1200 calories/day) seems really low compared to what I've been successful with before (~1800/day). Have others had that experience, and if so, did you adjust your goal calories?
2. Before the holidays, I was reading a lot about intermittent fasting (IF) and primal/paleo eating. I tried eating primal/paleo, and did drop some weight, but I'm still not convinced of its healthiness. I might just try tracking/counting instead, which has worked for me before. Any thoughts on which is better?
3. I'm clearly close to menopause, so trying to prepare for having it be even harder to lose/maintain. I'd appreciate any suggestions about that!
4. I'd also love to hear about how people use this website, and what you get the most out of - boards, friends, tracking, etc.? And are there certain groups you'd suggest for someone like me?
Thanks for taking the time to read my message! :smile:

Replies

  • MerlinWilliams
    MerlinWilliams Posts: 92 Member
    If you're interested in finding out more about primal/paleo eating, check out marksdailyapple.com

    Lots of great info and downloadable PDFs there.
  • Hevpais
    Hevpais Posts: 2 Member
    Hello and well done for starting out! I've been using mfp for about a month and am really finding it useful. I've lost 10 lb so far. I also recommend the Hairy Dieters cookbook which has fantastic calorie controlled meals. 1200 does sound quite low, but it also sounds like you don't have much to lose so it would probably adjust for that. However, it sounds like you do quite a lot of exercise too, and you can log that for your daily diary and it will subtract calories used in exercise from your total. So, for instance, if you eat 1200 calories but then do 200 calories of exercise, you will find that your total changes to 1000 giving you somewhat more to eat. I like to fill up with veggies alongside my meals too, so I'm still within target and getting more fibre, but am full. I would also recommend the app to allow you to access the diary on your ipod or whatever. I find that a really handy way to track my food as it isn't always that you want to log onto your computer, but you can use the app anywhere, then when you've got a signal/wifi it will automatically sync with the website. So you can enter data on either and it will still show where you are up to. Good luck with it all!

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