My 2 Year Anniversary with MFP

Two years ago today I first started using the MFP app. Since then I've lost over 80 pounds, went from a size 22 to a size 8 (and even a size 6 for a moment), improved my health, improved my attitude and had a lot of my misconceptions about weight loss and myself challenged.



Above are photos of me from May 2011 just before I started the app, Oct. 2012 when I'd dropped 70 pounds in time for my 40th birthday and a more recent pic of me at my high school weight (88 pounds from when I started).

In the past I thought that losing weight would mean giving up the foods I liked, working out for hours, but that if I was doing it right, then I'd be shedding tons of weight each month and it would only take a few months to hit my goal. I also thought becoming thinner would mean I'd be more successful, have better luck dating and finding love and that all the other things in my life that were frustrating me would just kind of disappear because being skinnier would fix it all. I also thought there was no way I would ever get to my high school weight or ever wear anything less than a size 10 if I was really lucky.

I failed at losing weight before because I thought that the exercise was the most important thing and I thought that I was eating healthy if what ever I had was called a salad or contained vegetables, chicken or fish. I figured that the smaller the meal then the fewer calories regardless of what I was eating and that a half hour of exercise would burn a ton of calories.

Since MFP I've finally realised that what and how much I eat have a much bigger impact on my weight than exercise. I can workout an hour a day for a week while eating right and lose four pounds, but then splurge on the weekend and gain back 5-8 pounds in water weight that I will spend the following week working off again. But I can also go weeks and even months without exercising and still lose weight just by counting my calories and watching my sodium. I've learned that losing weight does not equal getting healthy (especially if the way you choose to lose weight is very unhealthy) and skinny does not equal healthy and smart either just as fat does not mean lazy and dumb. And I've learned that weight loss success is more mental than anything. We all know how to lose weight. We just talk ourselves out of it by making it more important that we have time to watch TV or convince ourselves that healthy food is too expensive and that working out requires expensive trainers and gyms, or we just convince ourselves we can't do it so why even try.

I've discovered that it's not about giving up the foods you like or "good foods" vs. "bad foods". It's about moderation. It's about eating just one or two slices of pizza and not the entire thing. Or getting the single size bag of chips instead of the giant size one that I'm just going to eat entirely anyway. It's about not keeping those tempting foods in the house and keeping myself busy so that I'm not bored and craving something to eat. It's about really reading the labels on those prepackaged foods that look like one serving, but is actually considered 2-4 servings according to the manufacturer since more servings makes the calories per serving smaller. It's about watching my sodium intake because my body reacts to too much in a big way. And it's about giving yourself a free day so that you can go to that cocktail party or on that date or enjoy a special meal so you don't get so hangry because everyone else can eat "normally" and you have to keep track of everything.

I've learned that what you eat affects how you weigh while exercise affects how that weight looks on you and both affect your mood. Exercise has been the best antidepressant for me. When a day is going bad for me, just a half hour hiking or taking a 45 minute class at the gym makes a world of difference. I've even been known to cry sometimes when I've had to miss a workout. I used to struggle to get to the gym 3 days a week. Now I'm there 5-6 days a week and LOVE IT!!! Yes, the exercise is great, but so are the great friends I've made, the supportive trainers who have helped me so much and just having a little escape from work, bills, family and friend drama and some time for me.

I've also learned that there's no point in exercising for hours a day because you burn most of your calories not by working out, but just by living. If I spent all day sitting in front of the TV, my body would still burn about 1600 calories just maintaining regular body function (or to be more precise 1656 calories according to my RMR measurement). I burn another 500 calories throughout the day from driving to work, working, talking with friends, walking around the office, running errands. And then a half hour at the gym gives me another 200 calories on top of that. So the most important thing is that I build up some muscle with 30-60 minutes of strength training which will help my body burn more calories every day naturally and not straining my body and injurying myself by pushing myself for 2-3 hours. And I've learned that this is why 1200 calorie diets are a bad idea, especially if I don't eat my exercise calories since then my body doesn't have all the fuel it needs to keep my body functioning normally - and the first place where functionality decreases is my mental acuity. It also makes me more hangry and more likely to have some major binging episodes. And exercising is so much easier to fit into your schedule when you enjoy what you are doing and where you work out.

I've learned that losing 1-2 pounds a week is a safe way to lose weight and anyone who is expecting to have Biggest Loser type weight loss results each week, better be willing to quit their jobs, move to a retreat away from all temptations and distractions and pay a team of trainers and health professionals to monitor you as you work out for 8 hours a day while nothing by healthy foods are provided to you to eat. Otherwise if you have a life, a family, a job and bills and can't do much more than an hour a day at the gym, 1-2 pounds a week is perfect.

I've also learned that you do not need to be uber precise with how many calories are burned versus eaten. Some people on here get so obsessed about which calorie counts are the most accurate. It doesn't matter in the end how exact you are. What does matter is that you are paying attention to what you are putting in your body and trying to balance it out with how you use your body because that is how you'll succeed. You are never going to get precise measurements unless you have a team of doctors every day tracking you as you workout and measuring every single bit of food you eat. So instead of using up energy fretting about whether the MFP exercise calories are as precise as your HRM or the treadmill or whatever, just get your work out on and have some fun!

I've learned that people will not react the way you expect them to in regards to your weight loss. Some people are so certain that it is impossible to lose weight while eating anything other than chicken, fish, broccoli and brown rice that they will actually scold me for eating a cookie as if that one cookie is going to make all 80 pounds appear back on my body overnight. Some people assume I must be super disciplined, but I'm not. (I don't eat clean, I have a cheat day once a week, I love cheese and will never give it up and I am a bit lazy and prefer food that is already prepared to making it myself. But I like the new skinny me and will do whatever I can to ensure that I never, ever, ever wear a double digit size again.) People think my weight loss is only possible if I'm starving myself and will tell me over and over that I couldn't possibly have lost weight while eating what I say I've been eating. But I have and I did.

Some people have been inspired by my success and have followed my example to lose weight. That has inspired me to become a dietitian so that I can continue to help others take the steps they need to lose weight and get healthy. Other people have faded out of my life now that I'm no longer the doormat that I once was. My success has improved my self confidence by a great deal, but for some people that can be a threat. (And sometimes I get a little too confident and can annoy the crap out of people.) Other people want to tell me how they could never do what I did and why they can never lose weight and I just nod and think to myself, "If you think you can't, then you can't."

And people can get sooooooooooo mad when you tell them that you lost weight by "counting calories and exercising". People don't want to hear that. They want it to be a magic pill, special toppings on your food or a special diet seen on Oprah or Dr. Oz that helped you succeed. They don't want to know that what they've been told forever they should do to lose weight actually does work. They will be very disappointed by your answer.

But most importantly is that losing weight did not solve all my other problems like I'd hoped. It just took away an excuse I had for those aspects of my life being bad. I thought my love life was a mess because I was too fat. I'm thinner now and my love life is still a mess. I used my weight as an excuse not to go out before and now accept that it's because money is tight and I can't over extend myself just to have a good time, but I also can find cheap or free things to do so that I'm not sitting home all the time snacking in front of the TV. I thought I was stuck in a job I didn't enjoy because I didn't work hard enough. (Because everyone knows fat people are lazy, right?) Now I've realised I do work hard enough, but that I'm working in the wrong field and am now working on becoming a dietitian.

Getting in to shape, getting healthy, losing weight - these things all require balancing your expectations with reality. It also requires making a choice to stop finding reasons why you can't and starting figuring out ways that you can. It requires that you be patient with and forgiving of yourself. You aren't perfect. You don't have to be. You just need to be willing to take the first step, experiment, give it time to work (one week is not time - try it for two to three months before throwing in the towel). Plateaus happen. It isn't your body giving up. It is your body getting used to what you've been doing and asking you to change things up and try something new.

Since going to maintenance mode, I've struggled and I've gained back some of the weight I lost. But I'm not discouraged. My weight is no longer the most important number to me. My jean size is. As long as I can fit into my jeans, I feel good. But I'm also not settling either. I'm trying new things, starting to get more focused on weights and building muscle, and doing a lot of internal work because what's eating you can affect your weight as well, especially an emotional eater like me.

Good luck out there to all of you no matter where you are on your journey. Remember that this is not a task to be completed. It is a lifestyle change you need to be willing to maintain for the rest of your life. I think it's worth it. I hope you do, too.

If you want to know how I started my weight loss journey:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/905540-newbie-starter-weight-loss-plan-for-people-50-pounds-over

And just for laughs:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/857137-for-the-newbies-here-is-what-losing-80-pounds-is-like