Going from getting no where to melting fat off.

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  • emirror
    emirror Posts: 842 Member
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    Congrats! I was stalling out, and found that doubling my water intake has caused a rapid drop (4 pounds in 3 days). It's awesome to figure all this stuff out!

    As an aside, I did a double-take, because you strongly resemble my ex-husband. Ha! I had to check to see where you live!

    LMAO...Glad I'm not. No offense to you, I just have one ex already and that's enough!!!

    *snickers* Seriously. :-D And no offense taken.
  • _Tara_R
    _Tara_R Posts: 688 Member
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    I started on May 13th at 227.2 Lbs and 30+% BF and I'm now 213.4 @ 23% BF in just two months. In the beginning it was going very slow because I was doing silly things like eating my exercise calories back and not weighing all my foods and drinks. (Guesstimating is the enemy.) In the last couple of weeks I have made some changes and the felt is just melting off now. Here are the changes I made. Just thought I might share to help you all out.

    1.) I bought a digital food scale. I used to measure everything or guesstimate. This is a big NO NO. I now measure NOTHING and weigh EVERYTHING. Yes, even that serving of ketchup.
    2.) I found my TDEE and set my calories 20% below that, not my BMR. Don't eat at what MFP tells you. It's never right.
    3.) I stopped eating back my exercise calories. People tend to under estimate their calorie intake and over estimate their calories burned.
    4.) Do weight training AND cardio. Cardio will burn those extra calories and weight training will maintain and in a few cases, build some new muscle. The more muscle you have, the faster the fat will come off.
    5.) Teach yourself moderation. Depriving yourself of the things you love is only a road to failure (for most). Eat everything you love, just don't eat it all at once and eat smaller portions. I still have beer, pizza, chocolate, etc. and the Lbs are coming off. I just know how to control it.

    I've started following these rules and it's the best decisions I have ever made in fat loss. I have total control over what I'm doing and there is no wondering, guilt or stressing (which can hinder fat loss) because I know exactly what and how much is going in my body. You can take this info or leave it. It's working for me is all I know. I'll be happy to answer any questions as well.

    Thanks!! You rock!
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member
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    glad it worked and congrats!!

    personally, everyone I know OVER estimates their food calories and UNDER estimate their cardio/calories burnt through exercise.
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
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    Thank you for posting! I'm switching to the TDEE-20% concept and slowly increasing my calories because I was not eating enough. I didn't know what to do with exercise calories, now I know!
  • dmspenc
    dmspenc Posts: 38 Member
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    Congrats! Thanks for sharing.
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    Congrats! I was stalling out, and found that doubling my water intake has caused a rapid drop (4 pounds in 3 days). It's awesome to figure all this stuff out!

    As an aside, I did a double-take, because you strongly resemble my ex-husband. Ha! I had to check to see where you live!

    LMAO...Glad I'm not. No offense to you, I just have one ex already and that's enough!!!

    *snickers* Seriously. :-D And no offense taken.

    I was trying to figure out who you remind me of. Has anyone ever told you that you look like Cate Blanchett with dark hair?
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I do use MFP's guestimate and also eat my exercise calories back. Lost a pound a week until I was almost to goal and then slowed down but am still losing (and am past my goal).

    You DO need to measure and log everything. AND you need to recalculate whenever you lose so your calories are correct. Whenever I don't, I stall.
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    I do use MFP's guestimate and also eat my exercise calories back. Lost a pound a week until I was almost to goal and then slowed down but am still losing (and am past my goal).

    You DO need to measure and log everything.

    Yep, people don't think that those little condiments and a small piece of hard candy here and there add up, but they most certainly do.
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    Congrats! Thanks for sharing.

    No problem! I know how hard this journey is and if my successes can help others out along the way, it's a win/win for me. I love losing fat and I love helping others.
  • 4_Lisa
    4_Lisa Posts: 362 Member
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    I follow much the same rules, I still have wings and drinks on fight night... it's a lifestyle, and I am not going to give those things up forever.... I also never eat back my exercise calories for the same reason, it offsets the overestimation, only time I eat back is if I'm starving after a workout, then it's usually a protein shake....

    Great job!
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    This should be stickied!
  • Dre8604
    Dre8604 Posts: 61 Member
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    Awesome Job... Congrats!! I think I've almost figured out what is going to work best for me on this journey. We shall see in a few weeks!
  • HappyMommy0403
    HappyMommy0403 Posts: 16
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    Nice! Congrats on the progress!

    I've really gone back and forth about the scale. My husband has really been reluctant about me getting one because he doesn't want it to turn into an obsession for me, and he worries that I stress too much about my weight as it is. As for my own personal thoughts, I'd like the journey to be as natural and comfortable for me as possible, and I'm not sure where measuring everything fits into that. I DO have a tendency to over-obsess about these things, so that's a slippery slope.

    If I stop seeing results, however, you'll probably see me back here with a scale in my hand!

    In my previous weight loss journey I told myself that if I couldn't do it without a food scale I wasn't going to do it. I measured everything and typically would under measure just a bit to "be on the safe side." I hit a plateau and purchased a food scale. Turns out I was way off with some things---sometimes over, sometimes under. Once I started measuring I got over the plateau! I think of it as a good obsession!
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    Nice! Congrats on the progress!

    I've really gone back and forth about the scale. My husband has really been reluctant about me getting one because he doesn't want it to turn into an obsession for me, and he worries that I stress too much about my weight as it is. As for my own personal thoughts, I'd like the journey to be as natural and comfortable for me as possible, and I'm not sure where measuring everything fits into that. I DO have a tendency to over-obsess about these things, so that's a slippery slope.

    If I stop seeing results, however, you'll probably see me back here with a scale in my hand!

    In my previous weight loss journey I told myself that if I couldn't do it without a food scale I wasn't going to do it. I measured everything and typically would under measure just a bit to "be on the safe side." I hit a plateau and purchased a food scale. Turns out I was way off with some things---sometimes over, sometimes under. Once I started measuring I got over the plateau! I think of it as a good obsession!

    ^^^This 100%. I was doing the same thing. I'm so much happier now that I'm eating a full serving of peanuts instead of 1/2 thinking I was eating a full one. :)
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    Teach yourself moderation. Depriving yourself of the things you love is only a road to failure (for most). Eat everything you love, just don't eat it all at once and eat smaller portions. I still have beer, pizza, chocolate, etc. and the Lbs are coming off. I just know how to control it.

    ^^^^ This

    Depriving yourself of things you enjoy is a sure fire way to set yourself up for failure, there are no bad foods........
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    Teach yourself moderation. Depriving yourself of the things you love is only a road to failure (for most). Eat everything you love, just don't eat it all at once and eat smaller portions. I still have beer, pizza, chocolate, etc. and the Lbs are coming off. I just know how to control it.

    ^^^^ This

    Depriving yourself of things you enjoy is a sure fire way to set yourself up for failure, there are no bad foods........

    Exactly!!! Foods can't make people fat without the people abusing them. Does that make sense? LOL :D
  • sk_pirate
    sk_pirate Posts: 282 Member
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    This should be stickied!


    ITA^^^^

    Everyone needs to read this short, sweet and to the point post!!!!
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    Bump
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    2.) I found my TDEE and set my calories 20% below that, not my BMR. Don't eat at what MFP tells you. It's never right.
    3.) I stopped eating back my exercise calories. People tend to under estimate their calorie intake and over estimate their calories burned.

    Of course you wouldn't want to eat your calories back on TDEE -20%. Exercise is already factored into your TDEE. If you ate your burned calories back on top of that with the TDEE method you'd be adding them in twice and overeating.

    ^ This is actually a very important point to make because a new user who is on MFP's defaults (which may be fine), may read this and assume that eating back exercise calories is bad.

    Eating back exercise calories using a TDEE estimation from outside of MFP, would be bad (per reasons in the above post).


    Eating back exercise calories (some, at least) using MFP's defaults is expected and probably should be done by most people.
  • sourmash1973
    sourmash1973 Posts: 149 Member
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    2.) I found my TDEE and set my calories 20% below that, not my BMR. Don't eat at what MFP tells you. It's never right.
    3.) I stopped eating back my exercise calories. People tend to under estimate their calorie intake and over estimate their calories burned.

    Of course you wouldn't want to eat your calories back on TDEE -20%. Exercise is already factored into your TDEE. If you ate your burned calories back on top of that with the TDEE method you'd be adding them in twice and overeating.

    ^ This is actually a very important point to make because a new user who is on MFP's defaults (which may be fine), may read this and assume that eating back exercise calories is bad.

    Eating back exercise calories using a TDEE estimation from outside of MFP, would be bad (per reasons in the above post).


    Eating back exercise calories (some, at least) using MFP's defaults is expected and probably should be done by most people.

    Thank you for pointing that out. You are right. It just didn't work for me and I changed to the method I mentioned. But maybe I didn't set it up completely right either. Anywho, I have a good formula now. :)

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