Making nothing but excuses, need a little encouragement...

Hi! We have similar stats. I started MFP at 175 pounds and I am 5’7”. Also, similarly I started MFP after seeing a photo of myself and I truly didn’t realize I looked that big. Talk about a reality check.

1. You are a picky eater. Fine. So what do you like to eat? I bet I can think of things you can cook/eat if you describe what your typical meal looks like.

2. Meal plans are overpriced. Go back to number 1 above, tell us what you do like to eat, and I am sure our suggestions will not include prepackaged Jenny Craig food.

3. There is no need to make multiple meals for your family. You can all eat the same thing, you reduce your portion size. Like magic, you are already cutting calories.

4. Losing weight is more about diet than exercise, you are right. However, walking is exercise and I am sure you know how to do that correctly. Your exercise goal can be as simple as “I am going to move more today than I did yesterday”. Park farther away in the parking lot at the grocery store. Go for a walk around the block. No one is telling you to run a 5K or do a 100 push ups.

5. My Fitness Pal has a tool to add up calories. Under the “Food” tab go to “recipes.” Enter the recipe, state the number of portions you usually get out of it, it will tell you the calories in each portion. At first it is a pain but the more you use this site, the easier it becomes since all of your standard go-to recipes will already be in your database.

The good news is, you know you are making a ton of excuses. We’ve all been there. Honestly, I got SO SICK of feeling fat and hating the way I looked and I hated buying size 14 pants. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I guess I just reached my breaking point.

Start with small changes that are totally manageable, like reducing your portion size without changing what you are eating. Adding in a short walk every day. No one says you have to make a bunch of changes all at once. Once I started making changes, I started losing weight. That was my great motivator, to see the scale actually move downwards!

You aren’t as picky as I assumed you’d be LOL!

You will have to accept that if you are losing weight, you aren’t going to have that filled to the gills feeling that you are used to by eating multiple sandwiches. You will get used to eating less food, I promise! It sucks at first but you’ll be surprised how quickly your body adjusts. That will be the main hurdle to deal with but you can’t lose weight without consuming fewer calories than you do currently.

Breakfast: English muffins (140 calories); one egg (70 calories); turkey sausage patty OR 2 slices bacon (100 calories) = grand total of 310 calories

Lunch: If you are talking about the usual BBQ suspects- pulled pork, brisket, etc. they will cost you a lot of calories since they’re fatty cuts of meat. Eat them more like once every week or two, not once a day. As for a burger, if you can get a small single patty (not a big ½ pounder) the calorie count isn’t terrible. Even better is get a grilled chicken breast sandwich or a turkey burger and top it with the same stuff you like on your beef burger. Basically swap out the fatty beef for a meat that won’t pack so many calories.

If you are baking chicken breast plain, then yeah. That is ridiculously bland. Marinate it in anything you like- there are so many marinade choices out there, you can use Italian dressing as a marinade, teriyaki sauce…whatever flavors you like, then grill it or bake it. Slice it up and put it in salad, put it on a sandwich, however you like it.

Dinner: Casseroles w/mushroom soup are fine but use the recipe tool on this site and calculate the calories. Say you enter your casserole that usually makes 8 servings and it works out to too many calories for you, then eat a smaller portion. Recalculate the recipe as being 12 servings and see if it is a more reasonable number. It takes a little fiddling in the beginning but it is worth it.

Stir fries: cut up chicken and cook in a hot pan with veg you like (broccoli) and serve over rice or noodles.

Bread and sour cream and mayo aren’t “bad” foods but they can pack a lot of calories and you just have to be mindful of portion size- a tablespoon of mayo is fine, ¼ cup in one serving is not. For me, this whole weight loss thing was ALL about portion size. What I previously viewed as a “normal” size portion wasn’t for someone my size. Once I wrapped my head around what an adequate portion size truly looked like, the weight started coming off fast. You really don’t have to change your whole way of life but you also can’t be eating BBQ and burgers every day and expect to slim down. You’ve got to find that middle ground.

Great websites for some lower calorie food ideas/recipes:
Skinnytaste.com
Eatingwell.com

Also, look at the recipe section of this site. There is a lot of activity on that board too.


Good luck!

Hi. A little peak at your diary shows that you are not logging your food or exercise. I also am guessing you set your weight loss at 2 pounds per week, giving you 1200 calories. I bet that number is really scaring you off. Try this - set it for 1, or 1 1/2 pounds per week. Start logging - everything that you can - for example McDonalds foods are all in the database. Don't stress if you don't log everything, or you are over for the day. Just start getting in the logging habit. If you find that some of your entries have way too many calories, start making changes to what (or how much) you eat. Move from that to logging everything, and then work on measuring or weighing to check your true portion sizes.

Use the site for what it's good at - helping you get a clearer picture of what you are doing.

And why do I think this works? 51 pounds in 10 months, jeans from 24 to 14, shirts from 3X to XL, and my rings falling off. And I'm 50. You can do this!