What went wrong?

Awhile back I was trying to lose weight. I was exercising 5 days a week and counting calories, eating healthier, the whole bit. After a month, I had not lost any weight at all, so I gave up. What things besides hormonal birth control and thyroid issues could have been the cause of my failure? Doing all that was at least helping me maintain my weight because I've gained about 25 pounds since I gave up. Now I'm starting all over again... what can I do to ensure success this time?

Replies

susie3g

It's good you came back. I used to be on the patch a long time ago and lost a lot of weight. When I got off it, the weight loss stopped. I thought the hormones in the patch made me less hungry. When I went off it, I was ravenous. So it can happen.
Btw, when I started here, I kept thinking I was logging right, measuring right etc. I ate back exercise cals, tried TDEE but nothing seemed to work. I kept going back and forth, trying for a few months and then giving up. Then I read a blog about weight loss. I tried to actually measure everything while cooking. Especially oil. I also gave up on eating cereal bars/ Special K drinks for b'fast and started eating oatmeal with yogurt and fruits. I stopped taking refined sugars. I used a lot of sugar in everything I ate and even though I thought I was within cal goals I probably was not. I also bought a food scale but thought I would start weighing if these changes didn't show results. I also reduced my carbs and increased my protein intake. Being a vegetarian this was hard but I found good things to eat. I also started tracking my exercise cals with my hrm. I try to eat back all of it but i generally look at weekly averages instead of daily goals. If you are using the MFP cals beware. My actual burns were half of the mfp database.
After I made the changes, the weight started coming off. I'm yet to plateau. When I do, I'll use the food scale but I think I won't need it. I'm 8lbs away from goal weight and plan to start trying to lose only 1/2lb a week now on.

Btw, the Leslie Sansone walking videos on you tube are great exercises. She even has strength exercises included in them. It's something you can do at home. I breakout into a sweat each time I try one of the videos and I regularly run/Zumba so the workouts are good.

*Added -At 5'3", 138 MFP gave me 1200 cals to work with. I just changed it to 1300 and ate most of my exercise cals back. Now, after reviewing and tabulating weeks and weeks of data I know that 1600-1700 cals a day with workouts 5/week(running, Zumba and some weights) gives me a 1 lb loss per week.

Yes, I was using the Leslie Sansone videos.. but I'm not sure exactly how many calories that actually burns. What I put in comes up with 248.

susie3g

Good for logging food, and exercising. But there is more to it than that. First off, yes, to do it right you need to get a food scale and measure that way. It is really the only way you guarantee you aren't eyeballing it. Also, what was your water intake? You might be like me and need the water, not a substitute. I can't drink tea which I drink unsweetened, coke zero, or even flavor my water unless it's simply fruit that's been soaking in the water and count it as my water. I don't know why but every time I have it throws my weight loss off, even just a bit. I know that's me because others can substitute.

You need to make sure you're eating back at least 1/2 your exercise calories unless you're using the TDEE method. That's important too. You might have tricked your body into thinking it's starving which will make it more difficult to lose weight. So make sure you're eating enough. Go over your calorie goal (by 100 calories or so) every so often.

Also, you need to figure out what macros works best for you. Perhaps you're the type person who can eat more protein but has to watch their carbs.

Also check out this forum. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=how+to+get+into+your+sexy+pants

It's a guideline but it makes sense. It spells it out.

Also remember weight loss isn't linear and doesn't happen quickly. You will have some time that you stall, you will have some time that you gain a little but in the end, you should lose. You also didn't put it on overnight, and so don't expect it to fall off overnight either. Meaning that it took months, maybe years to put the weight on, so it's going to take months, maybe years to take it off. Mother Nature wasn't kind to us humans (at least those of us that learned to overeat, or not eat the right way) either because it's so much easier to put the weight on and you really have to work at it to take the weight off.

Have patience, give it longer than a month and check out the forum as suggested.

Thank you so much.

Keeping everything you said in mind.

luckydays27

Maybe you were too restrictive the first time around. Try taking a slower approach until the weight comes off. Do a 1 lb a week weight loss plan and see where it takes you.

There is a saying that 80% of weight loss happens in the kitchen and 20% happens from exercise. I agree with this because there is no amount of exercise that will fix eating more cals than you burn. And its easy to eat to many cals when all the really, really good tasty stuff is enjoyable and high calories. You can enjoy the really good stuff when making this change, but only in moderation and only if you have the cals for it.

Yes, weighing, measuring, counting is tedious and can be a PITA but it does work. Some people feel that they can get by without having to be this methodical about it. I am not one of them. If I did not weigh my sour cream or cheese, I will be sure to eat 2 or 3 times the serving size. And I have been doing this for 10 months now. I still have to verify. I am getting better though. I can cut my chicken or steak in 4 oz servings (or pretty close) and when I go to a restaurant, I pick better foods or ask for the chef to prepare it in a healthier fashion.

If you do a lot of cooking at home, there is the recipe feature here on MFP that you can create your own recipes with the ingredients you use. You figure out how much your serving size will be and walla, you have the calorie count for your foods. Love this feature and I use it ALL THE TIME.

There are tons of exercises you can do at home without equipment. Just your body weight.
Here is a link of 52 body weight exercises you can do. If you click on each exercise, it will take you to you tube where you can see how to do the exercise.
http://www.strengthstack52.com/periodic-table-of-bodyweight-exercises/

Nerdfitness has some good stuff too: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

The book, You Are Your Own Gym is a great resource as well.

If you are looking at equipment to use at home resistance bands and TRX is great. There is a knock off TRX set up on Amazon for $40 and resistance bands can be had for around $30. Tons of exercises can be done with either setups.

Walking is great exercise and walking while pushing a stroller even better. Uphill would be the bomb!!! I never run on purpose. I hate it. I walk around 25 miles a week. My husband who also has a bad knee (pin in there holding it all together) cant do the big hills with me but we walk for miles and miles on flat ground.

If you have issues with your child being clingy, make exercise fun for her also. Get her involved. Or like you said, do it during nap time.

Start slow so you dont injure yourself. And eventually it will all work out. You can do this.

SLLRunner

PLEASE stop with all the calories in calories out. It just doesn't work that way. Please go grab a copy of the Calorie Myth by

Jonathan Bailor.

I know MFP is all about the NUMBER of calorie... but more important is the quality of calories. My husband lost 85 lbs and

NEVER counted a single calorie not one. Yes he logged his food but more to keep track of macro nutrients. NOT calories.

Weigh your food. Please. Yeah sure weigh 200 calories of spinach. (that's like 28 cups folks) What is weighing it going to tell

you?

I mean your body will not treat 200 calories of donuts the same as 200 calories of spinach. The donuts will spike your blood

sugar and cause insulin to be released and cause you to be hungry again in just a short time. 200 calories of spinach would not

do this. Plus I am guessing it would be difficult to finish off 28 cups of spinach.

So many folks on here say to eat at a deficit to lose weight. It's better to each large quantities of healthier SANE food so

you don't have room for the bad stuff.

Yes eating healthier DOES work you just have to know what healthier eating is. Hint, it isn't healthy whole grains.

Lower the sugar (or things that turn to sugar in your body), more non starchy veggies, more heathy fat (butter, avocados,

coconut oil) quality protein, grass fed beef, seafood.

Eat real food and stay away from the processed junk.

This works people.

Abs are made in the kitchen, muscle is made during exercise. You need both.

Check out my hubby's before and after pics on my profile.

So.....let me get this right. I can eat a whole organic chicken, 4 butternut squash, 2 avocado, 4 ounces of almonds, 20 ounces of grass fed beef, all the veggies I want cooked in coconut oil or any other healthy fat, and 3 packs of sardines and I will STILL lose weight? I'm eating healthy at that point and have no concern for calories so I will lose eating like that.

Um. NO. No way, no how. That food, as "healthy" as you claim it is still has calories....calories which contribute to the calorie balance. It may have worked for your husband but he was still tracking his macros which will play a mathematical role in eating at a deficit. The calories consumed versus calories out is not a myth. It's not some magical unicorn laying glitter fart bombs around. Eating healthy helps people lose weight because the foods are not as calorie dense as other foods. You can eat twinkies and lose weight as long as you don't eat so many that you eat more calories than you burn. You will feel like crap and probably be hungry, but you will lose.

This.

To the nice lady with the hubby who lost weight without counting calories: if you don't create a calorie deficit you will not lose weight. People can create a calorie deficit without consciously doing so, which is what your hubby did. Wish I could create a calorie deficit without logging but I'm not there yet.

Some foods make us feel fuller longer, thus we eat less. For me, if I eat a bunch of sweets, I'm hungry ten minutes later. But, if I eat an ounce of almonds, I'm feel full for a very long time. Thus, I eat almonds (in moderation) instead of a bunch of sweets.

bwogilvie

It DOES make me that way! I am stumped right now.. haven't eaten anything all day long because I cannot tell how many calories is going to be in a cup of my homemade vegetable soup tonight. I've looked on MFP and calories range from 60-310, so I have no idea what I can eat today and be within my range. I feel pathetic.

MyFitnessPal is a useful tool (or set of tools) to help you achieve your goal. A food scale is another useful tool, but it's not absolutely necessary. The thing to keep in mind is that you need to know how the tools work in order to make best use of them.

One aspect of MPF's toolbox that I find helpful is the recipe builder. When I cook homemade food, I take 5 minutes to enter all the ingredients into a new recipe. The recipe builder will add up the calories, divide by the number of servings, and tell you how many calories per serving. Now here's the trick that makes it useful: After creating the recipe, you can edit it. So, you create your soup recipe and say that it serves 1 person. That will give you the total calories in the whole pot. When it's done, use a big measuring cup to measure how many cups are in the pot. Say that you get 14 cups. Now you edit your recipe, so that the name is "Homemade vegetable soup (1 cup)" and the number of servings is 14. You now know exactly how many calories are in each cup of your soup, not some random stranger's soup from the MFP database.

Sure, it's a little work, but with experience, it goes fast. I've been doing MFP for over a year now, and I have at least 100 recipes saved; the next time I make one, I edit to reflect any changes, which takes only a minute.

A few bigger picture comments, too:

The calories that MFP advises you to eat are an estimate, based on your height, weight, age, gender, activity level, and desired weight loss. Those estimates are based on the average of a group of people. You may not fit them exactly. The calories that you record are estimates. Having a scale can help make the estimates more accurate, but they won't be perfect. Almost everyone eats more than they log; the main question is how far off they are. And estimated calories from exercise are also ballpark figures.

So how do you live with all these estimates? You keep at it, and you compare your estimates with your results, and adjust as need be. Because here's the thing: it doesn't really matter if you are accurate as long as you are precise and you respond to feedback.

Let's take me as a hypothetical example. I have a daily target of 1400 calories, and I average 500 calories a day in exercise (I'm a long-distance cyclist). My goal is to lose 1 lb./week. So I should eat 1900 calories a day.

Let's say I do that, but I am not losing any weight. Now, I'm a 5' 10", 165-lb. male who exercises 6-7 hours a week. Obviously I should lose weight eating 1900 calories. Am I a freak of nature? No, but I am either overestimating my calorie burn, overestimating my non-exercise activity level, or underestimating my calorie intake. Probably all three.

At this point I have two choices (presuming that I don't just quit):

(1) Spend hours trying to figure out where I am wrong. This can lead to despair.

(2) Say to myself, OK, I am clearly 500 calories off somewhere. So I will log only 50% of the exercise, and I will set my before-exercise target to 1150. Now my new daily target, including exercise calories, is only 1400. If I stick to this, I should lose a pound a week.

In this case, "1400 calories" is not 1400 calories in the real world; it's 1400 "Brian calories," each of which is bigger than a real calorie. But as long as I measure my "Brian calories" consistently, and I'm losing a pound a week, who cares? I'm happy.

TL;DR: learn to use the Recipe Builder feature in MFP, and if your results don't match your goals, adjust your calorie goal accordingly rather than worrying about where you are making counting errors.

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

Why on earth would people come here and tell this poor woman that it's not about calories in vs calories out and that she shouldn't get a food scale when clearly doing it that way DIDN'T WORK FOR HER THE FIRST TIME AROUND SO SHE GOT FRUSTRATED AND QUIT.

For goodness sake, use some context in regards to the original question when giving advice.

OP, you have gotten some great advice here and many links to helping you get back on track. BTW, exercise is great but you can lose weight without exercise as well simply by eating less than you burn. Exercise is great for body composition and overall health, so while it's always encouraged, you can lose by diet alone.

servilia

I can't believe people are getting upset over the suggestion to get a food scale. She didn't lose anything in a month with her previous methods so obviously something was amiss with her estimates.

determinedbutlazy

Weigh your food so you can be more accurate and stick with it for more than a month.

Annie_01

Hey there! Hopefully I am not repeated what others have said too much but here is my take on it: part of it could be you need a food scale to use at home. I am looking into buying one myself, because I know it is more accurate than measuring. Also, since it would be silly to take that to a restaurant, you can always have a look at their menu before you go and pre-plan your meal. but when you eat out, you really should always only eat half the serving and take the rest home--restaurant portions are grossly oversized. And is your thyroid over active/under active? I had a friend in college with an over active thyroid and he had weight problems constantly if he didn't take his medicine. So it may not be a bad idea to speak with your doctor about how that is related to controlling your weight. And lastly, I know it can be hard to find time to exercise! I used to go run every single day in college, but after graduation I haven't had the time because I started working. But I found a GREAT website you can use to workout. It's pop sugar fitness, fitsugar.com, and they have all kinds of 10 minute workouts on video you can watch and workout along with. it's great! they are designed to burn lots of calories in 10 minutes and that fits into almost any schedule! Trust me just try it one time, you will love it, I use it every day. hope that helps!

Thanks for your response. Yeah, the general consensus is that I need a food scale..lol. And I guess I need a heart monitor, too, according to some. I have never had my thyroid checked. If I try for a solid month this time with absolutely no results, I guess I will be looking into seeing a doctor soon about that. I can't afford insurance, so things like that are difficult sometimes. Thanks for the website links!! I am definitely going to check those out! How do you know your calories burned when you do the videos?

You can lose weight with or without a food scale...measuring or not measuring...with a HRM or without one.

I have lost 48+ (don't ask what the plus was...wouldn't get on a scale). I lost about half of that amount while I was trying to figure out what the best method was for me...

I tried vegan...vegetarian...carb cycling...I ended up with just eating the foods that I always had...well a little more healthy...and just concentrated on portion size and reaching a calorie level that I could live with and still lose weight.

I have come to the conclusion...the only way that I succeed at this is to own my journey. I read here at MFP...have learned some good tips. I did my research however and made my own decisions. I have adapted my diet to reflect some of those decisions.

I didn't purchase a food scale until after I started using the food log here...it has become my new best friend. However...I lost weight before I bought it.

Take control of your diet by figuring out what works best for you...own it...

elyelyse

THANK YOU. Geez. Enough with the "get a scale" mantra. I have known TONS of people that have successfully lost weight without weighing every morsel of food that goes in their mouth.

You're absolutely right. I lost my first 75 without weighing, I measured. I was heavy enough, with a high enough tdee, that I had a larger margin of error...so if I was off by a few hundred calories a day, I was still at a deficit. As I got lighter, and my tdee lower...I have less room for error and by the time I reached 100 pounds loss, I was losing at a frustrating low pace. So...if one isn't losing weight at an expected pace, what's the solution? Lower calorie goal...ok, but if I'm working with a small margin of error...how can I ensure I'm eating the right amount? By measuring it as accurately as I can...that means weighing.

Yes. People lose weight without weighing their food precisely, and when that works great, it's much easier. But when someone says "I'm trying but the weight isn't coming off" then one solution is to get the most accurate measurement possible, and make adjustments from there. Just "eating less" doesn't help so much if you still think you're eating 200 calories worth of peanut butter, but it's really 300.

elyelyse

It DOES make me that way! I am stumped right now.. haven't eaten anything all day long because I cannot tell how many calories is going to be in a cup of my homemade vegetable soup tonight. I've looked on MFP and calories range from 60-310, so I have no idea what I can eat today and be within my range. I feel pathetic.

Wait what? If it's your own homemade soup...what do you mean you "cannot tell how many calories" it has? If you made it, you know what went into it. You can use the "recipe builder" here on MFP which is very easy, enter the ingredients and amounts you used...how many servings you want to split it into and viola...an accurate calorie count.
You can't use MFP calorie counts for things like "homemade soup" because my recipe is different from yours. Make your own, then you know and you don't have to feel stumped.

Qskim

OP when I started I didn't use MFP. I lost roughly 35lbs before I started here. I used something like this website as a guide in conjunction with a calorie counting book.

http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/articles/nutrition-and-meal-planning/eating-well-while-traveling-using-your-hands-to-estimate-portions/

It was enough in the beginning to create a deficit compared to how I was eating. There are other similar sites. I focused on nutritious whole foods for satiety and had a treat everyday...just not 100 treats everyday.

Also, I have young children. I had to find a way of doing inclusive, enjoyable exercise that I could sustain and not stress over. Walking them in a pram was the best and I see you mention doing that.

As bub gets older, you'll find it easier to incorporate other things you enjoy. Enjoyment is key to adherence. Sometimes people start something and go at it like a bull at a gate and then fall off because their expectations were too high: the results aren't fast enough. It takes time and patience and understanding that you aren't going to always do this perfectly. Persist , learn and tweak as you go.

servilia

It DOES make me that way! I am stumped right now.. haven't eaten anything all day long because I cannot tell how many calories is going to be in a cup of my homemade vegetable soup tonight. I've looked on MFP and calories range from 60-310, so I have no idea what I can eat today and be within my range. I feel pathetic.

Wait what? If it's your own homemade soup...what do you mean you "cannot tell how many calories" it has? If you made it, you know what went into it. You can use the "recipe builder" here on MFP which is very easy, enter the ingredients and amounts you used...how many servings you want to split it into and viola...an accurate calorie count.
You can't use MFP calorie counts for things like "homemade soup" because my recipe is different from yours. Make your own, then you know and you don't have to feel stumped.

+1. If it's homemade it's a lot easier to know the calorie content.

susie3g

It DOES make me that way! I am stumped right now.. haven't eaten anything all day long because I cannot tell how many calories is going to be in a cup of my homemade vegetable soup tonight. I've looked on MFP and calories range from 60-310, so I have no idea what I can eat today and be within my range. I feel pathetic.

MyFitnessPal is a useful tool (or set of tools) to help you achieve your goal. A food scale is another useful tool, but it's not absolutely necessary. The thing to keep in mind is that you need to know how the tools work in order to make best use of them.

One aspect of MPF's toolbox that I find helpful is the recipe builder. When I cook homemade food, I take 5 minutes to enter all the ingredients into a new recipe. The recipe builder will add up the calories, divide by the number of servings, and tell you how many calories per serving. Now here's the trick that makes it useful: After creating the recipe, you can edit it. So, you create your soup recipe and say that it serves 1 person. That will give you the total calories in the whole pot. When it's done, use a big measuring cup to measure how many cups are in the pot. Say that you get 14 cups. Now you edit your recipe, so that the name is "Homemade vegetable soup (1 cup)" and the number of servings is 14. You now know exactly how many calories are in each cup of your soup, not some random stranger's soup from the MFP database.

Sure, it's a little work, but with experience, it goes fast. I've been doing MFP for over a year now, and I have at least 100 recipes saved; the next time I make one, I edit to reflect any changes, which takes only a minute.

A few bigger picture comments, too:

The calories that MFP advises you to eat are an estimate, based on your height, weight, age, gender, activity level, and desired weight loss. Those estimates are based on the average of a group of people. You may not fit them exactly. The calories that you record are estimates. Having a scale can help make the estimates more accurate, but they won't be perfect. Almost everyone eats more than they log; the main question is how far off they are. And estimated calories from exercise are also ballpark figures.

So how do you live with all these estimates? You keep at it, and you compare your estimates with your results, and adjust as need be. Because here's the thing: it doesn't really matter if you are accurate as long as you are precise and you respond to feedback.

Let's take me as a hypothetical example. I have a daily target of 1400 calories, and I average 500 calories a day in exercise (I'm a long-distance cyclist). My goal is to lose 1 lb./week. So I should eat 1900 calories a day.

Let's say I do that, but I am not losing any weight. Now, I'm a 5' 10", 165-lb. male who exercises 6-7 hours a week. Obviously I should lose weight eating 1900 calories. Am I a freak of nature? No, but I am either overestimating my calorie burn, overestimating my non-exercise activity level, or underestimating my calorie intake. Probably all three.

At this point I have two choices (presuming that I don't just quit):

(1) Spend hours trying to figure out where I am wrong. This can lead to despair.

(2) Say to myself, OK, I am clearly 500 calories off somewhere. So I will log only 50% of the exercise, and I will set my before-exercise target to 1150. Now my new daily target, including exercise calories, is only 1400. If I stick to this, I should lose a pound a week.

In this case, "1400 calories" is not 1400 calories in the real world; it's 1400 "Brian calories," each of which is bigger than a real calorie. But as long as I measure my "Brian calories" consistently, and I'm losing a pound a week, who cares? I'm happy.

TL;DR: learn to use the Recipe Builder feature in MFP, and if your results don't match your goals, adjust your calorie goal accordingly rather than worrying about where you are making counting errors.

I read it all. Thank you so much! I think this has made more sense to me than anything else that's been said so far! !

susie3g

The last time I was using MFP they didn't have the recipe builder. I'll be using this feature. Thanks for the heads up folks!

susie3g

It DOES make me that way! I am stumped right now.. haven't eaten anything all day long because I cannot tell how many calories is going to be in a cup of my homemade vegetable soup tonight. I've looked on MFP and calories range from 60-310, so I have no idea what I can eat today and be within my range. I feel pathetic.

Wait what? If it's your own homemade soup...what do you mean you "cannot tell how many calories" it has? If you made it, you know what went into it. You can use the "recipe builder" here on MFP which is very easy, enter the ingredients and amounts you used...how many servings you want to split it into and viola...an accurate calorie count.
You can't use MFP calorie counts for things like "homemade soup" because my recipe is different from yours. Make your own, then you know and you don't have to feel stumped.

I didn't know about the recipe builder till after I made that statement. Also, it's vegetable soup that was in the freezer that I made months ago. .so..no..I didn't know how many calories was in it, so I chose the highest calorie count that MFP had.

susie3g

It DOES make me that way! I am stumped right now.. haven't eaten anything all day long because I cannot tell how many calories is going to be in a cup of my homemade vegetable soup tonight. I've looked on MFP and calories range from 60-310, so I have no idea what I can eat today and be within my range. I feel pathetic.

Wait what? If it's your own homemade soup...what do you mean you "cannot tell how many calories" it has? If you made it, you know what went into it. You can use the "recipe builder" here on MFP which is very easy, enter the ingredients and amounts you used...how many servings you want to split it into and viola...an accurate calorie count.
You can't use MFP calorie counts for things like "homemade soup" because my recipe is different from yours. Make your own, then you know and you don't have to feel stumped.

Unless it was put in the freezer months ago. O.o

+1. If it's homemade it's a lot easier to know the calorie content.

sarainiowa

@ OP Did you take your measurements? Maybe the scale didn't move but maybe you lost inch(es). The weight didn't become an issue over night or a week, so it will take longer then a couple weeks to take it off. Get a group of supportive people with you and tackle this every single day until you get the results you want.

Add me if you want. Good support really does push you through the bad days and celebrates all your successes.

susie3g

@ OP Did you take your measurements? Maybe the scale didn't move but maybe you lost inch(es). The weight didn't become an issue over night or a week, so it will take longer then a couple weeks to take it off. Get a group of supportive people with you and tackle this every single day until you get the results you want.

Add me if you want. Good support really does push you through the bad days and celebrates all your successes.

Thanks. I haven't taken measurements. I've been delaying seeing those depressing numbers.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

Just in case MFP has my calorie range screwed up, what calorie range would all of you suggest for me? I am 39 years old, female, 5'3", mostly sedentary at the present time, and I weigh 200 pounds.

Start with what MFP gives you and set to lose 1 pound/week. Weigh your food and log it all. (if you've worked in food service for a long time, then you can eyeball, otherwise use a scale, it will surprise you.) Drink your water. Take a walk every day and log that as cardio then eat back half of those calories in addition to the goal MFP sets for you. (So if it says 1200 and you walk for 150 calories of exercise, then eat 1275.) I think you'll see the scale move if you do those things consistently for 30 days.

You can add more exercise later if you want, but I think that changing your diet and your exercise program at the same time was part of "what went wrong." Certainly, you can change your food and your exercise at the same time, but if you do you have to give your body more than a month to adjust to it. Your body will see both of those changes as stressers and most people respond to stress by hanging on to weight. My body does better with one change and then another so for my first month on MFP, I just kept walking at lunch and walking the dog some days and lowered my calorie intake. Then I focused on more water. Then I added more exercise - walking the dog every day and then walking her further every day and eventually I added the occasional Zumba class. Along the way, I experimented with my food - more proteins, less carbs, what does sodium do to my diet, the sorts of things you can only learn by trial and error. I didn't give up any food that I don't intend to never eat again, although I eat a loss less chips and a lot more veggies now.

Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint because you have to make small changes and see what they do for you AND you have to be able to maintain it for the rest of your life. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Ang108

PLEASE stop with all the calories in calories out. It just doesn't work that way. Please go grab a copy of the Calorie Myth by

Jonathan Bailor.

I know MFP is all about the NUMBER of calorie... but more important is the quality of calories. My husband lost 85 lbs and

NEVER counted a single calorie not one. Yes he logged his food but more to keep track of macro nutrients. NOT calories.

Weigh your food. Please. Yeah sure weigh 200 calories of spinach. (that's like 28 cups folks) What is weighing it going to tell

you?

I mean your body will not treat 200 calories of donuts the same as 200 calories of spinach. The donuts will spike your blood

sugar and cause insulin to be released and cause you to be hungry again in just a short time. 200 calories of spinach would not

do this. Plus I am guessing it would be difficult to finish off 28 cups of spinach.

So many folks on here say to eat at a deficit to lose weight. It's better to each large quantities of healthier SANE food so

you don't have room for the bad stuff.

Yes eating healthier DOES work you just have to know what healthier eating is. Hint, it isn't healthy whole grains.

Lower the sugar (or things that turn to sugar in your body), more non starchy veggies, more heathy fat (butter, avocados,

coconut oil) quality protein, grass fed beef, seafood.

Eat real food and stay away from the processed junk.

This works people.

Abs are made in the kitchen, muscle is made during exercise. You need both.

Check out my hubby's before and after pics on my profile.

With all due respect; if you don't believe in calorie counting why are you member of a website that is all about what you don't believe in. I am just a bit confused.....:o).

susie3g

PLEASE stop with all the calories in calories out. It just doesn't work that way. Please go grab a copy of the Calorie Myth by

Jonathan Bailor.

I know MFP is all about the NUMBER of calorie... but more important is the quality of calories. My husband lost 85 lbs and

NEVER counted a single calorie not one. Yes he logged his food but more to keep track of macro nutrients. NOT calories.

Weigh your food. Please. Yeah sure weigh 200 calories of spinach. (that's like 28 cups folks) What is weighing it going to tell

you?

I mean your body will not treat 200 calories of donuts the same as 200 calories of spinach. The donuts will spike your blood

sugar and cause insulin to be released and cause you to be hungry again in just a short time. 200 calories of spinach would not

do this. Plus I am guessing it would be difficult to finish off 28 cups of spinach.

So many folks on here say to eat at a deficit to lose weight. It's better to each large quantities of healthier SANE food so

you don't have room for the bad stuff.

Yes eating healthier DOES work you just have to know what healthier eating is. Hint, it isn't healthy whole grains.

Lower the sugar (or things that turn to sugar in your body), more non starchy veggies, more heathy fat (butter, avocados,

coconut oil) quality protein, grass fed beef, seafood.

Eat real food and stay away from the processed junk.

This works people.

Abs are made in the kitchen, muscle is made during exercise. You need both.

Check out my hubby's before and after pics on my profile.

With all due respect; if you don't believe in calorie counting why are you member of a website that is all about what you don't believe in. I am just a bit confused.....:o).

Perhaps she is trying to keep up with her nutrient values or exercise regime. I'm finding out. .. MFP had a lot more than just calorie counting.

lightmouse

I use mfp to check the ratios of what I eat (40% carbs, 30% fat, 30% protein) rather than calories (although I do keep an eye on those as well). The pie chart on the app is great :-) When I first started using the app I was using it to count calories religiously but since focussing less on calories and more on the type of foods I eat I've had greater success.

Different strategies work for different people, I just thought I'd share mine :-)

ell_v131

I was logging all my calories, all my exercise, and staying within calorie range.. opting for less processed and fried foods and more veggies in my diet. I didn't weigh my food, but I did use my measuring spoons and measuring cups religiously! At that time, I needed to lose about 50 pounds. Now I have about 75 pounds to lose.

Didn't read through all the responses, but unfortunately these are inaccurate to work with. You will find that different makes of the cups and spoons measure differently! Get a digital scale this time and it will work for you

datagal1

I'm probably going to get killed for this, but my experience is that the recommended calorie intakes for weight loss are useless for some people. I lost 140 pounds about 25 years ago and it took near starvation. Living at a miserable 800-1000 calories a day since then (breaks for a few holidays a year). After some medical issues causing extended inactivity, I gained about 50 back. Since last summer, I have now re-lost 46.... at 400-500 calories per day with a daily 10 mile bike ride. I know I will never be able to eat like a normal person and 1200 calories for me is a formula for failure. An endocrinologist told me "well, when the famine comes, you'll be the last to die". Great.

Maybe you might try reducing calories further and sticking to good quality protein, veg and fruit. That will at least give you a measure of what your body requires. Everybody's metabolism is different.

akaMrsmojo

I'm probably going to get killed for this, but my experience is that the recommended calorie intakes for weight loss are useless for some people. I lost 140 pounds about 25 years ago and it took near starvation. Living at a miserable 800-1000 calories a day since then (breaks for a few holidays a year). After some medical issues causing extended inactivity, I gained about 50 back. Since last summer, I have now re-lost 46.... at 400-500 calories per day with a daily 10 mile bike ride. I know I will never be able to eat like a normal person and 1200 calories for me is a formula for failure. An endocrinologist told me "well, when the famine comes, you'll be the last to die". Great.

Maybe you might try reducing calories further and sticking to good quality protein, veg and fruit. That will at least give you a measure of what your body requires. Everybody's metabolism is different.

Please do not reduce it without a doctor recommendation, you will damage your metabolism and set yourself up for failure. My mom did it and lost her hair. Listen to the experienced people on here, 400 is a dangerous recommendation.

msbunnie68

Hi.
First of all, well done for trying again. Welcome back.

I can only give you what worked for me. I am not an expert so bear that in mind.

For my first 2 weeks on MFP I set my weight loss goal to 1/2lb and I did not exercise. I weighed & measured my foods etc and ate my baseline calories that matched my activity level. I wanted my body and my stomach (and my eyes LOL) to get used to the serving sizes I should be eating. I spent my first two weeks looking at favourite foods in the data bank and looking at how much I should be eating to be a portion and healthy, and what I could eat instead. I input all the main family faves that I make into the recipe builder and looked at the calories and worked out what size my portion of this should be. It was an eye-opener. I then juggled a few things so that I reduced a serving size a bit, saved some for lunch and added salad to give me a fuller plate etc etc. I needed to rethink how my serving size was impacting me and how many calories were in some of those deceptively sized serves.

Over the following weeks I gradually added in exercise. Gradually. Again, I figured my body needed a gentle re-education, not hell bent for leather throw myself into it. As I added exercise, I evaluated how hungry it made me feel, then ate some of the calories earned back, depending on my hunger. I had to learn to listen to what my body was telling me, and learn to stay within my guidelines to ensure I hit my goals.

The other thing that happens when you add in exercise is that you start losing fat - yes...but you also build muscle which is why you need to back up your weighing in with measuring yourself - waist/hips/bum/thighs. Your scale might not budge for a few weeks but the centimetres may fall off. (inches to you guys LOL). At some point after your initial muscle party, the muscle bulking stops and hits and equilibrium and the weight loss continues (unless you up the exercise).

As for logging...
I logged daily, yes. I logged the night before (or first thing in the morning) and worked out what I was going to have for each meal.
I did this so that I could space out what I was eating. I could pick something I really wanted and work out the other meals in a healthy manner around it. I set up several personalized categories so my diary was tailored to me. Nothing was ever a forbidden food or drink. I pre-planned most things so that I could have a favourite food and still eat enough to be happy.

In the beginning it is like learning to drive a car - you are going to hit the kerb occasionally, and yes, you may break a road rule or two, or even have a bit of a crash. BUT, just like driving a car, you reset, you learn the rules, you dust yourself off and you try again. Eventually it becomes second nature. Eventually it doesn't consume your every waking thought and eventually you can do it. It just takes practice and perserverance and a little help from your friends.

elyelyse

The other thing that happens when you add in exercise is that you start losing fat - yes...but you also build muscle which is why you need to back up your weighing in with measuring yourself - waist/hips/bum/thighs. Your scale might not budge for a few weeks but the centimetres may fall off. (inches to you guys LOL). At some point after your initial muscle party, the muscle bulking stops and hits and equilibrium and the weight loss continues (unless you up the exercise)..

It's actually quite difficult for women to add muscle, and one does not typically build muscle while eating at a deficit, so most likely no, adding exercise will not result in a weight gain due to muscle growth. However, adding a new exercise regimine does often lead to an initial gain due to the muscles retaining water as part of the process of healing as the muscles get used to the new activity or intensity.

susie3g

I'm probably going to get killed for this, but my experience is that the recommended calorie intakes for weight loss are useless for some people. I lost 140 pounds about 25 years ago and it took near starvation. Living at a miserable 800-1000 calories a day since then (breaks for a few holidays a year). After some medical issues causing extended inactivity, I gained about 50 back. Since last summer, I have now re-lost 46.... at 400-500 calories per day with a daily 10 mile bike ride. I know I will never be able to eat like a normal person and 1200 calories for me is a formula for failure. An endocrinologist told me "well, when the famine comes, you'll be the last to die". Great.

Maybe you might try reducing calories further and sticking to good quality protein, veg and fruit. That will at least give you a measure of what your body requires. Everybody's metabolism is different.

What you are doing sounds very much like what I did to lose weight before. I was 196 pounds and lost down to 125 doing something very similar to what you are doing. I got pregnant and gained it all back and then some. Now starting over, I am trying to be healthier about things and not do things to the point of starvation this time around. Good luck to you on your journey!

susie3g

I'm probably going to get killed for this, but my experience is that the recommended calorie intakes for weight loss are useless for some people. I lost 140 pounds about 25 years ago and it took near starvation. Living at a miserable 800-1000 calories a day since then (breaks for a few holidays a year). After some medical issues causing extended inactivity, I gained about 50 back. Since last summer, I have now re-lost 46.... at 400-500 calories per day with a daily 10 mile bike ride. I know I will never be able to eat like a normal person and 1200 calories for me is a formula for failure. An endocrinologist told me "well, when the famine comes, you'll be the last to die". Great.

Maybe you might try reducing calories further and sticking to good quality protein, veg and fruit. That will at least give you a measure of what your body requires. Everybody's metabolism is different.

Please do not reduce it without a doctor recommendation, you will damage your metabolism and set yourself up for failure. My mom did it and lost her hair. Listen to the experienced people on here, 400 is a dangerous recommendation.

Yes, I know. I did what they call the 2-4-6-8 diet before. 200 calories, then fast a day, then 400, then fast, then 600.. you get the idea. I lost a lot of weight, but I would like to do things healthier this time around.