What happens when/if you hit your goal?

IMO if you try to go low cal / low fat, you're going to be miserable. Low carb /high protein and fat is far easier. I started cutting out bread and other refined carbs and eat as much protein as I want. I'm never hungry and after a few weeks, I don't even care about the bread I'm missing from my burger.

As others have said, you should NOT be miserable. That is just a recipe for failure. Find a diet that you can actually live with and you will be much happier.

Well, once I hit my goal, it's bulking time so I can get shredded and joocy. Just like Scoobs.

Have you read any of the pinned posts on here? Definitely read the top one - guide to sexypants. It will help you a LOT.

So Im new to this and I will be honest...its miserable. Im starving all of the time. It came to me today (after going to three different restaurants looking for a breakfast that was edible and low calorie!) that IF I can make it through this long enough to lose the 35 pds Im wanting to..what happens next? Am I going to have to be miserable like this the rest of my life just to maintain that weight? Do you get to start eating a normal 2000 calories a day or what??

This is just so frustrating. Ive literally just spent 4 hours looking for low cal recipes that I would actually eat and its nearly impossible. I dont see how everyone does it.

In the end its not realistic if Im going to have to continue to be miserable in everything I eat...

You really shouldn't have to suffer to lose weight. Are you eating enough? Have you set a realistic weekly weightloss and not the over aggressive 2 pounds a week?

Maybe have a look at the link it may help you. Good luck

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=guide+to+sexypants&page=1#posts-18361594

When you reach a goal you set another. There is no if when I set goals they are attainable and it's just a matter of when.

Log your food accurately and honestly. Go for 80% good choices the other 20% don't worry so much about. There is no reason to be miserable. I eat lots of delicious food and have consistently lost. Keep it simple find a REASONABLE deficit: Most people do not need to eat 1200 calories to lose.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

Log your food accurately and honestly this thread will help:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide?hl=logging+step+guide

Find an activity you enjoy doing - I found I love to ride my bike and lift heavy stuff

Here are 2 more threads that will help take the time to read them:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here?hl=so+you're+new+here

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

QFT

I'm gonna add these links just incase you want to look into strength training.

Want to lift heavy things?
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Stronglifts Summary
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary

Stronglifts Womens Group
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4601-stronglifts-5x5-for-women

www.stronglifts.com
There's also a program called Starting Strength and New Rules of Lifting for Women (same author wrote one for men before the women one called the same thing - for women).

Strength training will help you keep some of the lean muscle while losing weight.

Just to clarify, when people say "eat back your calories" it means "eat what myfitnesspal tells you after adding exercise". I'm telling you this because I fell into this trap in the beginning where I would add a 300 calorie workout, myfitnesspal would increase my calorie budget automatically, and then I would eat 300 on top of that. It made my loss slow down. Don't worry about eating back things, you will automatically be doing so if you log your exercise.

About fitbit, if both you and your husband went on a 39 minute walk it should register that much for both. If it only registered 7 minutes for you, then something is wrong with your device.

The reason your husband is allowed to eat more than you is because men burn more calories so they need to eat more, that and if he weighs more than you do he is also likely to have a bigger calorie budget. He will also be burning more for exercise if he is heavier than you are, which means he has even more calories he can munch on. Not fair, I know.. but that's how it is.

As for maintenance, you will need to learn to like being active. It's very hard to maintain without exercise. Find something you both like, try new things, classes, novel activities, anything you think you may enjoy and stick to it.

I'm actually eating at what my maintenance will be for my goal weight (130). I am never starving and this is so easy. I am simply teaching myself how I should be eating and focusing on that instead of focusing on trying to lose the weight as fast as possible. I've been losing since October/November and at this rate, I expect to reach my goal by the end of this year. I have 15lbs to go! Once I get there, I will have been eating this way for so long that it's not a struggle to continue to do so forever.

So I notice fitbit does a calorie adjustment (way lower than if I type my workout in to myfitnesspal) Do I still log it in to myfitnesspal though? Or is that doubling things since fitbit is also putting in an adjustment?

Should I try and take my fitbit back then? Wondering what to do if its not working correctly??

The calorie adjustment is JUST based on your steps.

If you use the timer part of your FitBit to record your exercises - it will create an exercise so don't log in MFP - it will double your exercises up. Your MFP exercise/calorie burn will be ported into FitBit, so it takes that away from your step calorie burns. Does that make sense? I never use the timer on FitBit to measure my workouts. It's not a heart rate monitor so for things like weight lifting and bicycling it's not very accurate.

As far as it only logging 7 minutes of "highly active" - what color was that time period on your graph? (yellow, green, red). Were you briskly walking/jogging or was it a casual walk? Intensity DOES matter when we're talking about the FitBit. It knows when I'm strolling, brisk walking and jogging, and will record accordingly.

Just remember the FitBit is a pedometer. Its purpose is to count your steps and help you understand how active you are on a day to day basis, so that you can be more accurate when you're logging your information.

I didn't starve through my loss of 63 pounds to maintenance even when I was eating only 1200 to 1300 calories/day. I think that may be because I ate HUGE salads and lots of other vegetables so got filled up and maintained that feeling of fullness via also having plenty of proteins and fats. I set my macros to 40% carbs (lots of room for real food, not much room for junk), 30% protein and 30% fats.

I've been in maintenance for only 3 weeks and still feeling my way around the process. My calorie goal is 1530 gross and I don't eat back calories burned. This seems low by many standards but I'm 60 years old and believe my metabolism probably is slower than those in their 20s. Right now I'm exercising (walking, aerobics, Zumba, stationary recumbent bike riding, pilates, yoga and general stretching) and while I break a good sweat with the aerobic type things I may not be burning at the high level of my younger peers. So far it is working. I'm not starving now just as I wasn't starving before.

I log what I eat. Last night I had a peanut butter binge so logged it as today's breakfast. Not logging would just set me up for a slow gain back to 203. Be brutally honest with yourself and what you eat. Eat if you're truly hungry and use the BMR/TDEE calculators.

Just to clarify, when people say "eat back your calories" it means "eat what myfitnesspal tells you after adding exercise". I'm telling you this because I fell into this trap in the beginning where I would add a 300 calorie workout, myfitnesspal would increase my calorie budget automatically, and then I would eat 300 on top of that. It made my loss slow down. Don't worry about eating back things, you will automatically be doing so if you log your exercise.

Why would you think that eating exercise calories twice would be what people mean when they say to 'eat your exercise calories back'.... I don't get that one. If I burn off 400cals, then I know I only have 400 cals extra to eat.... not 800. Where upon this Earth would you get the idea that people mean to eat it back PLUS eat it again?

About fitbit, if both you and your husband went on a 39 minute walk it should register that much for both. If it only registered 7 minutes for you, then something is wrong with your device.

Um NO. It just means that he was walking at a more intense pace than she was, does not mean it is broken at all

The reason your husband is allowed to eat more than you is because men burn more calories so they need to eat more, that and if he weighs more than you do he is also likely to have a bigger calorie budget. He will also be burning more for exercise if he is heavier than you are, which means he has even more calories he can munch on. Not fair, I know.. but that's how it is.

Once again NO. My son is 18 years younger than me & has to eat less because his activity level is far different than mine, not because he is male, not because he is heavier than me (and he is now) but because I do more activity than he does. My husband has even less than me he SHOULD be eating & he is huge, older and does a little more than our son does in terms of activity.

As for maintenance, you will need to learn to like being active. It's very hard to maintain without exercise. Find something you both like, try new things, classes, novel activities, anything you think you may enjoy and stick to it.

No again sorry, you do not NEED to exercise to maintain at all, you could actually just eat your TDEE and maintain.

I'm so confused as to how you gave this advice to someone at all. :noway: