A frustrated newbie

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annavanderwalker
annavanderwalker Posts: 7
in Introduce Yourself
Hey my name is Anna I am 5 feet tall and I currently weigh 217 pounds I'm down 5 pounds from about three weeks ago but I feel absolutely stock I am wondering if I'm not eating properly or the amount of calories that I need to intake needs to be greater I am just so frustrated and I just found out that there was this form so I wanted to take advantage of it and post my story and hopes that I can get some help. I'm currently on a 1310 cal a day diet which I stick to pretty well but I also exercise and burn around 3 to 400 each workout which most of the time I eat back I feel like I'm stuck at a number on the scale which I know isn't an end-all be-all but when you work so hard and don't get any results it's so frustrating can someone please maybe shed some light on to what I could do to speed up my weight loss

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  • annavanderwalker
    annavanderwalker Posts: 7
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    I'm eating all the right foods low-fat high-protein I have some carbs in my diet but not too many I have completely stopped drinking anything but water occasionally a cup of sweet tea but I am so frustrated with my progress I got cut off on my original form that I use so I am posting a reply to finish out my discussion. I eat yogurt chicken shrimp. Lots of fruits and vegetables I drink enough water I've really been conscious of my sugar and salt intake as well I'm just hoping someone can help me out because I calculated my TDEE thing and it's 3001. East on that and the fact that I exercise almost every day I walk 3 to 4 miles it says I should have almost a 2400 cal diet which I think is absolutely ridiculous but I don't know anything about losing weight so I could be totally wrong please please somebody help me!
  • SWEETMAY84
    SWEETMAY84 Posts: 66 Member
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    Hi there!! well, I can only speak about my experience, first of all you are not stock! 5 pounds in 3 weeks is good stuff and the fact that you are working out at least 4 times a week is a great start! Now I believe your TDEE is a little off, not sure what tool you used, but if you use IIF calculator it would be more like 2467, to this subtract 20% That would be about 1973 (again just using the numbers you are giving here) ...if you open your diary it would be easier to take a look at the food you are eating, but since you are starting, try to remember that Calories are not the only ones that impact the scale, SODIUM makes you retain water when eating excess! drink A LOT of water, and measure log EVERYTHING, I mean everything!! even the little mints you ate at that meeting or the bite of cheese burger you stole from your kid (experience talking!!) Good luck!!!
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
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    Ann i haven't read what the other people here have said so if i say the same thing sorry.

    I'm not going to go looking up calculators but i can tell from what you've told us that you are restricting your calories far too much.

    To give you some perspective. When i started my diet back in January, i weight about 179 pounds. I am 5 feet 5 inches, and i was 50 so my metabolism is slower than yours. Oh and i didn't do any exercise. I still lost weight eating 1650 calories a day! So why must you starve yourself?

    Why must you punish yourself. Make weight loss easy, then you will succeed. You are going to be doing this for the long haul. so work on fixing up your diet by eating goods and learning to like it. I know you are in a hurry to lose weight but don't rely on exercise to do that for you. Exercise is for fitness and health. That means do some but don't kill yourself doing it because one day you might not be able to keep it up and then you will get fat again. Honestly i've been there so many times. That's why this year i decided not to make exercise a vital part of my program.

    Also there is plenty of research out there now that shows the same conclusions.

    Make losing weight a process of reward and pleasure. Eat good healthy nutritious food. Cook good healthy nutritious food. Just eat a little less calories than you used to. But if you find yourself being hungry a lot, then you have a problem. Stress and depression cause hunger so deal with those things promptly and effectively when they show up. Stay happy! I can't stress how important that is.

    that means you have to become super aware of your response to events and situations. And you have to take some sort of effective action. If you get nowhere with it by yourself, see a councillor but don't let stress and low mood stick around for too long because it will drag you back to your old eating habits.

    Do not treat yourself too often with sweet foods. 6tsp a day tops. And if you can't do moderation, then quit altogether, except for fruit!
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I was angry for almost five months of my weight loss journey. Afraid, I think, that I would not be a success. But then I started to see results. I was stronger, I could do more things. I hope the same for you.
  • annavanderwalker
    annavanderwalker Posts: 7
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    Thank you all So much for taking the time to respond to this I think I will try upping my calories a little bit especially with exercising I'm very conscious of my sodium levels and sugar as well however I don't track every little thing which I guess I need to start doing. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support it really means a lot to me thank you all so much
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
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    Don't drink too much water. Just keep well hydrated. Some people drink far too much water. You will get headaches and maybe leg cramps if you are dehydrated. If you are constantly on the run to the loo, you are drinking too much. if you are waking up more than once, or even once in the night to go to the loo, you are drinking too much water. The colour of your pee is a good indicator if you are dehydrated but for people who are low carbing, they need to increase their salt intake as well as their water intake.

    Do not go low fat. That turns out to be bad advice. There is lots of writing about this around these days from many serious sources. If you are wary, choose good healthy fats most of the time such as olive oil. Nuts and seeds in smallish quantities because they are easy to overeat but at least its healthy fat. I don't believe there's anything wrong with whole milk dairy because unless you eat so much that its makes you fat. The thing is full cream dairy tastes much better and you will be happier unless you actually don't like it. Also fat is satiating. It just makes food taste better and you more satisfied.

    I Just want to say i've been dieting successfully all year and i've lost nearly all the weight i had to lose. I've only just taken up tennis. I have a had a few goes at getting fit but all the old ways i usually do i'm tired of. Walking, however is nice. But it takes a long time.

    You don't have to do so much every day. Get a pedometer and aim for 10000 steps a day. its the easiest way. When you get skinny then you can up the ante some more.

    Check out the calculator on health-calc. I like the ones there.

    Also the fast diet website has a good TDEE calculator there that explains the activities factors pretty well. You should know about the fast diet too. You may want to try it one day. I just did it for two months but i've stopped now.

    For me, now that i have my sugar addiction under control, its all about loving my vegetables and cooking up great healthy food so that food is never tedious and i have to resort to old bad habits.

    Good luck.

  • toadg53
    toadg53 Posts: 302 Member
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    It doesn't look like you have your food diary open. That's the only way anybody can see if there may be something you are missing in your logging. One thing I learned right away when I started is, get a digital food scale and weigh/log absolutely everything that goes into your mouth. You'd be surprised how much more you are eating if you simply measure using cups/spoons versus taking a digital measurement with grams. You mentioned you watch your sugar/salt. But you drink sweet tea. There's a lot of sugar in there. And it's easy to have hidden calories in items. Just something also to watch for. But these things come with time and experience. Also, you don't want to go low fat. Fats aren't evil. They are good for you as long as they are "good" fats. You may want to read up on that. AND, just fyi, when you start exercising, your muscles will retain fluid which is their response to breaking down and healing themselves. With continued exercise, the muscles can take up to ten weeks to finally release that stored water. So you really could have lost weight, but it's being retained in your body as water in your muscles. These are the things I've gleaned from these forums and from some really good people I've spoken to on here. So hang in there sunshine, sounds like you are doing things correctly. Remember you didn't get here overnight, and it's a learning process and a lifestyle and lifetime change for the better. Friend me if you'd like. I'll help you if I can. good luck. Gean.
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    Youll do fine as long as you are willing to give it a good year or two.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    annavanderwalker wrote: »
    Hey my name is Anna I am 5 feet tall and I currently weigh 217 pounds I'm down 5 pounds from about three weeks ago but I feel absolutely stock I am wondering if I'm not eating properly or the amount of calories that I need to intake needs to be greater I am just so frustrated and I just found out that there was this form so I wanted to take advantage of it and post my story and hopes that I can get some help. I'm currently on a 1310 cal a day diet which I stick to pretty well but I also exercise and burn around 3 to 400 each workout which most of the time I eat back I feel like I'm stuck at a number on the scale which I know isn't an end-all be-all but when you work so hard and don't get any results it's so frustrating can someone please maybe shed some light on to what I could do to speed up my weight loss

    This thread is super helpful for newbies

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

    This one too

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

    I'm losing weight by cutting calories.....not by cutting out foods and not by cutting out macros

    Protein, fat, and carbs (macros) are all necessary. Unless you have a medical condition you don't need to cut any of these out. I am trying to eat better (not perfectly) because I figure this is more of a lifestyle change that I can maintain. I need some permanent changes to keep the weight off and low fat won't be a permanent change for me.

    This puts weekly loss goals into perspective.....fast weight loss often sacrifices lean muscle mass. If you want to reduce body fat, if you want something you can maintain....fast won't get you there.

    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, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.
  • SkagitYogini
    SkagitYogini Posts: 112 Member
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    Did MFP recommend 1370 calories? That seems incredibly low for your size.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    annavanderwalker wrote: »
    Thank you all So much for taking the time to respond to this I think I will try upping my calories a little bit especially with exercising I'm very conscious of my sodium levels and sugar as well however I don't track every little thing which I guess I need to start doing. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support it really means a lot to me thank you all so much

    Sugar is a carb....carbs are already tracked. Plus MFP doesn't differentiate between natural sugar and added sugar. I don't skimp on fruit (for example). If you have medical issues then sugar tracking is important. If added sugar makes you binge you have 2 choices. 1. Cut out added sugar now and forever (maintenance) 2. Learn to moderate your sugar while losing weight, thus learning moderation tools forever (maintenance).

    Instead of tracking sugar I track fiber - no medical issues for me.

    I love iced tea, but I drink it unsweetened. This is an acquired taste. I use flavored tea bags, I think this brews a more mellow tea. Lipton Pyramid teas are fruity. Experiment with your tea (and different flavors) see if you can't step down the sugar content. Save the calories for something that's more filling.
  • annavanderwalker
    annavanderwalker Posts: 7
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    Thank you everyone I will be reading those articles for sure and I'm pretty well-versed and what are good fats and want to bad fats what's good sugar what's bad sugar as far as my drinking sweet tea I have one glass maybe every three weeks so that's really not an issue but the Lipton tea pier mid bags are really good option that I forgot about so I'll try those as well
  • annavanderwalker
    annavanderwalker Posts: 7
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    Gosh I love voice to text (cimplore sarcasm )
  • annavanderwalker
    annavanderwalker Posts: 7
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    Lol omg complete!!!!!!!

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