maintaining current weight loss and losing more in a healthy way

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sjanejack
sjanejack Posts: 158
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, my name is Jane, I have been on Mfp for a while now. I ended up going from around 180 something pounds to 230 pounds+ over the past year and had trouble with stopping the weight gain and just getting to the point of maintaining my weight. I have lost most of the weight i gained, but now I am currently at 200 pounds. I have questions, on how I could maintain, and then go from that to losing weight again, and also getting and keeping motivation plus also dealing with other things in life and not just getting obsessed with food/diet. Any replies would be much appreciated.

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  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
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    Maintain- find your maintenance calories and eat those
    Lose- eat below your maintenance calories

    It's all CICO. It'll take trial and error to find maintenance, but add and subtract 100 at a time until you get to a place where you're comfortable.
  • sjanejack
    sjanejack Posts: 158
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    missiontofitness wrote: »
    Maintain- find your maintenance calories and eat those
    Lose- eat below your maintenance calories

    It's all CICO. It'll take trial and error to find maintenance, but add and subtract 100 at a time until you get to a place where you're comfortable.

    Oh, okay, thanks for the advice. I seem to have trouble with finding my maintenace calories and doing the math for it because sometimes for it people say you have to do math, for some of it and I am extremely bad at math. Add and subtract 100 at a time until I get to a place where I am comfortable, well that actually does not sound too difficult, I may end up trying that. My goal is currently 1400 but I seem to have trouble with only eating that many calories often times and sometimes I eat a lot and sometimes I don't. I've been maintaining my weight this way for over a month now, but sometimes I get sick of it and want to just lose weight again although when you lack motivation and have problems with depression and anxiety all the time and have a lot going on around you, sometimes it can be that you can't even force yourself to be motivated and you have no one else to motivate you or encourage you. I can do it though, I'm sure of it. I appreciate the reply :smile: and it actually makes a lot of sense and is somewhat helpful.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    Are you seeing a therapist? It might be helpful to get some support for those underlying issues (depression, anxiety, motivation) that may be holding you back from your goals. <3
  • sjanejack
    sjanejack Posts: 158
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    jenilla1 wrote: »
    Are you seeing a therapist? It might be helpful to get some support for those underlying issues (depression, anxiety, motivation) that may be holding you back from your goals. <3
    Yes, I am, although it is not helping, so far. It's been a few months. I've never been a big fan of therapy and it never really helped all that much although, I did grow up too soon, things happened in my life that just really made it all go downhill when it already hadn't been very good. I appreciate the concern and how you don't sound paranoid or freaked out about it. <3 Thank you.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    When you put in your settings on MFP - gender, height, weight, basic activity level you get to choose your target as maintain or lose at different rates

    Do that properly and eat those

    I am set to sedentary as I have a desk job, but I try to walk during the day so I bought a fitbit flex which monitors my movement and automatically updates my MFP calories to eat

    Plus when in workout I log it and eat half of what it gives me - or I use my HRM and eat those

    It's not complicated, there's no maths

    Just weighing food and logging accurately
  • sjanejack
    sjanejack Posts: 158
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    When you put in your settings on MFP - gender, height, weight, basic activity level you get to choose your target as maintain or lose at different rates

    Do that properly and eat those

    I am set to sedentary as I have a desk job, but I try to walk during the day so I bought a fitbit flex which monitors my movement and automatically updates my MFP calories to eat

    Plus when in workout I log it and eat half of what it gives me - or I use my HRM and eat those

    It's not complicated, there's no maths

    Just weighing food and logging accurately

    Oh, okay, thank you! I have it set to 1490 calories, which I think should work for me, but sometimes I have trouble with eating only that amount because I feel so hungry, and also I walk around a lot sometimes, even when I don't have much time for exercise. I will try to keep that in mind. (:
  • sheldonklein
    sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
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    Is 1490 a number you chose, or MFP?
  • joanna_82
    joanna_82 Posts: 151 Member
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    When I started this I had a lot of emotional issues surrounding food. So I started by setting MFP to maintenance calories, and just logging what I ate for a few weeks. Once I had got back into the habit of eating regular meals and not bingeing, I looked at the different amount of calories I would get if I set it to 0.5 pounds, 1 pound, 2 pounds a week, etc. I set it at 0,5 pounds a week and always felt I had enough calories. Sometimes I didn't eat them all, but it worked for me as I didn't feel I was on a diet. I've lost 21 pounds this way and have managed to keep motivated and feel like I am changing my lifestyle not just going on a diet. The hardest part will always be the first few weeks but it does get easier.

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