Could this work for me?

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Fruitylicious03
Fruitylicious03 Posts: 301
edited November 2014 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!

I'm a 5'2, 130lb female. I have lost a good amount of weight before counting calories, but it's made me a bit obsessive. And not in a good way. So I left it for a while and gained some back. Which I would now like to lose again.

Byt obviously since calories make me really obsessive, I don't want to go that route. I'm here because I do want to be semi-aware of the calories in some of the things I eat, especially the ones that are new to me. So now I want to use it, without relying on it to lose weight.

My sister has combined two methods of madness for me that will control my portions in her opinion. (This obviously will not work if you eat constantly, but for a person who eats 3 meals and sometimes 2 snacks it might be fine)

First, one of everything. Now this is a bit funky so here's an example;
Say your dinner tonight will be steak with veg and potatoes. So you will take one steak, one serving spoon (which is about 3 tablespoons in one) of veg, and one potato.

Second, eat no bigger than your whole palm (length,with [sorry for spelling] and depth).So the steak, potato and veg each have to be no bigger than your palm.

Obviously for a male you'd probably have to double up. Could this work to get me losing again? Any other suggestions not focused too hard on cals?

Replies

  • mymodernbabylon
    mymodernbabylon Posts: 1,038 Member
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    How about this. Don't change a thing about your current diet. But log it - write it down somewhere (and be specific, such as weight of things). Don't log it on here. And then go back and log it into MFP. This will allow you to see the calorie amounts of what you are currently eating (portion sizes and calories).

    Once you figure this out, you can figure out what portion sizes are most appropriate to eat to lose weight slowly - and as you are already in the middle of a healthy weight, you won't lose it quickly anyway in a healthy manner. I'm 5'6" and 148, and once I start trying to lose weight again, I'm going for my TDEE-10 or 15%, which means I'll probably lose about 1/4-1/5 lb a week, which is a good level for me (and would be for you).

    What you can do is measure your weight regularly and see if it's trending up, down or staying stable. If it trends down slowly (look at 4 weeks worth of weights done regularly), then keep doing what you are doing. If after a month you haven't lose ANY weight, the you need to cut your portion sizes just a bit more.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
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    Their account has been deactivated.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited November 2014
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    palm- sized is fine - but a palm-sized piece of cheese is a bit daft

    limiting veg - I wouldn't

    what happens if your choices are profiteroles, cheesecake and stilton though :smile:

    I think I'd do an 'eat freely', 'eat in moderation', 'eat as a treat' categorisation which you should know innately by now
  • Fruitylicious03
    Fruitylicious03 Posts: 301
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    palm- sized is fine - but a palm-sized piece of cheese is a bit daft

    limiting veg - I wouldn't

    what happens if your choices are profiteroles, cheesecake and stilton though :smile:

    I think I'd do an 'eat freely', 'eat in moderation', 'eat as a treat' categorisation which you should know innately by now

    The one of everything thing is a bit complicated but I understand it. A piece of cheese (or other high calorie food)would be about the size of your thumb. So not a palm full.

    A profiterole...well just eat one. ;) and cheesecake would be one slice. I think the palm thing is more for things that have to be weighed. Okay I don't know. I guess your gonna have to just think a bit logically when using it.

    I certainly still see calories tie in, because I still need to use my knowledge of it. I know nuts are high, and veg is low. But I don't want to know how high or how low. :)

    ...its complicated. Haha. But I myself get it.

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Weird, shows you've deactivated.
  • Fruitylicious03
    Fruitylicious03 Posts: 301
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    It's because I'm a ghost =P stalking mfp Lol.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Fruitylicious03 wrote: »
    It's because I'm a ghost =P stalking mfp Lol.

    ghosts weigh nothing at all

    woooooooOOOOOooooo

    *job done*
  • Fruitylicious03
    Fruitylicious03 Posts: 301
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    Fruitylicious03 wrote: »
    It's because I'm a ghost =P stalking mfp Lol.

    ghosts weigh nothing at all

    woooooooOOOOOooooo

    *job done*

    :joy: +10!

  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    I left a comment that was removed, which is wierd because all I said is it doesn't sound like she was looking for advice.

    I've had posts removed before, but that's when I'm being sarcastic.
  • chivalryder
    chivalryder Posts: 4,391 Member
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    Men are allowed to eat significantly more than women and it works?

    Mens hands are generally bigger, but they can double up too! Man, I wish this were true.
  • nmatthi
    nmatthi Posts: 8 Member
    edited November 2014
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    I don't know if this is going to help you, but sometimes hearing how it has been for someone else can actually give you some ideas for yourself, at least it has worked for me a few times.

    I have also lost quite a bit of weight before starting to count calories but, as I saw the weight coming off slower as I was getting smaller, I started to become very obsessive and my eating started to get disordered. I was "counting calories" in my head but rounding up by a lot because I couldn't be sure exactly how much I was taking in (say I ate about 50, I would make that 100 or more) and I was probably eating about 500-800 cals a day and feeling like crap.

    Then I found MFP, which pretty much saved me from getting deeper into an actual eating disorder. In the first few weeks I was still quite obsessed, but after settling into a routine that works for me, I found that I could actually eat a decent amount and still lose weight, albeit slowly.

    I think that this is the key anyway; you need to be very patient (and I understand how hard it is since I am a very impatient person). I am still tempted to lower my calories some days but then I remember how crap this would make me feel and I resist the urge and tell myself that I have time and that the slower I lose the weight, the better chance I have of it staying off. I believe that is the actual issue with people not being able to lose weight since they want to eat as little as possible to lose as quickly as possible. The problem is that this kind of behaviour usually leads to either an ED or falling of the wagon and bingeing. But the good thing with mfp is that you don't need to starve yourself so it is actually sustainable for a longer period of time.

    So, for me, estimating portions was actually bad because I tended to overestimate by hundreds of calories, just because I would be so scared to overeat and sabotage my weight loss.

    I think I might try the "guestimating portion sizes" technique after working my calories up to maintenance and staying there for a while but, for me, it is really not accurate enough to build up a decent deficit during weight loss (especially when you don't have much left to lose).

    All that being said, if you really don't want to count calories because you feel like it isn't the right thing for you, the only way you can find out if a technique works is trying it out for a few weeks and see what your weight does. But be sure to try it out for at least 1 month I'd say, because weight fluctuates a lot and you might get skewed results if you don't average out over a longer period of time.

    Hope you find a way that works for you and your goals :smile:
  • Fruitylicious03
    Fruitylicious03 Posts: 301
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    nmatthi wrote: »
    I don't know if this is going to help you, but sometimes hearing how it has been for someone else can actually give you some ideas for yourself, at least it has worked for me a few times.

    I have also lost quite a bit of weight before starting to count calories but, as I saw the weight coming off slower as I was getting smaller, I started to become very obsessive and my eating started to get disordered. I was "counting calories" in my head but rounding up by a lot because I couldn't be sure exactly how much I was taking in (say I ate about 50, I would make that 100 or more) and I was probably eating about 500-800 cals a day and feeling like crap.

    Then I found MFP, which pretty much saved me from getting deeper into an actual eating disorder. In the first few weeks I was still quite obsessed, but after settling into a routine that works for me, I found that I could actually eat a decent amount and still lose weight, albeit slowly.

    I think that this is the key anyway; you need to be very patient (and I understand how hard it is since I am a very impatient person). I am still tempted to lower my calories some days but then I remember how crap this would make me feel and I resist the urge and tell myself that I have time and that the slower I lose the weight, the better chance I have of it staying off. I believe that is the actual issue with people not being able to lose weight since they want to eat as little as possible to lose as quickly as possible. The problem is that this kind of behaviour usually leads to either an ED or falling of the wagon and bingeing. But the good thing with mfp is that you don't need to starve yourself so it is actually sustainable for a longer period of time.

    So, for me, estimating portions was actually bad because I tended to overestimate by hundreds of calories, just because I would be so scared to overeat and sabotage my weight loss.

    I think I might try the "guestimating portion sizes" technique after working my calories up to maintenance and staying there for a while but, for me, it is really not accurate enough to build up a decent deficit during weight loss (especially when you don't have much left to lose).

    All that being said, if you really don't want to count calories because you feel like it isn't the right thing for you, the only way you can find out if a technique works is trying it out for a few weeks and see what your weight does. But be sure to try it out for at least 1 month I'd say, because weight fluctuates a lot and you might get skewed results if you don't average out over a longer period of time.

    Hope you find a way that works for you and your goals :smile:

    I understand where you're coming from. I'm am being patient though. My problem is not so much that I lower calories, but I got obsessive about every little one. If I was 20 over for the day I would go exercise like crazy to burn it off. That's what made me crazy. I was thinking that that 20 will make me gain weight.
  • nmatthi
    nmatthi Posts: 8 Member
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    Fruitylicious03 wrote: »

    I understand where you're coming from. I'm am being patient though. My problem is not so much that I lower calories, but I got obsessive about every little one. If I was 20 over for the day I would go exercise like crazy to burn it off. That's what made me crazy. I was thinking that that 20 will make me gain weight.

    I actually do that too (except that if I'm over by 20 I would only exercise for about 50, which really isn't a crazy workout), but for me it is actually a good thing since it makes me exercise when I would otherwise probably just sit around lazily watching tv. I am someone who LOVES numbers and things that can be shown exactly so having a set number is good for me. And if I go over, I just burn off 1,5 or 2x what I ate in surplus. But as I said, we are all different so if that doesn't feel right for you try out something else and see how it works. Let me know how it turns out, I'd love to hear about it ;)
  • Amica35
    Amica35 Posts: 6
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    Hi fruitylicious! This new approach might work, just do not expect to lose at the same speed you would if you were to count calories. I think that since you used to count calories before, you may be able to identify which foods are high calorie and can be more mindful of their portion sizes. Exercise as much as you can too. I think you will succeed.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
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    I've heard of approach similar to this, but the protein is the size of your palm, cheese the size of the thumb, ect. I think it would work if you're really in a pinch and had no way to know the amount of calories in anything, it would provide a very rough estimate. But, weight loss is a calorie deficit, if you are not in a deficit you will not lose weight. Some people are better at maintaining than others or eating less without having to count calories constantly because they don't obsess about food, a majority of the population are not able to.

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