HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!17 Day,WeightWatchers, Fast Metabolism, DASH or WHAT?????
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What's funny is that I am 100% the opposite of Pootler... and losing weight. Which just goes to show that there are lots of ways to achieve a caloric deficit. I'll happily eat low-volume, high-fat foods and feel great. But the caloric deficit is key.Pootler, I want to print your post and put it on the bathroom mirror to read every morning. Thank you!
OP, decide how you are most happy eating -- more fruits & veggies, more volume, more fat, higher carbs, whatever -- and design a plan that includes those foods and has you eating at a deficit. You can do it but you have to want it and you have to plan.
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I am 5'6" , weigh 161. Thank you for sincere replies... or maybe they were all meant well.
Me again. More on food choices.
I used to go to McDonalds 2 or 3 times a week. I would almost always order a #1, with a Filet O' Fish. That equates to the following amount of calories...
Big Mac 550
Filet O' Fish 390
Lg Fries 510
Lg Coke 310
Total 1710 IN ONE FREAKING MEAL!
I now only go there once a month and make better choices.
Big Mac - No Bun 330
Filet O' Fish - No Bun 240
No Fries 0
Iced Tea - unsweetened 0
Total 570
Why am I telling you this? Because I was totally unaware of the real amount of calories I was consuming... I think most people are who aren't tracking their food. I can't tell you how many times I went to McDonald's for lunch, then followed it with a nice bucket of KFC for the family dinner. It is very easy to go 3k or even 4k worth of calories in a day if you are not keeping track.
Seriously, you can do this!
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I plan my day in calories at the beginning of my day. Then I know exactly what I can have for the day and also know my menu! This site is easy to use as long as you count everything you eat, every day. You only cheat yourself if you don't. If I want something more/special, I take a walk or whatever exercise you like. As noted above, if you eat less than you burn, you will lose. Good luck!0
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I understand the temptation to find answers in books. Instead of reading a gazillion diet books, try The Diet Fix and The Beck Solution for help with the mental and emotional hurdles to weight loss.0
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You know, the best diet all along was just calorie counting and exercise. It's got a bad rap of being "too much work," etc, because calorie counting used to mean buying one of those depressing little newsprint booklets at the checkout line of the grocery store and sadly totting up your food. I still remember the ads on TV urging women to take appetite suppressants to help them with their "1000 per day!" UGH. No wonder more gimmicky plans gained steam!
It's a different game now. With aps/websites like My Fitness Pal (which you've obviously found!) It's no harder to do a simple calorie counting regimen than one of the gimmicky fad diets. Fad diets are actually harder to follow! Just input your information on the MFP calculator and enter your food in the food diary. Use the recipe tool to determine the calorie count of dishes you already like to prepare and eat. Find some exercise that you enjoy and do that.
Try that for a month or two and see how you feel. From there, you can adjust some finer points, etc. But, really, this website is the easiest "diet plan" of all!0 -
You know, the best diet all along was just calorie counting and exercise. It's got a bad rap of being "too much work," etc, because calorie counting used to mean buying one of those depressing little newsprint booklets at the checkout line of the grocery store and sadly totting up your food. I still remember the ads on TV urging women to take appetite suppressants to help them with their "1000 per day!" UGH. No wonder more gimmicky plans gained steam!
Never thought of it like that before, but you're right!0 -
Ok tough love?! You either want to lose weight or you want to use excuses why it doesn't work.
So...why didn't weight watchers work, if you want the option to eat all the things that made you overweight? They give you the option of a meal plan for the week or you take responsibility and make your own choices.
@LuvPosh . I think that was a bit harsh especially not knowing her height and weight. Needing to lose a 10-12 extra pounds at 62 isn't the same as trying to lose 30, 40, 50+lbs at 42. I have found that the heavier you are to start with the faster and more bulk weight you lose initially. I've been on MFP for 4 days and already lost 8 lbs. It may be only water weight but 10lbs on a scale is 10lbs on the scale. I know that once I reach closer to my goal weight it may take me months to lose the last 10 lbs. Following MFP is the best advice on here. Every plan isn't for everybody. Weightwatchers alone never helped me either. I had to combine a few different plans together to find what finally allowed me to shed pounds pretty quickly. (35lbs in 3 months.) Best thing is to be patient with yourself. Sometimes just a little tweak can make all the differance. Mccubee you will find your sweet spot.0 -
IIFIYM , then never look back.0
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Have you tried the new weight watcher Coach. You get to pick your own personal coach. I picked one that was close to my age 59, She is a Nurse so she understands my health issues.We hit it off, I can email her at anytime or schedule a session. I love it and it makes me think twice before I pop a bite in my mouth as she has me not only tracking my food, but recording my hunger levels and we go over it on the phone in a session.
The simply filling plan on ww is a great way too. If you do no like tracking.
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There are lots of good written plans! Like others have said, WW is a good one. Yes, it costs money but that can be motivating for people and honestly it's pretty cheap, especially compared to some of the plans out there like Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig or (god forbid) the HCG type clinics. And you get WW free in maintenance, which is also a motivator.My library of diet books is bursting off the shelves..... I am an intelligent ( in most ways but obviously not with food) 62 year old woman. I find myself getting swayed into whatever is the new idea..... Common sense tells me that I should be able to eat less and exercise more .... and BINGO, I am at goal weight. NOT HAPPENING. I am hoping for some ideas here on a plan that is nutritionally sound and not depriving me of things I love. I seem to actually need a written plan though. Please HELP!!
Or pretty much any of the mega-seller diet book plans is sensible-- South Beach, The Zone, Mediterranean, Mayo Clinic, DASH, etc. You just have to really commit, for the long haul.
Good luck!
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Firstly, you have to want this more than you want anything else. No, really want it. So that you become slightly obsessed, and it takes over your brain to such an extent that when cake is on offer you automatically think, "Can I fit this into my calories for today? If not, do I want cake enough to have to claw back those calories at some point in the next few days?" And the answer usually - for me at least - depends on the quality of the cake.
That's the difference between staying on a plan and succeeding, and falling off and restarting (another plan) over and over again.
Most people couldn't eat keto or Paleo, or slimming world or weight watchers or Atkins for the rest of their lives. Those diets can be stuck to short term, but they restrict you. And many of us on MFP, the ones who give snarky answers, have done named diets but found that the MFP approach is easier, more fun, and more sustainable. (They get a bit frustrated when other people can't see how simple it is, and that's where the bitchiness on these boards comes from. I believe that they all mean well and want the best for you and to help you. But they get burned out on saying the same things over and over again.) It takes a little effort, but it can be educational and really sort of fun.
The oft-spouted and actually sage advice on here is that diets with a name will relieve you of a few pounds and a lot of money. In the end, the best way to eat now to lose weight is in a way that you can see yourself eating for the rest of your life. Because maintaining weight loss is actually harder than weight loss itself.
A written plan can be helpful short term, but what happens when you reach your goal? By following someone else's daily meal plan you will have learned very little about how to feed yourself the right foods to keep you at a healthy weight. You can't follow that same meal plan forever can you?
MFP is a great tool for learning how to put together your own meal plan. You can tweak it as you go along, and learn more about what foods work for you. Do carbs keep you full? Or is fat or protein the secret to stopping you getting hungry? Do apples make you ravenous? Will you lose weight if you eat back all of your exercise calories, or does half work better? What the magic number of calories that keeps you sated, but still losing weight?
It may take 2 or 3 months to figure this all out, and even then, your needs will change. But you might as well settle in for a long journey and take it slowly. You'll be more likely to get there and stay there.
How about you start just by logging what you eat now? (Use cups and spoons for fluids, and a food scale in grams for everything else.) Then you can see which foods are value for calories and you might want to eat more of, and which ones cost more calorie wise and can be worked in as treats. Learn from this to make your own meal plan. You can plan each day in advance to make it fit your calories and macros, and tweak it as you go along.
We're all individuals - nobody else's meal plan can ever work perfectly for us. So make your own. With a bit of time, effort, thought and experimentation, you totally can!
If you want a guide, here's how my day looks, and it works, and it's rarely difficult.
25% -30% of my calories are spent on snacks and treats. This could be milk in my coffee, chocolate, wine, a few slices of ham, or extra fruit in between meals. I need treats. I look for low calorie hacked recipes of things I like. (Half a thin crust frozen pizza topped with extra veg and low fat cheese is one of my favourites.) And low calorie alternatives when I can't find a hack.
I'm a volume eater. I need big platefuls of food to stop me being hungry. So about 40-60% of the food that makes up my meals (not snacks) is non-starchy fruit and vegetables. This is hugely important to me. I'm not sure at all how other people manage to not gnaw their own arms off with hunger when I see how few veggies they eat!
I've changed my macros lots of times. Still trying to find the best ratio of carb/protein/fat. It seems to be 40/30/30 though.
I plan around treats. If I know we're going to McDonald's, I'll shave a few calories off breakfast, and have salad or stir fry for dinner, and swap my fries and milkshake for salad and diet coke.
I have meals off. If I'm away for a romantic weekend, I'll have the weekend off. Sometimes I fail spectacularly. I have a history of eating disorders, and there have been one or two binges in the last 4 months. But at the next meal, or the next day, I'm back on plan. And if I screwed up, I work out how it happened and plan how to not do that in the same situation next time. This has been an important change. One blow out will not blow your whole diet. A series of blow outs will.
THIS ^^0 -
Firstly, you have to want this more than you want anything else. No, really want it. So that you become slightly obsessed, and it takes over your brain to such an extent that when cake is on offer you automatically think, "Can I fit this into my calories for today? If not, do I want cake enough to have to claw back those calories at some point in the next few days?" And the answer usually - for me at least - depends on the quality of the cake. That's the difference between staying on a plan and succeeding, and falling off and restarting (another plan) over and over again.
Most people couldn't eat keto or Paleo, or slimming world or weight watchers or Atkins for the rest of their lives. Those diets can be stuck to short term, but they restrict you. And many of us on MFP, the ones who give snarky answers, have done named diets but found that the MFP approach is easier, more fun, and more sustainable. (They get a bit frustrated when other people can't see how simple it is, and that's where the bitchiness on these boards comes from. I believe that they all mean well and want the best for you and to help you. But they get burned out on saying the same things over and over again.) It takes a little effort, but it can be educational and really sort of fun.
The oft-spouted and actually sage advice on here is that diets with a name will relieve you of a few pounds and a lot of money. In the end, the best way to eat now to lose weight is in a way that you can see yourself eating for the rest of your life. Because maintaining weight loss is actually harder than weight loss itself.
A written plan can be helpful short term, but what happens when you reach your goal? By following someone else's daily meal plan you will have learned very little about how to feed yourself the right foods to keep you at a healthy weight. You can't follow that same meal plan forever can you?
MFP is a great tool for learning how to put together your own meal plan. You can tweak it as you go along, and learn more about what foods work for you. Do carbs keep you full? Or is fat or protein the secret to stopping you getting hungry? Do apples make you ravenous? Will you lose weight if you eat back all of your exercise calories, or does half work better? What the magic number of calories that keeps you sated, but still losing weight?
It may take 2 or 3 months to figure this all out, and even then, your needs will change. But you might as well settle in for a long journey and take it slowly. You'll be more likely to get there and stay there.
How about you start just by logging what you eat now? (Use cups and spoons for fluids, and a food scale in grams for everything else.) Then you can see which foods are value for calories and you might want to eat more of, and which ones cost more calorie wise and can be worked in as treats. Learn from this to make your own meal plan. You can plan each day in advance to make it fit your calories and macros, and tweak it as you go along.
We're all individuals - nobody else's meal plan can ever work perfectly for us. So make your own. With a bit of time, effort, thought and experimentation, you totally can!
If you want a guide, here's how my day looks, and it works, and it's rarely difficult.
25% -30% of my calories are spent on snacks and treats. This could be milk in my coffee, chocolate, wine, a few slices of ham, or extra fruit in between meals. I need treats. I look for low calorie hacked recipes of things I like. (Half a thin crust frozen pizza topped with extra veg and low fat cheese is one of my favourites.) And low calorie alternatives when I can't find a hack.
I'm a volume eater. I need big platefuls of food to stop me being hungry. So about 40-60% of the food that makes up my meals (not snacks) is non-starchy fruit and vegetables. This is hugely important to me. I'm not sure at all how other people manage to not gnaw their own arms off with hunger when I see how few veggies they eat!
I've changed my macros lots of times. Still trying to find the best ratio of carb/protein/fat. It seems to be 40/30/30 though.
I plan around treats. If I know we're going to McDonald's, I'll shave a few calories off breakfast, and have salad or stir fry for dinner, and swap my fries and milkshake for salad and diet coke.
I have meals off. If I'm away for a romantic weekend, I'll have the weekend off. Sometimes I fail spectacularly. I have a history of eating disorders, and there have been one or two binges in the last 4 months. But at the next meal, or the next day, I'm back on plan. And if I screwed up, I work out how it happened and plan how to not do that in the same situation next time. This has been an important change. One blow out will not blow your whole diet. A series of blow outs will.
I really enjoyed reading this, Amazing!0 -
I have found that using MFP and tracking EVERYTHING based on calories REALLY does work. I had tried everything and I mean everything for 15 years and couldn't lose weight. Last year (Jan 2014) I was 5'3 and 268 lbs. and had spent a LOT of money on books and plans.
By doing the easiest, cheapest thing I have lost 72 lbs in 14 months.
When you are overweight there is a feeling that you need a plan and you need things to be complicated. Simplicity works.
time and patience. patience and time.0 -
You have some good responses. My diary is open and you can see what I eat. I have found that I have NO willpower to do the right thing - a tiny slice of cake turns into a huge one, a serving of chips turns into the bag.... I work with what works for me. If you are like the majority of us, you will have to spend some time repairing your relationship with food. I hope to one day be able to eat in moderation but I can't right now. Do what works for YOU. For me, trial and error has shown that eating 1200 calories means that I am going to binge until I reach a weekly average of at least 1400 calories - so make sure that you are eating enough for your body.
Honestly, I should have been losing weight for the past 3 years but I didn't because it wasn't important. Find your motivation and stick it out there. My motivation is NOT to get diabetes like my mom. I want to keep my teeth and my eyesight.... Getting bikini ready for the summer just doesn't motivate me! Find your motivation and stick with it. Oh and set reasonable goals. My first goal was to lose 10%. I am almost at that 10% and now I have to work on what my next goal is. I like 5-10 pound goals that I can accomplish!0 -
It is a lot different to try losing weight when you are in your 60s than in your 30s 0r 40s. Much damage has been done to your metabolism from the yo-yo dieting. I have done this in the past where I would lose a ton of weight and then regain it. Dieting does not work you are all correct about that. You have to change your way of life for the rest of your life. I just finished reading the Fast Metabolism Diet and I hate that it is called "diet". Maybe some of you have seen Haylie Pomroy on Dr. Oz or a number of other shows. She explains how the metabolism works and how our systems have gotten messed up. This is about repairing, not dieting. I have been doing her system for 6 days now and have lost 9 lbs. and I sure am not going hungry!! You do a carb cycle so some days you may not have the bad carbs. But it only lasts for 2 days so I have found it very doable. No counting calories is required for the 28 days of her repair but I do log my food here just so I can keep track and am surprised that with all the food I am eating, I am still under my 1560 goal most days. I know I am going on and on here, so just wanted to throw my 2 cents in and give you something to think about, mccubbe. You could find her book useful, not that I wanted to throw another book at you but I believe in this one. Good luck!!0
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Hi
You need to be very careful with diet, remember in woman body 70% is what you eat and 30% exercises
May be you have to vary your habits
@mccuubee
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not2old2move wrote: »It is a lot different to try losing weight when you are in your 60s than in your 30s 0r 40s. Much damage has been done to your metabolism from the yo-yo dieting. I have done this in the past where I would lose a ton of weight and then regain it. Dieting does not work you are all correct about that. You have to change your way of life for the rest of your life. I just finished reading the Fast Metabolism Diet and I hate that it is called "diet". Maybe some of you have seen Haylie Pomroy on Dr. Oz or a number of other shows. She explains how the metabolism works and how our systems have gotten messed up. This is about repairing, not dieting. I have been doing her system for 6 days now and have lost 9 lbs. and I sure am not going hungry!! You do a carb cycle so some days you may not have the bad carbs. But it only lasts for 2 days so I have found it very doable. No counting calories is required for the 28 days of her repair but I do log my food here just so I can keep track and am surprised that with all the food I am eating, I am still under my 1560 goal most days. I know I am going on and on here, so just wanted to throw my 2 cents in and give you something to think about, mccubbe. You could find her book useful, not that I wanted to throw another book at you but I believe in this one. Good luck!!
Sorry but this is rubbish ...it's not about repairing it's about calorie defecit
You don't need to do this
It has no basis in scientific fact
It takes a simple (well complex) biological process, adds a little twisted facts from adaptive thermogenisis and creates something somewhat palatable to buy into
If this is what psychs you up to finally take control of your food intake then fair enough
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At age 57, I lost all my weight and have kept it off for almost 3 years. The secret? Calorie counting, meticulous logging, patience, and developing an attitude of treating this as a hobby, i.e. looking for good recipes, pre-logging the day, making a game of working in treats, etc.0
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I'm an older woman too, (and in my healthy weight range, and you are also close to your healthy weight range for your height), so keep in mind that we do lose much slower than we used to. The daily fluctuations of water weight can actually mask your fat loss and be discouraging. MFP told me that at 1200 cals. a day I would lose 1/3 lb. a week, that's only 1.3 lbs. per month. At 1000 cals a day (which it does allow, contrary to popular belief here, and as long as I hit 1000 it doesn't give me the nasty "you are eating too little" message) it says I will lose 1/2 lb. a week. That means that the normal 2 or 3 lbs. of water weight fluctuations can make it look like I've gained a lb. or two in a week that I have been "perfect". If I keep in mind that it's the long term graph I have to remember, it helps with those disappointments.0
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