Surprises and lessons learnt

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  • Livgetfit
    Livgetfit Posts: 352 Member
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    1. Home-made soup is a dieter's best friend
    2. My coffee is now a strategic decision - all black nespresso or soy latte? Depends on my plan for the day. I remember when I could knock back 4 of the latter without so much as a thought.
    3. Eating out is hard
    4. Logging is worth it
  • simply_bubbz
    simply_bubbz Posts: 245 Member
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    Palmeralex wrote: »
    What surprised you when you started MFP? Me:
    1. Bread has loads of calories! If you have a takeaway curry and order a naan bread then you can only have the naan bread and a piece of cucumber
    2. It's very difficult to be a drunk and stick to a calorie limit. You would have to just consume wine and kale which isn't balanced lifestyle
    3. Pastry is the devil
    4. Sweet potatoes are like little gifts from God. Low in calories, fill you up and the only thing which gets the stupid little potassium meter filled up.

    How about you?

    I can def relate to NUMBER 2 and 4!!!!! Every time I drink, I can't ever stick to my goal but the alcohol alone are high in calories so that's the major issue with that lol and I just recently discovered how healthy sweet potatoes are and I couldn't believe it!
  • zaxx1953
    zaxx1953 Posts: 389 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    zaxx1953 wrote: »
    So you realized carbs are basically causing you to overeat; wow, if only someone had told us.
    You eating too many carbs while not moving around is causing you to over-eat.

    Once you realize that you can either do something about it, or blame your easy access to carbs for your predicament.

    Like, dude(dette), seriously, WTF? You figure the carbs are out to get you, stay away from them! You have my permission.

    M-kay, now?

    What predicament?

    What on earth are you talking about?

    Eating too many simple carbs is bad for satiation. No one even argues against that anymore.

    Time to come into this century....
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    daniwilford wrote: »
    ci<co works so exactly when you measure everything accurately and honestly. Food scale, FitBit, & MFP make it so simple. I have never lost weight so consistently. No magic and no mystery just accuracy.

    Spot on, as always, @daniwilford !

    Yep, and no deprivation of favourite foods or food groups, either!

    Just eating in moderation, spending a bit more time on MFP and a bit less time on Facebook, and the pounds are disappearing week by week!
  • Dariasen
    Dariasen Posts: 145 Member
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    #1: I have to watch my sodium due to HBP and I was shocked at how much salt is in cottage cheese..and it's a PITA to find the low sodium version near me. I always have to juggle my macros whenever I want to enjoy a bowl of it.
    #2: I was also shocked to see how many calories I was consuming on a typical day before I started counting. I'm surprised I'm not twice as big. I ate fast food alot, sometime twice a day, now I see that one meal I used to eat would be as much...if not more...than my daily limit. I still eat out alot but I've switched to the kids meals so bonus toys.
    #3: Just because food has "veggie" in it's name, doesn't mean it's even close to the actual vegetable it may contain.
    #4: A child with Aspergers does not care if you are eating healthy and will know the difference if you change brands of food on him. My god have mercy on you when you try to convince him a turkey dog is just as good as a hot dog.
  • cbelc2
    cbelc2 Posts: 762 Member
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    Ok. I may be jaded since I've only been on it 6 days. I've made minor changes, adjusting my day as I track, purposely not putting 'finishes' on my food such as sugar or olive oil or handfuls of dried cherries or nuts. One day I did break off the white rice from my tv dinner and trashed it. I made a super panama pork stew for 125 cals per cup. I have lost 4.4 lbs in 6 days and go around with a song on my lips, dancing through the day. No deprevation. No starvation. No weird dieting. Just paying attention and tracking. It's been a surprise to me that a post menopausal woman can actually lose weight.
  • Livgetfit
    Livgetfit Posts: 352 Member
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    cbelc2 wrote: »
    Ok. I may be jaded since I've only been on it 6 days. I've made minor changes, adjusting my day as I track, purposely not putting 'finishes' on my food such as sugar or olive oil or handfuls of dried cherries or nuts. One day I did break off the white rice from my tv dinner and trashed it. I made a super panama pork stew for 125 cals per cup. I have lost 4.4 lbs in 6 days and go around with a song on my lips, dancing through the day. No deprevation. No starvation. No weird dieting. Just paying attention and tracking. It's been a surprise to me that a post menopausal woman can actually lose weight.

    Congratulations, great loss
  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
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    mkakids wrote: »
    Queenmunchy wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    LOL at #2. :)

    Butter was my single biggest shocker. I knew it was high, but didn't know it was that high.

    Rice cakes, too. I don't know why, but I always thought they were like single-digit calories or something. It only makes sense that there would be more, when you think about it, but I was surprised.

    I kind of knew with everything else what was and wasn't high in calories.

    For me, I was surprised at how much butter I could use. 2-4g is plenty when I fry an egg and not too calorific!

    seriously? You can fry an egg in 2 grams of butter? I'm impressed

    Yep - my pans are also those "green" pans and they're super non-stick. That may be the reason.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited July 2015
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    zaxx1953 wrote: »
    So you realized carbs are basically causing you to overeat; wow, if only someone had told us.

    Carbs don't cause me to do anything. Carbs are just foods or, really, part of the chemical make up of food. They have no agency, I do.

    Also, fat has always been my main weakness. ;-) For example, regular bread is boring, I would never overeat it, and can take or leave it. Naan is amazing, because it includes some fat. And it's more amazing because it usually comes with curry (involving ghee or the like) that you can dip it in. Mmm.

    Anyway, fat also doesn't cause me to do anything, because, again, I have agency and it's just food.
  • Palmeralex
    Palmeralex Posts: 40 Member
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    Another one - if you add a vitamin pill to your snacks and it says "frequently paired food - pint of guinness", its time to reassess your lifestyle. :#
  • Palmeralex
    Palmeralex Posts: 40 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    zaxx1953 wrote: »
    So you realized carbs are basically causing you to overeat; wow, if only someone had told us.

    Also, fat has always been my main weakness. ;-) For example, regular bread is boring, I would never overeat it, and can take or leave it. Naan is amazing, because it includes some fat. And it's more amazing because it usually comes with curry (involving ghee or the like) that you can dip it in. .

    haha
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
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    Mine would be....

    The amount of calories alcohol has

    The amount of calories nuts have

    The amount of calories Granola has :(

    Weight loss isn't linear, and sometimes you can maintain for a couple of weeks then suddenly drop a couple of pounds in one week.

    How few calories certain exercises actually burn

    How much my TOM affected my hunger levels

    Eggs are the most amazing food and egg muffins are like a gift from the Gods.
  • slothbears
    slothbears Posts: 8 Member
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    My biggest surprise was how few calories exercise burns! I've also definitely learned that weighing and logging everything isn't as difficult or time-consuming as it seems, and it is the most helpful thing I've tried. :)

    And this is an individual thing, but I've found that if I follow "typical" advice and have 3+ small meals a day, I'm always hungry, but if I eat all my daily calories within a 2-3 hour window, I'll feel full all day! I guess, feel free to experiment with your mealtimes and find what works best for you! :)
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    My biggest surprises after originally getting a fitbit was how active in general I naturally am on a day-to-day basis (like, around a TDEEx1.5), however that on my truly LAZY days how INACTIVE I truly am. (like around TDEEx1.2 and <4000 steps), and that when I KILL myself at the gym and/or with activities, I'm still only around TDEEx2.0).

    TL;DR:
    The calorie reward for activity is not a steep parabolic curve.

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