What I wish I knew when I was just starting out

How much better I feel eating healthy and being more active

These are the myths I wish I would've ignored-

Carbs are bad they make people gain fat - myth( some people with medical conditions may need to worry about carbs ) but carbs do not cause people to gain or prevent them from losing.

You must eat only 1200 to lose- myth
( I suffered for a while be cause I believed I had to starve to lose ,its not true . again, if someone was very old and very short then maybe they would have to eat 1200 but I'm neither )

Its all about the scale - myth.
I've saw people at 110 lbs look terrible, loose hanging skin and flab ! And I've saw people at 180lbs with abs ! So its not all about just seeing a loss on the scale. Those people that are only concerned with seeing a fast loss, may be in for a rude awakening once they hit goal weight. Incorporate a strength training program early and slow and steady weight loss !

So save yourselves the grief and don't believe the myths. For weight loss, cico ! Don't fear carbs. There's some evangelists on here that will claim keto and low carb cures every ailment and caused them to lose tons of weight. Don't be fooled by these derpers , they are as crazy as they sound !

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt wrote: »

CICO. This would have saved me two ish years of sheer frustration!

THIS!! Only instead of 2 years, make it 20+!

Don't eat back your exercise calories (most days)
Weight loss is not linear.
Water weight is a pain in the *kitten*.

It all comes down to the basic math of calories in and calories out. Burn more calories than you take in, and how many more you burn will determine your rate of loss. Accuracy matters. Don't half a s s this *kitten*. Don't listen to what others say about 'counting calories is unhealthy.' Counting your calories accurately by weighing with a food scale, and using a heart rate monitor to give you a more accurate calorie burn during your cardio workouts will give you the best results.

Love your body while working toward the body you want! Take it one day at a time or else it can be overwhelming and easy to get off track. Know that you can do it by yourself and don't listen to bad advice! You know your body listen to it and do what works for you!

I guess I always knew, but I wish I had actually taken it in - this is for life. You will never eat 'normally' (or what was 'normal' to your overweight self) again - or if you do, well guess what, you'll soon be overweight again! Weight loss is like a card palace - takes a fraction of the time it took to build to knock it down again. So frankly, if you don't think you can live like this (whatever your programme is) long-term without being miserable, either find another path, or get used to being big and learn to love yourself that way.

I just killed off about two years' worth of denial in two months of eating pretty much whatever I wanted - all the compliments I received on my weight loss went to my head, I stopped weighing myself, stopped monitoring my intake and abiding by the rules of my chosen programme, had an indulgent Christmas period and bingo - I'm back practically where I was when I started. Time to start rolling that rock back up the hill again...

So don't 'diet'. Change your lifestyle. For good. Yo-yo effect is a b***h.

By the way, from personal experience, low carb diet is actually very effective for weight loss, simply because it is so much harder to eat the same amount of calories from protein-rich foods as you can from carbs. The difficulty is keeping it up for life, especially if like me you love bread and pasta. Low carb and CICO are not actually antithetical, and people who promote low carb diets are not necessarily barking. It's about what works for you. Something else I wish I'd known before I started is that while MFP is a really useful aid to changing how you live and eat, especially the motivational success stories, there are a lot of people on here who are certain that they have found The One True Way and are more than happy to slag off anyone who disagrees/has a different way (see posts above). Ignore the negativity, explore the options with an open mind, and if you find one that makes you happier and healthier, then go with it.