Advice... Walking/running

To lose weight you need a calorie deficit. It's all about what happens in the kitchen.

Buy some good insoles. That should help with your feet hurting. You'd be surprised how big of a difference they will make.

Losing weight is 80% calorie deficit, 10% exercise, 10% genetic. You will not lose weight unless you eat less calories than you burn. Log everything you eat and drink and weigh and measure your food. Chances are good that you are eating more calories than you burn.

How are you calculating 1200 cals? Are you weighing everything. Is it possible you are grazing at work?

Also you're probably doing less exercise than you think I was a hospital cleaner to pay my way through uni. I thought I was doing loads of exercise because my back and legs hurt at the end of my shift. Then I volunteered to help a friend with her dissertation study of exercise and manual labour, and found that my heart rate was rarely elevated and in terms of calories burned, I was doing not a lot over sedentary.
Very depressing! She found in her study that the perception of effort amongst manual workers was significantly greater than actual effort expended and also greater than the perception of effort when the same exercise was done in a gym context.

I highly reccomend a pedometer to see how active you really are. Has helped me a lot.

This could get long winded... (Sorry). I used to weigh a little over 325 lbs... I sucked at life until I figured out a few things and now often coach runners who are just getting started.

For the feet... definitely better quality shoes or insoles. You may want to get professionally fitted as everyone's feet are unique. You'll want to be fitted with the right shoe to give you the right comfort and support you need.

Now for the long winded part... I find most of the calories here are overstated (and likely for a variety of reasons). Myself, I don't count normal daily routine as part of exercise... I mean really, if you get up everyday, eat breakfast, walk to the bus stop, climb a flight of stairs or pick up after the kids etc... you were doing that before you tried losing weight, why count it now? and where does that line get drawn? Its life. The exercises I do count are those activities that exist outside of normal life activity... i.e. I am going for a 4 mile run tonight. I will count that. I wouldn't count the 30 minutes cooking, cleaning or picking up kids though... its part of my routine and part of my life.

Another of those reasons is adaptation. The more you do something, the more efficient your body becomes doing it. While at one point, you may have burnt 500-600 calories walking/running... as your body has adapted to it, your body has started to burn less calories doing it and now may only burn 300-400 calories. You became more efficient (and really didn't the running get easier?). Its the law of diminishing returns and its normal. Its why people initially burn tons of fat running but burn less and less fat as time goes on.

One of the ways around that is to change up your workout and mix it up. Alternate in other forms of exercise that are complimentary to what you like to do. Do something that challenges your body. If you are a runner, throw in some cycling, swimming, yoga or free weights as these will at the least help your running and they can be so much fun too (especially when done with a buddy!)

As others have mentioned and I wholeheartedly agree with this... weight is lost in the kitchen, fitness is gained in the gym. If we are to lose weight, we need to create a healthy calorie deficit. Improved fitness will help you burn more calories and create that deficit but controlling and managing intake is far more important. If food is energy... Keep in mind the energy you eat and don't burn, is typically stored as fat.

It took me years to learn this (and occasionally I need reminding). But once I figured it out... I lost over 100 lbs... I've kept it off for 6 years! I think I've rambled on enough now and hope some of it made sense.

Hope it helps. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or add me as a friend.

Cheers,

If you are on your feet all the time and they hurt you need fitted for proper shoes. See a Pedeorthist or a Shoe Fitter and get real shoes.

I use portion control with the containers for my food! I also only count my walks/workouts for exercise! Try perhaps using the containers to make sure your portions of food are not too big. I use the 21 day fix myself. I use it everyday not just for the 21 days. It is the perfect amount for myself.

Sexedee10 wrote: »

Feet hurt cause i hadn't done this type work in over 10 years. Not used to it. Add for food NO I don't have a scale, I scan products or look them up on mfp and mature with cups and spoons... Also being foods to work is not an option as we can't bring out side food in due to dhec issues and we don't get a break.. 8-10 hrs no break. When I say around 1200 is because I'm not at 1200 exactly, everyday.... One day may be 1195 another may be 1220... Etc

This could very well be your problem. The scanner is often wrong so I when I scan things I always compare the info MFP gives me to the nutritional info on the package. Also, using measuring cups and spoons for solids can be very inaccurate. I can't find the video that's always floating around here on weighing food vs. measuring, so I hope someone else will post it

I'd advise you to invest in a food scale (they're not expensive, $10-15). Start weighing all your food - at home at least - and compare MFP database entries to the information on the packages. This should at least give you a more accurate idea of your intake. Also keep in mind that MFP vastly overestimates calorie burns so a HRM or pedometer might also be a good investment for you. Hope this helps!

Sexedee10 I don't understand your posts - yesterday you posted this saying you're not losing weight and 3hrs ago you said you've lost 8lb in 14days ... Which is it?

Your average calories logged for the last 7 days is actually over 1400 not 1200 and they are mostly from fast food, guesstimated portion sizes, very few beverages logged, no cooking oil etc so it's probable you're easily consuming closer to 2000 calories without realising.

If you have lost 8lbs whilst doing this then that's great news so stop worrying, if you haven't lost that 8lbs then this is probably why. Also consider not logging 'cleaning' to get exercise calories as that should just be part of your daily activity level.

#confused

The most valuable thing that MFP taught me was that i grossly misunderstood how many calories i was actually eating each day.

1 - i did a lot of mindless eating
2 - i underestimated the caloric content of most of what i ate

When it finally clicked that my body "logs" every calorie, whether i count it or not in my head, i held myself to a high standard of honesty about what i eat.

Second most valuable thing? There are no tricks or gimmicks. You need to take in fewer calories than you burn. Any tricks or gimmicks that get you to accomplish this in the short term, without building healthy habits, is a road to further frustration and failure.