Gaining instead of losing weight?

abbykernc46
abbykernc46 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I don't know about anyone else, but my weight loss plan isn't exactly working out. Some days I have no motivation and, there fore, I don't track my food. Tracking my food has become my problem. I just don't want to take the time. That is not excuse. I try to eat a very natural diet as well as work out a few days a week. I am gain weight rather than losing. Anyone have any tips? How did you lose weight?

Replies

  • coalz
    coalz Posts: 308 Member
    I don't weigh my food but I do log everything using measurements & round up with my educated calorie guesses.
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
    Don't eat so much.
  • murp4069
    murp4069 Posts: 494 Member
    My only advice is to log. It really isn't bad and I don't think it takes up more than 5 minutes total of the day. Eating natural and working out are not going to help you lose weight if you are still eating too many calories and are not in a deficit. MFP makes logging extremely easy, it's really the most important tool for ensuring you are meeting your calorie goals for weight loss.
  • Lois_1989
    Lois_1989 Posts: 6,410 Member
    abbykernc46 wrote: »
    I don't know about anyone else, but my weight loss plan isn't exactly working out. Some days I have no motivation and, there fore, I don't track my food. Tracking my food has become my problem. I just don't want to take the time. That is not excuse. I try to eat a very natural diet as well as work out a few days a week. I am gain weight rather than losing. Anyone have any tips? How did you lose weight?

    Plans never seem to work out I'm afraid. It's the daily habits that you make and break that will help you on this path. I understand the lack of motivation some days, but once the good habits are ingrained in your life, you will do them motivation or not. Like taking the stairs instead of the lift, not having the packet of whatever in the evening watching tv, or that glass of whatever while you cook dinner. It will take time and effort, but after a while it will be second nature and will turn into the best rest of your life ever. Keep going, take a look at your habits which can be corrected or what ones can you make? E.g. drink water not soda. You'll be fine. Tracking will be something you can't avoid though.
  • KorvapuustiPossu
    KorvapuustiPossu Posts: 434 Member
    If you are gaining weight you are simply eating over your maintenance level. Wishing hard doesn't work with weight loss unless you do something about it. Some people are good at guesstimating what they eat (work ok for people with a lot of weight to drop in start due to large margin of error)... other need to weigh everything. Some people start out weighing everything and when they do it for a while get pretty good at guesstimating about frequent foods they eat. Logging gets easier...and it works like a charm :) You either want it enough to do what it takes or don't... there is no miracle solutions.
  • nuttynanners
    nuttynanners Posts: 249 Member
    edited April 2016
    I'm gonna be a Debbie Downer.

    If the volume of food you are eating exceeds the amount of food you actually need each day, you're gonna gain weight. And that's regardless of whether you are choosing healthier foods than your previous diet.

    You don't HAVE to count calories to lose weight, but you do have to find a way to consume less than you are burning. Most people choose to count calories because it's easier to keep themselves accountable that way. There are alternatives, like Weight Watchers (which uses a point system) or 21 Day Fix (where you use color coded plastic containers for portion control).

    But I highly suggest finding a way to make calorie counting fit your routine rather than resorting to purchasing a diet plan or program. You can try logging ahead of time or meal prepping. Just a thought :)
  • Scamd83
    Scamd83 Posts: 808 Member
    abbykernc46 wrote: »
    I don't know about anyone else, but my weight loss plan isn't exactly working out. Some days I have no motivation and, there fore, I don't track my food. Tracking my food has become my problem. I just don't want to take the time. That is not excuse. I try to eat a very natural diet as well as work out a few days a week. I am gain weight rather than losing. Anyone have any tips? How did you lose weight?

    You already know the tip people on a website dedicated to tracking food are going to tell you. The downside to not tracking is people instinctively under estimate calorie intake because you're biased in favour of eating as much as possible. So if you don't want to track but still want to lose weight, you're going to have to be very cautious with how much you eat. And there's the benefit to tracking, if you can eat more and still lose weight, you'll find out through tracking. But when you're guessing, you've got to play it safe and possibly miss out.
  • Stakmaster
    Stakmaster Posts: 15 Member
    This may be contrary to some thinking here but the food logs are not meant to become a permanent part of your life. They're simply a way for you to become more aware of how many calories you need, how much food you should actually be eating, etc. Once you get a grasp of that, you don't even really need to do it anymore as long as you can exercise some self control while eating. It only takes 3 weeks of doing something for it to become a habit, so I would say really try to hunker down and commit to logging those meals if only for as long as it takes to understand what you're eating, how much, and how much of it you need. Good luck!
  • ketorach
    ketorach Posts: 430 Member
    abbykernc46 wrote: »
    I don't know about anyone else, but my weight loss plan isn't exactly working out. Some days I have no motivation and, there fore, I don't track my food. Tracking my food has become my problem. I just don't want to take the time. That is not excuse. I try to eat a very natural diet as well as work out a few days a week. I am gain weight rather than losing. Anyone have any tips? How did you lose weight?

    Yes, it is an excuse.

    Any tips? Pre-log and track your food. Eat at a deficit.


  • quatermore
    quatermore Posts: 96 Member
    You have to weigh/record your food intake accurately each and every day, even when you go over. This puts you in control of your weight loss success. On the days you have no motivation, do it anyway. If you truly want to lose weight this is how you get there. Have fun with it!
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    Stakmaster wrote: »
    This may be contrary to some thinking here but the food logs are not meant to become a permanent part of your life. They're simply a way for you to become more aware of how many calories you need, how much food you should actually be eating, etc. Once you get a grasp of that, you don't even really need to do it anymore as long as you can exercise some self control while eating. It only takes 3 weeks of doing something for it to become a habit, so I would say really try to hunker down and commit to logging those meals if only for as long as it takes to understand what you're eating, how much, and how much of it you need. Good luck!

    I disagree with this. To me, it is like any treatment for a problem. One doesn't go on anti-depressants for 3 months thinking they will at some point never need them again. True, not everyone needs them for the rest of their lives, but a lot of people find they need to stay on the medication. That's what logging is for me. I can't undo decades of binge eating and emotional eating in six months or two years. It's perfectly reasonable to expect I will be logging several YEARS into my maintenance, and possibly for decades or the rest of my life.
  • 130annie
    130annie Posts: 339 Member
    Try carrying a little notebook, log as you go through the day... Then if you can't get back to log MFP, you have a record...
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    If you want it enough, you'll do it... clearly you're just not there yet.
  • BinaryFu
    BinaryFu Posts: 240 Member
    Count your calories. You want motivation? I've dropped 2lbs per week, every week by doing exactly that.

    I also found that redoing your calorie goals every 10lbs helps you to avoid plateaus before they even begin.

    Finally, I've learned that using a food scale for some things is critical to success. Seriously, I didn't measure my cereal in the morning and thought I was doing fine - then I got the scale and realized that my "eyeballing" of 2 servings of cereal (200 calories) was actually 2.5 servings, or 250 calories. So, right out of the gate, every morning, I was 50 calories over what I thought I was eating.

    Those little fudge numbers add up and get ugly real quick.

    If you want to lose weight, start simple by counting calories and creating measurable snacks (like if you enjoy chips and it says "about 18 chips per serving" then count out 18 chips and put them in a plastic bag - do that for the whole bag of chips and you'll have pre-portioned containers of snacks), easy to grab and log.

    Once you start calorie counting, you start to realize the empty calories or the excess calories you're having. And then you start making smarter choices because you're now realizing you have a finite amount of calories per day. You can't just munch when you want to. You hold yourself accountable and it will change your life.
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
    You HAVE to track your foods one way or another. Either with logging every piece or mentally remembering your meals so that you can control the portions.

    Reducing eating would be much easier if you learned to tune out of eating. See eating as just an activity to fuel the body, like brushing teeth for hygiene. You can't let foods hijack your conscious action. That's mainly the issue for struggling people.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    I've been there (most of my adult life).

    Until the switch in your head flips on, and you commit to losing weight, it isn't going to happen. Wanting it isn't enough. "Motivation" (whatever the heck that is) isn't necessary, but commitment, consistency, persistence and good habits are.

    It's up to you.

    You're young enough now that can take this opportunity to learn good, healthy eating and activity behaviors, and groove them in as habits for your entire life. You don't need to go through things I went through, that would've been much less likely to happen, if I hadn't been stupid. I'm talking permanently injured joints (torn meniscus, arthritis), breast cancer, destroyed gallbladder (inflammation, thickening, literally holes!), high cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and more.

    If you want to know some pluses of weight loss, go take a look at these threads (among others) in "Success Stories":

    PHOTO ONLY SUCCESS STORIES!
    What's Your Most Recent NSV (NSV = Non-Scale Victory)

    Think it over. Then decide how you want to live your life. You're in the driver's seat.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    coalz wrote: »
    I don't weigh my food but I do log everything using measurements & round up with my educated calorie guesses.

    Definitely start weighing food and logging. I found a huge difference when I started weighing the foods that I eat. Before weighing, I was overeating by almost 500 calories and maintaining my weight. Measuring food in cups, etc is very inaccurate, and eyeballing portions, well.... that doesn't really work out. Just weigh all foods for one month and log every single item of food.

    Get back in the game and kick some butt.

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