Discouraged - week 1

Chin up! Its only week 1!

Tracking for general awareness won't help lose weight if you're eating too much. Tracking and keeping within a set limit is what you need. Set mfp to sedentary and 1 lb per week loss, and keep within that limit.

Make sure you weigh your food in grams on a digital scale and measure liquids in ml using a measuring jug. Don't use cups as measuring tools - highly inaccurate. Log drinks too.

1. You seem to have taken a gradual approach, which is fine as long as you have realistic expectations. Tracking your food and trying to move more are good beginning steps, but they aren't going to generate much, if anything, in the way of weight loss.

2. You say you committed to doing this last week. Do you mean you only committed for a week? Are you committed to doing whatever it takes to reach your goal as fast as possible so that you can go back to your old comfortable habits? Or are you committed to changing how you eat, move, think, and live to allow yourself to achieve and maintain a level of health that allows you to do the things you want to do?

3. Losing weight depends on eating fewer calories than you burn through daily activities and conscious exercise. While eating real foods and avoiding processed foods may or may not be meaningful to improving your overall health, they are irrelevant to weight loss. Trying to lose weight by eating in a way that you do not enjoy is going to lead, at best, to some very temporary results. Set a calorie goal and measure your food using a food scale, then evaluate your results.

4. As others have noted, a gain of 0.8 pounds is inconsequential - definitely not something over which to get discouraged. If the scale affects you in this way, you might want to look at alternate ways of tracking your progress, such as measurements or how your clothing fits.

Good luck to you!

If you're going to get discouraged after one week, you have a really tough road ahead of you. Weight loss is a long term proposition. And it is not linear, meaning some weeks you will lose, some weeks you won't, and some weeks you will gain. Even if you do everything perfect. That's real life.

In order to lose weight, you need to commit to the long term. Get a food scale, and log everything, everyday. Do a little homework to make sure you are choosing accurate entries in the database. And judge your success in terms of weeks and months, not days. With 40+ lbs to lose, this will probably take a year or even more. Accept that in that beginning, commit to establishing the habits you need to succeed, and have faith that eventually your body will get there. Best of luck

You probably won't know for at least a month what your actual weekly weight loss trend is since, as others have mentioned, our weight can fluctuate pretty drastically on a day-to-day basis. But there are a couple of other more concerning things in your post. A couple of "cheats" and a "really bad day" can negate your calorie deficit for the week. Rather than "cheating", work those things into your calorie allowance for the day. Also, it isn't wise to try to overhaul your entire diet overnight. Achieving a calorie deficit is challenging enough without the added stress of having to eat certain foods. Eat what you enjoy, but do be mindful that achieving your macro goals (protein, fat, & fiber) will be the key to you feeling satisfied. As time goes on, you might gradually add new foods you enjoy that help you meet those goals, or drop foods that just don't satisfy you enough for the calories, but that doesn't have to happen overnight. I've been at this over a year (and lost 40 lbs) and my food choices are still a work in progress. You have plenty of time. Just worry about hitting your calorie allowance for now.

xoccerlvr wrote: »

I need to lose 40+pounds.

Last week I committed to 1. tracking food to generate better awareness of what I'm eating and 2. Trying to move more.

I had a couple cheats on the eating front (and one really bad day) but I thought I was doing OK. Eating a lot of real food, fruits, veg, lean meat. Avoiding processed foods. I'm not really enjoying eating healthy, but I'm doing it.

But I gained 0.8 lbs and I'm bummed.

Tell us what you think of as "eating healthy". Healthy doesn't have to translate to Plain even though we often approach it that way. I see your list of real food - the secret may be in the preparation. Lean meat. for example, CAN be dry - but if you cook it in moist heat, or crock-pot, or marinade/grill, or even cube for soups and stews along with your vegetables and nice seasoning you can start to enjoy.

Skipping the beer/wine may be tough if that was part of your regular routine - I had to do that and didn't like one little bit! For me that made me become aware that I had probably been drinking too much in the first place, so a good wake-up call on multiple fronts! I say IF it was part of your routine so please don't be offended. It could just as easily be a problem with soft drinks or sweet tea!

I know how it is lost 20# beginning of the year and gained back ten its a sad story lol. But that's what I get for doing a very low cal diet now I'm struggling with snacking. My meals are on point but dam snacking I tell ya

sarahthes wrote: »

1. 0.8 lbs is within normal weight fluctuations. I change that much up or down on a daily basis. You want the general long term trend to be down.

2. Any meal plan you don't enjoy isn't one that is sustainable.

3. To lose weight you need a calorie deficit. That's all. Personally, I eat low carb because I find it easier to maintain a deficit that way (in a post-babies, sleep deprived world). But before kids I easily lost almost 50 lbs just counting calories and only eating treats when I had room for them in my meal plan.

^^this^^
OP, it's only been a week. Commit to at least 6 weeks of a calorie deficit and see where that brings you.

Also, as pp have stated, one bad day can knock out your deficit for the week. How are you tracking your food? Are you using a food scale?

For me a lot of it is portion control. Instead of eating half the pizza, eat one slice with some veggies or other "healthy" food to help fill you up. Eat one cookie instead of six, you still get to enjoy the flavor. I don't prevent myself from eating any food, but I'm trying to learn that I can't eat as much of it as I used to. Also, I tend to eat too fast, so I find that I'm done with what I've allocated for lunch, I might still be hungry after eating it. But, if I wait about 15-20 minutes, the food catches up with my appetite and I realize I'm not hungry anymore.

Eat what you want BUT WEIGH IT with a food scale. Keep at it. You'll be fine.

It is a slow process, and getting used to lowered intake takes around a month. Try to be patient, do some meditation if it is bothering you mentally or emotionally. I won't lie, this is not easy and your weight will bounce up and down for no apparent reason. You will be looking for an overall downward trend. That's why tracking helps you know what's really going on, seeing the forest rather than the trees.

I technically have a 1500 call limit but I do various "cheats" to let me eat more: I take the stairs instead of the lift, walk to work instead of driving, do more structured exercise (running, yoga etc). Doing this extra activity means I am losing while eating around 1800 to 2000 call per day.

Other "cheats" include switching sweet sticky baked goods for sweet sticky fruit (current fave is pineapple). Eating slightly smaller portions of my favourite foods. Switching the cardboard sandwich from the cafeteria for a nice crisp cottage cheese salad with sweet potato (much tastier). I only eat food I love, so I don't waste my calories budget on tasteless calories. And then I can have the occasional sweet sticky cake.

The magic is already happening in your head. You logged your food, recognized your excesses, and measured the results of your excesses. You are already learning what to do. Be of good cheer. I had a disaster day last Thursday and piled on 4+ lb of water. It's gone now. It happens that way if you stay on the program for a few days longer than your interval of disaster days.