MFP doesn't work.

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Replies

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    1200 calories is not much food... what kinds of food are you eating? If you are seriously limiting yourself to only 1200 a day and not eating back some of your exercise calories, your body may be storing what it is offered because the body needs certain amounts of food to turn into ATP (energy) to keep the body functioning and to have energy to burn fat. it is is not getting protein rich foods with good fats and good carbs, it is going to hold on to what ever you have to offer it to use for energy to function.

    my advise.... INCREASE your calories to 1600, and eat good proteins and good fats and then see what happens. feed your body energy rich food so it can work with you not against you.

    ALSO... allow your self one day a week to splurge and boil over your calories. It gives you the change to not suppress your cravings, but it also gives your metabolism a boost and tricks your body. Holding at only 1200 calories your body starts to think it is starving itself and by splurging once a week I realizes it is not. And the good thing is, after you eat the craving foods and junk the first couple cheat days... you will see that you don't crave it near as much and it kinda makes you feel bogged down and you don't want it.

    I have a medical background, a fitness and nutrition instructor... so I am not just talking out of my *kitten*... :)

    Most of this is incorrect so I am very surprised that you are a nutrition instructor.

    I'm not, I have a "nutrition coach" on my FB. She sells Arbonne. 'Nuff said.

    Scary!
  • I think this post was a troll for Weight Watchers. No other interaction and no response. WW is losing people right and left because they are starving them. Their Smart Points (new program) averages about 800-1000 calories a day. Not healthy, not sustainable, not a life-style choice. The "new" plan is a retro diet proven not to work at those low calories because it's not sustainable in the long run and they push things most thinking people know are bad for you: artificial sweeteners, pre-packaged/highly processed food (theirs), diet sodas, etc. They also assign extremely high points values to foods most of us would consider normal and healthy parts of a balanced, clean diet.

    There are a lot of ex-WW people on here who have smartened up about the new program. Likely, MFP is hurting WW because MFP is free and supportive (and even VERY inexpensive if you pay for the premium membership), it's interface and dashboard are a lot friendlier, they keep all your data forever so you can always look back (even with a membership WW's diary info goes away after a couple of months), and it isn't $50 a month plus special foods.

    Wish I hadn't bothered with a response to her. Oh well. Got to read all of YOUR interesting comments! :)

    I'm experimenting with WW (it's not for me) but the part about starving isn't correct.

    I plug everything that I eat into WW and I get only about 32 to 40 smart points when my limit is 59.

    Mind you, I eat a 1500 to 1700 calorie diet.
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
    I had thought that... Who complains about wasting time on trying a free app? So weird.

    "...when I could have paid someone to tell me that my diet is dirty and wrong which is why I'll always fail and need to keep paying them to keep giving me help that won't work."

    I had doubts about the original post, but now this has me really thinking...

    That was part of her post? Or is that something you're writing?
  • ActivatedAlm0nds
    ActivatedAlm0nds Posts: 169 Member
    Weight Watchers is 50 a month? That's insane! No wonder people think it's impossible to lose.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    Worked for me! I'm 56 and went from 225 to 170 in about 8 months, and have kept it off for more than a year.
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    edited February 2017
    MEBaraszu wrote: »
    I am not going a calorie over. Extremely diligent. Not losing a pound in over 3 weeks. Angry I wasted time on a free program.

    All I can add is ... MFP is an assistive application ... just like when you logged your food into your Weight Watchers paper or online food diary. It is YOU who makes it work, not the other way around. IF you were losing 1 to 1.5 pounds each and every week on WW then you were eating-less/burning-up more about 500- 750 calories a day than your current body size needed to keep it that way. (consisitent calorie deficit is what it takes to lose weight.)

    Here's a suggestion ... Pull out/up one of your WW logs for a week and eat exactly the same, this time logging it as accurately as possible into MFP and see how many calories you are REALLY eating ... Cause that is what I did and it was a real eye opener for me. As a matter of fact, when I find 'the creep' of more food happening to me, I still pull out my old-time WW guidelines for meal plans ... back in the days I was a member it was you had to eat fish two times a week, liver one time a month, fill up on cabbage soup, etc.

  • FitGirl_Running
    FitGirl_Running Posts: 12 Member
    You are right. MFP doesn't work. Oh, you can lose weight using MFP, but your chances of keeping the weight off are slim. I've been on MFP for years. I've had significant weight loss but gained it all back. All my MFP friends have either gained their weight back or are still struggling along trying to lose. Until I realized that diets don't work, and that making weight loss a goal doesn't work, I didn't have any real success. Those of you who want to say that you lost weight on MFP so it does work---it doesn't work unless you keep the weight off, so show me someone who has. I'll bet they are few and far between. Focusing on weight loss, counting calories, and dieting is just a recipe for disaster.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    edited February 2017
    I've never done WW but I could see in one aspect how it would be easy to tally up points in your head since it's only 30 points or so. Counting calories while a better choice to me, it seems a bit tough to tally it in your head. Cuz you know big numbers:).

    Some people and I'll include myself would just like to eat and go about their day not having to weigh food or log food.

    Reality is though if I have to I will log!
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    katoom99 wrote: »
    Also...be careful on ONLY counting Calories! Good weight loss, you need to increase the amount of Protein that they say. I try to get 1 g of protein for EVERY pound of body weight.

    i could be wrong on the numbers slightly.. but isnt it .85g to 1g of protein for every pound of LEAN muscle mass you have? not weight in total

    Human Nutrition course book, current edition (as I'm enrolled in the class right now), gives 1.7 grams per kg as the absolute maximum "recommended" for athletes in the building muscle phase. Non-athletes have an RDA of 0.8 grams per kilo. 136 lb non-athlete me would get 49.5 grams, nowhere near 1 gram per pound. (Higher amounts "do not appear to be harmful" but not actually necessary, according to the textbook on the subject.)

    but is that lean muscle or total body weight because i have always thought it was lean muscle

    every site will give you something different. some will say lean body weight, some will say per body weight,another one said when you are losing weight 1g per lb of body weight and 1.7 or 1.8 when trying to build muscle.so I guess it varies. I did a macro calculator and to maintain muscle and lose fat it gives me 1g per lb of weight.
  • newheavensearth
    newheavensearth Posts: 870 Member
    You are right. MFP doesn't work. Oh, you can lose weight using MFP, but your chances of keeping the weight off are slim. I've been on MFP for years. I've had significant weight loss but gained it all back. All my MFP friends have either gained their weight back or are still struggling along trying to lose. Until I realized that diets don't work, and that making weight loss a goal doesn't work, I didn't have any real success. Those of you who want to say that you lost weight on MFP so it does work---it doesn't work unless you keep the weight off, so show me someone who has. I'll bet they are few and far between. Focusing on weight loss, counting calories, and dieting is just a recipe for disaster.

    Out of curiosity what are you doing? What's your plan?
    For myself I've lost on WW and MFP. I've been on WW the longest so most of my loss was from there, not because it was a better plan, simply because of time. And I've regained small amounts on both because I wasn't 100% on plan. Was it the plan's fault? No it was mine for goofing around. Regain happens to anyone regardless of plan. And there are plenty of people on WW telling their stories of how they lost big and regained big, so now they're back.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    You are right. MFP doesn't work. Oh, you can lose weight using MFP, but your chances of keeping the weight off are slim. I've been on MFP for years. I've had significant weight loss but gained it all back. All my MFP friends have either gained their weight back or are still struggling along trying to lose. Until I realized that diets don't work, and that making weight loss a goal doesn't work, I didn't have any real success. Those of you who want to say that you lost weight on MFP so it does work---it doesn't work unless you keep the weight off, so show me someone who has. I'll bet they are few and far between. Focusing on weight loss, counting calories, and dieting is just a recipe for disaster.

    Ive been on MFP almost 3 years and have not gained any of the weight I lost back(except for water weight),not even what I lost the 2 years before I joined MFP. when you get to goal weight you then have to find the right way to maintain your weight, if you go back to eating the way you did before you lost then yes you will gain weight back. if you eat more than you burn you gain, if you eat less you lose,if you eat the same you maintain. its that easy. I also know that if I have to weigh everything for the rest of my life I will do that if it prevents me from gaining weight back.losing weight and keeping it off is a lifestyle. you have to adapt to your lifestyle.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    1200 calories is not much food... what kinds of food are you eating? If you are seriously limiting yourself to only 1200 a day and not eating back some of your exercise calories, your body may be storing what it is offered because the body needs certain amounts of food to turn into ATP (energy) to keep the body functioning and to have energy to burn fat. it is is not getting protein rich foods with good fats and good carbs, it is going to hold on to what ever you have to offer it to use for energy to function.

    my advise.... INCREASE your calories to 1600, and eat good proteins and good fats and then see what happens. feed your body energy rich food so it can work with you not against you.

    ALSO... allow your self one day a week to splurge and boil over your calories. It gives you the change to not suppress your cravings, but it also gives your metabolism a boost and tricks your body. Holding at only 1200 calories your body starts to think it is starving itself and by splurging once a week I realizes it is not. And the good thing is, after you eat the craving foods and junk the first couple cheat days... you will see that you don't crave it near as much and it kinda makes you feel bogged down and you don't want it.

    I have a medical background, a fitness and nutrition instructor... so I am not just talking out of my *kitten*... :)

    Most of this is incorrect so I am very surprised that you are a nutrition instructor.

    I'm not, I have a "nutrition coach" on my FB. She sells Arbonne. 'Nuff said.

    Me too.
  • jjohnstonlni
    jjohnstonlni Posts: 42 Member
    It works in general, if it's not specifically working for you make adjustments. You may need more or less calories to get off the plateau you're sitting on. I have to make adjustments on a regular basis to get results.
This discussion has been closed.