Very frustrated!

skinnyfatty1983 wrote: »

3bambi3 wrote: »

skinnyfatty1983 wrote: »

ashliedelgado wrote: »

lol @skinnyfatty1983, hit the success stories board and you'll see lots of people who do just that!

they should write a book to transform with dirty foods...amazing wow

You mean like this guy?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10348650/cico-still-skeptical-come-inside-for-a-meticulous-log-that-proves-it/p1

You really are misinformed. It doesn't matter how 'clean' you eat. If you eat over your maintenance calories, you will gain fat.

Clean eating is not important ... ok understood. I just dont understand how junk food can build muscles and is better than clean food??? sorry

Building muscle is achieved by eating in a surplus while lifting on a progressive program.

Eating in a surplus can be chicken breast, broccoli, rice, pizza, burgers or chocolate.....as long as it's a surplus.

Please stop with the "junk" or "clean" food. It's just food.

Well, obviously we will have disagreement here about whether food is food. I am one that believes the closer a food is to its' natural form the better it is for you. I get the other viewpoint also ... in that "a calorie is a calorie" ... I USED to believe that also. Not anymore. Lays potato chips have a different effect on the hormones in your body than an equivalent caloric intake of greens with an olive oil/balsamic vinaigrette. They do ... really. We have been mislead over the HEALTH effects of added sugar/processed foods since the 1970's and the low-fat craze. It has led to skyrocketing obesity, metabolic syndrome, and many "fat" skinny people.

(I know, I know .... blast away. But you will notice the subject is being broached again by nutritionists, scientists, researchers, and doctors that have been confounded by the results of the low-fat, free-for-all "added sugar" in our diets and our continuing societal health decline.)

And I do agree that if you eat more calories, even if they ARE cleaner foods, you WILL gain weight. But those pesky hormones ... if you can eat as a new way of life instead of being ruled by cravings and thoughts of food ... an obsession with food ... well, that's what I'm looking for. Losing weight but still craving crap is something I would like to get over at the ripe old age of 55. I have been eating low carb, keto for three weeks and the cravings ARE better. (I have been "addicted" to potato chips, crackers, pretzels, pizza since my youth.) I have not had a chip, pretzel, cracker, french fry etc., I'm down 5 pounds, and I am feeling pretty good.

And I highly recommend checking out dietdoctor.com to take a 2 week keto challenge. (It's free.)

eating so few calories can result in making your metabolism slower. make sure your getting adequate protein and fibre rich carbs like broccoli. I have always had problems loosing weight until I started counting my macros. now I'm on week 8 of loosing a pound a week eating more than 60g of carbs a day! and not only "healthy" forms of carbs. I ate two donuts last week and still lost 1.3lbs. also make sure your on top of your water game.

roughmatch wrote: »

Lays potato chips have a different effect on the hormones in your body than an equivalent caloric intake of greens with an olive oil/balsamic vinaigrette.

Lay's are my go to snack after my Long Run on Sundays. The best of everything! Sodium (80s here in texas, need lots of salt when running) and Potassium!! Followed shortly by some type a protein. They make me happy which has to help my hormones, not stress me out which is bad for my hormones.

I love a salad too. I make room for all of it in my diet!!

I feel your pain. As we age, we lose lean muscle mass. This lowers our metabolism. I am post-menopause and this is also happening to me. I am going on 4 weeks and have only lost 3.5 pounds despite sticking to my calories and exercise routines. May I suggest weight lifting twice a week to maintain, and possibly increase, your muscle mass? Continue to calorie count and to eat a healthy diet, look into a plant based diet as a possibility. After 30 days revisit the scale. Create a lifestyle that you are happy with calorie and activity wise. You will see at least a good portion of the 58 pounds disappear. But the key is to live the life that makes it permanently gone. Eating a whole foods plant based diet will help keep it gone permanently. All the best to you!

rainbowbow wrote: »

Listen, Listen... You are making this way more complicated than it has to be. Your mindset of assuming failure before you've even begun is not going to be doing you any favors. You thinking you're going to accomplish even DIDDLY SQUAT in a couple weeks is setting you up for failure. Comparing yourself to others isn't going to be doing you any favors. Trying to follow every piece of BS advice (meal timing, low carbs, no artificial sweeteners,etc.) isn't going to be doing you any favors.

I would go ahead and sit down and take a long look at how you got to where you are. Think seriously about this. Was it your lack of activity? Was it you not having any idea how many calories you were eating? Was it consistently overeating? Was it alcohol?

From there you need to set SMART goals.

• Specific: Vague goals such as “I want to lose weight”, “i want to tone up”, etc. will never lead you to success. Instead, pick very specific goals such as “i will lose 5 pounds in 30 days”, “I want to have a BMI of 20”, or “I want to be 18% body fat”.
• Measurable: Once you have your specific goal you need to ensure that your goal is measurable. How will you track your progress? Will you weigh yourself, reevaluate your BMI, use calipers to measure your body fat? If so, when? What schedule are you going to implement in order to ensure you are on track?
• Attainable: Can your goal actually be accomplished? For example, can you actually achieve the body of your dreams with diet and exercise? This is very important as often we set an unattainable aesthetic goal that does not actually reflect our capabilities due to our height, body shape, or genetics.
• Realistic: Is your goal realistic? Can you actually eat the calorie goal needed to lose “x”pounds in “x”time? Is it realistic to expect yourself to stick to these changes? Is it realistic to expect an increase in strength or weight loss within the time you’ve set for yourself? (I.E. losing 30 pounds in 30 days would be unrealistic) In order to reach your goals you must be able to stick to this plan and this is something only you can decide.
• Timely: How long is this going to take? If you started right now, how long would it take for you to reach your goals? How often are you going to re-evaluate this goal and make sure you’re on track? How long do you plan on using training services?

A general rule of thumb is you can lose UP TO 1% total of your body weight per week if you're overweight or obese and about .5% of your body weight per week if you're within a healthy range. Even then, you want to look at the realistic and timely aspect and set a goal that you can actually stick to. Who gives a crap if you can lose the weight in 6 months vs. a year if you can't maintain your loss long-term anyway?

THEN-

1. Set you calorie goal.
   
2. Track your foods with accurate measurements (weight for solids via a scale and in ML for liquids).
   
3. Eat the foods you know, love, and can maintain long term that allow you to stick to your calorie goal. You can take a multivitamin to ensure you're meeting your nutritional needs. You can experiment with eating the foods you love and finding calories for them, if they are too calorie dense you can try and emulate these foods with lower calorie options, if they are WAY too calorie dense or you have problems controlling yourself eliminate these foods entirely.
   
4. Find an exercise regimen that includes resistance, endurance, cardio, and functional training for a healthy body, heart, bones, and muscle mass over time. This is especially important as a woman as we have great risks for osteoporosis.

That's it. It's simple. Don't waste your time trying to follow trends, fads,

@rainbowbow Absolute brilliance in posting.

OP - print this out and tape this to the fridge.

To share my own story when I started MFP I dealt with a lot of the same challenges and unloading of years of misinformation. I was 277 lbs when I started and lost 4 lbs some weeks, gained 2 lbs some weeks, but over time generally averaged ~1 lb/week and was down 60 lbs over the course of a year. Please don't use this as comparison, but only to show that weight loss is not linear. My water weight alone fluctuates ~5 lbs/day. Like many I started thinking I needed to eat "clean", but found that over time this simply was not sustainable. I utilized the SMART goal system and instead identified my eating trends and modified these to support my fitness goals.

The key to all of this is to build awareness. You start by identifying your calorie budget, then logging to understand what it is to manage a budget, just as you would managing your checkbook. Over time you'll identify bad habits that detract from your goals and replace these with good habits that support your goals.

@rainbowbow that is Great advice!