Love the idea of my new diet being "eat more"
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Ya, daily weigh-ins are mostly noise of water fluctuations.
If you are going to do that - you need at minimum 30 days to see a trend through the noise.
In which case weigh yourself 4-6 x daily so you can exactly how useless the number is when it's too frequent.
I think it's all about what works for you, psychologically speaking. Personally, I need the daily weigh in so that I can ignore it. If I only weighed weekly or monthly, it would feel like the number "mattered". But seeing fluctuations every day numbs me to them. Stand on the scale, log the number, move on. Only pay attention to longterm trends.4 -
I like daily weight-ins, but I have to balance them with measurements or I start to freak out when they go up (as they have been for the past couple of weeks).
I am doing really good with this philosophy of eating to fuel - though I have gained weight, I did not resort to cutting or overeating. I simply note that next week I may need to go down in calories again to not be over my TDEE.
I took yesterday off logging to eat cake and ice cream (and whatever else I wanted hehe) and go to the movies in the start of my Birthday week, and I am so unused to eating carbs/sugar without protein that it made me pretty nauseated. My sugar cravings are pretty much gone. The bonus was I did not feel guilty or out of control and I just went right back to eating normally this morning. Plus I do not feel like I am getting any bigger - my clothes still fit the same, my measurements are the same and I feel good physically.
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Happy Birthday!
Isn't it great how our bodies crave good food after awhile?! Once you get into the habit of eating protein it becomes a priority even when you're indulging in party food. I think it's great because it helps us maintain some balance.
Enjoy the birthday celebrations.
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Thank you!0
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Unrelated topic... Why on earth do I read the general forums - the advice people give to those struggling is so bad "Eat less" "You must be cheating or not logging right or not working out hard enough" " You are an adult you need to just stop eating" etc... It all seems to be so mean and judgmental, and wrong. I love this forum!!
OK - back to this thread. So I swear someone is turning my scale up. I am up 4 lbs this week (no measurement gain though, except perhaps 0.5" at my belly button which is so hard to measure accurately). I know some of it is TOM stuff but that is usually only a couple of pounds for me.
Overall its been a stressful week. Lost one of my fur babies on Monday to unexpected prostate cancer - He was acting like he had a UTI - then a bowel issue and it turned out he had silent cancer that grew and blocked off everything, so we had him euthanized before he had to endure even more pain. He would've been 10 next month. I wanted to skip eating that day, but I watched my macros, ate and managed to get to karate class too.
Sunday was a busy non-logging day but I estimate I stayed pretty much within my 2550 goal, though my macros were terribad (too many carbs). Yesterday was a good day working out and eating, but after I got home from working out I wanted to eat more. I stayed around my 2550 though without much effort.
Monday was also my quarterly doctor appointment - I have a some form of degenerative/inflammatory arthritis (my mom had Ankylosing Spondylitis - so this is the most likely cause - especially since it started in my sacroiliac region), however it was a good visit because I was able to tell him how much better I was doing increasing my calories. He said to still be careful of sugar - it will make the inflammation worse. We decided that the Cataflam I am taking along with my new eating plan and continued exercise is the best course of treatment since I am doing really well with it.
Tuesday was a nice solid day of eating almost perfect macros and a good work out with a little bit of everything (cardio, strength and stretching).
So after extra sugar on Sunday, with birthday cake and ice cream(which usually causes me to gain a few lbs of water) then 2 days of good macros I expected to see a little dip in the scale and instead it was up again. Today is my birthday so I ate a smaller than normal breakfast (which honestly filled me up easily so it am not restricting what I want) so I can have a nice birthday lunch with the hubby.
Over all I am just trying not to panic and drop my calories down. I feel really good physically (though still a bit ragged emotionally, but that will pass), my afternoon sleepiness has disappeared, workouts are easy, the arthritis pain is easily managed with a low dose of my arthritis meds, and I am really enjoying eating again. I will be doing my weekly thing tomorrow and its looking like I will be dropping my calories down another 100 per week, which I am not really looking forward to LOL.
Does this sound like I am still on the right track?0 -
So sorry to hear about the stresses piling in at once - there's some water weight BTW possible.
But you appear to be adjusting when you can when you know you'll need it (light breakfast for cake), or as prior comments show, eating less when you are doing less.
I'd even suggest if you know you have a really big day coming up, 100 less the day before and after for an extra 200-400 on some day is even a good balance.
That ability to adjust as needed is what will serve you well as you continue.1 -
That's a really great idea - think of it as weekly instead of daily.1
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The idea of TDEE method is literally weekly average already.
Literally - some days you are eating under TDEE, some days over TDEE.
When eating in deficit, some days are eating at maintenance, some days eating bigger than you think deficit.
Depends on frequency of workouts, and calorie burn for them on those days, as to how big that difference is.2 -
I am guessing MFP is pretty much right on that my daily regular burn is around 2250 so I actually start my diary there and then add in exercise, it does work out really well once I average it out for the week. I am just happy that I can eat over 2000 calories a day when I was trying before to stay at 1600-1700. No wonder I couldn't keep it up!
Once I hit my stable TDEE point I will look at cutting - though I am in no hurry to do so - enjoying food too much right now LOL.0 -
Yeah, reading the general formus is hard work. There also seems to be a few people who have clearly been on MFP forever and a day and have made about 20,000 posts, so their advice seems credibile and seems like it is worth listening to. The deception is often not in the advice itself, but in the lack of detial in the advice...
"How do I lose weight?"
"1. Eat less. Move more"
"How much less?"
"2. Here's a calculator. Put some numbers in it and it will tell you"
"I'm not losing weight. Why?"
"3. Simple. You must be eating more than you burn"
"How do I know how much I burn?"
"4. Refer step 2"
The advice is not completely wrong, its just very inadequate. Should be:
"How do I lose weight?"
"Take time to figure out how much you as an individual actually need to maintain your current weight. When you are confident you have figured that out, eat less. Move more so that you build muscle"
"How much less?"
"A reasonable amount less - nothing drastic. Here's a calculator. Put some numbers in it and it will give you a very rough guide. Every person is different - the calculator is a guide only but will give you a place to start."
"I'm not losing weight. Why?"
"It's not simple. You may be eating more than you burn, but there is a whole host of other reasons. It takes time. Be patient. Look at other measurement tools apart from the scale - it is actually working if other things have moved or changed apart from the scale."
Sorry to hear you ahve been through a rough patch.You're doing really well and it is encouraging to see you stick with what you have learned. The other stressors play a big part so what a great achievement for you - to recognise those stressors and not let them derail you!!
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Stay out of the regular forums. Lol... surround yourself with like-minded people and it makes the process go a lot smoother and easier. When you allow the diet mentality into your head, its hard to get out, and the main forums are full of diet mentality. Walk away:)
Kelly
Team EM2WL1 -
I haven't been in the main forums for years! Not got time for that! Like Kelly says, surround yourself with people who are on the same path as you. Readjust your social media to reflect the same things too.
And, all of the extra stress you are going through will also give you a spike in cortisol which equals, yup, you guessed it, weight gain!
Ichel
Team EM2WL0 -
I am actually adrenal insufficient - so my cortisol levels don't go up, I just crash with no energy. I have to supplement to even get them to adequate. I do stress dose a little bit to keep from winding up in bed, but just enough to bring me up to my normal level, not enough to cause the weight gain I have been seeing this week.
On That note:
Week 6 check in:
Fitbit TDEE: 2505 (swapped to logging exercise in MFP with fitbit numbers so it adds the exercise in)
EM2WL Moderate TDEE: 2519
MFP Base: 2290 MFP With exercise: 2575
Daily goal last week: 2550
Actual Calories eaten avg per day:2673
Starting Weight: 197.8
Last week 200.9
Today's weight 205
4 lb gain this week and 7.2 lbs over 2 weeks - probably 3 of it is water from TOM. Some of it is for sure muscle, but I have been overeating as well, so some of it is fat.
Time to lower again and eat at the TDEE that seems to have converged with all my calculations to about 2500. So glad I did it this way - now I KNOW how much I can really eat before I start to gain steadily. I was also right about how much extra I was burning from my 2 overly active weeks as well. So I am good as estimating what my calorie intake needs to be.
So moving down my goal to 2500 a day for this next week, it was 2550 for last week and I over ate with birthday celebrations. I admit I have been going wild with food consumption and it has been fun LOL. Lets hope the water goes as well as the inches gained over this next week and I can settle in at 2500 for a bit before I think about a cut. Continuing on with the macro goals as well and still need to add in more veggies and eat less sugar.
Kelly1 -
Week 7 check in (Wow has it really been that long!):
Fitbit TDEE: 2457
EM2WL Moderate TDEE: 2501
MFP Base: 2240 MFP TDEE (With exercise): 2562
Daily goal last week: 2550
Actual Calories eaten avg per day:2540 - YAY finally hit my goal and my macros were right on track all but Sat and Sunday.
Starting Weight: 197.8
Last week 205
Today's weight 202.4
2.6 lbs of water loss this week and 4.6 lb gain overall - no change in measurements. So hopefully that was muscle gain.
NSV - I can feel the muscle under the fat now my body feels firmer instead of soft, continued energy when working out - even when my joints are aching.
This week felt like a cut and was actually a bit of a struggle. Mostly because I way overdid it on the weekend and had to cut the rest of the days to make up for it (@heybales - thanks for the tip about that!!). I am still not interested in cutting (well I want to lose some fat but I am enjoying eating far too much). This week was also a HUGE arthritis flare and I (still) hurt a lot and craved carbs for the fatigue the pain causes. So that makes the victory of staying at TDEE and keeping good macros even better.
Since this is a holiday weekend I am going to shoot to stay at TDEE with 2550 cals per day. That will give me some wiggle room to overeat at my family Easter dinner on Saturday night.
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The nice thing about deficit eating - it doesn't have to be done day after day to have an effect of fat loss.
Like the study on the 5:2 diet showed great success and improvement to health markers, it was 5 days no deficit at all - only 2 days on deficit.
So you could pick your very active days where you'll have plenty to eat anyway, and eat less on those days.
Other days could be at TDEE.
14 days of 250 cal deficit is 1 lb fat loss - whether that takes 14 days to accomplish, or 4 or 8 weeks.3 -
That makes the idea of cutting seem much less agonizing LOL. Right now the thought of going back to lower calories seems terrible. But some days cut, some days at TDEE, I can do that in fact I did this past week and it wasn't terrible! What that would really involve is cutting out the days I go over TDEE and keeping the slightly under ones. I have a really bad habit of overeating on the weekends, conquering that would go a long way toward being able to cut more easily.1
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Yes. Make it your own. If you know the weekends are a bit higher in cals, then adjust your week a bit to make the bit of difference. This is your life, and not everyone will fit into a cookie cutter cutting mold:)
Kelly
Team EM2WL3 -
I am worried that when I actually cut, it's going to be rough because I tend to REALLY over do it on the weekends lately. I need to figure out a way to get that under control. Planning doesn't seem to help much, I always break the plans.0
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Take it step by step. Focus on the one thing that would make the biggest difference right now. Planning the weekends can be hard for sure. Kelly's suggestion on adjusting your weekly cals and macros to give some leeway for the weekend is a good idea. Do you overdo because you are bored, having fun, eating out, drinking? Enjoying the weekend is a must, but make sure you are truly enjoying and not just being stuck in habits.
Tereza
Team EM2WL Certified Personal Trainer and Coach0 -
I am already adjusting the weekdays to cover the weekends - which is why it will be torture once I decide to actually cut LOL. Lately it has been eating out and holidays and birthdays with my favorite goodies. Some from having fun - some from walking by the goodies too many times, or just wanting to try everything. All the overeating is done when I am not hungry - so there is some left over element of "eating it while it is there" left over from the diet mentality.
Some of it I just need to remove from sight - then I do better. And hopefully the weekends will be more normal coming up and I can at least have one TDEE day instead of two way over days.
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