TIPS PLEASE!!!: How to Properly Enter Caloric Deficit to Lose Weight
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kshama2001 wrote: »First thread, here we go!(:
You know the typical story of "I just don't have time to go to the gym". Well, during the week I am living proof that this statement can sometimes be true. I work a 7-5 stressful job, get home at 6, then babysit until 10:30 at night, shower, and repeat. I've tried taking them to my gym, Anytime Fitness, but no ones allowed in without a membership past 8, but more importantly than that, they don't allow kids.
So what do I do? Try to work out on weekends, of course! But, more often than not, I'm stuck shopping and taking care of normal every-day things I'm not able to do during the week because of my schedule. I also do not have the opportunity to go to bed early enough during the week to be able to wake up and work out in the morning.
So, the big question: with a white-collar office job, not having a whole lot of activity, and averaging about 1 trip to the gym a week, how can I still lose weight?? I follow what I think is a pretty good diet ( reference open diary pleasec: ) and try to stay as low on calories as possible because I am aware of my situation... ANY and all advise is much appreciated
I need to ask one quick question first - you said "babysit" so I assume they are not your kids? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Not my kids, correct! xD 4 of a parent that goes to my church xD0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Op please eat more than 1200 cals if you are 275 lbs. I was losing 3 lbs a week (too much,) last year at 252 eating 1800 cals a day without any purposeful exercise. Also with 4 kids (me to) it's impossible to be sedentary.
I ate 999 yesterday but I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods I can eat without wrecking my nutrition goals for the day... I have no balance yet... I need more protein most days and more fats than carbs, but idk what foods I can substitute/add on to make this happen...
MFP does a lousy job explaining this. Your macros are targets. It's ok to go over them. (It's also ok to manually adjust them for ratios that work better for you.) The thing to not go over is the calorie goal. However, at 1200 calories with your stats, your calorie goal is too low.
If you want more protein and fat, one easy way to accomplish that is with red meat. (Unless you are vegetarian or vegan - please advise if this is the case.)
Also yeah, I figured, I just like to get as close as possible and with trying to add things to my diet I figured might as well tailor them as closely as possible to what my macros are for each day!(: I just dont want to go over my allotted fat, sodium, sugar, I am very conscious of that.. But like I said, I need to try and be looser on the reins and then let time tell.. and no, not vegan/vegetarian, I've been eating 93/7 in wraps for little while now but I usually load up with veggies and try to skimp on the meat.. Maybe I could make them more like burritos and have a salad on the side to get my veggies in... Hmm... Thanks a lot for your input(:0 -
Easy sources of protein:
meats
dairy
beans
Easy sources of fat:
avocado (add some to a salad or sandwich)
cook with olive oil
nuts, nut butters
Also on fat, if you're using low fat/no fat dairy, return to 2% or full fat varieties.
Think of it this way: Your goal is not to eat as little as possible and still be able to function. That would be a pretty dismal threshold. Instead consider that you want to be able to eat as much food as possible, while still eating at a reasonable deficit, so that you can thrive. Thriving vs barely functioning. Sounds like an easy choice, I hope, when put this way.
The reasonable deficit part, of course, will vary from person to person. At 275 pounds your body uses a lot of energy and would do so even if you were to not get out of bed ever. That is why you can eat 1600-1700 calories, without exercise and lose weight.
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kshama2001 wrote: »Op please eat more than 1200 cals if you are 275 lbs. I was losing 3 lbs a week (too much,) last year at 252 eating 1800 cals a day without any purposeful exercise. Also with 4 kids (me to) it's impossible to be sedentary.
I ate 999 yesterday but I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods I can eat without wrecking my nutrition goals for the day... I have no balance yet... I need more protein most days and more fats than carbs, but idk what foods I can substitute/add on to make this happen...
MFP does a lousy job explaining this. Your macros are targets. It's ok to go over them. (It's also ok to manually adjust them for ratios that work better for you.) The thing to not go over is the calorie goal. However, at 1200 calories with your stats, your calorie goal is too low.
If you want more protein and fat, one easy way to accomplish that is with red meat. (Unless you are vegetarian or vegan - please advise if this is the case.)
Also yeah, I figured, I just like to get as close as possible and with trying to add things to my diet I figured might as well tailor them as closely as possible to what my macros are for each day!(: I just dont want to go over my allotted fat, sodium, sugar, I am very conscious of that.. But like I said, I need to try and be looser on the reins and then let time tell.. and no, not vegan/vegetarian, I've been eating 93/7 in wraps for little while now but I usually load up with veggies and try to skimp on the meat.. Maybe I could make them more like burritos and have a salad on the side to get my veggies in... Hmm... Thanks a lot for your input(:
Unless your doctor has specifically told you to restrict sodium, don't stress over the sodium goals. Research suggests that the current USDA goals are too low by half - sodium as low as they suggest was actually associated with HIGHER mortality, and no increase in mortality was seen until about three times their recommendation.1 -
StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Easy sources of protein:
meats
dairy
beans
Easy sources of fat:
avocado (add some to a salad or sandwich)
cook with olive oil
nuts, nut butters
Also on fat, if you're using low fat/no fat dairy, return to 2% or full fat varieties.
Think of it this way: Your goal is not to eat as little as possible and still be able to function. That would be a pretty dismal threshold. Instead consider that you want to be able to eat as much food as possible, while still eating at a reasonable deficit, so that you can thrive. Thriving vs barely functioning. Sounds like an easy choice, I hope, when put this way.
The reasonable deficit part, of course, will vary from person to person. At 275 pounds your body uses a lot of energy and would do so even if you were to not get out of bed ever. That is why you can eat 1600-1700 calories, without exercise and lose weight.
Boy you are just awesome xD on top of it(: I've been using almond products and low fat cheeses, along with low fat pretty much all products, and even cut out my beloved peanut butter because I thought it had too much:c I dont use milk but for cereal really, so I'll switch to 2% and get my peanut butter back and I'll see where that leads me and change more if/when necessary... That is a better way to look at is... I just have a very delicate loss/gain threshold and I dont want to go the wrong direction for the life of me... When I lose, I lose a lot fast and feel great but when I gain it happens just as fast and I get super depressed Dx All part of changing my attitude and looking at this differently though, this among all the other pieces of advice you have given me truly helps a lot(:
Also, I think thats also why I'm so confused... Because idk if I've ever ate more than my BMR calories a day to gain weight... Obviously to gain this type of weight youd think I would be able to look back and say "wow, I did eat a lot back then" but I really dont understand how what I ate translated to me being this way (granted, ik deep down this is stupid because the only way you gain weight is by eating food, and I'm no exception, but I just thought it was interesting/curious that I cant reasonably look back and be like "theres my problem, I was eating too much then"... just mindlessly ate I suppose... Anywho, it makes me worried ALL the time because I think I'm gaining weight with everything I eat and then I dont move to work it off... and I've realized this is probably why I dont want to eat more than I do now :c ... But now that ik this the top priority is to move passed it and believe that I can eat more and be successful at the end of the day...)0 -
rheddmobile wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »Op please eat more than 1200 cals if you are 275 lbs. I was losing 3 lbs a week (too much,) last year at 252 eating 1800 cals a day without any purposeful exercise. Also with 4 kids (me to) it's impossible to be sedentary.
I ate 999 yesterday but I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods I can eat without wrecking my nutrition goals for the day... I have no balance yet... I need more protein most days and more fats than carbs, but idk what foods I can substitute/add on to make this happen...
MFP does a lousy job explaining this. Your macros are targets. It's ok to go over them. (It's also ok to manually adjust them for ratios that work better for you.) The thing to not go over is the calorie goal. However, at 1200 calories with your stats, your calorie goal is too low.
If you want more protein and fat, one easy way to accomplish that is with red meat. (Unless you are vegetarian or vegan - please advise if this is the case.)
Also yeah, I figured, I just like to get as close as possible and with trying to add things to my diet I figured might as well tailor them as closely as possible to what my macros are for each day!(: I just dont want to go over my allotted fat, sodium, sugar, I am very conscious of that.. But like I said, I need to try and be looser on the reins and then let time tell.. and no, not vegan/vegetarian, I've been eating 93/7 in wraps for little while now but I usually load up with veggies and try to skimp on the meat.. Maybe I could make them more like burritos and have a salad on the side to get my veggies in... Hmm... Thanks a lot for your input(:
Unless your doctor has specifically told you to restrict sodium, don't stress over the sodium goals. Research suggests that the current USDA goals are too low by half - sodium as low as they suggest was actually associated with HIGHER mortality, and no increase in mortality was seen until about three times their recommendation.
Very, very interesting... thats the one I usually stress the most over, next to fat and sugar xD I'll keep that in mind(:0 -
rheddmobile wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »Op please eat more than 1200 cals if you are 275 lbs. I was losing 3 lbs a week (too much,) last year at 252 eating 1800 cals a day without any purposeful exercise. Also with 4 kids (me to) it's impossible to be sedentary.
I ate 999 yesterday but I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods I can eat without wrecking my nutrition goals for the day... I have no balance yet... I need more protein most days and more fats than carbs, but idk what foods I can substitute/add on to make this happen...
MFP does a lousy job explaining this. Your macros are targets. It's ok to go over them. (It's also ok to manually adjust them for ratios that work better for you.) The thing to not go over is the calorie goal. However, at 1200 calories with your stats, your calorie goal is too low.
If you want more protein and fat, one easy way to accomplish that is with red meat. (Unless you are vegetarian or vegan - please advise if this is the case.)
Also yeah, I figured, I just like to get as close as possible and with trying to add things to my diet I figured might as well tailor them as closely as possible to what my macros are for each day!(: I just dont want to go over my allotted fat, sodium, sugar, I am very conscious of that.. But like I said, I need to try and be looser on the reins and then let time tell.. and no, not vegan/vegetarian, I've been eating 93/7 in wraps for little while now but I usually load up with veggies and try to skimp on the meat.. Maybe I could make them more like burritos and have a salad on the side to get my veggies in... Hmm... Thanks a lot for your input(:
Unless your doctor has specifically told you to restrict sodium, don't stress over the sodium goals. Research suggests that the current USDA goals are too low by half - sodium as low as they suggest was actually associated with HIGHER mortality, and no increase in mortality was seen until about three times their recommendation.
Very, very interesting... thats the one I usually stress the most over, next to fat and sugar xD I'll keep that in mind(:
Same with sugar unless you have a medical reason to restrict it, don't panic if you're slightly over. Fat also doesn't make you fat, you don't have to do low fat to lose weight, it's just about finding the macro split that suits you for nutritional balance and feeling full. If you're looking to include more calorie dense foods there's a good list here (although not the intention of the article
) http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/most-deceiving-foods-they-have-more-calories-you-think 1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Op please eat more than 1200 cals if you are 275 lbs. I was losing 3 lbs a week (too much,) last year at 252 eating 1800 cals a day without any purposeful exercise. Also with 4 kids (me to) it's impossible to be sedentary.
I ate 999 yesterday but I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods I can eat without wrecking my nutrition goals for the day... I have no balance yet... I need more protein most days and more fats than carbs, but idk what foods I can substitute/add on to make this happen...
MFP does a lousy job explaining this. Your macros are targets. It's ok to go over them. (It's also ok to manually adjust them for ratios that work better for you.) The thing to not go over is the calorie goal. However, at 1200 calories with your stats, your calorie goal is too low.
If you want more protein and fat, one easy way to accomplish that is with red meat. (Unless you are vegetarian or vegan - please advise if this is the case.)
Also yeah, I figured, I just like to get as close as possible and with trying to add things to my diet I figured might as well tailor them as closely as possible to what my macros are for each day!(: I just dont want to go over my allotted fat, sodium, sugar, I am very conscious of that.. But like I said, I need to try and be looser on the reins and then let time tell.. and no, not vegan/vegetarian, I've been eating 93/7 in wraps for little while now but I usually load up with veggies and try to skimp on the meat.. Maybe I could make them more like burritos and have a salad on the side to get my veggies in... Hmm... Thanks a lot for your input(:
Many of us swap out Sodium and Sugar for nutrients that are more useful for us to track. For me, it's Fiber, as this is very important for me to feel full, and Iron, because I'm anemic. Lots of others here track Fiber instead of one of the S's as well.
And again, Fat is a target. It's ok to go over it. Unfortunately, MFP shows going over in red, which leads to this confusion.2 -
I agree that sodium, sugar are not worth stressing over unless you have medical reasons to limit them. History of high blood pressure or heart disease in the family? If so, then eating less processed food, making more food yourself, will be a method to limit sodium. Almost everything on the grocery aisles (the stuff in boxes, jars, cans that does not need to be refrigerated) will be high sodium. That is part of why it can sit on the grocery aisle and then in your pantry for weeks/months without going bad.
Unfortunately it is easy to eat/drink a lot of calories if you're not paying attention. And I'd wager a guess that most/all of us that ended up overweight: were not paying attention. A 'cup' of ice cream for example is not much food and is easily 500 calories. Sodas, teas, juices have plenty of calories. Typical fast food can easily be 1000 calories for a meal, and again: not much food. I ate a sausage biscuit for breakfast yesterday from a local convenience store that was almost 500 calories. Today, had a frozen turkey sausage-potato-egg white bowl that was just as filling for 230.0 -
I agree with what posts I read. The year before I came on here seriously, I must have set an account up and entered my, then, current weight. My doctor was pretty insistent I needed to do something. The following summer, I decided to get serious about life style changes and loosing weight. I came on here again and in that year or so had already lost 23 pounds! I can't say I did much formal exercise other than walks with my dog every other day for about 15 minutes and I definitely wasn't "counting" calories. I just knew I needed to eat less and with the small amount of added movement, that even did something when I wasn't aware. Don't get so focused on the result; just keep moving and watch your food intake. If you do not have a means to weigh your food, here is a guide on getting a rough estimate of how much food you have based on size. http://www.livestrong.com/article/248298-how-to-calculate-food-portions-without-a-scale/ Hope this helps.1
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Dianetheinvincible wrote: »I'm a little bit confused by your question--when you set up MyFitnessPal, it generates a calorie goal for you. Do you not trust their calculation?
I agree with others that making sure your food entries are really accurate is super important. Using a scale is super helpful. They are cheap on Amazon or I bought one at a local discount store, Grocery Outlet.
I also agree with others that you can 1) increase your daily non-"exercise" activity, such as taking stairs whenever possible, and walking more (for example, park farther away from your destination so you have to walk a little bit more), playing more active games with the kids you're babysitting, etc. You can also do some stretches and isometric-type exercises at your desk (just Google for some ideas).
Also agree with those who suggested working out at home. Workout videos on YouTube are free. You can also Google some exercises and choose a few that appeal to you and start making them a habit.
Don't be too aggressive with your goals. It took time to put the weight on, and it will take time to take it off again. Just be diligent and really experience your successes, when you see you've lost a pound or two, give yourself credit for that and let it motivate you. Rather than focusing on how many pounds you still have to lose, and letting it depress you (and possibly lead to giving up or binging or blowing off keeping up your MyFitnessPal entries).
My final suggestion for you is take it a little easier on yourself. We all have our challenges, and everyone here obviously has challenges with food, so it's not like you are some kind of freak or defective human being. There are reasons we are where we are. Remember that so you don't feel like you need to get down on yourself!!!!
Got a scale yesterday(: and I doubted the goal because It was saying 1,640 calories for a person who sits in an office all day doing nothing.. and the more and more I cut down to try and lose weight, the more I noticed I didnt need all of the food I was consuming: I felt fine without it and now if just feels normal not to eat unless I'm hungry, I'll eat until the feeling goes away and then I'll stop... Thats why I set my goal lower, but with the advice I've received on this thread, I'm going to work on finding more calorie-dense foods that wont destroy my nutrition goals each day... Yeah, great advise, I'm going to start making daily goals that I can either carry out with the kids or with the dog to be a little bit more active | or a food goal to eat more nutritious foods... Also, thanks for the last bit, thats something I think I really needed to hear.. I need to try and loosen up a little and be more patient with this process... Thanks so much for your feedback(:
It's great that you are conscious of wanting to improve your nutrition, but may I offer a suggestion? I'm assuming you are relatively new at this, and you say you have 100+ to lose. Weight loss should really be your priority right now. Getting some of the extra weight off is going to provide you greater health gains than any dietary changes at this point. That being said, by pursuing an extreme deficit, you are hurting yourself and setting yourself up for failure. The fact that you are feeling full & satisfied at this point is a common honeymoon period where you are so excited about your new lifestyle & quick movement on the scale, you feel like you barely need to eat at all! You really need to trust MFP. Enter your stats with a goal of 2 lb/week and an honest estimation of your activity level and eat that. Don't overthink it or second guess it. If you log accurately, it will work... promise!
Then, as you become more accustomed to your calorie goals and comfortable with the process, you can give greater attention to your nutrition goals. Many of us have found this happens naturally. We begin looking for better & more satisfying ways to help us meet our calorie goals, and this naturally results in better nutrition. Trying to overhaul *everything* right off the bat, particularly coupled with an overly aggressive deficit, quickly becomes overwhelming and leads to discouragement and quitting. New habits are better tackled one or two at a time until they truly become a habit, and then we can focus on others. You can do this, but you really need to relax, slow down, and not overthink it. To lose this amount of weight takes years, not months, and is just the beginning of a lifelong process. You need to make it as comfortable and sustainable for yourself as possible. Wish you the best!
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Dianetheinvincible wrote: »I'm a little bit confused by your question--when you set up MyFitnessPal, it generates a calorie goal for you. Do you not trust their calculation?
I agree with others that making sure your food entries are really accurate is super important. Using a scale is super helpful. They are cheap on Amazon or I bought one at a local discount store, Grocery Outlet.
I also agree with others that you can 1) increase your daily non-"exercise" activity, such as taking stairs whenever possible, and walking more (for example, park farther away from your destination so you have to walk a little bit more), playing more active games with the kids you're babysitting, etc. You can also do some stretches and isometric-type exercises at your desk (just Google for some ideas).
Also agree with those who suggested working out at home. Workout videos on YouTube are free. You can also Google some exercises and choose a few that appeal to you and start making them a habit.
Don't be too aggressive with your goals. It took time to put the weight on, and it will take time to take it off again. Just be diligent and really experience your successes, when you see you've lost a pound or two, give yourself credit for that and let it motivate you. Rather than focusing on how many pounds you still have to lose, and letting it depress you (and possibly lead to giving up or binging or blowing off keeping up your MyFitnessPal entries).
My final suggestion for you is take it a little easier on yourself. We all have our challenges, and everyone here obviously has challenges with food, so it's not like you are some kind of freak or defective human being. There are reasons we are where we are. Remember that so you don't feel like you need to get down on yourself!!!!
Got a scale yesterday(: and I doubted the goal because It was saying 1,640 calories for a person who sits in an office all day doing nothing.. and the more and more I cut down to try and lose weight, the more I noticed I didnt need all of the food I was consuming: I felt fine without it and now if just feels normal not to eat unless I'm hungry, I'll eat until the feeling goes away and then I'll stop... Thats why I set my goal lower, but with the advice I've received on this thread, I'm going to work on finding more calorie-dense foods that wont destroy my nutrition goals each day... Yeah, great advise, I'm going to start making daily goals that I can either carry out with the kids or with the dog to be a little bit more active | or a food goal to eat more nutritious foods... Also, thanks for the last bit, thats something I think I really needed to hear.. I need to try and loosen up a little and be more patient with this process... Thanks so much for your feedback(:
It's great that you are conscious of wanting to improve your nutrition, but may I offer a suggestion? I'm assuming you are relatively new at this, and you say you have 100+ to lose. Weight loss should really be your priority right now. Getting some of the extra weight off is going to provide you greater health gains than any dietary changes at this point. That being said, by pursuing an extreme deficit, you are hurting yourself and setting yourself up for failure. The fact that you are feeling full & satisfied at this point is a common honeymoon period where you are so excited about your new lifestyle & quick movement on the scale, you feel like you barely need to eat at all! You really need to trust MFP. Enter your stats with a goal of 2 lb/week and an honest estimation of your activity level and eat that. Don't overthink it or second guess it. If you log accurately, it will work... promise!
Then, as you become more accustomed to your calorie goals and comfortable with the process, you can give greater attention to your nutrition goals. Many of us have found this happens naturally. We begin looking for better & more satisfying ways to help us meet our calorie goals, and this naturally results in better nutrition. Trying to overhaul *everything* right off the bat, particularly coupled with an overly aggressive deficit, quickly becomes overwhelming and leads to discouragement and quitting. New habits are better tackled one or two at a time until they truly become a habit, and then we can focus on others. You can do this, but you really need to relax, slow down, and not overthink it. To lose this amount of weight takes years, not months, and is just the beginning of a lifelong process. You need to make it as comfortable and sustainable for yourself as possible. Wish you the best!
Great post.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »You put in your stats into this calculator and then put "sedentary" as your activity level and select your desired rate of loss and MFP will give you a calorie target...your calorie target assumes no exercise...you don't need exercise to be in a calorie deficit. You burn calories 24/7...most of that "burn" is you merely existing on this planet, and then going about your day to day. Really, unless one is an athlete and/or training like one, exercise activity pales in comparison to existing and going about your day.
This. 1000x this.0 -
Op please eat more than 1200 cals if you are 275 lbs. I was losing 3 lbs a week (too much,) last year at 252 eating 1800 cals a day without any purposeful exercise. Also with 4 kids (me to) it's impossible to be sedentary.
I ate 999 yesterday but I'm trying to find more calorie dense foods I can eat without wrecking my nutrition goals for the day... I have no balance yet... I need more protein most days and more fats than carbs, but idk what foods I can substitute/add on to make this happen...
there's been some great advice in this thread and i think you're really on the right track, especially with getting a food scale and body weight scale so that you can track. i just want to reiterate the importance of treating yourself with kindness and the same empathy that you would give to your best friend or sister in the same situation. a lot of us tend to be harder on ourselves than we need to be. whether that manifests as negative self talk or holding yourself to some arbitrary bar of perfection in your choices or just over restricting or self punishment. eating under 1000 calories is fine for a day or two, *kitten* happens, but really aim higher. aim to fuel your body so that in the long term you can keep being amazing. i think it's @WinoGelato who always says: he who eats the most and still loses wins (probably poorly quoted). losing and maintaining a healthy weight are life long processes for some of us and personally, i want to enjoy my life now, not only when i hit some magical level of slimness where everything will fit together and i'll achieve perfect skinny girl rom-com happiness (i won't - this doesn't exist).4 -
1. create your profile on MFP for your daily calories and your macros;
2. keep your carbs / sugar macro between 15 to 25%; divide the remainder % between your protein and fat. For example 25% sugar / carbs; 35% good fats (like animal fat, peanut butter, olive oil); 40% protein;
3. get a scale; weigh everything!!!
4. log everything;
5. give yourself 1 cheat day during the week
6. "just walk more" - and you should begin to see results in about six weeks in terms of your clothes being looser.2 -
1. create your profile on MFP for your daily calories and your macros;
2. keep your carbs / sugar macro between 15 to 25%; divide the remainder % between your protein and fat. For example 25% sugar / carbs; 35% good fats (like animal fat, peanut butter, olive oil); 40% protein;
3. get a scale; weigh everything!!!
4. log everything;
5. give yourself 1 cheat day during the week
6. "just walk more" - and you should begin to see results in about six weeks in terms of your clothes being looser.
Some people do find it easier to maintain a deficit when they keep their carbohydrate intake low, but it's also possible to successfully lose weight while having more than 25% of your diet come from carbohydrates. I find carbohydrates very enjoyable and satisfying and I usually got 55-60% of my calories from them the entire time I was losing weight. There's no reason to limit carbohydrates unless it makes hitting your goal easier.1 -
1. create your profile on MFP for your daily calories and your macros;
2. keep your carbs / sugar macro between 15 to 25%; divide the remainder % between your protein and fat. For example 25% sugar / carbs; 35% good fats (like animal fat, peanut butter, olive oil); 40% protein;
3. get a scale; weigh everything!!!
4. log everything;
5. give yourself 1 cheat day during the week
6. "just walk more" - and you should begin to see results in about six weeks in terms of your clothes being looser.
OP, ignore #2 & #5. As you go along, you will devise the best macro split that works *for you*, but it's definitely not your priority now. If you are pursuing a reasonable calorie deficit, you don't need a "cheat" day. Small indulgences can usually be worked in to your overall calorie allowance for the day/week and we all have days where we may choose to relax our goals, but obviously the frequency of such times will impact your rate of loss.2 -
Dianetheinvincible wrote: »I'm a little bit confused by your question--when you set up MyFitnessPal, it generates a calorie goal for you. Do you not trust their calculation?
I agree with others that making sure your food entries are really accurate is super important. Using a scale is super helpful. They are cheap on Amazon or I bought one at a local discount store, Grocery Outlet.
I also agree with others that you can 1) increase your daily non-"exercise" activity, such as taking stairs whenever possible, and walking more (for example, park farther away from your destination so you have to walk a little bit more), playing more active games with the kids you're babysitting, etc. You can also do some stretches and isometric-type exercises at your desk (just Google for some ideas).
Also agree with those who suggested working out at home. Workout videos on YouTube are free. You can also Google some exercises and choose a few that appeal to you and start making them a habit.
Don't be too aggressive with your goals. It took time to put the weight on, and it will take time to take it off again. Just be diligent and really experience your successes, when you see you've lost a pound or two, give yourself credit for that and let it motivate you. Rather than focusing on how many pounds you still have to lose, and letting it depress you (and possibly lead to giving up or binging or blowing off keeping up your MyFitnessPal entries).
My final suggestion for you is take it a little easier on yourself. We all have our challenges, and everyone here obviously has challenges with food, so it's not like you are some kind of freak or defective human being. There are reasons we are where we are. Remember that so you don't feel like you need to get down on yourself!!!!
Got a scale yesterday(: and I doubted the goal because It was saying 1,640 calories for a person who sits in an office all day doing nothing.. and the more and more I cut down to try and lose weight, the more I noticed I didnt need all of the food I was consuming: I felt fine without it and now if just feels normal not to eat unless I'm hungry, I'll eat until the feeling goes away and then I'll stop... Thats why I set my goal lower, but with the advice I've received on this thread, I'm going to work on finding more calorie-dense foods that wont destroy my nutrition goals each day... Yeah, great advise, I'm going to start making daily goals that I can either carry out with the kids or with the dog to be a little bit more active | or a food goal to eat more nutritious foods... Also, thanks for the last bit, thats something I think I really needed to hear.. I need to try and loosen up a little and be more patient with this process... Thanks so much for your feedback(:
It's great that you are conscious of wanting to improve your nutrition, but may I offer a suggestion? I'm assuming you are relatively new at this, and you say you have 100+ to lose. Weight loss should really be your priority right now. Getting some of the extra weight off is going to provide you greater health gains than any dietary changes at this point. That being said, by pursuing an extreme deficit, you are hurting yourself and setting yourself up for failure. The fact that you are feeling full & satisfied at this point is a common honeymoon period where you are so excited about your new lifestyle & quick movement on the scale, you feel like you barely need to eat at all! You really need to trust MFP. Enter your stats with a goal of 2 lb/week and an honest estimation of your activity level and eat that. Don't overthink it or second guess it. If you log accurately, it will work... promise!
Then, as you become more accustomed to your calorie goals and comfortable with the process, you can give greater attention to your nutrition goals. Many of us have found this happens naturally. We begin looking for better & more satisfying ways to help us meet our calorie goals, and this naturally results in better nutrition. Trying to overhaul *everything* right off the bat, particularly coupled with an overly aggressive deficit, quickly becomes overwhelming and leads to discouragement and quitting. New habits are better tackled one or two at a time until they truly become a habit, and then we can focus on others. You can do this, but you really need to relax, slow down, and not overthink it. To lose this amount of weight takes years, not months, and is just the beginning of a lifelong process. You need to make it as comfortable and sustainable for yourself as possible. Wish you the best!
Im new, I've worked out for a long time with sports and regular gym visits previously, but never to lose weight. NOW I'm trying to lose weight... I think its safe to assume that, although I dont remember it being that excessive, my diet was garbage. It is my big big goal but I'm making goals in the other aspects of my life to try and achieve it in the long run... My goals are all accurate on here now... And see I didnt even exactly know if that was extreme of it that was really good... And haha, I hope youre right!(: Thanks for the follow up and words of wisdom, I do overthink things 9.9 take care!(:0
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