Need suggestions!

lmtval
lmtval Posts: 8 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi all.

I started out with the 1900 daily goal MFP gave me. Then I dropped it to 1800 because the scale wasn’t budging.

I have lost 13 pounds in 37 days. So I dropped calorie limit to 1600 calorie limit.

I am frustrated because the scale won’t budge. I exercise daily. I eat fairly healthy food but slip up from time to time.

Had a medical check up to ensure there wasn’t a medical condition. There is not.

I am 46. The one problem I seriously have is I will eat a snack in the middle of the night. I stay within my calorie limit but I suspect it is the culprit.

What do you think?

Also, I would like a few more friends! Think that will help keep me on track.

Thanks.

Valerie

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,412 Member
    13 pounds in 37 days is a lot. Congratulations.

    A snack (no matter when you eat it) as long as it's in your calories is not the problem.

    Weight loss is not linear. There will be days, sometimes weeks when you won't lose or may even show an uptick on the scale.

    Stay. The. Course.

    Weight loss is about consistency over TIME.

    I would continue at the 1800. You're losing plenty fast. Some might say too fast.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I'm confused about the timeline here, and what you mean by "the scale wasn’t budging". 13 pounds in 37 days is more than the max of what MFP considers safe weightloss.

    I don't think you should reduce the calorie target. Eating too little is probably what makes you slip up. Not that it matters for your weightloss, now, because you're losing at overdrive, but for your further progress, and your general physical and mental health. If you stay within your calorie allotment, you lose weight, no matter when you eat. Eating in the middle of the night is bad for your sleep, and your health, but not directly for weightloss.

    Exercise is good for you, but not essential for weightloss, not directly. Healthy food, the same.
  • lmtval
    lmtval Posts: 8 Member
    I am going to stay at 1800. I have been in he habit of dieting for so many years. I lose the weight quickly but then I have always gained it back. I want to be consistent over the long haul. I am very interested to know that the snack in the middle of the night shouldn’t be a problem as long as it is within limit. That’s a relief.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,412 Member
    Eating in the middle of the night is bad for your sleep, and your health, but not directly for weightloss.

    @kommodevaran - I've never heard this before. Sometimes I get up and have a snack if I'm having trouble sleeping and then I'm able to go back to sleep.

    How is it bad for sleep or health?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Eating in the middle of the night is bad for your sleep, and your health, but not directly for weightloss.

    @kommodevaran - I've never heard this before. Sometimes I get up and have a snack if I'm having trouble sleeping and then I'm able to go back to sleep.

    How is it bad for sleep or health?
    It's hard to answer that if you don't value undisturbed sleep.
    I think it could be interesting, but also maybe impossible, to figure out if you wake up because you've eaten too little, or because it's become a habit.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,412 Member
    But how is it bad for health to wake up and get a snack? Or is that just your personal opinion? I'm not sniping at you, I'm seriously interested since I've never heard that.

    Many cultures sleep in two shifts and are up for a period of time to eat in between. I've never seen it said that sleep had to be XX hours continuous. If that's true I'm effed. :lol:
  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,468 Member
    edited July 2018
    Which cultures do this, I'm interested. I can think of cloistered mnks and nuns who rise for the midnight prayers, or maybe muslims who rise for dawn prayers and in summer months might go back to sleep. Anyone else you were thinking of? @cmriverside
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,412 Member
    edited July 2018
    https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again

    *ETS* I just know it's a thing. Feel free to use your own Google skillz. :)

    ...and Muslims are a quite large demographic. I was mostly thinking of tropical areas like South America who use siestas. It makes sense. I often feel like that would be my natural rhythm in another life.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    But how is it bad for health to wake up and get a snack? Or is that just your personal opinion? I'm not sniping at you, I'm seriously interested since I've never heard that.

    Many cultures sleep in two shifts and are up for a period of time to eat in between. I've never seen it said that sleep had to be XX hours continuous. If that's true I'm effed. :lol:
    I don't know. I knew about the midnight feast thing, but I didn't know it was common anymore. I don't think you're effed in any way as long as it works for you. My assumption was that eating too little through the day, and then getting up to eat, disturbed the OP's sleep, and disturbed sleep, in itself, or by causing too little sleep, could lead to more hunger. A lots of ifs and thens, but I didn't have a lot to go on.

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