Losing weight with MyFitnessPal for "Reduced Calorie Dieting."

rkentc
rkentc Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Motivation and Support
Hello, I originally weighed in about a month ago at 300Lbs. I am 5'9" and 61 years old. I loved the MFP program so much, I upgraded after a month to the deluxe version because it tracks all the nutritional values of all my meals.

When I filled out my profile, MFP set me up for 1700 calories in order to lose 100 Lbs at a rate of 1Lb per week. My sleep schedule is from 8PM to 3AM and then I am active the rest of the day. This seemed ok, but didn't seem to be quite agressive enough since I was averaging around 1200-1300 cals per day of food intake and not feeling hungry at all outside of mealtimes.

I want to share a tip I discovered that is really helping me and just might help keep folks on track for losing 100 Lbs or more. Here's my semi-fasting diet plan my doctor set up for me: organic foods only: 2 eggs with veggies in the morning, dark green vegetables with salads every day, adding meat only to 3-4 evening veggie meals a week. My daily eating window is an 8 hour block between 7AM and 3PM. During which time, I can choose to have 2 meals per day, no snacking or any kind of food except pure water in between meals or for the rest of the day. I do about a 400-600 calorie breakfast (a 2 egg omelette on a flour tortilla, miracle whip or mayo, spinach or sno peas, chick pea curls, 1 apple, 2 cups of green tea or coffee mocha). Evening meals come in around 600-800 cals max. Obvious excpetions to this plan are visiting relatives which may cause me to eat outside of my regular window, and holiday meals. You can't let these exceptions get you down just because you blew one or two daily intakes up to 2000+ cals. SO WHAT?!?!? Just get back on the plan as soon as you can and continue without feeling bad and punishing yourself for yesterday.

For extra weight loss motivation, I printout my daily total calories consumed. In my first month, I noticed that exercise calories burned were "earned" and MFP added them back into my daily goal, changing it to 1600 calories per day, making my total cal count at the end of the day look like I have a surplus of unconsumed calories. This really confused me. These "earned bonus" claories seem to be telling me I could have eaten more food because I exercised! NOOOOO! For me, this information is not helpful. So, I no longer enter the exercise into the daily report because all I really want to know is if I am meeting (or beating) my calorie reduction goal of 1200 cal per day without being undernourished, or not. My doctor reassured me that a prescribed 1200 cal daily plan is quite common especially for Type II Diabetics (I have been a borderliner for the last 30 years) so 1200 cals a day isn't going to hurt me. So far, in 30 days, I have lost 4 Lbs and kept it off. I honestly don't think I would have lost 1 Lb a week at 1700 cals per day because I am not a very active person, and I don't do gyms or jogs. I am trying daily to add more exercise to my routine. for tracking my 2.5mph gentle 30 minute walks, I bought one of those $12 pedometer watches. Then I can use MFB to translate steps into calories burned. But I keep this record separate fom my caloric intake data.

So, those are my tips, and I am going to push on into my second month and track the results. Happy fitness and happy holidays to all.

Kent

Replies

  • rkentc
    rkentc Posts: 2 Member
    edited December 2019
    Thanks for responding. My next post is going to be filling in some of the glaring blanks: I do take Biotin, a Multivitamin, B-Complex, C, Zinc, a dualbiotic, and sodium bicarbonate every day to compensate for nutrient loss due to calorie reduction. I neglected to list these in my previous month's records. But I will be counting them from now on in my MFP.

    My health conditions are as follows: CKD, adrenal tumors, asthma, HBP, veinous insufficiency syndrome, congestive heart failure (heart attack in 2016), hyperkalemia which causes paralyzing full body cramps (excess potassium in my bloodstream because of a potassium-sparing diuretic HBP med I must take), Type II diabetes (borderline) don't want or need insulin or metformin/glucophage meds, arthritis in my knees, and an old spinal injury that causes sciatica all the way down to my heel in one leg when it flares up due to heavy lifting. NOTE: I have not needed to take any NSAIDs for over 2 years now since I started using CBD.

    For athelietes, potassium is really great and prevents/alleviates cramps - for me, potassium is deadly.
    For atheletes, huge amounts of red meat protein is really great - deadly for my kidney disease.
    For atheletes, Calories & Carbs from any kind of sugar are great sources of energy - my A1C spikes like crazy.
    For atheletes, extended hard core cardio is great - for me, potentially deadly.
    For atheletes, weight lifting is great for buildling muscle - for me, bad for my spine.
    For atheletes, jogging is an easy way to burn calories and get cardio workout - for me, knees, asthma, and BP.

    Unfortuantely, MFP does not (yet) monitor our blood panel information. So, under the close direct supervision of my GP and my nephrologist, since going organic, eliminating refined grains and gluten, all processed foods, soda, beer, most sugar, increasing fiber and dark greens, and reducing my meal portions as well as frequency, my kidney condition has improved by 10%, cholesterol numbers are textbook perfect, my electrolytes have balanced into textbook normal ranges, BP has normalized at around 130/90 (for me, that's really good, and will drop more with weight loss). Working with MFP for my food tracking and dieting needs, I can see that I need a lot more fiber and a lot more movement. These are my 2 weakest areas. 30 minutes a day walking at 2.5mph just isn't enough and I know that. But as I stated, I am a lazy sedentary man. Hate sports. I also do minor (easy) Yoga poses about three times a week, which should also be increased to at least daily. Does MFP account for Yoga as exercise?

    In conclusion, as a favor to the MFP commmunity, if you agree, I will go back and edit the previous post to read that I am not making recommendations or giving advice, but just illustrating how I have found MFP to be a valuable tool for my unique health situation. I can add a formal disclaimer as well.

    PART 2: I tried to go back and edit my first post, but MFP must not allow editing or deleting after a certain period of time. So, here's my disclamer: I'M NOT MAKING ANY RECOMMENDATIONS, OR GIVING ADVICE. NO ONE SHOULD TRY THIS KIND OF DIETING ON THEIR OWN, BUT ONLY UNDER THE DIRECT SUPERVISION OF THEIR DOCTOR(S).
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