I cant seem to be consistant..

MyrnaSolganick wrote: »

Suzji27...on a 1200 calorie diet, I am supposed to lose a damn half pound a week. That is almost unacceptable. You understand what I mean? I would be thrilled to lose a pound a week. But no. At 1200 calories, its a half pound a week. So by August 1st, the program says I will lose 2 lbs. Wouldnt you get discouraged? (Looking for support here, folks...as you can see, its really hard and really slow now.)

I'm on 1,200 calories too, because I'm really short and self-isolating. Overnight, I went from over 10,000 steps to under 1,000. In reality, if the app didn't impose a minimum floor of 1,200 calories, it would tell me to eat even less. I do find it frustrating when some of my friends get more calories because they're male and taller, but I try not to compare circumstances. This is the hand I've been dealt.

What I will say is that by sticking rigidly to 1,200 calories, I have lost more weight than the site predicted. Take the projections with a pinch of salt - I've never found them accurate.

You say you struggle to be consistent - if you can force yourself to stick to the 1,200 calories for a month, you might be pleasantly surprised by what happens in that time. I totally get that the idea of only losing .5lb a week on such a low amount of calories feels really unfair, but I don't get the sense that you've stuck at it long enough to know if that's accurate, or if the app is just trolling you?

I have a tremendous amount of empathy for your challenges. We all have them, they just may not be called “1200 calories”.

It sounds like working from home is really effecting you mentally and emotionally. I’m sorry.

Whenever I get repeatedly pissed off at someone or something I have learned toremind myself that I can’t change them, I can only change me, my attitude.

One last suggestion. There is a thread on MFP re: Volume Eating. The focus is on foods that have low calorie density and fill you up. Perhaps this style of eating would work for you to feel satisfied and “stay in the green” (<1200 calories for you). It has helped me.

P.S. I am 55 years old and get 1330 calories per day before exercise. If I eat any processed foods, I get barely anything to eat. That’s why I am trying new recipes to find things I can eat that fill me up and keep me satisfied. If I am miserable I will not stick with it.

MyrnaSolganick wrote: »

Kimny72, my job is sedentary, and now I am working from home so I do not even get the exercise of running errands. I do, however, have a nice recumbent bike, which I bought just in time. I have been using it 4x's a week for 20 min. I am considering increasing to 25 min. I have arthritis which is also limiting. oh, and did I mention that I am 67?

That's great! Gradual increases in exercise are a good way to go, especially with physical challenges in the picture (I have a little OA, too - which thankfully is not severe enough to be a major impediment to me, so far - and a torn meniscus, so I empathize).

Do you have, or plan, any form of strength training in the mix? It's not a big calorie burner, but can be a wonderful investment in improved physical functioning over the long term, as can be something like yoga for OA. Sometimes women our age (I'm 64) worry about the rhetoric around "lifting heavy", but all that really means is that we need to create a small, managable challenge to our current personal strength level. That's achievable in a variety of ways.

The research suggests that the calorie-burning benefits of added muscle mass are quite small, and it takes time and patience to add muscle mass at our age, but being a little more muscular than average for our age is one factor I'm tempted to credit for having a substantially higher calorie requirement than MFP estimates for my 5'5"/129lbs/sedentary demographic.

As far as consistent logging: I think it's true that one's personality and predispositions can make one weight management strategy easier/harder than another, and that there are multiples that can work, better/worse for different people. For me, as a data geek and novelty junkie, the "grown up science fair project" and active learning involved with calorie counting made it appealing to me at first. By the time the honeymoon calmed down a bit, it was taking so little time each day, and I'd seen good enough results, that it was an easy decision to continue. Down to a healthy weight after 30+ years of class 1 obesity, and now in year 4+ of maintaining a healthy weight by calorie counting, I wish I'd started it years ago . . . though I suppose it's only in the last few years that it's become so easy and practical, compared to when we were younger.

I'm not at all a disciplined person, rather quite hedonistic, and have the aging hippie's resistance to rules, but I suspect it's helpful that my personality type makes it relatively easy to manage my own attitude/reaction to things.

I sympathize that logging is something you find annoying, and find you resist. I wish I had better insights or suggestions for you. I think that one of the advantages of age is that many of us are better at identifying our own strengths and limitations, and turning them to game our way into making progress, but insight into others is sadly not one of my strengths.

Even so, I wish you the best, for progress toward success!

Hi Myrna
I am with you .. logging is a pain especially when you want to create a recipe and add . never been one for being compulsive . Someone said to me " its progression not perfection" it helps on days when its too much log everything

MyrnaSolganick wrote: »

Ok Ladies, here is what it is, a large part. I am a small person. For me to lose weight means 1200 calories. This is...not a lot. I think I get frustrated that it is difficult to stick to 1200 calories. Also, until people advised me to not pay attention to the macronutrients, I found I could not eat 1200 calories without going over SOMETHING. Thats my story.

ignore low calorie diets, I do not even look at them on my diet. I just eat whats on the planning supplemented by unlimited veg that's in the list. I suppose this diet is a little like the keto diet but using high protein low carbs.

My biggest problem is I love meat and don't like most of the veg on the list lol. This 4 step plan slowly allows me back to normal eating so it trains my body and mind as I go along to eat healthy.
Since lockdown and my local sport school was closed I didn't exercise but now we do 2x 30 minutes a week circuit training outside which is getting me moving again.

You do step 1 up until you hit 60% of the goal weight loss but after 1 week of moaning I got given Step 2 so I could eat 100g of meat per day ;-)

2 weeks in and down 5.1kg (my wife lost 2kg on the same diet) so at 50% of my goal. Another thing many dieters get wrong is they watch the weight scales, this is bad as your weight can actually increase as you burn off fat and build muscle so it can really demotivate you.

I do my best like most of us. My one good strategy is sticking with the one thing I can control every day. I make breakfast. I keep it at 300 cals regardless (i.e. weetbix, 100mls milk and a banana OR egg and lean bacon on a mcmuffin). If I don't log, I still did one good thing every day.

There's this great site someone else recommended (The national weight control registry) and these are some of their findings about the people who kept weight off:

'There is variety in how NWCR members keep the weight off. Most report continuing to maintain a low calorie, low fat diet and doing high levels of activity.'

And

78% eat breakfast every day.
75% weigh themselves at least once a week.
62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

I also find this website a great reinforcer, because we are being told by health media that everyone regains the weight. We see it in Woman's Day, New Weekly and so on. This is a reminder that real people do address their health and stick to their goals. May not happen first time, but it CAN happen.