Back to Calorie Counting - Need Motivation

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Before Covid-19, I was slowly moving toward my goal weight. Now my clothes are all tight, and I have been low on motivation. I'd love to hear everyone's tips on how to get motivated for weight loss again!

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  • CrazyMaMa05
    CrazyMaMa05 Posts: 10 Member
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    I also could use to great motivational tips so if you get this figured out let me know, lol. Feel free to add me if you would like a friend along the way.
  • vedrankatal4166
    vedrankatal4166 Posts: 19 Member
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    I think covid made many ppl to gain weight and lose motivation in general. I would suggest to start slow with walks, playing with ur kids, walking your dog ect and slowly move into some small workouts that u can also do with kids and make it as a fun game for them. Food is also really important and you should make sure to eat what u like and not starve urself to reach any kind of goal. Eat low calorie high density foods and you should be good.

    For any motivation, recipe ideas, workout ideas feel free to dm me. I d love to help out.
  • ramolivarez
    ramolivarez Posts: 4 Member
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    I've been county calories for 6 weeks , aimed at 1200-1300 per day plus I've been doing 30-40 minutes cardio and 10-15 minutes strength training - atleast 4-5 times per week. I've seen slow results in weight loss, 6 pounds and its demotivating because this has always worked for me. I've been doing some research and I think i need to make some corrections to diet and increase protein, decrease carbs. But I'm also thinking I need to switch the cardio & resistance/strength training up. I'm 45 now and I have 40 pounds to lose :( again.

    Everything I read says you need more weight/resistance/strength as you get older.... MFP has always worked before.

    Any tips ? Anybody had similar experience?
  • vedrankatal4166
    vedrankatal4166 Posts: 19 Member
    edited July 2020
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    Calories are calories to lose weight u need to stay in deficit. It doesnt matter if calories come from fat/carbs or proteins. Ofc it would be the best to eat low calories dense foods meaning low in fats high in proteins carbs and volume. Carbs give u energy that u need to do a good training, and proteins build ur muscles. Depending on the intensity of your cardio in 40 min u probably burn max 500 calories strength training of 15 min should be around 100-150 cal. So u eat 1300 and burn lets say 700, u are still not in a deficit. Also, are you counting the calories u drink as well? If not, there might be your problem.
  • jeromykaplan
    jeromykaplan Posts: 205 Member
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    In the same boat. I recently purchased some weights for at home workouts but I think the best thing to do is find motivation in other areas of your life. I’m hoping committing to one thing somehow lights a fire under my a** to commit to another. Like trying to read at least 30 minutes a day stuff like that lol. Probably not much help but so far I feel good about reading more books
  • cncolligan
    cncolligan Posts: 15 Member
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    I had hit my goal weight and was feeling amazing before covid hit. I had done the work by eating clean, running 1-2x/wk, doing hot yoga, and the occasional HIIT class. Then the lockdown began, my yoga place closed and I started stress eating and doing nothing physical. So... In the last 3 months I have gained back all the weight and then some (over 30lbs). I was so mad at myself! Last week I had had enough. So I've started running again, doing yoga to youtube videos, and I found a lady that does HIIT classes out of her backyard. I am eating clean again, and the weight is slowly coming off (5 lbs so far). I also started tracking my food again, this has always been instrumental for me to stay on track. I just found that it does get easier the longer I commit, so I take every day at a time, remember to be kind to myself, and do the best I can every day. I'm also trying to get enough sleep, which I hadn't been doing. This helps a lot! If anyone wants to connect to motivate each other, pls send me a friend request =)
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
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    Speaking only in general here, not my intention to step on deeply felt, personal motivational purposes.

    Motivation and willpower are limited resources. They do run out.
    Flip the Switch. If I had a dollar for every time someone says 'Life Happens'.

    If we don't build the ability to get fit under real life conditions none of this will ever stick. Life has no pause button. There is no timeout for life. Life keeps going. We don't get to press pause for our jobs and family obligations. We can't hit the reset button every time we want to take a break or we will get fired.

    We keep going. We manage to set our alarms and wake up for our jobs. Motivation and willpower are driven by feelings. When we stop letting our feelings drive all of our behaviors we can develop the skillset of consistency, consistency, consistency. Our consistent choices shape our preferences.

    If we use the stressors of life to broaden our experiences we can learn to deal with them in the future. We will be standing when it's over. It is consistency for the win. Come hail or high water.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Have a plan B that in every way makes weight loss as easy as possible. Add no extra requirements like eating healthy food or that you must perform rigorous exercise. The only thing you need to do is end the day in a calorie deficit and keep your hunger under control doing it. If you do not believe you can lose weight eating this way take a moment and google "Twinkie Diet" and you may be amazed.

    It is important to have a plan A and a plan B. Plan A is for the days you feel like tackling the world. Plan B is for days that you just need to survive and make a little progress.

    You may find, as I have, that having a plan B means that you don't use it very often and even when you decide to start a day in plan B it often ends in plan A.

    The other trick is to do something every single morning that counts as a win for health improvement. One of the easier things to knock out as soon as you get out of bed is doing some light stretches. Not even a pre-workout routine, just take 2 minutes to stretch out a bit. Those 2 minutes will preserve and improve your flexibility. Not by a lot but by a small amount and that is a "win". It is like writing a story. If you have a blank sheet in front of you you may need extra "sauce" to get started. If you put down some words, even ones that will not make it into the story, it gets things started.

    What many people, I was once one of them, fail to grasp when we start losing weight is that it is highly unrealistic to think we will be able to consistently maintain motivation or discipline. We develop these elaborate plans based on an adherence ever after fantasy that life will never be able to let us live out. One of the most common ones is losing x amount of weight before a date where we assume we will lose the maximum amount of weight each and every day for months. I can't believe how naive I used to be. If that works for some people they do not have the same kind of life I do.
  • speyerj
    speyerj Posts: 1,369 Member
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    I'd like to reiterate what @Diatonic12 and @NovusDies said above. It's not about motivation or willpower. It's about forming habits and having a strategy to deal with the unexpected. Start with one or two healthy habits that you can easily commit to doing every day. Know that you might have one or two bad days a month, and try to learn from those bad days to be more prepared next time.

    As those habits become easier to execute because they are part of your normal daily routine, add another habit and so on.

    I think you are right on in going back to calorie counting to get restarted. If you aren't already exercising, think about adding that in in a future month. For the first month, if you do nothing else - just watch your calorie intake. Don't make it too difficult or complicated, just eat at a deficit that seems possible to do every day. And I promise you that eating at a deficit gets easier as time goes on, especially as you learn what foods make you feel satiated.

    I'm speaking as someone who lost 100 pounds the hard way (white knuckled my way through a strict diet) and then gained those 100 pounds back. I came back here and made a commitment to logging my food every day. I didn't succeed 100% of the time, but I managed to accurately log at least 90% of the time. 417 days later, I have lost 114 pounds and recently ran my first half marathon. All by taking little baby steps along the way and planning for the unexpected. The only hard thing was running the half. Everything else was pretty manageable. I'm still logging and concentrating my efforts on permanent weight management. It is possible and you can do it.