What did you learn using MyFitnessPal that changed your habits?

Before I started MFP, I lost a significant amount of weight by guesstimating calories, resistance training 6 days a week and walking or jogging everyday for 3.5 miles. I regained almost all my weight back when I injured myself. Last March, I joined MFP and started calorie counting, weighing, logging and exercising. I lost 80 pounds. Since April, I have been injured and have to stay off my feet. I have been able to maintain my weight loss just by weighing my food and counting calories. Learning how to create a calorie deficit and maintain without exercise has been a real eye opener for me.

Months of diet plans and tiny losses or plateaus...and then I discovered my fruit intake was adding 600kcal per day....EEK!!!!!

MargaretYakoda wrote: »

Tracking my calories led to me realizing that on a regular basis I wasn’t eating enough. Which led to binges, and thus weight gain. Counterintuitive. But that’s my AhHa moment.

I had this too.

Fitness pal made me more aware of what I was eating especially carbs. It has helped me to stay on track of my goals. I have lost 12 pounds in 6 weeks and gave up sugar.

So many "aha" moments! Many revelations came when I started seriously tracking what I ate and realized how it would have been impossible to balance all those calories with physical activity. A more positive "aha" moment came when I realized that I really CAN lose weight and take charge of my own destiny, that it's not impossible! It's not even all that hard if you are consistent!

My collection of odd health niggles was not part of the deal with my genetic disorder, but actually some nutritional deficiencies, mostly a protein deficiency, potassium deficiency and anaemia among others. Just because you eat little in the way of junk food, does not mean you are eating healthy.

That I was eating about a thousand calories most days -- in condiments.

Seriously.

It wasn't the junk food, the carbs, or soda (i only do diet) that was the major source of my weight problem.

Condiments.

This is for all the oldies to stick with it. I'm 74. 2017 I was 102kg July 2020 I was 81kg I was reasonably happy I just relaxed and put on 4kg over 12 months. August 2021 decided to get myself back on track. I started with a water fast. I did 94 hours drinking water, coffee, tea, and two cups of miso soups per day 31 cals each. I'm now back to 82kg. My target is lose another 7kg. I'm eating 20/4 intermittent ketogenic fasting I eat at 2pm then at 6pm.
My Haha moment is tonight at 6pm I had 10 walnuts, 20 blueberries 3 tablespoons of Cornish clotted cream with finely grated flax seed on the top followed by four pieces of Sainsbury's 95% dark chocolate broken in to small pieces. Never tried it before but I'm still smiling 4 hours later. It was delicious. I think this will be my evening meal for now on. All within my 1750 daily cals.

I started my weight loss journey in January, 2020. There have been several ah-ha moments along the way, but the biggest one for me has been to acknowledge and accept this is a marathon, not a sprint. I have failed at losing weight so many times because I insisted on setting a lofty goal in too short of a timeframe, failed to hit it, and became discouraged, or I did hit the goal, then couldn't stick to the restrictive diet I was on.

This time around I set small goals along the way and have rewarded myself generously each time I hit the goal. I have lost 92lbs and I'm just about to reach the normal weight range for the first time since middle school. I still have 12 pounds of weight loss to go. I made the decision to slow my weight loss down from a pound a week to half a pound a week today. I would love to lose 100lbs by the end of the year, but the calorie allotment is so low and I'm already exercising 5-6 days a week. My sanity and happiness is worth more to me than that 100lb loss by 12/31. This is huge for me as type A virgos don't like to let themselves down. Lol!

Silly me, I didn't realize that just because you worked off calories in your workouts did not necessarily mean that you should then eat those calories. So I have learned to focus on the macros AND calories and not just the calories themselves. To get a better understanding of my complete picture. Choosing the right kind of carbs to eat and deciding on which sources of protein I want for the day ALONG with keeping my activity calories burned in the deficit.