Ultimate Accountability Challenge February 2022

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What's On Your Mind Today?

Mrs_Hoffer
Mrs_Hoffer Posts: 5,194 Member
in Social Groups
This is where you can share what's on your mind. Recipes, ideas, workouts, anything that you think might be helpful to others.

Maybe, you've tried something that has worked for you in the past and would like to share it with the group. Maybe, you have a NSV (Non Scale Victory) that you would like to share with the group. Anything that you feel comfortable sharing or anything that you feel comfortable asking the group for help....this is the place to come.

The GOOD!! What NSV did you have this week!!
The BAD!! So what....you ate the whole thing!!
The UGLY!! That darn scale went through the window this week....it deserved it too!!

So, what's on your mind today??
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Replies

  • Mrs_Hoffer
    Mrs_Hoffer Posts: 5,194 Member
    lindadoiron50 wrote: »
    I need this group joined on March 2021 and have lost 30 lbs but pounds are creeping up. So I need an accountability group like this to get me back on track. Bring on February:):)

    Welcome @lindadoiron50 !! We're excited to have you! A big high five 👋🏻 on losing 30 lbs so far! And yes, it's much easier to catch that "creeping" NOW rather than weight until later! (Get it? Weight... until later?) Lol.
  • makattack220
    makattack220 Posts: 219 Member
    Hi! It was so fun joining in at the end of the Jan UAC and I'm excited for the Feb UAC to begin! @jamcnewman suggested I post this question here (thank you for that suggestion:)), so here it is: I'm 15lbs down and plan to recalculate my calorie budget based on this current weight. (I've been using the average of multiple calculators to define my calorie target, not the one MFP calculates.) I plan to start the February UAC at that new (slightly) lower target. Are there any maintainers who could share some advice on how they handled changing/lowering calorie targets as they lost weight? Do most people just follow the MFP calculated target?
  • SummerSkier
    SummerSkier Posts: 5,188 Member
    @makattack220 I am not sure we can answer this question any better than you can. If your weight loss has not stalled I do not think you should lower your calorie range. When I was losing I just kept the same calorie amount (not adding exercise either up or down just one level) until I hit goal, and then I increased gradually. It sounds like you are doing really well and one thing to be careful of is cutting too deeply and causing a backlash of hunger or lack of energy. Anyway, you have all the data in front of you to make a much better informed decision. Of course my weight loss was 30 pounds and yours could be more or less.
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,451 Member
    No matter what your personal "mental block" might be (and not restricted to food choices OR activity level OR logging-or-not )
    I recommend watching the following TedTalk on Youtube. Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator.
    This is the abridged version (less than 4 minutes)
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5C149J9C0

    InstantGratificationMonkey IGM is up for ANYthing that can defined in the moment as "easy and fun" (and IGM is not entirely food focused ... just a "that's booooooorrrrrring (or toooooo hard!) .... let ME take over driving the body-ship!" kinda personality)

    What does YOUR IGM get up to? What are some of your personal IGM-managing or redirecting tricks?
  • makattack220
    makattack220 Posts: 219 Member
    @SummerSkier and @Caroline_slowandsteady thank you both! Appreciate the input. I had decided on what seems like a small decrease (about 75 cals), to test it this week, and if I'm feeling hungry at that level then go back to my previous target. I haven't stalled on weight loss but I hadn't changed my calorie target since 15lbs heavier... I guess the point is that I thought I needed to decrease my calories as I lost weight but wasn't sure by how much and how often. What I'm hearing you both say is that "you may or may not need to adjust" - correct? I don't eat back my exercise calories and I usually burn 400-600 cals/day (realizing this is not 100% accurate although I do exercise with a fitness watch with heart rate monitor). I'm eating a calorie target that should be 1-1.5lb loss/week for my stats. I'm confident that I'm maintaining a daily deficit and I am still losing weight, I just wanted to maintain the rate of around 1-1.5lb/week if possible and thought I may need to adjust my calorie target at this point.

    @Caroline_slowandsteady I try to eat at or just under my target each day as it took me a long time to detach myself from "diet" mentality for weight loss (eat as little as possible, exercise as much as possible) which, of course, never worked long term. I was the same with "good" days during the week and "fun" days on the weekend. The pendulum swing was just too drastic for me and unsustainable. This time around I've taken things slow, eliminated target dates for certain weight goals, am eating to target daily, and focusing more on the mindset work, getting adequate sleep and hydration, meditating, etc (general health and wellness instead of such a heavy focus on the number on the scale).

    @BMcC9 THIS. TALK. I watched and bookmarked the long version to watch during my workout later. Thank you for sharing this!🙏☺️
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,451 Member
    edited February 2022
    koeitjiesa wrote: »
    Hi guys. I have a question. I was within my calories, but only with my exta exercise calories included. Does this still count as within my calories? I hope this makes sense...

    @koeitjiesa
    Quote from the FAQ pin at the top of the group main board (where Introductions and What's On Your Mind Today are also pinned)


    11. If I exercise a lot, can I 'eat back' my exercise calories?

    Your calorie goal and calorie adjustments are entirely up to you.

    (A common early-days question ... Veterans, please expand on what follows, and add your collective wisdom)

    Yes your exercise calories can be eaten back, if that is how you define your personal calorie envelope. It varies from person to person for many reasons.

    How many you eat back and on a regular basis (or not) is also personal. Some people who have heavy energy exercise daily patterns are (hopefully) eating back enough to support what they are doing (either by eating some/all back or by allowing for it via their "daily activity level" being set at an active or very active setting, so that MFP assigns them more to eat in the first place)

    With experience comes the knowledge whether where they take the "calories burned number" from is inflated or not and they may choose "50% of logged exercise credits is my personal upper calorie daily limit" or something like that.

    Others with smaller routine burns might choose to mostly ignore, but consider some (or all) an available infrequently-used drawn-on-the-day buffer. Like making a point to do an extra walk on a Family Gathering Day, knowing that there is going to be more-than-usual calories in a special supper.

    I am adding this to the What's On Your Mind Today so that others with this question are less likely to miss it, and other veterans can expand on the above.
  • Mrs_Hoffer
    Mrs_Hoffer Posts: 5,194 Member
    Thanks BeeJ for such a detailed explanation!! Personally, I don't eat back my exercise calories. In fact, I have it turned off in MFP, so that MFP doesn't even add them back into my food diary. (Although, I must admit, I exercise much more in the warmer weather when I can get outside!) Lol.
  • enlightenme3
    enlightenme3 Posts: 2,618 Member
    BMcC9 wrote: »
    On the topic of "setting your Daily Activity level to meet your ACTUAL needs. everybody ....
    you may have a very sedentary desk job but are cheating yourself of you calorie needs if your daily routine is always in the 10,000+ step range. Check the chart below, and then verify that your MFP daily lifestyle setting matches.

    The OR is very important, and often overlooked in the initial profile set-ups

    hkh8lk61zgf9.jpg

    @BMcC9 - Thank you for the chart. I have to admit, I'm still a little confused since I read somewhere on MFP that you're not supposed to include your deliberate exercise calories in the daily activity level. That being said, when I went in recently to reset my goals, the guided MFP still has me at 1200 calories per day. I selected "sedentary" since other than deliberate exercise, I kind of am. I changed my goal from losing 1.5 pounds/week to 1 pound per week and said that I do 60 minutes of exercise/day. I'm 5 foot 7 inches and around 145 pounds and have 10 more pounds to lose until goal weight. At 1200 cal/day, it says that I will lose .7 pounds/week. I almost never eat below 1200 and usually eat anywhere between 25% - 50% of my exercise calories back.

    Have I been doing this wrong? I am truly interested in understanding this better so that I don't set myself up for failure longer term.
  • ideas2
    ideas2 Posts: 1,261 Member
    @four__db

    I think of it as basically four things to do, which become a habit. 1. Track. 2. Try to stay below your calorie goal. 3. 20 minutes of exercise activity. and 4-- at the end of the day or the next day, post on the thread for that day. That´s it. The tracking helps you become more conscious of what you are eating, making conscious eating choices, and helps you know if you are doing what is necessary to lose weight.

    I wrote this here because it is not clear to me if you understood that there is a thread for each day of the month where you ¨check in¨ daily and report how you did on the first three things.
  • jamcnewman
    jamcnewman Posts: 4,414 Member
    edited February 2022
    enlightenme3 wrote: »
    BMcC9 wrote: »
    On the topic of "setting your Daily Activity level to meet your ACTUAL needs. everybody ....
    you may have a very sedentary desk job but are cheating yourself of you calorie needs if your daily routine is always in the 10,000+ step range. Check the chart below, and then verify that your MFP daily lifestyle setting matches.

    The OR is very important, and often overlooked in the initial profile set-ups

    hkh8lk61zgf9.jpg

    @BMcC9 - Thank you for the chart. I have to admit, I'm still a little confused since I read somewhere on MFP that you're not supposed to include your deliberate exercise calories in the daily activity level. That being said, when I went in recently to reset my goals, the guided MFP still has me at 1200 calories per day. I selected "sedentary" since other than deliberate exercise, I kind of am. I changed my goal from losing 1.5 pounds/week to 1 pound per week and said that I do 60 minutes of exercise/day. I'm 5 foot 7 inches and around 145 pounds and have 10 more pounds to lose until goal weight. At 1200 cal/day, it says that I will lose .7 pounds/week. I almost never eat below 1200 and usually eat anywhere between 25% - 50% of my exercise calories back.

    Have I been doing this wrong? I am truly interested in understanding this better so that I don't set myself up for failure longer term.

    Hi @BMcC9 @koeitjiesa and @enlightenme3 - I really appreciated your posts. I hesitated to respond as I am so new to all of this and don’t have a nickel’s worth of experience compared to so many on here. But I do see a dietician once a month and she really helps me figure some of this out.

    Your chart is interesting BeeJ, but it doesn’t line up with the activity levels in MFP (i.e., sedentary, lightly active, and the next option is active). There is no moderately active. option. Perhaps those who pay for MFP have a greater granularity in choice?

    I am on the “free” version of the MFP app and so have set myself to lightly active. The calorie limit that MFP gives me just under the calorie limit that my dietician set, so I adjusted it to the levels she gave for calories (1400 - and that is always based on height, weight, age), and macros (30% fat; 25% protein; and 45% carbs). I do complete 10,000+ steps a day, but my “activity” level of my output is by no means greater than lightly active. My dietician’s advice was to set it to lightly active and leave the exercise calories in the bank. If I set to sedentary, I could possibly eat more of them back, but as I was being consistent in my activity and it was lightly active, keep it there. End of day, I set out to exercise every day for 30+ active minutes (in actuality, it has recently been 40-75 minutes a day) and do 10,000+ steps a day. I am truly “lightly active” and no more than that.

    I am currently using the Canadian ParticipACTION App (free) to help me understand my activity level better and how to gain maximum health benefit from the time I put in.

    Our daughter and I are preparing to do the “True North” challenge together Feb 7-21 and one thing we talked about last night was this interesting tidbit from their FAQ:

    ”Why am I not getting credit for all of my steps / how do I accumulate minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity activity?
    You didn’t think we were just going to give away steps, did you? You have to earn them! To get credit for ‘active minutes’ (i.e., moderate to vigorous physical activity), you must be moving at a fairly brisk pace. Meaning, you must hit 100 steps or more per minute to equal one ‘active’ minute which counts towards your weekly goal….adults require 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. It is much more than a step counter!
”

    So, It isn’t the number of steps that causes development or maintenance of health, it is the intensity of the activity. Some must be “active” in order for there to be any high health benefit. I am learning a lot. It is helping me make better decisions about how to improve my health as I had thought I was doing pretty well just getting in that number of “steps”. And I was, but it is time, for me, to do better.

    As for eating back exercise calories, personally, I do my best to leave them in the bank if I am not hungry. Key advice from my dietician — do not suffer hunger as it isn’t the goal and is not sustainable. I do build up my “exercise calorie bank” on the days when I know I will want to partake in some of the celebrations that involve food or wine. These are infrequent but this approach helps me with feeling like I am not deprived.
  • snowshoe072
    snowshoe072 Posts: 5,228 Member
    Here’s my 2 cents if I am stuck on weight loss I increase or decrease my calorie count I had read somewhere this was a good way to kick start the process again so far it has worked for me I am also trying to not eat so much protein as I think this slowed down my loss. Currently I eat about 1250 calories a day and try not to touch the exercise calories.
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,451 Member
    enlightenme3 wrote: »
    BMcC9 wrote: »
    On the topic of "setting your Daily Activity level to meet your ACTUAL needs. everybody ....
    you may have a very sedentary desk job but are cheating yourself of you calorie needs if your daily routine is always in the 10,000+ step range. Check the chart below, and then verify that your MFP daily lifestyle setting matches.

    The OR is very important, and often overlooked in the initial profile set-ups

    hkh8lk61zgf9.jpg

    @BMcC9 - Thank you for the chart. I have to admit, I'm still a little confused since I read somewhere on MFP that you're not supposed to include your deliberate exercise calories in the daily activity level. That being said, when I went in recently to reset my goals, the guided MFP still has me at 1200 calories per day. I selected "sedentary" since other than deliberate exercise, I kind of am. I changed my goal from losing 1.5 pounds/week to 1 pound per week and said that I do 60 minutes of exercise/day. I'm 5 foot 7 inches and around 145 pounds and have 10 more pounds to lose until goal weight. At 1200 cal/day, it says that I will lose .7 pounds/week. I almost never eat below 1200 and usually eat anywhere between 25% - 50% of my exercise calories back.

    Have I been doing this wrong? I am truly interested in understanding this better so that I don't set myself up for failure longer term.


    For someone as close to goal weight as you say you are .... it might be time to start preparing yourself for the idea that "maintenance requires more calories". SO in YOUR case, do consider finding out what MFP says someone your age and height at your desired GW and MAINTAINING aught to eat, (before exercise) then split the difference and see if you keep going down. I haven't quite successfully made the transition to on-going maintenance, but there are others here who have and can best advise.


    The main point of the chart is .... fine-tuning exact calorie intake through trial and error ... the target is to "eat sufficient (health-supporting) calories to fuel what you routinely do in a day" rather than "routinely exercise more just so that I can routinely eat more"

    If you set your MFP Profile as "sedentary" AND have an aggressive "lose per week" number, MFP won't know that you should actually be eating more to support what your day is REALLY like, and will auto-set you to the minimum it is willing to allow for women (1200) sooner than it should for optimal health.


    I am NOT the best coach-source for explaining this, but .. based on personal experience ... after I got a fitbit AND made a personal goal of having more daily steps as a rule instead of spending most of my off-hours reading and otherwise not moving much apart from 20 mins on an exercise bike ... which I mostly wouldn't eat back ...
    Say "sedentary" might describe "Mildrid's" nine-to-five desk job .... but she is not a couch-potato after hours. Maybe her fitbit says that she habitually moves around (doing chores, making a point of parking away from the mall entrance, being purposefully"inefficient" so as to take more trips bringing in groceries or putting laundry away) to the point where she mostly does 5000 steps in a "slow" day without really noticing .... AND the time on her exercise rowing machine, or strength-training or Youtube Zumba Class is her "20 + minutes of intentional exercise" which she logs but does not eat back.


    But in reality, BEFORE intentional exercise, Mildrid is living a "lightly active" lifestyle - while her twin "Moppsy" is the exact same height and weight / does the same job / does the exact same "20+ minutes of intentional exercise" which she logs but does not eat back ... BUT spends all her after-work hours reading and maybe does 2500 steps on a particularly "hectic" day. Moppsy truly DOES have a sedentary lifestyle.

  • enlightenme3
    enlightenme3 Posts: 2,618 Member
    BMcC9 wrote: »
    enlightenme3 wrote: »
    BMcC9 wrote: »
    On the topic of "setting your Daily Activity level to meet your ACTUAL needs. everybody ....
    you may have a very sedentary desk job but are cheating yourself of you calorie needs if your daily routine is always in the 10,000+ step range. Check the chart below, and then verify that your MFP daily lifestyle setting matches.

    The OR is very important, and often overlooked in the initial profile set-ups

    hkh8lk61zgf9.jpg

    @BMcC9 - Thank you for the chart. I have to admit, I'm still a little confused since I read somewhere on MFP that you're not supposed to include your deliberate exercise calories in the daily activity level. That being said, when I went in recently to reset my goals, the guided MFP still has me at 1200 calories per day. I selected "sedentary" since other than deliberate exercise, I kind of am. I changed my goal from losing 1.5 pounds/week to 1 pound per week and said that I do 60 minutes of exercise/day. I'm 5 foot 7 inches and around 145 pounds and have 10 more pounds to lose until goal weight. At 1200 cal/day, it says that I will lose .7 pounds/week. I almost never eat below 1200 and usually eat anywhere between 25% - 50% of my exercise calories back.

    Have I been doing this wrong? I am truly interested in understanding this better so that I don't set myself up for failure longer term.


    For someone as close to goal weight as you say you are .... it might be time to start preparing yourself for the idea that "maintenance requires more calories". SO in YOUR case, do consider finding out what MFP says someone your age and height at your desired GW and MAINTAINING aught to eat, (before exercise) then split the difference and see if you keep going down. I haven't quite successfully made the transition to on-going maintenance, but there are others here who have and can best advise.

    Ah, makes sense. I went through the guided goals section again. When I set weight loss goal to .5 pounds/week, I get a calorie total of 1330. If I set it to maintain, I get 1540. I'm assuming this is net calories. If so, I realize I'm probably not eating enough if I look back at my diary.

    I swear this whole thing is like tetris - trying to get the right amount of calories, exercise and then worry about all the different macros!
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,451 Member
    Yes the numbers would be "net calories" guesstimate on MFP's part. Try the 1330 for several weeks and see what happens / how you feel. When within 5 pounds, maybe split the difference again (to ~ 1440 pre exercise)

    You may have to twigg juuuuuust a bit up or down as you close in on your final-final "eat about this much on average to stay within a 3-to-5 pound maintenance target range" But it is easier both logging wise and mentally when you are only adjusting default serving sizes and choices by maybe 50 -100 cals per day instead of suddenly 500 cals more per day.

    You want to end up with a default eating size&content style that you can see yourself continuing indefinitely. Now is the time to practice eating very close to that "as if" menu if you aren't already.
  • donna25trinity
    donna25trinity Posts: 3,192 Member
    Mrs_Hoffer wrote: »
    Before I forget, I want to give a big SHOUT OUT to Deby @DebyS137 for making the banner again this month. I'm just not that talented, so it's a huge help to me Deby! THANKS!! <3

    6gqnai10r4tp.jpg

    Yep thanks @DebyS137 xo
  • donna25trinity
    donna25trinity Posts: 3,192 Member
    lindadoiron50 wrote: »
    I need this group joined on March 2021 and have lost 30 lbs but pounds are creeping up. So I need an accountability group like this to get me back on track. Bring on February:):)

    Welcome @lindadoiron50 and good luck with it!!! Over time this group changed my life so I hope it does the same 4 u! Xo
  • donna25trinity
    donna25trinity Posts: 3,192 Member
    BMcC9 wrote: »
    No matter what your personal "mental block" might be (and not restricted to food choices OR activity level OR logging-or-not )
    I recommend watching the following TedTalk on Youtube. Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator.
    This is the abridged version (less than 4 minutes)
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5C149J9C0

    InstantGratificationMonkey IGM is up for ANYthing that can defined in the moment as "easy and fun" (and IGM is not entirely food focused ... just a "that's booooooorrrrrring (or toooooo hard!) .... let ME take over driving the body-ship!" kinda personality)

    What does YOUR IGM get up to? What are some of your personal IGM-managing or redirecting tricks?

    Thanks I'll check it out right now. Xox
  • donna25trinity
    donna25trinity Posts: 3,192 Member
    makattack220 wrote: »
    @SummerSkier and @Caroline_slowandsteady thank you both! Appreciate the input. I had decided on what seems like a small decrease (about 75 cals), to test it this week, and if I'm feeling hungry at that level then go back to my previous target. I haven't stalled on weight loss but I hadn't changed my calorie target since 15lbs heavier... I guess the point is that I thought I needed to decrease my calories as I lost weight but wasn't sure by how much and how often. What I'm hearing you both say is that "you may or may not need to adjust" - correct? I don't eat back my exercise calories and I usually burn 400-600 cals/day (realizing this is not 100% accurate although I do exercise with a fitness watch with heart rate monitor). I'm eating a calorie target that should be 1-1.5lb loss/week for my stats. I'm confident that I'm maintaining a daily deficit and I am still losing weight, I just wanted to maintain the rate of around 1-1.5lb/week if possible and thought I may need to adjust my calorie target at this point.

    @Caroline_slowandsteady I try to eat at or just under my target each day as it took me a long time to detach myself from "diet" mentality for weight loss (eat as little as possible, exercise as much as possible) which, of course, never worked long term. I was the same with "good" days during the week and "fun" days on the weekend. The pendulum swing was just too drastic for me and unsustainable. This time around I've taken things slow, eliminated target dates for certain weight goals, am eating to target daily, and focusing more on the mindset work, getting adequate sleep and hydration, meditating, etc (general health and wellness instead of such a heavy focus on the number on the scale).

    @BMcC9 THIS. TALK. I watched and bookmarked the long version to watch during my workout later. Thank you for sharing this!🙏☺️

    Sounds like u got urself a great plan! Trust me slow and steady is def the way to go. I hve learnt this the hard way.xo
  • donna25trinity
    donna25trinity Posts: 3,192 Member
    Marilynsretired wrote: »
    December was a good month for me - lost 9 1/2 pounds
    January though I tracked all food, walked daily and drank all my water did not make any positive changes re my weight - think I even went up a bit so that tells me I overate on healthy food

    February so glad it is here - was on track yesterday and am once again on track today - watching to make sure I have proper portions this month

    Have to stop this one good month one not so good month - I am going to make February a great month for my health and think of March when it comes

    Hope you all have a great day / week

    Great insight and reflection. U got this. Xo

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