What's one thing you know now...
Replies
-
@springlering62 the idea of a goal weight being a moving target is something I'm just learning. I'm now about 5-ish pounds from the goal weight I originally set up in MFP and all I can think is, "meh.. let's keep going and see what happens". Granted, my focus has shifted slightly to thinking about fitness and body composition over weight loss. The scale number has suddenly felt less important than it did before. Don't get me wrong, I still track it. But it just "feels" differently now. It's weird.
7 -
I'm another person who now goes for a weekly calorie goal, not a daily one. I didn't do that consistently when losing my weight, or for the first few years of maintenance either, but I'm definitely glad that's how I do it now.
More often than not, I eat more at the weekend, but having a weekly goal allows me to be much more relaxed about having bigger meals out through the week too.
While I really like this way of eating, over the last couple of years, I quite often leave too many calories for the weekend, possibly at the expense of eating more nutritionally through the week.
It took me about 4 years after reaching goal before I felt able to give away/ditch my bigger clothes. I had multiple boxes of multiple sizes so it definitely freed up lots of storage when I finally felt ready to let them go.
6 -
You guys with these long maintenance records are so encouraging. And that you're still here on MFP, keeping yourself honest, logging calories, staying in touch with others on parallel paths!13
-
@springlering62 ...I'm in the same boat about having multiple wardrobes because I kept thinking I wouldn't get any smaller!! One thing I wish somebody had told me about losing weight is to NOT buy a new wardrobe immediately upon hitting what you THINK is your goal weight. Instead, just treat it like you did the interim stages and buy only a few pieces at a good price. After a few months, THEN decide if you want to splurge on a whole new wardrobe. I would have saved myself a TON of money if I'd done that instead of rushing out to celebrate what I THOUGHT was my new lowest size. Turns out strength training melts a lot more inches than I expected, and that a low key approach to eating made it possible for me to lose way more than I thought I would. My original goal weight was 162, and I'm currently hovering at 144-145 wearing sizes smaller than I did in my 20's when I weighed 135. It's crazy!
As for all the fat clothes...I think you're right that I need to bite the bullet and get rid of them. It's just hard for me to do that emotionally. It's probably something I will have to do in phases. Like, first try everything on and separate out what doesn't fit. Then decide what to donate now and what to stick in the attic until next year. I may write "expiration dates" on my bags of clothes so that I that I have a time to get rid of them without having to face it all immediately.9 -
Macros are important for me. More than 40% carbs and my weight creeps up.0
-
I had absolutely no idea that I would have to completely change my closet of clothes. I look after my clothes so they last for years and my perfect weight to fit into them was 175lbs I had gone up to 190lbs. For quite a few years those clothes were put on the sidelines as I could not fit in them. My thoughts were I get back to 175lbs and all my clothes would fit. OH NO THEY DID NOT. Like no where near. My body must of completely changed shape. So I continued the journey as I was determined to get back into them. I was so excited with this journey that the maintenance is now 155lbs and my pants make me look like a clown so out with the old and in with the new. No complaints as it has been an exciting journey.9
-
How to stop with the self-hatred, self-flagellation, regret and self-reproach. Its a difficult balancing act, taking responsibility for your weight while forgiving yourself for your past failures. Still working on it, a life-long journey, but so much better as time has gone on.10
-
James_Jordan___ wrote: »Eat. Back. The. Calories. You. Burn. During. Training.
This!! So many previous weight loss efforts failed because I wasn't eating enough, got too hungry, lost energy, and gave in to binging on junk.5 -
When you say eat back the calories: So many boards say "eat half of the exercise calories back" but since I walk, I find that the calories are spot on. Is this for super intense exercise? Is that why some people say that? The MOST I do is "low-impact cardio" - which I also like and both seem to be pretty spot on for my eating back ALL the calories. I have been subtracting 250 calories from food, and not eating back half my calories: 500 about. For a pound a week, I am seeing how it goes. I want to give it a few months - but so far it seems to track well.2
-
justanotherloser007 wrote: »When you say eat back the calories: So many boards say "eat half of the exercise calories back" but since I walk, I find that the calories are spot on. Is this for super intense exercise? Is that why some people say that? The MOST I do is "low-impact cardio" - which I also like and both seem to be pretty spot on for my eating back ALL the calories. I have been subtracting 250 calories from food, and not eating back half my calories: 500 about. For a pound a week, I am seeing how it goes. I want to give it a few months - but so far it seems to track well.
People say that because depending on the source of the number and the type of exercise, the estimates can be inflated. For example: HR based estimate from a fitness tracker for interval training - this will probably be an inflated number, since heart rate isn't really reliable for calorie burns from non steady state cardio.
Other confounding factors could be that some people don't see weight loss when they eat all of the calories back:
- because their logging isn't very precise and they're eating more than they think
- because their metabolism is slower than the population average (MFP calorie goal is an estimate based on statistical averages) so their base calorie goal is actually to high, and they need to eat back less exercise calories to compensate for that
PS: the correct advice would be to eat back half for 1 or 2 months/menstrual cycles and then reassess, but a lot of people forget that second bit. The important thing is to monitor your weight trend and adjust upwards or downwards if you're losing at a faster or slower rate that intended. Calculators and fitness trackers only give estimates, but your weight trend will tell you how many calories you actually need 🙂
I ate back all of my exercise calories and lost weight without issues, even a bit faster than intended.2 -
I wish I had consulted a nutritionist a long time ago! I’ve lost and gained weight for nearly 50 years, always using calorie counting. This most recent time I consulted a registered dietician who gave me a specific plan based on my individual needs and lifestyle. (lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar) I changed my MFP goals to specific protein, carb, fat grams and specific nutrition levels for sodium, fiber, calcium and changed what and how much I ate of specific foods. That has made a huge difference in reducing my BP, weight, blood sugar.6
-
justanotherloser007 wrote: »When you say eat back the calories: So many boards say "eat half of the exercise calories back" but since I walk, I find that the calories are spot on. Is this for super intense exercise? Is that why some people say that? The MOST I do is "low-impact cardio" - which I also like and both seem to be pretty spot on for my eating back ALL the calories. I have been subtracting 250 calories from food, and not eating back half my calories: 500 about. For a pound a week, I am seeing how it goes. I want to give it a few months - but so far it seems to track well.
What @Lietchi said... I started eating back half the calories that are stated on my HR monitor and it has been spot on for several months. I watched my weight loss very carefully with hope that I could eat ALL the calories back, but alas, half is what works for me. Everyone is different.2 -
James_Jordan___ wrote: »Just my 2 cents 🤗. Maybe there will be people who heartily disagree with what I've said. But, I've been doing this for 4 years now, have gone from 215~217 lbs at my heaviest down to 164 lbs at my fittest and was able to see my abs 😉.
Can't disagree with observable results. Everyone is different. I'm happy for you that you can eat all the calories back. (Ok, maybe I'm a little bitterly jealous, but I'll live. ) Congrats on the successful weight loss and maintenance! That's fabulous.
2 -
What's one thing I know now?
That weight X does not look or feel the same at age 47 as it did at 25. Bodies change with time and age (and babies). Be open to flexibility in your goal weight.5 -
dralicephd wrote: »What's one thing I know now?
That weight X does not look or feel the same at age 47 as it did at 25. Bodies change with time and age (and babies). Be open to flexibility in your goal weight.
This!!!!!!
I was 125 when I got married, and thought that would be my ultimate dream goal.
At 127, I looked way too thin and fragile, and was losing muscle. The weight sits radically different several decades later.
I’ve chosen to hover around 135 and look much healthier.
My wedding dress is loose, even at the higher weight.
If you’re shooting for a “historic” weight, make sure you have trusted people giving you honest opinions. It may just be too, too much, and our hearts don’t want to acknowledge what our eyes refuse to see.4 -
James_Jordan___ wrote: »dralicephd wrote: »James_Jordan___ wrote: »Just my 2 cents 🤗. Maybe there will be people who heartily disagree with what I've said. But, I've been doing this for 4 years now, have gone from 215~217 lbs at my heaviest down to 164 lbs at my fittest and was able to see my abs 😉.
Can't disagree with observable results. Everyone is different. I'm happy for you that you can eat all the calories back. (Ok, maybe I'm a little bitterly jealous, but I'll live. ) Congrats on the successful weight loss and maintenance! That's fabulous.
Thank you, stranger. Different devices will vary. I've tried other devices while still wearing the myzone band, and other ones would give me drastically higher rates of calorie burn that seemed dubious. So I just kept using the myzone since that's the first one I ever tried and it seems to be working. If I ate all the calories that the other devices had told me, no doubt I would have been spinning the wheels, or even gaining weight 😕
It isn't just devices that vary.
Aaaallll of those devices are just producing estimates. They don't measure calories, they measure other things that don't correlate precisely with calories, like heart rate, arm movements, distance, altitude, etc.
The devices use algorithms based on population-level statistics. Do some have less well-designed algorithms? Sure.
But some people aren't average, and a rare few can be pretty far from average, for reasons that may not be obvious. In any particular person's case, it's pretty impossible to tell which is in play, if we're talking about a device that seems to work adequately for other people, outside of a metabolic chamber, anyway.
That "monitor and adjust" process will get most people to a point where they can achieve results, but every single part of the process is estimates, and can be inaccurate: Calorie logging from food, exercise calorie estimation, estimation of BMR/RMR on which trackers and calorie "calculators" both rely. Do people focus on the exercise part because we add that explicitly and often, in effect estimating it ourselves, rather than some technological invisible hand doing the spitballing?
On top of that, any of the calorie estimates can be either too high, or too low. Around here, there's a pattern of people worrying that exercise calories will be estimated too high (rather than too low), and not much attention to whether BMR/RMR (therefore TDEE) may be estimated too high (or too low). I find that an odd bias, from an intellectual standpoint, but quite understandable from a psychological standpoint.4 -
Things I wish I knew: 48 yo 5'3" SW 277 June 2013 CW 157 (loss of 120 lbs) I wish that I knew that I really needed to weigh my food, and cook for myself. I thought I could eyeball everything, NOPE. I also really needed to eat the way I thought "only clean eaters or athletes ate" That was just a dumb excuse! I don't know why I even said that in my head. I don't even know anyone like that actually. I had a lot of attachments to my same old-same old foods; for same old-same old results.
I need to be consistent, and not just fade out of: exercise or eating well. I just turn into old me every time.
I really wish I had made a solid plan! For a whole year I had the worlds most super tiny baby plan: don't gain weight. I didn't gain any weight for one year, so great! But, I guess I never really believed that I could lose any sort of weight either. By 2015, I STILL didn't weigh my food, but I did start walking a little bit and by 2017 lost 30 lbs. I kept that off, until Lent 2021. I gave up lots of food and did the traditional Lenten fast (like it was 1699 ya'll), and went for things that didn't taste good to me at the time. My motto became "what can I tolerate" by the time I gave up what I had always eaten, I was full on hitting my protein and fiber goals almost every single day.
I learned that not eating enough protein kept me hungry. When I ate what regular normal macro nutritionists ask of regular normal people (i.e. protein and fiber) my hunger just abated. I wish I had looked at that macro more seriously instead of utterly blowing it off! Also, I really like my food even though it is different that what I ate when I was 7yo. Seriously, what was I thinking??
When I did finally have a great plan, any time life hit me down (got a couple melanoma excisions on my back - had to deal with some serious fibroid bleeding issues, and still do - hives etc) I kept to the plan - I call it "holding the line". Kept me sane. I walked every day in the AM, I weighed my food every time, I logged every bite, pre weighed any treats. AND the best plan ever for me: I figured out my TDEE at goal weight.
Every Sunday, I pretend I am at goal weight, and eat back all exercise calories. I really look forward to this, and this has kept me in a great head space for maintenance. On holidays, I ate at maintenance weight with earned exercise calories. This has worked for me, and it is encouraging! I have a skill! There is no guilt, I have no cheat days - only days like I will have when I am at-goal-weight person. For me, normal BMI. 140.
@AnnPT77On top of that, any of the calorie estimates can be either too high, or too low. Around here, there's a pattern of people worrying that exercise calories will be estimated too high (rather than too low), and not much attention to whether BMR/RMR (therefore TDEE) may be estimated too high (or too low). I find that an odd bias, from an intellectual standpoint, but quite understandable from a psychological standpoint.
I think why TDEE/exercise calories are obsessed over is these are two variables. It is tough to work with two moving variables. Heck, it is tough to clothe this working variable (so clothes are the bane of my existence right now). I think that is why people put the emphasis on one over the other. Or it might be too difficult to come up with ANY solid number. Thus causing full on confusion and probably paralyzing the person on the weight loss journey.
I definitely prefer to put sedentary on all TDEE calculators. Then I add back any calories. If I could put it lower than sedentary, I probably would. Even though I don't sit all day every day, like I used to, I have some medical issues unrelated to weight. In fact, breaking out with hives/angioedema/prednisone right now. The real difference is, I try to keep my calories at least at a sedentary maintenance estimate. At goal weight. (I had 15 pounds to go before my cycle and prednisone got happy with my water!) Regardless, the CICO is full on king. I weigh all my food, and I try to track my exercise consistently - as an addition to sedentary. As far as spit balling goes, I guess it is okay? I am losing weight on track, minus water type set backs which are going to happen for me. I know, that was more than one TL;DR
6 -
+1 to everything @justanotherloser007 said!!!
I'm not sure why it took me this long to realize that, yes, I HAVE to weigh and log everything. Period. For life. Otherwise, calorie creep will get me just like every other time I've regained weight that was lost. Also, like you, I don't know why I ignored my protein intake for so long. Making sure I get enough protein is really key to keeping the munchies away.
I like your idea of eating back all your exercise calories in one day. I don't think that is something I would do regularly, but it can be certainly helpful when I know there is a holiday or party coming up. I'll have to file that trick away for later.3
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 388 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 907 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.2K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions