At Goal & Successfully Maintaining. So Why Am I Doing This All Over Again?
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@steveko89 Very interesting breakdown. I’m not sure I’ll ever get so detailed with my macro distribution, but I do already space my protein throughout the day to maximize the benefits. I’ll never say never though- for years I wasn’t optimistic I’d ever get as close to my goals as I currently am, so maybe by this time next year I’ll be actively body building and taking every single advantage I can find. Could be a fun challenge!
Having been on MFP for over 10 years now, I've gone through many many iterations on what was "good enough" only to find that wasn't necessarily the case to most optimally work towards my goals. I've not purchased any products from Renaissance Periodization but the amount of their science-backed info you can find for free is impressive and I've found very useful. There's a free resources section on their website and Dr. Mike's youtube has some really good, extensive information, very geared towards body building.2 -
springlering62 wrote: »He told me later in the morning he sure felt a difference. “Special K is fine for Tai Chi, but I definitely ran out of steam during water aerobics”.
We’ve both had similar learning experiences this week. The bakery clerk put an extra Apple fritter in the bag for Sunday morning Doughnut Day, and I ate it Monday morning, and had the exact same experience. Not only did it want to come back up during Spin & HIIT class, by the time I got round to aquafit I was already dragging.
Breakfast sure makes a difference, if you’re doing early morning workouts.
If you’ll pardon me, I just remembered I need to make a batch of pancakes to stick in the fridge……
This is 100% true! I used to be one of those who thought breakfast just made me hungrier - which was true if I was having a very carby breakfast. The past month, I've been having protein powder in my morning tea (not my only breakfast item, for the record!). I've been pushing up against the top of my calorie range recently, and started eying that as something to cut. Was it really making a difference in my fullness??? Next day - YES that bit of protein is apparently key to holding me over to lunch!!!
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Found BL at the kitchen table, with the leather working tools, taking in his reenactment belt again.
They fit very high up, across the chest, and the belt then holds up the high waisted period pants, holster, sword belt, canteen, etc.
I suspect if it fell down, he’d be fully exposed quick.
He still won’t weigh, but inches still dropping.
NSV: we walked the dog three miles this morning and stopped at a tiny community bake stand at the halfway point. He ordered a blueberry lemon danish and a freshly baked cinnamon roll. He ate the danish, packed the roll up and said,”I’ll just eat it for breakfast tomorrow”.
I was so inspired I wistfully did the same with my second croissant. I had prepared for a ton of calories this morning.10 -
My hubby's pants took to the ground the other day ago, I was laughing so hard. Also made me think of your previous post.5
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Thank you for this thread. I look forward to seeing future progress, recipes, and stories!
Ninja should hire you as a spokesperson/marketer @springlering62 ! I have a new kitchen gadget, as I couldn't resist the lure of all the noms!! I have a lemon sorbet set in the freezer for prep now that has a total calorie load of 27 for a pint (used Cary's syrup instead of corn syrup, and swerve in place of sugar). Perfect for a day that I need to keep the footprint small, but have something that feels like at least a sort-of indulgence.
...Or at least I'm hoping it'll taste/feel like that -- swerve is new to me. Was looking for allulose locally, but didn't find it, but hadn't tried this sweetener before so decided to give it a go. And not sure Cary's was the right choice, could have gone with a bit of a Jordan's skinny syrups instead.
As a side note, if any of you fine people are up for another MFP friend, I'd welcome more people.4 -
As I haven't seen any recent posts, I hope all is well in the Spring household.
I have taken a leave from the "diet" world and am finally back into a good frame of mind and spirit to get the journey going again. Fortunately, I have been maintaining within a 3 pound range. (I didnt expect to burn out but none the less it happened).
Looking forward to more of the uplifting and highly encouraging drama of this wonderful post. PLEASE COME BACK SOON!10 -
I'll second that!2
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Aw, blush, y’all.
I was out of town for three weeks to help a family member move, while BL was stuck at home with our bite-y rescue dog, who won’t tolerate anyone except us and his usual sitter, who wasn’t available.
He kept up his exercise schedule, and he and the HAD (High Anxiety Dog) enjoyed the patio at CookOut, and explored several new parks while I was gone.
According him, Pokémon credited him 54 miles of walking the last week I was gone. That’s as good a measure as any.
BTW, CookOut has an excellent burger tray meal that’s very reasonable calories, if you get double onion rings. Breaded onion rings are way fewer calories than fries. Who knew? Another weight loss nugget.
And btw btw, he’s added an extra workout to his week. At 67. He feels that much better now. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
He’s still frustrated he isn’t losing weight, however, yesterday I spied him taking his new shorts off without even unbuckling the belt, and his waist, hips and belly look smaller. His face does, too, and I can see he’s put quite a bit of muscle on his Iegs and arms.
I packed on a few because of the chaos of moving, the stress of driving a big van on the autobahn, and the east availability of quarkini, laugenecke corners, and German ice cream, which was unexpectedly amazzzzzzzing. It was record heat, we were tired from moving scrubbing and painting, and they have no AC there, so we treated ourselves at the eis cafes. 🤷🏻♀️
But I expect them to drop off pretty quick. It’s a pleasure to not be flipping out over the extra pounds.
And……as I type this, my family member is texting from Germany that she’s gone back on MFP and is already seeing results. Her plan is 1800 a day plus 300 for every 10,000 steps. (Her job is very high activity. ) it’s such a pleasure to see someone succeeding without feeling like they have to immediately drop to 1200 calories on day one.
I wish I had a dollar for every person who’s posted that they can’t figure out why that isn’t working for them. 😢15 -
Thank the MFP gods for this thread! So BL still won’t weigh? Does he take measurements? Or is it all clothes falling off?
The 1200 calorie start off thing is painful but I will admit when I first started in 2011, that’s what I set it for 🙄3 -
I set it to 1200 when I started as well, way back in 2012. At that point I would eat back 100% of exercise cals and my data integrity was suspect so I doubt I spent any time really that low. Still, a far cry from where I maintain (or even cut) now with a properly structured lifting regimen and at least an additional 15lbs of lean mass.5
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Amazing how popular perception gets set in stone, isn’t it? It’s scary that even doctors parrot that number.
BL just doesn’t like to weigh or measure. 🤷🏻♀️
If that’s his jam, I’m OK with it. If we ever get to re-book our NZ trip that Covid cancelled, he’ll have to, though.
I think it was the initial shock of discovering he was too heavy for a helicopter sightseeing tour that initially got his attention. 😬
I looked at him this morning in his Tai chi gear and his gut is now gone and his belly almost flat. I popped him on it and told him “looking good!” and felt muscle on his abs.
One of these days the IKEA chip clip he still uses to hold his drawers up will fail him and I just hope somebody catches it on video, because it will definitely be on here as a GIF.15 -
springlering62 wrote: »Amazing how popular perception gets set in stone, isn’t it? It’s scary that even doctors parrot that number.
For me it was MFP letting me pick "lose 2lb/week" while I was already at the higher end of "healthy" via BMI. My self perception was that I'd let myself get so fat and I needed to fix it ASAP.7 -
@springlering62 I recently found this thread and just finished reading it in its entirety. Loved it! I wish I had found it earlier. So much good information here...presented clearly and with humor. I have it bookmarked for future reference. The mental vision of BL with the chip clip holding up his pants had me LOL!4
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Sharing this from another thread, because this question is important. User wanted to know why there’s so many inaccurate entries:
All MFP entries are crowdsourced. Some are honest entry errors, but I’m convinced others are sheerly wishful thinking. I’d hate to think that someone is deliberately skewing their numbers after going through the trouble of recording in the first place, but nothing surprises me in the endeavors of weight loss anymore.
Basically you have to use your common sense. If you see a Dunkin Doughnut listed at 45 calories, do you really think that’s accurate?
You’ll also find entries for recipes or meals where some users enter a gram as a serving and then they’ll use 200 (or whatever they weighed it out as) when entering it in their diary. That’s a personal preference for some users.
I usually enter a meal as 1 serving, and then calculate how many servings after I’ve fished it up and packed the leftovers. For example, cheese and chicken ravioli casserole tomorrow made 16 servings, so we’ll each get .125 of the meal I recorded when I baked it.
I just Google the item and look for a reasonable middle-of-the-range estimate and choose an item from the list, based on best guess.
Or Google “celery usda nutrition” and it will pull up the older (and MUCH easier to understand) USDA listing, then look for the equivalent or the food number in MFP.
Green checks are helpful but not always accurate. Often they’re based on products that have been reformulated since they got their green check. My cottage cheese is one such. I use the un-checked listing because it’s more accurate.
A lot of it is down to educated guessing. Is it perfect? Nope. But it’s way better than the unfettered eating I used to indulge in.8 -
springlering62 wrote: »Sharing this from another thread, because this question is important. User wanted to know why there’s so many inaccurate entries:
All MFP entries are crowdsourced. Some are honest entry errors, but I’m convinced others are sheerly wishful thinking. I’d hate to think that someone is deliberately skewing their numbers after going through the trouble of recording in the first place, but nothing surprises me in the endeavors of weight loss anymore.
Basically you have to use your common sense. If you see a Dunkin Doughnut listed at 45 calories, do you really think that’s accurate?
You’ll also find entries for recipes or meals where some users enter a gram as a serving and then they’ll use 200 (or whatever they weighed it out as) when entering it in their diary. That’s a personal preference for some users.
I usually enter a meal as 1 serving, and then calculate how many servings after I’ve fished it up and packed the leftovers. For example, cheese and chicken ravioli casserole tomorrow made 16 servings, so we’ll each get .125 of the meal I recorded when I baked it.
I just Google the item and look for a reasonable middle-of-the-range estimate and choose an item from the list, based on best guess.
Or Google “celery usda nutrition” and it will pull up the older (and MUCH easier to understand) USDA listing, then look for the equivalent or the food number in MFP.
Green checks are helpful but not always accurate. Often they’re based on products that have been reformulated since they got their green check. My cottage cheese is one such. I use the un-checked listing because it’s more accurate.
A lot of it is down to educated guessing. Is it perfect? Nope. But it’s way better than the unfettered eating I used to indulge in.
This is great info, but one minor clarification: The actual USDA entries from MFP start-up do not include the text USDA. Entries that say "USDA" are user entered, one would hope in accordance with actual USDA data, but . . . ?
The very best way to find the actual USDA entries is to go to USDA Food Central, find the food in the SR Legacy part of the database**, and search MFP using that exact food title.
After a while, one begins to be able to recognize and even predict what the names will look like: Often, names only a bureaucrat could love:
"Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat and skin, raw"
"Oranges, raw, Florida"
Often the default serving size is something unhelpful, like 0.5 piece for that chicken, or 1 cup sections for those oranges. But - here's a key clue that almost always identifies a true USDA entry - the drop down servings list includes a variety of different serving size types, i.e., not just different weight units, but options for various weights, fluid volumes, counts, sometimes inch sizes, etc. Almost always, there's a 1g or 100g option that's good. Usually, the entry is also green-checked.
A very very few of those old USDA entries have one quantity that gives wrong calories, but they're howlingly obviously wrong, like zero calorie oil or thousands-of-calories garlic cloves. The other serving sizes are usually fine.
Over time, I've learned to search for the plural with small fruits, the qualifier "raw" for most fruits/veg ("strawberries raw"), cooking methods for stuff like beans ("beans black boiled" gets me the "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" entry, for example). I don't eat meat, so don't have meat search tips, but I suspect parts or specific types ("breast" for chicken, for example; or type of steak cut; etc.). You'll figure it out, with experience.
Yes, this sounds crazy to beginners. After a bit, it's automatic search behavior. Once a food is in our recent/frequent list, it'll stay found, assuming we eat it somewhat regularly.
** https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/
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In case you’re wondering if MFP works……BL is preening because one of the directors at the gym asked him how old he was. He thought he was 56 or 57 and was startled when BL told him 67.
Weight loss does make you look younger!
Turkey necks notwithstanding, ladies, lol.11 -
springlering62 wrote: »In case you’re wondering if MFP works……BL is preening because one of the directors at the gym asked him how old he was. He thought he was 56 or 57 and was startled when BL told him 67.
Weight loss does make you look younger!
Turkey necks notwithstanding, ladies, lol.
When my turkey neck bothers me, I look in the mirror and gobble. Then I flip it off. Rather be a healthy, moves-easily turkey than a beautiful but immobile and sick swan!12 -
Watched BL toddle off for Tai Chi this morning. I usually go with him and lift weights while he does Tai Chi, but this would be leg day and I busted my knee yesterday after tripping over the stub of a former “No Parking” sign.
Sometimes, you’ve gotta realize that you can’t do it all and this is one of those days.
BL still won’t tell me his weight, however, looked quite svelte today- in spite of the chip clip once again peeking out from his now doubled-over waistband. (It is a fact of weight loss that as the weight decreases, your pants get longer. So the chip clip is now pulling double duty to hold the waist band IN while keeping the hems UP.)
I’ve had it. I’m going to TJMaxx while he’s at hos weekly luncheon and getting the man some britches. I have no desire to be the woman the other gym goers point at, giggle, and say,” Did you hear about her husband……”
This is the man that when I replaced a green leather sofa we’d had for thirty years with a sleek white fabric number didn’t notice for weeks.
I’m wondering if he’ll notice the substitution of pants. Or maybe he’ll think he put weight on when he goes to clip them, rotflmao!!!!🤣🤣🤣
BTW, disaster struck last week when the cap came off the little jar of zero cal salad dressing he religiously takes to his weekly luncheon. A serving of balsamic vinaigrette covers a lot of ground in a micro car. He chose salad with no dressing, rather than the default the Hilton serves. “Do you know how many calories that stuff is?”
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I went to TJ Maxx yesterday and bought every single pair of men’s L black athletic pants they had.
BL argued that he wouldn’t fit into anything I brought home. “I wear an XXL!”
He balked at trying them on til I did the wifely arms-crossed-silent-pointed-glare.
He fit into every single one of them, including the slim-fit L and chose two to keep.
He also fit into a pair of 34 shorts (he’s currently wearing 40’s he got after I complained his 42’s looked like baggy diapers). But he put those down like a hot potato. I don’t think he was ready for those.
What struck me as funny is, the man who has no qualms about holding his pants up with a potato chip bag clip is worried about an elastic waistband giving out. I told him with a straight face, “Don’t worry: elastic technology has improved so much since the last time you got new pants”, and he bought it.
And on an extra plus note, yesterday another family member using MFP texted:
MyFitnessPal has gotten me into a pair of pants I could even get closed 3 months ago
They are overjoyed. They’re a non-weigher, too.
It’s funny how there’s religious weighers (me, sometimes twice a day because it’s interesting!) and those who literally fly by the seat of (how) their pants (fit).22 -
springlering62 wrote: »It’s funny how there’s religious weighers (me, sometimes twice a day because it’s interesting!) and those who literally fly by the seat of (how) their pants (fit).
We just came back from a two-week road trip in an RV. Toward the end of the trip, my husband noticed that the bathroom scale was in the bathroom. "You packed the bathroom scale?! WHY?!" "Because I want to keep track of my weight." He just looked at me like I was a crazy. He's probably correct, but the presence of the scale made me feel better anyway (and I used it EVERY DAY).
BTW, I'm thoroughly enjoying the tales of your husband and his chip-clipped pants! Keep them coming!
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