Tell me about your habits (calorie goal, foods eaten)

My diary is open, and I try (5’7”, highly active 61F) to hit about170 grams protein a day.

It’s actually really easy.

I eat a lot of boneless skinless chicken breast (I live in chicken country and it’s cheap here). Today’s breakfast was protein-enhanced pancakes “frosted” with peanut butter and zero cal chocolate syrup, lunch will be chopped grilled chicken in a carb-smart wrap, and dinner will be shredded crockpot chicken tacos.

Snacks are Nugo (not as high protein as other brands, but adequate, delicious, and don’t mess with my stomach like others do). I keep beef jerky on hand. Snacks are cottage cheese with frozen blueberries, or yogurt/pumpkin pudding, ice cream I make out of skyr or yogurt, or, if I’m particularly low on protein, a simple smoothie of ice/ chocolate core power/cottage cheese/cocoa powder. Delicious. Tastes like an indulgence rather than a protein boost.

Little things can also boost protein, whipped cream on my ice cream, frothed skim milk in my coffee, a homemade sugar free chai with fat-free half and half. Even those are worth a gram or two or three each.

Also, don’t fret over daily numbers. Check your weekly average (under the “nutrition” button). As long as my macros are pretty on point weekly, I’m good with that.

I'm in maintenance, F, 67, 5'5", 130-ish pounds lately, sedentary outside of regular exercise (which is 4-6x a week rowing on water, right now, mostly). Back in 2015-16, I lost 50-ish pounds in just under a year, starting at class 1 obese, and have been at a healthy weight since. I'm severely hypothyroid, but properly medicated for it.

Currently I target 1850 + exercise calories most days, although my actual maintenance calories are probably more like 2000-2100 + exercise. Then I allow myself some indulgent (over-goal) days, and watch the scale. I estimate exercise calories carefully, and eat them all.

Most of the time during weight loss, I was eating 1400-1600 calories + exercise. I aimed for a minimum of 0.6-0.8g protein per pound of healthy goal weight, 0.35-0.45g minimum fats per pound, don't care at all where carbs end up as long as calories balance. (Usually carbs are around 50% +/-, retrospectively.) I strive for a minimum of 5 daily 80g servings of veggies and fruit, and get more like 10 servings as often as possible (usually).

That may sound complicated, but it's an output of routine habits now, so pretty automatic.

I'm vegetarian, but was thin, then overweight, then obese, then thin again while vegetarian, so that's pretty irrelevant.

My firm intention during loss was to do nothing to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue long term to stay at a healthy weight, except for a sensibly moderate calorie goal.


I was already active while obese, so I didn't make material changes in my exercise routine. (I did put a higher priority on strength training during loss to preserve muscle. I usually do some seasonally, but was more consistent during loss.)

For 20+ years, I've been centering exercise on something I find so fun I would do it even if it weren't good for me . . . but it is. (On-water rowing.) I love it so much it will encourage me to do other less-fun things to improve at it, or to stay in shape to do it. That's helpful. I strongly recommend finding exercise that's fun, or at least tolerable/practical. Punitively intense exercise isn't the best route to weight loss or fitness, and can be counterproductive.

I didn't significantly change the range of foods I eat, either. I was already eating a lot of healthy foods, just way too much of them, and too many treats too often on top of that. I changed portion sizes, proportions on the plate, and frequencies of calorie dense foods. I can't think of anything I absolutely ruled out to lose weight, though I'm sure some less-enjoyable things have dropped out of rotation painlessly through that process. I did and do consume some alcohol, but there was less during loss when calories were tighter.

I'm basically an aging-hippie hedonist flake, with little in my willpower, motivation or discipline budget. Therefore, I try to keep my eating and activity as easy and pleasant as possible, rather than making things hard. (Being fat is not a sin we need to expiate by suffering.)

In case it helps, this is pretty much how I thought about remodeling my eating habits to lose weight, and stay at a healthy weight since:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

Different things work for different people. I'm focused on keeping things pretty easy, and reasonably healthy, on average. Routine habits matter the most. The truly rare day out of pattern is a drop in the ocean.

Best wishes!

To start I want to give a little of my background.. I’m a 34yo mom of 5, and my weight has fluctuated between 128-230lbs over the last 16years(my first pregnancy) after having my first three children I was 230lbs, then got back down to about 140lbs (5year gap) before having the last two children. I’ve always been able to lose weight easily until my last child who is now 3.. and it is still a bit of a challenge as I’m still about 40lbs away from my goal.

Previously I was able to lose weight by running and just eating less. Now that I’m in my 30s it was like a switch went off and my body does not work the same way! I had to experiment with a lot of different things (WW, IF, KETO) and found that nothing worked and I even gained weight and felt Terrible/sluggish with most of it.

I FINALLY figured out what worked best for me was eating a 90% whole/organic diet with minimum of 100g protein, go gluten-free (mostly, I’m just sensitive to it), limit dairy, and not eat red meat. I still eat some fish and chicken but not much. I figured a lot of these things out by researching diet according to your blood type (I’m type A), and generally seeing how my body feels when I eat certain foods. I got my gallbladder removed 13yrs ago and it is harder to digest certain foods and gluten triggers joint pain and migraines for me. And I NEED carbs or else I am extremely moody!! I get most of my carbs from rice, oatmeal, quinoa, and anything else naturally gluten-free. Everyone is different. The first step to making progress with my weight BEFORE going into the calorie deficit was to figure out how my body reacts to certain foods. Once I did that I was able to go into my calorie deficit and start making real progress that I am able to maintain AND I feel fantastic! As far as exercise goes I workout doing HIIT, weight training, running/walking 5-6x a week. I lost 35lbs so far in just over 2months and slowly and steadily getting back down to my goal.