Weight Loss Journey

karloevang35 · September 20

What is the definition of eating less because to me it’s subjective. I need advice. Eating less seems like your have to starve to lose weight?

claireychn074 · September 20

No, it just means eating a bit less. My usual intake is 2,200 per day, to lose weight I’ll go to 2000 cals - that’s not starving myself. That’s a banana and a couple of biscuits 🤷‍♂️

Lietchi · September 20

Eating less in calories. It doesn't mean 'very little' or starving yourself, just les than what you need to maintain your weight.

Or alternatively, you can eat the same amount, but move more, but it's a lot easier to reduce your intake than to increase your activity level, so a combination works best.

You can also eat fewer calories, and yet eat more food, if you eat more high volume lower calorie foods to fill you up.

karloevang35 · September 20

I’m only in week 2 of this journey,I am definitely not patient. Need to see in 3 months time how much have I lost.

cmriverside · September 20

Good job getting started.

One Day At A Time.

Log all your food and study your FOOD page here and learn from it. There will be obvious things you will learn - like how to cut back on certain things without eliminating food you like. You'll quickly see where your calories are going.

It's a process and there is a learning curve. You'll figure it, out!

AnnPT77 · September 20

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48771062#Comment_48771062

Gotta say, patience is important, at least to some extent.

When people try to lose weight really fast, experience here suggests they're more likely to fail. After a while, eating too few calories tends to cause bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or giving up altogether because it's Just. Too. Hard.

Find a routine that gives you a weight loss rate you find reasonably satisfying, but that's easy to stick with long enough to lose a meaningful total amount of weight.

neanderthin · September 20

If your overweight you won't starve, it's science.

grant6m · September 21

Good question!

sollyn23l2 · September 21

Generally, the basic idea of eat less is "less than you were eating". How much less? Just a little bit less. That way you're not too hungry. I generally recommend that people stay away from the word starving. It just gives a negative mindset to something that doesn't have to be negative. You won't be starving your body, you'll be feeding it appropriately for the first time in a long time.

springlering62 · September 21

It’s all relative.

I calculated that before I started MFP, I was scarfing down 10,000 calories a day, and that was being kind.

I started here at 58, sedentary, and obese, with a 1470 a day calorie goal.

I actually found that manageable. ….but I had to put thought into it. I had to find easy substitutions (sweet balsamic vinegar instead of Claire rich salad dressings, diet sodas for full sugar). Once I figured out the easy subs, I moved on to finding other places I could cut. Cottage cheese and fruit or a chocolate cottage cheese smoothie instead of ice cream. Air popped popcorn instead of potato chips. A really lovely “pumpkin pie” yogurt /sugar free pudding mix/pureed pumpkin concoction.

Once I figured all that out (much of it learned from other members here) I started to learn from my diary. I found that (for me) I wasn’t as hungry after eating protein rich foods, so I focused on heigh protein.

It was never a matter of being forced into “eating less”. It was recognizing that I was eating more -way more - than I needed.

Making it a game, a calorie Tetris, made it more of a fun puzzle than agonizing over those things I “couldn’t have any more” or “in whatever quantity I wanted”.

And as it turns out, in maintenance now, I do eat anything I want, including three massive cookies in the past two days that I brought back from a trip last month and froze. Each cookie is 800-900 calories.

Because I’ve learned the art of eating less aka eating better, I’m not worried a bit. I may go over a few hundred today, but I know I’ll be under a similar amount over the next couple days.

It’s a mind game. If you’re gnawing on the misery of “eating less” and not rejoicing in the joy of “eating better”, you’re going to have a tough time. Change your words and your point of view.

springlering62 · September 21

and beware of short term goals. What are you going to do if you haven’t lost exactly what you wanted in three months?

Throw in the towel? Gain it all back?

Or congratulate yourself for the 5,15, 20 pounds you’ve lost and say “hey, this hasn’t been so bad! I’ve learned so much this three months! What would I look like after three more months?”

same with maintenance. There’s a very recent post by a guy bemoaning the he regained all the weight he lost because he great goal as a “finish line” and fell back into old habits when he “finished”. I thought that was super well put.

There is no finish line with weight loss. Success, yes. Finish line? Hell no.

Strudders67 · September 26

To lose weight, you need to eat less than you expend.

If you go in to the Guided Set Up in MFP's Goals page, enter all your stats and select 'Maintain', it'll tell you how many calories a day will see you maintaining your current weight. Eating less than that will see you losing weight. Eating 500 cals a day less than that Maintenance figure will lead to you losing, on average, 1lb a week.

I'm fairly short. When I first came to MFP, my maintenance figure was probably around 1430 cals a day. As MFP won't allocate less than 1200, that's what I got allocated. It didn't matter what rate of loss I seleceted, I was never going to be allocated less than 1200. However, that 230 cals a day deficit didn't give much wiggle room for logging errors and, as I lost weight, my maintenance figure was also getting lower so my deficit was even smaller. Weight loss was very slow, but I got there.

Learning what makes me feel fuller for longer and what substitutions to make helped me a lot. I still eat similar meals but, as an example, I cut the pasta, potatoes and rice (higher in cals) and increased the veg (I can eat lots to fill me up, but I'm consuming fewer cals). I still have cheese on crackers after dinner, but I now buy the thinnest crackers possible. I know which bread has the fewest calories per slice (because it's cut thinner). I definitely make sure I get my daily quota of protein, as that's what keep me feeling fuller for longer. I'm not depriving myself in any way, but I've made substitutions to meet my goal.

elisa123gal · 4:31AM

As you learn to eat differently..and to think about food differently.. it sure feels like starving. Then..if you learn and stick with it.. you eat more of better foods…and what you thought was good food, you realize was garbage.. the "starving" ends. then. the loss is constant and more consistent .. and you truly start realizing. I got this!

age_is_just_a_number · 3:50PM

Full disclosure: I have not read the other replies.

Congratulations on starting your healthy lifestyle journey!

If it feels like you are starving yourself, then you are doing it wrong. Living a healthy lifestyle should not feel like work. It should just feel like living your best life.

Eating less means eating fewer calories than you burn.

1 meal at a time
1 day at a time
1 pound at a time

My suggestions:

Track your food as accurately as possible, but don't let perfection be the enemy of done. In other words, do your best and get this to be a solid habit.
After two weeks of tracking, look at the data. Is there one small change you can make to reduce your calories IN? Common examples:
- you're eating out 5 days a week —> reduce that to 4 days a week
- you drink soda/pop/sugary drink —> swap this out for water
- you don't eat any fruits or vegetables —> start adding 1 or 2 servings per day
Make that one small change. Continue to track. After another two weeks or once your small change feels like it is no longer a change, then review your data and identify another small change.
Rinse and repeat.

Additional thoughts:

Focus on what you can control (calories IN and OUT).
Give yourself time. Slow and steady progress.

As for ‘what to eat’ —> I like Canada’s food guide for “good nutritional guidelines” Canada's Food Guide

We are here for you if you have questions along the way. You got this!

Weight Loss Journey

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