My first three months on MFP

Can you say more about how you improved portion control? Do you weigh foods now?

First, let me say that I don't feel that I've done anything really special, other than following the MFP system -- so you can say that I am a big believer that it works. Logging your food intake, starting to move your body, drinking A LOT of water, and eating more natural foods (very little fast food, very few processed/packaged foods, not nearly as much alcohol) can really make a big difference.

My food diary...

The biggest changes that I made in portion control was using the MFP food dairy to track EVERYTHING that I am eating, This includes the both the good and AND my bad days. If I am putting it into my mouth then it is going into my diary.

The other change that I made to my standard MFP goals was to change the balance between carbs, proteins, and fats. I noticed when I first started that MFP tends to recommend a very high-carb, low protein diet and that had me feeling hungry more often and having cravings in between meals. So I did some reading here and found that a lot of people recommended setting your balance along the lines of 40/30/30 (carbs, proteins, fats) and have found that this works really well for me.

I really strive to stay within my allowable calorie limit. I burn about 2,400 calories a day so my MFP limit is currently set to 1400 (which is a 2 pound a week weigh loss goal/1,000 calorie a day deficit -- which I know may not be possible for everyone, particularly women). After I had lost about 20 pounds I made sure to update my MFP goals and calorie limits as you tend to burn less when you are not as heavy (when I started it was up over 1600 calories a day).

I have been pretty diligent about measuring my food as well, so when I am eating anything that has a portion size of 1/2 cup...I am actually putting it into a 1/2 cup sized serving bowl to make sure I am getting that. I do also weigh my food if it is something that requires a portion size in grams or ounces. I realized when I first started this that my "idea" of what was an actual correctly sized portion amount was off. Having done this for three months now I have gotten better at eyeballing things.

My eating and food...

If you were to look at my diary, which is open to my friends, you will still find that I still enjoy eating.

I often have steak, chicken, butter, peanut butter, yogurt, drink 2% milk, and have cookies (though I am needing to cut back on that again). I've cooked meals like beef braised in wine sauce, rib-eye steaks with a port wine reduction and blue cheese, apricot chicken, chicken tagines, etc., and have found ways to make these things work for me.

You would also see that generally have a day a week, where I have a "cheat meal" and don't really worry about my overall calorie expenditure for the day. I am not using this meal as an all out binge-meal, but as a way to enjoy eating foods that I may not normally be able to eat on the calorie restricted intake (i.e. buffalo wings, pizza, bread and cheese, a big cheeseburger, etc.). There are a couple of guidelines I use when it comes to my cheat meal:

1) I have to earn it. If the rest of the week is bad I don't want to compound it with a cheat meal.
2) When I have a cheat meal, it is simply that one meal. Afterwards, I get back on plan.
3) I log everything - which is my way of still being accountable for what I eat.

Finally my exercise...

While I do go to the gym, you would see that I am NOT a person who lives at the gym 5-7 day a week. My goals throughout this first three months have been to get about 3 hours of total exercise a week and burn between 2,000-3,000 calories a week doing so. This includes time at the gym, time spent walking the dogs, etc.

I use a Polar FT-60 to track and monitor my weekly exercise, and have used its built in training modes to work on achieving my calories. I spent the first two months of this following its recommendations and program for losing weight &
burning fat, and then recently switched towards improving my fitness and starting to build up my aerobic base.

I will say that the time that I do spend at the gym on the machines has not been steady state exercising (i.e. walking 1.5 miles at a consistent speed). I have tended to do a lot of interval training within my heart rates zones. For example, during my fat burning sessions where my HRM wanted me working zones 1 & 2, I would start at the bottom of Zone 1 and then go hard until I reached the top of my Zone 2, and then completely back off to where I was barely moving. I am still burning calories, still withing my heart rate zones, but am getting the benefit of building and improving my recovery time.

If you want to see pictures of my transformation, you can see them in my profile pictures as a significantly fat man in boxer briefs is not for the faint of heart and may just be a little much for posting here.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/photos/view/13908421