emmamcgarity Member

I can feel how overwhelmed you are and your desire for a healthier lifestyle. I think sometimes when we start this journey of weight loss we think about ALL the goals we have at once. We imagine that the process will have us eating salads for every meal and spending hours each day working out. Then we become paralyzed and…

Congratulations on your current weight loss so far! I am also 5’1” and am currently losing the weight again…. I’m currently down to 145 and have been struggling lately to stay on track. I’ve been texting with a friend who understands the struggle of eating in a calorie deficit. She has been very supportive with kind words…

I have the Charge 6 that I upgraded from the Charge 4. I’ve also previously had the Inspire HR. What I liked about the Charge is the built in GPS instead of having to pair it with my phone for GPS walks or runs. I also REALLY like the heart rate info and sleep info. I didn’t realize how much I would like that data until I…

I’m also 5’1” but much older than you. At your current weight you are within a few pounds of being a healthy BMI for your height. So I would recommend changing your settings to lose 0.5 lbs per week instead of a more aggressive goal. As for your question about eating once per day for a heavier meal, I personally don’t…

Have you taken any planned maintenance breaks? It sounds like you may benefit from spending a few weeks or more eating maintenance calories. You may want to consider changing your current goals in MyFitnessPal’s settings to maintenance while taking the planned break.

Give yourself some grace on this. It’s a very difficult thing to do. Diet soda can be helpful but not everyone can make the adjustment easily to the difference in taste. When I made the switch I had to ease myself in for a week drinking a mixture of half regular and half diet soda to adjust to the taste. Now I only drink…

Rest. It sounds like you ramped up your mileage too quickly if you started only a month ago and are already running 3 miles 4 days per week. I believe the general recommendation is to not increase mileage by more than 10% per week for running. This is to avoid injury and give your body time to adjust. Also, have you ever…

I also eat a Mediterranean/DASH style diet with occasional treats. The one macro I pay attention to is protein. My personal goal is to get 100g of protein each day based on my goal weight. So I break down each meal into 30ish gram mini goals to help me mentally stay on track for the day. I keep some flavors of Greek yogurt…

I started by using the treadmill at the gym occasionally and had my adult daughter go with me. She helped me tour the place while I was there the first time because she knew I was nervous to explore on my own. But I was still anxious about the locker room. I really wanted to take the aquafit class but I was worried I…

It sounds like your current plan isn’t sustainable for your current lifestyle. I would suggest tracking and eating at maintenance calories for a while. Then once you are consistent with tracking, try taking a small deficit on some days. The weight loss will be slower, but it might be easier to sustain.

Hi everyone. Thank you all for the warm welcome back to running. @quilteryoyo I’m so sorry to hear of your loss. My prayers are with you. @chris_in_cal It sounds like you have some concerns and reluctance about the medication. I’d encourage you to spend some time journaling your concerns and researching the side effects…

Protein is one of those items I’m also really trying to focus on. I’ve managed recently to get it up to 100ish grams per day by tweaking things over time. Greek yogurt is definitely your friend here. Another overlooked source for me was bread products. I did a lot of label reading across different brands. If items are…

Hi everyone! I’ve been away from myfitnesspal for a while and missed this thread. I haven’t been running lately due to laziness after recovering from a long bout of plantar fasciitis (ugh, no fun). I’m happy to see some familiar faces and many new ones. For February my goal is to start running again. I’ve been walking…

Good morning! Most here on myfitnesspal don’t use WW. WW and calorie counting are different strategies. If you are trying to lose weight either strategy is likely to work well for you. I’m currently a WW member and track there. However I will occasionally double track on myfitnesspal to check in on my macros. In some ways,…

In my experience motivation comes after action. I recommend you log the last thing you ate in myfitnesspal now. Then keep logging, even when over calories. Every day. If you forget, log to the best of your memory. Just keep logging. Don’t beat yourself up when you go over calories. Logging is the main goal. Once you have…

My best advice is to not look at this journey as “pass or fail”. Use MyFitnessPal as a way to track data. Track everything you eat (even if over calories). Can’t remember everything you ate? Track to the best of your memory. If you have a higher calorie meal than planned, simply eat whatever you had planned at the next…

It sounds like you are a bit overwhelmed and struggling. You have a lot going on. I also struggle with depression. I recommend setting your goals very small. Don’t worry about working out right now. In fact, maybe just track your calories. Even when you go over. After a few weeks of tracking your calories, look for very…

There are some days that I am hungrier than others. I eat more on those days and track the calories. I do find that looking at the weekly average on calories helps me better gauge how I am doing instead of looking at a single day.

You’ve definitely been given very good advice. Go to a running store to be fitted for running shoes. They will be able to determine what type of shoes is suited for your gait. I run in a neutral shoe with cushion which works well for my gait. However my son needs a support shoe even just for walking due to the way his…

Since you start our well in the morning, perhaps that’s a good time to track what you remember on the previous day eating for the missing gaps in yesterdays logs. For instance, if you didn’t track all of your meals yesterday, take a moment now to track what you remember eating. It won’t be as accurate, but I find holding…

I have found that weighing daily with a weight trending app (Happy Scale) has helped me see the smaller incremental differences that I wasn’t seeing on weekly weigh ins. It took about 10 daily weigh ins before I was able to see the trends. Also keep in mind that the last few pounds will be very slow.

I am a runner, albeit a slow runner. Are you following a specific training plan? I personally recommend joining a running club if you have one in your area. The run clubs in my metro area have coaches and group workouts to help you meet those goals. FWIW, I’m 55 year old and joined a run club a few years ago with my PB on…

Are you tracking when you binge?

What kind of cross training are you doing to support your running? I read something a couple years back about running injuries related to hip and/or knees often being related to not having enough lateral movement. Since then I find myself taking breaks through the day to work in some sidesteps or alternating knee lifts or…

Thanks for coming back to clarify. Now that you added some carbs back, are you feeling better?

I listened to a podcast a few years ago interviewing Yoni Freedhoff. It really stuck with me. In his example he was talking about a piece of cake. He recommended that first you ask yourself “is it worth it today to have that piece of cake?”. Sometimes the answer will be yes. But before you proceed, take into consideration…

I am also 55 years old. The most reliably successful tool for me for weight loss is logging my food every day. As accurately as possible. Even if over calories. Every day.

Is there a medical reason you cut carbs/sugar? If not, this might not be the right approach for you.

I don’t log spray oil. But I do use a spray bottle that is not aerosolized to keep me from spraying too liberally. Anything that I cook that would involve sautéed onions or garlic is a dish that I am already using the recipe builder for. I do include onion and garlic for the recipe builder and also spices. Not because I…

I agree that starting logging food is the key first step. If you haven’t already, go ahead and log the last thing you ate today. As for exercise, start small when you are ready. Then increase when you want. Walking is a good starting point for many.