sanfly Member

I’m a big fan of getting a heart rate monitor (HRM) to get an estimate of calories burned. The exercises in MFP often vastly overestimate how many calories you will burn. As you get fitter, your heart rate will drop and you will have to work harder (or longer) to burn the same number of calories - an HRM can account for…

Updated! Ticked off #5 this morning, after a week of plateau! Next goal is not a mini goal, but a MAJOR one, healthy BMI, 0.9kg to go! I also had 2 people at running last night comment on my weight loss, and mid-speed training session the coach said to me that my 'fitness has improved out of sight!'. (It was pretty bad…

Most of weight loss will be because of your diet, exercise is just cream. Once you start exercising you body tends to hold onto a bit of water to help recovery and that can look like a plateau from the outside. If you're on point with your diet, you will resume losing in time. Out of curiosity, do you eat back the exercise…

Updated! Ticked of #4 this morning.

What kind of calorie deficit are you eating at? Perhaps try starting from 'maintenance' for a week or two, then start dropping by 100-150 cal a week until you find the point that works for you? Make sure that you're making some room in your diet for the foods you love on occasion (maybe in lower quantities) so you can plan…

I've been diligently logging etc since the start of July (this time) and my first couple of weeks were pretty similar. It's kind of to be expected though right? You've made this big change, its a huge mental adjustment and a bit exhausting! A couple of weeks in I realised that if I was going to be successful in finally…

For reference: F/38/159cm (5'3"-ish). HW: 84kg (2005), SW: 70.2kg (this time... 1 July) , CW: 65.7kg, GW1: 63kg (healthy BMI) I wanted to read ALL the mini-goals posts in this thread before posting. - Finally done! Its taken me over a month to get through 113 pages, but you guys have kept me inspired and helped to keep me…

One of my besties swears that her wedding ring weighs 5kg, haha :) Seriously though, it's totally understandable through the wedding planning and honeymoon your routines will be all screwed up. Make sure you take some time to understand whats changed and how you need to adjust, and aim to get back into that healthy…

So, just today I compiled all my MFP weigh ins from the last few years, and a few spreadsheets I have going back as far as the start of 2005 when I was at my heaviest. Although I have never gotten back up that high, I have gained and lost the same 10kg at least 3 times, 5kg at least 2 times, and still never hit my…

I think that this post is a really nice, reasonable, no-crap starting point for beginners

It's only been a week, so a bit soon to start worrying too much, but how accurate are you being with your logging? Using a food scale? If you're eating back exercise calories, how much and how are you measuring calorie burn? What is your calorie deficit set to?

So do you 'eat back' all the Fitbit adjusted calories? If yes, start by eating back 0.25 - 0.5 the 'extra' calories, and see how you go. Adjust as necessary. Apparently the wrist HRM devices can be a bit unreliable when it comes to weights etc (to do with the movement of your wrist, how the device sits on it etc) so keep…

I hear you, this is not my first time here! In saying that though even though I do seem to slide backwards every once and a while at least its never quite getting to as bad as I was. I have been back faithfully logging for 3 weeks now and am liking the results! This time I'm trying to be a bit more balanced with my diet -…

So true - I thought that once I connected my HRM chest strap to my Strava app that it would be more accurate with the calorie count, but it made no difference! Now I measure my calories burned with my HRM and the Polar app, and then edit the exercise that comes into MFP from Strava to correct the calories (you cant edit it…

So, I think what happens is that the Fitbit/Tracker calorie adjustment is a moving target throughout the day, and calculates continuously throughout the day. If you're very active in the morning, but not so much in the afternoon/evening, it will 'smooth out' during the day. In saying that though to go from 200 up to 400+…

Absolutely definitely get a food scale. Weigh and measure EVERYTHING. A huge portion of your weight loss will come down to your diet, not exercise (although exercise has great benefits for your overall health and keeping the weight off) If you're not really sure on portions sizes, for the first week don't worry so much…

In the app go to Goals > Calorie and Macronutrient Goals. You should be able to change your goal calories there

Do you have a fitbit or similar synced to your account?

What have you tried before? What made you stop? This is my favourite 'Getting Started' thread - it has some really good, reasonable advice.

How many calories are you eating per day?

We have really similar stats, and with some really strict eating & forced 10,000+ daily steps I have managed to drop about 1.5kg in 2 weeks (now 68kg) so for me at least I don't think losing 1kg per week over a sustained period is really possible. However, I can say that with the increase in exercise (am running a lot more…

No, they need to be calibrated with weights of a known/standard mass. Sorry, not familar with your reference weight in your experiment - 5 kegs?

Scales can be calibrated differently, I can weigh a couple of kg different between home and my doctors or my parents house. Consistency on the same set of scales is important, not the difference between scales. How long since your manual scales were calibrated? Also, ensure that your scales are on a solid surface like the…

I've heard couch25k is great, as an alternative my tips are 1. Never stop when you first want to stop. Run to the next tree, or lamp post or crack in the pavement, just as long as you don't stop when you first get the urge, run a little further. Your brain will give up before your body will. 2. Get a heart rate monitor…

Two poached eggs on one slice of grain toast. Easy and delish

The reason you're breaking at night is because you're too hungry! 1200cals is hard to keep up, particularly when exercising that much. My advice would be to either start eating back a portion of of your exercise calories, or upping your target to 1400cal (or both!). Have some low cal snacks around that you can have after…

Eating too little is as bad for you as eating too much. Check out this guide here for a well rounded way to approach your weight loss: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

What most things don't tell you is that you do get some of that 8 glasses into your diet from food, other drinks etc; AND there are so many other variables to consider as well. Drink enough so that your (sorry for the visual) urine is very pale/almost colourless. If you cut back and your urine starts to get a bit dark, you…

I think your exercise estimates seem quite high for the duration and type of exercise you are doing. It's well accepted that using the values MFP gives you can be between 10 - 30% higher than reality I recommend getting a Heart Rate Monitor (with a chest strap) to more accurate log

I used to drink my tea with 2 (heaped) teaspoons of sugar in each cup - sometimes as many as 10 cups per day! Now if I have even half a teaspoon of sugar in my tea it tastes incredibly sweet and really gross! I started by cutting the sugar down 1/2 a teaspoon at a time. After a few weeks you'll get used to it (it is hard…