futuremanda Member

Make sure you're getting enough fat. 1 tbls of olive oil to cook your meat and veggies would up your cals by about 120, and help with the fat macro! And don't eat things like fat free cottage cheese (if you are indeed low on fat, as I suspect you are with so few calories). Fat is really important for a number of things,…

1-2 lbs a day? Or do you mean week? If day, that's definitely just water weight. You didn't create a 7000 calorie deficit (meaning, under maintenance) per day, you just didn't. What is your calorie target? Do you eat back exercise calories? Do you always hit your target? Do you log all your foods? Do you weigh your foods?…

Set MFP to sedentary with a goal of maintenance for now. Stopping the slow gain will be step one! Read up on accurate logging: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1…

Or that the cup sizes are different. Are they listed as sizes (small, medium, large) or weights (oz)? If sizes, then one restaurant's small might be a different amount of soda than the small at another restaurant.

*Absolutely* log it. You will thank yourself later. Feeling guilt when you go over is pretty normal, especially at first, or if it's been happening a bit regularly. The answer is NOT: "do it anyway, but bury your head in the sand and not log it." The answer is to work on your guilt. People who maintain a desirable weight…

Maybe mix in a bit of good quality jam? I don't know, I eat full fat with fruit. (Fat and protein combo keeps me full and happy, completely worth the extra calories, ime.) You can also bake with it, use it in pancake mixes and the like.

Yep. Scientifically, your body takes a certain amount of energy to not die. Breathing, heartbeat, etc. If you do not supply it with that energy, it cannot magic up extra... it has to tap into its own stores. It doesn't matter if you didn't give it enough by eating all doughnuts or all celery, not enough is not enough. It…

What did you set your lifestyle to? I agree you're probably "active" or at least "lightly active". So if you're set to sedentary AND you're not counting your exercise calories to eat back, that's a pretty big margin of error. You could probably bump the lifestyle up one notch, or lower your goal rate of loss a notch (by…

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MFP intends for you to eat them, that's why it gives them back to you! Basically, it has no way of knowing ahead of time how much you plan to exercise, and if you will follow through. If MFP were say, your own personal trainer, it would probably help you set a target to burn a set number of calories in a week, and then…

No, I would not tell an alcoholic to just buy less liquor and portion it out better. But I resent the comparison of what I said, to that. Alcoholism =/= sugar addiction, however "quite literally" you may have meant that you are an addict. Besides which, if you believe you are literally addicted to the substance, what does…

Do you know what caused the upset stomach? It wouldn't be the lifestyle changes you're trying to make, but it might be a specific thing you ate or a virus you caught or something. Focus first on getting better! Then, don't give up. Losing weight or maintaining weight or gaining weight or getting fit or making healthier…

Okay! So then with MFP, you eat the exercise calories also. If you trust your burns, then give yourself the full calories, and see after a month or two how that has been working, adjusting if needed. If you're not sure about the burns, plan to eat some (50-75% is a common starting point) and again, adjust if needed after a…

Get a food scale. Makes tracking really easy! And play around with the recipe feature. Even just find a simple recipe off the web and use it, just to see. Check out the Quick Tools (I'm on the web, not sure if it's the same on the app) under each meal in your food diary. You can do things like copy yesterday's meal, or…

Are you willing to eat more natural sugars? (Fruit, dairy, etc) <-- Might help with the adjustment. Maybe find an option you'd be unlikely to overdo? Like, say, hot chocolate. If you had that in the house, would you realistically go drink five mugs, or would you just make one? Did you cut anything else by the way? You say…

How much are you eating? What are you eating? Did you cut anything out of your diet? Would you be willing to make your diary public, and let us know your height, weight, lifestyle, exercise, etc? Probably it comes down to an inappropriately low calorie target, inappropriately low eating habits (eating or netting below…

There are a few ways to approach it... but if your ticker is correct, you're only looking to lose 10 lbs, yes? Then I'd aim more around 250 deficit (0.5 lb a week). So that's 1429 on a non-exercise day. 1729 on a workout day. The other approach is to spread them out -- if you know you'll burn 300 x 5, then that's 1500 each…

Well it's only ever going to be CICO. It isn't CICO vs other methods... it's just CICO. Create a deficit over time -- you will never lose weight in a surplus over time. It's calorie counting vs other methods. Calorie counting is one way to get the CICO working in your favour. And it has a lot of advantages -- it's…

Did MFP recommend the calories, or did you use a different calculator? If MFP recommended them, then it intends for you to eat them, PLUS those exercise calories back. If you used a different calculator based on TDEE, or you had a professional help you out, then stick to your 1540 as your target, and only add a bit more on…

In addition to what's been said: When you do the guided setup, MFP does ask you about your exercise goals. However, it will only use this information on the exercise page, where it will tell you how far into your weekly exercise goal you are. It doesn't use it to calculate your target calories at all, it isn't used to help…

Do you use a food scale? Do you log everything? (tastes while cooking, mints, oil when cooking, cream in coffee, "0 calorie" items -- which can be more like 5 per serving, etc) Do you log always, and always get your target? (i.e. weekends, Easter, parties, etc) I don't mean you have to be perfect, because no one is, but if…

I lost plenty of weight while I was out for weeks at a time (on two separate occasions in one year) with a bad back. Set MFP to sedentary and then pick a goal you can live with for the time being. It might be maintenance, it might be 0.5 lb, etc. You'll have a lot fewer calories if you used to have a very active job +…

This! Or I'd keep the chicken, double or triple the veggies (cooked in olive oil, with onion, garlic, spices, maybe more veg variety -- I like cauliflower too, that'd be nice) and cut the fruit in half. Maybe a tbl of labneh... At any rate, I'd up that fat content.

You have a deficit of 1470 calories? Did you mean calorie target? Do you also mean "if I can handle a lower *calorie target*"? If you're hungry, make sure you're getting enough fat and fibre also. And get protein and fibre each time you eat, not just in total. But if you seriously have a 1470 deficit, that would explain…

Your plan sounds great on paper! A 400 calorie deficit off TDEE is nice, not too aggressive. If the JM is new, you may be retaining some water. The 2 lbs up was definitely water, but you could still be holding on to a bit. That said, mathematically, if you're aiming for a 400 deficit, and you often get 500 (coming in 100…

Calories. Total calories matter. Your body cannot fuel itself if you give it less energy than it needs to live, without burning body tissues. It can't then ALSO add fat to your body, you would need to give it surplus energy to store. You can't get fat eating bread if your total calories are not in a surplus. You will lose…

Sometimes I can get away with fruit. Apples work really well for me because for some reason, I bottom out on my want for apples really quickly. I could probably eat unlimited mango, but by the end of an apple, I'm like, "wow that was so much apple". Hot cocoa is another one -- I like to foam milk and make a sort of cocoa…

Think of protein like a minimum! And make sure you're getting adequate fat too. It's really important for hormone regulation, vitamin absorption, digestion, etc. The sugar column is sort of not working correctly, so I'd recommend changing it to something like iron or fibre. (You can change it in your settings!) Right now,…

Yeah that does seem high. Do you have a super physical job? If I use your stats in another calculator, and choose lightly active, I get 1998 as your *maintenance*. Moderate bumps it to 2252. (Sedentary is 1744.) But you'd subtract 500 to get 1 lb a week, or 250 for 0.5 lb. So I'm guessing you're set up for something like…

If you're trying LCHF, you want to make sure you get enough fats and water. Do up meals with protein, veg, and fruit, plus some oil when cooking to get the fat up. Look up low glycemic index veg and fruit, and use that mainly. Cut down or mostly out on grains and dairy. (How far down or out is going to depend on the…