Swiftdogs Member

Wear the bikini and rock it! Take a nice cover to put on when you're up walking around until (if) you feel confident.

If you don't have the calories for those higher-number options, fix some lean meat with a lot of spice. Protein, for me, stops hunger and cravings. I'll also have a boiled egg sprinkled with Italian seasoning.

My Fitbit Zip is the reason the indicator on my ticker is over to the right side :smile: . It's great for tracking your activity all day, which is ideal for my routine.

I'm 5'9" and 54 years old. I just hit 135 today, which is my current target. I still have a bit of belly and butt I'd like to get rid of, so I'll drop a bit more before going to maintenance. This is a lot lower than would have looked good on me when I was younger.

It also recalcs any time you adjust your goals, even if you're not down a full 10 pounds.

Great minds think alike :wink:

Plan a goodie into each day's food. It's not a "cheat" if it's within your goals. If a cookie or cake feels too guilty, have a piece of toast with a smear of jam or a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. You're right; this is a lifetime process. It's easy to start out with heavy restrictions, but the next step is to loosen up just…

Definitely start weighing. If you do find you've been logging accurately, is that 1450 net or gross? With as much exercise as you're doing, you need to be eating at least a good percentage of those calories.

Not a problem as long as you log it. My motto: Will walk for wine.

Don't lose too fast! Reduce your weekly loss as you approach your goal. I've been at a half pound a week for the last 15 pounds, and I'm about to reduce even that target. Maintenance won't be a big transition.

You've made a fantastic start! The loss is great, but even better is the permanent change in habits. You got this! :flowerforyou:

I like the way you think :laugh: If the place has a calorie number for breadsticks, you can eyeball the size of the piece of crust versus a breadstick and estimate that way.

That would be hard to calculate, depending on how much water was added and how long you cooked the beans. Probably the easy way out is to record the full calorie count for the beans and treat the juice as a freebie. It comes out even as long as you consume both.

That diet looks like it is going to be too low on fat, and you need healthy fat. Put butter on the potato, peanut butter on the banana, avocado in your salad - things like that. Since you've already signed up, go ahead and put your numbers in MFP and log a proposed day to evaluate your calories, protein, fat, etc.

My Zip is the reason the indicator on my ticker is way over to the right side. I started out set up at sedentary, and I was very conservative what I logged as exercise. It was only after I started wearing a Fitbit that I realized my normal routine, even with an office job, is far from sedentary. Once I learned to trust my…

I think this is a battle we all fight, and different tactics work (or not). Buying goodies in individual portions can help. Opening another package is a bigger step than taking one more out of an open bulk pack. Or make yourself have to wait by freezing them. If I have one chocolate (a big weakness) and want to reach for…

Congratulations for getting up and walking! It's also great that you recognize a problem before it becomes worse. A woman needs to NET 1200 calories a day to maintain everything in good functional order. Pick more calorie-dense foods if you don't feel like eating more volume. When I started, I set my activity at sedentary…

Protein and fat macros are minimums. I also track fiber as a minimum. Going over those and staying under calories is good.

There is good advice on this thread already, but I'll add my $0.02. Track fiber and fat in your macros. Some things don't have nearly as much as you might think, such as salad greens. Psyllium husk is my go-to to add some extra fiber if I'm going to be short. When you are "plugged up" drink a TON of water. It will take a…

I do best eating fairly frequently, with mid-morning and afternoon snacks in my plan. It's easier to wait an hour or so rather than all the way to the next meal. Lunch is my main meal, and I'm happiest when it is filling, ideally a small portion of lean meat, sweet potato, and a green veggie. Also, as another poster said,…

It assumes you have been breathing since midnight last night. That 1050 calories should be your BMR for the number of hours that have passed today. If you haven't had it on, it assumes you've had no activity yet. I do all my logging on MFP and let the Fitbit give me an adjustment for activity. The only exercise I log is…

I've changed mine three times already, and will probably bump it down again. The number doesn't really matter. When I get to where I want to be, that's the number I'll work with in maintenance.

I had the same issue when I started. My problem areas are a belly and butt cheeks, which aren't really measured with the traditional tape placement. So my clothes were getting quite loose before I saw any real difference in my measurements. I wish I'd taken a diagonal measurement from the waist in front under the butt.…

That's a low goal with 79 pounds to go, even if you're very short. At that level you should at least eat most of your exercise calories, only adjusting if you think something is inflated. Lightly active sounds like a better setting, or change your pounds-per-week loss goal down a bit. I'm 5' 9" and started with a 1200…

I think the interface between Fitbit and MFP was down for quite a while today. Mine just woke up a little while ago. There seem to have been other disconnects recently. It's easy enough to calculate your adjustment to see where you stand.

Not necessarily. My main problem areas are a belly (below the waist) and butt cheeks. If I had taken some sort of diagonal measurement, it would probably have shown more results than the traditional.

Some people see results on the tape measure before the scale moves. I was the other way around. I was probably 15-20 pounds down and my clothes were a LOT looser before I saw much difference in measurements.

I did okay, considering. I went 500 over goal Monday when we had a cookie exchange AND lunch at an Italian place at work. Yesterday I was right at maintenance. With 58 pounds to go, a 1200 goal seems awfully low for you. That's really hard to stick with, and may flat not be enough food for good health if you're truly…

Normally I'd ask for source citations, but I'll go with this. Pass the gravy. :drinker:

Your exercise goal is separate from your calorie goal on MFP. The question is what you put as your activity level. If you based that (active or very active) on your workouts, then that calorie burn is already factored in. But that's not how you're supposed to do it. Set you activity based on your life outside of separate…