easjer Member

Honestly, I think everyone ought to read up about charting to learn the basics of the menstrual cycle no matter what. Many of us were poorly educated about menstrual cycles in school or by our parents and don't have a firm grasp of how things are supposed to work and what is normal. Any stress (emotional or physical) in…

Ok, first things first. If you were on hormonal birth control, it can take awhile for your body to begin hormone regulation again in a consistent fashion. Second, dieting and starting a new workout regime can both shock your body into delayed ovulation (which means a delayed period). My cycle normalized to an 18 day…

Exactly what you did. Take the total made and divide into the number of servings you need. I actually find that easier than trying to figure out what a serving of ready-made is (when you are talking about, say, a frozen pizza that is being eaten by 3 but has a serving size of 1/5 - I mean, I know how to calculate, but the…

I mean, honestly, I get tired of the tedium of weighing, measuring, entering, etc. But that's the deal - it is too easy for me to overeat without doing this stuff. I feel much better and look much better (less bloated and puffy) when I make food at home, because there isn't excess dairy, salt and sugar and I have an…

My go-to for things like one-pot dishes or casseroles is to pre-portion and put into containers immediately. Or, if sharing with family, I will divide in a way that makes sense (there are 3 adults, 1 child eating dinner at my place). I'll take my portions first (set one aside for the following meal) and then let everyone…

Usually about a week, with steady decrease throughout that time. But it also depends on how much sodium I'm consuming during that time.

Nope, it's far healthier and tastier. Ready made will inevitably have junk I don't want or need and it is so much more expensive than homemade. Additionally - it's all an inexact science. Just because you have it printed in front of you doesn't mean it's wholly accurate. There are tons of recipe/calorie counters out there…

Oh, and as for cooking - honey, please. A crockpot and microwave can do wonders for someone inexperienced in the kitchen. You don't have to be a gourmet chef to create edible, healthy, even tasty meals. Some of the best dishes we make are the least complicated. Crockpots especially are amazing - usually you just layer…

I was there for years. Literally years of my life spent feeling ashamed of my size and weight and angry that I was judged for it and that I wasn't normal, but really not in the right headspace to make permanent changes. For any variety of reasons, some legit, some not. It only happened when my head was in the right place…

I eat salads most days with a variety of greens and veggies and 6 oz of grilled meat (or occassionally tuna or chicken salad made with paleo mayo on greens). Apple with nut butter, you're good. Another dish I like is paleo meatballs in the crockpot. That's usually good for 4-5 meals for me alone - eat over a bed of…

As someone who is a chronic stressor and for whom therapy hasn't helped much - please do not stop healthy habits. Right now it's these exams. Next will be med school, then internship, then residency, then practice . . . life happens. If you are like me, there is never a point at which there is no stress because life is…

Fitbit is awesome for your TDEE. I love that I get a real sense of where I am every day and can either pick up the pace (I'm about to go walk around the building again at work to up my steps) or decrease calories. I was really struggling to figure out how much to eat with BMR and TDEE and my workouts (when the logs all…

HICT - google the seven minute workout. It's deceptive because you should do 3-4 of the seven minute circuits. You don't need anything but a chair and a wall and your bodyweight really. It's very modifiable and stupid hard and the exercises can be substituted with other similiar exercises if you need variety (ie, push -ups…

No. I drank green tea while ttc, because it had a mildly helpful effect in thinning cervical mucous. There was no weight loss. Now, that said, I do think green tea is beneficial, but 3-4 cups per day sounds excessive. And if it can interfere with folic acid absorption, so be aware of that.

It's combining your burn with your other calorie burning activities (like, existing) and giving you a real-time more accurate than a computer TDEE. Eat based on your TDEE, but make sure you haven't double entered - enter exercise only on MFP and enter your start times (it will then adjust the Fitbit expenditure). Though…

Water weight, bloat and constipation - common in first tri and will add to your weight. That said, please don't worry so much about the scale. A good care provider will not be focused your weight gain unless it looks rapid and very excessive. So long as your diet is good (which is TOUGH early on), your body will gain what…

As for what I do in the moment - I evaluate my calories and my workout plan. Can I have that? Maybe. I pre-log what I know I'm eating to try and avoid the trap of eating and finding out later that I'm over. I get something to drink. I try to figure out if I'm really hungry or if I'm bored or upset or something else.…

This will probably be wildly unhelpful - I just sucked it up and stopped. I did a Whole30, which was a headlong way to end a lot of my bad habits in fell swoop. A lot of it has stuck too. For me, there were always reasons, always excuses, always promises to do better and I never did. I just didn't want it enough to do it.…

You can always try almond or cashew butter (I make my own, and it's delicious - much prefer to peanut butter). Easy way to increase calories is proteins and fats. Make protein the central piece of every meal or snack, and build around that. I was having trouble eating up to my BMR at first, and I had to add in some foods I…

There is a difference between caloric restriction and exercise. Exercise should not exacerbate or cause depression - the opposite is true. Exercise has been proven to help in fighting mild to moderate depression. There is also a difference between mild, moderate and severe depression, situational or emotional depression…

I get so tired of seeing that. She may be under-reporting, but it is 100% possible to eff up your metabolism in the short term and have no weight loss or even weight gain when you undereat. Yes, eventually, you will lose weight no matter what, but the body will attempt to slow metabolism and conserve energy and fat for…

I, too, experienced a gain when I'd been under-eating for a few weeks because my metabolism was shot to hell. It took some time to get it to realize we weren't starving and normalize. You are not eating enough. Period. And even as a school nurse, you should be able to get 10 minutes to eat something. And if you aren't…

It depends on how low your caloric intake is and what you are eating. Certainly huge changes in diet/nutrition and low caloric intake could impact your hormones in such a way that you feel depressed, and deprivation can certainly make you down emotionally. If you have quit addictive foods cold turkey, that can cause…

Major changes to your diet and exercise can impact hormone production or make your body think you are potentially facing lean times, which is not ideal for pregnancy, so the first part of your cycle lasts longer. Given the way menstrual cycles work, the eating more calories/reducing the exercise had no impact on when your…

Aw, OP, I want to give you a hug. Look, making big changes to your lifestyle is tough and when you have unsupportive family and emotional relationships with food it is even tougher. There was a ton of great advice in here about the nutritional value of that breakfast. It was a good thing! You needed that protein. You know…

While that makes a logical sense, your body doesn't necessarily work that way. You have to eat to a certain level to keep your metabolism in peak condition, so depending on closely you eat to that level, you may hurt things longer term by under-eating today. A better option might be to eat to normal levels and take a walk…

Hey, I know your pain. I started really exercising in late Jan/early Feb and my weight loss stalled. Here is the thing though - you need to get out of your head and stop focusing on numbers. Weight is not a great indicator of health. And your goal needs to be getting healthy. Weight is a piece of that puzzle! An important…

It depends on the setting I select for my calculations. If I set to 3-5 hours of moderate exercise (which is usually close), then it comes to ~3300. FB gives me a weekly average burn of ~3500. The difference is that FB is actually measuring my activity, so if I do 6 hours of exercise it's higher. If I do 3, it's lower.…

Absolutely, but with the qualifier that I don't eat them all back. There is too much estimation in both calories and burn to eat them all. That said, I calculate TDEE via fitbit and try to eat to TDEE - 1000. If I rely in MPG, I am too low on calorie intake. I did not lose weight when I didn't eat exercise calories.

I have lots of rippling, dimpling cottage cheesy skin and loose skin. And my face looks weird to me. I mean, better without the three extra chins and re-emergence of my neck, but different. I can get self-conscious about it, if I'm honest. But I also know I'm the only one noticing and that this is still better than the…