AliceDark Member

Happy birthday! I like your approach -- saving up some calories, drinking lots of water, and letting yourself be a little indulgent without going overboard is spot-on. It sounds like you're doing weekly weigh-ins, which is good in this case. High-sodium days can temporarily cause bumps on the scale, but since you're not…

Welcome! First, I'm going to recommend a couple of really helpful links: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1 http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1 The first covers accurate logging and some…

Welcome! For the record, the Harry Potter ride at Universal is AWESOME! I fully support that being your goal :smile: Pro tip: if you're still there when they do the light show on the Hogwarts castle, definitely watch it once. If you're there when they do the light show a second time, try to ride the Flight of the…

Welcome! You should definitely check out these threads: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10176797/comment-here-if-you-want-more-friends#latest http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10324944/hi-looking-for-friends-motivation#latest

I've never been to Florida, but you might want to check out this "where is everyone from?" thread; it already has tons of responses: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10627631/where-is-everyone-from-comment-down-below#latest Also, definitely think about posting in one (or both) of these threads:…

Welcome! If you're looking for inspiration, please check out the Success Stories forum; some of those threads are amazing :smile: For more friends check out these threads which ended up gaining a lot of traction. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10176797/comment-here-if-you-want-more-friends#latest…

Welcome! Your instincts are spot-on: weight loss always takes longer than you think it will. For the first 4-6 weeks, be patient, log as accurately as you can, and carry on. As long as you're sticking with it, you're on the right path. I'm going to recommend a couple of really helpful links:…

Welcome! First, I'm going to recommend a couple of really helpful links: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1 http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1 The first covers accurate logging and some…

CAN it? Sure. So can a diet where you only eat animal products. Either of those could also make you gain weight. The biggest problem I've seen new vegetarians encounter is that they just remove the meat from their diets and don't replace the nutrients they get from meat. Meat substitutes are not necessarily nutritionally…

One observation: you're usually fairly low on fat and protein, and you tend to consume most of your protein in one meal. Lots of people (although not everyone) find protein and fat to be satiating, so they feel less hungry when they eat more fat and/or protein and space it out more evenly throughout the day.

I like your approach, and your tolerance for hearing feedback! (I personally feel like that's a huge predictor of who will be successful in making life changes -- along with other factors, of course). Anyway, I don't think your alcohol consumption would've stood out to me at all, except that it represents a relatively high…

I was going to point this out too -- incorporating alcohol means that you're not going to be able to hit all of your macro targets. That's not such a problem when you're playing with a bigger calorie budget, but trying to hit 1200 gives you little, if any, wiggle room.

I'd focus on being as accurate as possible about the most high-calorie items to start with, and just see how that goes for the first 4-6 weeks. (I'd recommend tracking things like your main protein, anything with higher fat content like cheese/butter/nuts/avocado, etc. carefully, but not necessarily things like green…

What about pointing her toward our Success Stories forum? Maybe she'd be able to identify with some of these kinds of threads: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621919/success-pictures-of-women-who-started-at-300lbs#latest https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10631795/100-lbs-down#latest…

Welcome! If you haven't checked out these threads yet, I'd definitely recommend it: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10176797/comment-here-if-you-want-more-friends#latest http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10324944/hi-looking-for-friends-motivation#latest

Welcome! I don't think MFP has a specific pregnancy setting, since that's really individual to you, but we do have a couple of pregnancy groups and a thread that includes a lot of good information. If you haven't found these yet, feel free to check them out.…

If you haven't checked out these threads yet, I'd definitely recommend it: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10176797/comment-here-if-you-want-more-friends#latest http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10324944/hi-looking-for-friends-motivation#latest

Welcome to MFP, and good luck with your trainer!

Welcome to MFP, and I hope you're healing well after your surgery! Weight loss is primarily about calories, so you can still lose even if you can't incorporate activity yet. Please just make sure to talk to your doctor about it; you need calories to heal, so you need to make sure that you're not negatively impacting your…

Welcome back! If you haven't checked out these threads yet, I'd definitely recommend it: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10176797/comment-here-if-you-want-more-friends#latest http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10324944/hi-looking-for-friends-motivation#latest

Welcome back! What aspects of food logging are the most annoying for you? It's really not for everyone, but if you're looking for ways to make it work better for you, I'd bet some other users have tips/tricks that could help.

Everyone else said it already: weight loss is about creating a calorie deficit, so you can lose weight not eating "clean" food. However...lots of people find it easier to create that calorie deficit when they're incorporating lower-calorie, higher-volume foods (because you can eat more of them and feel fuller). With that…

I figured that was the case, but I wanted to double-check that I understood the OP correctly.

Okay, that means that you won't actually lose at 1200; that's just the minimum recommendation that MFP will spit out, regardless of the information you enter. Keep in mind that MFP's calculations are just estimates. The only way to know for sure whether you'll gain at 1250 is to try it and see what happens. You can likely…

A good place to start from is to assume that everyone makes mistakes when logging, because everyone makes mistakes when logging. Nobody is ever 100% accurate, especially when you know that your results don't match what you predict should be happening. So, instead of approaching this from a place of defending your logging…

1. Are you measuring your solids with a food scale? 2. How are you finding entries like "creamy sweet potato bacon chowder"? Did you use the recipe builder to create that recipe? 3. Some days look to be incomplete. Is that the case?

Wait...MFP gives you 1200 to lose and also 1200 to maintain? Like, you ran your stats through with both options and it gave you the same number? Something's not right there.

First, I love your plan of losing five pounds at a time. There used to be a very active MFP user who had lost over 100 pounds. He would say that he didn't lose 100 pounds, he lost one pound, 100 times. Second, give things more time. You need to give your current plan 4-6 weeks to really evaluate how well it's working. Be…

Have you talked with the two of them? You could offer to make dinner for everyone a few nights a week. If that doesn't work, could you offer to contribute a side or salad when his mom is cooking?

Decreasing fat or fiber can be associated with constipation, so even if you’re taking in fewer calories, you could have more waste in your system. Also, simply decreasing the volume of food that you’re eating can make you constipated in the short term.