Mumsnet Talk

Hello!

OK, stemming from this thread I promised to start a thread to explain a little bit more about eating well and still losing weight.

I'll start by telling you about me because I love to talk about me

About 5 years ago (when I was 34) I went back to work full time, this time locally, in a sedentiary desk job. I drive to work everyday and was often far too busy lazy to do any exercise at all. My weight remained fairly static (At about 11 stones, I'm 5ft 7.5 and fairly chunky) for a good couple of years and then it started creeping up.

For the past two years I have skipped on and off WW, SW and I have tried low calorie diets, the lot. My weight has gone up to 12 stone 11 lbs at it's highest and I'm carrying it pretty much all over. My gut though TERRIBLE - It hangs over my knickers and in January my size 16 clothes were starting to strain.

Miserable ain't the word. It has affected my confidence (yes, honestly) and I know that at my age (39) it is only going to get harder to lose.

So, in January I started back on WW. I watched everything I ate, I thought about food compulsively, I went for walks in my lunch hour, and every weekend I fell off the wagon and stuffed my face. WHY? It makes no sense! I gobbled bread and cakes and biscuits and sweets like mad.

In April, after having lost and gained the same 7lbs over and over again I joined BIWI's Low Carb Bootcamp, and started upping my exercise at the gym (Doing classes mainly and swimming and I also started the Couch 2 5K) this is where it got weird...I stuck to the diet, it was pretty easy! I loved the food and didn't feel hungry at all - my endurance during exercise was affected but I thought I'd break through that barrier sooner or later. I watched as people on the thread lost masses of weight and I was completely stalled out. What? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? I believe that during this time I was eating a good couple of thousand calories per day, plus exercising almost every day.

I left the group as I felt so fed up with not losing and limped back to my fitness pal, but decided to stick with the no crap (no white bread/pasta/rice, easy on the white potatoes, easy on the fruit) WOE. MFP gave me a calorie limit of 1,200 cals per day and I did this for a a few days before starting to feel rotten. I started looking around the MFP community pages and found the Eat More To Weigh Less Group and read every link, and lots of the discussion boards.

It was a lightbulb moment - WHY was I expecting my body to cope on less calories than it needs just to exist? WHYYYYY?

I started EMTWL on 16th May and have lost 1 lb. That doesn't really mean very much though, as the scales are FILTHY liars - but I have eaten very well and am losing inches consistently. Since I started eating more calories (I include BIWI's brilliant Bootcamp in this calculation) I have lost 4.5 inches from my waist and a good couple of inches from my hips, arse and bust. I have dropped a dress size.

OK. I'm going to post this essay and then I'm going to talk a bit about metabolic rate calculations and the sciency bits.

This is brilliant! Thank you

Thanks Shirley.

I will come back when I have time to do this properly.

I'm in. I like the idea of eating more.

Shirley, thank you, I have gradually come to realise over the past few months that I need to eat more (even though I am about 30lb overweight). I need to eat breakfast, have a bigger lunch, have more healthy snacks, drink more tea and non-alcoholic drinks, but eat a smaller evening meal. I am convinced that this plus exercise will result in weight loss. Will check out the link later but am on my way out to lunch with a friend soon. Will be back!

OK.

So the first link you're going to need is My Fitness Pal

Sign up, it's FREE and there are millions of foods in the database. If you have a smartphone the apps are also free (AND BRILLIANT) and on the i-phone it also has a handy bar code scanner which really takes the faff out of working out the calorie content of food.

Once you've signed up, you can PM me and I will friend you! (I'm not wild keen on shoving my MFP name on here for all to read as I do attract some HATERZ! )

Now, the next thing you need to find out is what your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) This is the number of calories your body burns just BEING in existence.

Mine is at around the 1,500 mark. I make sure that I always NET 1,500 calories everyday. I'll explain a bit more about net calories in a bit...

Once you have your BMR, you need to find out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). This is the amount of calories you actually use in a day. This is dependant on your level of activity.

To get these figures go to:

calculator

and hit in your figures. Most healthy people should be choosing MODERATE exercise level - that walk you take to drop the kids at school? That laundry you do? That walk from the tube to the office? That gardening? It all adds up.

My TDEE is about 2,400.

To lose weight safely and to KEEP IT OFF and not want to fall off the wagon and shovel crisps into your gaping maw (just me??) is a 15% cut of your TDEE. I eat 2,000 calories everyday, regardless of whether the day is an exercise day or not - REST DAYS ARE VERY IMPORTANT!

For example my week might look like this:

Monday - Eat 2,000 calories. Gym - burned 500 calories. Net calories = 1,500
Tuesday - Eat 2,000 calories. Rest day
Wednesday - Eat 2,000 calories. Gym - burned 700 calories. Net calories = 1,300 calories. Eat 200 additional to bring net to 1,500...

and so on.

Read this for a really thorough explanation!

Am I allowed to lurk on here just to see what tasty healthy things people are eating?

Marking my space. Brilliant thread and looking forward to the science bit

My figures are similar to yours, Shirley, so I've changed my calorie goal accordingly, along with setting my Carbs/Fat/Protein to 40%/30%/30% as advised.

So, once you've got your amount of calories you should be eating you're probably feeling a bit scared.

I know that I was - HOW CAN I EAT 2,000 calories per day? I will balloon into an enormous shuffling creature made entirely of fat...

Well, the truth is, that if you've been consistently starving yourself, then binging, then starving again the likelihood is that there will be a small gain in weight. I have been tracking my weight properly since 1st May and here is what has happened:

1st May - 170.5 lbs.
3rd May - 168 lbs (weird fluctuation)
11th May -168 lbs
16 May - 173.5 (ARGGGH! START RUNNING FOR THE HILLS!!)
19 May - 172.5
22 May - 170.7
25 May - 171.5

Right, so as you can see, I'm bibbling about with 1-2 lbs coming on and off and getting right on my tits but I'm EATING 2,000 calories per day. Surely, if all we read about low calorie diets = weight loss, and higher calorie diets = weight gain I should be PILING IT ON?

Well, no, actually. This first 6 weeks (<gulp> Yes, you heard) can be tough (from everything that I've read) and the scales fiddle about and small gains are made - but what you're really doing is teaching your body that it's OK - you're going to be feeding it now, piling coal into the fire of your metabolism to help it burn MORE fat and help you lose weight.

The real story is in my measurements. Unforch, I'm at home today and the spreadsheet I keep with my measurements is at work, but I can tell you that since the first of May my waist measurements look like this:

1st May - 39 inches
25 May - 33.5 inches.

YEAH BABY!

What I'm telling you is that

a) you might gain a little bit on the scales
b) You MIGHT gain a few inches even in the first few weeks
c) You must remain patient
d) You WILL feel great.

Honestly, I feel terrific, bags more energy, I'm happy AND I'm dropping inches. What's not to love?

Now. Read this

Shirley this is so interesting.

I am doing Paul McKenna, and I've lost about 17lbs over the last year and dropped 2-3 dress sizes - 6 inches off my waist, 7 off my hips.
I have been really surprised at how much I can eat and lose weight, and when I read that stuff about Base Metabolic Rate then I understand why. I need over 2000 calories just to keep me functioning based on my lifestyle (dashing about after 2 preschoolers + BFing).

I really think this could work well alongside PMK.

Tell me more about flaxseed - when do you eat it and how?

Of course Trills!

Thanks, this is great!

I'm really regretting that McDonald's breakfast now

Hi Ali! Well done on your loss!

Flaxseed contains shitloads (technical term) of Omega 3 fat, which is the shizzle in oily fish. Omega 3 fats have proven health benefits. flaxseed

I buy the milled stuff, and the "dose" is 30g (about 2 x dessert spoons). I add it to protein shakes, I added some to my porridge this morning, you can bake with it (add it to breads and cakes) you can stir it into yghurt etc etc...

It's got a mild nutty flavour.

Tobes - Forget that. You can calorie it up, now worries. Work out the damage and then compensate by having a salad for lunch or summat.

Eh up Shirl.

I'm still a bit baffled by all this voodoo but I do know that once I started eating my exercise calories, I started to see results.

I'm very much where you're at weight/height/goals-wise so it'll be good to keeptrack with you.

I'm in. Lost loads of weight with Dukan last year, but then stopped smoking and have put it back on AND MORE. Heaviest I've ever been.

Signed up to MFP a few weeks ago, but keep slipping again. I need HELP

shirley - I totally agree with you about inch loss being more significant than weight loss. I ditched my scales for years when I got to my slimmest because I knew that the way my body looked and felt mattered more than numbers on a dial. I bought some last year when I started to get really down about my weight and within a few days they were bullying me again So I have banished them to the back of my bathroom cupboard! Whether my jeans fit is a better indicator to me.

I've already got a delicious salad in the fridge. Homemade, with a baked salmon fillet. I'm looking forward to being hungry enough to eat it!

Re flaxseeds, is it ok just to eat them as they are? You know, like actual seeds, rather than ground up? What is 'milled'? Does that mean they're ground, like flour? I use them in muffins and sprinkle them on yogurt with sunflower seeds.

(cheers for doing this, btw)

This is absofuckinglutely fantastic. It really makes sense.

When I starve, I'm too knackered to even do the walk up the stairs/bit of gardening/park at the far end of the carpark, so the less I eat, the less exercise I take in a normal day.

Um, it's Friday, how does fit in?

<off to sign up with mfp>

<realises has to weigh self first >

Shirley. Hi. What should i put in for the % calorie reduction in step 6? Sorry if i'm being a bit dim. Thanks and this is a really interesting thread.

Oh one thing I haven't said:

THIS IS NOT A DIET

This is about changing our relationship with food. It's about eating WELL, good food and getting some exercise in there too.

Think about it, you know when you're looking at the nutritional details on food, and it has guideline amounts? It usually says for Women the guideline amount of calories is 2000 per day? Well, obviously, that's just an average for women to be eating (this is why you need to try and calculate your TDEE) but this means that once your at your goal weight you will still be eating around about this amount - the goalposts don't change! You won't be able to suddenly eat 4000 calories per day, or drop to 1500 per day - it means that your body NEEDS about 2,000 (or whatever your TDEE is) to maintain your weight!

Hey mumat39.

You want to choose the -15% deficit option.

Maryz - so shall we talk about then?

I have a bit of an uncomfortable relationship with red wine if I'm honest. I love it. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT, but it doesn't love me and my gut certainly isn't impressed when I go mad with it.

I can easily drink a bottle of wine in one sitting, EASILY, and I have also been known to crack open a second bottle.

All I can tell you is this...Your body will use alcohol as the first available fuel. So when you drink alcohol your body seizes upon it and instead of using stored fat and the carbs that you have eaten to function it will use the alcohol first.

I've been cutting back on the old booze since the beginning of the year - with the odd inevitable slip. I don't drink wine at all during the week, and try to stick to only having some on one day of the weekend.

Last weekend I only drank one small glass on Saturday night. I'd rather eat some chocolate if I'm honest.

It's about choices really. So if you want to drink a bottle of wine on a Friday night, then of course, you can factor this into your calorie amount - but be aware that this MAY affect your losses...

The other thing you need to be doing is drinking plenty of water - I drink about 3-4 litres per day (I KNOW!) - and also watch your salt intake. Without these two factors your body is prone to water retentions which makes you feel bloated and uncomfortable

It's coming up with 40%protein, 40%carb, 20% fat, is that right?

Fuckit, emergency call from ds. I will be back.

This is why I never do anything for me

Nope. Change your macros to:

40% carb
30% protein
30% fat.

I've been steadily losing about 1-2 lb a week, and lost 3 last week. I've lost 3cm off my waist in 2 weeks. I need to lose 2st/get into a small sz12 by May 2013.

Aside from eating my exercise calories, here's what seems to work for me:

FOOD

Home made granola every weekday morning - can give details if anyone would like
Eggs for weekend breakfasts
Skimmed milk
Lurpak lightest
No bread except Hovis Nimble (I know home made is best but it's not sustainable for me)
Loads of oily fish - Salmon, mackerel, tuna
Loads of salad
Muller light Greek Style yoghurts
Slimline tonic (mainline anyone?)
Avoid pasta/rice/too much potato, maybe once a week.
NO CHEESE (except a bit of low fat cheddar now & then)

EXERCISE

30 min walk EVERY DAY (sadly quite a hard one for me given recent events but I'm working on it)
Hi impact exercise class 3 times a week
Cycling at least an hour a week

I know I've included some dreaded diet foods, but I don't think of them as exclusively for 'this diet' they are more like healthier alternatives for the rest of my life. The cheese thing is a bit of an issue for me - I am like a crack addict with it. I'd boil it up and inject given half the chance.

I'm hoping to add to the above when I hear what works for you lot.

Shirly can you tell us a little more about what you actually eat? Or where you went to find that information? Sorry to bombard you with questions.

So when you drink alcohol your body seizes upon it and instead of using stored fat and the carbs that you have eaten to function it will use the alcohol first.

Interesting.

I'm REALLY missing my friday night cider, but I just don't think I can incorporate it.

I think the drink of choice for our little collective here is inevitably going to have to be gin&slim...

Knitknack.

Of course! I gave an example on Buppy's thread. Yesterday I was under calories because I had some maddrugz at the dentist and so I am eating soup (and will be again today) but I can give you another example of a typical weekday if you like and a typical weekend?

WEEKDAY: (Last Thursday, a rest day so no exercise))

Breakfast - Before leaving for work
1 x pint of water before eating anything. Vitamin B complex, multivit without iron, co-enzyme Q10, Chromium polynicotinate (These are my supplements, they're not really necessary - I just like them)
1 x cup of coffee with 100ml almond milk
1 x banana, 30g x flaxseed, 200ml x almond milk, 1 x protein shake - blended into a smoothie.

Mid Morning Snack - Usually at about 10.30-11ish.
2 x hard boiled eggs.
pinch of salt (NORTY)
1 x cup of super matcha green tea

Lunch
1 x chicken breast (cooked the night before)
2 x tomatoes
Celery
Cucumber
Spring onion
1/2 bag of Watercress/spinach/rocket salad leaves
Homemade herby olive oil dressing (3x tbsp good olive oil, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon, fresh basil, 1/2 tsp dijon mustard - stuck in jam jar, shaken. 1 jam jar does 2 servings)
1 x tbsp FULL FAT helman's mayo
Artichokes in Sunflower oil (about 5) from Sainsbury's deli.

Mid Afternoon Snack - usually about 3.30-4ish. This staves off that horrible NEED BREAD thing I get when I come in from work!
Full fat probiotic yoghurt
4 x squares Lindt intense dark mint chocolate

Dinner - I try to eat earlyish, before 7pm unless I'm at the gym.
Brown rice
Slimming World recipe for Beef Madras
2 x squares Lindt dark intense Orange chocolate.

This is what 2026 calories looks like. I was STARVING when I woke up which is a terrific sign that my metabolism is starting to recover, but not starving all day - when I'm hungry I eat a little chocolate something.

(On a low calorie diet not feeling hungry EVER is a BAD sign - your body is adjusting to the smaller amount of calories and in order to keep the loss going you will have to DROP calories again. BOOO!)

Do you want to see a weekend day? Or am I boring the tits off you all?

It sounds as though apart from being ten years older, I am quite like you Shirley. Only a bit bigger around the middle .

I also have the same type of relationship with white wine as you do with red. And dh doesn't drink it, so if I open it I finish the bottle.

I suspect I shall have to cut it out completely. I'm good on the water and salt though, which should help.

Ok, my bmr on mfp is 1490 calories a day, but 1535 on scooby. I'm not sure I'm doing this right .

scooby is saying my TDEE is 2379 I've selected moderate exercise, 15% reduction and 30/40/30 protein/carbs/fat.

So basically, I need to eat 2,000 calories per day. And on a day when I do more exercise, I can up my calories the amount my exercise uses and I should be losing (or at least not putting on).

Oh, cross posted.

That is great.

I'm overdoing the carbs and the crap, and probably underdoing the protein.

Now I will go back to msw and try to work out how to input meals. I presume if I can save a whole meal when it's something I eat often, and don't have to input every ingredient every time?

You are not boring me. I think I'm finding it a bit confusing because I keep having to go off and do things .

Ignore the BMR on MFP - It's nonsense. Use the BMR you got from the calculator.

It's still only 45 calories out though, wich is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Now, your TDEE of 2379 is AFTER your 15% cut? Then this is what you should be aiming to eat...I'd round it down to 2,300 just to make life easy.

Eat 2,300 calories EVERYDAY regardless of exercise, unless you burn enough calories to take you under your BMR of 1,500 (let's call it 1,500 for an esier life)

Say for example you ate 2,300 calories yesterday, but you also went and did a step class AND a 40 minute swim and you burned 1,000 calories - then you need to eat an additional 200 calories to bring your NET calories up to your BMR.

I'll talk a bit about exercise in a while!

Oh and yes, you can input meal that you eat regularly. You can also input your favourite recipes and it will calculate the calorie total for you. HOW SWISH!

I'm not bored of the 'what I eat in a day' posts, Shirl. I love them!

<nosy cow>

Can I change my allowance to 2300 on myfitnesspal.

At the moment I'm trying to put in my regular daily things, for example I use the statin-added milk because my cholesterol is high and it's the only dairy I eat so I'm putting in 500 ml a day into snacks.

But mfp is only allowing me 1510 a day (not sure where that came from I thought it gave me a bmr of 1490 ), so can I change that?

Oh [lightbulb]

I can change my goals and customise it myself.

Back in a mo.

And the day I do a step class and a 40 minute swim will be the day I do drink the entire bottle of wine, so I wouldn't worry about me over-exercising

Shirley, I pm'd you. You got me inspired! I have signed up for mfp.

I actually had been thinking along these lines for a bit but everytime I try to eat more and see the scales going even further up I freak out!

Right, I have changed my net calories to 2300, changed my carb/protein/fat to 40/30/30, left the salt/vits/fibre etc as they are and ignored the fitness goals for the moment.

My fitness goals are very simple - try to do more.

Sorry, I'm taking over this a bit.

Ooh!

I am excited by this!I am always 'failing' my MFP calorie allowance. Off to read the rest of thread.

Lurk

I'm the fattest I've ever been. Must lose weight

<waves flags for Mary>

Amalur - STAY OFF THE SCALES...

That's a good tip for everyone actually, BUT I am an addicted weigher...I weigh every day

Something that has really helped me has been this site You sign up and if you're a dreadful weigher you can enter your weight and also what you've eaten everyday - I'm not sure why this gives me a feeling of control but it does - I think because I know the following facts:

You have to eat 3,500 (approx) calories OVER your TDEE to gain 1 x pound of fat. Well, I know FO SHIZZLE that I'm not doing that so the gains and losses I'm looking at are almost certainly water fluctuations.

To find out more about why the scales are weird Have a read of this

I know I'm blinding you all with shedloads of information and links, but please take your time, read through them and decide if this is something for you or not - this will take patience and understanding of the basic principles in order to get over a few hurdles

Thanks Shirley.

I'm going to leave this for the moment, have a good think, and come back tonight with a few basic recipes/things I eat a lot and try to enter a whole load of info on mfp, so that each day it will be easy to do it quickly.

For the moment, I'm heading to the garden before the kids get home.

You have really got me thinking. Thanks.

Marking place to read through later

You're so welcome Mary. Enjoy the sunshine.

OK, Toby. Here is my diary for last Saturday. I went to the cinema with my boys and ate some sweets and shit while there - have a look:

Breakfast
Banana, protein shake, flaxseed, almond milk smoothie. Coffee with almond milk (see a theme developing?)

Mid Morning Snack
After my protein shake I went to the gym for an hour and a half and burned 835 calories. (I know this because I have a heart rate monitor which allows me to more easily judge the calories I am burning from my work outs - it's GREAT! I love mine.) so I had another shake when I'd finished working out - this time made with water.

Lunch
200g x cous cous (bloody loads)
1/2 courgette fried in 1 x tablespoon of olive oil with sun dried tomatoes and 65g of ready to eat spicy chicken breasts. All jumbled up with the cous-cous
1 x activia yoghurt (the "luscious" creamy ones)

Mid Afternoon Snack
1 x wholemeal bagel
Philadelphia light cream cheese (not super extra mental light, just the light one)
3 x slices of pastrami
1/2 tomato

Then we went to the cinema and I ate:

10 x wine gums
4 x handfuls of popcorn
1 x small bag of M&M crispy.

Dinner
Salmon fillet cooked with pak-choi and shitake mushrooms in 1 x tbsp groundnut oil and 1 x tbsp reduced salt soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil.
1 x small glass red wine

This little lot came to a NET total of 2,300 calories. So I went over - <shrugs> I didn't feel guilty or ashamed or HARD DONE BY at all. I know that those extra 300 calories are outside of my usual norm and will not result in me putting on extra fat cells...

See? It's about sustainability and being KIND to ourselves.

Delurking to say THANK YOU, this is AMAZING, am inspired.

MaryZ, scuse me for butting in, but your net carb intake won't be 2300 it will be the figure under it, at whatever you have set (-15%, -20%)... mine is one point out to yours and my net intake is 2021 at -15%..

That sounds fab, Shirley.

What were you doing at the gym to burn 835 calories?

<lurks>

<hides crisps>

Welcome olivia! Please stay unlurked! I think you are right about Mary's TDEE - it sounds as though our numbers are similar so 2000 would be more in the right region...

Toby - I did..<deep breath>

25 minutes on the treadmill - alternating running and walking - getting the heartrate right up and then walking to recover and then running hard again - High Intensity Intervals basically.
20 minutes on the bike - High resistance vs Low resistance (again HIIT)
10 minutes rowing
25 minutes on the crosstrainer of doom
Then warm up and warm down as well.

The group on MFP are VERY big on heavy weight lifting and not so big on the cardio. I love cardio, but it does mean that I have to watch that I'm not over exercising and therefore giving myself a calorie goal I can't reach.

I do bodypump 3 x times per week (weight lifting class) but I'm planning on starting some heavy weight strength training in the meathead part of the gym next week.

Shite, I hate the crosstrainer.

I usually do 5k on the treadmill (combination of running and walking -- usually about 50:50), then 5 miles on the bike. This only ever seems to add up to about 350 - 400 calories Perhaps I will force myself onto the crosstrainer tonight.

I must start with the weight machines. I can just never be arsed. I figured I ought to drop some weight via the cardio first, then start toning with the weights. I could well be doing it wrong, though.

I have adjusted my numbers a bit now - I'm happy not to actually lose, but to stay where I am and get fitter first. So I'm setting mine at 2,100, to give me a bit of leeway and not feel I'm being too hard on myself.

dd starts her school holidays next week and is off until September , so I'm going to make her exercise with me. I am going to look at swimming twice a week, and trying to do couch to 5K over the next month or so. We are both also starting a pilates course.

So I'll start slowly with things I enjoy and see how it goes. I know if I join a gym I will only last a week and give up because it is "too hard". We have weights and a rowing machine in our garage which the boys use, but I never have.

I also have a jungle big garden, so can work up quite a sweat out there

Don't do the cross trainer if you hate it!

The EMTWL group on MFP is very big on heavy weight lifting and I have seen some incredible before and after shots!

The thrust as I understand it is that not only do muscles burn more calories than fat, take up less space in the body than fat - but also that strength training also continues to burn calories for LONGER after your workout than cardio! (an 11 stone muscular person will not only burn more calories than a fat person of the same weight but they will also look a lot smaller - another reason why scales are poop)

They are big on NROLFW regime over on MFP. I have downloaded it and read it and it certainly raises some interesting points!

As I say, I'm planning on starting that next week. Just dreading going into that maley man bit of the gym.

Mary - you could deffo do some weights at home then!!

<checks out the competition>

<scream>

I was complimentary BIWI!

I wish I could properly low-carb but it makes me sad in the heart.

I'm really glad it's working for you Shirl - honestly. I know how frustrated you were and how good you were being.

I'm still eating a higher (good) fat and protein diet than I was when I started the bootcamp and I want to say thank you so much for curing me of my horrible bread and cake addiction...

Also for introducing me to 90% chocolate - I always hated dark chocolate but my palate changed so much during bootcamp that the darkest stuff tastes sweet to me now!

So BIWI. You really changed my attitude to the evils of sugar and the pros of a good, healthy, protein rich diet.

Mwah!

Mwah right back atcha

Me too Toby

I've just eaten almost a whole tub of Blueberries. It said I had to eat 80g for it to count as 1 of my 5 a day, but it would seem I wasn't very good at estimating that 80g.
I have left about 10 for the DC's to squabble over
I just don't know how to not have fruit or potatoes!

I haven't measured enough since I started my exercise regime so I have no idea where or if I have lost inches. My tummy is still a bit floppy, but I have lost half a stone since I started in about February I think.

Well done Shirley
My TDEE is 1976 apparently, ( I put in moderate exercise to balance between strenuous Jillian Michaels workouts and gentle dog walking) my basal metabolic rate is 1275, so does that mean I will get fat because it is lower than the TDEE?

Your BMR is the amount of calories your body would burn if you were in a coma!

What this means is that your net calories (the calories you have eaten less the calories you have burned through activity) should never drop below this number because your poor old body, rather than turning to your fat stores to function, basically panics and believes you are living in famine. The human body is incredible and geared towards survival, so if you eat below your BMR it adjusts your metabolism to burn LESS calories, which means the minute that you start eating normally again - or have a binge - it grabs all of that 'extra food' and lays it down as fat.

This is why people lose weight initially on a low cal diet, and then usually stall and then get frustrated, binge eat for a few weeks and the weight piles back on again.

People with eating disorders who never drop out of starvation mode, have bodies who have broken down all the fat stores PLUS muscle and eventually the organs.

So. What I'm saying <ramble ramble> is that you should eat at your TDEE - this figure without the -15% cut is the amount your body uses to maintain weight. With a 15 % cut you WILL lose weight/inches, safely. Although it will be a slow loss, it will also be a sustainable loss which - provided you continue to eat at TDEE once you are happy with yourself, will never be regained.

I am so inspired - thank you Shirley! Have just had - for me - an ENORMOUS lunch (bean salad, whole tin of tuna, sweetcorn, cucumber, tomatoes and dressing) and a Cornetto (it's bloody hot...) and still have over 1,000 calories left - I think I have been coming in at least 800 - 1000 UNDER my TDEE which would explain why I have come to a crashing halt, my poor body must think I am going through such tough times...

Marking my place. I hate numbers. Really, really hate all these damn numbers BUT I noticed this morning I am now somewhere between 11.5 and 12 stone on the scales (I love my scales - they're a bit worn away so you can't really read the NUMBERS on them) and that's bad. That's about two stone bad.

I do no exercise at all and I think it's highly unlikely that I get anywhere near to not eating enough calories (thinks back at the entire packet of St Agur I scoffed yesterday... mnnnnn. Nope. Defo enough calories in there). My plan is to MFP it and make sure I eat somewhere between 1500 (what they suggest to lose weight) and 2000 (which I think is not far off one or other of the acronyms).

Does this sound right to you? Or do I have to click on all the links and use my addled brain?

If anyone wants to add me as a pal on MFP I am specialknickers.

I have just spent half an hour entering what I reckon I will eat today, knowing what we are having for dinner and entering in what I had for breakfast and lunch.

I'm a bit horrified to discover that I will have used up all my carbs, but only two thirds of my protein and less than half my fat.

I knew my diet was carb heavy, but today was (I thought) a low-carb day .

I have been following a low-fat thing in my head for so long (for example I would always have more spaghetti, less sauce) that I can't get low carb into my head at all.

I need to up my protein and lower my carb, a lot. And that's just after looking at one day.

And wine is just carbs too [weeps]

I'm going to go and read BIWI's thread - I abandoned that idea too early, because I was worried about cholesterol.

Okay. I went onto the scooby whatsit and I'm about right. BMR of 1486, TDEE of 2044. They suggest a target daily calorie intake of 1737. Which sounds about right to me.

I wish I'd known this years ago when I tried to do a diet that had only 600 cals a day (I know, I know. It was called the rotation diet, I was 16 and a little bit chubby. It was brutal, I couldn't stick to it and my weight's been going up and down ever since).

Thanks Shirley. I'd given up on dieting for good but this has inspired me. It makes sense. Now, all I have to do is not eat an entire packet of cocopops in one sitting and away we go.

<dusts three years worth of dust off size 10 trousers and sits back to wait for the results>

I'm going to suggest this to dd. She eats too many carbs, but not enough food, is anaemic and knackered all the time. Now I know why.

I think I'll get a bit of steak for tomorrow

Noclue - please have a look at the calculator. It's not terribly complicated and you can c&p your results if you like and I'll have a look for you.

Mary - don't get too hung up othe macros yet, im still working out how to hit them consistently. Get used to the calorie load first.

X posted!

Yes, I'll keep an eye on the calories first.

But it is a bit of a wake up call, to realise that on what I think is a healthy low-carb day I'm over my carbs. I need to look at things like rice/pasta/bread quantities as well as the carbs in fruit (I love bananas), smoothies and breakfast.

I think scrambled egg for breakfast tomorrow.

Acksherly, I may have missed it, but what protein shake do you use, I need to get some flaxseed, and where do you get almond milk (and is it revolting?)

TIA.

Argh, it's €4.69 a litre. Wine is cheaper (almost).

Maryz - don't worry about the cholesterol. The low carb thing - should you go down that route - really isn't an issue.

A really good book to read (and for anyone else) is Escape the Diet Trap, by Dr John Briffa. He talks about cholesterol (and the myths about it) in there.

Thanks BIWI, I'm having to rethink a lot of things atm. I've got into really bad habits, and I can see that dd is following me. Since she will be at home for three months during the summer I will have to make some changes, so this is great.

I looked at your recipe threads, but there isn't much about breakfast - have you any suggestions for breakfasts (atm it is a choice of cereal or cooked bacon and eggs - there must be more options). Maybe it is somewhere else on the bootcamp threads I will wade through the early ones tonight

You don't have to use almond milk! I just like it. Skimmed milk or semi skimmed is just fine!

Don't get too hung up in what I eat - its just there as an example! So you can have boiled eggs, or scrambled eggs or baked beans on whole meal bread or yoghurt and fruit for breakfast!

I have protein shakes as a quick easy thing to fling down my throat before I leave for work - and because I do a lot of exercise, protein helps to sort my muscles out and prevent too much agony!

Just marking my place

Just marking my place

Ok I'm a little bit confused on two things:

- Can you put your carbs/protein/fat preferences into MFP? I'm only really using it on my phone and I can't see how to adjust that, or even where it is.
- Do I put my TDEE or my TDEE -15% into MFP as my daily aim? It's a difference of approx 300 calories.

Apologies, I get the feeling you've explained the latter already but I'm still not completely understanding it, sorry.

I am horrified by the fact that my MFP friends can now see all the crap I eat. It's completely motivating me to lie completely.

I think (but I might be wrong), that you can go to change goals, and customise both your net calories and if you go into "custom" mode you can change car/protein there. That's what I did.

And you put your TDEE - 15% into MFP if you want to lose weight.

[might have got this arseways emoticon]

This is really interesting! Any idea how to adjust for breastfeeding? My TDEE -15% is 1988 cals - I put moderate exercise as am now home with 11 week old baby and dog to walk.

Maryz - I can tell you about my breakfasts, but mine are low carb, which is different from what you're doing here.

(I eat mostly eggs - boiled, poached or sometimes scrambled. Weekends often have bacon and eggs. On the days when I have a 6.45 am gym appointment I have some full fat natural Greek yoghurt)

Oh, yoghurt might be good.

I need to lower my carbs a bit, because my diet is very carb-heavy - on the recommended carb/protein/fat of 40/30/30 I would use up all my carbs by lunchtime. If I could lower the carb intake at breakfast it would help me eat more balanced meals later in the day to fit in with this system, if that makes sense?

And dd lives on carbs - she thinks if she eats more rice/potatoes/pasta and less meat/sauce etc she is watching what she eats . Not to mention the crisps and bread.

I have realised that my hunger cravings aren't hunger cravings. They are carb cravings. I have loads of calories left in my day, but only want a slice of white bread with honey on it

Ok.

Minnie - if you go into goals and click on 'custom' then you can change all your details in there - not entirely sure how you do it via the app though...

Enter your TDEE minus your 15% for weight loss, Mary was right!

I'm not too sure about breastfeeding - I have a feeling you're meant to add an extra 300 - 500 cals per day wile nursing, but I'm slightly shaky on this. I can ask the question over at MFP if you like?

Maryz what do you tend to have for breakfast? I have wholemeal toast with peanut butter, or full fat greek yoghurt with some nuts and fruit, or sometimes pancakes but with yoghurt and fruit. Or bacon.

I am interested to know what the consensus is about breastfeeding.

Also Vivi - please can you tell me about granola? How much do you make up at one go, and how long does it last? And your recipe please
Mornings are chaos here and only going to become more so once DS starts school in September, so I can't cope with making something on a daily basis, but something I can do a week at a time, or a few days at a time and then just shove together with some yoghurt would be fabulous.

Yes, please ask about the breastfeeding, Shirley! Thank you!

Erm, nothing.

Followed by a cup of coffee and a bar of chocolate (the crap stuff) at about 11 when the kids have gone to school and I've got my morning sorted out.

I don't eat much lunch either. But have about 6 cups of coffee a day, each with random crappy carbohydratey stuff. And dinner. And continue all evening if I can get away with it.

But All This Is About To Change.

I can't eat like this when dd (who is 15 and not skinny) is home. She will match crap for crap if she sees what I eat.

Finally managed to change the goal setting - it was set to 66% carbs but , that does sound rather nice.

You have compelled me into exercising, so thank you! I did half an hour of 'Just Dance' on the Wii - really is good fun, and then all the DCs (5,3 and 2) joined in so I felt doubly virtuous.

< waves to Alibaba >
I'm on the Paul McKenna thread as well and I think I'm about to leap on this as The Answer To Everything.
Can't digest all the info properly as it's my birfday today and I've just had--half a bottle-- a couple of glasses of Champagne before dinner.
But I thank yew Shirley and I look forward to a healthy, happy New Me.
Re. the exercising: I struggle with high-intensity aerobics as I have back/joint ishoos so if I push things even a little bit I'm paying for it for weeks after. So my gym programme is a balance between aiming for pain relief and toning.
But, weirdly, I've just come across a programme called Curvalicious which is basically the same idea you mentioned - that women are not best served by the 'low weights high reps' method, but need the opposite to build firm muscle and burn fat.

Am struggling to comprehend the calorific figures fully in my pissed state, but will come back when fully sober as a keen follower of the sect.

And Mary, I find a great sustaining breakfast is wholemeal toast with jam and a big dollop - not a scraping - of peanut butter. Easily keeps me going to lunchtime. Or I have two eggs, again with wholemeal bread.
Protein and brown carbs are key to long-term sustenance.

I've just eaten a Mars Bar icecream, which should up my fat intake a bit .

But I still have calories left . I need to eat more earlier in the day, and solve this fecking carbs problem.

Well done Minnie! I love that Dance game, I beat the boys every time. <competitive>

Shotgun - happy birthday! I think the heavy lifting stuff is really gathering a following among women. Lots of people have been scared of bulking up and looking like a bodybuilder, but it's so unlikely to happen without steroids that it's starting to sound like a good option!

Mary! A MARS BAR ICE CREAM? How decadent! Get some nuts in the house, these will provide you with a high cal, good fat easy snack and it's much more healthy!

This is great. I have put it to track my sodium and my cholesterol (I know, I know, but I'm damned if the fecking doctor is going to give me tablets for it ) and it is giving me a lot of information.

I'm going to give up prawns

Yes, but I haven't been shopping since I started this, I have no snacks [weeps]

And it's hot - it hasn't been hot here since 1994.

I have discovered that ds1's diet is incredibly healthy. He eats very few carbs, almost no processed food and very little sugar. His snacks are healthy - today he had tinned mackerel on wholemeal toast mid-morning, and a concoction of a tin of tuna, two boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and a sweet chilli sauce. And he had a protein shake before his weights workout as well as 20 minutes punching a punch bag.

Now if he could give up the drink and the dope.... .

Seriously though, I'm going to get him to show me a few weights. I like weights - they don't make a noise so I can watch Jeremy Kyle tv while doing them, not like the rowing machine.

I still have calories left too - about 200 of 'em. Not sure what to eat now. There's only limited food in the house due to DH and I trying the Don't Buy Any More Food Until Pay Day challenge. I might actually have to cook something to consume my calories, unless I eat 3 or 4 apples.

<wanders off to rummage through fridge>

Shirley I just wanted so say thank-you again! Today I have eaten properly for the first time in along time! We had a BBQ, ice cream and I ate some biscuits. And I don't feel one bit guilty or sick OK so I ate 12 more callories than I should have but I don't care!

Hooray!

Those of you with calories left over - if it's under a couple of hundred I don't worry too much, I've got 181 left today, I probably won't eat them now. It won't matter too much if I bounce a hundred over my allowance tomorrow.

It's the first day! You don't have to be too tough on yourselves! This is a marathon not a sprint.

<motivational>

Thanks Shirley. I think I've cracked it! Had a BBQ tonight, with a lovely glass of wine and STILL hit my calorie target.

Carbed out of my brain as usual, no way near enough on the protein thing but it's giving me something to work on. Eggs for breakfast tomorrow hurray.

Thanks again for this, I feel quite inspired!

I've got 768 left and I'm not hungry and there is nothing to eat here apart from white bread, mars bar icecreams and fruit.

I suppose I could have a banana and a couple of apples, but I'm not hungry

I will put my total count back to 2000 a day (which is minus the 15%) - atm it is 2100 because I thought I should maintain before trying to lose.

I think I need some suggestions for snacks. Preferably low-carb.

I like cashews and pistachios, but only the salted ones. Which is the chocolate you keep talking about? Most snacks seem to be either high salt or high sugar.

I will by yoghurts, flaxseed and nuts tomorrow. And some not-banana fruit. And some fillet steak, yum.

And thank you once again, this is the first time I have ever tried to change my eating habits and not felt totally disillusioned by the end of the first day.

Wow, thanks for this! I am just recovering from a chest infection & loads of antibiotics- so my eating is a bit all over the place. My eating really needs resetting.

Upset stomach meant I ate loads of natural yoghurt and wasn't hungry till later. So I have eaten more in snacks than meals . But not a typical day!

Maryz we could swap, my carbs are low but my fat/protein is high! I will fiddle with the settings.

How did you do that quirky? Have you put it 40/30/30 carbs/protein/fat? Because when I first did it they suggested 65% (I think) carbs, which would have suited me fine, but I know is bad for me.

70% dark choc e.g. lindt or Green & Black's, aldi's is good too.

I like greek yoghurt with ground almonds mixed in. An mner suggested it as a for dcs on another thread (with fruit).

Dp has just bought almond milk and rice milk. I love almonds and rice milk is lovely.

Oh, I love almonds. And I like them unsalted too. I don't like dark chocolate, maybe I could get dark mint chocolate <off to google>

No I haven't managed to change settings yet! I have eaten loads of yoghurt/drunk loads of milk. Hence high fat/protein. I will try to customise but am on phone.

Lindt mint intense and orange intense is lovely. Orange has almond slivers in too. You only need a little too.

I am going to try to customise mfp.

Bloody hell! 700 left?

Right, don't fiddle with your totals. Tomorrow is another day! (although I would prefer you tried to get your totals up a little bit today - how about a round of cheese on toast?)

The not hungry thing WILL change, once your metabolism starts firing on all cylinders, you will be hungry!

Food to get your totals up:- avocado - you can have one with some mozzarella, tomato and olive oil, or with crab sticks, or with actual crab (I see you're trying to lower your cholesterol - I would suggest prawns but they're weirdly high!). Unsalted nuts - try walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans and my favourite macadamia nuts. TRY them again, I really believe that you can train your palate. Get full fat yogurts (Pearle du lait are fabulous) Greek yoghurt with a drizzle of honey and some berries is LOVELY.

Chocolate. Get the dark stuff 70% at least. Lindt to a lovely range with mint or chilli or orange. They're nice. But for a real good for you one try Lindt 90%. It's amazing, definitely an acquired taste and you can't plough your way through a whole bar as you need to let it just melt in your mouth. <rhapsodising>

Really though you need to try and section your meals off so...breakfast will be 300 cals. Lunch - 900, dinner - 500 ish and then you work your snacks in (obviously, you can have this any way round you like, 900 cal breakfast, 500 cal lunch, 400 cal dinner or whatever!)

I am going to look for Green and Blacks, I wonder do Tesco sell it in Ireland, I've never seen it.

I will look for Lindt too.

Sadly, I'm a Cadbury's milk chocolate kind of girl

X posted with quirky's fab suggestions!

Oh and quirky - nobody has to eat three main meals a day - they can be broken into 6 meals, or 8 little meals or 4 meals or whatever!

Studies suggest that the time you eat has no impact on the laying down of fats - so much for the not eating late at night thing. It's ALL MAD!!

I've HATED dark chocolate all of my life - I swear to God. Since cutting back on sugar for a month, my tastes have changed completely and I utterly adore it now!

I ate some M&M's last week and they were TOO sweet. Honestly.

It's ok, don't panic, I had left it at 2300 instead of changing it to 2000. And I hadn't put in breakfast because I didn't start until lunch time. And I should adjust my milk intake, as I have skimmed milk in coffee.

So I'd say I have about 200 left. I really have eaten lots today, just not bread which is my killer.

Tomorrow I will shop with this in mind, which will help. Nothing in the house is appealing at all.

Ok I've got the answer to the breastfeeding thing. My sources tell me that:

The general rule of thumb is, you add 500 0-6 months and 300 from 7 months and older

This is added to your TDEE (whichever you're using, the one to keep at maintenance or the one with the 15% deficit).

Hope this helps a bit.

Hiya, I lurked on old thread after my helpful suggestion of anti chafing undershorts and I'd like to try this too.
I've just started on MFP and crunched my numbers. Add me - grumpleteaser.

My daily calories that I need to eat is 2100. Today I seem to have struggled with eating enough protein but I think the calorie counter thing is a bit messed up as it said the chicken salad I ate for dinner had 212 calories but 0 fat, 0 carbs and 0 protein.

This thread is so brilliant - real, empowering information, and hope! What's not to love? Thank you

Some of the entries that people put in for food have only calories, they don't have details for carbs etc. I got caught out on that with a sauce I put in - it gave calories, but zero carbs.

I will have to spend a bit of time inputting all the food I eat to get the carb/salt/fat/protein amounts right.

A lot of the members seem to be american, so I think some food is american measure as well.

I mean, wtf is a cup of banana

shirl I was on the low carb with you and gave up at around the same time.
It didnt suit me but made me appreciate how good it is to have freedom to eat everything and therefore enjoy all food without guilt but in smaller portions and more whole foods.
I have slowly begun to lose weight and look and feel better,im doing c25k and loving it.
This is the best my thinking around food has ever been,if i want something i just have a small amount of itnot eat it untill its all gone or i feel sick.
I will read the links with interest,thanks.

I'm definitely in - not much more to lose, but have always, of course, struggled to sustain weight loss. Need something sustainable for life and want to get it properly established.

One thing that seems to be happening with me is that I keep to my cals, come in on or just under my fat allowance but go wildly over on sugar. I mean double or triple the recommended amount.

I eat prob 3-4 portions of fruit daily. Not sure where else it is coming from - yoghurt? (fat free Greek) milk? It's confusing me a bit - should I be worried?

Good morning munchers!

<looks at time>

<takes deep breath>

See what all this healthy living does for you? It actually gives you more hours in the day!
I can see some people are worrying about their macros...

Please don't. I think the most important thing in the first week of changing the way you eat is to get used to the calorie load. If you've been starving on 1200 calories or less, then an extra 500 (or even more!) is going to seem like hard work. Reading some threads on MFP, I see that lots of people complain about feeling 'overfull' and some find it hard to cram the calories in HEALTHILY. Which is our aim of course...

So what I want you to do is FORGET the macros this week. Just forget it and focus on getting your calories right.

I'm thinking about hitting the gym today, I'm a bit worried that the weird valiumy stuff my dentist used on Thursday is still coursing through my veins but I'm starting to feel twitchy and I think I need to go and have a good sweat!

It looks like its going to be a glorious day!

Happy eating everyone!

Ive been up since 6 with a whingey baby as usual. I am also off to the gym today and cooking a heathy curry for dinner spoiled by popadoms. I stil havent got my head totally around the figures and science but im reading through it between being hit on the head and having my lap top sabotaged. Sounds similar to what I have been doing since BWIW'S bootcamp failure.

shirl is it beast not to have milk then?I dont drink it but do use it in my copious cups of tea and coffee each day.

HAHA i mean best not beast-im not that fat

Milk is fine! I only use almond milk because:

A) I like it, I like the flavour in coffee!
B) it has marginally less calories than normal milk
C) I'm asthmatic and I have read that cutting back on dairy can be beneficial (I spoil this by eating shed loads of yoghurt!)

Shirl - according to Briffa, yoghurt is better tolerated than other dairy, so hopefully you will be fine with it

Almond sounds lovely in coffee though yum.

Im loving the way BIWI is overseeing events as chief diet guru for mumsnet

Oh no! .

I'm just nosey, ledkr!

Will exit if you think I'm trying to do that.

Oi! Where is you gsoh BIWI ? i WAS JOKING. I was very complimentary on several threads about your boot camp,it sorted out my odd food habits for sure. My bowels just couldnt handle it haha.

Right I have signed up and put my details in. MFP wants me to eat about 1500 per day.
Based on TDEE though, and taking into account breastfeeding I should be eating 2300 per day, and more if I do anything significant in the way of exercise.

I am not going to stress about the calories, I'm planning to use MFP as a food diary - mainly for the composition of what is in my food.
I suspect that I am still eating too much sugar, despite the fact that I eat massively less sugar than I used to. Which is scary, and does rather explain why I had impaired glucose tolerance in my last pregnancy.

I will be interested to see whether eating according to the PMK method (slowly, only when genuinely hungry etc) will have me roughly on target.

No, don't go BIWI. It seems that a lot of people are like me, and when they want to get calories back to normal levels all they can think of is adding carbs.

We need to learn to get our calories some other way.

I think we have all been brainwashed to think that low fat is the way to go, but of course low fat also (generally) means low-protein, so we get miserable and tired and hungry, and then eat more carbs which makes it a vicious circle.

Any advice on lowering carbs even for those of us who are to afraid aren't ready to cut them out completely is great.

For example, I stood in M&S this morning and tried to think of non-carby snacks to fill me up when watching the eurovision. All the nuts were salted. All the snacks were carby. Everything I fancied was bread or sweet fruit. Admittedly I don't usually get food in M&S (tesco and lidl for me, but I can't go today), so I didn't know what I was looking at.

Eventually I got some seedy bread and smoked salmon (shocking price ), which is a start.

What about hummous, with vegetable crudites? Can you get low salt nuts? There was no mint or orange chocolate and the 70% cocoa is just too much of a challenge - I will have to work up to it

I am supervising 500 teenagers on bouncy castles this afternoon (don't ask). Do you suppose that counts as strenuous exercise

I would like to sign myself up, this sounds very interesting. Thank you Shirley.

I've now joined MFP. I did the calculator thing, which reckons my BMR is 1947. That sounds scarily high. TDEE is 3018, and my aim is 2565. I'm more than happy to scoff 2500 calories a day, just worried that I've done it a bit wrong and I will balloon!

Just done the weekly shop. We have lots of fish, skinless chicken, fruit and vegetables, and lots of my favourite things to add to salads. I don't think I eat anywhere near 30% protein but I'm actually really looking forward to trying. Have also bought flax seed and almond milk to try. I also have asthma, and it's been playing up recently, making it a bit difficult to do the 30 day shred.

Should I be aiming to have 30%protein/30%fat/40%carb in each meal, or just overall throughout the day? And any suggestions for a higher protein breakfast besides eggs?

Breastfeeding an under 6 mo means an extra 500 cals? That makes my total roughly 2500! I think I need to go shopping.

Have had porridge for breakfast with skimmed milk and brown sugar. Not sure where porridge fits with carb/protein, though - am using GlamourDiets.com as a food diary because I am used to it and can't be arsed mastering a new system.

Shopping list currently includes peanut butter, wholemeal bread, Greek yoghurt and eggs. Maybe granola makings, too - please please post your recipe, Shirley!

There's protein in poridge!
Now I feel a bit thick Think I'm going to have to have a long sit down with MFP.

X-post with TooImmatureTurtleDoves. I've just looked on MFP and poridge came up with the following;

Homemade - Poridge ( 20g Oats + 200ml 2% Milk), 1 cup cooked
208 calories 26 carbs 5 fat11 protein

I'm happy, I love poridge.

I hate porridge

<wanders off to look at readybrek packaging>

at MrsMango. Great minds! Might have to bite the bullet and start learning MFP. GlamourDiets won't let me eat 2500 cals a day without painting my progress charts red and saying I am overeating.

Well I have very carefully measured out my coffee with almond milk, added all the details to MFP, and sat down to work out more foods, coffee in hand. Bleugh!! Sorry Shirley! I think I will be going back to milk.

Can I join too please ? Can't tell you how well timed this thread is. I lost 63lbs from July 2010 to July 2011 with WW and SW. Had loads of stress between now and then and did exactly what I swore I wouldn't do - piled lots back on.

Have been trying to get back on track the last week but can't stick to WW points as get too hungry. I found when I was doing WW that I lost better if I ate more but then had feelings of guilt when I did.

Bought the Virtual Gastric Band app and have listened to it for 6 days. I've stopped craving chocolate and cheesecake which is great but it made me uneasy and wasn't sure why. I think it's because on some level I knew I needed to eat a fair bit in order to lose and it was causing me to feel a bit conflicted.

So have signed into MFP and will be joining you from tomorrow. Not going to weigh myself for now but aim to drop a dress to start with. I feel like I've had one of those lightbulb moments reading this thread.

Well I'm doing well today, despite two Marks and Spencer hot cross buns

I have sorted out the milk issue and am allowing myself 400 ml a day of the special statin-including-fortified-low-fat-milk I'm meant to drink, which has calcium and B vitamins in it.

I bought a loaf of seed an grain bread in Marks and Spencer which has no nutritional information on it, isn't on mfp, and isn't on the M&S site, which is shocking, I think. So I've only guessed what is in it.

I have 400 calories to last me the rest of the day, and we are having roast chicken, boiled potatoes and salad tonight, so I should be fine.

Hi Wynken, welcome to the madhouse .

I've eaten so much Veg for tea. Thai green curry with Veg overload and a tiny bit of rice. I feel all healthy now.

I had a look at 70% choc today and it was so much more expensive so I will just try and lay off chocolate full stop. Crisps are my down fall.

If I eat no carbs all day can I have wine and crisps at night? Or is that cheating?

On mfp it doesn't have 'housework' listed at exercise.
Or crushing plastic bottles for the recycling. So I put stepping instead as that's kinda the same. Isn't it?

Sorry, 700 calories . I knew I should have eaten a bigger lunch.

I am now addicted to almond milk! I thought rice milk was delicious... I too have asthma and have just finished steroids .

I am shocked at how much more I need to eat. I have just realised why I am shattered because I am much more active than I thought and have been eating so little. I am a 12 and thought I couldn't possibly eat any less to be a 10. I must have plateaued.

I have reset my carbs/protein/fat and also my calories. I still have 1100 left today as I have been very active today: cleaning am and long pm in the park (30 mins walk away). Planning on meatballs in tomato/veg sauce for dinner. Yum.

70% chocolate is more expensive because you eat much less of it!

Arghhh I've got 700 callories left to eat any ideas?

<rushes back in>

Sorry - GSOH still intact - was meeting up with MmeLindor and other assorted MN rogues.

<logging in>

<hides pasty>

This makes so much sense - can I join please? I'm on MFP with a 1200 calorie limit and have been failing miserably at it. Now I know why!

I have a question about the calorie intake on exercise days. My BMR is 1339, TDEE 2075 and Target 1764 based on 15% reduction.

I think this means that I should aim for 1764 calories every day. However if I end up doing so much exercise one day that my net calorie intake (i.e. calories gained from eating minus calories lost from exercise) is lower than my BMR, should I eat more calories to get back up to BMR or TDEE?

Just signed up for MFP to be told my calorie limit is 1200. Stuff that!
EMFLW tells me my TDEE less 15% is 1589 - not much more than the 1400 I've already been quoted on other sites - and that I struggle to keep to, tbh.

I don't eat much crap, I just like to eat a lot,although I put on the weight a couple of years ago when I had an uncharacteristic phase of eating puds/cakes and drinking wine every night.

I think the problem is I'm not particularly overweight - I'm quite slim but like being thin better - loads of clothes in my wardrobe don't fit and I'm fed up with not being able to wear the things I like. But that means it doesn't take a huge amount of calories to keep me alive, so my TDEE is lower than I was hoping for.

But Shirley's fat-melting thing, resulting in smaller measurements but not necessarily weight loss as such, sounds worth a try.

One question: do you have to do loads of exercise? I try and go to the gym once a week, plus do loads of time-consuming stretches each day for my bad back; don't think I've got the time or the inclination to up the activity by much.
Oh, and I walk the dog a few times a week.

I am gradually increasing my activity, but have to be cautious as it hurts to over-exert. I was nearly in tears last week after an hour's gardening session .
Can't see me doing a body pump class any time soon.

Draped, I'm sure Shirley will be back soon, but I think if you do a lot of exercise you can add to your calorie count on that particular day. You should never have a net calorie intake of less than your TDR (so you need to eat a bit more if you exercise a lot).

Shotgun, if you are quite slim, maybe you need to steadily eat your TDEE rather than your TDEE less 15%, so that your body normalises itself for a bit. It's possible that if you are eating as little as 1400 a day, your metabolic rate has slowed too much.

At least I think that is the theory. And you could also concentrate on getting your carbs/protein/fat ratios right, and do some resistance work with bands, for example, to up your muscle mass.

<guess who has been reading about this for the last two days >

< Impressed >
I like the sound of steadily eating my TDEE's - I'm away this w/end and have managed 2,500 today < feels proud >, so it shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice .

Btw, you can easily get non-salted nuts - look in the baking or 'health foods' section of the supermarket. Or in health food shops, obvs.
Loads of different nut butters as well, spread on crackers or rice cakes make a sustaining snack. Or slices of apple dipped in is nice.

I think the trick is not to think as a snack food as fancying a nibble, but somethi g to keep you going to the next meal. Dull when compared to a choc chip muffin or half packet of digestives - but they're not really food - just something put together in a factory to make a profit.

I do have a resistance band and a couple of weights - and we've even got a redundant rowing machine, plus I've got some dvds which I know are pretty effective if I stick to them. So I'll have to work on building up that side of things, which hopefully will help with the back pain anyway.

Good morning!

Righty-o, looks like everyone is doing pretty good!

Mary - hummus is a brilliant food to eat, I like it with those ryvita thin thingies, they're like a dry flatbread, but I also love it with carrots. God I love hummus.

MrsMango - sorry you didn't like the almond milk! Try it on cereal or something, don't waste it!

A word about exercise and 'eating back' calories...

If you have chosen a MODERATE activity on the calculator, and you do about 3-5 exercise classes per week (or you have a busy lifestyle, walking with buggies, running around after toddlers etc etc) then the amount you need to eat is your TDEE with the -15% and that's it. You eat this amount of calories EVERYDAY. The exercise is 'built in' to your daily calorie amount.

The only time you need to eat more calories after exercise is if your net calories drop below your BMR.

I didn't go to the gym yesterday as I was far too busy dealing with a FLEA INVASION <shudder> and getting ready for my DS's birthday BBQ/sleepover.

I had some alcohol last night and after a good few weeks of abstenence I can tell you that I feel like poop this morning

I'm booked to go and do a body combat 'clinic' round the gym at midday and the thought of bopping about is making my head spin!

Oh! I had a lovely Non Scale Victory today - NSV's are when something lovely happens about being slimmer, like your jeans fitting better, needing to do your belt up another notch etc etc - my friend who I haven't seen for a few weeks came over and did a face at me in my shorts, followed by a "OMG Shirley, you're getting skinny! Look at your WAIST!"

<happy dance>

<Ignores the 1lb gain on the scales>

Yesterday! Not today. What a twat I am <shakes fist at rose wine>

Shirley just so I'm getting this right

My base 1400
My tdee is 1900

If I eat the amount I'm ment to, then go to the gym and burn say 600, I need to eat annother 100. Right?

Oh Shirley that is fab when you get lovely compliments

I have woken up starving this morning, starving.

I need ideas for protein without going over on fat.

Me too Ali.

I have no problem keeping within my calorie limit - in fact I am probably too far below if I avoid crap - but I need more protein, and I need to stop craving carbs.

I will be shopping tomorrow for 70% chocolate, salmon, tuna, hummous - can we add to the list of snacks that are low in carbs?

Addicted - yes! You've got it!

Would you like to talk about protein shakes? They provide a big hit of protein and are easy to drink.

I get mine from my protein I can be a bit funny about drinking stuff with any sort of chemically/medicinal taste to it - I make a big old fuss having to drink alka seltzer for example - so please be assured that these shakes are OK! I wouldn't be able to drink them otherwise.

I started by getting a few of their samples to try, and I like having some variety! I have a big bag of the banoffee one. I also have a tub of Body Fit protein smoothie from Holland and Barrett that I'm desperately trying to get through - its pretty grim!

The other thing you can do with the protein powder is add it to porridge, make pancakes and muffins with it, there are LOADS of recipes on the Internet!

Other protein rich breakfasts - bacon and eggs (you can get v lean bacon medallion things, but I just get the good stuff!) as long as you count the calories! Omelettes. I had a whole meal bagel with almond butter and a banana yesterday (not protein rich but LUSH)

<whines> Im stuck! I just dont understand it all. My stupid baby doesnt give me time to read it all properly,ill try later in bed,i do c25k every other day at gym and some weights,have no idea what that burns or how to apply it to mfp.
Am i just stupid??

shirl My dd's teacher was at the pool yesterday and commented on how much weight i have lost I walked home feeling like Jennifer Lopez <deluded>

You're not stupid led! What part are you struggling with? I know it's a bit complicated at first. Let me help you!

I bet you are the spitting image of J-Lo.

I think its literally not having time to read it all through,can you summarise?
Can i eat carbs or not? What about fats? How do i calculate exercise?

I am off to the gym now before it gets stupidly hot so maynot be back for a bit.

I love the way you said im not stupid but left the baby as such haha.

And im bloody sunburned,should know better at my age really.

Okay, have decided to turn over a new leaf and start MFP properly. I PMed you, Shirley - please friend me!

Yesterday we went for a huge long walk in the sun for 2 hours and I came back shattered and starving, so scoffed wholemeal pittas and homemade green bean hummous and then went out for tea and had a burger and chips. And a Magnum Gold. I have no idea how many calories were in that little lot, so am restarting today so I don't have to count it. Now I'm going to be good and count properly. And if DH would get off his arse and make breakfast while I am stuck here MNing feeding the baby it would help.

Yes, you deffo have a stupid baby!

Ok summary is thus:

You can eat whatever you like! As long as you stay within your calorie goal. It is best to try and eat GOOD carbs - I try to avoid white pasta, white rice and cakes, sweets and biscuit (I don't always manage it though!) - like veggies, wholemeal pasta, brown rice, fruit and so on.

Add some GOOD fats, natural oils - olive, coconut, rapeseed, nut oils. I avoid 'vegetable oil'. Avocados, oily fish, I have small amounts of Unsalted butter, raw nuts and seeds contain fat as well.

Protein - lean meats, fish, lower fat cheeses, eggs are all good healthy ways to get proteins into your diet.

This is the way that I eat. I try to avoid processed food, I really don't like the taste of ready meals anymore, but I do eat ready made soups sometimes. I prepare healthier versions of my favourite foods for evening meals, like chilli con carne made with lean casserole beef rather than mince and brown rice - I can then have some for lunch the following day if I fancy. I LOVE salad and veggies, I'm very lucky really.

Aaargh, MFP has Tesco Finest Multiseeded Farmhouse Batch, but I've just realised it doesn't have the carb/protein/fat ratio attached. Grr!

Have you got an iPhone? The app has a totally BRILLIANT barcode scanner which makes life so much easier!

Getting on this thread to read later, because I have just started eating clean and eating more protein and less carbs, and I seem to be getting fatter, so all the articles are really interesting.

No, sadly I only have a crappy basic phone. However, all is not lost - have discovered that the bread is in the MFP database about 3 times and another entry has the proper carb/fat/protein info entered. Yay!

I have achieved a breakfast/brunch of 1056 calories, yay! Scrambled eggs with anchovies, cheese and basil, 2 slices of the aforementioned multiseed bread and Anchor Lighter Spreadable, a cup of tea, a low fat yoghurt and a homemade smoothie. Gosh, it's a proper real brekkie. Hurray for bf calories!

Hey seventh - if you've only just started then you need to be patient with your body. Especially if you've been on the starve/binge/starve merry go round for a while, you are resetting your metabolism which can take quite a while.

The weight gains weren't achieved overnight and neither will the losses be! excellent grammar

Hi Shirley

I'm jumping in. This is so interesting!I don't really understand what I'm doing, but my calculations come up as:

BMR - 1484
TDEE - 2300
Daily calories - 1840 - so is this the amount of calories I should be eating? <sorry for being thick>

I'm doing 3 circuit training workouts a week which are very hard going, plus I'm trying to do a bit of pilates or yoga at home (more for the stretching element really) and I'm doing other bits and bobs all week, so I think I'm pretty active, and trying to up my fitness.

I'm about 11st 9/10 and 5'3''. Had very little success with SW/WW and find that low-carb works best for me, but I seem to have come to a standstill. Think I've totally cocked up my metabolism over the years and really, really, really want to get fit and healthy. And back to a true size 12 would be great, instead of squeezing myself into 14.

Any advice would be amazing! Have joined the EMTWL group on MFP. It's all just a bit complicated right now, but I feel like I'm on the verge of a massive change...

Also - I'm trying to change my daily calories goal but it won't let me. It's at 1200 a day just now...can't figure out how change it

(I realise how stupid I'm sounding!)

For anyone who is finding this complicated, I have just entered my TDEE-15% and am trying to keep to the calories.

I'm not entering entering exercise yet, I will wait until I have my foods sorted out as it is time consuming. I'm just putting myself down as "moderately active" to cover housework, gardening, a couple of reasonably brisk walks and a swim a week.

I'm finding it easy to stay within calories, but struggling with not eating too much in the way of carbs. I'm going to stick with this mfp-light version for two weeks, measure and weigh myself again, and then maybe ramp up the exercise and be a bit more strict on my macro ratios.

Does that sound reasonable Shirley? Certainly, once my foods are entered in mfp it will be very easy to follow.

Hi Maryz - so my TDEE -15% comes in at 1955 - can this be right??? considering the last time I joined MFP it gave me 1200 a day to live off, which I found nigh-on IMPOSSIBLE, especially when exercising.

Yep, my TDEE-15% comes up at about 2,000. So I'm sticking to this, working on the principle that if I take a decent amount of exercise any day I will lose weight, if I just live I will stay as I am, but my main reason is to get my metabolism back to some semblence of normal, and to try to tone up a bit (and conquer my carbs fettish, hence trying to stick to the macro ratio of 40/30/30 carb/protein/fat).

I realise that I've only been doing this for two days, so I'm not the guru. It's just making sense.

And you can change your goals by going to goals and hitting customise (not recommended) - you can change your calorie and your macro ratio.

right, thanks - so I put in my net calories consumed as 1955 and it says my daily calorie deficit is just 55. Does that sound right?

I ignored my calorie deficit and at the moment it is 10 calories, so my projected weight loss is zero.

But since I put in my goal as my TDEE-15%, I'm assuming my calorie deficit is actually 15% , so I should be losing weight. You are the same - the calorie goal you put in is your TDEE-15%, not the calories they worked out for you. That's why it looks as though you are not going to lose anything. Is that right?

But mostly I'm just doing the diary to watch what I'm eating for the moment. I'll crank it up in time, and start using all the tools.

Ask Shirley

Foosty, welcome!

Your TDEE less your -15% cut is 1840 is that right? Did you choose MODERATE as your exercise level? If so then, yes! You need to eat 1840 everyday. Your exercise is built into your TDEE with deficit, so you don't need to worry about 'eating back' your exercise calories...unless you do a big burn one day and your net calories fall below your BMR (in your case 1484). If you DO fall below your BMR then just eat enough calories to bring you back up to it.

Don't worry at all about what MFP tells you once you have customised your goals. It's a bit of a blunt instrument really, and we're using it really to track our calories and macros - that's all.

Please, when you get a bit of time, read through the links and the links in the links! This will help you to really get what we're trying to achieve, which is mending our metabolisms.

What a gorgeous day we're having here in London. I'm contemplating a bike ride this afternoon with the kids.

I would like a round of applause for still going to the gym despite the searing heat and getting a phone call from dil to look after her ds aged 3 cos she is ill.

I have 2 under 3 and dd1 and her friend and ds2 and a tired dh on nights,i am a mass of suncream and lollies and filling paddeling pools, AIBU to expect to be a size 10 with my lifestyle

Right im off to do the calculations,had chicken for lunch with salad and cous cous,all very good until the slice of choc cheesecake but it was split between 6 so not too bad.

I've done every diet known, but can't stick to them for more than about a week! I simply have no willpower.

My BMR is 1600 with a TDEE -15% of 1638! So not much above the level needed if in a coma!!! This seems to be mainly because I've put in activity level of sedentary! Not sure what I'm supposed to do about this - have no spare time as have a profoundly disabled child who loathes going for walks but needs constant care meaning no opportunity to exercise, and work at a desk the rest of the time! Don't think I can stick to 1638 in the long term. Aagh. I guess I do average amounts of housework, but not really actively iyswim!

thanks Shirley - so I don't need to concern myself with eating my exercise calories? 2 days a week I do circuit training which is very intensive, have no idea how many calories it burns though. I'll google it.

am reading through some of the links now and it's starting to make more sense. I feel what I'll struggle with the most is any potential gain in the first instance - but this time I'm going to push through. After breakfast and lunch today i've still got over 600 calories left which is more than enough, esp when the weather's so lovely and I don't feel like anything stodgy. Loads of salad, fish and meat so far today, and I think I'll have some brown rice with tuna for dinner.

bigwombat - can you fit in an exercise DVD? 30 day Shred workouts are only 20minute each and do you a power of good...

Hi bigwombat.

If you picked sedentary then this will be why your TDEE is so low. I'm sure that with a profoundly disabled child that you are certainly not sat on your arse the whole time that you're at home!

A couple of questions for you, because I KNOW that I can find you a little bit of time in your day somewhere to stick an exercise DVD on, or some way for you to have a little walk/run. I know it's hard, and you think "ARGH! No way can I find any extra time!" but it's so important, and once you start upping your activity level a little bit, you will WANT to do a bit more. Please believe me. This will improve your life, give you MORE energy and boost your metabolism.

So you say you work at a desk? Are you WOH or WAH? Do you have a partner who lives with you?

Yes, i have a few workout dvds, life seems to always get in the way of sticking to them regularly, might manage once a week on a good week. Have an old exercise bike too. I guess if I was really motivated I would make the time. Oh dear!

Foosty - circuits are a killer! Have you heard about heart rate monitors? I have one and it is a far more accurate way to track calories burned. I do about 800 in a Step class

I totally understand what you mean about initial weight gains, but I can't stress enough how unimportant they are in the grand scheme of things. Remember that this is the way you'll be eating for the rest of your life! Healthily, but with the odd treat AND a meal out if you like, and the odd party/drink up - the Rest Of Our Lives. A small gain in weight now, for a great gain in LIVING forever!

Does the thought of being able to eat more motivate you bigwombat? It does me, that was my initial reason for starting to exercise.

2 months on and I have fallen back in love with it. I LOVE the rush of endorphins, I LOVE the time with just me and my thoughts (which are generally 'THIS HURTS, THIS HURTS!" instead of "oh god, I hope I can afford my loan repayment this month"), I LOVE the changes I can see in my fitness levels and the energy I have and I LOVE the way my body is starting to change and look better.

When you first start exercising it feels like lots of painful hassle, but if you keep at it, it becomes a looked forward to part of your day.

I work in an office about 3 miles from home. I have considered cycling, but know that at current fitness levels this is too ambitious in the time available! Also parking a bit further away and walking is sometimes possible, but not usually as I have to pack my work into limited hours and get back in time for dd to come home on her bus. I recently bought a special 3 wheeler buggy on ebay in the hope of going for longer walks with dd, but so far she hates it and is not playing ball. Maybe getting up earlier for a dvd workout is the answer (or even a bike ride). I know I could do more, it just requires organisation and motivation which seems to be very variable.....

You are right Shirley, I used to love going to the gym and being fit and healthy. Seems a huge uphill struggle to get back there, a lot of the struggle is in the mind.... Thanks for all your info, it's very helpful!

Can someone point me in the direction of the 'vegetarian rules' for low(er) carbing? thanks!

ok i did it. Have a bmr of 1598 gives me a calorie allowance of 2100 which seems loads. I havent quite mastered the exercise thing yet? I do 30m cardio and 30 mins weights every other day what do i need to do?

bigwombat I have been doing the c25k and am really enjoying it because its set workouts so i get a great sense of achievement when i finish rather than wonder if ive done enough.

I also used to do the shred dvd's which i enjoyed for the same reasons.

I had my 5th child a year ago at <whispers> 43 and just couldnt find the time to exercise again untill recently where i just started on the spur of the moment.
I feel so much better for it and I work part time and have ds2 on the transplant list so lots and lots of hospital appointments.
It really has given me the energy to cope with it all.
I hope you can find a few mins for yourself.

I LOVE my circuits classes Shirley - have been going for about 3 or 4 months now. Started at one a week and now go to 2, plus am upping it with a shred in at some point and a run another day. Know what you mean about the time to yourself, and man it HURTS but I feel amazing after doing it. I go with a few friends and we've made it so that's it's COMPULSORY to go, we don't have a choice unless there's something else that we just can't avoid. Like a leg falling off or something.

SO I started this way of living today., but mainly just reading up on it, and trying to plan ahead - tomorrow it's the real deal, baby....I'm committing myself to it...hope you don't mind me asking a zillion questions!

Bigwombat - you can do this! You can find a way to fit it in and then you will fall back in love with it!

Led - did you choose MODERATE as your exercise choice? If so then 2100 is the amount of calories for you to eat everyday. Do not eat back your exercise calories unless they take your net cals to under your BMR.

Foosty - I don't mind a bit!

Yesterday I finished well under my TDEE-15% Me, of all people, not eating enough! Today I will finish 2 calories over by the time I've had my evening snack. But I'm not hitting the "goals" for protein, fat or carbs. Is that right, or have I messed it up?

Shirley, I found a use for the almond milk, I'm making smoothies with it, with oats and fruit. Tonight it's banana, sultanas and some cocoa powder too. Absolutely delicious, it's like liquid chocolate without the guilt! Chocolate cravings are usually my downfall, so this is a major breakthrough!

Shirley, can I ask you for some advice on the protein powder stuff? There's so many on that site and I have no idea where to start. If I just want to use it in a homemade smoothie, to bump up my protein, what type do I need? TIA

Bigwombat, isn't looking after your dd pretty physical? It may be that you're underestimating how active your life is.

Almond milk in smoothies is EPIC!

Ok the protein stuff. If you look at the Impact Whey Protein section you'll see that you can buy samples for 99p each. There are LOADS of flavours. I like the chocolate coconut, banana, vanilla and the latte one. The strawberry one is nice as well - in fact I haven't had one I didn't like.

The unflavoured one is alright in fruit smoothies and isn't as sweet as the other ones.

So, if I were you I'd get a bunch of sample flavours and see how you get on.

Gosh what a lot of calories to nosh on? Im nowhere near up to target but its hard to eat when its so hot. I am going to make some pasta in a bit with some chorrizo and veggies.

shirl thanks for agreeing with my baby being stupid. She has been trying to close my lap top as i type <tuts> she cant do anything for herself either-so demanding and selfish

Right, just so I can be sure - can someone confirm what I should be aiming for?
Here's my figures:
BMR: 1369
TMEE:  1883
15% cut: 1600

So do I, as MaryZ suggested, start by sticking to my TMEE for a bit?
And what about exercise? Do I eat more to make up the cals lost in exercising (minimal, in my case), or stay at the TMEE regardless?

I've already managed 2031 today (includes 2 pieces of birthday cake, which I wouldn't normally have), but I know I can eeasily make the 1800 cals, even eating clean! <greedy cow>

Depressingly, my birthday weekend has already added a good 5lb onto the scales, although I usually take my (lighter) morning weight as the right one ao we'll see tomorrow. And I held back .

I'm struggling to eat my calories but I think that's because I've done a lot of walking and I'm just not eating my exercise calories. I don't know if I struggled with low carb before because I just wasn't eating enough or it was the low carbing itself?

Today I have hit my carbs because I had a huge blowout meal in the beach cafe: prawns in seafood sauce, potato salad, jacket potato, coleslaw and loads of salad. Yum, yum.

I think it's going to take a while to reset my eating. I have lost 2lbs though, but gained 2inches round my waist. Probably due to horrid virus which meant I ate little and exercised not at all. I have been sort of low carbing, doing weights and keeping a food diary on and off for a few years. Just not analysing the results. Time to be more scientific.

I have no idea how you are all struggling to eat 2000 or so calories in a day. Is it because you've been on crazy restrictive diets up til now?

OK I'm 14 chapters in to John Briffa's 'escape the diet trap' (bought this morning!) it's making SO much sense, it's very exciting to have all this information!

Agree Trills - I put away well over 2,500 on Saturday and could have managed a lot more .

I m now back from my weekend of cocktails and crisps (and I did try to mainly eat crudites rather than crisps with my dip) and will be trying to eat "cleaner" this week. Unfortunately it's my birthday this week and I have a work night out planned so I don't think alcohol-avoidance will go very well.

I could easily manage to eat all my calories if it was on chocolate wine and bread i just had 2 glasses of vino and added them but alas still not up to my limit.

I think it's because I'm trying to keep my carbs down, Trills. So I've pretty much cut out bread.

The alternatives I'm eating (eggs or readybrek for breakfast), tuna/sweetcorn for lunch, that type of thing is keeping me fuller longer.

Also the heat is helping apart from the Mars bar icecreams

And I haven't had any wine this weekend, as I've been on taxi duty for one or other of the kids every night.

Thanks for answering my q about exercise calories - I get it now.

Can we talk about how we're getting on with balancing the meals so you get the right about of carbs, protein and fat? I love love love carbs. I'll be buying some of those protein shakes- sounds like a good snack to have when I'm working from home. Almond milk sounds yummy too.

Shotgun - that sounds a bit low, what activity level did you put?

STEP. AWAY. FROM. THE. SCALES.

Please, please, please remember that to gain 1lb of fat you have to eat 3,500 calories over your BMR. Have you eaten 17,500 extra calories in the last few days? I doubt it so it's water fluctuations.

Go back to the top of the thread and read my posts again. No point measuring (quirky im looking at you!)and weighing in the first few weeks. Honestly, it will make you feel shit.

As to eating at maintenance? On the MFP group there are people who are eating at maintenance, this is called a "metabolic reset" and it's great for people who are just coming off a 1200 cal diet and who have been at plateau for a while...it's like a break from thinking about it all for a while, and I think it can help you break the starve/binge metabolism damage, but it does mean even more patience, as 6 x weeks at maintenance before you start even thinking about losing any weight is quite a brave thing to do I think.

I haven't had any wine (did have about half a pint of cider though) or chocolate, and I'm on 2,120 today. I'm not really counting but I went and did it so I could tell you that.

It's Sunday though, you probably had a massive Sunday lunch (or dinner).

I must say, I was eating more when the kids were younger as I finished a fair bit of their food and also seemed to be making multiple meals.

For me, Draped, the carbs are the problem. I really didn't realise how many of my calories came from carbs. Cutting down on carbs means automatically cutting down my calorie allowance.

I'm going to talk a bit about hitting the macros properly when I've worked it out myself next week.

I find it hard myself to be honest - my fat is pretty much always higher than it should be, but I think that's a by product of eating oily fish almost every day.

<waves at Trills>

Nope, I very rarely have roast dinners.

I did have bacon and egg and toast for breakfast, and I had lunch. Normally on a weekend I'd just get up late and have a brunchy thing.

Apparently I am low on protein and high on carbs. Not very surprising. I am surprised that my fat isn't higher than it should be though.

Oh my post has disappeared! I think it's trying to eat low carb/clean as well.

I had gallstones and went on a low (bad) fat diet and lost a stone in weight as well as the symptoms. I then restarted low carbing but lost no more weight. I've just been on antibiotics/steroids so my appetite is shot. I sound so healthy... I also thought you just needed to eat less as you get old(er).

I really didn't realise I'd been starving myself at all. I think it's hard to get your head round eating more and "dieting"/being healthy.

So, I'm going shopping in the morning.

I will buy

70% chocolate
tuna
salmon (smoked and raw)
nuts - almonds and anything unsalted
hummus
various veg for hummus
ryvita for dipping in hummus
ground almonds
ground flaxseed
yoghurt

I'm not a great cheese/butter eater, and fat isn't a problem for me (since my cholesterol scare I've been happily avoiding quite a bit of fat, possibly too much)

Any other suggestions. Preferably for replacements for white bread and stodgy sweet stuff. And pringles.

I have 200 calories left for today. I could have the last icecream, or a banana [ponders]

Ooh! Ooh! Have you tried celeriac Mary? You can make wonderful crisps with it.

If you are after breaking your bread and sweet addiction then there isn't much of an alternative other than to go through it!

There are some recipes for muffin in mugs (these use flaxseed rather than flour) and other lw carb alternatives on BIWI's bootcamp recipe thread.

Celeriac, no - tell me it doesn't taste like turnip?

I had a quick look at BIWI's recipes and ran away. I will gird my loins and go back tomorrow.

I am going to have a piece of fillet steak and some mushrooms fried in butter for my lunch tomorrow while the kids are at school

I can't afford fillet steak for five , and my doctor will be pleased as I have to go back for blood tests during the week and she told me to eat iron.

confused again sorry. Are we low carbing??

I think some people are low carbing, but not everyone.

Shirley, you reckon my figures are low? I put in the moderate acivity level (ie not sedentary). I assumed it's because I'm old (49), and don't have much to 'lose.'
(Am 5'7 and 10st 4 - 7). I like being a stone lighter and think of that as my 'real' weight.

But it's mainly about how my clothes fit, if I'm honest. I wouldn't care (ish) what weight I was if I could get rid of the wobbly mid-section, and get the nice summer clothes down from the loft. <sniff>

Im trying to good carb-small amounts of brown rice/pasta occasional wholegrain bread.

Has anyone tried the graze boxes?They are really good and have measured portions with cals counted for you.

No, we aren't low carbing.

What we are doing is looking at the calories we are eating for this week.

But ideally, we would be eating carbs/protein/fat in the proportion of 40/30/30 so some of us have entered our goals in mfp to reflect that.

And I for one have been horrified to find that about three quarters of my calories on a normal day would come from carbs, so am looking for non-carb alternatives.

Maryz I have found cottage cheese and oatcakes to be a bit of a wonder-snack. Low fat cottage cheese is brilliant for adding almost pure protein.

Oh bleugh - I can't bear cottage cheese!

I promised myself some while ago that I would never eat anything again just because I thought I should - what a waste of calories!

I will try a protein shake - it seems really counterintuitive though, to eat something that in my mind is associated with trying to gain weight!! And I need to eat more eggs, I hardly eat any atm.

I did a bodyscan on my scales today. Visceral fat down (I'm well into normal range on that now), muscle percentage up and body fat percentage down by 3%. Still way, way, way too high, but heading in the right direction.

Xbat, as kind as you are to offer us the opportunity to er buy your stuff, your post is breaking guidelines and I've reported it. There's a whole other section on here for spamming advertising. Hth.

I have set mfp up but still had loads yeaterday left and it seemed like a bad day too. I need to shop too and get in some good food,its so expensive now though isnt it? Grub i mean

We had friends round yesterday which wasn't the best start to logging everything in MFP so I had what DD would describe as an epic fail. So am going to start properly today.

I haven't had a chance to read all of this thread yet but I am very interested in the principles of it.

However, I have put my details into the calorie calculator and it says I have a net calorie value of 2300 per day. I have just logged my meals on MFP and I have still only used just over half my calories for the day - is that right??

Also, I haven't exercised today but I usually do 4 or 5 hardcore gym sessions each week so surely I can't add the calories which I burn at the gym on top of the 2300 aswell (it is around the 700 calories burnt mark)?

Sorry if these questions have been answered already and I will read the thread when I have more time.

Okay, I'm having a massive mild wibble.
Stood on scales this morning and I've gained 3.5 kilos since Friday .

So Friday was my birthday and we went away for the weekend - even so, I definitely didn't eat the 26 million cals it would take to put on 7lbs.

Is it water then? I'm thinking best start starving now unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Also, everyone seems to be talking about massive calorie burns through exercise. If that can't be done (dodgy back), does that mean the whole thing's doomed to failure anyway?

Oh crapola.

alibaba what fat scanning scales do you have? I was considering getting some calipers to check fat loss, but if there are scales that work, that would be far easier by myself.

shotgun Surely starving now would be the absolute worst thing you could do, as you will slow your metabolic rate right down.

ceebee I think you only have to worry about extra calories if you burn MORE than you expected to do when first calculating your TDEE.

It's okay Everything - I'm actually the last person to starve themselves. Just can't do it - was more of an exaggerated over-reaction to this morning's horror.
Will be aiming for my TDEE for this week and see how it goes.

Shotgun.

It is water. Is your period due?

To gain 7 pounds of fat you would need to have eaten 24,500 EXTRA calories over the weekend. I'm pretty sure that this is humanly impossible.

Stop weighing yourself.

If you have been starving yourself for years then how has that been working for you? Are you at a happy weight? Are you content with the food you've been eating? How's your energy levels?

Answer those questions and see if you're prepared to give this thing a proper try - it might take 6 weeks, or even longer, before you start seeing a loss on the scales.

This is not a quick fix. You will not lose 5 lbs in a week - it's not what we're aiming for!

Exercise - If you have set your calories correctly - TDEE less 15% cut and your activity level is correct then you WILL lose weight. Exercise burns just mean that we get to eat MORE every day <greedy> and it helps to build muscles, which burn more calories and take up less space than fat.

I would really, REALLY urge you to try and get some exercise into your life. I know that having a dodgy back precludes you from high impact and heavy weight lifting, but how about swimming, walking, bike riding?

Morning!

I feel really motivated, thanks to this thread. I don't think the weather's doing any harm, either.

I am going to take loads of measurements tomorrow morning. I might even post them here because it'll definitely motivate me and I've got to keep them somewhere!

x posted!

CeeBee. - If you have entered your info properly on the calorie calculator, and you have chosen MODERATE as your activity level AND you have chosen a 15% cut in your TDEE and you're getting 2,300 then YES! This is what you will eat every day.

Isn't it FAB? Loads of lovely food. It can be difficult for the first week to realise that you CAN EAT! It's fuel for your metabolism. To get your calories up, add some full fat yoghurts, some good oily dressings, a handful of raw nuts.

When you get some time read through the thread, the link and the links in the links.

You only need to eat back your calories if you burn so many that your net calories drop below your BMR.

YES! YES! YES!

EVERYONE should take their measurements today.

ANd some photographs!

I'll do mine in the morning, because I think it's a better base measurement -- before I've eaten anything.

Morning!

Another gorgeous day - went for a quick run after dropping the kids off and did some planks, push ups, squats etc....feeling good!

Shirley - what do you think about choosing low-fat over full-fat? I have a tub of full Greek yoghurt which I love, and I know it's lower carb than the low-fat versions...what would you do? It would certainly up my calorie intake...

Had All-Bran with banana, blueberries and skimmed milk...have been low/no carbing for a while and really want to get my fibre intake back up.

also - you said about your fat intake going over - mine did too, yesterday but this is because I had smoked salmon with lunch and mackerel with dinner, so I reckon that kind of fat is fine to go over on, right? I mean it's not like I then ate a bowl of M&M's and Minstrels, is it??

I'm not weighing or measuring until next Monday. I don't want to give up just yet, and it's only been three days.

Hey foosty!

I choose full fat yoghurts. I eat full fat Total Greek Yoghurt and I also eat full fat flavoured yoghurts too. I wouldn't touch a muller light with a bargepole! It's a good way of getting your calories and it has none of the nasty sugars and sweeteners which low fat options are full of.

Full fat produce helps to give you that feeling of satiety, I truly believe that eating low fat, non natural stuff just makes you MORE hungry.

Did anyone watch Secret Eaters last week? There was a very interesting part about Diet Coke. They found that when one of the family drank a glass of diet coke, about 20-30 minutes later he was in the larder looking for something to eat! It could be a coincidence, but I don't trust that diet stuff as far as I can throw it!

Mary - It's measuring to get your BASE, not to see if there's been any loss!

Oh, I did weighing and measuring on Friday, when I started, so I'm ok with that. I didn't want to do it again.

I'm still not doing enough exercise - my exercise is of the gardening/housework/walk around the supermarket variety. But I will be swimming from Monday and starting pilates.

I weighed and measured this morning. But more importantly I fitted into a pair of trousers that were too snug last week

I am debating whether to join the local pool and gym. They only have a creche for 2 hours in the morning, which isn't enormously helpful. It will cost me £6 to put both boys in for an hour, the only day where the creche overlaps with DS1's preschool hours is Wednesday. Other than that it means going to the gym once the boys are in bed, which is 8pm and DH and I eat together then.
I think I am going to wait until DS1 starts school in September, at least then I can go any morning of the week.

Okay I'll step away from the scales this week <meek>.
not had AF for about 6 months so if it's water retention that's not the cause.
So I'll call it a blip and aim for a few exercise sessions this week.

I don't think I've starved myself since I was 17 and taking two pieces of fruit to school for lunch . Oh, and I did a Rosemary Conley diet about 20 years ago <shows age>.

But 'normal' eating for me seems to result in weight gain since hitting the mid-forties. So, yes, there's no other alternative to heaving my aching carcass around I guess.

I have just spent an hour signing up to MFP etc, I am convinced!

I need to change my relationship to food, I'm 28 and worried about the long term effects of my frankly insane eating habits (veering from obsessively healthy and high raw to stuffing in the Dairy Milk) especially on my 3DDs.

Exercise is a problem for me, I would like to do couch to 5k but have a lack of funds for running shoes problem. Walking at toddler pace doesn't really count!

Shotgun - When I talk about starving oneself, I'm really talking about eating under your BMR - not surviving on 2 x pieces of fruit for a day.

The reason "normal eating" is causing weight gain is that your metabolism is fucked (unless "normal eating" for you is eating a lot over your TDEE, in which case you need to pull that back into line anyway) so as soon as you feed it it HOLDS ON to all those calories as fat. It's just trying to survive.

PLEASE, if you haven't done so already, please read the links, the EMTWL group stuff on MFP particularly.

buggy - Do you have any trainers at all? I don't have "proper" running shoes, but have managed fine in my normal trainers!

I do, but I gave myself shin splints running in them a fortnight ago!

Oooo, not good. Fecking shin splints.

I tell you something you could do though, and that's to take that half an hour you would have gone running in and either do a DVD (Shred is agonisingly good) or go out for a brisk walk. It's better than nothing!

I'm starving today. I'm trying to save my lunch until 1pm, but it'll be hard.

Is there anything I could have added to my breakfast this morning to have upped the protein in it? If you're my friend on MFP, you can probably see it on my food diary, but it was yogurt, seeds, berries, walnuts and a spoonful each of honey and Nutella. It was bloody delicious, but I've been hungry since about 10am.

Going well so far today. I woke well before anyone else as I was so hungry! Meant I had time to do some of my yoga workout before DD woke up and decided to "help" So far I've had twice as much protein as fat, and not many of my carbs, which is good because DD and I are at a party this afternoon and I will be eating biscuits (guilt free) taking some melon with me too so I don't eat too many if I get hungry.

I've ordered some samples of that protein stuff, thank you Shirley. I also tried poridge with that almond milk this morning, very nice. I used half almond milk, half water and half a pureed banana. It was really creamy and it didn't need any sugar.

Toby - EAT if you're hungry! I've had a peek at your diary and you've got LOADS of calories left for today. Eat your lunch now and get a snack for this afternoon.

The hunger is a good sign, but you should listen to your body and if your stomach is rumbling and you're hungry then EAT SOMETHING!

I didn't bring anything else to work with me, and I'm here 'til 4pm. My lunch is a giant salad and a whole tin of tuna, so I won't be hungry for long. But I've learnt from my mistake and will boil some eggs tonight for a mid-morning snack tomorrow. I had some cherries mid-morning, but that didn't cut it!

Oatcakes and peanut butter would be handy to keep at work, too.

Yep...maybe change your MFP layout to the same as mine?

Breakfast
Mid Morning
Lunch
Mid Afternoon
Dinner
After workout.

Having it this way helps me to plan what I'm going to eat during the day.

Other good snacks for the office are <yawns> raw nuts (I'm so boring!), snack packs of dried fruit (apricots are filling, I expect raisins would be good if they weren't the work of the devil), protein bars.

I'm very lucky to have a fridge at work so I am not limited at all. <yay for work>

hey..how do I add friends on there? I'm foosty73 if anyone wants me..

<needy>

I don't really like dried fruit. I do like nuts, but I think it would bore me just to sit and eat them at my desk. I do have a fridge/microwave at work, so I could theoretically bring anything!

I sent you a request, foosty. Mine's kiki_jp if anyone wants to add me...

Have a look at my diary if you fancy it Toby, you can see what sort of stuff I bring in to eat every day.

seventh I've got some Omron ones, I got them from Amazon. They were a bit reduced, but not massively expensive - perhaps £30? I can't remember exactly, we've had them a couple of years.

I can't see yours. I had to change my privacy settings to make mine visible to friends.

Huh. I thought I'd done that. OK, will changeroo it now!

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place...

I see it now!

Can I join?

Baby weight from DD1 three years ago needs to go.

Can't do much exercise yet as cs a week ago- should I wait or can I start now?

Oh, and if you could just explain things to me really slowly, that'd be fab. Or I'll look at the links. Maybe.

I am considering prunes as I am currently on iron tablets [tmi - bleurgh]

Is dried fruit ok? I thought it was too full of sugar. I could live on dried fruit.

I have to get a few light dumbells, as ds's ones are a bit heavy for me and if I change all the weights around I think he might thump me. I am going to set up the wii fit again too - it isn't much good for cardio, but the yoga and stretchy bit is great for my back.

I will come and friend you all later when I've updated massaged my food diary.

Hello - can I join in please ? Been sickeningly naturally slim (5' 8" tall size 8 to 10 weighing between 9st and 9st 10 tops) all my adult life - hit age 50 and whoahhh what is going on ? . I am now 11st 4 or 5lbs at top weight and we (DH and I) recently went on a bit of a health drive - sharing a curry takeaway instead of one each - only one packet of biscuits in weekly shopping trolley on a 'when they're gone they're gone' basis, desserts only at weekend or twice a week at most as opposed to most nights, weekend full English breakfast now only on one weekend morning instead of both and then with only one slice of toast each instead of two or three. We changed from white bread to wholemeal bread also and several other gradual but significant changes. My DH who has a lot more excess than me to lose so might be the reason did much better - lost over half a stone. I got down to a steady 11st to 11st 1lb but scales very temperamental and only good to assess a general overall pattern really.
Now in last few days of it being very hot I have got on the scales in the morning and have gone straight back up to 11st 5lbs - right back where l started basically - dh has stayed the same .
I mention the heat because am sure it's an issue with my weight - I puff up like nobodys business in the heat and all but had to have my wedding rings cut off the other night but managed to get them off in the end with some googled technique involving dental tape - dont ask ! Now these same rings went on and came off perfectly fine 12 hrs earlier so it cant possibly be just down to weight gain. Is it the menopause or water retention problem or what ?

You might have noticed I am mightily pissed off and am definitely in - can you OP or anyone do an idiots guide though as I'm a bit dim lost with all the abbreviations etc

Men tend to find it easier to lose weight because they have a higher % of muscle in their bodies, and muscle uses energy even when it is just sitting there. (which is why exercise is good, even if you eat back the calories you will build muscle)

I signed up to mfp on friday, but really starting today as weekend was busy and I hadn't planned for it. So today I had one egg (fried in very little olive oil) and Total greek yoghurt with milled flax seeds, a few pumpkin and sunflower seeds and some agave syrup. Then had a latte at work.
For lunch I had home made soup, which was mainly vegetables and a bit of chorizo (I threw in all the stuff I could find in the fridge). I am not sure about the calories in the soup since I made it a while ago. So I need to have a bit more for lunch cos I know the soup won't see me through for long and to add protein.
Exercise wise I am cycling to and from work today (3m each way) and will be doing salsa dancing this evening.
My BMR is 1400 and TTDE around 2200 (with moderate exercise) so my target is 1900 calories. I still have over 1000 today so will need to find healthy stuff to eat.
I find it difficult not to weigh myself, but will try to measure myself instead (may need some hand holding not to go on the scales!)
Also, may need some ideas for next week as we will be in self catering accommodation in France.
Happy eating everyone!

Sorry meant to add I am 53 so weight gain started around 3yrs ago and we went on our mini health drive for about last 3 months when we lost the weight but I having put all mine back on now feel like all those months of being 'good' are wasted.

IDIOTS GUIDE - AS I SEE IT

When we starve ourselves, we might lose weight at first, but our bodies think they are starving and so panic turns all our food to fat. We then starve ourselves more and get into vicious circle.

The idea of this is to find out what we need to survive, and make sure we eat this each day, so that our bodies never go into panic starvation "I have to make fat" mode.

So log into mfp, get Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) This is the number of calories your body burns just BEING in existence,i.e. if you were in a coma.

Also work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) from the other site (can't find it ????), put in how much exercise you take, and calculate TDEE minus 15% if you want to lose weight.

Then change targets in mfp so that target calories is TDEE-15%, macros are carb/protein/fat of 40/30/30, and eat up to calorie limit for a while, to try to get the body back to normal. During this time you might put on a bit of weight but will have much more energy.

If you take extra exercise, that's ok, provided you don't use up so many calories that your net intake is less than your BMR (otherwise starvation panic sets in).

That's as I see it anyway. But shirley is right - if you read all the links it makes sense.

Toby - hooray! it's in a weird bit in the settings, I thought I'd changed it!

Hey tethers my darling! You can totally join in but only if you promise to say on TDEE without a cut. (Are you feeding my beautiful namesake via the wonder of breasticles?) I'll do you a quick explanation:

To lose or maintain weight our bodies need a certain amount of fuel everyday. This is dependant on our age, activity level, height and weight and we refer to the basal metabolic rate (which is the amount of calories your body burns if it were in a coma) as our BMR. As we're NOT in comas (unless at work) we need to calculate the actual amount of cals we burn and we refer to this as the Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). As some of us are trying to lose weight we take a 15% cut off this figure and eat at that level every day.

Consistency is key.

If you are breastfeeding you should be eating your TDEE plus an additional 500 cals, and as you're so soon after the baby I would rather you ate at your TDEE without the cut for a little while - to keep you nice and nourished while you deal with night times and lack of rest.

Mary - dried fruit, although it is high in sugar seems OK to me, I'm not low carbing so it's not an issue and I think that the fibre is a GOOD thing. As to the heavy weights? YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO THEM! High weight/Low reps are a brilliant way to gain muscle and melt fat! Don't go buying a set of barbie weights that do FA and that you'll "grow out of" in a few short weeks.

Ok, I shall sit in garage tonight and watch tv and lift ds's weights. I hope he is out

READ SHIRLEYS POSTS, NOT MINE, THEY ARE CLEARER

High weight/Low reps are a brilliant way to gain muscle and melt fat!

Interesting. I did not know this.

x posted with you myob

You said:

"I mention the heat because am sure it's an issue with my weight - I puff up like nobodys business in the heat and all but had to have my wedding rings cut off the other night"

and also that you'd gained, like, 6lbs over the weekend?

It's water retention. I am telling you now that you have not gained 6lbs of fat in a weekend, or over the course of a week! It's not possible, so STEP AWAY FROM THE SCALES. (SAFTS - is my new acronym for this )

To counter water weight and puffiness you need to drink plenty of water (a good few litres per day) and watch your sodium intake.

Mary - I'm always right.

Shirley, do you do all this on the phone?

dd is almost 16 and beginning to worry about weight. She has always been fairly solid, and unfortunately all her friends are very skinny. She keeps muttering "diet", but might well do mfp on her phone, if that's easy to do, and at least that way she won't get obsessed with "diet food"

The app is fairly good, Maryz. I have the android version. It's a bit more fiddly than using my laptop but that's probably because I am old and less used to using a 'phone keyboard for typing everything all the time.

High Weight Low Reps

GREAT benefits from this sort of exercise including burning more cals after the workout than cardio alone, brilliant for increasing bone density which is important for us women and building muscle mass means you are burning more calories per day than a fat person who weighs the same as you. <nods>

I went to the gym yesterday and started trying some heavy lifting. I managed 80kilos on my leg curls and extensions and 50 kilos on a seated row and chest press. <power stance>

That is really interesting. I will start tomorrow. Usually the highest weight I do is 45kg on a leg press. I'm sure I could do more. Just not for 4 sets of 10. But if I'm doing fewer reps...just maybe!

I use my phone app and I use the computer, but I'm mostly on my phone app. I love the bar code scanner on my app (I might have mentioned this before!) and love being able to pump stuff in whenever I want. I can't read message boards on the app (or rather I haven't really explored that aspect of it)

"Did anyone watch Secret Eaters last week? There was a very interesting part about Diet Coke. They found that when one of the family drank a glass of diet coke, about 20-30 minutes later he was in the larder looking for something to eat! It could be a coincidence, but I don't trust that diet stuff as far as I can throw it!"

I highly HIGHLY recommend to everyone on this thread John Briffa's book

here on Amazon - kindle version only 3.99 and there's a kindle app for iphone...

Everything Shirly talks of about food etc is here and it's SO easy to read and understand - I ploughed through 15 chapters yesterday I was so fascinated!

That is all very interesting.

<resolves to set up tv in garage weights room and get it welcoming>

As you may have noticed, I'm starting slowly, but in the past whenever I have gone headlong into something it has lasted about a week, so here's hoping

Oh, the reason for the quote from Shirley is that he talks about the studies which show that diet drink users put on more weight and eat more...

I will attempt to get out for a brisk walk this evening...bonus in that I can put the baby in the sling and make it harder for myself! How does this sound, a half hour fast walk three times a week plus an hour of yoga on Saturdays and Sundays?

knit - I keep meaning to read that but never get around to it - he's quite low carb though isn't he?

yippee, I have friends! Thanks Toby and Shirley

I am starving today....but still have millions of calories left so shall stuff my face appropriately.

I'd really need to go to the gym to do heavy weights, wouldn't I? Might be a bit scary. I'm going to check on Amazon for some to be delivered. Poor postie!

msbuggy, if you carried the baby and lifted him up and down in time with your walking that would be even better

Thank you Shirley - I also used to be very very good at drinking plenty of water - my DH used to say your like a baby with its bottle of milk with that bloody water bottle always with you and somewhere along the line I kinda just dropped the habit. Interestingly that was when I was very effortlessly slim so you may well have a point ! So that's my first thing is to resume my former clinginess with my bottle of water!
I joined MFP btw and I cant see where I find my BMR or my other thing you said l would need to calculate (forgotten abbeviation sorry ends in EE ??)
MFP just said I would need to eat 1340 calories and when I tried to join EMWL or whatever it's called it just said join a group or start a group so I dont know where to go with it after that.
My head hurts but at least time spent on this is keeping me out of the biscuit tin.

VIVIPRUE - tell us the granola recipie please

I think the thing with diet drinks is that the sweet taste makes your body think it is getting sugar, so it produces insulin which is then sloshing around with nothing to do, so you go in search of actual food. <highly unscientific>

The weights sounds interesting. I could bench press my children?

I have tried WW.

Also tried PMK.

Nothing works!! I am now heavier than I have ever been - all since having the depo injection in late 2009

What you say really makes sense to me...I had a herniated disc in my back last summer and due to that have done no exercise since then. I am 5.5 and weigh nearly 12 stone

I am starting to need size 16 clothes.

My dh and dc tell me I am not fat BUT I AM.

Please tell me what I need to do!....

Foosty! I think the gym is the best option, BUT I think that you can use your own body weight as well...

god that sounds awful...what I mean is that you can use your own body weight and a resistance band in order to get a fairly good workout

this looks good

MYOB - I think you need to start reading the thread from the beginning - There is a calorie calculator that we're using rather than the crappy MFP one and all you need to know is in the links and posts from earlier on. To join the EMTWL group you just need to..join the group! . It just means you can read the message boards - which I would say is very valuable!

(I did lose weight after the birth of ds2 on the harcombe diet but its tough and I am not sure it follows these rules?...)

Heeeeeelllpp?? shirley I've just started at SW(never dieted before). Is it shit? pls speak freely. If it's not totally shit will you advise me on how to modify it so I don't mess up my metabolism?

Thank you

Alibaba, I do like that explanation, and I will be using it whether it is scientifically correct or not

Ok, I have just come back to this now I am in the right frame of mind...I have just put everything into the calculator.

Can someone please explain the daily calorie requirements?
It says 2115cals based on goal in step 6. Is that my calorie allowance to lose?

Shirley - yes he is but it almost doesn't matter, it's just the understanding that you need really (well, I need! haha)

madmomma - no! Slimming World isn't shit, it's actually pretty good! I still use lots of their recipes. It is a bit - one size fits all, which I think can be counter-productive, but I wouldn't say it's a terrible "diet" plan...although I WOULD say that it might be valuable to track your food on MFP at the same time - it might be interesting to see how close to your TDEE you end up being (also, AVOID all them horrible muller light yoghurts! )

Badvoc - Harcombe diet - is that the low carb one? See, I think the low carbing diets are pretty great really, mainly because due to their very nature you end up getting a decent amount of calories a day, cutting the evil sugar and diet shite.

Bonkey - If your allowance after the 15% deficit cut, and you have set your activity realistically - then YES, 2115 calories is what you need to eat every day to lose weight.

Wow, I'm quite shocked at that!

I am also wondering if the reason that i get tired quickly is because I'm not eating enough, or pig out on shit because I'm so tired. One or the other.

I'm very active but everyday active, not purpose exercise iykwim.

I reckon I eat 1300 ish a day atm. Bring on the food

maryz yes, then both of my arms would fall off which would take me just below my target weight

Ah thanks Shirley - l have started to read back and some of the knots l've got my silly head into are now unravelling. I have worked out my net calories to be 2130 my 'in a coma' calories are 1464 or something. So far so good but now l have the problem (sorry high maintenance me ) of the rules about what you actually can eat - can you make these calories up to your net amount from eating 4 packets of chocolate digestive biscuits [hopeful] one day if in a slovenly mood and then chicken and fish and salad the next or does it not matter what the calories are made up of as long as accurately measured?

Cheers, Shirley

Have decided to use the devil's own spewtum to feed little Shirl, so don't have to factor in extra bf calories.

I am already using MFP, but at about 10% of its capacity. It's set to 1500 calories a day at the moment, so have some maths to do <crippling fear> to work out what it should be. I am baffled by the 40/30/30 thing too, so will have a play with it. I hear what you're saying about not taking off the 15% yet, so will give it a couple of weeks. I remember eating loads of sugary stuff when DD1 was a baby just to keep awake- don't want to fall back into that trap.

Was just about to spunk sixty quid on SW, so will give this a go first- will be interested to know how you get on, madmomma...

<also hopes to be able to eat 4 packets of chocolate digestives>

This diet is hard-going the day before payday. Luckily, I had a monster chicken in the freezer so I had roast chicken for dinner last night, chicken salad for lunch and have just snacked on a giant chicken leg. And I'm still hungry...and have 1000 calories left. The only things in the house to eat are bread, potatoes etc.

at the devil's sputum tethers.

<wanders over to b/f/feeding, singing ^I'm telling on you-ooooo^"

I have discovered almonds and raisins, I have tuna, quiche, salad, hummous and carrots.

And more icecreams

<lifts 2 stone DD2 (age 2, she's consistent) over head>
<faints>

MYOB - "can you make these calories up to your net amount from eating 4 packets of chocolate digestive biscuits [hopeful] one day if in a slovenly mood and then chicken and fish and salad the next or does it not matter what the calories are made up of as long as accurately measured?"

! What do YOU think? You, WE, should all be aiming to be eating in a way that nourishes our bodies at least 80% of the time! I'm not saying you can't eat chocolate digestives (although watch those bad boys, they're 85 calories a pop and you can suddenly find you've eaten five and it's 425 calories and OH GOD I CAN'T HAVE ANY DINNER!) just that you should see them as an occasional thing, not a major food group! When I'm in a slovely mood I get a chicken shish kebab - God, it's like My Secret Shame round here - which clocks in at about 450 calories and at least I'm getting some protein and some salad in me.

Tethers- HAHA @devilsputum. OK, then you can stay. Eat at your maintenance TDEE to get into the swing of it. Don't worry about your macros yet, just get the calorie load right first.

TooImmature - It's just planning really, but I totally know what you mean! Isn't it awful that the cheapest stuff to buy is the WORST stuff for us? Don't worry too much <repeats self> about your macros yet, and while I don't eat very much white pasta/rice/potatoes if that's all I had in the cupboard then I would certainly be eating it! Can you do baked potatoes with tuna or beans or something? Or potato wedges in some olive oil with some of the chicken?

I do feel the need to say again that this isn't a quick-fix, lose 7lbs in a month WOE. I've been reading some threads on MFP and people are pulling their hair out about gaining 7lbs or whatever in the first few weeks - I'm going to try and forestall that now byu telling you all that you will probably gain a couple of pounds in these first weeks, but to stick with it as those Low calorie diets might mean you can lose a bit for the summer, but it'll all pile back on in the autumn with a few of it's mates for good measure!

That's ok, Shirley, I was taking the bf-cake diet a bit too literally so this is actually a reduction in calories for me! So am still secretly hoping for the 7lb-in-a-week weightloss... Anyway, I am stuck because bf and dieting don't really mix so going for a super-low-cal diet is out for me. In the end I found some Special K (well, the Co-op version) and scoffed that, leaving myself 700 calories for dinner. I shall be having something involving chicken and potatoes for that. I still have 104 carb grammes to eat so that'll be ok.

I'm Frowsty on MFP, add me please?

I have got 1400 calories left to eat - WTF??

<orders Chinese>

Careful with Special K. I used to eat it and then wonder why I was ravenous and thirsty in 30 minutes. It's v high carb/GI

I've decided to SAFTS for this week, stick to my TDEE and see what happens.
Bad news is TDEE is 1800 cals - good news is I have 300 left today!

Not feeling hungry at all as I've just had a big portion of chicken pie, but I think I'll have a baked spud before bed.

I feel as if a lot of stuff is coming back to me - I also used to drink loads of water, never seen without a bottle for years, would drink it over tea or coffee when in people's houses . Was thin. I then had a bad stomach bug, couldn't face it swilling around inside me and never got back into the habit.

And what I've eaten today is just the same as when I was sugar free and thin, same time as the water thing.
I used to aim to eat a good dose of protein plus brown carbs and veg with every meal, no white carbs or sugar in any form (even honey or agave syrup), then a baked spud for supper. It was all about balancing your blood sugar to keep your mood level and avoid depression. For sugar addicts.
Fell off that wagon and gained 2 1/2 stone.

D'you reckon I could fit in a fitness sesh tonight? Like the look of Shirl's heavy lifting. Might try next time I'm in the gym.

I've added Toby, foosty and frowsty as friends. My MFP name is the same as my username here. Too long to type. Though not as long as this explanation. <ironic>

Am doing fairly well, though perhaps concentrating a bit too much on the numbers rather than the macros - cheesecake yesterday, ice cream today - though Shirley did say numbers first, macros later!

This is such a revelation - off to download the ebook recommendation. Thanks to whoever posted the link (Knitknack I think).

Shite. I'm over by 31 calories. Today is a rest day, to be fair. But still, it's a bit annoying.

Ah well. Tomorrow's another day.

DO THE FITNESS SESH!

I went and did body combat after work. My hair is still wet with sweat. <gorgeous>

I tried quinoa tonight. I've never cooked it before but it's not complicated and I had it with some chorizo and sun dried tomatoes. It was delicious and quite high in protein. [yay face]

31 calories is NOTHING at all!

Please don't feel bad, I often go over by up to 100 - it's really not a big deal.

Oh cheers Shirl I wont shoot the messenger though and will try and only eat a couple of choccie digestives at a time and only as a special treat.

<wanders off muttering >

ARF!

<shoots self instead>

Im still struggling to eat enough which seems weird for a fat bird I must admit i do like the diet drinks at night as it stops me drinking wine.

Thanks Maryz and shirl for the concise explainations. so basically its eat more cals but mostly made up of healthy/wholesome choices.I can manage that i think.

I do lots of low weight reps but might try the higher ones next time.

I am very nervous of over eating after years of diets but it makes sense of all the times ive tried sw and ww and lost about half a pound (a good shit really) when i knew id hardly eaten a thing

Yeah, but I wanted a gin and tonic tonight I know. Tomorrow is gym day again, and I will go at it bastard hard to allow me booze tomorrow night make up for today

I am settling down to my 6th meal of the day.

I have a tub of hummus, some ryvita cheese biscuits, some carrot sticks and a glass of smoothie.

I am not hungry at all and I am under by about 100 today, even after this lot.

I'm having a few problems with entering some of my foods though so my diary is a little sketchy. A lot of the Irish brands have inaccurate figures, and only calories, so I now have a spreadsheet to fill in my regular foods and will enter them in mfp tomorrow when I have time.

I feel like I have loads of energy - I have spent time in the garden, investigated and sorted the weights (and de-cat-smelled the garage, which took quite a few calories, I reckon). So no proper scheduled exercise, but a lot of activity.

Right, am getting my Shred DVD back from my mum tomorrow. <quails> Can't really use the C section as an excuse 11.5 weeks on. Maybe this time I'll make it further than Level 2 Day 2.

I have 200 calories left today but no fat grammes. I think I'll eat canned peaches.

What can I put on toast that's not as fatty as Anchor Lighter Spreadable? Butter derivatives are looking to be my downfall.

Oooh, that's a point, Maryz. I hoovered and mopped the kitchen floor - that's exercise too!

Jam?

I don't like butter thank goodness - pregnancy put me off it.

Or do what my old granny did and dip the crusts into a cup of tea

I'm 3 days in and doing well and feeling full. Just measured myself rather than weighing and marked it on calendar.

Oooh I also discovered lidl 70% chocolate! Cheaper than branded choc and just and nice. In my lidl they have plain, nutty, or with orange or raspberry!
Lidl is my favourite place right now!

I'm still 200 cals below my BMR, and I'm so full!
<goes off to rummage through fridge>

It's weird eating so much!! But at the same time I'm craving sugar like a mad thing (sugar addict, trying to break it) so I'm stuffed, have eaten loads, but am dying for a sweet cup of tea or something! Feel very 'clean' though, and much happier

I'm off to find something more to eat. I have 500 cals left, but have walked loads today. Mum of 2 with buggy, by the time I drop one at school and another at pre-school I have walked for about 45mins quite fast (we are often running late ).

I'm a big fan of weights, I originally read Strong Women Stay Young: there's a website too, which was originally a study with women using highest weight possible 2 x 8-12 reps but slowly.

The other thing about weights is in Arthur de Vaney's book on paleo diet, quite extreme low carb but bear with me... his weights are supposed to use both fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Start with low weight and do 15reps slowly, counting to 5 for each one. Then up to a middle weight and do 9-10 reps fast, counting to 2 for each one. Lastly, choose higher weight and do 4-5 reps fast, but build up to this gradually.

Sorry no links I'm on my phone.

Why isn't the sexing in the MFP exercise database?

How many calories does it take to pull your nightie down when he's finished?

I'm assuming it would be difficult to assess the average number of calories used - would you measure per session, per hour (or minute ), would there be different calorie expenditure for males and females etc

<mind boggles>

Shotgun - have you read Potatoes not Prozac? It is an interesting book if you are a sugar addict!

I'm just tucking into some greek yoghurt with nuts and apricots and a bit of honey. Yum yum. Still going to be about 500 calories under for the day...

Hmmm. I can see the issues.

tethers

Knitting isn't in the exercise database either (I know how to have a good night in, oh yes)…
Hideously over yesterday (damn you M&S mini-bites in a tub thingies) but actually under today, rah! Although apparently I've not had any potassium today Do I need some??!

Don't know, but I've just finished a sesh of Brazil Butt Lift !
MFP reckons it's 188 cals, so I'll take that.
It's now telling me I have a calorie deficit, but I don't think I need to make that up, do I? I'm not aiming for the cut amount, just the TDEE atm.

Ali, that's the very book I was talking about! Came across it in Waterstones one day about 12 years ago and it started me on a healthy eating road, lasted about 6 years on and off. Back on now, obvs.

I am astounded that all you people are coming in under calorie allowance.
I really should track properly, but I'm sure I eat around 2300 cals most days with no bother at all.

seventh - the weekend was a different story. I was 100 over one day, and 200 over yesterday!

Erm as I said earlier, had a birthday on Friday and had at least 2,500 for 3 days! Didn't really feel like I was having a massive blow-out, either.

Thanks shirley. I'm going to do it as if I'm maintaining (ie with extra 'healthy extras'). I couldn't stick to it otherwise

I'm upset. I'm still bloody stuck at my usual weight. I went down now I ve gone back up. I've been eating too much I think. I've stuck to my recommended calories and exercising nearly every day. I want to scream. I feel slimmer though. Maybe I should start measuring rather than weighing?

Bucketbetty, someone who knows why they are talking about will be along but I think not losing and slightly gaining is normal at the beginning whilst you're body sorts itself out. The idea being that eating less than you need causes it to go into starvation mode and screws your metabolism. Definitely take measurements.

I had an ok first day and was pretty much bang on my calorie allowance, a bit over with carbs and fat and under with protein. DH shopped this week though and I'm missing a lot of food in the fridge that I'd usually have so it will be me doing the next shop !

betty I think (from reading all the info Shirly has provided) that a weight gain in the early weeks is normal as your metabolism sorts itself out.
I measured and didn't weigh for this reason as I don't wanna be stood on the scales screaming!
Stick with it and see what happens!

If you read Shirley's posts up the top (and a lot of her posts since), she would tell you to saftfs (stay away from the fucking scales).

The idea of this isn't to lose weight in a week - in fact if you lose weight in a week there is something wrong.

It will take a few weeks for the body's metabolism to get back to normal, non-starvation-mode, and in that time it is perfectly normal to put on some weight. Added to that (this is my theory) it is fucking hot, so we are all retaining water atm which can affect weight.

The idea is to only measure for the first few weeks - you can weigh once a week if you want to, but if you put on a few pounds but lose an inch at your waist, and feel full of energy and able to exercise it is working. The pounds don't matter, the inches, the energy, and the getting your metabolism up and running is what matters.

Do read the links - we have all been programmed since teenagerhood to think "reduce calories, reduce fat and protein, starve ourselves, we will lose weight". This is a whole new way of thinking.

<convert emoticon>

I am not finding it easy to eat so much breakfast! However, I know from past experience that I stay on plan much better if I eat a big breakfast. I'm on 2300 calories a day as I'm breast feeding and it is hard to eat so much!

I am mainly finding that I don't eat enough protein (no surprise really, I don't eat much meat), still I am not focussing on that too much, more looking at how much better I am eating in general.

minnie if only sitting and knitting counted as exercise!

Yes I'm struggling with breakfast.

ds2 who is 14 is benefiting, however, as I am cooking him bacon and egg every morning

SAFTS!!!!!

One thing though betty - if you're exercising everyday I am presuming you have chosen the appropriate activity level on the calorie calculator AND have been eating back any additional calories to bring your net cals up to your BMR?

Anyway, you probably WILL gain a little weight on the scales - and even on your measurements while your body goes through it's ususal..."OMG!! Calories! Lay them down as fat before the famine returns!" thing...just give it time.

I have been reading a very interesting thread over on MFP about people who have been eating at their TDEE less cut and not losing anything. It seems that for some people - especially those who have been on VLCD for a while - they have to eat EVEN MORE, right up to their TDEE maintenance amount in order for their bodies to start to "trust" them again. It really is so fascinating, and sad how much damage we do to ourselves.

I'm really starting to love my body - DYKWIM? I want to nuture it and look after it, rather than feeling frustrated and angry with it. I think this is a good sign!

MARYZ

I would like to raise that to SAFTFB(astard)S. I have put mine away as I have them on the bathroom floor and get on them first thing every morning before getting showered and dressed. Trouble is they are ruling my life as depending on what they say sets my mood for the day. Usually utter despair .

So I put them in a dark place this morning [revenge] - ha ! - in the bottom of my bedding cupboard. I then did 100 sit ups and leg lifts for a count of 100 which I used to do every single day for years and have recently worked my way back up to gradually building up to a 100 of each.

Today I have drank a half a litre bottle of water so far and had a bowl of low fat greek yoghurt and mixed in some cinnamon , honey and oatbran.

Morning!

Right. I have been very brave and put photos on MFP. I have also taken all my measurements and listed them on there so that I can keep track. I took loads of measurements! I have also filled in everything I am likely to eat today on MFP.

Today is gym day. I am feeling motivated and can't wait to finish work so that I can get there. IKWYM, shirl, about wanting to nurture your body. I am excited about this way of eating like I've never been excited about any diet. I just hope it works!

Well done for putting the scales in the naughty corner, MYOB

Toby - you look fab - you're fattest ever is what I want to look like when I'm done!

I was excellent this morning and did Shred level 3. That's THREE ... it was bloody hard but fantastic. Then I did 10 minutes of Pilates for my abs

<polishes halo>

however, didn't get around to having breakfast - in fact I'm kind of struggling to decide what to have for it. any ideas? I've been low carbing so am used to having eggs but would quite like to get my carbs in at this time of the day, I think

Question - yesterday and today my exercise calories have taken my daily calories up to 2200 or thereabouts - am I really meant to eat that many? Or do I stop at my usual TDEE (about 1900)?

* your

before the grammar police get me

I'm excited too - I feel much healthier. It is payday, hurray, so I am about to head off to Tesco to do a monster shop of yummy healthy food like full-fat yoghurt and lots of fish. Mmm.

Darn, I keep forgetting to take my measurements! I could try on a too-tight skirt in a week and see what's happened instead.

oh, and hello to all my new MFP friends! Felt VERY popular there with 4 friend requests! That never happens on Facebook.

I'm only 5'3", foosty. I weigh 11st 11.5. That makes my BMI waaaay higher than it ought to be! If I were taller, maybe I could carry it off.

Well done for doing Shred Level 3. I have owned the Shred DVD for over a year, and have never even seen Level 3

You know, I'm just about the same as you, hovering around 11st 9 - 11st 12 most of the time. If I look like that then maybe it's not as bad as I thought! The thing is, pre-DC I was always a size 10, maybe a 12. I didn't worry about my figure too much, just took it for granted. I barely did any exercise. Now it's all about the exercise for me! My tummy is just a nightmare, and when I see photos of myself I can't bear it. 3 kids have wrecked me.

<shakes fist at 3 year old ds>

Level 3 was tough, but good tough. I've been going to circuits twice a week for a few months and it was no harder than that. Those classes are for an hour so maybe that's why I managed 3 without too much trouble! But now I can't go back down to 2, or 1, can I?

You know the weirdest thing? People my height/weight seem to be a size 16 or so. I'm a 12, sometimes a 14. It's so strange, how different we all are.

This site is endlessly fascinating to me. It also helped me to realise that I don't look as bad as I thought. Although I still look bad to me, IYKWIM.

I hate my double chin, my ham-arms, my belly and the fact that my thighs now touch at the top for the first time in my life. So I WILL look better soon!

And no, you can't. If you can do Level 3, keep doing it

I actually find level 3 easier that level 2. You can always up the weights and go back even to level 1 if you fancy a change

MYOB - Good job on the scale banishment!

Tobe! - You already look brilliant!

A word about breakfast - it's really important to get eat something as soon as you can in the morning. I think it wakes your body up and that bit of fuel first thing can definitely fire you up for the day. I've always found it quite difficult to eat before I leave for work, time constraints and just not feeling hungry (although I wake up STARVING these days) combined and gave me a real MEH feeling about it.

As I've said before, I like a protein shake, sometimes with a banana blended up or other soft fruits - but if you don't want or have any shakes then a smoothie made with milk, full fat natural (or flavoured) yoghurt, soft fruits, nut butters, flaxseed or whatever you want to shove in is also a great option. There are BUNDLES of recipes on the internet! (And I have heard that you can freeze the banana and bung it in to get a more "ice cream/milkshake" texture)

Porridge is a good option, no added sugar muesli, weetabix (love it). I avoid Special K and their ILK as they are basically bowls of sugar.

I LOVE the look of these refrigerator oatmeal breakfasts

While I was low carbing I tried kippers for breakfast one morning, that was a pretty rough day, but I love kedgeree and that's great for a weekend breakfast.

If you can't face any of these options then you can't go far wrong with a slice of granary/wholemeal bread and some peanut butter.

Try and get something down you within an hour of getting out of bed and then you can have something more substantial a bit later.

Oh my god, I can't believe that one glass of Sprite has half the calories of my whole dinner. I only drank it because there's no mineral water in the house! Jesus.

Today is a day I have some childcare and so should be working my freelance arse off so I fitted in some more Just Dance.

Does being able to get through 'Rasputin' without collapsing count as a NSV?

I definitely did not put those pictures up so people would be complimentary about them (although I realise you're all far too lovely to agree with my opinion with them out loud )

Those refrigerator oatmeal things look worth a try. I have printed out the cocoa/banana one to bung in the fridge tonight.

Does almond milk taste like almonds? I have a very complicated relationship with milk. Basically I think it's vile. The thought of drinking a glass of milk makes me want to heave. And I would still never drink a glass of almond milk (although if it were called 'almond juice' I probably would!). But I'm thinking of making some smoothies and quite like the idea of using it. I would never, EVER use normal milk in a smoothie. <shudders>

Grumple - WHAT? How many calories in a half a glass of sprite then?

Minnie - Yes. "rah rah rasputin la la killer of the queen" <knows all the words>

Tobe - I love the old almond milk, it does taste almondy but it is essentially almondy milk. DYKWIM? If you have an aversion to milk you're not going to like the almond stuff. Have you tried soy? They've run out of almond milk at Sainsbury's so I'm giving hazelnut milk a try tomorrow.. OH1 What about rice milk or oat milk?

I think you could substitute apple juice for the milk - obviously it wouldn't be a smoothie really, but you could blend up a banana, some apple juice and strawberries and give it a try. Or frozen banana, greek yoghurt, honey and ice cubes - I bet that would work.

Toby Think of it as finely ground almonds suspended in water. I think that's all it is!

Right, have signed up for MFP, but need to sort out the calculations later, as I'm not going to only have the measly 1630 calories it has allocated me!

I've never tried any kind of milk other than actual cows' milk. Hmmm, maybe I'll give it a miss then. I've always made smoothies with juice anyway, so I'll just keep doing that. Ta!

I have heard tell that you can make your own, homemade almond milk. <nods>

You might like that as you KNOW it's not milk, it's almond juice.

ZOMG. I totally want to try this

...but I am totally laughing at:

"&#9632;Soaking your nuts in water for 4-8 hours before hand will release their enzymes"

<childish>

Hahahahaha! I laughed too, even though I knew it was coming

That is brilliant. That might do it. I know it's insane, but I can't help it

I'm going to try it tonight, and save the pulp for the healthy muffins I'm going to make tomorrow evening.

BUt you need a nut bag! <snigger>

Or are you going to try the letting the nuts sink to the bottom <CACKLE> technique.

I thought I might strain my nuts through a teatowel.

Anyway, how do you know I don't have a nut bag already?

I bet you HAVE got a nut bag, haven't you? <suspicious>

I bet the tea towel thing will work. <nods>. I bet you could strain your nuts through a muslin square as well.

You must let us know how you get on with your nut juice.

nut milk. fnar, fnar

My nut bag is...uummmm... full at the moment.

No muslin, so tea towel it is. I bet I get some delicious nut juice, along with some tasty nut pulp.

My DS lols every time he sees 'nut butter' in the supermarket. I wish he'd just grow up.

at nut bag. And nut milk. Snigger.

My DS thought that the word "penis" was "peanuts".

He was always completely dumbfounded when I offered him peanut butter on his toast. No shit.

What is cute in a young child (your DS, I'm assuming, Shirl) is as immature as I am in a boy of almost 13.

OMG I just practically wet myself with excitement using the barcode scanner in MFP on my iPhone - it is amazing!!

Anyone who wants to friend me on MFP, I am ALATH.

I've had a bit of a revelation this avo.

We went to an 'art exhibition' at the DCs' school today - all very sweet, grouped by year, lots of jubilee-tastic pics and… a cake stall.

Cue DD1 'Oooh Mummy can I have a cake please' and DD2 'Cay. Cay. CAY!!!' (DS doesn't like cake, the oddball.)

Soooo I had one too (a mini-Victoria sponge, fact fans) and then the revelation hit me - it was FINE. Totally allowable, not a disaster, doesn't change anything, all good. Whereas previously I'd have thought 'oh fuck it, in for a penny' and eaten ten more. But I'm not going to do that, and I am guilt-free (well, very nearly)

Ali - it. is. BRILLIANT.

Minnie! Be completely guilt free - you ate some cake - big wow! Allow for it in your calories, and it's all good.

Lost my earlier post! Those oatmeal breakfasts look yummy. A bit like proper muesli, soaked oats, fruit and nuts. I have made some with strawberries, almond milk (sadly no nut bag or peanuts ) and vanilla essence to see if dds and I can have some for breakfast. The smoothies look good too...

I have taken the plunge on Amazon and bought the 'Beyond Chocolate' book that someone mentioned before - just started but it makes so much sense - the first chapter looking at how you need to get out of the 'all or nothing' approach - exactly like Minnie did so well today. One treat (mine today was a little chocolate eclair at a work thing) should no derail you and make you think you might as well abandon things after one slip up...

I have entered todays calories - it seems my usual breakfast comes in at 700 calories - see what I mean about not understanding how people struggle to make up calories?

Now, a question. I have calculated my TDEE-15% and entered that into MFP as my goal. How do I stop MFP double counting my exercise? I have allowed for that within my goal, so don't want it giving me more calories when I put in usual exercise. Should I just not enter the exercise? Or only look at the goal, rather than net calories?

I was impressed by the number of people posting on this thread, and then I realised it was just a few childish gits discussing nuts and other random rude stuff .

I went out for lunch today and really enjoyed it. And had fillet steak, mushrooms fried in butter and a bread roll for dinner.

I am struggling to enter all my calories, so I might just be going on guesswork and catch up at the weekend, to see how I'm doing. But estimating calories alone, I think I'm about 100 to 200 under a day, but never fall below my BMR so that's ok

Seventh, what do you eat for breakfast?

I won't enter any exercise unless I do something more than usual, ie above my "moderate activity" level. I just find it simpler that way.

Oh, and I have a teeny-tiny complaint

Today you made me go down the chocolate aisle in Tesco, which I have avoided for the last 18 years (firstly because I had littlies with me, later because I am fat) to try to get 70% chocolate.

I didn't realise how many different chocolates there are . But all the ones I wanted were milk/biscuit/caramel/yummy unhealthy stuff.

They had no decent 70% plus - they had the plain 90% but I suspect that is a step too far. I wanted mint or orange flavoured, but there wasn't any (fecking Irish restricted Tesco list). So I bought Tesco own brand dark chocolate with mint and when I got home I discovered it's only 53% chocolate [mutter].

I'm going to eat it anyway [stamps foot]

I enter my exercise and then just ignore it IYKWIM? I just look at my food consumed figure, make sure that's up to 2000 or close to it, then check that my net cals are over my BMR.

Mary - haha! Ooooh lovely chocolate!

Hi everyone, please can I join you? Thanks for all the info Shirley you are wonderful.

I've read the links and all seems to make good sense. I am very fat, but my main goal is to be more healthy, and if 7 stones just drop off along the way so much the better.

I am on MFP please add me as I need many kicks up the backside! My username is PhishFoodAddiction.

My daily cals (TDEE-15%) is 2350. I am starting tomorrow as I just finished a large bag of choccie buttons.

I'm worried Im making a mistake somewhere. I'm finding myself eating extra to keep to nt calorie allowance. Breakfast, cornflakes 35g and semi skimmed milk. Snack at 11am, 3 mini biscuits and a snack o jack. Lunch, tuna and sweetcorn salad, grapes. Dinner salmon steak with asparagus and sweetcorn salad, then a yogurt then a biscuit then a low fat ice lolly and still I'm not meeting 1400 calories and luckily I haven t done any exercises rods or I would still have loads left. I feel like I'm eating tonnes. I'm recording everything on mfp. Anyone else feel they're eating loads?

You are not eating enough fat Betty, that's for a start off! Where are your healthy fats?

You're eating like you're on a low calorie diet and you mustn't! If you're struggling to get your calories up then ditch the sweet crap and replace it with some full fat yogurts, some nice raw nuts, some bolted eggs. You need more protein and good healthy fats to get your calories up.

Believe me, next week you'll be saying "I can't believe I was having trouble eating all my calories! I WANT MORE!"

I'll friend everyone on MFP - I send a message saying that I'm Shirley - if you don't receive a friend request, please remind me as I might have just missed you out!

My breakfast, as logged on MFP
Generic - Apple Braeburn Medium, 0.5 apple
Tesco - Value Porridge Oats 50 g, 50 g dry oats
Tea - Brewed, prepared with tap water (black tea), 2 cup (8 fl oz)
Milk - Semi Skimmed Milk, 284 ml
Tesco - 3 Seed Mix, 25 g
Yeo Valley Organic - Butter, 10 g
Generic - Wholemeal Bread Roll, 1 roll
Honey, 1 tbsp
Total 697cals
90g carbs
26g fat
21g protein
34g sugar (in honey, apple and milk, so no glucose)

Tomorrow I will weigh the oats / seed mix / milk, as I estimated today.

bucketbetty bigger portions? 35g of cornflakes is nothing! Maybe have some toast with peanut butter after? And how about nuts for a snack. Ditch the yoghurts unless they are full fat natural.

Maryz Do you have Lidl in Ireland? They have high cocoa chocolate.

Yes we do Seventh. I will be there next week.

They only take cash though, and this month I am buying food on visa to avoid paying for it yet

That does seem a lot of calories for a relatively good breakfast.

sorry I looked at total calories on snack list instead of just for the sprite. It still has loads though. 140 calories in one glass of sprite.
Can others see my food list on mfp?

lidl is fab for stocking up on good chocolate, yogurts, oaty things, nuts. All cheaper than other supermarkets near me.

I bought full fat yogurt - that's a first for me . I love nuts, I'll get some tomorrow. I don't eat meat and use soya and quorn mostly which are naturally low in fat. Ooohhhh, I've just remembered I've got loads of salted peanuts in the cupboard (I bought them for my son) I'll treat myself to some tomorrow.

Just wanted to ask, is it better to try and have several small meals throughout the day? Thinking about it, I seem to go mad at mealtimes, like I'm scared I'll never see food again maybe it's because I leave it too long between meals.

I got into bad habits after having 2 DDs in 12 months, time to eat was rare so when I had time I'd shovel something down, anything I could just shove right into my mouth with no hassle, crisps, cake biccies etc. I'm still doing it 4 years later but am feeling positive about making some changes.

Just come across this thread and reading with interest, as it's exactly what I do, mainly because I am too greedy to eat at anything below about TDEE - 500 or so calories. I've read a bit on eat more weigh less type stuff on MFP before, and it made sense, nice to see so many converts!

I've been doing it on MFP for a few months now and (apart from a MAJOR blowout last week on holiday) have had huge success. Warning - I didn't lose a single pound for almost two months, but then I suddenly lost 3lbs in the space of about two weeks, which isn't bad considering I am within 5-10lbs of my goal weight. I also lost inches during the two months when I wasn't losing any weight according to the scales (I exercise quite hard though, so plenty of toning going on I think. I have graduated to this from Shred).

SE (you again!) I tend to put in my exercise and then ignore it, iykwim, and just look at actual calories in rather than net. I only put it on so that I can check that my net calories aren't below my BMR. They never have been yet

The biggest thing that has helped me stick to this system is lots of planning my food in advance. I try to always have a couple of days ahead already filled in in my diary, then I just make minor adjustments on the day if I eat differently. I need to make adjustments most days, but it does mean that I don't end up at dinner time with either no calories or 1,000 calories to eat. It also means I balance my macros a bit more successfully, as I can fiddle around with what I have planned in order to get my protein up to the right level (I largely ignore fat and carbs, and concentrate on protein, as I eat so clean that around 75% of my fat intake is 'good' fat - the remaining 25% generally comes from homemade cake - and I'm not remotely fussed about high/low carbs).

If anyone wants to add me on MFP and have a nosy through my diary to see what I eat, feel free! Username is Islaybower.

Muddled I generally stick to breakfast/snack/lunch/snack/dinner/snack, but in an ideal world I would cut out the second two snacks, as I understand that it's good for your hunger/satiety hormone levels if you actually have long enough to get hungry between meals. I hate being hungry though!

Hopefully I hate being hungry too, that's why I can't get on with low calorie diets. I think I'll try adding in a couple of snacks and reducing the shite less healthy stuff.

I filled MFP in for today expecting it to be really bad but I wasn't much over my daily allowance.

You really can eat so much more when you stick to healthy stuff. Saying that, I never do stick exclusively to it, but even I could see that my massive bowl of cottage cheese, honey and fruit salad from this afternoon was going to fill me up more than the teeny weeny cupcake I had this morning.

Hello hopefully!

Hooray to someone showing up who is further along!

I'm finding this most peculiar - I'm not hungry, despite being under calories again.

I think it's the protein/fat thing - I have discovered M&S snack packs of unsalted nuts and dried fruit. I'm eating fewer carbs, so less junk by definition.

I am currently chomping my way through some almonds.

I am scared of eating so much it feels wrong and im so scared ill put on weight.

I had 2 small wm toast and an egg for bfast.
Praw cocktail and salad and some granary bread for lunch and a cereal bar and a banana.

The have had 2 glasses of wine (annoyed with dh) and some peanut butter on a hunk of grananry bread and some guaccamole.

Is that not enough? Im not really hungry. I feel like the only way to get my cals up is to eat crap

Right I am totally on board with this now but just have a quick question to check that I have understood it correctly.

My BMR is 1600 and my TDEE is 2100 so I get that I have to eat 2100 calories each day (which is no hardship ) but my question is, today I have done a bodycombat class which burns about 600 calories...so that would take my net calories to 1500 so I need to eat an extra 100 calories today (so 2200 in total) because of this...is this correct?

Also, the eating lots and eating full-fat stuff is actually difficult to get your head around isn't it? We are so ingrained with 'diet' stuff that it really is a leap of faith to do this...but I am determined!

Well I'm done for the day and came in at 515 under, including 281 of exercise calories. I am stuffed. Made the mistake today of not having breakfast (not intentional, the morning just ran away from me) and have been trying to catch up all day, which is wrong.

Hopefully - can you get that Insanity workout in the UK? I love the look of it!

Night all...

Right, have just ploughed my way through this thread <wipes sweat from brow>

It all seems tomake sense and actually sounds like a diet I can stick to. Ihave but one question, Shirl': will it work for me if my body hasn't been in starve-mode? I have been over-doing it somewhat for a fair few months now

ledkr There seems to be barely any protein in that.

My reason for joining MFP is that since I started eating cleaner, I am getting fatter. Really need to check my fat % as it's a bit depressing. I have a lot more energy though, and my skin is a lot better.

I have had a typical day today. Not much chocolate, but I have had a biscuit and some pork scratchings.

2,166 cals
187g carbs (of which 67g sugar)
92g fat
130g protein
2,070 mg sodium

That's below my TDEE of 2260 (just!) so I'm happy with that. I'm aiming to lose 5kg.

Shirley I really believe in this way of eating, so i can help you persuade other people to join the cult

Cbeebee are you just trying to maintain? Assume so, because eating your TDEE is a maintenance thing, not a weight loss thing (are you one the many who are giving their body a chance to reset by eating at TDEE for a while?) If so, you can probably take or leave the extra 100 calories (I would take them, because I'm greedy) as you please. 100 calories isn't actually that much as a one off in the grand scheme of things. Being under by a couple of hundred every day for a few weeks isn't ideal, but being 100 under or over here or there won't affect things.

foosty you can buy insanity from www.beachbody.co.uk for some ridiculous sum, or it quite often comes up on ebay for a bit less. Not actually much less though. I am planning on ebaying mine once I finish, as they generally seem to get quite a good price.

Have just set myself up on MFP too!

That sounds like you're short of a meal Ledkr. I can't tot up the cals off the top of my head, but your breakfast and lunch are typical of me (except I'd have two eggs and skip the banana and cereal bar).
I'd then have a reasonable meal (from scratch with a good amount of protein).

You've had the nut butter/bread/wine, but that's probably not enough protein to fill you up, and the wine's messed with your blood sugar.

Maybe a piece of cheese with fruit or some nuts might do the trick?

I love reading all the stuff on this thread .

Hopefully, I've got a Beachbody dvd - mine's the Brazil Butt Lift (an acquired taste for some, but it's actually had some effect, in spite of me only doing it about once a week on average). Think I got mine on Amazon, a bit cheaper.

I'm StandsToReason on mfp if we're sharing.
Where do we put measurements - here or somewhere on mfp?

I went over with my amounts today - didn't manage to eat before my evening class so overdid it with snacks then had a small(ish) dinner when I got home.
Tomorrow is another day!

to be fair i dont normally drink wine in the week and do eat a normalish meal at night. My stupid dh annoyed me with his lazyness though so I used my normal coping mechanism of wine

I have shifted a bit of weight eating less so its a bit scary to eat more just in case.Im off to re cap on the rules I think.

Hello <waves>
Am just browsing the thread and thought I would comment on the frozen banana
For breakfast I often have it blended with protein powder and milk, sometimes a teeny bit of peanut butter (no added sugar one)
I am paleo inclined and it really fills me up. I also do fairly heavy weights as I train with Easyfit team training. It's based on circuits and interval training

Buppers I am the same - I was low-cal-ing, then I fell off the wagon and over-ate for at least a month. God knows what that's done to my metabolism… still, eating less but without starving has to be a good thing, right?

Not judging Ledkr - we all appreciate the power of vino from time to time !

Meant to say frozen banana - I used to freeze chunks of it and blend it with mango and soya milk (in a dairy free period). Comes out like a sludgy ice creamy smoothie, the kids loved it.
Definitely a dessert rather than the main part of your meal though.

Minnie, this is why I can't go back to SW/WW. I have been a member of both on and off for the last ten years. I lose weight, get bored of being hungry/limited and decide that I love food more than being a size 10 so become a regular at the Krispy Kreme counter...

I need to change my relationship with food. I need to be able to eat healthily long-term and not pay for the priviledge. SW/WW set you up to fail or else they'd have gone under yonks ago.

Ooo, I just discovered that you can add breastfeeding to your food diary, and it counts as negative calories. I am unsure how many calories though - one bedtime feed, one night feed, one ridiculously early morning feed. Have guessed 200.

A colleague of mine is on a 1200 calorie a day diet. She is gradually losing weight, but she has no energy, and looks unhealthy and miserable. I'm staying well out of it though .

Bupcakes I hate SW and WW for just the reason you said- they clearly have a vested interest in keeping people fat and set you up to fail.

I remember thinking how bonkers it was when my friend said she didn't have enough syns for a banana but she could have some crisps instead.

I lasted less than a day with WW I have thought about food constantly during that time, and had a meltdown at tea time because I couldn't think of anything to cook and I only had about 100 cals left anyway!

ive done both too abit ww is ridiculously small portions and sw I just became a carb muncher.

At ww all the staff were fat and food obsessed.Used to munch food from the ww "stall" all through the meeting.

Still getting my head around this and been too busy to fill in food diary as doing such long days at work.Im off after today so will really get into it.

Will be nice to be able to enjoy the half term without eating like a mouse

Seventh - I bf my 14 month old 3 times in 24 hours and I've put -300 for that. He is a milk monster though and drinks gallons

Food is fucking awesome. There's just so much that tastes amazing (and I'm a right fussy bugger too). Life is definitely too short to not eat.

<high fives Buppers>
<observes bingo wings continuing to wobble for some time>
<shrugs>

Minnie, you are so right!

Morning all, I have just had a banana and a full-fat yoghurt for breakfast, which has used up a frightening number of carbs .

I will have to munch on nuts later.

I am continually surprised by how difficult it is to keep my protein at 30% - I haven't met my protein target once yet (according to my rather slapdash mfp food inputting).

Hmmm...fucked things up a bit yesterday. I have a thing where I can only bear to eat small amounts of very healthy food in front of other people, we were invited back to a friend's house after Home ed group so I skipped lunch. Onwards!

Joining in the WW bashing, when I did it I found myself constantly snacking on their crappy sugary bars because it was easy.

While we're bashing, can I say SW got me back into my 'cuppa tea an a biscuit' habit? I'm over it now - I've realised they're not actually that nice. I also started obsessing over the WW toffee ice cream which you could only get from Tescos and they didn't always have it in. Much gnashing of teeth at the freezer cabinet.

All that slimming stuff does is foster your reliance and obsession with the kick you get from sugar.
< Chants > sugar is the devil

I've had a moment as, although Ihave officially SaFTFS, I went on them this morning, just casual like, just to check - and most of the excess I was panicking about on Monday (which Shirley said was water) was gone! So I had a reasonably indulgent birthday weekend, involving Champagne, cake and chocolate (not massive amounts, but still..) and I put on one pound!

Go EMLW!

<waves>

Good Morning All!

I THINK I've friended everyone on MFP. If you have been missed out then please let me know and I'll do it now. My diary is open to friends so it might help give you some idea of the sort of stuff I'm eating.

Welcome Buppy!

"Ihave but one question, Shirl': will it work for me if my body hasn't been in starve-mode? I have been over-doing it somewhat for a fair few months now"

This way of eating will work for EVERYONE. It's science innit? So if you've been in a binge phase then to start eating at TDEE less 15%, or at maintenance (TDEE without cut) then you will be on the road to mending your metabolism.

As to the WW bashing - ledkr makes a very good point, I've been on and off WW for years now and everytime I climb back on that old tired wagon, I see the same old faces at the meeting and they never, ever look any slimmer! SO while I'd been off the programme for 2 x years or whatever, they hadn't lost any appreciable weight and had often gained a bit.

Mary - I really think you need to stop worrying quite so much about your carbs - you're getting GOOD, complex carbs - ones with good amounts of dietry fibre and other nutrional qualities. You're not eating cakes and biscuits which are full of sugar and very little else. Please try not to be too hard on yourself!

Buppers, I haven't been in starve-mode either. If nothing else, this has regulated my eating and made me think a bit more about what I'm stuffing in my face. I always eat fairly cleanly anyway, with as few processed foods as possible, but this is more motivation. I try to put in as much of my food for the day as possible first thing in the morning. That makes it easier to decide how much wine I can have what I have to play with in the evenings.

I weighed myself this morning and have provisionally lost 1lb, but I'm not logging it at the moment as it could always be water. I'm going to log my weight every Monday.

Re the nut-squeezing activities which were due to occur at my house last night, I was in Sainsbury's holding the nuts in my hand, when I suddenly thought, "Making your own almond milk? What the actual fuck are you doing, woman?!"

I also didn't have time to make the oatmeal thing, but I fully intend to try making one tonight.

Hopefully sorry, the 2100 calories figure I quoted was TDEE -15% so yes I am trying to lose. So I burn 600-700 calories about 4 or 5 days a week at the gym (depending on DH's work) so am I correct that on these days, I can eat the extra 100 calories to bring my net calories back to 1600 if I want?

Shirl~ I am ceebee74 on MFP - please befriend me

Oh, and anyone who hasn't friended me on MFP and wants to, it's kiki_jp. Please excuse the photos. They're for my motivation only and there is no way to set them so that only I can see them

Yes ceeb - you must make sure that you NEVER net below your BMR.

Oh, TObesa - I had the hazewlnut milk this morning on weetabix. Delish!

Perhaps I will brave buying one this evening. Maybe the kids will drink it if it's vile.

Tobesa? I'm not even on a bloody i-pad or anything. Stupid fat fingers!

Ooooh, it's really nutty (no shit sherlock)

I like Tobesa. It makes me sound exotique.

OK, thanks Shirls and Tobesa. It sounds promising and DOABLE.

I am on MFP - honeymulholland. Look me up because I have little to no idea how that thing works yet. <gimmer> I have just entered my first foods into the calorie counter. I have had asmoothie for breakfast made with 200ml of whole milk, 100g frozen berriesand a teaspoon of honey.

I need a shit.

It really IS doable Bups.

I'm not hungry all the time, I'm not shoveling acres of sugar into my face and I feel brilliant. I think eating properly will be really, REALLY good for you, not only phsically but also mentally - you mentaller (You know what I mean don't you chick?)

Morning all.

Bupcakes, I wasn't starving myself either, just eating whatever the hell I liked and slowly swelling! I've gone straight onto TDEE -15%. I've realised that I wasn't getting anywhere near enough protein, so I've upped that a lot. Sugar cravings have dropped, energy levels are up, way up! So far today I've shredded, been on a walk with DD, and cleared all the heavy junk out of the leaky crappy lean to "conservatory", and I'm still full of beans.

Also this morning DH commented that I was starting to look "more hour-glassy again" [happy dance] I do think the drinking 4 pints of water a day is helping, I feel much less bloated and wobbly. Before, when I was filling up on carbs, I really didn't like drinking all that water. It seems a lot easier now.

Please add me (in not sure how to add people) I'm leonifay.

I know what you mean, bab.

I think it will take me a while to get my head round as I am a WW?SW autobot now I felt like Marjorie Dawes was going to come and put me in a sleephold from behind when I just got the whole milk out the fridge.

Buppy - how about actually just eating as you have been and plugging that into MFP for a week?

It might help you see where cuts can be made and give you a good idea how much you're eating, calorie wise, you might be surprised!

Oh and you and me both on the WW/SW/Low Cal stuff - so I totally, TOTALLY understand how you're feeling.

I was the same way. I was really frightened of dietary fat which we NEED so much, it's so, SO important for everything, including how our brains work.

I used to be really foggy, looking back, foggy, tired and miserable.

ALthough I must say that SW is the best of the bunch - but I think I just pigged out while I was on that diet anyway! Unlimited carbs? OH YEAH!

Shirl, no good will come of me eating as I have been. Honestly. I am ashamed. Yesterday was a prime exampleof my gluttony:

Breakfast: sausage, bacon and egg wrap from caff in the village where everything is fried no grilled. Was very nice though <banishes thought from head>

Lunch: no lunch as still full from breakfast

Snack: Cornish ice cream

Dinner: Steak. Intended to have with salad but the salad had gone all weird so had to have chips

Snack: Dairy Milk bar.

Snack: Dairy Milk bar

Snack: Cornish ice cream

Snack: Another cornish ice cram

Snack: Frazzles

TBF, I am due on. But still. Fat. Cunt.

Unlimited carbs is responsible for my face looking like Russell Grant with his head stuck in some lift doors.

Ah.

Yeah, you probably want to lay off the dairy milk a bit, but that's because you ate no lunch.

Right. So what have you got planned to eat today then?

Ooh, I had the oatmeal with strawberries and ground almonds. Was delicious dd1 had some too, dd2 only a little but she is 2.5 and being fussy with food atm. It was really quick too. Will be making some mote tomorrow. The smoothies and breakfast puddings lookes lovely too, but not so quick to make.

How do you add friends? I am eve70 on mfp. Summer is a great time for clean food, though. I am looking forward to some lunch with smoked salmon and avocado. Have got out the George Foreman grill, we had tandoori-ish chicken in wraps with salad yesterday.

I also had croissant and strawberries and cream, mmm.

more tomorrow

Right, I have had my smoothie this morning. For lunch I am having some soup (butternut squash and chilli) with a spiced pitta bread.

For dinner I am having chicken tagine with a bit of bulgar wheat.

What are you having? I need ideas.

Stick it all into MFP now, so you can see what you have left. You might have to spend a bit of time inputting the recipe for your tagine and the soup (if homemade), but it's worth it if they're things you have often.

For lunch I am having leftover sweet potato and chorizo tortilla from last night.

For dinner we're having poached chicken breasts with curly kale and honey and mustard sauce. The DC will have some sauté potatoes with theirs, but I'll resist.

Have you worked out your TDEE? What is it?

Today:

Breakfast - weetabix with hazelnut milk and strawberries.
Snack - boiled egg, some dark chocolate
Lunch - Tuna and egg salad with pine nuts. Perle de lait yoghurt
Snack - protein shake, banana - probably some nuts.
Dinner - pork steak, spinach, sweet potato mash.

I've still got 300 odd to eat and I'm doing an exercise class later so might have an additional hundred to eat back.

I'll probably get that by having some dried fruit snack packs or maybe a pudding (fruit and ice cream perhaps, or maybe some granary bread with almond butter)

Done it already!

I want to come to Tobesa's for tea.

C'mon babs. You can make the almond milk while I watch CDWM tend to the children.

I think my sugar target might be auto-set too low. I have blown it already through half an apple, a tbsp of honey and some balsamic vinegar.

What do you have your sugar levels set at? I am guessing mine will be a higher % of the carbs, owing to reducing evening pasta / rice etc.

Today...

Breakfast, apple, pear, oatcakes and hummus
Snack, 2 eggs on a piece of toast and a cherry smoothie
Lunch, halloumi salad
Snack, cashews and hummus, raisins
Dinner, veggie fajitas

I'm breast feeding so I have a huge amount of calories to eat, that all leaves me with about 200 to go. I am way over on carbs, but I have run out of snacks until the shopping arrives later!

I don't even have a sugar level set, that I'm aware of

I don't have my sugar levels.

I have:

Carbs - 40
Protein - 30
Fat - 30
Fibre - 30
Sodium - 2500

hi everyone

Bupcakes, I am pissing myself at your description of Russell Grant's face stuck between 2 lift doors

Hopefully- that workout is £100 !!! But I think I might have found some of it on youtube so might just give it a go later.

Struggling today to eat as I'm out most of the day - have just had a massive bowl of cheerios to keep me going. Will make a big pot of something good later...

hope you're all having good days

Right today I am in minus figures so far thanks to BFing so I need to eat!

Salmon for dinner, and cheese sandwiches now I think. My calorie intake is going to drop a LOT once it cools down and I stop scoffing ice creams I will have to replace them with something.

I know we aren't supposed to be going on the scales, but I've lost half a pound so far this week.

Ooh this is a revelation

Went down to the canteen at work which has an excellent salad bar but obviously I need something to go with it - they had homemade chicken goujons so I have had 4 of those with a big pile of salad (including a spoonful of potato salad) and a little bit of french dressing - I would have avoided both the potato salad and dressing normally

Am trying to ignore the fact that MFP says that by eating 2100 calories a day, I will put on 0.2lb a week (and it kindly puts it in red just so I am in doubt that I am eating more calories than it thinks I should have )

Ceebee, you can change your goals to your own figures, then you won't get that horrid message.
I'm tucking into couscous with roasted red pepper, onions, tomatoes and chickpeas for lunch.

Gosh, this thread moves fast!

I woke up all chirpy this morning - how weird!

I am MiniPilchard on MFP. I'm going to go through the thread and try to befriend everyone when if the baby goes to sleep.

Today so far:

Multiseed bagel and peanut butter, tea w skimmed milk.
Ham sandwich (naice ham, oatmeal bread, full fat mayo, cucumber, tomato)
60g unsalted nuts and raisins
More tea
Fromage frais

Do you know, it is almost impossible to buy full fat yoghurt in little pots in Tesco? I eventually fell back on kids' fromage frais because everything else said low-fat in bigger or smaller letters.

My myprotein samples arrived. Toffee shake made with half water and half almons milk, and it tastes like it should be a lot more calories and carbs. Think I might have another one later.

Oh GOOD! I'm so glad you like it Mango - they taste just like a sweet milkshake to me.

I cannot stop thinking about food today. I don't know if it's that I'm genuinely hungry or just bored at work. Probably the latter.

<sigh> 2 1/2 hours to go...

Ah eat something!

I've just been to Holland & Barrett - I'm getting a nasty addiction to that place - and bought some chia seeds. <ROCK AND FUCKING ROLL> I've been reading about them and they are SO INTERESTING.

Little powerhouses of seeds, with protein, tons of omega 3, calcium and I cann't wait to start trying them - they're tasteless as well apparently.

Since waking up, I have already eaten:

2 slices of granary toast with cashew butter
2 boiled eggs
1 serving of last night's tortilla

I have some cherries/grapes and some walnuts in my bag, but I'm pacing myself. I might starve to death if I eat all my rations and have another 2.5 hours in this hellhole!

Definitely think it's boredom.

I'm going to H&B at the weekend. Need some flaxseed and also going to buy some chia seeds. The only thing that puts me off is that they turn to gel (??) because they absorb water. I can only imagine them being slimy and boakworthy. I shall buy them anyway and probably throw them in the bin in a couple of years

I came across those recently, Shirley. Have started back on the soaked linseeds this morning (whoever said they're improved by chewing was right), but I might look into them when this lot run out.

They are far too pricy to chuck away. They only had great big massive bags at my H&B, so I'm just going to have to LUMP IT.

I think as long as they're incorporated with other stuff - smoothies, oats or whatever they should be alright. Any slimey texture should be covered by the other stuff IYKWIM?

You test them and come back and reassure me, there's a love.

foosty I know Hopefully IRL. The changes she has made to her body through exercise are astounding and have not been achieved by anyone spending £50 a month on gym membership that I know of. So if you stick to it (I don't have the time or inclination), I think it's a bargain!

I loathe H&B. I wish there was somewhere else to buy this stuff.

I have made the discovery that salads with tinned pulses are actually quicker than sandwiches to make in the morning. Had lentils with turkey breast, olives and feta cheese today.

Bleugh at seed slime.

<snort>

I am going to give the shakes a try once we get back from holiday. We are in France next week and I fully intend to eat my own bodyweight in cheese, so no problems on the protein front!!

I will be v.interested to see what happens to my weight while we're away actually. Normally I would 'diet' before a holiday, and then slack off badly once away, resulting in immediate weight gain - usually around my chin and middle. Because I'm already eating in a normal way thanks to PMK and now adding in info from doing this, in theory I shouldn't put any weight on. I will weigh and measure before I go and when I get back.

Foosty if it makes you feel any better it's something like 12 different workouts plus menu plan guide thingie . Still expensive, but I'm definitely getting major results from it, and as SE says, no gym membership in sight. I lost over 1/2" off each arm in 2 weeks, which pleases me no end as I have proper bingo wings despite being 29 and a size 10-12 . I'm set for the full 60 days this time, and I've taken lot of 'before' photos in anticipation of fabulous results

Hello everyone,
I have been reading this thread avidly for about a week, and am into week 2 of mfp-ing.

My problem is that i (like someone above said) eat like I am never going to see food again. I think it is a problem I have caused by myself with my past though . When i was 19-22 I was in a really bad place - depressed and although i never got really really underweight I was classed as anorexic. Since then I have mostly gained weight. I lost about 2 stone by healthy eating when my dd was 3 (she is 9 now ) but was gaining before i got pregnant with ds and have continued gaining since then (he is now almost 4).

A few times in the last 3 ish years i have lost up to a stone - but often just a few pounds here and there but EVERYTIME I go off track and pile on more. I am at my heaviest ever right now. at 5ft2 at about 12 stone 4 (I lost 3lb last week).

Atm I am using mfp's standard calorie allowance which is frankly shit - 1320. My other one (TDEE is it?) came out at about 1679 - from memory -which is a heck of a lot better but I am feel scared to change all the info and macros in mfp. I don;t know why i am scared - maybe i feel like I am breaking the rules or cheating. .

may i add some of you guys on there and also join in on here? my mfp name is the same as on here <original>

shirley you are my hero atm btw!! Thank you for this thread

Welcome, alittlebitshy

Go on...change the info in MFP. It'll instantly make you feel better than going over their ridiculous calorie allowance every day.

What raised my suspicions about the MFP allowance was when in the first few days of using it, I'd go 2-300 calories over and it would still say 'if you continue to eat like this, you'll lose x amount by x time' and I'd think 'huh? but didn't I just ruin it??'

Tres confusing for me anyway

Shirley - do the chia seeds have the same hormone-controlling properties as flax do you know?

A hero eh? I knew this day would come!

I will add you now. RIght then, lets get to the guts of your post...

Are you frightened you'll gain a big pile of weight and never be able to get rid of it again? Or is there something deeper which is worrying you?

If it's the first then you have to be brave and jump in and give it a go - what is the absolute worse thing that can happen? You'll eat some nice, healthy food - and plenty of it, give your body a break from the low cal/binge cycle and I guarantee that you will feel better once you start eating better. You might gain a few pounds in the first stages, but we're all in this journey together and we are all trying to SAFTFBS.

If it's something deeper, and because of your history of ED I would advise you to speak to someone about those feelings, sweetie. I would hate to say to you - OH come on this WOE, you might gain a few pounds but whats the big deal? - if it could turn out that a gain may be damaging to your mental health - DYKWIM?

will be back to reply once the dc are home - got to head off on the school run now.

Minnie - interesting article

Hi alittlebitshy, I will add you to MFP later if that's okay? I've tried to add a few from the thread but not sure if it worked! I had terrible eating habits when I was 19-21, I would binge eat but was very active and did an hour of exercise every day. I was 8.5 stone, but I still thought I was fat it ended up being a self- fulfilling prophecy as I'm now over 15.5 stone.

I had cereal for breakfast, but the milk made me feel really sick cheese and yoghurt is fine, but milk just makes me want to heave. I think I have rice milk from 2010 in cupboard, might give that a go.

I've still got 1,400 cals to eat today and I feel stuffed, just had poached egg, beans and tomato for lunch. Going emergency snack shopping when I've picked the kids up.

Oh noes! My assistant just came back from lunch with a dark chocolate Magnum for me!

<cheerfully crosses v worthy, but uneaten walnuts off MFP diary>

<replaces with Magnum>

There are loads of different milks to try - I wonder if you're a bit lactose intolerant AMU.

Tobes - at least it was a dark chocolate one!

Oh dear, I shouldn't have looked. Just checked the calories for a KFC , and if I have one for tea, I'll still be (just) under my BMR.

Oops, I tried to add too many people at once and I got a stern message telling me I can only add 5 friends every 10 mins! MFP thinks I'm a scary stalker spammer type! The shame. Will do the others later.

Do we think that this sort of thing would work for a child?

DD is 11, and definitely overweight. She'll be starting secondary school in September and has already said a few things about being worried that she'll be bullied for being fat. This is obviously heartbreaking to hear.

She's set up a MFP account, with me as her only friend, so that she can log what she eats and perhaps make her more aware of the calories in everything. But TBH she eats healthily and from what I've seen so far, she tends to have very low calories. You can see the sort of things I eat from my MFP diary, and the DC eat the same. This is not a new thing. I'm eating the exact same sort of things as I always have -- I've just cut out the crap I sometimes eat at work (Magnums excepted!) and maybe cut the carbs a bit. It's not like we've gone from eating fry-ups and pizzas every night or anything.

I don't buy biscuits/crisps/sweets, and I'm pretty strict on when either of the DC may buy those things with their own money. I bake, but everything I bake is very worthy, made with fruit and wholemeal flour etc (making banana and blueberry muffins tonight). And even when I bake, she'll maybe take a muffin to school as part of her packed lunch. It's not like we sit and eat a whole giant cake between the 4 of us.

So anyway, any ideas?

I would be very, very wary actually Tobes. At 11 I'm presuming she is on the brink of starting her periods (if she hasn't already) and we all know the mess that hormones can make!

See, it's terrible, it used to be accepted for pre-pubescent (and those just hitting puberty) kids to have a bit of puppy fat - I think it's an entirely natural state of affairs. After all when women lose too much weight and become too thin (or even, as I've been reading, just cut their calories to a too low threshold! ) their periods stop - this indicates to me that there is some relationship between body fat, hormones and menstrual cycles. <science>

I think it is absolutely fine to focus on healthy eating - saying stuff like "I have been feeling tired and fed up lately and have been eating TOO MANY treats and I've decided to stop doing that and to start eating some great, natural foods" (this is if you feel the need to say anything) and then just carry on doing what you're doing WRT to the way your family eats.

It all sounds very healthy and good, and honestly? I would definitely focus on ensuring DD feels confident and understands that her weight is not an issue (Unless she's getting very big though, love, in which case I'd recommend the GP) as she's stepping into womanhood.

DYKWIM?

Er, but wait: "she tends to have very low calories". Well, you know how I feel about THAT! She might well be undereating, or just not achieving a healthy calorie goal - does she play out much? Do much exercise?

I wouldn't at 11, but dd is nearly 16 and I'm going to suggest it to her - mainly because all her friends are going the low calorie/low fat way, and she is already anaemic.

I will see if she will do mfp to see what she is eating, as I suspect she isn't aware of how little meat (or nuts and seeds etc) she gets, and how much of her diet is carbs.

I'm going to suggest she puts in her TDEE (not minus 15%) and makes sure she has plenty of exercise. She is off school for over three months, so needs to get healthy and full of energy, regardless of weight.

But I wouldn't have done this at 11, I think she might have got a bit over-obsessed and certainly some of her friends are thinking the way I thought as a teen (I have to starve myself or the boys won't like me ).

I think i agree with maryz that 16 might be ok but 11 could be a little too young. My dd is 9 and i cannot imagine her coping with the awareness of what she eats etc in 2 years time. It scares me a bit that she might - but maybe I am over thinking this.

Righto - i have changed my "stuff" on mfp. As a result I am consistently over on my carbs - but i can see where that is. The last 2 weeks I have been having a wrap for lunch - and have roasted a loads of veggies for a few days... it will be hard to implement changes over half term but after that I will go onto salads/soups as the big part of my lunch and see how that goes...

shirley i don't think my fears are to do with ED stuff per se. I think I lost the knowledge of how to eat normally without thinking about it a long time ago - and my bit problem is that i love crap. Dh and i will happily eat well all day then eat too much chocolate in the evenings. In fact evenings are my downfall - we eats with the children at about 5.30-6pm so are hungry in the evening and it is too easy to reach for the wrong stuff.

Gosh, 11's awfully young to be eating low-cal or worrying about weight. <reconsiders> Well, I suppose starting secondary school is when a lot of girls start to think about their weight/looks etc. I have no idea what portion size or calorie intake is right for an 11 year old, though. Could your GP help with that? Good calories, good food can't be bad for her, but maybe as Shirl says she just isn't eating enough.

<Totally unscientific theory alert> I think my baby is happier since I started eating this way. or it could just be that she's starting to laugh so I notice more Anyway, she seems to be smiling and trying to giggle more. Maybe she prefers bm made from nice healthy food and not from a diet of chocolate, cake, McD's and chip steaks.

You know what? Although mfp had me on crazy low cals - since eating "better" I am feeling more energised and sleeping well (apart from poorly dh snorting, coughing and leaping around in bed )

I wondered that Shirley because milk also makes me really phlegmy (tmi) but I don't get the same from yoghurt or cheese, just raw milk.

I am really struggling with my protein ATM, does anyone have any high protein snack ideas? I am getting DH to interrogate his workmates tonight, he's a fireman and there are a few bodybuilders on his shift so am hoping for some top tips!

Toby I would be very very wary of having your DD counting cals and worrying about what she eats. If she is eating decent meals and not too much junk then she will be fine.

My mum pointed out to me that I was getting a bit chubby around 11- 12 (puberty related I think) but I got it into my head from that moment on that I was fat. So at every weight I've been I've felt fat and critical of my poor body, even when it was at its best. It's sad. I did all kind of fad diets from being 15, I was a size 8-10 fgs.

I'm sure you're doing all the right things to influence her towards a healthy, nutritious diet without having to log exactly what she eats. It could well be that she shoots up over the summer and goes back to being in proportion.

Sorry if that was a bit voice of doom!

toby I would be wary too. Does she get much exercise cos that would be more fun than counting cals. Also id work on building up her self confidence and hopefully the eating better will come naturally.

I also speak as someone who thought they were fat all their lives even when was actually 9 stone.

Ive finished work for over a week now so can really get into the mfp habit.
Im so tired,i really need this break from work.