My fitness Pal support and chat

[yatapina]

Signed up this morning with the aim of understanding what "normal" eating is and to get healthier all round.

I have 3st 2lbs to lost to get to where I'd like to be size wise but I know that'll come in time.

Looking for some MFP friends of anyone still uses it 🙂

[Unravellingslowly]

Having lost 2stone, by weighing and logging everything I consume, I use it religiously.

It has been an eye opener actually understanding how many calories are in things, it certainly makes me think about what I’m eating and so I do make better choices.

Discovering that the 2000 cals per day for women is more than I should aim for has also made a huge difference. Work yours out here, the tdee amount is the amount of calories you eat to stay exactly the same weight you are now. Reduce it by 20% for the amount of cals you need to stick to to lose weight.

tdeecalculator.net

[grafittiartist]

This is the only thing that works for me- thank you for the inspiration!

[yatapina]

@Unravellingslowly glad to know it works, I've followed other plans before and lost a lot of weight but then I get complacent and the weight has crept back on.

I need to go back to basics and learn about portion control and moderation!

Thanks for the link - I've worked mine out at 1729 (starting at 2162) which is a lot more than the 1450 MFP has given me. Surely I've done something wrong there? 🤔

@grafittiartist no worries, hoping I can stay motivated too!

[permanentlyshattered1]

Mfp always puts you on a lot less than TDEE. Get your TDEE number then you need to take 500 cals off it to get your daily amount (500 cals x 7 days = 3500 cals which should be 1lb weight loss a week). You can try and stick to cals on mfp to lose faster but I found that sticking to higher cals meant I could still have treats and didn't feel like I was depriving myself.

[yatapina]

@permanentlyshattered1 that makes sense! So if I stick to 1600 that would be about right for now :)

[Yawnfest]

Hi I'm on MFP, 2 stone to lose and on 1500 cals day which I really struggle with. Lost about 7lbs so far since beginning of March.

I've been to several weightloss clubs but find them restrictive and uninspiring, with MFP it's so easy to count calories, they're written on everything. No trying to translate them into sins or points.

We have big family teas where I normally scoff leftovers so I enter that in first then know I have left for the day.

I love the barcode scanner. For regular food I cut off the barcodes and have taped them to an A4 sheet on the fridge so I have the codes to hand to scan.

[permanentlyshattered1]

@yatapina yes I would go with 1600. Remember if you go over one day though then don't panic. If you go over my 200 one day then just take 50 cals off each day for the next 4 days so you aren't punishing yourself - which I used to do. I find it best to plan out my food for the day the night before. I don't always stick to it (yesterday I changed every meal as I just didn't fancy what I had written down) but it gives you a focus and less chance of reaching for extra snacks

[Unravellingslowly]

Just be aware that if you are making something, it pays to input the ingredients and have it calculate the calories rather than just searching and entering, as someone else could have logged it incorrectly.

I went through a stage of eating a home baked treat and just searching and logging the calories. When I baked it again and put all the ingredients in it actually came up as 312 calories- not the guilt free 90 I had been logging at thanks to someone entering it inaccurately

[yatapina]

Ended up doing an emergency shift at work and having dinner there... Followed by cakes that we baked with our young people 🤦

Failed at the first hurdle as couldn't figure out how to log and divide every ingredient properly as it's so time consuming!

Any tips on getting round this? I don't think I'll keep it up long if I need to do that for every single meal 🤔

[permanentlyshattered1]

It's hard at first but you get used to it. We keep a notepad near the fridge and I just write down how much of each item then calculate calories later if I know I'll have enough. We always make homemade soup so I have 4 or so different soup recipes in mfp and each time I use the same items but a varying amount depending on what I have so I can just update it to reflect the new quantities. It also pays to have something in your cupboard like mug shot protein or whatever that you can grab for work if you don't have anything prepared

[permanentlyshattered1]

Use the recipe builder on my fitness pal and it'll sort out the dividing for you. Put it the total amount of each food and then just say how many portions it is if the portions are all equal. If you're not having equal portions you could weigh it all e.g if a bolognese weighed 500g then you could put it in the recipe builder for 500 portions (so each portions would weigh 1g) and weigh out however much you wanted (e.g. 150g) and just say you had 150 servings.

[Unravellingslowly]

It is initially time consuming but worth doing.

if you have the recipe you just log the weight of each ingredient in the recipe bit, in the box top right tell it how many portions those ingredients make and it works out for you how many cals per portion, it saves it to your recipes for next time and logs it to your daily diary.

If the recipe is for 30 people it doesn’t matter, you don’t need to divide each ingredient yourself, just log the whole lot, say it makes 30 portions and it will tell you the calories total.

They must be tried and trusted recipes you are using with young people so you will be making/eating them again, only you need to decide if you want to eat a full portion!

dinner in general - you get used to sizes as you go along. I mean carrots & peas or mixed leaf salad - yes I log at home but I wouldn’t worry if out but I wouldn’t have coleslaw on a salad without portioning/weighing. Roast potatoes-well I know when I dish up at home and have 2 very small ones at most so know the weight. I would copy when out or have one large one. Meat, a couple of small slices 60g, heaped spoon of mash 150g..small spoon of gravy 50g but all this I know from logging and weighing at home. I know a portion of my home cooked lasagne is around 500g but a Pub portion with garlic bread could be 3 x the calories. My very small jacket potato of 100g is under 100 calories but baked potatoes when eating out are 3 x the size I would eat at home because they want you to feel you have had value for money so they are 3 x the calories.

I did have a wobble the first week thinking it all felt too complicated but I assure you, knowing how many calories you are actually eating, when you want to lose weight, is very worth worth knowing.

Hang on in there. It gets easier very quickly.

[Nevth]

Hi @yatapina, I'm happy to be friends on MFP - I log pretty religiously and am down almost 50lbs since Jan! For me it has been about moderation with treats, as well as substitution - turns out cauliflower rice is quite nice, and I'll have half of the potato/rice/pasta I used to, and instead add broccoli or similar.

Let me know if you want to join forces!

[Evileyecherry]

Hello all! Back to MN after about a ten year break...

I’m late 30s and have been impossibly down about weight that’s crept on over the last decade but now absolutely determined to turn things around.

Finding MFP great so far - other diets I’ve ‘tried’ have just been too confusing. Trying to complement diet with 10,000 steps a day. Great that MFP logs Apple Watch activity!

Be great to join in the convo - and give/get a bit of support 😊

[YummyVeggie]

I’m also using my fitness pal and it estimated my calories as 1300 despite my TDEE being 2500+! I’m 5 foot 9 and exercise 5-6 times a week.

Anyway, I’ve been eating 1300 5 days a week for 3 weeks now and having weekends off and I’m down 18lb. I’d like to lose another 29lb to get my BMI to 20

[Evileyecherry]

Well done Yummy Veggie! I don’t have a starting weight as daren’t get on the scales.

I’m 5ft 10in so don’t look massively overweight (I’m size 12-14) but a guess would be I’m over 12st - possibly near 13st 😣😣😣

I’m going to leave it a few weeks and once I can feel weight is coming off from the fit of my clothes venture onto the scales.

[YummyVeggie]

Thank you!
I think I’m going to up my daily calories to maybe 1600 as I think 1300 is too low.

We’re a similar height evileye and I was a 12 at 13 stone 4. At 12 stone I can fit into a 10 in most brands now

[Evileyecherry]

Wow! Let’s keep at it. I’ve ignored the reality for too long.

[choc27]

I used MFP to loose the baby weight and more a few years back. It really works. But what really, really did it for me was having a thread like this (on another forum at the time) where everyone supported each other and we had a weekly weigh in every Friday for accountability. I am back to needing to lose 10lb, mostly because I am now barely moving everyday working from home sitting at a laptop when my usual job involves walking round and round all day long. Trying to stick to 1200 cals but it's so hard!

[Evileyecherry]

How is everyone doing?

[YummyVeggie]

Only ate 1000 calories yesterday, 300 of which was ice cream!
And I’ve eaten 230 today so far but walked 5 miles

[Evileyecherry]

Well done!

I’m almost up to my 10,000 and because of that have 344 left for the day.

Trying to think of something tasty and filling for dinner within that limit!

Suggestions welcomed.

[Evileyecherry]

OH NO. A great day but...I have 23 piddly calories left after dinner. It’s going to be a looong night.

Any tips?

[YummyVeggie]

I’ve gone 500 over today as its my ‘day off’.

[Evileyecherry]

After I’ve lost a significant amount I think a day off is a great idea. I hope you enjoyed!

I’m now in bed and survived.