Calorie counting for 2026 🎉

[Bookaholic73]

I have totally fallen off the calorie counting bandwagon for the last half of 2025, and will be starting again on Jan 1st 2026.

My goal is to reach 64kg, I am currently 77kg.

Is anyone else starting in Jan and would like to join me?

Can I join you? I’ll be starting on Monday. Will use NutraCheck. I have a lot to lose. About 25kg. I want to take it slow and steady. I’m setting a goal to lose 14kg by November. I’ll start on 1800 calories. I walk my dogs daily but will increase the amount of time I’m out with them. Menopause hasn’t helped but I can’t keep using it as an excuse. I want to try and eat more protein and less carbs. Good luck to everyone and I look forward to this journey with you all

Hi @Princessbubbles of course you can join, the more the merrier!
I know what you mean about not using menopause as an excuse, i feel like i have done that for a few years, but the truth is i just didnt want to comit to losing weight.
But now i am focused on cutting out the junk food and being sensible with my portion sizes.

Good evening all :)

I had another small drop on the scales this monring. Yay! So I've gine from 76.9 to 76.2 this week. I think thats about 1lb. Perfect. Slow and steady means you're less likely to gain it back. Plus i came on my peiod yesterday, so extra pleased to have lost weight as i usually gain!

However, this evening hasnt been great. I ended up eating far too many M&Ms.
I did eat a good breakfast and lunch, then half a pizza for dinner and the M&Ms.
I didnt track the M&Ms, but i know it's taken me at least a few hundred over my calories.

Never mind tomorrow is another day.
I'm pretty much all prepped for food tomorrow, so it should be easy to stick to.

Hows everyone else getting on?

Hi everyone,
I’m back and ready to start. I’ve enjoyed feeling motivated by reading your posts on the thread 😊

I weighed myself this morning and I’m now a disappointing 11st 0.5lbs. I am around 5’5.5’’ and would love to be 9st 7lbs but let’s see how I go.

The plan is to eat 1350 calories a day. I go to an exercise class one evening a week, and I’m going to brisk walk on our machine at least 3 times a week.

I have a griddled chicken breast in the fridge that I cooked yesterday, so will have that made up as a salad for lunch, perhaps with some hard boiled eggs. I read somewhere that it’s easier to keep control if you keep your meals fairly straightforward and easy, and repeat fairly regularly, so will give that a try, with lunches at least.

I'm in too.

8yrs ago I got up to 14.7 stone. Through healthy eating I got down to 11 stone, and I felt magical. It was wonderful to wear what I wanted.

Over the years, and going through menopause I gained 2 stone, but I still felt OK. Not great, but OK.

Early last year I separated from my husband of 33yrs, and I started to comfort eat and drink wine every night. I weighed myself this morning, and I am now back to 14.8 stone.

I knew I had gained as I can no longer fit into some of my skirts, so on Sunday I had a healthy Waitrose delivery come full of fruit, vegetables, cottage cheese, chicken, salad etc ..... Plus snacks like carrots, low calorie jelly and yoghurts. I have ordered myself a steps counter and I have joined an app.

This morning it began. 30g of Special K and 8 blueberries with skimmed milk for breakfast.

Wish me luck - and good luck to all of you.

Good luck to you-you can do it!x

Having simple easy meals on repeat is what i am deciding to do, it makes tracking them so much quicker!

A seperation is bound to do funny things to your eating, i know it did to mine.
Good luck :)

I'm doing this as a marathon not a sprint as like others here it was over time that the weigh went on,so it will be over time that it comes off. I started this two weeks before Christmas took a break Christmas eve , Christmas day and New Years eve and overall was 4lb down yesterday so im happy with that. My plan is to continue now on 1200 calorie ,definitely keeping meals simple and on repeat as I have no time or headspace to complicate this any further.Good luck to all doing this.

Stepped on the scales for the first time post-Christmas today. 142. Did a 20-minute brisk walk over lunch and will be sticking to 1700 calories on MyFitnessPal. Been drinking lots of water in my AirUp tumbler today too.

Good luck everyone.

I am conscious that I need to train myself to not eat mindlessly-I reach for food all the time, it’s like I have a need to chew constantly.

Day 1 almost done-I had the chicken breast with sweetcorn, mayo and mini gem lettuce leaves, with a hard boiled egg on the side. This was very filling and nice.

I had some grapes, then for dinner made soy and honey salmon fillets with jasmine rice and steamed vegetables, with a drizzle of crispy chilli oil. I still have loads of calories left, weirdly. I’m going to have a cup of tea soon with a small treat, and then I think I’ll
wrap it up for the day and count it as a positive start.

Sounds a delicious menu.

Day one achieved for me too. About 50 calories under my required weight loss amount according to the app.

It felt weird drinking 2 glasses of water at night instead of wine, but I know my body will thank me for it.

Can I join please? I dusted off my Nutracheck app in early December and so far I'm 6lb down, which is slow but in keeping with me being a 54-year-old menopausal woman who (currently) only exercises by walking the dog. I've also set my calorie limit to lose only 1/2lb a week. It's a psychological thing – previously I've had a 'f*ck it' mentality when I went over my calorie limit and my eating would go out of the window. I have a daily limit of nearly 2000 calories a day (I'm 5ft 8.5) but I'm eating well under that – usually around 1,500-1,700 – so every day feels like a massive success because I've stayed well in the green. I don't eat my exercise calories either.

I'm only weighing myself very occasionally too, and instead I'm logging my waist measurement every week. I get too easily hung up on the scale numbers – Joe Wicks calls it The Sad Step and he's got a point – and lots of doctors now say waist circumference is a far better indicator of health than BMI. I need to lose 6 inches off mine to get into the healthy zone of my waist being less than half of my height. I've also invested in old-fashioned dial scales for when I do weigh – I can barely read the numbers with my dodgy eyesight but as long as the needle is going down I don't care that I can't record it exactly!

I'm hoping all these little mind tricks will make it easier for me to stay on track this time!

I never know how often to weigh myself, and probably do so far too often!

How is everyone getting on?

Today has been another positive one. I had a banana, a small roll with smoked salmon and cucumber, a pear and an apple, salad and homemade lasagne, and a small shortbread biscuit with a cup of tea. Calling it 1200 cals, and I managed to get to a class this evening despite my tiredness.

Feeling really hungry today. I made a chicken pie with sweet potato topping, which is currently in the oven, and the broccoli is steaming. Went for a 20 minute brisk walk over my lunch break, and have been drinking water all day from my AirUp tumbler. Will do 30 minutes of Joe Wicks after dinner, and see how I feel. If I’m still hungry, I’ll take myself to bed.

That sounds delicious!

I’m in from next week but only understand pounds and stones!!

I am stones and pounds too 😂
I ate more calories today-only 30 calories below my limit.
My Fitness Pal helpfully tells you how much you’ll weigh in 5 weeks if every day is like the one you've just completed. Apparently I will be 10st 8lbs, which is 6lbs less than I am now. I’m going to have to actively try to eat less so I don’t get disheartened by super slow loss 😭

I’m stones and lbs too!

I know what you mean about the super-slow loss, especially when it feels like everyone around you is whooshing to skinny on WLI. Then I see articles like this one in today’s Guardian and I’m reminded why slow and steady is the right approach for me, because I would regain in seconds!

www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/07/weight-loss-jabs-regain-two-years-health-study

I'd like to join please!! I can't promise I will be very good at checking in each day but I will try. Nice to have somewhere to post for support. I work in stones and NYD was 13 stone 6 and weighed this morning and am 13 stone 1 pound.
I had a baby a year ago and am over a stone heavier than I was before I got pregnant and even then I was at least a stone heavier than ideal. So my first goal is 2 stone loss. Really hoping I can stick to it this time. Getting married is a big incentive. And ideally i'd like to be in the 11stone bracket before we consider another baby as I want to avoid maintaining my current weight, getting pregnant and then putting on another stone again!

Oh that's so cool, is that on the free version or paid?! I am using MFP but the free version. I may have to have a look!

I started an app called 'mynetdiary' which was free. There is a paid version of it, but you don't need to pay. I like it as it's UK (so has a lot of Tesco, Sainsburys products' and you can log your breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, steps etc .... You also say what your goal is and when you would like to achieve it, and it tells you if its achievable or not and sets you calorie intake accordingly. It's actually helping me stay on track.

I am still being good. I haven't eaten one single bad thing since Monday. I am starting to get bored of my dinners though, and its only been 3 days.

Can I please offer a suggestion? Try not to grade foods in terms of good or bad. Instead, have a go at framing them as "healthy" versus "UPF". It's just that, from my experience, calling foods bad makes them sound irresistibly naughty and I'm much more likely to crave them because of that! Categorising them as ultra-processed really does lessen their appeal.

It’s on the free version! You just have to make sure you click ‘complete diary’ at the end of the day (or when you’ve finished logging).

Today has been good. I had a pile of fruit with some Longley Farm cottage cheese, and it was such a hectic work day that I didn’t really think about food until 8pm when we all got in. The rest of my family had McDonald’s, but I resisted and made two fried eggs with feta and chilli oil and some fresh tomatoes on a slice of wholemeal toast. It was lovely, if a bit of an unconventional dinner!

I’ve got plenty of calories left for something nice with a big mug of tea soon-it’s so cold and miserable this evening!

Morning all,how is everyone doing? Weigh in day has arrived again for me, half pound loss this week, brings me to 6.5pounds down from where I started. The way that I am eating now within my 1200 allowance forces me to cut out a lot of processed foods and sugar and a welcome impact of this is that I am less hungry, no sugar crashes, less cravings so than I can make better food choices. This week I am going to try and get a bit more protein in. For me I think its working well as with the start of January I have very little social activities on, not sure how it will go when it starts to pick up again, I dont want to have to start declining events I want to be able to work around them, what do you guys do for this?