Just signed up at 'My Fitness Pal'. Any advice, experience, or desire to join me?

[worriermum]

I read about the website, myfitnesspal.com on MN. Am truly desperate to stop the ever rising weight gain - I have just topped my full term pregnancy weight. I've never really been a dieter, or even believed in diets, but I Have To Do Something. Would love to do it with some other Mumsnetters - anyone interested in joining me?

All the weight loss threads seem so bloated, if you'll pardon the metaphor. I'm intimidated by 537 messages, or 219 messages. Feel I cant be arsed to read through all that and I will never be part of the club if I dont read the history. Advice please?

:( no weight loss in two whole weeks.

totally totally rubbish.

but i supose on the plus side ive not gained either.

Just a reminder to myself that its not at all easy to lose weight, a cheat day here, one there, a cream egg, one slice of cake at a picnic and you have gone over your cals and dont lose :( its bloody hard work.

ok - going to set a goal for may, for myself. 10lbs. anyone want to join me?

Am very fed up here as well. I was pretty good all week, slightly over on calories two days but that's all. Did shred DVD everyday as well as walking for miles and........ I put on 1lb!!!!!!!

I'm totally pissed off and although I tried to stay positive, I fell off the wagon by lunchtime yesterday.

I partly blame the DVD and am going to do wii Zumba instead.

10lbs in may sounds fab, but my weight loss has been soooo slow I can't see how I can do it, but I'll jump back on the wagon and have a go!!

Good luck everyone!

Back on today, no weightloss last week (well 0.2 of 1lb), what annoys me is that I didn't really have an awful lot of fun with the food I had - no chocolate just eating out at shite places with some shite food. Most depressing, however I am now back on the wagon with the intention of getting off my lazy backside and starting to get it together again. I have 3 weeks before my holiday and I would like to lose at least 4lbs before we get there (possibly more so that I can cheat whilst away a little without any guilt!)

Hi all,

back to 14st 0lb again . It's great to lose 4lb this week but I have lost and gained these 4lb about 5 times over the last few months. Somehow I never actually made it below 14st so rather than celebrating I'm really focusing on having a good week this week and being 13st something next weigh in.

I did the Shine half marathon night time walk this weekend and I ache but in a good way, I feel very healthy. It's really motivated me to carry on exercising but I do much better with an event to aim for. I'm trying to decide whether to sign up for a 5k run, a bike ride or a walk. Any suggestions? The local race for life is too soon for me to train - I can barely run for 30sec never mind 30min.

Hope everyone else has had a good week !

redderthanred - I'll join you in a 10lb in May challenge!

I'm still 2lbs up (9 2) ie haven't shifted holiday weight yet, although have been good since I've been back - although might be more muscular. Doing a dukan protein day today as that generally gives me a 1-2lb weight loss overnight.

A few things:

a) cheat meals - it should be a cheat meal and not a whole cheat day! Also I don't use my exercise calories on the day I earn them (well maybe I use 150-200) so my cheat meals are covered by these extra calories. Cheating on other days will in all probability no weight loss that week.

b) Exercising often results in muscle gain which makes weight loss harder, but thats ok, I'd much rather weigh more and be more muscular. Don't pack in shred for this reason. The weight loss will come! If you fall off the wagon because of this then worth investing in body fat scales - I just bought my sister some from John Lewish - £30.

c) I often don't loose if I eat fruit, certainly limit it to one piece a day - ideally apple or berries (frozen blueberries great in yoghurt).

d) 10lb in a month is quite ambitious - although I did loose 2lbs every week until I was around 10 4. Need to be very focussed and controlled.

rugbymum go for 5km race for life. Its ok to walk part (or all) of it - lots of people do. I am doing one in July. Start training by running for 30 sec and then walking for 2 mins and gradually increase the running and decrease the walking. Even training for 15 mins a day is enough.

Well I lost absolutely nothing this week- though fell off the wagon big style over the weekend.

I am starting AGAIN today.

I am looking into getting the body shred DVD. I really need to do some exercise.

Also wanted to say re: eating out - do not eat out an "shite" places. If you go somewhere where you will not enjoy the food just order a double side salad with no dressing and a diet coke. I have done this several times. Don't waste calories on food you will not enjoy. If there is no side salad (check before you go) eat first and just drink water.

Thanks Forever - that is a fab tip, I went out at the weekend and had salmon and prawns with a side salad but it did have a buttery sauce which I didn't know about and by then I was hank marvin! Its not really eating in shoddy places (I'm a princess don't you know I don't do shoddy! [cwink]) I think for me its just that sometimes there aren't any fantastic options. Also yesterday went to dn party and treid really hard to not eat the crapola (avoided the crisps and birthday cake) but did have some naughties that I wouldn't usually like new potatoes and sausages which I try to avoid like crazy but sil hadn't quite got the salad to other food ratio right and so there was a small bowl of salad for 10 adults she undercaters in situations like that whereas I tend to really over cater!!!! (Hence weight issue!)

However I am pleased to be getting away from the holiday weekends as I just find it so hard to cater for everyone in the family as they don't want to eat "my diet food" as dh calls it. Well not all the time anyway! But back to no real going out and making my own meals which I hope will make it all easier - just hope the weather stays good so that we don't feel like comfort eating.

I have also meal planned for this week which I am looking forward to, we have Butternut squash and goats cheese (baked), baked peppers with anchovy and haddock, chicken stew - spring one with loads of spring greens, and another chicken dish with white beans - all from Good Food website and all between 0-400 calories so hoping that will all help. I am also going to really try hard on the portion control and cut down on the olive oil if and where I can. Roll on weight loss this week is what I say!

Oh they've taken our crowns away

haha. i know cheat meals arent cheat days :) its just worked out that way. Lots of big family events/partys with no options of low cal. or even if eating less that i normall would, still being way over.

Like easter sunday, I had my usual breakfast then we had a egg hunt. i ate one cream egg. before i may have eaten 2 and then a few smalled just chocolate things.

then we has the bbq. i had one burger, one sausage and one belly slice. one corn on the cob. and then salad stuff. i would have eaten a fair amount more than that before :)
then bloody desert. i had one slice. again, less than normal.

and then no tea. and no more chocolate for the day. Previously i might have had something to eat later and then some chocolate.

so - thats better that before and really, i supose id be silly to expect a loss. ive had 5/14 days of cheating eating.

Bloody difficult when its a big family event and the food is laid on and there is nothing really to eat, bar what is there. and i dont know if your family is anything like mine, but food is an intergral part of the celebration and anyone not joining in is told they better had do and not to be silly.

10lbs will be doable if im super strict. Ive two birthday meals out. will leave them as cheat MEALS :) and will not eat back any exercise cals during the week to cover for that. Rest of the month i have nothing on. so hopefully no distractions. End of the month im going camping for 3 nights and there will be no dieting there at all. I think its pretty much going to be meat, meat,, meat, beans, meat, biscuits and more meat. and wine. and probably rum. topped off with meat! But if ive lost even 8lbs by then ill be pleased and am happy to relax it for a few days.

I dont know, i think that im never going to be super fit or super thin, i just want to be an healthy bmi, that is my goal. Im also never going to be the person who just orders a salad or passes on a slice of birthday cake. BUT i can lose weight, and it might just take me a bit longer than id like. but i will make it. ive still lost 10lbs since mid march. Which is better than nothing.

Its hard. But sometimes you just have to pass, eg I haven't eaten any of DS1's birthday cake and its going to be sitting in the kitchen now for several days, I will resist it .

In restuarants I always ask about sauces & dressings, and ask for it to come on the side. A buttery sauce not end of world though. On our holiday the evening meal was plated so I left the carb on the plate - ate the meat and veggies - just scrapped off the sauce if it looked "bad". I chose the "best" starter and passed on the dessert.

re: creme egg - no need to eat it, even if on egg hunt. I have had 1 creme egg this year, I ate it the day I reached my target to celebrate, and I didn't even enjoy it - too sweet and sickly!

The BBQ sounds hard - I have been calling up people and saying that I am on diet to make sure I avoid the situation, or even offering to bring a big green salad that I then eat half off but sounds as if you did quite well.

hi everyone! :o

After being off the wagon since Good Friday () i am now back on it again from today. I was still exercising as normal, i.e. 5 times a week so that must have done some good along the way. Just need to keep within my calorie limit now and not go over. I dread to think how many cals over my limit i have been this past week! Thank GOODNESS things are now back to normal again!!

Right, in a moment of madness I've agreed to do the Bramham 10k fun run with a few friends in October . I can barely run for 10 steps at the moment so this will be a challenge but hopefully it'll help me get rid of a few pounds! I'm off to find the couch to 5k podcasts.......

Good grief Ruggers!! You are brave!! I hate running!!

Not so much brave as deluded. I did a couple of half-marathons many many years ago when I was much fitter so I'm convincing myself that 10k isn't really that far. I'm sure the panic will set in when I go out for my first training run .

rugbymum wow 10km! I would love to do one too. I did one before - took around an hour, totally realistic to do it from scratch by October, not deluded at all. Ideally though you'd find a 5km run locally in July-August to give you some confidence.

Also, just wondering when people say they are "off the wagon" do they mean eating roughly a maintenance amount eg around 1800-2000 calories a day or do they mean totally over eating in the 2500 calories-4000 calorie++ amount.

If the latter, esp if for more than one day in a row then I think need to address food issues, because ultimately likely that weight be go back on after diet.

hmm. id say my cheat days over the easter celebrations are not maintenance at all :) BUT, they are not things that happen very often.

Ive done the 'lose 3 stone' thing before. and have set myself so strict, so scared of putting the weight on that it got to the point where i would avoid social things in fear of putting on weight. or becuase i didnt want to eat. or didnt want to make a thing out of it. Bloody stupid and destined to fail.

My weight loss is probably going to take longer than i want because its going to be everything in moderation. If there is a celebration thing, im going to go, and im going to enjoy it, life is to short.

I thinnk if i eat and exercise well 99.9% of the time, and odd celebration day eating a silly amount of cals wont do damanage. its if you are eating like that day in and day out.

I plan, once ive got to my goal to only weight myself every other week, dropping to only montly. Im not going to keep logging stuff, by then i should know if i should eat it ( well, heck, i know now if i should eat it or not!!! lol...)

and i WILL get to my goal. ive had a very very good eating day today and shall contuine all week. I think thats the key thing with weight loss... just keeping at it and if you have a bad day, just starting again tomorrow.

I kind of think, for myself personally, wrapping so much ' success' or 'fail' or labelling things cheating or whatever arent all that great labels. they kind of make it a whole lot worse. Im trying to think that im losing weight, i have goals im aiming for.. but if i dont meet them thats ok, i will set another date... but i WILL get there.

Anyway- just my personal option.

I actually think once you have lost the weight you only need to be good 80% of the time (but whilst loosing weight probably need to be good 95% of time). I also agree that long term MFP logging & weighing every day (like I still do) are not healthy.

But having observed several thin people at social engagements I see that they exercise restraint - ie they eat if they are hungry not because the food is there. Thats were I want to be - I don't want to avoid social engagements, I just want to attend and be comfortable with all the food around me and not feel I want to eat it all. And be able to eat one slice of cake without feeling I need to eat 3 more.

I also don't like term "falling off the wagon", because as you say its all about moderation, and if you go out and have a celebration meal thats ok and you shouldn't feel bad. You haven't failed because you enjoyed some chocolate over easter especially if in sociable situation. Eating lots of chocolate at home every day would be more worrying.

we agree then :)

Its a really fine line i think and its so easy to go one way or another.

I know i can get very obsessed with it all, so im being careful that doesnt happen. and i know i can totally forget about my weight and indulge and get fat.

I am quite pleased with not having gained over easter, and actually like at the partys and events i did what you just said, about only eating because i was hungry and not eating everything just because it was there and no way near eating as much as i would have done. NO way near at all. and then making sure i was good on the days inbetween. So - i can maintain and deal with social eating.

Didnt lose anything though.. but really, couldnt expect to. and im sure there will be other weeks like this as well. But its just getting back on it.

Though its not good to weight yourself every day :) and i mean that in the nicest possible way. Its way to easy to get all obsessed about it that way. Im trying to keep weighing to a minimum. Didnt do it for two weeks....

I know weighing daily not good. Would like to stop. Tell myself that once I reach goal weight again (ie after holiday) will restrain for a week. Or maybe a couple of days.....

But I have other priorities that come above dealing with that.....

Just wanted to say that I've lost 5lbs in the last week and I do think its partly because of MyFitnessPal! Am really chuffed.

Hello ladies, can I join?

My MFP name is tansyg. I used it for about 2 months with the shred then fell off the wagon for 6 weeks.

Yesterday I started all over again with both (and heavier hand weights)

Ive already requested quite a few of you on MFP

Hello all , been off the wagon for last week and a half or so but haven't gained (or lost) so I'm here today to get back on it. Have been catching up on your posts for inspiration and have decided to start running again as I know I get results with this. Can't wait to post next Monday with a weight loss...!

Hi to the newbies BTW. Please add me on mfp - I'm Lisakins :)