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?

Does anyone use scales to weigh their food for MFP?
Im thinking of purchasing some. It would be good to use them for a week or so just to get into my head what certain weights in different foods look like. I dont feel too confident with my estimates sometimes.

Good day today, shred, 12 minute (ha ha yes, exactly 12, it felt like more so I came home and when I looked at the clock i was very disapointed), then a one hour or more walk to go to the laundry, ah the joys of living on a boat.

I weigh everything with scales - no idea why, I guess I'm an anal control freak crap at estimating!

I still haven't weighed myself as I'm in the UK still and mum's scales are shockingly useless. However, I did go that fashion mecca known as Primark today and bought some trousers in a size 16 thinking that I'll shrink into them over the summer (I always find their sizes very small). Anyway, I got home and tried them on and they're too big!!!

I've spent the last 2 days walking everywhere as I'm craving exercise. I packed my work out dvds but I never get a chance to do them here as there's always someone around for me to offend with my lycra-clad bottom!

I have MFP has made a massive difference to my eating habits over here. I normally go nuts for the picnic foods (cocktail sausages, sausage rolls, etc) and McDonald's but this time I don't even want them as I couldn't stand to see how many calories they's come up as on MFP. I have been saving cals today and yesterday as I'm going out for a meal tomorrow evening and I want to enjoy what I pay for as we are totally skint and I don't want to waste a tenner on a salad . I have managed to keep 800 cals to add to my allowance and I've planned breakfast and lunch to allow me to have a goat cheese brucetta (sp?) and a pasta dish with a tomato sauce - yum!!

Yes, I weigh all food apart from vegetables on digital scales. I am also control freak. I weigh myself every morning too!

Me too

Do you know whats so funny - I am sure that I have said this before but on many occasions what I have eaten in 1 meal is now what I eat in a day. I went out for lunch today with my mum and had the antipasta plate - admittedly a bit oily however when I had finished with it I tried some of my mums pate and tasted so rich it was very unpleasant, not in a good way - the antipasta veges in oil were still very nice and not too rich, the pate was most off putting. I can only see that as good!

I too went out to the shops and have definitely dropped down a size, not too much of a suprise as was in between sizes before but isn't it the best motivation?

I don't weigh any of my food but I am at least 4 stone overweight so I probably have a little more leeway with portion sizes at first. I will probably end up weighing things but I'm doing it in steps. Right now I'm cutting out the rubbish, reducing my portions, drinking more water and doing a little exercise each day (even if it's just a long walk). Over the next few weeks I'm going to increase the exercise and try out some new recipes so I don't get bored then I'll start weighing food to really get a handle on what my portions should be. I know that if I try to change too much at once I won't be able to stick to it and I need to make changes that will work long-term.

ThePrincessRoyalFiggyrolls - congratulations on dropping a dress size . It must be a great feeling. Can't wait to get out of my awful size 18's but will be a while yet I think. How much weight do you think you have to lose before you see a difference in clothes size?

Oops, congratulations Gilbonzo too.

dress size For me a 10-12lbs difference is a dress size, although this would depending on height & muscle tone. eg I was a 16-18 to start with at 12 stone 5. Now am 9 stone - so thats 47 pounds less and now a size 10 everywhere (unless the sizing is very big in which case its an 8!).

princess was thinking about what you said about a meal being a whole day, I love the programme supersize vs superskinny and I have often thought this (ie one meal of supersize is more than whole day of superskinny) - its about adjusting estimates of whats a normal amount to eat.

I just can't believe that I used to eat SOOOOOOO much, ridiculous really, I think I was going about it the wrong way so I was starving in the evening, now try to be using up my calories during the day and have really cut down on the naughty snacks - last night dh opened the pringles and I STEPPED AWAY! Also I think massive motivation is that people have started to notice the weight loss and comment on it, I have been admitting its hard but am now trying to be more motivated etc and haven't mentioned the weight lost. I guess in many places I am now a 16 but before I would have been a tight 16 now am a tight 14 in some and a normal 14/16 in others, thats with 8lbs lost so I guess that for me is what it is at the moment, I would have thought to go down another dress size now to a 12 I will need to lose at least 14lbs as I am somewhere in between iyswim, in general pre babies etc and when I was younger I was always a "13" so more weight loss is required, I am quite lucky though as I am quite in proportion and since having babies have discovered a waist, its just that I have a huge wobbly belly at the moment that will require a great deal of work other than pure diet. I guess that is normal though! With a bit of hard work on the abs will definitely be a proper 14 though. I just struggle a lot because of the boobs, so many clothes are not made for boobs so I base everything now on my hips/tummy measurements as otherwise I get all depressed!

Im weighing or measuring everthing too ( ususally just need to do it once or twice until you get the idea of what the size looks like )

I think , if you arent doing that you cant really count cals properly, it will be just guessing, and the difference between weight loss and maintaining only comes down to a few hundred a day. heck, the difference between maintaining nad gaining only comes in at a few hundred a day too!!!

For me, pretty much a stone is a dress size too.

Im saving cals up for either sat or sun, we are going out for a family dinner for mothers birthday. So am eating very very small amounts until then. Hopefully i will still get a loss this week.

Also, have set myself a 48 hour challenge. I have been allowing a biscuit/cake/cheese/chocolate in every day, as part of my cal allowance. BUT for the next two days im not going to have any....hopefully

re: weighing - I don't bother weighing most veggies as I think you can guess and even if you are wrong the number of calories is so small. With fruit I also estimate, eg medium apple.

However I always weigh dairy, protein and carbs - very hard to see the difference between the 100g piece and the 150g piece of chicken.

i need a round of applause.
A plate with:
Millionaire shortbread
cookies
Chocolate fudge cake
has just been passed under my nose, all my collegues are scoffing them and i said no, and then when i was told to ' go on, dont be silly' i still said no.

Go me!

Good for you! Its hardest the first time. Now they don't even offer!

Go you! That's one of the hardest things to do.

hi everyone

i have been doing fitness pal for one week now, I weighed myself tonight and it seems I have only lost 1 lbs.

Alothough it was about 8.30pm and had already had dinner so may have made me weigh more.

I am alittle dissappointed, as I have mostly stuck to it. I did go slightly over on 2days but before doing this I was eating so much, sometimes about 2200 cals per day.

Now my limit is 1200 per day. As i say i went slighty over 2days but was still hoping to have lost more then 1 lbs.

Hi Extra
Am Figgyrolls on mfp so add me as a friend

I always weigh myself 1st thing in the morning as I have found I am usually 1.5lbs lighter than the night before, I always go to the loo first and then weigh myself.

If you are eating less than you were before and moving a little bit more you WILL lose weight and it is only 1 week, some of us have been lucky and lost more than 2lbs per week in the first week and then it slows down.

Also are you being totally honest with yourself? Even doing this I manage to forget sometimes what I have eaten and suddenly remember! The one thing I have found really good is cutting out all booze, for some reason because am not pg it really makes me feel quite good not to have it out of choice!

Weigh yourself first thing in the morning and see if it is any different then

extraconfusedhelp Weighing yourself in the evening is not a good idea. Evening weight is very variable due to fluid and food intake. Best time is first thing in morning, after you've been to toilet! Weigh yourself tomorrow morning and from now on log morning weight. And a 1lb is still ok. 1lb a week is 4 stone a year.

Oh and the other thing I have found helpful on a personal level is that I have been measuring myself once every 3 weeks, well since 18th April (I think that was my start week) I have lost 1cm + on every part of my body except my boobs

Hi extra!

I went out for my meal last night and things went really well. The girl I went with is an MFPer so we both went for the caesar salad instead of the pasta and bugger me sideways it was delicious. I never thought i'd enjoy going out and eating the 'healthy' option but I did. We also had a starter instead of pudding which I'd never normally do but I had to avoid the cheesecake somehow. When I got back and worked out of the calories it was 660 less than if I'd had the pasta

I also discovered that a Cadbury's cream egg is only 175 cals and makes a very good reward for a girl who's been extra good for a couple of days - and that didn't even take me over my limit so the 800 cals I saved from the other day will hopefully become weight loss.

Brilliant Gilbonzo! Its funny isn't it, I went out for lunch with my mum yesterday shared some bits with her - got back and was suprised that my choices were so good instead of so naughty, once I put them into MFP they were 300 calories (together) short of the main course I usually go for!

Hoping on weightloss for you Gilbonzo

Hi everyone. Can I join?

I'm looking to lose about 3 stone I think. The BMI calculator indicates I'm heading towards obese which isn't very good :( I've always been effortlessly slim until I had DD - put on about 3 stone when I was pregnant and have continued to gain weight since she was born.

I started using it yesterday, after finding this thread actually! I've been looking for a site like this which I didn't have to pay for. I'm screwed probably not going to do very well today though - I'm going to a tea and cake party - eek. I'm just going to accept today is going to be a calorific one and not feel too guilty about it, or else it will ruin my fun!

If you want to add me, my name is the same there as it is here.

yay gibonzo :) amazing if you manage to lose while being on holiday :)

I already knew a cream egg was 175 cals :) i have consumed a few!! lol. I think its the just having one as a treat, instead of two, and then a couple of times a week thing... its quite easy to work one into your daily allowance or to save up exercise cals to cover it.

AND i discovered to my huge surprise that one poppy thin cracker and some boursin really wasnt as bad as i thought it was going to be the other day.

I totally failed on the non chocolate front. ate 12g when i got home. its the ;just picked dd up from school mid afternoon slump' that i just crave a tiny bit of chocolate. Am trying again today. I just want to try and get thought one whole day without some. just to see if i can do it.

I have just joined MFP as well - and it is very useful for making me realise just why I am the size I am ...

But I do find it hard to use for family meals - how do you work out the calories in say a risotto that the family eat - do you weigh out all teh ingredients and then weigh your portion to caluculate accurately - I agere with the point that guessing is teh difference between weight loss and gain.. I am trying not to make kids too aware of the diet and so do want to eat same family meals where possible - and this can be OK for some meals like breakfast and lunch where it is less communal..

Is the only way to be successful on this to be totally anal about weighing everything - so what happens with eating out - does that become either a no no or do I take scale with me and appear to be bonkers?!!

Aaaarrrgghh! I sprained my bloody ankle on weds afternoon! I consumed two mars bars (back to back) and a bag of revels yesterday in self pity and today my WHOLE body aches from lugging my overweight self around on crutches/one leg. I'm absolutely gutted as its a 6-8 week recovery - so much for the running. How am I going to keep myself on track & stay motivated to not shovel crap down my neck? Sprained it six times previous to this (but between ages of 15-18) so I know what the recovery is like only this time I have a baby & toddler thrown into the mix! I want to cry!

Sorry to wallow in self pity - I need a slap with a big wet fish! Please give me your motivational "mottos" or ideas. "Nothing tastes as good as being slim feels" isn't cutting it at the mo!

zzmum - family meals are hard. Haven't generally been going things like risotto more like spag bol - I weigh the pasta 9although generally don't eat the pasta), and estimate the meat in the sauce based on how much meat there was in total - eg I ate a quarter. I generally don't add oil and the calories in the veggies are negligible. Or roast chicken and then weigh the chicken.