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?

geeklove - I didn't start watching calories until I stopped breastfeeding but it did mean I put on a stone postpartum! So I am impressed you have got started with weight loss so quickly!

red I think you eat small portions of whats there, but take healthy snacks (apples?) and avoid eating chocolate, and also try to do some exercise each day. And enjoy it and get on track after.

We're off for a picnic today. I feel very grown up and organised with my weighed out salad, dressing in a little pot (weighed out) and thermos of coffee - i'm normally a chuck a sandwich in a bag and off we go kinda girl.

redder I think I'll have to give that colour a miss and stick to admiring your picture. That much maintenance would never happen because i'm just too damn lazy As for the camping, I would make the best choices from what's on offer, limit the amounts and make sure you're as active as you can be during the day. I'm definitely finding that the more activity I pack in, the more difference there is - much more impact than food choices, although that might just be my body.....it's an odd one!

I'm on my first day of 'sedentary' cals today so we'll see how I do. (Before the picnic we're doing a 3km walk so that should help!!)

i dont snack anyway- so thats not a problem and im going to try and do our own breakfasts of just fruit ( berries) and yoghurt and then like you say, small portions of whats there.

Exercise will happen so thats not a problem either.. but i cant kid myself that any kind of weight loss will be possible and its likely ill come back heavier isnt it.

Arse!

Gibs - well done, that sounds great, really well organised :) and yes, the hair was a pain. It was worth it for a while. EVERYONE loved it and i was very very depressed when i got rid of it, took about 4 weeks before i stopped looking in the mirror and thinking i looked shit. Id do it again in a second, and my hairdresser was most surprised when i went in last month and said i wanted it dark again. has sedentary given you less cals then?

Yep, 200 less. I can't see that my day is sedentary - I even have my computer on a work surface so I can type as I walk by - and I don't really sit down until the evening but I'm not losing weight like I want to with the cals I was given. Fingers crossed this will help.

As for the hair, I'm a mousey blonde (quite dark underneath) and I go pink in the sun so maybe I'll look into the red in the winter when it won't clash with my face. I might go a purple or an auburn colour for the summer. Oo choices choices! I'm loving my new cut but I want it to be a bit more.....different - I've always been a bit quirky and I feel too 'married mother of two' right now

tbh im not sure my day is sedentary either. i dont tent to sit down until about 9pm! I am at a desk for 5 hours though ( obviusly not glued to it) so thats why i put that. When i get home from work and DDs home from school its go go go. and it is from the second i get up at 6.15 too. Im lucky if i get to sit on the sofa and watch an hour of tv a day.
I reckon that level, and maybe try not eating your exercise cals. ive not been eating mine and i know forever doesnt eat hers. I know some people say eat them, and some say dont, but i think its very much a thing of finding what works for you. I know with my pcos it makes it harder to lose, and i just cant afford to eat them back if i want to lose weight. Thing is, if you arent losing, something isnt working for you.. so you have try new ways.switch it about. mix it up and bit.. there isnt any point to keep trying a way that isnt working. i think its a good thing you have swapped it :)

You need to update your pic to your new cut, i want to see! yeah, i get what you mean about being all 'married mother looking' Im a bit quirky too. I dont feel myself when im not being like that.. doesnt help my self esteme either.

Gilbo, quite seriously, I don't think you are eating enough! You do loads and loads of exercise and are always under your calorie goal, perhaps you should try eating a few of those exercise calories? I know it sounds daft but perhaps your body is storing weight because it thinks you are in starvation mode? I know it seems ridiculous BUT I have been losing weight and eating my exercise calories! (But that is because I need an excuse to eat the chocolate I have eaten etc etc! )

i dont know- im very very sceptical about the whole ' starvation mode' thing. there is a whole lot of evidence out that what shows that starvation mode will not stop you from losing weight ( because thats impossible) and will certainly not gain you to lose weight.. but only that maybe once you eat less than a certain amount of cals ( and this amount is personal to you) then the weight loss might not be as much as you expect it to be = ie, you eat 1200 cals to expect a 2lbs weight loss. If you eat 800 cals you might expect a 3lbs weight loss, but maybe, becuse your body is holding onto a bit, you might only lose 2.5lbs. but you will still lose.

My own person experience of 'starvation mode' was when my gall bladder flared up for 6 months before i had it out. I literally lived on 300cals a day. I was a the doctors once a week crying because i felt so dizzy and tired and couldnt eat and they were fully of the situation and what i wasnt eating. they said as long as i was drinking i would be ok. I LOST 3 STONE in 2 months.

If starvation mode exisits then that wouldnt have happened.

What i do think can happen is if someone eats a very low cal diet for say 5 days of the week, and then eats more on two days of the week and by more i mean, not binging, but maybe 500/600 cals more THEN the body will hold onto those cals ( especially if they are from white carbs and sugars) and then the body will hold onto those cals... and the dieter will wonder how they havent lost when they have been so good. there are various studdies out there ive read on this and thats what ( after a whole lot of research) ive found. So its not the 'starvation mode' thats causing there to be no weight loss, but rather a starve/binge cycle.

Also - its very very rare actual starvation mode will occur in someone who has fat stoes. the body will not try to get energy from vita organs before it trys to get them from fat stores. Its highly unlikely someone with a bmi over 25 will go into starvation mode.

I don't necessarily eat my calories on the day I exercise, but I wouldn't be worried about eating more if we had friends round at the weekend or went out for a meal, so I do eat some of them at least even if its not on the "right" day. If its been a lot of exercise and I'm hungry then I will eat some of them. But today have done almost 1000 exercise calories, between the bootcamp in the park at 6am and the gym, and I will not eat them all.

The point I was making about sedentary/active was that if you said you were active rather than sedentary it already took into account some level of activity in the day so cheating to add it again.

If you can eat them and still loose, ad *red" says why not. If you aren't loosing then you need to change things. I consistently lost 2lb almost every week... and the weeks that I didn't loose I looked criticially at what I'd done and made changes.

And red I agree with you about starvation mode, I just don't think it exists whilst you are eating over 1000 calories a day AND still have fat stores! Sure your body can become more efficient, but you'd still loose.

Actually there is some evidence that good to have a binge day and then less the rest of the time. Tim Feriss recommends that in his 4 Hour Body book (DH bought it!) - theory is that you fool body it doesn't have to become more efficient as you feed it once a week.

yes. a binge day or something. But if you are eating really really low cals like 500 or something, and then binge like a crazy person for 2 days..regulary, then you are unlikely to lose weight.. or it wont help - you will maybe stay the same. i cant remember the name of the study, but there is a quite well known one about it.

Cycling cals is however very good at fooling your body that it doenst have to become more efficient. Im trying to mix it up and keep it confused as long as possible to ensure maximum weight loss.

And yep - none of the doctors/consultants were the least bit concerned by my lack of eating for a whole 6 months. I lost 3 stone then maintained the rest of a diet of soup and marshamallows mainly. Put it all back on of course.. not eating for 6 months and then suddenly eating again is a perfect example of how not to maintain and how 'starvation mode' might work by holding onto cals when you start to eat again.

It cant exist when you are eating over 1000 cals a day totally impossible.

I did know of someone who was planning on losing a lot of weight over a long time. She started at 26 stone with the aim to go to 9 stone and she found that the most effective diet for her was to calculate the amount of calories she needed with respect to daily exercise needed to maintain current weight and subtract 10% from this. She lost 9 stone in 3.5 years.
Since I am EBF I reckon I could get away with an extra 500 cals on top of the recommended amount. So if I have less than a 500 cal excess then I should lose weight.

Or maybe your exercise is building your muscle structure up and this is counteracting your actual weight loss? I did a years worth of exercise with a "better" diet (have always found when doing lots of exercise that my body wants less white carb food etc) and lost 4lbs in total, I have never been so upset about the situation with regards to my weight - however if you look at photo's I look thinner/changed shape and went down a size but didn't actually "lose" weight on the scales. Could it be this? I have to say I am also a little sceptical about starvation mode, I can see why it doesn't help with weight loss and gain (only that I have seen this happen with myself in the past) and can also see how it would be the cause of yo you dieting with the body holding on to fat afterwards for a little bit longer but I can understand this in relation to perhaps something like the Atkins diet and losing weight quickly but not doing any maintaining it - in the past it has happened to friends too where you do a diet for a week/month etc and then go back to normal eating afterwards. However perhaps by having reviewed what you have been doing and changing the amount of calories you are eating etc this will change - give it a week and see .

I have body fat scales... and did lots of exercise including weights and toning. My experience is that the increase of muscles is very slow and wouldn't (for women anyway) have any significant impact on weight loss. You can loose 2lbs of fat a week, be very hard to gain 2lbs of muscles a week just with some shred etc.

I have been told by my doctor, after tests, that I gain muscle abnormally quickly. One week of 5km cycling a day causes a significant change in the shape and size of my thigh muscles. I can move my pecs (and therefore my boobs) like a man can and I have broad and muscley shoulders so I really do think it's partly muscle gain. I also don't look like I weigh over 14 stone. I have a large stomach and masooooooosive boobs but my legs and arms are slim.

I don't go over my cals on MFP because it gave me 1740 while I was on lightly active so when the exercise cals were added I had 2000+ to eat and I can't eat that much.

redder I've put a couple of pics on my profile on here so you ccan see my hair.

cool .shall go look.

You know, this probably isnt the right answer, but if your doc says you gain muscle so quickly, and its stopping you from losing ( which is what seems to be happening) id be quite temped to stop exercising for a while until id made a big dent in the weight loss THEN build some muscle by exercising after.

I dont know, its personal choice. I think i would struggle to find motivation to keep going if the scale wasnt going down....

Out of interest, how tall are you?

Its just weight loss is mostly eating. Exercise only makes maybe 20% of it, if that... exercise is more about getting fitter and healthier, making you stronger and more effiicient.

( realises this is quite controversial)

red Agree about weight loss being 20% exercise and 80% eating.

Its hard to diet though when scales aren't moving though, but taking measurements does help with this.

gilbonzo you must be very tall, I only get 1550 even on maintenance! I guess that most cardio exercise can lead to muscle gain too eg running/cycling.

ooohhh. i like the new cut. esp straighened! tis lovely. I reckon ( if you feel like colouring it) then dark would look pretty amazing. OR you could go totally the other way and probably carry a really bright light blonde.

I would be really really disheartned to not see the scale go down and would give up.. i know how it would feel to be putting in so much effort and not get anywhere.

tbh i still really want to shred. I was also thikning about P90x too. BUT im holding off until the weight has gone.

red I started off with EA sports active for the wii - is lower impact than shred, I did it right from the start and had no problem with loosing - actually I think it helped me loose quicker as I reached my plateau when I stopped doing this each night (was busy time at work and I didn't have time - I didn't eat more though).

I don't build muscle quickly like gilbonzo though. Am trying now to increase muscle whilst maintaining weight but its slow. To move from 23% to 22% I basically have to loose one pound of fat and replace with one pound of muscle. Its taking ages (ie more month) just for me to gain 1lb of muscle and thats with me lifting weights 3x a week in the gym. So for me even gaining 1lb of muscle is hard - hence why exercise improved my weight loss (in terms of calories) rather than hinder it (as I was loosing 2lb a week, I bet muscle gains were minimal.)

The real reason people gain when they exercise is that they tend to overcompensate afterwards as they don't take into account the impact of BMR - ie that 200 calories for shred, well you'd have burned 100 of them just by sitting on the sofa.

thanks redder

I do get very disheartened when the scales don't change but I also see a huge difference in the clothes I can wear which keeps me going. I've learnt, after many years of going down a couple of clothes sizes but having minimal change on the scales to accept that I don't work like 'normal' people. For me, exercise is much more than 20%. I can live off the bare minimum and not lose weight but I can eat normally and do a lot of exercise and lose some. I also find that exercise keeps me sane. It's what I've replaced smoking with and it relaxes me and relieves stress.

No one believes people when they say they are big boned or that they eat healthily but are still over weight but for some people it's true. Life sucks - my dad has suffered with the same thing all his life and now he's given up and eats shit because eating healthily does nothing for him. I don't want to get to the point of giving up so I'll carry on fighting it. That's what keeps me going.

I'll put a pic of me, taken when I was 4 kg heavier a couple of months ago, on my profile and then you guys can tell me if I'm fooling myself or if you can see 5 stone of excess weight - I can take it

Oh, and I'm 5'6

hmmm. ok. I shall be totally honest. I dont think i can see 5stone to lose. but maybe 3?

( so sorry, please dont hate me)

I reckon the other 2 stone are in your boobs. ( fantastic boobs btw)

What does your doctor say about it all? Have they offered any kind of actual help?

forever - yep. im sticking with low impact stuff for the momment. Ill crank it up to get though a plateau when i hit one.

That's exactly what I think. I can see 3 stone in various places - the very tops of my arms and the very tops of my things and obviously, there's a good couple of stone on my stomach. I just don't think I look like those people you see in magazines who weigh 15 stone and have gastric bands fitted or some other equally exciting story! I'm certainly not denying that I need to lose weight. I'm very over weight and very unhappy with myself but I don't think I look as horrendous as I should.

My doctor in the UK was fantastic and sent me to a dietitian and did various tests, but then I got pregnant and moved out here. My doctor over here is lovely but is very much of the calories in vs calories out mind.

things =thighs

gilbonzo no I can't see 5 stone either. I was 3 stone overweight the start and looked more overweight than you (although I am only 5 foot 4). I think maybe for you rather than focussing on weight should focus on waist measurement - for 2 reasons - a) health risks of being "overweight" is from weight on waist and b) this will discount impact of having very big boobs!

I hate hate hate my boobs. They ruin everything from running to wearing nice tops. If I could stand the pain I'd hack the bastards off with the bread knife. But thanks for thinking I don't look too awful

I tend to measure my waist more than I weigh myself for that very reason.

Right, I'm going to take the pictures down in case someone accidently clicks on my profile and thinks I'm proud of them