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?

redder I'm so with you on the Maltesers. I can eat a whole sharing bag and still want more! I just can't have them in the house anymore. They are the one thing that I have no willpower over.

they are just round little balls of lovelyness arent they :) I have brought one, normal 37g bag ( 180 cals approx) to take to the cinema tomorrow while watching mr depp as a pirate. i shall enjoy both the malteasers and the letching equally - while those im going with will be scoffing down pick and mix and popcorn.

They are my 'cheat meal' of the week.

Hows the new sedentary level working for you?

red my skinny SIL does eat a chocolate most days but she doesn't eat properly IYSWIM. She'll have a coffee for breakfast, a salad from work canteen for lunch, a chocolate bar mid afternoon and cereal for dinner some days. But I doubt she ever eats over 1500 calories.

I have been eating a square or 2 of dark chocolate most evenings. Am very partial to the 85% tesco one (91p a bar so much cheaper than lindt) - but I can stop at one or two squares so thats ok. And sugar content is lower than boost bars. I think good to have some treats as long as its measured.

gil / red yes was thinking about my old way of eating - shredded wheat or special k for breakfast (high carbs but ok), boost mid morning (esp when at work, as was hungry due to carby breakfast), sandwiches (always choose 3 pack not 2, and filing might be calorific eg tuna and mayo, or hard cheese) and crisps for lunch and often yoghurt too - clearly far too much. Dinner would have carbs, but otherwise be healthy ie lots of veggies. Plus fruit, often including banana. Often would have a magnum as treat esp on non work day (ie instead of boost). So looking at it objectively probably was overeating by around 750 calories a day. If I go back to that I will put it all on, worked out in around 9-10 months time on the basis that an excess of 3,500 calories is one pound.

wow - that would be putting it all back quickly. But really, when you think about it - thats not really 'overeating' or what people automatically think you are eating if you are overweight. Most often the assumption is you are gorging yourself on takeaways and crisps and chocs all day.

before i was eating:
Innocent smoothie
Sandwich or roll. Fruit or cake maybe once or twice a week.
Main meal, healthy home cooked things, but the portion sizes, dear god. HUGE!! Especially now i know what 100 cals of pasta looks like, no word of a lie i was proabably eating 700 cals of just pasta, before you add anything else to it.
THEN - more often that not a bag of sharing chocolates in the evening, probably 4 times a week.

Im sure ive seen on that 'supersize v superskinny' that some REALLY thin people have just as appaling diets as the really large ones. They are just eating smaller amounts of crap. That imo is just as bad - same as your skinny sil.

I've just had the most cunning plan in the world EVER. I made cookies with dd just now and I replaced the caramel chunks with chopped walnuts (similar cals but I feel better about them........and I had walnuts, not caramel chunks in the cupnoard) and made each biscuit half the size it should be - each biscuit is now only 90 cals! (which is actually rounded up quite a bit to cover any slightly larger biscuits that may have crept in - I'm not anal enough to weigh each ball of dough)

Morning everyone! :)

I've am busy printing off yet more recipes, this time from skinnytaste.com. The more variety the better, i say!

It really doesn't take much to put on weight does it. I just worked out my calories for yesterday and i have gone about 500 calories OVER my daily allowance! Bummers!! I am aiming to do much better today, although if DP comes home with wine i'm afraid I am going to indulge. Feeling a bit down in the dumps this week and have been having a bit of a eat crap-fest so a nice bottle of wine is just what i need. I shouldn't, i know, but i dont care today lol.

Gilbonzo - that is indeed a brilliant cunning plan! My own cunning plan is when i am making no-sugar banana bread, i replace the raisins with dried unsweetened strawberries! Yummy!! :o

Sorry you're feeling down RG. It's so hard to stick to a diet when you're feeling crap and food/wine is a comfort. I'm lucky that I don't like wine (why do I live in France???) but chocolate is my lovely big hug when I'm feeling shit. I hope you feel brighter over the weekend.

Where do you get the dried strawberries from?

Thanx Gilbonzo :) No idea why i'm feeling fed up. Probably due to being skint. Hate being so broke - we haven't been this skint for a long long time! Ah well, hopefully this month will be much better. Must kerb our spending!

I have no idea why you live in France if you dont like wine!!! That's just crazy!

I get the dried strawbs just from Asda. I cant remember who "makes" them but they do a range of dried natural fruits like cranberries, apples, strawberries etc. In my local asda, they are situated at the end of one of the fruit aisles, near the pre-packed kids fruit stuff.

urgh - my own cunning plan is to put so much salsa on your salad that in becomes uneatable and with no other lunch and no where to go to get anything else, ive just saved myself 250 cals.

I am going to be STARVING by about 2pm.

gibs - good plan. you get to eat one without feeling too bad and it ruining all your good work :)

RG - sorry you are feeling bad.

kudos to all of you baking and things while dieting. i couldnt do it and have totally avoided doing anything like that at all. Id end up eating it for sure.

I managed to train myself while I was waiting to have my gall bladder out. I couldn't eat anything like cake or biscuits without wanting to die from pain so now I don't even get an urge to lick the bowl or the spoon. I dunk it straight into hot water or if I'm feeling very nice I'll let the kids fight over it.

You must be gutted about your lunch. I wish I could run over and drop a sandwich off to you!

red yes I also love supersize superskinny, I agree SIL's diet not good, in some ways would be easier for her to make changes as she is a healthy weight (same as me but 5 foot 7) so BMI in healthy zone (just) - I think though less incentive for her to do so as she looks fine.

Just get annoyed as MIL keeps on saying I am getting too thin (she'd never say this to SIL (her daughter) - I then point out that I weigh the same as SIL, I am 3 inches shorter AND I eat 3 healthy meals a day and do regular exercise.....

Am I allowed to add housework and stuff like that now I'm sedentary?

I made chocolate chip cookies last night. Made them small (10g each) did eat a couple but added them to MFP. Hopefully will not eat more!

I dont see why not, Gilbonzo!!

Did anyone watch Supersize v Superskinny this week with the bloke who was eating about 12,000 calories a day?!! My god his portion sizes were HUUUUUGE!!! I could not believe what he was eating! Makes my portion sizes look like bird food!!

gibs - i dont. i only add it if its made me sweat. like cleaning all the windows last weekend. or cutting the grass or something. General housework i dont. But then again, im not eating my exercise cals anyway - so i have no idea why i actually log it at all!

could you still actually eat when you were waiting for your gall bladder to be out? i couldnt eat anything solid, soon as i did id have an attack. it was awful. Unfortunatley i couldnt train myself never to eat again!! lol

I am gutted about my lunch and starving, only had a really small breakfast 150cals and no snacks or anything, but i cant eat it, its vile. Ive picked out the turkey and had that - so about 120 cals. less than 300 ive eaten today and im not going to get the chance to eat anything until about 8pm tonight. gah!

Forever -your mil sounds crazy! lol. I love that programme, even if that doc chris is annoying. But at the end its always the larger people that have made more progress and lost a lot and then the skinny one has gained about 3lbs in 3 months or something equally rubbish. I think you must be right about the incentive to do something about it.

rg - yes. like 4 plates of food. shocking!!!!!
i can understand how its easy for portion sizes to go up and all, but my god, how could he thought that amount of food was ok?

< am going on a hunt to see if i can find anything in the work cupboards downstairs>

ooh. i found one, slightly stale custard cream.

:(

red - can you have a latte to get you through the day?

re: supersize programme he was eating 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day, (ie a weeks worth of skinny bloke's food) how he thought that was ok I don't know as his wife was not fat. 4 plates of food for dinner plus meal sized snacks between meals.

My MIL isn't crazy just in her eyes SIL must be perfect in every day IYSWIM.

gil yes sedentary assumes you are doing no exercise. Personally I don't add anything other than gym or shred calories, not even walks to school or station etc. It all depends on how fast you want your weight loss I guess. I had a full on gym workout - added the numbers from the machines, around 900, no way will I eat that!

latte?
I dont drink coffee ( caffiene does horrible things to me) and in any case i cant actually go anywhere. I work rurally, so the nearest thing is like 15 mins walk away and im the only person in the office today, so cant leave.

on the plus side i was going to have omlett for dinner, so makes for a grand total of something like 600 cals for the say. Which should mean some weight loss huh, even if im fricking hungry.

note to self - dont buy salsa for a few weeks.
!!!

And then that bloke would nick the food from his CHILDREN'S plates!!! Totally shocking! He admitted that he would just eat and eat and eat and never feels full. Doesn't that sound like Prada Willy Syndrome?!!

red In my office there is milk in the fridge and when desparate (didn't bring lunch and pouring outside) made latte (hot milk with coffee) in microwave. If there was no coffee or microwave I'd resort to drinking the milk cold (although can see small offices might not have that). Can't stand coffee with water, and caffiene also affects me but they have decaf too. But I work in west end, only 10 mins from John Lewis oxford street and near numerous shops all selling food that would be diet friendly eg slimmers meal deal lunch in boots - I do try to bring in lunch as its expensive to buy but don't mind being caught out as there is a sainsbury only 5 mins away.

Def eat more for dinner!

redder I could eat before the op as long as it was healthy and non-carby. After the op I couldn't eat anything. For 3 weeks I lived off cabbage and broccoli. If I ate anything else I felt like my insides were being shredded - it was excruciating and I'd just lie and cry because nothing else would help. I lost nearly a stone but after 3 weeks it suddenly stopped. I tried eating a small piece of bread and I was fine so BAM, shit loads of crap was consumed - duh!

After I posted about the housework I wondered why as I haven't been using my exercise points, even since going 'sedentary'. I keep them as an overflow so if something takes me over my daily allowance by 30 cals or so then it doesn't matter. The housework I did today was window cleaning and a massive toy sort out so it was more than a normal day but I didn't sweat. I just like to log stuff because it makes me feel good! I haven't been losing on the scales but my fitness levels and measurements are getting better and better so I'm clinging to the exercise side of things.

I have just realised how much this particular thread motivates me! It is most pleasing and I am hoping I don't lose it when I return from holiday - I think when we get a bit further on we should try and have a meet up. Early days yet but perhaps when Gilbonzo is back on GB soil it might work...............

Anyway will be off MFP I think for the week so don't think I am losing motivation, if anything at the moment I am more motivated as people have started noticing my weightloss and that is soooooooooo nice AND I don't want to put it back on on my holiday!

figgy - id be up for that - to show off our new and improved slim line figures! lol

fab that people have started to notice :) and have a lovely lovely hol.

no one bar my mother has said anything at all :(

ha - thats so weird gibs - because i was the other way round, eating after was fine.. so i ate. everything!!!! You are doing amazing on the weight loss front.

forever - i work for a charity and there are only 3 of us based in the office, there is never much milk and currently there is 1/4 pint which has been there since i dont know when.. not going to chance it!! lol
i hate the taste of coffee anyway - im one of those weird people that only drinks water ( and booze!)

AND im now going to pizza express for dinner tomorrow - so much for no cheat meal this week. have had a quick look at the menu and they are doing pizzas with the middle cut out and salad in its place - for under 500 cals, so ill stick with that. Has anyone had one? are they good?

I went to Pizza Express a while ago (before MFP) before they had the 'healthy' menu and I had the Padana - goat cheese, caramalised onions and spinach. I think the whole pizza is just over 700 cals and tastes delicious without all the fat of a cheddar pizza. My mum's had one of the salad/pizzas and she seemed to enjoy it. I'm very because I love their pizzas and now I want one and I'm not going back to the uk til September .

The meet-up idea sounds great - we could all go to Pizza Express