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?

red i think Gil is right, if you haven't said you are on diet, people are scared to comment because it might be taken the wrong way.

goddess oh dear. but at least good to see what you are eating....

Are you counting time spent walking. The time I spend walking just doing housework and picking up DS1 adds up to atleast 400 cals/day which is around 10000 steps on aveage.

geeklove - we have previously discussed this - if you enter sedentary then ok to add these. If you entered that you were active then MFP has already given these calories as part of increased allowance.

www.csgnetwork.com/bodyfatcalc.html

I just did this and it was very accurate for me, both at current weight and also on previous weights (I know body fat%, weight and waist measurements as did all three monthly). Just shows that waist measurement really is the most important.

we are moving office today - i have already been up and down 3 flights of stairs about 150 times lugging heavy files and furniture. ive got another 4 hours to go of this. cal burn is going to be huge! But ive no clue what to log it as.

Red - Yeah i kinda knew that everything on my menu wasn't so great lol. I think it'll only be a matter of time before i gradually fall back into the low carb way of thinking. I did it before (and lost 1.5 stone in a few weeks) so i know i can do it again. I dont think i'm going to be going as extreme as Atkins as it all gets soooo technical and restrictive, which is probably why a lot of people fail and end up going back on the carbs big time, just like i did!

Where are you going camping? (sorry if you've already said and i've missed it!) and what are smores?!

GGGRRR @ your work colleague too, red. I hate it when people who obviously dont need to lose weight are all like "oh i lost a zillion pounds this week". Bugger off! There is a girl here who has recently joined Slimming World. She must weigh about 8 stone something and is very thin as it is! She went to Oz last year travelling and put on a stone and everyone said she looked so much better for it but no, she is now losing weight (she lost the stone already after she got back from Oz). If she tried to join WW she would have got turned down because she is too thin, would you believe!

It is true tho that if you are still wearing your bigger clothes, people probably wont notice and in fact they will make you look bigger than you actually are! I had the same thing happen to me when i lost 7.5 stone years ago. It wasn't until i was walking around in a suit that was literally hanging off me (the suit was a size 24 but i was probably a size 14 and still wearing it) that someone actually noticed and commented on it!

Gil - Hope you are having a fab day riding! Pouring with rain here - rubbish! Hope you are having great weather. :)

Any chance of having the recipe for your cereal bars please?? I love eating them in the evening after dinner as a TV snack type thing......

So today so far i have been very good! I am sitting here at work polishing my halo as I type. :o I had some strawberries with a yoghurt poured over it for breakfast (would normally have had weetabix, banana & raisins), some mixed seeds as a snack (would normally have had a bag of cheese and onion hula hoops). For lunch i have got a cooked chicken breast and a pile of salad in the fridge waiting for me too. I am going to pop out to Tescos a bit later and get some more strawbs and other berries for more loveliness! I have to admit i am quite enjoying it so far! I would have had bacon & egg for breakfast this morning but i didn't have time this morning due to it being a working day and i never have time to even have a cup of tea before i leave the house on a work day, let alone cook breakfast!

No gym today or tomorrow, so i deffo need to really watch those calories. Today and tomorrow is when i normally falter terribly with the calories because work is sooooo boring.... ZZZZzzzzzz...........

30 fucking kilometers baby! THIRTY!!! 30km with a nearly 3 yr old sat on the back and the added hindrance of my coat being caught between the wheel and the brake so in effect riding with the brake on (I didn't notice this til we got back to the car - duh!)

Wooohooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done Gil!! Fan-bloody-tastic!!! :o :o

and that was after doing my normal 5km this morning.

My butt hurts.

Wow, well done! You should be able to bounce coins off that bum in no time!!

Oh and get me. I've had breakfast, lunch AND snacks and i STILL have over 1,100 calories left!! I am LOVING eating this way!! WARNING! : I think we are having pizza for dinner tonight......

RG - I have found that the reason I have maintained my "diet" for so long is that I don't find it too restrictive. I have no interest in being in a atkins style ketosis diet - I tried and its too restrictive and you can't really have a meal off at weekend as then you come out of ketosis.

My treat if I am within my calories is 50g of cherry garcia frozen yoghurt, only 75 cals. Also I have bought some small hand weights for shred (2kg, 4kg and a 12kg kettlebell) and now I lift them while watching TV instead of eating!

Don't really understand thin people joining slimming world, why would you pay that money etc when you could just eat heathily by yourself. And I know no one at work is really interested in each pound I loose (although I did post on facebook when I hit 50lbs coz that is what DD age 7 weighs!). I am still loosing a lb a week so am going to have to eat more!

Forever - I think if it's too restrictive it is bound to fail isn't it! Good idea re the hand weights for watching TV. I do have a set of dumbells upstairs in DS's bedroom that i could use but i think with the amount of weights i do during the week (4 or 5 x body pump), i really dont want to be lifting any more! :o

I think posting a 50lb loss is DEFFO worthy of a Facebook brag!! :o

RG You do stacks of weights in the week, I haven't been doing any really, can't imagine what I'd look like with 5 bodypump sessions! After triathlon am going to do bodypump at least once a week, used to go and really liked what it did to my body shape - there is one on Friday at 10am, only prob is that car park is a nightmare at 10am, will have to get there for 9am and do cardio (spin!)first!

I don't really miss the carbs now, funny isn't it!

Spin! Ugh! The stuff that nightmares are made of! I tried it once about 20 years ago and didn't like it and then tried it twice more a couple of months ago and yup, i still didn't like it! However, i feel so unfit when i am biking that i am seriously thinking about giving it another go again so that i can bike a bit easier when i'm out and about.....

RG spin is great for improving your outdoor biking experience. Speak to the instructor and tell her you need to leave after 30 mins. I think you do so much body pump as its in your comfort zone, but actually would probably be better weight loss wise to do 2 body pump and week and do some cardio the rest of the time. If you go to the gym 4-5 times a week you should be seriously fit. Can you run?

I have done triathlon training in 3 trips a week and I am fit. I do the weights at home (shred and kettlebell).

rg - sounds like you have had a perfect days eating really. well done :) and i cant believe you went down to a size 14 before anyone said anything, thats shocking.

and gibs - bloody amazing!

im impressed, and mildly jealous that you all get to go to all these classes. id love to do spinning - or even swimming once a week.

smores are typically a toasted marshmallow, bit of chocolatem sandwhiched between two granham crackers. We are cheating a bit and using chocolate covered rich tea! lol But they will be lovely. I will attempt at only eating them one night but with a few glasses or wine. or rum. or aspalls... yeah - unlikely!

Still. Life happens :) and this is long term, not a race so, its ok.

forever - i think with skinny people joining slimming world and this, is actually sometimes, though they are skinny, they dont eat healthy at all and can often have a far worse diet ( as shown in super size super skinny) just because someone is thin, doesnt automatically make them healthy - ive known plently of thin people who do no exercise, smoke and eat crap. Even though im fatter ive never eaten crap and i dont smoke and ive been taking regular exercise for over 10 years.

I know what you mean redder, I read about all these classes and get a bit . I'd love to have someone telling me how I'm doing or how to improve an exercise or just being away from everyday life and totally focusing - mind you, Davina's trainers keep telling me I'm doing well and my lovely American psycho gym nut/trainer tells me I'm doing a good job even when I've collapsed on the floor or answered the phone. She's very encouraging!

red firstly your facebook friend invite went wrong somehow, so please resent not ignoring on purposes.

I know thin people can have bad diets, my SIL is one of them, she weighs the same as me even though she is 3 inches taller - so her BMI is less than 20. She hardly eats and is BFing her 21 month old DS during the night (she works full time in stressful job) - and I know when she does eat often crisps, chocolate and cereal. But she does have a tummy, actually looks 5 months pregnant all the time, stick thin everywhere else. She was moaning about it on holiday and I said, stop eating sugar and refined carbs and eat some healthy food!!!

BUT I don't think they need to go to slimming world. Surely the point is the weigh in and the motivation to loose weight - and such a thin person going would be very demotivating to all the larger people there? But I've never been to a slimming club so maybe the diet advice is useful to them.

re: gym, although I have access to all those classes I hardly ever go to them, prefer to do my own thing in the gym at a time that suits me. Also, IME I can get a better workout on my own than in the class, my only exceptions are body pump for weights and circuit or spin for cardio. And actually at this time of year the best workout is running outside - just I need childcare in the gym for my DS2.

Can you not swim once a week?

i dont know, i know a fair few ' thin' people that go, seems because they are thin and havent ever dieted, or eaten well that they seem to know less about eating healthy. Does that make any sense at all. Also clubs like that arent just full of really really fat people,. there tends to be a real mix. each to their own, i dont go, never have, tis not for me! lol

Nope- i cant. would go every day if i could. But im a working lone parent and i just dont get the time, or cant get a sitter. Family all work and dont want to come out in the evening, and i cant afford to pay a babysitting service.
Id i took Dd with me i wouldnt get to swim, and i couldnt take her and leave her in a creche, shes 5 and would not be impressed. Plus she would want to come ( she has lessons once a week) Im a good swimmer too. Can do 2 miles in 1hr 25 :)

red yes can see that being lone working parent is hard. Can you not swim whilst she has her lessons? Or go with a friend who also has a child similar age and take it in turns? But yes other exercise you can do at home in evening which is easier.

(My DC have lessons on Friday pm after school, I go with a friend. I look after her DS2 and my DS1 whilst she swims (and my DD, her DD and her DS1 have their lessons) then she looks after my DD (and her DD and her DS1) whilst I swim, and my DS1 and her DS2 have their lessons. We each get 30 mins swim, kids all get 30 mins lesson and 30 mins in pool.)

I have never been to a slimming club. Actually I went once and then thought why should I pay WW £4 a week to loose weight when I can do it myself for free.

no - her lessons are in a small private pool, 30 mins. I cant swim there and there isnt enough time for me to get to another pool, swim and get back.

Going with a friend wouldnt really work - i only know a few people here ( not been in the area that long) and it would be a 'play with the kids swim' not a swim swim iyswim.

Ive been once to one - next door neightbour dragged me along when she was loosing weight. She LOVED it - i think it was just as much the social side of it, and they all became friends, and swapping of new foods and recipies and talking about it all - kind of like this topic, but just in person.

But im not paying for that either... and wouldnt be able to find time time/lack of childcare issue.

At home exercise isnt quite as fun really but will have to do. Though im not even doing that at the momment.

just wanted to say have fab weekends. The weather forcast is crap and the car is crammed to the hilt - :)

cant wait!
lol

Have a great time red and have a smore for me

HAve a fab time Red!

Will catch up on the rest of the thread at home. Actually had work to do today, would you believe!!

That is shocking!