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?

Yes, 3.5st is a massive achievement and I'm even more impressed by that, amazing, you're honestly an inspiration.

On the plus side I've just weighed myself and I'm 4 lbs down, probably down to water loss I know, but bugger it, I'm taking it as a good sign :)

Hi bluesteel - I've just added you now (I'm morningsunrise over there).

Not that this bothers me - but Weightwatchers and the like must have a real struggle to compete against social networking diets these days.

In fact, I can't see why anyone would bother spending money (and time) to go to a slimming club when they can get the diet advice, and crucially the support, online for nothing.

Well done everyone here - I like having the combination of MFP and MN to keep me going. I think I'm approaching goal weight (only wanted to lose a few lbs until my clothes felt more comfortable) - but the real trick will be to keep it off, so I intend resetting the goals to "maintenance" and seeing how it goes - the phone app will be my best friend, especially while on holiday next month.

forever - i think they are both quite an achievement really :) i must say this weeks amazing weight loss was basically down to not eating very much at all. Obviously not something im advocating but i just dont feel much like eating right now. :( im sure ill be fine by the weekend.

Ive got a morning of meetings and then we are all off to prezzos for lunch. Ive looked ahead and will be having something of the lighter choices, but even those are still 650 cals.!!!!!! might not eat all of it.

I feel like ive eaten out quite a lot... and im away this weekend at lego land and windsor ( posh hotel too :) ) this weekend and ive pretty much got something social ( with food) going on every weekend till the end of july. ( did have for all of may too) on the plus side im still losing weight while not having to miss out, so hopefully this might mean i will have learnt how to maintain when i reach my goal. Or, im hoping so anyway.

Thanks sandstorm, I've namechanged on here now to match my MFP username, just trying to confuse you all.... :)

urght. It is SO awkward when you are out eating with people who dont realise you are dieting.
Lunch with 16 work people, several comments were made as to why i was choosing something from thw 'lighter choices' menu. I was the only one doing so. But then they said that i had been eating a lot of salads recently, but still not one person mentioned that i looked like i had lost weight. Honestly, its fucking depressing. Then they started going on about weight watchers and rosemary connely and such like and i just stayed out of the coversation.
I know it shouldnt matter, but id just like the validation of somone noticing. Ive lost 1 stone 9lbs and still noone other than my mother has said anything at all.
It makes me feel like im still really huge.

( which im not, i was wearing a size 12 top today ... im not a size 12, im a 14 now, but still..... SIZE 12!!!)

That's really fucking impressive red! I dream of size 12!

I can't believe they didn't say anything - bastards! You'll just have to think of the day you walk in in a skin tight LBD and the all fall off their chairs

1st9lbs is frikkin amazing in my book

Redderthanred - I bet you find people notice suddenly. Are you wearing the same or baggy clothes?

If so, if you wore something more hugging of your new figure, I guarantee people would notice.

If you have changed your clothes and no-one has noticed, then ignore the above!

red Men are twats aren't they lol.

I guarantee your work mates will suddenly notice how much weight you've lost (which is amazing, btw). Dont be disheartened - it's probably because they see you all the time that they haven't immediately noticed your new slimmer self.

My work mates are pretty much the same. They all go on about WW this, and SW that and "oh i've lost a pound this week" they say but not one of them asks how i'm getting on or notices if i do lose any weight. However, i am hoping that my 6lbs off and unbloated tummy might notice a bit this week....

Eating out is going to be a nightmare in the next few days. My friend is turning 40 soon and is taking us to afternoon tea on Saturday at the Swissotel in London (oh how la-di-dah!). It basically consists of cucumber sandwiches and cream cakes!! Obviously i am going to indulge but at £32 a head (that SHE has paid for!) i would feel awful sitting there raking the cucumber out of the sarnies and just sipping tea!! Will try and opt for damage limitation but i'm not sure how successful it will be. Then there's her birthday lunch on Monday for the gym lot but for this i will definitely be choosing a salad!! On Wednesday one of my friend's friend is putting on a "tea party" at the gym after the classes (!) which will consist of sausage rolls, crisps and goodness knows what else! EEK!! Nightmare!! Thankfully i will have to dash off by 12.30 to take DD to nursery so i hopefully wont do too much damage, mixed in with my willpower of course! :o

Pasque the iphone app is my friend too. I use it so much i'm surprised i haven't worn a hole in my screen where the app is!

Well, both today and yesterday I have had health warnings by MFP after i completed my diary lol. I burnt some serious calories today and with my new eating regime, there's no way i could have eaten all my exercise calories as well as my normal calories. I signed off tonight having consumed just over 1,000 and i only made them up with some oatcakes just now to bump the cals up a bit lol. I still had 1,500 cals to eat according to MFP but they can take a running jump. I never thought i'd be told i'm not eating enough!!

Off to bed now peeps. Have a good night, will be on lots tomorrow no doubt (work tomorrow). Night!

:o

rg- yeah, sounds like it will be a difficult eating time, but a bloody lovely one :) have a great time, sounds fab :) I almost always get that message from MFP - i dont eat exercise cals, so im always under. Your still loving it then? I do eat quite a large volume as well, you should see the size of my lunchtime salads. MASSIVE!!
Had a bit of a carb craving last night and had a slice of toast spread with very very thick nutella. God, it was good. But, amazingly i stopped at one slice and didnt even fancy a second , that has never in my adult life ever happened to me. So - thats big progress and again, hopefully an indicator ill be able to keep the weight off once ive finished loosing it.

Gibs - hows it going with not using MPF?

Im really sorry, but im a little lost with the newer people. Could we have a recap on weight and goal weight?

Ok red - here's a recap:

My username on MFP is busybusybee

I'm short (5ft 3in) and only want to lose a few more lb to get to around 8st 12 ish (I'll know what weight I'm happy with when I get there!)...with the hope of wearing a bikini on holiday next month.

Got on the scales this morning and was 8st 13-and-a-half - but haven't recorded this yet as I scoffed some Belgian chocolates last night and I think that might come back to haunt me... ended the day several hundred calories over.

Once I reach weight goal, which should be soon, the challenge will be to keep it off and try to tone up a bit more.

Ok this is VERY difficult to write down. I'm 5ft 6" and on Monday I weighed in at a shameful 14st 10lbs .

My main long-term aim is to get into the 'healthy' weight category which means I need to get under 11st. Still sounds large but I know I look and feel good at 12st so when I get below 11st I'll feel great. (notice the use of 'when' and not 'if', I am determined!).

meggymegmegs You're the same as me - 5'6'' and 14stsomethingish (it keeps going up and down but always around 14st6lbs-10lbs) It's a shitter but at least we've acknowledged it and are doing something about it.

red things are just as shit. I've gone down in inches but I still haven't lost any weight. At least I've not put more on though. I don't really know what to do , I've not ridden my bike since Saturday to try and see if it's to do with that. Who knows. Very happy for you though

gibs :( that just makes no sense at all. Have you thought about maybe dropping your cals quite low for a few days to see if that makes any impact?

I spoke to my doctor the other day ( while i was in the surgery for something else) about losing weight with pcos.. and she said it can make it very very difficult and sometimes to do so people with pcos need to drop their cals quite a bit more than people would usually need to to lose weight. Im eating about 1000 to 1100 a day ( bar the last few days) and not eating exercise cals back. I told her this and she said that was fine and not at all uncommon. If i ate 1200 plus exercise cals i doubt id lose. Fact is i dont need as many cals as i might think, or even as most people need. To maintain ill propbably be on about 1300.

I dont know, just what my doctor said.

red I always have massive salads. I love salad loads and enjoy nothing better than shovelling it in, completely guilt free! :o Well done on the bread and nutella thing. Yummy! Great progress!

Here's my recap:

Height : 5ft 6ins
Current weight : 17st 2lbs
Goal weight : 11st

Gilbonzo Surely tho if you're losing inches that is the important thing? You are obviously still losing weight, but perhaps gaining muscle mass from all the cycling! Dont be put off, it's quite common to hit a plateau now and then. Some people recommend bumping up your calories for a few days, others will recommend dropping them down, it'll just be trial and error for whatever works for you. :)

When I joined MFP I put 'lightly active' which is appropriate to my day. It gave me 1700 cals so I changed it to 'sedentary' which lowered it to 1500 per day. I didn't eat back exercise cals and I hardly ever went over 1300 but still gained weight. I really can't explain it beyond me being very odd!

This week I'm eating sensibly, having no dairy at all and doing other exercise instead of bike riding to see what difference it makes. I'm also fucking miserable atm so I'm having to try and avoid the chocolate and biscuit tin. Maybe I'll try for weight loss next week.....

awww bless you, Gilbonzo :( Try to stay focussed and to eat as healthy as you can. Sometimes the body gets so used to one exercise it becomes complacent about it and the exercise doesn't work as well. How about trying something else to give your body a bit of a shake up and jolt it back into action? Chin up luv.

I've just done one section of Davina's power of 3, I'm going to have a coffee (black, no sugar - bleurgh!)and watch Neighbours and then do another section and then sit my fat arse down on the sofa for a bit before the school run.

Frikkerty fucketing hell! You'll never guess what I've done???? I've gone and lost a frikkerty fucking kilo!! That's a whole 2.2lb - since Saturday! whoop!

ah. well. :) :) :) :) :) ;)

So- it IS working.

yay - whole lot of weight loss going on this week :)

Well done Gibs. Before your last post I was going to suggest you mew-check portionsizes as they can creep up of you're not weighing everything, making the calorie total wrong.

I'm losing motivation as I am close to weight I want to be.. The rest is vanity tbh. So have just eaten a ffresh fruit tart - the type with custard that you get in France. Yesterday it was a Welsh cake and Belgian chocolates in the evening, so really off the wagon!

Any thoughts on how to keep going? I would really like to be able to sling off my clothes with abandon on holiday next month and wear a bikini with no flabby tum.

woohoo!! Well done Gilbonzo!! :o Tis working after all, non?

Oh ps - i've just eaten a whole small tub of wafer thin ham with my salad (215g) and now i feel quite full! Is it wrong to eat so much in one sitting? I was really hungry when i started lunch (didn't start eating til 2pm) and then i kinda ate it like the Tazmanian Devil, lettuce leaves and ham flying everywhere! I was intending to just have the 70g portion pack i brought with me, but i think i need more protein so i just sort of went to town and had a ham party.

Hmmm, tummy ache here, which has been caused by eating too much protein i think. It happened the other night too when i had two pork steak things (pork chops without the bone and fat) instead of my usual one. Note to self : Dont be a gannet!! A lesson learnt i think! :(