MFP to lose weight - Part 2

[Emz449]

Thought i'd get the next thread started as we have reached capacity on the other one :O

Thanks guys for your supportive words.

I have been busy this afternoon with nursery pick ups and pushing swings in the park. So no time to dwell on my hunger or perceived hunger, whichever it is it sucks!

bath it's good to know someone else understands the food = love dynamic, stretching back into childhood. And yep, my mum was the same about me refusing food till the day she died (love ya, mum!). She couldn't help it, the big calorific meals she cooked where her way of practically showing she loved me. And I got the message, I felt very loved, and I loved food . . . Hard to separate now!

emz I was thinking about you earlier and how long you have been dieting, successfully. I really need to buckle down and slay this demon!

imust it is good to know that eventually the 1200 will feel more normal. I just need to persevere. And I often think of your mantra, "if I want to be a slim person, I need to eat like a thin person". I do find it helpful.

On a positive note, I popped into the local shop (no food in the house) and all I wanted was a massive bar of galaxy. But I fought the good fight and won! I came home with mash direct broccoli and cheese and mash direct turnip which I am sitting looking at on my plate. It looks pretty big and is only 336 cals all in, bringing me unbelievably in under cals today.

Thanks guys for your support

Irishe I haven't quite conquered the demons yet, I often find myself going in loops with the weight loss journey, good 5/6 days a week and then one meal out/day off would land me back where i was at the start of the week. Press repeat. I have to say as much as i love and miss my boyfriend it is easier with him not being here. I think when we live together again i'll have to be a lot stricter with myself so i don't end up where i was back in january. It's not his fault i got so big, but i'm greedy and when he's eating all the food i shouldn't it can be hard to say no! It also makes the weekly shop difficult!

Kettle bells again tonight, quite shattered and i did the express section! I think my legs are going to be in bits in the morning but i'm going to try and do the full version tomorrow evening to combat the weekend activities.

I won't go into too much detail about lunch today but it wasn't on plan and cake was involved it was great It did mean though that I was too full to eat this evening so I had some chicken before i exercised!

I'm finishing under 1200 today but none of it v healthy! breakfast was an under 100 cal chewy chocolate Special K bar (and coffee with milk and sugar) about 250cals, missed morning snack, lunch was anchovies (99) with broccoli (70) and green beans (90) and parsley (?), afternoon snack was a microwaved quest bar (DP's protein things, this one has huge chunks of chocolate in) for 180 cals and dinner was McDonald's grilled chicken salad wrap with a grilled chicken salad bowl no dressing no bacon (455 together) and night snack will be a yoghurt of around 120

That resonates with me. I still feel hungry after my MFP calories - even if I also dip into my "exercise calories". I am hopeful that it could eventually feel normal. But so many years of bad habits, eating until I am stuffed - it's difficult to change that. I think I actually quite like the feeling of overeating.

Sometimes though it feels easier to stick to MFP, and it can actually feel ok to be hungry and TOM is definitely not one of those times. So hopefully irishe, it's not so much the end of the honeymoon but just a bit of a bad patch??

I don't think I could do 1200 or under day after day after day though so kudos to those who do!

psycho speaking of unhealthy food but under calories. I had 1/2 a pizza express Sloppy Giuseppe for dinner which was only 314 calories .

I'm making a note of that! Thanks! Love pizza express.

I don't think ever eaten less than a full pizza in my life though

I know right. The other half is sitting on the worktop waiting for DH and I could definitely polish it off.

emz a lot of women seem to put on weight when they start living with partner. Of course there could be lots of reasons for this, feeling of being comfortable (too comfortable!), not on the dating scene etc. I am guessing the main one is probably, that men need more calories than women, but often when cooking/eating as a couple, the food will get split evenly. Not good for the females!

majestic, I get what you are saying. My dinner was a good size tonight (check out my way of saying, it was big!). And after I had eaten it, I remarked to my DH, that I felt full for the first time in weeks. I liked the feeling.

Hmmm, brings me back to the thoughts of a couple of days ago, how to embrace hunger? Not that I really want to, but just as a survival mechanism until my appetite reduces or realigns.

I am picking up lots of tips from this thread though guys. The things you say to yourselves when struggling, the positive self talk, to drop into NLP lingo!

I will leave you with this famous Star Wars quite from Yoda
"Do. Or do not. There is no try"

I am NOT trying to diet, I am DOING the bloody thing. That's why it's hard.

Hmmm, that last statement felt quite empowering, like conquering a physical challenge. I need to rethink this, think I am getting somewhere.

Hello everyone, I'm back! Name changed for a while and was too lazy to change back and didn't want to out myself

The last three or four weeks have involved lots of eating at or near maintenance, and some occasions of actually going over.

However!

I have just recently dropped (back) down to at or just above 67 kg, or 10 st 8 lbs, and I have had to retire two pairs of jeans in the last week and a half. Another pair really ought to be retired as well but I like them quite a lot. All three pairs are less than a year old! But never mind, I'd rather be slim than get more use out of some stupid pairs of jeans.

I've gone down two jeans (waist) sizes in H&M and Esprit, and bought two new H&M hoodies (love them) in a size S, rather than the M of the ones I already had.

You can really see the difference on me now - I've lost 7.4 kg and somehow the difference between ~6.3 kg and this has been huge. I think it's just because I could get away with the baggier old jeans until now, and now that I have well-fitting ones it shows just how much slimmer my legs are in particular.

emz a lot of women seem to put on weight when they start living with partner. Of course there could be lots of reasons for this, feeling of being comfortable (too comfortable!), not on the dating scene etc. I am guessing the main one is probably, that men need more calories than women, but often when cooking/eating as a couple, the food will get split evenly. Not good for the females!

Just noticed this. This is absolutely the reason I have ballooned the last three years. The food getting split evenly, along with DP's terrible willpower when it comes to going for seconds (tried to keep costs and time wastage down by batch cooking), and the temptation to make a lot of pasta rather than other things when you're cooking for two and want to do it in a hassle-free way. Pasta is so, so easy. And so, so deadly!

Morning all, no loss here today, in fact a 0.25lb gain, but I had a bigger dinner and a couple of evening snacks, so that will be why. Running again this morning and a busy day ahead so might see a small loss again tomorrow. Getting so close to the 10's! For those struggling with not feeling full, there are two factors here I think: one is not giving yourself time to feel full - you rush through your dinner and your stomach sense don't catch up, so you're still stuffing and then suddenly you feel bloated and uncomfortable. If you deliberately eat slower, take more time to notice and savour what you're eating, and talk more to the people you're eating with during the meal, (I.e. Eat like an Italian) you will give your stomach time to catch up. Second, there's some big learning about nutrition and what combinations of protein and carbs work best for you. Oh baby crying, coming back on that last one!

It's taken me a while to learn that a slightly higher than recommended dose of protein, slightly smaller than recommended dose of carbs and a little bit of fat gives me a meal that keeps me really full, gives me plenty of energy and keeps my blood sugar fairly level. So for instance this morning, it's omelette with a little chorizo, some chilli (boosts your metabolism), plenty of mushrooms and two eggs. Most breakfasts like toast and cereals are very carb heavy and don't work half so well. If I'm dishing up dinner and we're having pasta, I have the same amount of meat sauce as my husband, but he has 75g pasta and I have 50-60. To a degree it's also about the comfort of food - a hot omelette on a cold morning like today is much more likely to get me feeling ready to go than a cold bowl of cornflakes!

Welcome back Smillas!

No loss here in fact a gain of a lb so 11 stone 1, and I'm really hacked off and fed up really! It could be down to a number of things, not so great food yesterday, Tom bloating, kettlebell training who knows! Pfft

Friday for everyone. It's a bright but brrrrrrrr day here today. I need to do a short run, seriously woefully underprepared for my race this weekend AND I have the crappiest cold of my life. At least the scales are in a good mood this morning: 145.6

Just checked when my scales went down last and it was 3 weeks ago today! The scales have gone up by 2lbs since then despite my diet not being any different. Sorry to bang on about it, I know it's boring but I was close to tears this morning. The goal I set for my holiday just seems further and further away

Morning! 11st 4 here, so a lb loss for the week but it was dipping towards 11st 3 so might see another lb off tomorrow if im good today. Am making oreo fudge with ds in a bit though ...will try and save my share for tomorrow, my diet day off. I have bought some spicy pumpkin soup to take to work though because we have Strictly and a takeaway curry planned for tomorrow night!

I can't remember all the posts because im old but welcome to woah and good luck with your recovery and weightloss. I only have my greedy self to blame for being too heavy. And welcome back bath glad your weigh in yielded better results than expected. I love when that happens!

I don't think ive ever eaten half a pizza either! Unless it was paired with chips... im and all or nothing person so i don't buy them unless it's a planned fall from grace. I work better with individually packed things like weight watchers biscuits and tiny packets of crisps

Emz i can understand your frustration but don't give up - put it in the f**k it bucket and carry on...you're experiencing a plateau but the scales will start moving in the right direction

Emz please don't apologise, it must be very difficult to keep going without success showing on the scales. Do you have any other ways of tracking progress or other achievements? Number of fitness classes attended? Daily step count? Body measurements - fat percentage or inches? My friend gained a kilo but dropped from a tight 14 to a comfortable ten with weight lifting over just a few months!

Do you have to adjust your calories/activity once you've lost a fair bit of weight?

Obviously it's easy for me to say this but I think I'd be tempted to have a break from the scales and switch my focus instead to other challenges, eg you seem good at coming up with filling meals that are low calorie, could you blog about those and devise some more? Please! Set fitness goals to take your exercise to another level such as heavier weights or faster or longer runs, join a new class you've never tried before. Don't weigh yourself for a few weeks but keep tracking your calories and assuming you are eating at a deficit it WILL come off. There are lots of ways of telling whether you've gained or lost weight, the fit of your clothes is probably the best!

Most importantly please be proud of what you've achieved so far! Do you have old clothes or photos you can use to compare your new shape to back then? Maybe your body just wants a moment to reflect on how far it's come already before the next big drop!

psycho makes some really good points. I sometimes despair when the weight is stuck or coming off slow...and definitely when I gain but looking at photos when i was nearly 14 stone after after having the children and several years following and even in January when I was 12st 13, I look so much better and get lots of compliments. I still have a way to go but it spurs me on. Im not mistaken, emz, youre a size 10? I know it's mostly how you feel about yourself but that sounds amazing! Im a 14...some are loose, some 16s fit better, depending on fit etc. I really want to buy a 12...and 10 always seems unobtainable for me but who knows

Thank you both

Unfortunately I didn't take any measurements when I first started, very silly really! I should have done. I am a size 10 which is brilliant and I'm so happy at how far I have come.

I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't have dropped to 1200 so soon and gradually lowered it if my weight loss was stalling. I wouldn't really like to go lower than 1200, think it would start feeling very hungry!

We're off out for lunch today too so I think instead of worrying about what I'm having I'm iust going to enjoy it and then probably won't have dinner later!

It's funny you say that about my meals Psycho, while they are nice they aren't very varied! I find because I make food for one now if I make say 4 portions of something it's what I'm going to be eating for the next 4 days

Tomorrow obviously isn't going to be great diet wise but I've decided I'm going to enjoy it and then crack on with MFP on Monday and change up my meals a little bit.

Thanks for your support

I'm down to 9st 10 today. Goal for end of October was 9st 9, so looking good.

I would not be unhappy to stop at 9 1/2 but still quite flabby and body fat still quite high. So I think I would not aim to lose any more if I hit 9 1/2 but try to work on body fat percentage. Maybe by lower dietary fat and weight training.

What do others think? How do you decide on your target weight or ideal weight?

I originally wanted to get back to my normal adult weight which is around 9st 3, makes me 8-10 size and just looks so much better. All my extra weight is on my middle making me appear fatter than I am! I'm bulging out of a size 12 and while I'm tall I simply don't have the build to carry it off. If I get to a point where my clothes fit well again I won't care what the scales tell me. They are a very blunt instrument I think!!!