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

Bea, my husband is like that. He is always scoffing crisps, complains if there are no biscuits in the house, and always wants cakes at the weekend. But he is super fit and trains several times a week so he can get away with it. The rest of the family can't to be honest. I am really slapdash at the weekends so I need to work on this too, and try and not let my weekday discipline make me feel entitled to treats at the weekend.

I am so hungry I just scooped some crumbs off the table I am sitting at and ate them. Can anyone relate?

Yes totally Majestic! Bea I eat like a horse too, I don't know how I will ever whittle myself down or keep to a restricted intake for any length of time and I do nothing like that volume of training, although it is picking up next month when our cross country season begins.

Thanks Jonty! You've demystified the process! I'll make time at the weekend to get Tupperware and try my hand at soup making. Tonight will be a higgidy quiche thing I think. Hopefully I will be sort of within my allowance.

I've decided to work on a weight range basis given how much I fluctuate, so currently I'm anything from 148 to 145, but mfp doesn't seem to offer that, it's all very absolute. I want a weight tracking thing that understands how much it varies day by day! Does anyone know of one? Obviously if I'm ever truly losing weight that upper number will move down but at the moment it looks like I'm gaining and losing the same two or three pounds when that's probably just completely normal variation?

Do 1 litre sandwich tubs hold a portion of soup? Checking out what's available in Tesco and trying to guess by staring at all the different shapes and sizes of container!

Yep. Small square ones do too

Thanks! My friend insists 0.5 litre freezer bags will do the job equally well too but I foresee a terrible mess in the kitchen

I always freeze soup in freezer bags. If you put the bag inside a jug and then fold the top over the rim of the jug all the way around, you can ladle it in very easily. If that makes sense!

That is genius!

Welcome Bea Think i missed that earlier

I have been ridiculous today. RIDICULOUS. I am so annoyed with myself for sabotaging what i'm doing to my weight loss and how it's making me feel. It's only one day but it's not just about today, it's how i've been feeling since the scales haven't moved, especially in the last week. I feel like just throwing the towel in and sodding the whole thing. I'd say i'm probably at about 2000 cals for the day

It's so frustrating, seeing the scales not move in the morning just sets me up for a crappy day and puts me in a bad mood, i walk the 40 minute walk to work absolutely stewing at my weight not going down and why it isn't going down. It's driving me insane! I could stop weighing myself daily but i don't even think that would make a difference as if i weighed weekly i still wouldn't have a loss!

I last had a loss 26 days ago and then i was 2lbs lighter then what i am now with my weight having gone up despite no diet change. I'm sorry to moan and probably bring the mood down but i can't talk about this to my friends, they tell me to stop being stupid and about the weight i've lost so far but i still feel like i'm a million miles away from my goal. I feel i've wasted almost a month with my weight not changing despite keeping to my calorie allowance 99% of the time.

I don't really know what the solution is now, whether i should lower my calories further to under 1200 or to eat more and risk gaining weight!

Again, apologies for bleating on, the rest of you are doing amazingly

And! I really miss my boyfriend today , the combination of stressful work, tiredness and my weight has really made me miss him and I would really just like a hug from him

Have a virtual hug from me it must be so frustrating.

If you had 2000 today and 1200 for six days before that it's still only 1300ish a day, a very low amount. I'd worry that lowering it further would provoke further bouts of reactive overeating? It sounds difficult to sustain if you are exercising regularly whereas a slightly smaller deficit might get you there sooner?

Thanks Psycho, I'm just feeling quite sorry for myself. Maybe the scales will go up tomorrow and slap me back into action!

Emz that sounds so frustrating. I am a former daily weigher and I went cold turkey when I started using MFP as I knew it was no good for my mindset. Don't lower your calories to below 1200 because then you definitely won't lose as you won't be getting enough food in.

What are you eating on a normal day? From past experience I've found that eating bread really stalls my weight loss, and I've read dairy does the same for others. Do you think it would be worth cutting some carbs out of your diet and seeing if it helps? Sorry if this is rubbish advice as I'm just going from what's helped me in the past

Emz it's so frustrating for you, I would feel the same...already do some days...but don't go lower than 1200 long term. As others have suggested before, maybe mix it up a bit to keep your body guessing? 1200 daily is 8400 a week according to my maths so go 1000 one day, 1400 the next, different amounts each day but keeping to the weekly target. This may be complete rubbish but it might get things moving. Excuse the personal question but are you going to the toilet as normal?

Welcome, Bea! It's a great source of support and advice here. In answer to the weekend question, I have Saturday 'off' and stick to 1200 the other days. I don't go completely crazy, most Saturdays anyway, but might have a takeaway, glass of wine etc. It will slow my weight loss down but I have lost 24 lbs Jan-May doing it that way, and almost got back to where I was and for me it's sustainable in the long term.

Hi everyone! Just finishing work so shooting off home for the Apprentice

Ahh, Emz. You poor love. A and your way. Not surprised you are so disheartened, after being SO good for SO long, and still no movement on the scales. Don't go under 1200 cals. And sod today and the calorie spike. You needed that. You have a busy & demanding job and BF (Boy Friend, Best Friend) miles and miles away. You moan away. You have always been so up beat and positive, and so sorry you are having a bad day.

We are all here to listen so moan away. And DO moan away rather than reach for the choccies. We all know how easy it is to reach to food when times are hard / frustrating / lonely / anxious, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

I have no experience of these things, but I'm sure plateaus (how on earth do you spell plural of plateau ??) are quite normal. But that won't make you feel better.

You are amazing Emz. I bet your friends are secretly jealous too of how you have reached deep and got yourself in control. Whether you loose 1 lb or 5 lbs more, your boyfriend won't notice I'm sure. He will just be pleased to see YOU.

btw I'm a very good listener, but crap with advice, as I'm no good with words. But I'm here.

Hi emz so sorry you have had a pants day, in all ways. Well the day is almost over, so lets draw a line under it. It is so so hard to diet over the longer term and beyond difficult when the scales are not responding to your Herculean efforts. Allow yourself this off day, don't beat yourself up, just move on. It's over!

There have been a lot of wise words spoken, I agree with everything bath and others have said, and second psychos calculation that over a week of eating its not as bad as it feels right now.

These plateaus are hellish, no other word for it. 26 days is a long time to be holding the faith with no encouragement from the scales. Our bodies are strange beasts, I dropped a stone without breaking into a sweat last month and now we are halfway thru oct and I have lost a paltry 1lb despite being stricter. So unfair!

We will support you, as your generosity of spirit supports us.

Emz hope you're feeling better today
No loss for me today, but as TOTM arrived yesterday I'm amazed I've lost any this week at all. I succumbed and had wine last night but I think my days activity would have covered it all (couldn't figure out how to calculate exercise calories for scrubbing dog diarrhoea off the kitchen floor, running around at high speed in general and dashing up to London and back for a meeting!).

Hi Emz. Sorry you havent seen a drop and I know how hard it is but 26 days is beyond a joke! Kudos to you for sticking strictly for so long despite the plateau.

Don't beat yourself up about 2000 calories on one day - so long as you don't keep doing it every day it will not make a jot of difference.

Remind me again - what is your goal weight? And how far have you come already? You are already a slim person , you are just on the way to making yourself slimmer. If it takes a bit longer it doesn't matter. You are just eating like the slim person you are.

Um...Emz just throwing this out there as an absolute just in case...there's no chance you're pregnant is there? You've been pretty tired, weight is not going down despite all logical efforts saying it should...I just have a teeny alarm bell saying 'check'. Hope you don't mind me raising it as a possibility xxxx

I just read this article www.fitwatch.com/blog/5-tips-to-avoid-plateaus-and-metabolic-slowdown - thought it was quite interesting. The guy is obviously trying to plug his weight loss program, but there is some useful information in there, particularly towards the end of the article. Might be useful for you Emz and others.

What a great article! I read it thinking 'but I've heard all this before somewhere' and then I scrolled back up and saw it was Tom
Venuto. He is DP's guru, the leader of many natural weight lifters worldwide! I think his approach has influenced me indirectly a lot.

144.8 this morning, lowest reading so far. I still want some kind of app or spreadsheet that will give me an average weight to smooth out all the little peaks and troughs.

Brilliant article, thanks! Back later, ds needs me!

Hi all
I will read that article later. It's half term here so I am running round after children! Not so much time to browse mumsnet, darn!

Well after 2.5/3 weeks with no weight loss I decided to shake things up with some very low cal days.

Mon & tues where 900 odd days and then weds was 578! I didn't plan to go so low, I was just busy and out and about. Also think my throat infection is coming back so have a temp and not much hunger.

Anyway, I have lost 1.4lb since Tuesday. So it has worked, in breaking the plateau. To be honest it wasn't that bad, so I would do it again if I hit a plateau, which I am sure I will!

Back to 1270 from today. Will feel like a feast of calories.

Good luck all

Thank you all so much for your lovely messages, brightened my spirits this morning! I am going to just keep on going and hope for the best, I just needed to air my frustrations yesterday i think. It really is so reassuring to be able to speak to people who are in a similar situation to myself

I'm going to have a read of that article now and hopefully i'll get some tips!

Jonty i really hope i'm not! I'm on the pill and as much i do want children it's not in my plans for the next 3 years or so. I am going to the doctors next week so it might be worth mentioning. I'm wondering if it is maybe hormonal and due taking my pill longer then the 21 days I'm supposed to. It's not something i usually do but i wanted to make sure i wouldn't have TOM while in South America.

My weight is currently 11 stone and i would love to get into the 9 stone bracket, even if it was just by a couple of lbs!

Today was a better day thankfully and i've done some food prep which i feel better about, the next three days should be a lot easier. Maybe the fact that i didn't meal prep this week is to blame for the lapses!