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

That's so encouraging irishe! Well done!

I don't have great ambitions for dramatic or fast loss, I basically want to eat as much as I can get away with while slowly losing around half a pound a week. I thought I had about ten pounds to lose but looks like it's closer to twenty anyway I'm not in a hurry and my plan is maybe a bit more cardio, drink more water and aim for as much protein as possible.

Hello all
Emz sorry to hear the scales are misbehaving
To anyone having a dustbin day - step away from the Haagen Dazs!!!!
I'm on the first of three days away with no access to scales, next weigh in will be Thursday morning when I get to see if I've hit my September goal! I've been really good today, tomorrow have got a meal out, but I'm going to enjoy it and just eat light the rest of the day, Wednesday I can be good breakfast and lunch but DH is cooking when I get home so not sure what that will be. He derailed me with a takeaway Friday night 'as a treat' so I'm hoping Wednesday nights dinner will be home cooked instead (he only knows how to cook healthy recipes I've taught him!)

Thanks psycho. Slow and steady is the way to go for me.

I struggle with getting enough protein being veggie. Really need to make more effort on the protein front. Think I would not be as hungry!

Irishe that is amazing!!! Well done, that's some loss this month. Well so much for big ambitions, if this body is a temple it's of the graffitied/ destroyed type. Damn and damnation, have hit 1500 today and it's not even 7pm, sob/whinge/moan. 20,000 steps in the bank, and my bootcamp but I just wanted to manage 1200 Maybe the truth of the matter it's not enough calories on a super active day? I do not know how I used to do 5:2 cause these days I think I'd chew a limb off! Probably be the only way I'd lose 1.5 stone by Xmas

1200 does sound very low, it's way below my bmr (I'm quite tall though) which I think we are not meant to regularly go below?

Wow irishe that's amazing, well done! you must be very happy, no doubt you'll reach a stone or more for September.

I hope you reach your September goal Jonty, fingers crossed.

Yes i know, was furious this morning but when i think about it it's not the end of the world, i've got 60 days from tomorrow to go until my holiday so hopefully that will be enough to lose a stone which is what i would love. I bloody hope my boyfriend notices! It would be typical of him to not, he claimed not to see any difference when i put on weight

Tonight didn't exactly go to plan, popped to a friends after work and ended up having ravioli with chicken and malteasers reindeers! Tomorrow will be 100%

1200 is the minimum mfp advises, supposedly if I kept to it I'd drop 2lb a week. I wanted to try to keep to it to see if it worked but it's a struggle. I think I didn't eat enough for lunch, so I was too hungry and couldn't avoid temptation. I'll try again tomorrow, closing the kitchen

Good luck for tomorrow then! Maybe I have set mine too high but I'll probably have to give it at least a week or two to know?

Can anyone recommend good reliable scales? My friend has lent me hers (weight watchers ones) but I got readings of anything from 10st 4 up to 10st 12 without even moving them and not even at different times of day, just now!

Thanks emz & not2 I am still happy 8hrs later, good feeling has not worn off. I need to bottle this feeling and try and remember it when I am having one of those weeks were nothing is shifting.

jonty good luck with pushing towards sept goal.

Tbh I don't totally understand where the daily calorie figure comes from on mfp. When I started dieting in jan I was doing diet chef which links up with mfp. Then I ditched diet chef because food was crap for veggies IMHO. But I can still update my weight loss on diet chef site and it then reduces my daily calorie intake on mfp. Not sure how to do it purely through mfp.

Anyone point me to the right section on mfp?

Oh I'm not too sure irishe I would have thought you could unlink them somehow? Maybe on the apps section? Didn't realise you could link diet chef!

It's better to start a bit higher psycho so you can see what calorie allowance works better for you, you don't want to do yourself out of calories!

Also isn't it a bugger Facebook isn't working?! It's the only way I can contact oh

emz hope facebook comes back for you, not good to have your only contact method on the blink

I have just had a good poke around mfp, and I was able to input my new weight via home/settings/update diet/ fitness profile. This has now reduced my daily calories goal to 1280 - gulp!

psycho I think the BMR is the amount of calories needed daily to maintain your current weight (not taking account any exercise). So according to the BMR app on mfp I would need to eat 1827 calories daily to maintain my current weight and 1280 daily to lose my stated goal of 2lbs a week.

Have I got this right, do you all agree with my interpretation ?. Or am I wrong!!

I think bmr is your basal metabolic rate, what your body needs to keep brain and other organs and everything ticking over before you do anything, so if you were to lie in bed all day every day doing nothing that's the energy your body would use?

1827 must be your tdee - total daily energy expenditure?

Hi psycho
I find this very confusing. I got the 1827 figure from the BMR (basal metabolic rate) app on mfp. So I don't think it's TDEE, but I don't know what that is!
Because I live a very sedentary life due to health issues I think the 1827 will be close to a maintenance figure for my current weight. If I ate 1827 calories I definitely wouldn't lose weight.

Maybe it doesn't matter, I should just focus on the positives of losing weight?
I am a nosy mare though and I would quite like to understand this stuff!

Bmr is what you'd need to keep you alive in a coma, tdee is tod daily effort expended. My bmr as measured through by a nutritionist was 1437'ish. I'm just over 5ft 4". Not sure how tall you are irishe but 1800+ is quite a lot and is guess it's your tdee calculated by your activity input, so if you said you were moderately active, that would factor into it. The advice from the 5:2'ers during my time there was to always say sedentary to allow for our/mfps tendency to over estimate calories burned by exercise. And also to calculate the Cals at your goal weight minus maybe 20% for 3 days a week, 500 for 2 days, 1 day @ 100%, then 1 free for all
i really can't do the 500 anymore, but I'm now curious as to how many my goal weight minus 20% would be. I was a tad around 1600 yesterday, that was with an unnecessary glass of wine & crisps/nuts, around 400 Just cause I was sitting out in the last of the sun and then temptation was too much. Today will be better, think 1200 needs a tweak

It is highly confusing! I got them back to front in my mind I think, the resting rate and the tdee. Anyway I like your idea of focussing on the positives of losing weight, mine is mostly vanity but also my weight has crept up very sneakily over the past couple of years so my motivation is imagining that trend continuing over the next few years. It's frightening to picture myself needing bigger and bigger dress sizes

Also I really have no idea what I'm putting in my mouth half the time and things that I thought were fattening like the sugary milky tea I drink all day actually counted for very little according to MFP so I think I'll spend my first week finding out about my own habits. Plus I still don't know how much I weigh and it's my totm

Well that was all very confusing to read on a tuesday morning

Facebook did come back thankfully and he managed to call me which was good, I'm so happy that I get to speak to him daily.

Still 11 stone this morning. Grump. I'm sure it'll come off soon though,'hopefully by Thursday!

Right, after fecking around with mfp for a bit, if I were at my goal weight of 137 pound (I should say dream weight!) my maintenance calories would be 1600. If I want to lose .5 a week eat 1520, lose 1 a week eat 1280, lose 1.5 or 2 a week 1200. Never any lower than 1200. I've changed mine to 1 a week so 1280.
Hardly much of an improvement on 1200 but my problem is more my use of my calories, need to eat more satisfying food.?
Scales down to 12.2 this morning, weekends always seem to take a few days to get over

Haha emz! Yeah you're right, is a bit confusing this early. I followed 5:2 for nearly 2 years and there was lots of chat about bmr/tdee. I guess I'm still a bit obsessed. Great to hear you're back in contact. Working today so that might keep my head out of the fridge! Although am working from home so that does slightly complicate things...

I had to read all that complicated stuff twice and I'm still cross eyed, all very confusing isn't it?!

Well done on the loss Irishe that is fab , I can't believe your scales Emz how frustrating, I still think you are very brave weighing so often as any small gains or staying still sends me nose diving into the misery zone

I went over my calories a bit yesterday as went out with friends , I had the half size (allegedly) spag bol and only ate half of it so in theory a 1/4 , but had 2 slices of garlic bread with it and a glass of wine and not content with that I had 2 scoops of ice cream... ho hum!

Today is another day said Scarlett

Morning all!
I am 5ft 10 not2 and also on 1280 cals. I agree with such a limited amount of calories (well seems limited to me, guess that's why I am overweight) it's important to get as much bang for your calorie buck as possible.
Sorry for opening up such a confusing topic first thing, but glad to see I am not totally alone in my confusion. I am still confused tbh, what does knowing my bmr or tdee gain me? I am going to google these terms and see if it helps me.

Well I put 1lb on overnight, not really bothered, my body is probably totally confused with last weeks massive loss. Be interesting to see if I lose anything this week.

Thanks for your attempts to educate me!

Thanks purple

Sounds like you made good choices at the start of the meal! Forget the rest, a glass of wine and some ice cream shouldn't make much difference.

Liked your scarlet quote, here is a john Wayne one

"Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday"

Kinda like that one, particularly when applied to my own eating!

Irishe not heard that one but I love it

Yeah it's a good one, glad you like it.