MFP thread 6

[Not2bObvious]

New thread as old one's nearly full

I tend to go off track a bit at the weekends does anyone else? It's difficult as sometimes we have lots of things on, my home made soups have usually ran out by then and I can't find the time to make more. I don't think I'm as bad as I was previously but I hope it doesn't hinder all my mid week hard work! I will try harder at the weekends in future.

Congratulations on all the losses

Sounds like a mixed bag this week. Lots of losses and some mistakes.
If you lost- keep it up. If you went off a bit- today is a new day.
I didn't track yesterday but am 1lb down from Friday so can't be too bad!

I went totally off track this weekend, imwithspud - was staying with family and they don't eat particularly well.

Another pound gain

april well done on the restraint over the birthday cake and for the loss today

bath as others have said, put last night behind you - today is a new day, you can do this!

call congratulations on the loss!

keep sounds like you are still losing overall, good luck with bootcamp!

spud it’s usually weekdays when my calories tend to go a bit over as I seem to turn to food to get me through long days in the office.

cora well done for the loss

running sorry about the lb, I’m sure you can get on top of things in the new week

Canteen lunch today adds up to 800 cals… It was all ‘healthy’ stuff too. How did I get to be so greedy? I just can’t resist taking a little bit of everything when I’m there. Meanwhile my skinny colleagues just go for the soup and a roll option – which says a lot. That means I’m currently now on target to finish 30 cals over today, and that’s without accounting for the left over crumble sitting in the fridge….

Can anyone tell me how do I get mfp to show me my average calories for the week?

Well done on the losses. Still poorly but went for my pill check today and the nurse was well impressed with my weightloss her scales also had me at 66.6kg so according to Google 10st 4 that was after breakfast/lunch and fully clothed with shoes on. First thing in a morning, naked with an empty belly I weigh 10st 5 on my scales. I like the nurses scales better

1lb of my 3lb gain gone this morning. Hoping to shed the other two before PMT bloat kicks in (a good 10 days away), otherwise I will feel like I am gaining again.

On track to end slightly over today, but not horrendously so. I do also have an apple crumble in the fridge though sesame!

Sugar, I suspect that the amount of exercise you are doing means you are converting fat to muscle, which would slow down how quickly the scales move (but leave you a lot fitter and more toned than I am!) I average 9k to 10k a day in steps, but currently do no other exercise.

Keep, Cora, well done on the losses.

Sesame, to get average weekly calories on MFP, select Nutrition (at the bottom of the diary) and then "calories", which defaults to a pie chart of the day's breakdown. Just under the "calories" heading it says "day view" in grey, you can press this and select "week view" instead, which then shows average over the last week. You can also choose to look at gross or net daily calories.

April can I ask you about what you've just said to sugar? I eat under 1200 calories but exercise loads (about 6 hours a week, Zumba, swimming, spin, walking) and never eat my exercise calories back. My weight loss is quite slow in comparison to the deficit (1lb per week). Do you think I'm not eating enough?

Sorry to do a post-and-run but don't want to stay away too long and I'm not going to have time to do a full call-out today .

Altho special mention to Not hope you're having a fab holiday!

Well done to everyone who had losses - lots of great results since Fri. Also chin-up and onwards and downwards to my partners in crime that had a naughty weekend like me .

Wasn't feeling the willpower Fri or Sat, so ended up going for a posh burger & chips on Fri night bringing me to 1600. Sat was even worse as we went for pizza so a whopping 1740. Grr at myself . Anyway tried to redeem myself yesterday at 1400 (and lots of housework which hopefully burned some cals ) and today should come in at about 1000 as I had to skip breakfast for some routine blood tests. Starving though and need to have an early dinner today, so will probably be wanting to eat my own fingers come bedtime .

Weekly avg is still 1415 though so will need to have another lean day tomorrow to have any hope for the scales on Weds .

Loli, I'm no expert, so take this as one lay person's view only, but I don't believe that "not eating enough" is a reason for not losing weight. After all, those who do VLCDs and stick to them lose weight fast. I do think that, since exercise builds muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat, total loss as measured on the scales may be slower if you are exercising a lot. What would help is a scale which shows fat percentage. With lots of exercise, your fat percentage should reduce even if total weight doesn't change much.

I think the other reason why we sometimes aren't losing as much as we think we should is that we are underestimating actual calories consumed. I find mfp can show many different calorie counts for the same food, and sometimes you need to check elsewhere to ensure what you are entering is reasonable. Also it's tough to be very honest about the amount you are actually consuming, even when you are only "telling" mfp. Unfortunately you can't always even rely on what is published. I love skinny cappuccinos and drink them often - but the same size coffee has a different calorie count according to the websites of Costa, Nero and Starbucks, so one assumes that they aren't all that accurate!

That makes sense April. I'm honestly very frank with MFP but I'll definitely watch what I eat over the next couple of weeks and see what happens. I might invest in one of those fat percentage scales as mine are quite basic.

Thanks April - don't think I'm laying down muscle though! I'm just being impatient, I've lost 5lbs in the last one month apparently, just feels slower!

I definitely need to be stricter at weekends, I've been a bit over most weekends and that is probably slowing things down. Just so keen to get to goal now!

must yay for the nurse's scales!

hopefully well done on the lb - did you crumble....?

april thanks that's brilliant. Have been looking at all the graphs.

dawhead well done for a good couple of days to even out the bad ones

It turns out my daily average is 1,800, which shows I'm consistently going over my goal, which does explain a lot. I think I need to look for more places to take cals out of my day - possibly shave a few off breakfast and try and see what I can do to take 100 cals or so out of my lunches. If I can crack it this will probably be really important for maintenance.

So for my tea I went with a bowl of soup and half the crumble. Finished 89 cals over in the end. I'm now downing big mugs of herbal tea to stop me from going back for more.....

Am back sorry for doing a disappearing act - not been a very good week food wise - but am firmly back on the wagon. I've not catched up on everything yet but well done to everyone with losses had a few takeaways, wine etc last week so glad of a maintain to be honest. I didn't get the job but he was impressed with me and will keep me in mind when more positions come up so not a total loss. Volunteering at the women's refuge is going very well too.

Today I went swimming for the first time in a week as I had my monthlies last week. Have tried to be restrained today - amazing how things slip when you let things go for a few days. The sugar thing is good though as I'm starting to taste the sugar in things more. I skipped breakfast and had a lunch of a tin of tomato soup, 2 slices tiger bread and a scraping of light butter and a 10 cal jelly before going on a swim. Had a coffee and one of those biscuits they give you while waiting for the pool to open. Dinner was pasta, passata, oregano, garlic salt, basil, a tiny bit of chilli, 2 slices spicy chorizo, grated cheese, peppers, mushrooms, onions and cherry tomatos, with 2 milk tray chocolates afterwards. Just had a cup of tea and a fruit winder - taking me to 1201. That seems full of treats [embarrassed] tommorrow is going to difficult as we are having a family get together and I know pizza takeaway will be suggested. Will just have to be good the rest of the week and try and be extra angelic tomorrow - maybe porridge and blueberries for breakfast, then crackers cheese and grapes for lunch and nothing til tea. Been a bit of an emotional week too as mums been tothe doctor and theres something unusual and tests have been sent off for, nothing been said but doctor seemed sombre - so of course she's worrying which makes me nervous too and I just hope it's nothing properly serious.

Dawhead weekly average around 1400 is pretty good- mine is around the same but going to aim for 1200 this week.

Loli as someone who has spent a long time studying this sort of thing (both out of personal interest and for my job) I wouldn't bother with a body fat scales. They are not very accurate. Get a measuring tape- aim to reduce your waist circumference/waist hip ratio to be as healthy as possible. You don't see people with small waists with type 2 diabetes/fatty livers very often.

Hope well done on the lb down! Sesame now weather is colder I'm having soup for lunch which is more filling in less calories.
Made well done on getting back on the wagon.

I've come in today at 1175- eggs/spinach/turkey rashers for breakfast (300), chicken noodle soup for lunch (250), 2 dates with a spoon of almond butter (175) snack and chicken+cashew nut stir fry (450)stir fry Did level 3 day 1 of 30 day shred (yay to finishing level 2!) but walked less than usual (9900 steps). Going to walk around the kitchen a few times to hit 10k.

No entries today? Hope everyone are doing OK. Although I know if I'm guilty on the food stakes I tend not to post ... .

Thanks for kind messages about my huge derail on Sunday. I hate to admit that I was even worse last night. There was a big emotional crisis on the home front, but all OK now. And def fresh start today. I'm only on 500 cals so far, with homemade chilli with tiny amount of rice for dinner.

Everyone OK ??? Please do come back .....

I fell off the wagon but will start back. Finally moved to new flat away from xDP and it hurts, it's a long back story but I miss him and it's doing wonders for reducing my calorie count. Unfortunately I've not been exercising because I've had hideous stomach cramps for days, probably stress. How's everyone doing?

made welcome back, sorry you didn’t get the job, but glad to hear that you are at least on the right track. Very sorry to hear about your mum. Stay strong.

sugar well done for starting level 3 of shred and for the extra laps around the kitchen…

bath I’m still here! Glad things seem to be going in the right direction for you now

roar welcome back, and sorry things have been so tough you can do this.

Despite my best intentions, I had a very carby pasta lunch. The canteen person gave me a big portion too and I gobbled up every morsel . After that I ate all my workday snacks through the afternoon (always carry some nuts and fruit with me so I don’t get sucked into all the sugary treats floating about). I’m actually still very full from all that, but I’m sure that won’t stop me from eating everything in sight as soon as I get home. I have to get on top of my weekday diet. Am onto my second week of bloat, hovering right on 10st, and af is 4 days late. I’m sounding really down now which makes me think I’m probably pmt’d to the max – will probably be af tomorrow I expect…

Sesame - thank you. I started a thread earlier in relationships, feeling fragile.

Sometimes all need a big carby lunch, it's like a hug in a bowl.

I'm here. Lost a lb, may be loosing my job but hey ho I'm breathing right? Roar I hope you're ok shall we share a virtual bucket of wine?
Sesame I MISS carbs. I crave them and this cold weather isn't helping.
Bath how are you doing now?
On my phone so if I've missed anyone I'm sorry. Made I know you aren't having a good week, sending positive vibes from my valley to yours. OMG that sounds wrong but we are 2 Welsh lasses not a hundred miles away from each other!

Bath how was the rest of your day?

Roar sorry to hear about your rough time, hopefully the move helps you move forward now.

Sesame it's so hard to resist pasta. Thankfully my work canteen offers such delicacies as rice with strawberries and miscellaneous pie so it's easy to resist!

I'm bloated big time. Weighed in the same as last week but pre menstrual so hoping that's why. Good day- 1218cals, 12k steps and 30 day shred level 3 day 2. I actually like level 3, hated level 2. Need to find something to do once this is finished to keep fitness up. I love running so ideally i would run 4 days and do HIIT 2 days but I keep (re)injuring my knee running and I'm very keen to avoid surgery.

My main difficulty at the moment is my very weak core. Im getting seriously frustrated that I still need to do the "easy" versions of the ab moves. And can't do the Pilates moves from last week that I've been practising. I have no sensation in my lower abdomen either so I'm concerned there's nerve damage. Anyone have any simple core exercises? Think I'll ask over in exercise too.

We're a right miserable lot today aren't we...?

roar hope there's some good advice out there for you, loli well done for the lb, sugar my theory is that there could be a lot to be gained from trying to hit those exercises at 80% of effort, rather than full force - acknowledge you've got further to to go and build up gradual.

Kitchen closed tonight on 1786, 126 cals over. Just climbed into bed - another way to avoid snacking and it's warmer than the kitchen.....

Sesame I'm just getting frustrated as they aren't getting stronger after several weeks, I can't actually make the muscles below my umbilicus contract. And I can't even master the first Pilates pose where you lie flat without an arch in your back (although I suspect my rather enormous arse may be the mitigating factor here!). Combined with the lack of sensation I'm worried they may actually be like this forever- I don't mind if my stomach isn't flat but I know this is making it less flat and is likely putting strain on my hips/back too.

I'm fairly impatient I know but I just am not seeing an improvement. I may book a session of physio.