MFP Thread 9

[Not2bObvious]

New thread for those using mfp to lose/maintain weight

Well done Bath, you wont be letting the side down as your here doing something about it! Every 1lb adds up and before you know its half a stone will be gone!
I done well yesterday, but this morning i made breakfast and all of a sudden felt really ill :( binned the porridge and weighed myself to notice i weighed about 11st. Sounds daft but i think the water i drank this morning made me iffy ive eaten a caramel doughnut and feel better now. Ive re-weighed and im back down to 10st 11. I feel better now though, just need to stay on track and not let this get to me.

good on you for running Bath and well done on the loss - as you say, a loss is a loss, and I'm the same, 1lb down in just over a week which was disappointing and a fuck it button was pressed in my head last night. I did log every single thing I binged on though and therefore managed to stop when I reached TDEE so not too awful in the end....normally I binge and don't bother logging and then prob eat way more

Hope you feel better caggie

Not really doing well, I seem to be getting loads of exercise then sabotaging myself by eating lots of sweet snacks in the evening
I haven't been that much over most days but enough that I've put on another 1/2lb. Plus am knackered.

sorry to hear that dr. Monday tomorrow, fresh start, stick to what you're doing but quit the snacking. None. Come on here if you need to distract yourself. Or slice lemon in hot water. Be strong for the 5 days ahead.

Good for you logging everything kiki. Lets make it at least another 1lb each this week.

sorry to hear you were a bit poorly caggie, but on the plus side I don't think I've ever had the luck of loosing 3 lbs instantly after eating a donut lucky you

you know what I'll join you Bath and dr for a 5 day no snack challenge?

I suspect AF is en route as I seem to have no willpower today either!

Well this s interesting -I weighed this morning & down three pounds.I haven't been hungry (much) have eaten the odd bit of cake, and had 1 or 2 drinks some nights. I have done a lot of portion controlling & weighing/measuring foods.
There is a lot of mental wrestling along the lines of "if I eat that it will add x calories, can I resist, is there a substitute..." which I suppose is the point. By recording & being aware of the calorie "price" of everything that goes into your mouth it forces you to consider if it is worth it to eat that food.
I calculated my TDEE last night, which is around 1900; my BMR is around 1400. MFP is set at 1200, which I tend to go over sometimes (or I forget to enter the odd item) so the system seems to be working at the moment. I would not expect 3lb every week, but it would be nice to see 1.5 stone off over the next six months.

Just checked my start date - have lost 5lbs in 3 weeks - not bad. Validates the process.

No snacks at all is never going to happen for me, but I'll try no snacks in the evenings!

Today - have eaten lunch and planned tea (leftover chicken drumsticks/roast veg) and going to Pilates, so I should have room for a small not-very-sweet pudding and maybe also some popcorn or a skinny latte before picking up the DCs, will have to decide what to have.

Since it is pretty quiet today, I thought I might stir the pot a bit, so here it goes:
There's things I like about MFP & things I don't. I hate that message that says " if you ate like this every day in 5 weeks you would weighxxx" irritating. I hate it allows you to add you exercise calories to your food intake (more about this later -so does WW) and I think some of its calorie counts are completely random -try searching the calorie count for chicken, completely variable. I have solved this last one for myself by looking on food packaging & then choosing the MFP one that is closest. Rant about MFP over.
Yesterday I read all 12 pages of this thread, and a couple of things stood out-
There are some awesome exercisers here - 2500 kcal in a day - just wow! But I am wondering if you are doing it for the right reasons? If you madly love it, training for a marathon or want fab abs or upper arms - great! But if you are doing it to compensate for or even to allow over-eating, hmm. Isn't that what anorexics do (Anorexic:"OMG-I just ate a piece of toast , so 4 hours on the treadmill for me") it seems to me you could get into a vicious, stressy cycle of :I must do a bunch of exercise because I have eaten too much, how to squeeze it into my already stressed and busy day, manage to do so, get even more stressed and then either over-eat or hit the booze. Then beat up on yourself some more and the pattern continues.
I am awfully sceptical about exercise calories. WW is trying to encourage its members to get fit, so they do it, but in my own experience if you eat then, you don't lose weight. So maybe a better approach it do a moderate amount of exercise that fits in your lifestyle, stick to you calorie allowance as closely as possible, and think of the exercise calories as a little bank that allows you to go off piste from time to time.
Finally, drinking. Lord knows I like a drink as much as the next person, but booze is basically the same as sugar dissolved in water. If you think of it that way, would you really want to expend your modest calorie allowance on sugar water? Probably not.
Lecture over. As you were.

Haha, i enjoyed that Lecture!

I binge ate today, not just a little bit, ALOT! Didnt log it either, do not want to the damage. I ate until i felt sick and now feel guilty and awful!! Trying to think positive and pull myself together for the rest of the week. Sorry for the doom and gloom over here

I agree re exercise calories and I never log them (although I don't really do proper exercise at the moment, but on my feet more than normal due to rehearsals) but yes totally agree it kind of defeats the point! Also calorie swings are annoying, I keep suspecting I'm inputting lower than truth due to this so have started adding in a few extra where I think the amount is wrong - and when I cook trying to stick closely to a recipe that gives the nutritional values.

today is a new day caggie, something in the air....I think that's why actually I prefer to look over the course of a week (I used to do 5:2 but I can't do a day as low as 500kcals at the moment cos on my feet so much and I get headrushes a lot in the lead up to AF)

I'm going to attempt no snacking this week as I dont tend to during the day and the evenings are the killer - also looking at my MFP diary my biggest calorie output and least nutritional value is on snacking!!

I've had 2 nights in the last 3 weeks when I've had a drink (2 glasses of wine on each night) and am otherwise enjoying being booze free still. I'm knackered at the moment so the booze would just exacerbate that I think

Another 1lb down, hurray. Am obsessing less about food, thankfully. Snacks yesterday consisted of a carrot, and a slice of pineapple.

Am out for a PT session just now. I don't eat-back the calories. I do it for a load more reasons than just helping the weight loss (fitness, toning, and for my sanity ). Am lucky I can fit it in my day / working week. Since exercising I haven't needed to visit the physio or osteo for long-term back / shoulder problems.

We all seem to have our own personal / healthy approach to MFP. Some follow it rigidly, some (me) know from years of experience how much (little?!) I have to eat to loose, without logging in at all. Others add their exercise calories on to their base-line calories-expended, others like to eat calorie allowance in chocolate than cucumber. For me it is the mutual support from this thread that I value most .

Have a good day all, be strong, and start afresh caggie

I have found the opposite in the past - that if I don't eat the exercise calories (or at least some of them) then my net food (is that what I mean?) can go quite low e.g. if I'm on 1500 and eat 1400 but do 200 cal worth of biking and also some walking, then my net food is below 1100 which is supposed to be bad.

I would only do 1000+ cal worth of exercise if I was hiking all day - which I hardly ever do any more - but when I was a bit bigger and calorie counting and did go for all day hikes I'd be eating about half of that.

Currently my exercise is:
10K-12K steps most days except days when I cycle to work.
2x a week cycle to work (1/2 hour each way v hilly and one of those days with a toddler on the back. Timing my cycle ride I am sure vastly underestimates my calorie expenditure!)
1x a week Pilates and 1x most weeks swimming.

If I don't get to my 10K steps and I don't cycle (it's rare that I don't do one or the other) I'm trying not to eat the few calories I get but other than that I get HUNGRY.
And getting hungry is bad. Very bad for willpower.

My bad habits are really snacking on sweet stuff rather than something a bit more filling; and not logging everything.

Finishing on under 1300, tried not to eat anything sweet as i may lead to a binge. Not hungry and feeling abit more postive after yesterday. Will be watching GBBO, so ill admire cake throught the TV

Ooocaggie I am too weak-willed to watch cooking programmes!
Well done on no sweets, the less sugar you eat, the less you crave it. I try to get really full on veg & protein.
I am staying a bit closer to the mark after recent weight loss. Positive feedback helps.
(Also I really resent the ££ I have spent over the years on for profit WL programmes. Free MFP is good!)

Good couple of days, had a pudding but no further snacks in the evening, very active so needed small snacks in the day! But overall quite happy.

Moanranger agree re free being good!

caggie I like reading/watching savoury/practical/unusual cookery programmes - but I prefer to read books - currently having a go at some recipes from Cooking on a Bootstrap, and an Asian family cookbook that a FB friend of mine wrote.

Arghhhhhh, dont know whats wrong with me!! Today is another fail. Havent even logged anything but know im over. I will mutter the words ''fresh start'' again and start over tomorrow. Hope everyone else is doing better than me!!

Had similar situation yesterday caggie

Just got home and am at 1021 so I'm going to have a ginger tea and go to bed cos I know if I have something ill then just sit and munch

I feel awful, but im starting sgain tomorrow i pigged out again today, its not the same as when i first started this ''dieting'' i was eager and wanted it. I still do, but not as passionate about it. I will start again tomorrow, i just cant last a week. One a positive note, i am happy with how my body looks, but i could look better. Im hanging my head im shame. 😳😂😂

Oh caggie it happens - I know I have to just ride the motivational wave when it's here knowing full well it will change again, take each day as it comes

Question - do you think you're heavier on or during your period?

My 2lb i lost last week, is back. Wooo!! 10st 13 again. I know if stick to it this week ill be back down next week.
I personally dont notice a flucuation when im on my period, it just tends to be the usual flucuation i wild have when im not on. I know some women do weigh more on there period. I dont get bad periods either, i maybe get bad period pain every other month, or not at all. My boobs swell though😂

Hmmm just wondering if that's why 3 days ago there had been no movement on the scales in 10days, period and yesterday and today I'm suddenly 2lbs lighter.

Out for dinner tonight though (friends are cooking so will attempt vague counting and logging) so I expect t put it back on again

Some learning experiences this weekend. Out to dinner on Fri, there was vegetable tempura on the menu, which I love. Recorded it on MFP, turns out it is 500+ calories. Who knew! It's that word "vegetable" in the title that lulls you into thinking it will somehow be healthy & lo cal.
Sat was one of those full-on days (I drove 320 mi ) & careful eating went out the window. I know these kinds of stress days wreck my self-control & a big focus in my life is to try to eliminate them entirely. Also to sleep better. These are two non-food related objectives that I hope will help in my weight loss. WI tomorrow morning -we shall see...

Good luck with WI Moan!

Ive had a good weekend, stuck to my calories and not eaten anything i shouldnt of. Will do the same for the whole week too. I feel really good in myself when i eat healthy and know when i eat crap it makes me feel awful. So i dont know why i do it to myself. Ohwell, postivity back. Lets go and get some lbs off!

Love the positivity caggie. Who knows why we do it to ourselves. The good news from my camp is I'm 2.5 lbs down this week to 11 5.5. Just need to keep up the momentum and not "celebrate" my loss with food!