Week 1 of MFP and I’ve put on 2lbs

[Passwordz]

Ugh. I was so motivated. Saw this cv19 situation and wfh as the perfect time to focus and not be distracted with cake in the office and luxurious lunches from the cafeteria.... Kept within my calories all week, did more exercise in a week than I’d done in a year and when I weighed myself yesterday bloody put on 2lbs.

So yesterday as a finger up to MFP I ate what I wanted, cake, chocolate, the lot

How do I get the motivation back? I didn’t expect it to wane so early on... big fat ugh. If I can’t do it now, I feel like I never will.

Am 40 with 1.5 stone to lose.

Ok going to try to be better tomorrow.

Reset.

Don't panic! I am a similar age with same amount to lose.

Are you eating calories from exercise? And are you tracking everything?

Please stick with it and give yourself more time. A week isn't nearly enough time to get a true record. A month maybe, but not a week. 2lb gain could be hormones, water weight anything.

I saw a great quote recently, I can't remember exactly but basically it was along the lines of your results aren't the product of what you are doing now, but the weeks and months of hard work that have gone before. Just stick with it.

Thank you for replying. I’ve been beating myself up and then scoffing anything and everything as as weird kind of punishment to myself and a rebellion against MFP!!

My daily limit was 1200 calories per day. I found that very hard to stick to so was indeed eating the exercise calories as well. I guess I should try not to? I’m not very disciplined so was delighted to be able to still eat some “bad stuff” and meet the daily calorie limit. Sticking to 1200 per day feels impossible and like I’ll never make it. Then I’ll beat myself up and scoff in rebellion again

I do feel emotional today so perhaps it’s hormones (I have the mirena so not sure what my cycle is) and as I say have been eating everything in sight.

I really need to use this time at home to make some progress. I can’t face another summer of feeling porky.

Most people underestimate the calories from food and over estimate how much they burn on exercise. Then they eat the exercise calories and put on weight.

For example, I would have to run 8 miles to burn off a late and a muffin.

I couldn’t do calorie counting and 1200 a day. I found LCHF much much easier. There’s lots of threads here if you want to check it out and see if it’s for you.

Try and look at the bigger picture. Even if you haven't lost weight this week, you are (presumably) eating smaller portions, better meals nutritionally and getting exercise. This is all brilliant! And in the long term, not only are you very likely to lose some weight, but you will feel better all the time, because you are taking good care of your body.

If you eat all the chocolate when you don't lose weight on week, you will feel the psychological effects of restriction and frustration, as well as the guilt of eating the chocolate, as well as missing out on the weight loss and corresponding beneficial physical and mental/emotional gains.

What are you eating in a day? I am 1200 cals too, maybe we can motivate each other?

Scales are yet to shift for me but long term goal etc. I decided that lockdown was the perfect time to sort out my crappy diet, lack of sensible exercise and emerge as a beautiful swan .

Emerging as a beautiful swan would be awesome.

I don’t really know why but I’ve found this week hard in lots of ways. So I’ve eaten my way through. Not good. But I will reset tomorrow for sure.

I might have to do a sugar detox as I have such a sweet tooth and no will power. I’ve done it before and after a couple of days headaches I did feel better. At the moment I feel that uncomfortable-heavy-sluggish sensation after every meal. When I did the no sugar thing before I never had that and my skin looked amazing. My skin looks grey and uneven this week and I’M GETTING A DOUBLE CHIN. So it’s time to sort things out.

The weight gain could be anything. If you're near period time, then could be bloat, similarly if you've been carb heavy.

You need to be eating back your exercise calories. The way mfp works, is by calculating your needs after you've inputted your exercise. You will still get your calorie allowance for the day but adjusted to reflect the extra you need because of how much you've burnt.

This is really important. When I used it to lose my weight I didn't fully understand how it worked and so if I'd eaten 1200 calories, that would be all I would have, regardless of how much I'd burnt through exercise.

What that amounted to after a few months was days where I'd only been consuming about 500 calories after burn. On my worst day, it actually dropped to 300. The end result was a great amount lost but at the expense of my hair coming out in clumps. It's only now starting to recover after almost 2 years

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to explain properly

Eek @MrsSnitchnose that sounds serious!

And @Passwordz be kind to yourself and cut yourself some slack. This is a shitty time for everyone. So you had a bad day/week. Start again tomorrow.

I have struggled so badly for motivation for years. I think I've eaten a piece of cake every year for about 5 years. But one day I just looked at it and thought hmm, don't fancy that today. I have the biggest sweet tooth going. And I binged, big time. I am 2 weeks into no sweets, chocolate, cake. If I can do it, you can too. Honestly.

Every year? I mean every DAY

Hi! I'm in week 2 of using MFP and aiming for around 1200 a day.
In my first week, I stayed the same and was really disappointed. My thread on it probably isn't far down the list of this sub. But this week i'm down 2lbs. So don't give up. As someone else said to me - it's physics! As long as what goes in is less than energy expenditure, it surely has to work.

I am also trying to lose 1-1.5 stones. I'm not in the overweight category BMI wise so someone else said that this is another factor. If you are the same, apparently we should expect slower weight loss, more akin to 0.5lbs a week.

I'm learning about good 'value' foods. Like the Beef Bourguignon I did this week is 622 cals per portion (well, it would have been 900 but I saw that and reduced the portion size!) but the chicken cacciatore was 415. That really surprised me. Maybe that's dumb but hey, i'm learning now.

Think about joining the chat thread for some support. And finally, give yourself a break. These are unusual and stressful enough times. I don't know about you but i'm trying to lose weight to feel better about myself - which is never going to happen if i beat myself up for being human and having human cravings and failings.

Thank you for the kindness...

I’ve been up all night with fevery DD so won’t be getting out for my exercise first thing but will get out in the garden today and do some jobs out there. I should muster up the enthusiasm to do a meal plan, that would probably help. I’m always much better with a bit of structure but am a massive procrastinator so creating the structure in the first place is always a challenge for me.

Ok. So breakfast was a big fail as DH made me cream cheese avocado and smoked salmon on doorstep bread x2. But it was delicious and should see me through to an early dinner.

Weighing in at 11st 4lbs today. Biggest ever (even when pregnant). Would love to get to 9st 9lbs.....

That breakfast sounds amazing!

The first step is wanting to make a change and you are there! Lots of water and a sensible dinner, maybe a workout if you want and you've rescued it for today. YouTube has so many. I've done a different one every day this week. Any that I didn't like, I just filed away and will do another one next time.

You absolutely can do this. Stick with it.

You are amazing mayday, so kind of you to cheer me on!

What exercise on YouTube have you been doing?

Have a good day!

That breakfast sounds worth it! I've had small breakfast and lunch, hoping to account for fish and chips for dinner.

I weighed in at 11.5 today so we're close. We can do it!

Happy to, @Passwordz . I see a lot of myself in what you've said!

This week on youtube I've done zumba, a workout on an old gym machine that we use as a clothes horse that I forgot we had, barre/ballet and boxing/kickboxing. I also do yoga with a pal once a week. Next week I'll do different stuff. I am a figure skater so also working on my flexibility and balance/posture.

I did download a few exercise apps that had made themselves free for lockdown but I just haven't needed them. There are SO many on YouTube, and all free!

If you have done a lot of exercise you are not used to your muscles could temporarily be a bit inflamed and holding on to some water. There are a lot of reasons why weight loss will not be linear- period/water weight etc don't let it get you down. 1200 might be a little low if you are exercising a lot.