My fitness pal

[mama2girls0]

Hi there, I'm a year on from having my second baby and despite initially losing weight running around after them and breastfeeding, I've now put about a stone on again which I'm desperate to lose. I don't have much willpower so thought I might stick to calorie counting more but am not sure how to do it when it comes to meals. Does anyone have advice please? Should I use my fitness pal? And if I were making something such as spag bol for example how would I count the calories of this? Also, how many calories daily would you recommend? Im 5ft 8.5 and currently weigh 11.5 stone if that helps. Thanks so much. Really hoping to feel better and get more confidence in time for the summer.

Work out your TDEE (which is the amount of calories to stay as you are) then minus 20% to get a weight loss calorie target.
https://tdeecalculator.net/
If making spag bol you weigh and log all the ingredients in the recipe section on MFP then enter how many portions all those ingredients make and it works out the calories for you.

Dont log exercise on MFP because it the gives you extra calories to eat back which causes a stall in weight loss or even a gain. It’s a frequent complaint on forums.

MFP tends to give you a calorie target that’s a little low. At 5ft 9 and 11 stone 8 when I started, I lost 3 stone just by sticking to 1,500 calories rather than the measly 1,200 MFP suggested. My target calories now to maintain are around 1,700.

Thanks so much @PhotoTakenOnAToaster. Really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I'll do that.