food focus - anyone else using this fab free site?

[treacletart]

I love food, hate diets and would sooner chew my arm off to lose weight than pay someone to weigh me in public.

Food Focus allows you to input your height/weight and it calculates your daily calorie intake to loose a sensible weekly target.

I want to use 1.5 stone by October. I've been using it for just over a week and I lost 2lbs (target was only a 1lb!)

I'm just no nonsense lower calorie, healthy eating. Weighing what I eat and logging it all on my food log. It allows you to log exercise too and calculates your calorie quota accordingly. But, to my shame, I do no formal exercise at all so I'm choosing not to do that bit.

I'm finding it very helpful - and couldn't find a current thread about it so thought I'd share.

I use it too- it's fab!

I haven't used it yet because I am on a diet that it wouldn't work with but I have read so many good reports about it on here that I think I will use it once I have finished my diet just to stop myself from going back to square one.

I used it last year and lost 1.5 stone that I have so far managed to keep off for six months. It's the business.

I recorded everything for three months or so before starting to go it alone, and going back to it if I plateaued.

For the first time in my adult life I have a normal BMI, and have gone from a size 16 to a size 10-12. I'm 5 feet 2, and now weigh just under 9.5 stone, having started at a on-the-borders-of-obese 11.

The slow loss that it advocates really helps you to work in the mentality of a lifestyle change (e.g recalibration of "normal" portion sizes, number of treats indulged in weekly, etc) rather than living in the purgatory of diet land for a short period only to return to bad habits afterwards. I stuck to 1 lb week loss, and although I didn't get those flattering gasps of amazement when people you see regularly notice sudden and dramatic weight loss, the impact was much greater when I appeared in my new skinny wardrobe in the spring, as most people hadn't noticed my gradual shrinkage until I was wearing smaller clothes.

We had a couple of threads going from around this time last year, which was how I found it.

It really inspired me to find some exercise to do so that I could shrink my net calories further.

Good luck, all of you using it. It's not hyperbole to say that it really did change my life.

BTW, Treacletart, I took about seven months to lose all the weight, with two little hiccoughs (holiday + 2lb and Christmas +1 lb) on the way.

The trick was not to make whoopee on holiday or at Christmas, say by either having pudding OR an ice cream OR wine, but not all three, and to keep my hands off the French bread.

Cheers Annner! That's truly inspirational. Congratulations! I've been quite enjoying it if I'm truthful - not having too many problems sticking to my 1259kcal so far. I think it's good for me to have another website to obsess over other than rightmove!

Annner - I just wanted to say how great you have done. You read lots of stories of people losing weight on here but it's so good to hear from someone 6 months on who has still kept the weight off. You must feel great.

[bows] Thanks! I too have always been struck by the sheer number of new threads that appear almost weekly, but which always seem to tail off once their adherents have been going for around a month and have lost a huge amount in that time - only to reappear a couple of months down the line with new determination to lose six stone in two months, or something equally daft.

This time I was determined that it would be slow, steady and sustainable, and that I wasn't in any hurry.

What have I learnt? All of these habits have now stayed with me.

• get on the scales on Friday morning each week. I still do this to keep on eye on where I am. I used to be proud that I didn't use scales at all - but was utterly deluded about what I actually weighed and how big I was getting.
• stay away from the scales at all other times. Same time each week; first thing in the morning.
• got to know my own cycle: the week before I am due my period I always put on a pound or two, but which goes afterwards. *look more closely at your weight in relation to where you were last month rather than last week. The FF graphs are invaluable here, as they help you to keep it all in perspective. Provided the overall trend is downwards, it doesn't matter how long it takes. Some months I only lost a couple of pounds; others more. I usually lose more during term time when I am teaching and more active and out of the kitchen. *a normal portion is an awful lot smaller than you think it should be, but you do recalibrate your appetite over time - another reason for doing it gradually. We still weigh pasta and rice before cooking. *set yourself small but meaningful targets to break down the journey, using both pounds and kilos to make up nice numbers. For me it was (1) to get below 11 stone; (2) to lose half a stone; (3) to lose 5kg; (4) to need new knickers, and so on down to losing 10 kg. *Only keeping in the house a quantity of chocolate or biscuits that I would be happy to eat. *learning to have a drink of water before nibbling. It is so true that thirst is often mistaken for hunger *Falling off the wagon and the odd blowout really isn't an issue - unless it becomes a regular occurence. You simply shrug and climb back on again, taking a bit more care during the following week. This is what "naturally" slim people tend to do. This said, I have finally realised that a roghan josh is as nice as a korma, and that a chappatti does the same job as a naan, etc. I never used to be able to choose the healthier option (dunno why; I guess I saw myself as a lost cause) but now I'm much more able to see a meal out as a lovely treat without needing to go all out on the lard. Well, usually, anyway. I still like deep fried Chinese hors d'oeuvres!

Good luck, Treacletart and Mummymels. I'll pop back from time to time to see how you are doing. It's such a good site for those of us who are control freaks but who prefer to do things quietly...

Just wanted to add that I lost over a stone with FoodFocus, and it's stayed off. It's an excellent site, especially if you're able to aim for a pound a week weight loss and take it off slowly. It really helps keep if off afterwards, as you're already eating within 500 calories of your 'normal' allowance. You need to combine it with a regular exercise scheme, then the weight will stay off. Good luck!

Cheers all. I lost 3lb last week! (may be i need to go easy!) so 5lb in total so far - weigh myself Monday's. people are starting to notice, but I've only told my best mate I'm doing anything. I'm not counting any exercise at all either because I don't do any structured exercise - so that may account for the extra loss, but I'm expecting it to slow down a bit. Guess I'm also surprised at the comparatively small calorific difference between the amounts you'd gain/maintain or lose weight on. It's enlightening.

1 pound this week. Remembered I was wearing my jeans for the first weeks weigh and only a flimsy sundress last week so maybe a pound of my 3 lost last week was actually denim! Or maybe I'm slowing down a bit already - still I won't sniff at a pound in the right direction.

Absolutely! A pound is a pound, and look at last month, not last week. The trick is not to be disappointed with only a small loss. You may be about to have a period, too, which can make a huge difference.

What is your next target, Treacle?

cheers Annner! Little milestones...another 2lbs will take me to half a stone lost - another 4lbs to 11 stone..

thanks so much! I have just looked at Foodfocus for the first time and I think it will be really useful. Just want to get the baby weight off without doing any silly diets or depriving myself of the odd treat.

That looks pretty neat. I've been wondering if there's anything that I can use to give myself the odd kick up the backside if I find myself slipping when I cancel my WW membership. Everything I've found, so far is just too American, so is fine for things cooked from scratch, but tedious for branded stuff (though fatsecret is fantastic if you're trying to keep a track of nutritional info)

and another pound this week ...

Oh, well done again Treacle! You're so close to that half stone now. Keep going!

If you are ever having any doubts, check out some of the gazillions of threads that start out with their posters losing several pounds a week - and which then mysteriously peter out

I'm using Food Focus (just started this week) and am finding it really helpful. But I'm a little concerned that it's set my calorie goal at 1223 a day while I'm breastfeeding. It seemed a little low to me, and to be honest I'm starving all the time. Anybody know whether this is right?

FPH, that does sound low; did it ask about breastfeeding (I can't remember)? as far as I remember you should get 500 extra calories a day for exclusive breastfeeding, then it goes down.... but my goal is 1241 I think and that is with sedentary job and over 40, so can't see why yours should be so low??

I'm having difficulty figuring out the details of food that I need to put in; if you eat anywhere other than at home it becomes very difficult to know how much you ate, of exactly what, etc.

Yay! another pound this week - so I'm now a half a stone down. Seriously overspent on calories on Saturday - 2 parties in one night - the first I've been to all year! - so I made sure I underspent yesterday.

I wondered about breastfeeding too - I'm fairly certain I wasn't allocated any extra for breastfeeding and nor was there any distinction between exclusively breastfeeding a newborn or (as in my case) a goodnight topup for a toddler...

well done treacletart, half a stone is brilliant!

2 pounds this week! Was fully expecting a plateau so I'm very pleased

blimey and another 2 this week too!

I'm using this site too, almost two weeks now and 4lb lost, I only had 1lb a week as my goal so I'm quite pleased so far.

I'm in a very similar spot to Annner (at the start), I'm around 11 stone (will get on the wii in a mo and find out ) and as I'm 5'3 I should be around much less!

I started using food focus today and it did a good job - felt an attack of the munchies, started on the pringles, and as soon as I inputed how many I'd eaten so far I stopped eating so my numbers didn't go up further

I want to be realistic - my calories etc for today have been good, even with pringles.

Hi there

I am now using Foodfocus due to this thread!

It's great! I lost 4 stone with SW about 7 years ago, kept 3.5 off until I got married 18 months ago, then had DS and put 2 on. Whoops

Have got bored with SW and wanted to do something diff as I'd lost 1 stone since DS but it took ages and my heart wasn't in it.

Been doing this a week and lost 2 pounds when aiming for 1 so yay! Hoping this will help me get off the last 13lbs.

Good luck everyone!