Just joined Myfitnesspal:Update Q in post #7

[maestramommy]

on the rec of my pcp, since I am trying to lose weight (again!) and needed a vehicle for counting calories. I am supposed to eat 1200 calories a day. I just logged breakfast and it looks like I consumed over 500 calories! For what I consider is a healthy breakfast! steel cut oats, 1 waffle with pb, 1 egg, 1 glass of kefir. What pushed it over the edge was the kefir, plus things like a sprinkling of granola and cranberries.

I need to rethink :p

[Melaine]

Yeah it's definitely an adjustment. Healthy and low-calorie are very different things and that is the trick. It's been awhile since I've been logging but after I stop nursing I will go back into maintenance mode. I'm having a hard time remembering my go-to low-cal options but there a lot of great ideas on the forums. Plus if you have lots of friends you can check out what they eat. My name is Melaine there too.

ETA: On a positive note, I think MFP is like the best thing since sliced bread. It worked so well for me and I didn't find it difficult once I really got into the swing of things. I logged religiously until I could pretty much stay under my calories without recording. 1200 is low though....I think the lowest I did was 1350 or so? I think for me with only 1200 I would need to be exercising every single day to earn back some extra calories.

[dogmom]

Did you try to just plug in maintenance weight instead of a set amount to loose per week? I would suggest starting with that and doing that for two weeks. You may find out that is enough for you to actually loose weight. Then after two weeks of just trying to keep at a maintenance level you can set a small amount of weight loss a week, that would be a more realistic way. I think if you make too abrupt change down in calories your body tends to go into conservation mode, which isn't what you want.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Yep, 1200 takes some rethinking. It's very helpful to really see how it all adds up! Eta- unless you eat your biggest meal at breakfast, you might just pick 1 of those items and see how it goes. Says the non to little breakfast eater though. :).

[AnnieW625]

I have had mine set at 1200 and 1500 and really neither seem to work well for me. MFP sets your sugar goal pretty conservatively as well so I think you need to watch that closely as well. Like any diet plan I think there is a learning curve to it. I would probably cut out the waffle w/ peanut butter from your breakfast unless you know for sure you are going to be working out. Take my advice with a grain of salt though as neither MFP or WW have been particularly successful for me lately. Most people who have seemed to do well with MFP had some help from elsewhere like Nutri System, eating gluten free, Weight Watchers, or eating an elimination diet for one reason or another. IRL my cousin has lost 22lbs or so in almost a year by just using MFP so it can happen. Good luck! I am AztecAnnie if you want to add me as a friend.

[maestramommy]

Did you try to just plug in maintenance weight instead of a set amount to loose per week? I would suggest starting with that and doing that for two weeks. You may find out that is enough for you to actually loose weight. Then after two weeks of just trying to keep at a maintenance level you can set a small amount of weight loss a week, that would be a more realistic way. I think if you make too abrupt change down in calories your body tends to go into conservation mode, which isn't what you want.

Yes, I probably should've done that and just tweaked from there. Just seeing the calorie counts on food was enough to send me into shock. Like, how many calories and grams of fat are in a pack of ramen! We eat that for lunch every Sunday, so now I can cut back on how much actual ramen I eat, and flesh it out with more veggies, for example.

Yes, Annie I was thinking I will only eat the toast with PB on running days. Waffles are only on Sundays, during the week we eat homemade whole wheat bread. Not sure how I am going to count that, though I see there are homemade options.

Oh, and I haven't plugged in exercise yet either. My pcp did say that when you add in exercise it's okay if you are eating more. Which I guess is an obvious point.

I'm already in the negatives for fat and protein:p This is going to be interesting, I'll say!

[maestramommy]

Can someone please tell me how to change my goal weight? I can't seem to find it anywhere!

Okay, I managed to find my profile settings and changed the goal weight so that it's the same as my current weight. But the calorie count stayed the same! How is that possible?

[twowhat?]

Did you try to just plug in maintenance weight instead of a set amount to loose per week? I would suggest starting with that and doing that for two weeks. You may find out that is enough for you to actually loose weight. Then after two weeks of just trying to keep at a maintenance level you can set a small amount of weight loss a week, that would be a more realistic way. I think if you make too abrupt change down in calories your body tends to go into conservation mode, which isn't what you want.

ITA with this - everyone has different metasbolism. I can eat almost 2000 calories/day according to MFP and I do not gain weight. I've been using it to try to make healthier food choices and motivate me to exercise more but definitely do a 2 week trial with just your maintenance weight to see what your metabolism is like (and I wouldn't be surprised if you lost weight, as dogmom says).

[maestramommy]

Okay, FINALLY figured out how to change my settings to maintain current weight (sheesh). So now it shows my calorie count at over 1700 calories:ROTFLMAO:Which means after dinner I still get 384 calories. Hmmm, dessert?:p

[pastrygirl]

I used MFP for calorie count/goal for a couple of months, but for the past month, I've been using other calculators to figure out things like BMR and TDEE (cals burned just by existing, and cals burned by usual daily activity). Scooby is one calculator but there are others. For me, I shoot for 1700 cals on non-workout days and 1900 on workout days. I use MFP to see my totals, but don't pay much attention to what it tells me I can (or can't!) eat. If I don't see much change soon, I might go back to just letting MFP do its thing.

Still working on paying attention to the protein/fat/carbs/sugar numbers. I know I need lots of protein to feel full, but I don't worry about all the different totals. I might see faster weight loss if I did...

[bigpassport]

I'm inconsistent with mfp, so this is some 'do as I say not as I do' advice. Even if you don't have a the calories, carbs, fats, etc. figured out, simply the process of logging in all your food is helpful for losing weight. If you are consistently logging everything in, you will have a tendency to think twice before putting anything in your mouth. There, you've inspired me to start keeping track again:)

[maestramommy]

I'm inconsistent with mfp, so this is some 'do as I say not as I do' advice. Even if you don't have a the calories, carbs, fats, etc. figured out, simply the process of logging in all your food is helpful for losing weight. If you are consistently logging everything in, you will have a tendency to think twice before putting anything in your mouth. There, you've inspired me to start keeping track again:)

:D True nuff. I find I'm having a hard time logging in homemade foods with multiple ingredients, like bread, stew, pancakes (where the heck am I going to be able to log in all the info on these pancakes if I don't even know where the recipe came from?? Someone here gave it to me!). So approximate is good enough for me. I use a Runtastic App, and I just tried to tie it to my MFP account, but so far I don't see any connections. We'll see what happens after I run tomorrow.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I took time logging all of our popular recipes. I might have used a website that have me nutrition facts of recipes. Handy!

[maestramommy]

I took time logging all of our popular recipes. I might have used a website that have me nutrition facts of recipes. Handy!

Okay, I just found that mfp has a recipe calculator. I'm beginning to wonder about the wisdom of joining this. It's like crack for people who like to measure things!