Need to lose a stone

Pixie Girl

Weight: 148
Body Fat: 31.5%
Waist: 33 inches

Age: 25
Sex: Female
Height: 5ft 4

Goal Weight: 134
Goal Body Fat: 25%

I am so sick and tired of being overweight and unhappy with myself. I have tried soooo many fad diets (Weightwatchers, Dukan, Juice Diet, 3 day diet....etc etc... you name it and I've tried it!) It always ends up going the same way, I lose a few pounds the first few weeks then I get tired of it and give up and gain back any weight I have lost (plus more!)... I want to break this cycle and have decided to try to lose the weight I need to lose by eating healthy, counting calories and exercising.

I have worked out (using this website http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm) my daily calorie needs for weight loss. It works out at around 1,300 cals a day. I am going to track my calories using the fitday app on my phone.

I am putting this up on Boards as a way of tracking my progress... I will post an update each Thursday as to how I am doing. Wish me luck!!

If anyone has any tips/advice, I would appreciate it a lot. I need all the help and support I can get!

cojomo2

the only basic tips I can give you are:

forget 'diets'- don't make changes in your eating habits that you cannot maintain. You need to make lifestyle changes, not changes that will only last a few weeks because of how miserable you feel.

Choose an exercise you enjoy, maybe a team sport or something with a social aspect to it, otherwise you won't stick with it.

best of luck:)

Pixie Girl

Thanx cojomo!

Yeah that's what I'm trying to do is to forget "diets"... I can tell you better than anyone that they really just don't work! I guess I was always looking for that quick fix and then when the weight didnt come off as quickly as I had hoped I gave up, felt miserable and went on major binges because I felt so depressed and deprived.

Funny you mention joining a team... I actually just joined a 5 a side soccer league with a few of my friends a few weeks ago. I used to play when I was younger and really want to get back into it. Its only an hour of astro each week but its a start til I get fit and can join a proper team.

Edit: I've also started to get back into the running, used to love it before so going to try and do 2 or 3 runs a week to help with the weight loss!

Stench Blossoms

Join Myfitnesspal.com and log your daily intake of food.

Serafijn

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Join Myfitnesspal.com and log your daily intake of food.

Do this - I'm absolutely in love with this site

Tracking everything you eat really makes you accountable. It also highlights patterns and trouble points and opens your eyes to a lot of the foods that we're told are 'healthy' but actually are full of calories.

It sounds like you're on the right track anyway - it's all about sustainable lifestyle changes and getting active (doing something you enjoy). Just stick at it no matter what and you'll see the results over time.

Good luck

Pixie Girl

Pixie Girl wrote: »

I am going to track my calories using the fitday app on my phone.

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Join Myfitnesspal.com and log your daily intake of food.

Is it better than FitDay yeah? Do they have an app? Will check it out now. Thanx!

Serafijn

I haven't actually tried fitday, but MFP is the biggest site as far as I know for food tracking. It has an enormous database of foods, very active forums and yes there's an app (a very good one!) It also helps you track your intake of protein, fat etc so helps if you're trying to re-balance your diet a bit. The interface is quite good on customisability and also factors in your exercise. Highly recommend it

Gauge

+1 for MyFitnessPal. The barcode scanner is so useful, it made it about 10 times simpler to track my food.

Pixie Girl

Barcode scanner? Where is that?

Just downloaded the app and it is a bit clearer than the fitday app so gonna use it from now on, thanks for the advice!

Just have one question on it... when I look at my calorie breakdown for the day, the recommended split for my cals is Carbs 55%, Fat 30% and Protein 15%... Is there anyway I could change that to 40:30:30 or does it matter and which would be better for weight loss?

Gauge

The barcode scanner is there when you click 'Add' to add something, it's a little button beside the search box that looks like a barcode.

If you want to change your ratios from the automatic ones- log in online, click 'Goals' on the header, change your goals to custom and you can update all the ratios to whatever suits.

Pixie Girl

Oh my god that is class!! So handy! Thanks a mil for sharing!

Yeah I think I'm going to change the calorie breakdown now, thanks again

Serafijn

You can also change which nutrition it shows on the main food page, for instance mine shows saturated fat instead of just fat, and I track my intake of sugar too.

And you can add in measurements as well as weight (these are customisable as well so you can keep track of whatever's important to you). It's great!

Pixie Girl

Excellent, have just added in my body fat percentage measurement.

How do you change which nutrition it shows on the main food page? I cant seem to figure it out, sorry.

Stench Blossoms

Go to settings - diary settings and then you can change around carbs, fats, sugar etc.

Pixie Girl

*Update

Weight: 146
Body Fat: 30%
Waist: 32 inches

Age: 25
Sex: Female
Height: 5ft 4

Goal Weight: 134
Goal Body Fat: 25%

I lost 2 pounds!!! Woohoo! Delighted with that!
I tracked absolutely everything I ate on MyFitnessPal (it's brilliant, I love it)!!
I have a good bit to go but I am determined to get to my goal.
Thanx for everyone's comments and tips! Keep em coming

1300 kcals seems really very low to me. What kind of deficit are you aiming for per day?

Pixie Girl

Gia Numerous Blonde wrote: »

1300 kcals seems really very low to me. What kind of deficit are you aiming for per day?

I'm aiming for a calorie deficit of 500... Is that too much? I'm just going by what was calculated for me on My Fitness Pal.

Stench Blossoms

Deleted User wrote: »

1300 kcals seems really very low to me. What kind of deficit are you aiming for per day?

I don't think thats too low.

I'm doing 1200 and losing a pound per week.

zero_hope

3 words, LIVE LOW CARB

Pixie Girl

zero_hope wrote: »

3 words, LIVE LOW CARB

Amm ok.... like I said in a previous post, I'm currently trying to stick to 40:30:30.... what would you suggest instead?

shimmery

Hey pixie, congrats on your weightloss, you are already in a healthy mindset and if you can visualise yourself healthier and happier you are nearly halfway there

i found these links to be really usefull and im going to try them at home before and after I walk as cant make it to the gym these days.

Hope they help you or anyone else who needs a push into the exercising world

http://www.rte.ie/ot/video.html

Ps. they start on day one for each of the contestants and if you are fitter start at a later day.

Pixie Girl

shimmery wrote: »

Hey pixie, congrats on your weightloss, you are already in a healthy mindset and if you can visualise yourself healthier and happier you are nearly halfway there

i found these links to be really usefull and im going to try them at home before and after I walk as cant make it to the gym these days.

Hope they help you or anyone else who needs a push into the exercising world

http://www.rte.ie/ot/video.html

Ps. they start on day one for each of the contestants and if you are fitter start at a later day.

Thanx a million Shimmery! I will give them a go! I did a spinning class yesterday and loved it so gonna keep that up! Also gonna try some Yoga tonight... will let you know how I get on!!

Pixie Girl

*Update

Weight: 146
Body Fat: 30%
Waist: 32 inches

Goal Weight: 134
Goal Body Fat: 25%

Hey everyone! Just a quick update.... no weight loss but no gain either so I'm happy enough with that because I did a lot of going out and drinking over Christmas and New Years! Didn't really eat too much crap but a lot of alcohol was consumed! I kept up the exercise so that helped too!

Need to step it up now.... I'm still tracking everything on MFP and I have joined a spinning class and a bikram yoga class, so hopefully i'll see some weight loss this time next week

RobAMerc

Hi Pixie congrats on your progress so far.

one thing I noticed is that you say the MFP site has a barcode scanner.

Can I make a suggestion and advise you stop eating food with a BarCode on it !

You'd be surprised how quick you and easy you'll lose weight once you eat all natural fresh produce ( without a bar code ! ) prepared by yourself.

Newaglish

RobAMerc wrote: »

Hi Pixie congrats on your progress so far.

one thing I noticed is that you say the MFP site has a barcode scanner.

Can I make a suggestion and advise you stop eating food with a BarCode on it !

You'd be surprised how quick you and easy you'll lose weight once you eat all natural fresh produce ( without a bar code ! ) prepared by yourself.

Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc can often come with barcodes on the packaging you know. Not everyone buys their entire grocery shopping from a market stall.

busyliving

Sorry OP to be a buzz kill here...

I have in the past lost over a stone, and only to put it back on and this was through laziness and complacence. Losing the weight is the easiest thing to do, but keeping it off is the real test, that's why adopting a responsible approach is very important.

From the sounds of it, you seem to be going about this in a very good manner, but just remember when the weights off, you need to make sure you use all you've learnt during the weightloss process and use it to maintain you weight...

Sorry for the Buzz Kill

Pixie Girl

Newaglish wrote: »

Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc can often come with barcodes on the packaging you know. Not everyone buys their entire grocery shopping from a market stall.

Yeah most of the things I've used the barcode scanner for have been veg, chicken, porridge, milk, etc. It's just a handy way to get the correct nutritional info for everything

Pixie Girl

busyliving wrote: »

Sorry OP to be a buzz kill here...

I have in the past lost over a stone, and only to put it back on and this was through laziness and complacence. Losing the weight is the easiest thing to do, but keeping it off is the real test, that's why adopting a responsible approach is very important.

From the sounds of it, you seem to be going about this in a very good manner, but just remember when the weights off, you need to make sure you use all you've learnt during the weightloss process and use it to maintain you weight...

Sorry for the Buzz Kill

No problem at all! I know myself that keeping the weight off will be the hardest bit... I'll really need to focus on maintenance when I get to a weight I'm happy with

g'em

Sorry OP, we can't allow tracking/diary threads on the forum. Best of luck in your journey.