help & a bit of encouragement, please

This topic contains 6 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by Pattience 10 years, 3 months ago.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

Deniselaine

1:17 pm
6 Sep 14
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Hello, I keep a food diary on Myfitnesspal and calorie allowance is 1240. On here it’s 1900. Why is there such a big difference and which one should I follow ?
I’m usually fine on Fast Days, however over last two to three weeks have lost the plot on non fast days – meals are ok, but comfort eating biscuits, crisps & M&M’s much to my dismay and more alcohol than usual so now on some days I’m having 1000 extra calories and struggling on fast days too (I do manage the 500 or less but very hungry & lethargic)

Pattience

2:21 pm
6 Sep 14
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Hi Denise,

Well i’m not sure what info you’ve entered into these sites but i presume, knowing what most dieters do, that you’ve put in that you want to lose 1 kg per week on mfp and that’s why its that low. however it doesn’t calculate your activity leelve and you are supposed to add calories to 1290 for the activity you do. EVeryone seems to get confused by it.

I think the calculators on this site make more sense.

I am not sure if 1900 is your TDEE but it probably is. That means on non-fast days you can eat 1900 calories. If your were not fasting and you ate 1900 calories every day, you would not lose weight. But hopefully because you are fasting, you will lose weight. But some of us reduce the TDEE a little bit on non-fast days as well. I reduce mine by another 50 or 100 i can’t remember which. Anyway you need to recalculate as you lose weight if you find your weightloss stalling.

As to overeating on non-fast days, are you stressed or something? A bit run down, not getting enough sleep? Any sort of thing that can trigger a desire for more carbs and calories? Clearly you are not in peak form.

Anyway you need to address any of those things if they are an issue.

I also suggest improving the quality of your food. More low GI, more protein, less carbs and refined foods because these are adding to your hunger. More vegetables, fruit. Less alcohol. More water. All the usual suspects will make you feel better and help you cope better.

you may have to make some strict rules for a while to help you back on to an even keep but you do also need to dress the underlying problem e.g. get more sleep, deal with your other problems/stress etc.

So throw away all the comfort foods. You don’t need them and they are not helping you. If you can’t resist them, get rid of them.

I’m on mfp also. I have a group called 3FC pals. You can join us there if you want. Or just friend me over there if you want. You can see my diary and vice versa.

Dummerchen

2:46 pm
6 Sep 14
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Pattience is right. On MFP you need to set your goal to maintenance otherwise it will give you the calories for an ordinary calorie restricted diet where you would eat les every day. There is no way to set MFP for two fast days a week, it is not geared up for that.

Deniselaine

3:37 pm
6 Sep 14
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Hello, I’ve just realised the rest of my original post didn’t publish, so here it is …
Have been doing 5:2 for over a year and either lose half pound a week or stay the same except Holidays & Christmas. 14lb to my goal weight of 11st 8lb
Walk mon, tues, wed at least 30 mins each. Sat and/or sun walk for at least 1.5 hours and I now have an UP band to encourage even more steps.
I’m going to start afresh on Monday … I hope … Thank you for taking the time to read my post x

Thank you for taking time to reply – I will manually amend calories in MFP to perhaps 1750 and am pleased to report that having just come back from a lovely walk, I’m feeling a bit more positive and the over-indulgence has got to stop! I’m very lucky that my husband is an excellent cook so at least I’m on the right road with breakfast lunch & dinner

Deniselaine

3:39 pm
6 Sep 14
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Rather difficult time at work, which now I think about it is when this started and I truly hadn’t realised the connection. Can’t do anything about the work situation, that will have to sort itself out but I will stop the over indulging

Dummerchen

4:41 pm
6 Sep 14
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Deniselaine, it might sound a bit stupid but how accurately are you logging the calories? Do you weigh and measure everything (solids should be weighed and only liquids measured)?
If your husband does the cooking do you know exactly what goes into the food? Every drop of oil and every dollop of cream?
It is very easy to think the little splash of oil for cooking does not matter without realising that it is actually two teaspoons of oil with all the calories.

Pattience

9:41 am
7 Sep 14
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Denise maybe you can’t change the work situation but you can change your perspective on it. That’s another reason why i suggest a counselling session or so. Try to find a way to “let it go”. Do you know what i mean? I mean what’s the worst thing that could happen. And how bad would that be really?

often for me, just the very realisation that its not that important, can help me stop stressing and start going with the flow more. And then you find other ways to distance yourself from the situation and just get on with things in a more easy way.