Want to lose weight or stay in shape?

[AniaR]

So, this past year has been a struggle for me body image wise. After rounds and rounds of different medication I found my weight going up very quickly with no signs of stopping. My favourite clothes stopped fitting and clothes that were always loose were now very tight. I had a LOT of water retention and my face was getting bloated a lot.

Unfortunately for me after some discussion with my doctor we realized on the med regime I was on my weight would continue to go up and we weren't sure when it would stop. Since starting meds I've gained 20lbs, gradually at first, but then quite quickly in the end.

So, the meds are stopped and the water retention and bloating stopped instantly! Yay! But now... how to get off all that extra weight I put on (mostly in my tummy area!)

I have been working out, swimming, physio, having a very active job and I couldn't understand WHY it wasn't changing. I thought I was eating healthy.

Well, I started using a FREE website that also has FREE app called www.myfitnesspal.com and I wanted to suggest it to you all. I know body image and size is something a lot of mers are concerned with. This has REALLY helped me!

When you join, it helps you calculate based on what your BMI is and what a healthy BMI is and it'll tell you YOUR target goal for calories every day. (2000 is what is used generally because it fits many people- that # may not be the right number for you). It lets you input your food every day for every meal, tells you the calories but also tells you how much salt and sugar and pretty much anything else you'd like it to specify. It also tells you what you should be eating (in green) and if you over eat (in red) both with calories, vitamins, sugar, and salt. You can also put in all your exercise including things like cleaning.

It's a great free program, you can customize it for how much weight you wanna lose or muscle you wanna gain OR if you just want to maintain your body. It's also customizable for pregnant ladies to make sure they're eating all the right stuff.

So for me, the first thing I found out was I have waaaay too much sugar without even eating junk food. I didn't realize just how much sugar was in certain types of food! Same with salt! I also had no clue how many calories were in some of my favourite meals at restaurants. I'm not even talking fast food, I'm talking restaurant.

Here's a few screen shots



In this one above, you can see it's set up a bit like FB to be easy to use. At the top you see how many calories I have remaining that I can eat today. Normally that number isn't so high but when you look in that chart you'll see how many calories I burned. From the top bar and the left bar you can click to input your information for food etc. On the little banner to the left it tells you how much weight you've lost. Mine used to say 5lbs... then I went camping for the long weekend and ate hot dogs and smores all weekend. LOL went RIIIIGHT back up.




Here's an example of a day for me that's not too bad with food but still has a lot of sugar. Yesterday I slept through breakfast. Lunch ended up being my breakfast. Had plain yogurt and granola bars. Already 11/39 for my sugar, and 120 for salt. The salt isn't too bad, you actually need around 2000-2500 for that but keep in mind one satchel of salt from a fast food joint is usually OVER 2500g. As the day goes on, I have good intentions... I eat veggie rolls for supper. I had a mango with nutella on it as a snack later on and holy cow look at that sugar! Nutella as marketed as something fairly healthy... but that's a lot of sugar for a little spread!

Now you'll notice at the bottom it tells you how much you're likely to weight in 5 weeks if every day you ate like this. Normally that number is higher for me, but if you look down farther you'll see there's a warning telling me I didn't eat enough calories and my body could be in starvation mode.

That's not the first time I got that message. When I started keeping this food diary through my fitness (which btw you can access right from your phone so if you're ever in a doc app and you need to know what you've been eating you can pull it right up!) I got it frequently. I realized I wasn't eating enough food and enough variety, having too much sugar and salt, and barley drinking any water. No wonder I couldn't get that extra weight off. My body was keeping all that fat saying "noooo! I don't know when I'll have this again!". I also found my cravings for sugar were through the roof!

Yesterday wasn't the best eating day for me. But I have been doing much better. This kind of calorie counting doesn't work for everyone, but I have started FEELING better just by looking at those numbers and making better choices for the next day. I'll eat something with more protein so I feel full longer and don't get as tired. A lot of things high in protein have less salt and sugar.

Keep in mind my diet is extremely restrictive so I can't eat the same things you can. You'll have more choice than I do!

Myfitness also has a tab for recipes put together by the community that already have all this stuff worked out. You can menu plan and have it all done for you. They also have a big community of vegans, vegetarians, and people with diabetes.


Anyway, I have reallly enjoyed being on this site so I wanted to share it with you all. Like I said, it's free. I think it's great not just for losing weight but actually feeling HEALTHY. I have felt so much better just by changing things around and drinking more water. Plus, it's motivating. The social aspect of it keeps me motivated too. You only share as much as you want.

If anyone does join, feel free to add me : Rainamermaid :3

[Ayla of Duluth]

I have that on my iPhone. It's really nice, but I find I have trouble keeping up the motivation to record EVERYTHING I eat. we have a lot of locally owned food places that aren't on the list they have, and some of these places also don't have nutrition information besides allergy related things. It's nice if you can stick to it though.

Weight loss is something I've struggled with as well. Although I'm not exactly overweight, I do have a bit of tummy flab and thigh fat I'd like to trim down on. I'm not good at staying motivated, and for the longest time I just wished I had someone who would tell me what to eat for every meal so I could skip all the counting and calculating. Well almost miraculously, I found a book called "Eat This, NOT That." this book is amazing. It tells you what to get at the grocery store, what to eat at restaurants (it lists at least a hundred) how to decipher what is and isn't healthy on menus, and it even has a one week meal plan, what to eat for dinner every night for a week, it even includes holidays. It also says what not to get in all of those situations. It has helped me so much in my weight loss journey, I take that book everywhere. It acts as a grocery list at the supermarket, and since getting it I've been able to fill my house with healthy choices and avoid those deceitful snacks that claim to be healthy.

For those of you who are excellent trackers and recorders, I reccomend the fitness pal.
For those of you who just want to know what is healthy to eat and not, I reccomend the book.

[AniaR]

That books sounds great

One of the things myfitness showed me was how many calories and how much sugar was in the drinks I was drinking! So now I've cut down to one fruit drink a day and everything else is water (I dont do milk)

[Winged Mermaid]

I am so thankful that you posted on this. I jumped right in using the calorie counter (it suggested 1200 calories for me) and I've lost 5lbs in 3 weeks! I swore to myself that I'd never count calories, but I think I really needed it. You can think that you're eating healthy (I do more than most people for sure!) and doing well, but until you actually start tallying everything up you don't realize how much calories/sugar/salt/ect is in everything you eat! I know I was really frustrated before this because I thought I was eating so well and doing more workouts and I didn't lose any weight. First few days with this I was well over my limit by lunch, but I've gotten the hang of it. I think I need to work on my salt intake next. I've always been a sodium fiend :P

I really love that you can put in things like "light cleaning" "vacuuming" and "food shopping with or without cart" and "implied standing". Because sometimes you're busy doing errands all day and you don't have the time or energy for an actual workout, but you can put those every day things in and still "earn" some extra calories from all that burning you did!

Here's my ticker. You can see I made it special to remind me of my motivation




I've browsed through their forums and found some great stuff as well! I also love LiveStrong. I've been subscribed to their newsletters for a long time, and they can have some great articles on everything to do with health.

[ShyMer]

That looks like a really useful tool! Thanks for sharing! I know I'd struggle with recording everything I've eaten and done all day, but if anything I think it'd help me be aware of how much I need to change my habits.

[AniaR]

So glad it's working great for you Iona! I need to cut the sugar and eat ENOUGH instead of putting myself in starvation mode

[Seraphina Suds]

I've been on this site for a while now. It really is a great tool. You just need to remember to record everything and stick with it. The mobile app helps with that though.

Raina, I'm going to friend you! I think my name on there is sirenharpsong.

[Mermaid Sirena]

So what if you eat a lot of homemade things & don't know what's in them? Cause that's been the bane of every calorie tracker I've ever tried before (which is a lot).

[Winged Mermaid]

So what if you eat a lot of homemade things & don't know what's in them? Cause that's been the bane of every calorie tracker I've ever tried before (which is a lot).

I just add in the ingredients individually for the most part. Especially for when I do juicing (fresh veggies through a juicer). For big or complicated recipies there are places you can go where you can "build" a recipe by adding each individual ingredients then making serving sizes and it gives you all the stats. One such one is on sparkpeople (http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp). If you add them in individually on FitPal in a section by itself it will give you all the stats as well. Either way, once you know the total amounts and designate serving sizes you can write them down then add in custom foods in FitPal and it saves them for you

For things you don't know what's in them.. that's not so easy. You'd have to ask for a recipe from the person or just try and guesstimate. Like when I have restaurant food, but it's a family owned it's not going to be in the database and you don't know what's in it. Best thing you can do is search for the food, take a look at the stats it lists, and take your best guess and list that one. I've listed other chain restaurants foods even though I ate at a small local restaurant just to get in the ballpark.

[Mermaid Sirena]

-sigh- I was afraid of that, thank you though

[roamingmer]

Diet and exercise will help loose weight. But even the simplist foods can be heavily processed. White bread anyone?
Salt content, bleaching agents etc. In June I stopped drinking milk and eating bread or other yeast foods. I lost 4kg without changing my fitness / sports. The bloating of intensities stopped a lot. I made my own fruit smoothies without any added sugars, sweeteners etc. I still enjoy chocate whenever I want (in moderation) and don't need to Calary count.

Fitness programs which aim to tone the core muscles work great. 3 x 30min a week are good. Metabolism though takes between 6-8 weeks before showing any change. So don't expect fast changes. Don't give up if the scales don't change for weeks. This is normal unless you are on starvation mode.

[NerineArcticMermaid]

There's also sparkpeople.com

Its similar bit also had settings for diabetics

[roamingmer]

And just a thought for American cousins: when traveling there I have found it really hard to buy non processed foods without spending too much money. Reducing meat content and portion sizes helped, and preparing meals using vegetables and nuts (not completely vegan) worked well.

I also avoid diet drinks as much as possible. I would rather drink a normal cola with sugar which the body / brain can use (a 50ml bottle lasts 2 days) than lots of artificial sweeteners which pollute the digestive system.

Self moderation is hard but really the key

[AniaR]

Sirena they do have a lot of home made options that you can adjust. I do that all the time. You can also put something in there yourself if it's not in the database and it'll save.

[Mermaid Sirena]

That is super awesome, except I don't make them so I don't have a clue what they are called or what's in them.

[Zelly]

I found this a few days ago. I had to search the forums to see if any mers were using this. I am so excited to find something that helps me keep track so easily. If anyone wants to join me in my friends, you can find me under the name ZellyKat.

[monicabellie]

Not all slimming tablets are effective or safe to use to lose weight. There are a number of prescribed medicines available from your GP for weight loss.

[linda]

I think that you constantly feel hungry when losing weight because you limit yourself a lot in food. This can provoke overeating and you will gain more weight than you will lose. You can follow this link https://www.facebook.com/unimealapp/ , there is a lot of useful information there. Also there you can download an application that will help you eat right, lose weight without feeling hungry.

[mermankar]

I want it too

[vtorosort]

Would taking steroids be a viable option for me to gain muscle mass, given that I have tried several diets and workout programs without success due to my genetic predisposition? Are there any safe steroid alternatives or other effective solutions that I can try to help me achieve my desired muscle mass without any harmful side effects on my body?