Success with calorie counting

[redcard]

Just downloaded My Fitness Pal for my
phone and am going to use it to log my
diet and exercise.

Have you had much success with this method? For instance, if you have a calorie deficit of 3,500 have you dropped that pound? Do you see consistent and predictable results?

 

[calibanzwei]

Tried it a couple of times but the logging/scanning of items is a bit chore-like so I quickly stopped using it, however I now have more awareness of foods and calorific content and so monitor myself.

 

[amasidlover]

Have used fatsecret.com since last July, was at around 240 lbs I think, I'm now down to 177 lbs and did my first triathlon on Sunday!

I've been running an average calorie deficit of about 800 per day and this seems to do around 1 lb per week - having tracked my weight since Jan, the months where I'm very 'good' you see a sharper fall than the months where I'm not - I strongly suspect that when I actually start trying to maintain a particular weight I'll find that I need a slight deficit (or rather the inaccuracy of the calc gives an artificial deficit). But for losing weight it seems a very good technique; particularly after the first few weeks once you can find the stuff you eat regularly in recently eaten foods.

 

[Glover Fan]

Whenever I really want to lose a bit of weight I use my fitness pal. Anything that makes you think and question what you are eating is going to work. Always does for me. I'm only 10 stone, but usually after winter I end up at about 11 stone and I can lose that stone in a month with this technique.

 

[MrJamie]

I lost about 6 stone while calorie counting and exercising although put 2 stone back on over winter, I used to just keep a document on my pc listing what id had each day. The results were kind of as expected on average, but certainly at my weight it seemed easy to fluctuate day to day quite a lot, especially like carb loaded vs post-exercise and dehydrated. I couldnt get along with myfitnesspal, too much effort, but might try giving it another go to help me focus on not eating too much.

 

[Sittingduck]

Yes - Myfitnesspal has worked well for me

My losses were fairly consistent for the first 5 and a half months or so. I have seen a few fluctuations over the past month, due to various factors. This morning I saw a very unexpected number on the scale. Above all, you need to log food as honestly as possible (use a food scale to weigh stuff). Exercise calories are more hit & miss and I would say that you need to give it a fair amount of time (perhaps a cpl of months) to work out how accurate or inaccurate this aspect is. Don't believe the cals burned for cycling, based on the MFP estimator. By all means use it but I would also invest in a HRM to see how this compares and take it into account.

Top tip #1: drink lots and lots of water
Top tip #2: consider additional types of exercise, not relying only on cycling

Good luck.

 

[smutchin]

Do you see consistent and predictable results?

Don't know about consistent or predictable - body weight can easily fluctuate by +/-2kg from day to day for all sorts of reasons. Food intake alone isn't the only influencing factor and it's the long term trends that matter rather than the day-to-day figures.

The problem is that it's hard to accurately estimate the calories burned from exercise (might be easier if you use a HRM). And you can't measure the calorie content of all your meals precisely. Not to mention the fact that MFP works by using a statistical calculation of your metabolic rate based on your age and weight, rather than an accurate assessment of you as an individual.

However, using MFP does give you a much better idea of how many calories you are consuming, and makes you realise how quickly they add up.

And I definitely get results - I've lost over two stone in the past nine months and using MFP has been a hugely valuable tool in helping me achieve that.

d.

 

[Garz]

Tried it a couple of times but the logging/scanning of items is a bit chore-like so I quickly stopped using it, however I now have more awareness of foods and calorific content and so monitor myself.

+1 Even with the emergence of products to be scannable it's tedious to keep on top of. If you make healthy quirky meals then you soon drop the chore of entering it.

 

[Garz]

Have used fatsecret.com since last July, was at around 240 lbs I think, I'm now down to 177 lbs and did my first triathlon on Sunday!

I've been running an average calorie deficit of about 800 per day and this seems to do around 1 lb per week - having tracked my weight since Jan, the months where I'm very 'good' you see a sharper fall than the months where I'm not - I strongly suspect that when I actually start trying to maintain a particular weight I'll find that I need a slight deficit (or rather the inaccuracy of the calc gives an artificial deficit). But for losing weight it seems a very good technique; particularly after the first few weeks once you can find the stuff you eat regularly in recently eaten foods.

Have you been exercising on this deficit method? I only ask as it is straightforward to just diet alone but when balancing in the exercise it becomes much harder to factor.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Once you get a rhythm of just what portion sizes and foods fit your daily goal,you really don't need to use it religiously and count for every calorie. I don't believe in MFP as a long term app/site,slightly moreso a useful wakeup call to dietry ignorance and over indulgence.

When you spend mealtimes worrying that the next forkfull is going to stop your losses,it's a pretty certain way to develop disorders.

 

[screenman]

Definitely works for me, I use Mydailyplate.

 

[smutchin]

I don't believe in MFP as a long term app/site,slightly moreso a useful wakeup call to dietry ignorance and over indulgence.

Yes, this is why I've found it so useful - I don't think I really understood how much I was (over)eating before I started using it.

It's particularly good for alerting you to those foods that you might imagine are healthy but are actually highly calorific.

When you spend mealtimes worrying that the next forkfull is going to stop your losses,it's a pretty certain way to develop disorders.

True. Getting obsessive over the numbers isn't healthy. You have to use it intelligently, as a guide rather than a strict prescription. And listen to your body's signals too - don't starve yourself just because MFP says you've used up your calorie allowance for a particular day. If you need to eat, you need to eat. Better to eat "too much" occasionally than pass out while on the bike...

Also, how you use it depends partly on your personality. I'm a bit nerdy so I quite enjoy the tedious number crunching, whereas my wife hates it and can't get on with MFP at all.

d.

 

[defy-one]

Day 3 of use. Has certainly made me think about what i'm eating and if i need to eat. Last night i had a deficit of 55 calories from my set target, and it has been a similar trend every day. I'll keep you posted on weight loss. It has helped to show the relationship between exercise & diet in a way i can understand.
I think it will work as the desire is there now and anything that focuses me on my food intake has to be a good thing.


Sent by iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[amasidlover]

Have you been exercising on this deficit method? I only ask as it is straightforward to just diet alone but when balancing in the exercise it becomes much harder to factor.

Yes, I've been doing 4 miles on the bike 10 times per week since August, then since February I've been doing 20-30 mins running 3 times per week and 10-20 mins swimming once per week (on top of the cycling).

I'd agree with the above though about the calories being approximate for food and even more so for exercise - what I have definitely found is that the days where I feel hungry in the evening after my evening meal are the days where I've ended up with a deficit over 1000 calories. I would think trying to maintain weight is going to be the challenge; I'm 99.999% sure that just trying to end with balanced calories each day is not going to work... What I'm intending to do is compare weight gain/loss each month with average calorie deficit/surplus and then adjust up or down based on the answers.

Also, although I'm still using it I'm rather less anal about it than I was and have largely stopped weighing things and just guess based on experience; I do now have a good idea of what a sensible portion is and what foods I can only have a little of - my wife asked last night if I planned to keep logging all my food forever; I'm not really sure, currently it takes maybe 5 mins per day and its helping me get to a healthy weight so I think I may well keep on it.

 

[redcard]

Has anyone used this app long enough to notice any increase in metabolism?