[UpDownAround]

Thanks, bizi! I hope you are right and I keep it off. According to studies, only about 8% of people who lose 30+ pounds manage to stay at their goal weight. I get justifiably accused of obsessing, but other studies indicate that most successful people stay focused on it, weigh often and track what they eat. I am giving up the dream of becoming a natural eater at the new weight. Other habits of people who keep it off are that the vast majority eat breakfast and there is a lot of repetition in what they eat.

While it might not become natural, I do hope it will become less of a focus.

[Tucson]

My weight is 179 pounds. This time I measured first thing in the morning after a stop to the bathroom. I did not wear anything that had any kind weight. I have started off the day with a McDonalds bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. I will have a turkey burger for lunch. I have not decided what to have for dinner. I think this will depend on my calorie count up to that point in the day. Perhaps a sandwich and soup.

I do not think I can maintain my weight naturally either. I will always have to be aware of the amount of calories that I eat from day to day. However, if I always eat the same meals that I have been eating, I will already know the calories involved with each meal without having to look it up. So sure there will be days that I exceed my target, like when I eat out, but for the most part, I will stay with the meals that I know. I do not expect to eat out much, for this is expensive anyways. Eating out to me is purchasing a Big Mac from McDonalds. What is nice in this example is that I can look up the calories for this hamburger, unlike going to the Olive Garden for meals.

I have just found out that the calorie counter at myfitnesspal does have information on the meals available at Olive Garden and other restaurants. Amazing. Simply amazing. So every now and then, I can go there and have a soup and salad, which is comparatively speaking low in calories, and is relatively low in cost.

[bizi]

Congratulations tuscon!!!!!
YOu are also doing so well.
I weigh in the 170's too. So I am looking forward to being in the 160's by easter after lent.
bizi

[UpDownAround]

Originally Posted by Tucson

I have just found out that the calorie counter at myfitnesspal does have information on the meals available at Olive Garden and other restaurants. Amazing. Simply amazing. So every now and then, I can go there and have a soup and salad, which is comparatively speaking low in calories, and is relatively low in cost.

Just be aware that the requirement for labels and restaurant listings is plus or minus 20%. In testing, they find about 10% of packaged food labels are not within 20% and 30% of restaurant listings are wrong. In most errors, there are more calories than specified. Sit down restaurants are usually the worst because portions are often larger than specified. A few nights ago, I had a piece of pizza for dinner and I purposefully chose the skinniest piece. There was another that was more than 50% larger. They don't get exactly the same amount of cheese on every pizza or get it distributed evenly, either. You just do the best you can.

[Tucson]

UpDownAround, thanks for the heads up. I will keep what you have said in mind. It is good that restaurants over estimate the calories of a given dish. That is probably to allow for differeing pirtion size that can come from the kitchen. But I may be wrong here. I will need to be careful what I order and how much I will eat when eating out. Keep it simple. Definitely no desserts.

[UpDownAround]

Tucson,
I wasn't clear; restaurants usually underestimate calories. They calculate it for a standard serving and tend to serve more than that. Most of the time, estimates are close enough so that a deficit is still a deficit when trying to lose weight.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 792 total. Apple Watch steps 4,312. Water intake 50.7oz. I’m still fighting a cold so I’m not real hungry. I tried to eat more

[Tucson]

I have ate about 2100 calories today which is the target amount to maintain my weight. Still a substantial protien deficit. I will have to see if I can meet the protien target more frequently. I have finished off the last piece of pie, so no more bringing pie to my home. I still came in OK with respect to calories despite this. At least I am doing something right.

@UpDownAround: Thamks for the clarification.

[UpDownAround]

Tucson,
You came pretty close to RDA on protein. 180 lbs = 81.65 kg. RDA is 0.8 g per kg, so it is 65.3 for you. It's 61 for me right now, but mfp sets it at 75 because of their formula for splitting up your calories across macronutrients. You can do a different mix.

I came in right on target yesterday. I had a couple of spoonfuls of frozen yogurt late at night to make it meet goal exactly (and because I felt like a little something sweet).

[Tucson]

My weight is still 179. My menu today will be in terms of calories off of the charts. My daughter’s 18th birthday is in a couple days. So I decided to make her Chicken Etouffee and Philadelphia cheese cake. The etouffee is a french influenced Cajun dish that is very rich in calories. The rich sauce also gets topped off with a stick of butter. I am thinking 100 calories a teaspoon full. Then there is that cheesecake. Looks like I will start to have to exersize, but this is good for me anyways. Still, I can always eat small portions. It will be interesting to see what my weight will be in a few days. Also what would be interesting is to add up all the calories of each ingredient to see what the total will come to per serving for the etouffee.

[UpDownAround]

Mfp has a recipe area where you input the recipe and it figures the calories.

[bizi]

Originally Posted by Tucson

My weight is still 179. My menu today will be in terms of calories off of the charts. My daughter’s 18th birthday is in a couple days. So I decided to make her Chicken Etouffee and Philadelphia cheese cake. The etouffee is a french influenced Cajun dish that is very rich in calories. The rich sauce also gets topped off with a stick of butter. I am thinking 100 calories a teaspoon full. Then there is that cheesecake. Looks like I will start to have to exersize, but this is good for me anyways. Still, I can always eat small portions. It will be interesting to see what my weight will be in a few days. Also what would be interesting is to add up all the calories of each ingredient to see what the total will come to per serving for the etouffee.

relax, live it up.
one day won't kill you.
remember 3500 calories is one pound!!!!!!
bizi
happy mardi gras!@
bizi

[Tucson]

I have survived dinner. The etouffee was rich but I allowed the roux to get too dark. The recipe has too much cayenne pepper. Otherwise, it went well. The cheese cake turned out perfect, and the graham cracker crust, which also uses butter, came out great. Allot of butter in the etouffee sauce, the cheese cake, and the crust. I will see what I will weigh in a few days. My daughter left me half of the cheese cake. I am going to have to give that to my daughter before I am tempted to eat it. I will use the recipe calorie counter at MFP to see how many calories was all of this.

[UpDownAround]

I bounced back up slightly - 169.0. I have been hitting goal, so it is water or digestive timing. Still kind of annoying, though it is nice that a bounce up stayed in the 160s.

EDIT - Work is trying to make it hard today. They passed out candy hearts. I got a Reese's heart that is 700 calories. I will let the kids divvy it up at home.

[99fairies]

I've been on a 5 day fast and I ended up fainting last night. It was so scary. I woke up and was very disorientated. So I had an orange to try and lift my blood sugar. I think I'll give up fasting for awhile.

[Tucson]

I did a rough calculation and the dinner came to at least 1200 calories, probably a bit more. Even if it was 1400 calories, it is OK, for I only had scrambled eggs before dinner. I actually suspect I came a bit lower than my target weight range. So all is well. My weight is 178. All my scales agree within a half a pound.

I am posting the menu I had the other day. I think this is close. I used generic versions listed at MFP for Philadelphia cheese cake and the etouffee. I also added to this the extra stick of butter that I placed in the sauce. It comes to about 2200 calories. It may be a couple hundred more, but I think this is close. So this is not too bad.

[UpDownAround]

Could not resist having some strawberry trifle at company lunch. I just had salad and a tiny taste of a chicken sausage dish as the rest of my lunch. I wish I had not had a fun size Snicker's or a really big apple earlier; going to make things tight. I have 468 calories left. Planning chicken breast and asparagus for dinner and then oatmeal for my night snack and I should be able to come out okay. If not, I can adjust tomorrow. I had to guess that a listed trifle was probably about right for logging. Man, that was good! Sometimes I feel bad about splurging because it really wasn't worth it. Not this time.

EDIT - Took a break and walked over a mile. That should help.

[Tucson]

I still weigh 178. I had a bit over 2200 calories for the day. I am having trouble getting a high enough calorie count today considering that my appetite is a bit below normal. I have had lunch, TJs Kung Poa, with no breakfast. I had an Olive Garden lunch portion of Fetuccini Alfredo. I had the last of the cheese cake. I gave the rest to my daughter. I am learning to eat smaller portions, or skip a meal, like breakfast, to allow myself a high calorie meal every now and then.

Here is an aside. I went to Trader Joe’s today. What an eye opening experience that was. Many foods are expensive, with some prices being way over the top. However, I have never seen the breadth of selection before with any grocery store that I have been to. Much of what I saw would be difficult to find elsewhere. And some I did not even know existed. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. So I will definitely have to return to Trader Joe’s every now and then. I just have to be careful with the cost, and the calories.

[bizi]

My hubby likes the dried tart cherries from trader joes. We don't have one here so he stocks up on them when we travel to indianapolis twice a year.
I like them also but rarely eat them as they have a lot of calories.

Had a wonderful valentines day dinner with my hubby.
We splurged and ate at a new seafood restaurant called: Drago's.
We started off with a dozen char broiled oysters. And then we both had the surf and turf, (half a small lobster and 6oz filet with 4 shrimp) and a small dinner salad. WE also had a side of sauteed spinach and roasted new potatoes. We wanted to use up the $100 gift card that I gave him for christmas so we shared the apple crumble with a scoop of ice cream for desert.
It was very delicious and worth the treat.
In the morning when I woke up Hubby had surprised me with flowers and a beautiful card with lottery scratch offs. (I did not win anything).
I got him some dark chocolate truffles and a nice card.
My diet resumes tomorrow. Low carb, no potatoes, no bread, no rice.
lots of veggies and mod amounts of protein.
bizi

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 987 Apple Watch steps 6,007. Water intake 33.8oz. I walked today

[UpDownAround]

I made yesterday squeeze under 1500, but I logged my last snack, an orange, as one of today's snacks. So I just have to make today fit and it will be evened out. Scale has been moving slower as my weight drops and maintenance is lower. I may sprinkle in some lower days to speed things along a little to get to 164 and then start going glacially slow, maybe upping calories to 1700 or so. It's almost as frustrating to be almost there and losing slowly as it is trying to get started at the top and having setbacks.

[Cocosurviving]

MFP calories 1002. Apple Watch steps 2,834. Water intake 36 oz. still fighting a nasty cold. Hope you guys are doing ok

[Tucson]

My weight is 178. I ate out for my daughter’s 18th birthday. We ate at the Cheese Cake Factory. The calorie count on just their hamburger is well over 1000 calories, closer to 1400 calories, so I only ate half of it. The cheese cake dessert, based on the tiramisu, was another big hit on my calorie intake. So I will have next a couple low calorie days. I had a margarita earlier in the day. I am not counting the calories from the alcohol.

Tomorrow I will try to keep my calories at 2100 or below for a couple days in a row. Lets see, scrambled eggs with pork chorizo, turkey burger with refried beans, fruit yogurt smoothie with casein protien powder, and soup. Perhaps even a banana. This should total to about 1900 calories. The following day will be the same except no casein powder for the smoothie, and a spaghetti dinner instead of the soup. This should total to about 2000 calories. Maybe I can get on an exersize bike for at least a half an hour. I do have a free membership that I have hardly used.

PS Just for something different, I may pick up a box of my favorite cereal.

[UpDownAround]

168.0 this morning - the lowest weight I have been in over 30 years. 3 pounds from goal, 4 pounds from a BMI under 25.

EDIT - Might be TMI, but if my GI tract's timing had been just a little different I would have been 167 and change. Oh well, at least I know this was not a low spike.

[99fairies]

I am seriously stuck. If I fast I weigh 142, If I binge I weigh 142, If I eat a healthy I weigh 142. What the hell is going on?