the never ending search to find the thing that works..well I may have found it!

[Duffpic]

So over the past months I've been chatting with my counselor about why I can't seem to lose weight.  I realize I sabotage everything I do - why?  Because in all truthfulness I'm not sure I really want to give up the things that are keeping the weight on.  I make every excuse - "menopause, age, thyroid disease, body type, family genes, etc. etc. etc."   The truth?  the calories I consume are much more than what's being worked off.  Plain and simple.

So I decided last week that I would commit to doing one thing only - not change a thing other than logging in everything I put in my mouth.  I got home and said OK - this is it - I'm going to find out exactly how many calories I'm "really" consuming (to keep the 237 pounds I must have been eating at least 2,500 calorie a day or more). So it began and I found out many things in 7 days:

1.  Measuring portions and logging in is a pain in the butt (yet after first day I started to enjoy it - go figure!).

2. I found that I actually started skipping foods (i.e., the handful of croutons while making dinner) because I didn't want to log them in and be accountable for them (I used to say if you don't write it down it has no calories - egads!)  . 

3.  Because I'm actually weighing food, and doing portion control and calorie counting, I ate less.

4.  I pretty much ate what I wanted - so I was not deprived - even had my two 5 oz glasses of red wine each night. 

Result - lost 4 pounds!!!

Seriously?  Is that really been the secret all these years?  (I do admit that I'm exercising every day which helps and the day I ate 2,000 calories instead of 1,500 I walked 3 miles). 

So the journey continues - I know there will be set backs and days I can't measure, but this has been a real eye opener.  It's funny - when I really crave something, I just eat it - alot of times 1/2 of what a portion is just to get the taste, but I always write it down and figure it into my whole day.  Making that commitment, I even have found that I don't really want it after all because I'd rather use my calories towards something I want.   So go get yourself a food scale and make a 1 week commitment to log anything in?  What can it hurt... it worked for me!!

[Odyssey13]

Fantastic @Duffpic 

I've never used a scale and have gotten lazy about logging my food. This certainly shows that staying on top of things helps us in the long run.

Congrats on your weight loss and may it be the start of many more losses!

[WendyB]

Yep logging food really does help and be quite the eye opener at times as well.

Congrats on your loss! Keep us posted as to how your doing!

[JimC_99]

I Have been logging for over a year and it really does help.  Even if you have a bad day, if you are honest with yourself and keep track you can make up your calorie deficit by the end of the week...  Keep Logging!  

[Baltoscott]

@JimC_99 -- over 100 lbs down over the past year.  That is awesome!

I agree with you and @Duffpic that logging can be big weight loss help -- at least for some people.  I did it while I was losing weight for about six months, and then continued for another year because the habit was so ingrained.  I do it a few times a week now just to keep the focus on, but for the most part I've got a good idea of how much I'm eating without measuring everything anymore just because of all that logging in the past.  That and daily weigh-ins seems to have kept my weight stable since the loss about two years ago.

[gtg947h]

---

@Duffpic wrote:

Seriously?  Is that really been the secret all these years?  (I do admit that I'm exercising every day which helps and the day I ate 2,000 calories instead of 1,500 I walked 3 miles). 

---

Yep, it's the secret.  You just have to eat less than you burn*.  I think the problem so many people have is that they don't know what they're burning, and they don't know what they're eating, so they either lie to themselves and don't run a consistent deficit, or they get too drastic and starve themselves then give up because it sucks.

As you've noticed, it takes some discipline to look at your remaining budget and plan what you're eating to stay within it (or to push yourself for more exercise and activity to make more room).  I think a lot of people just eat what they want and see what it comes out to later.  And you've also noticed it's possible to "earn" more food through activity; the trick is without some way of quantifying it (like a tracker with good calorie estimates) you don't really know what you've earned and too many people overestimate how much credit they've gotten.

Sometimes you start deciding that some foods just aren't worth it, or you save them for special occasions when you know you have the room.  I've stopped even looking at the treats in the break room now (e.g. dougnuts, cookies, etc) because I'd rather spend the calories on something else.  But I almost always have some room for a treat at the end of the day--a beer or two, a glass of wine, cookies, or something.

* Yes, yes, I know.  Not all calories are equal.  But to a good first approximation, they are, and in my experience the differences play a lot more into how hungry you feel and how much energy you have (and consequently, the perceived difficulty of maintaining your deficit) rather than in the absolute numbers.  In my case, maximizing protein intake earlier in the day and reducing carbs, combined with higher activity levels, has worked to keep me from being so hungry.  A smaller, limited-carb breakfast of eggs, turkey sausage, and cheese is generally going to leave me less hungry a couple hours later than a much larger breakfast of pancakes, for example.

But, I run a protein-heavy diet (targeting about 150-180g/day usually) with a lot of lean meat, and do several intense workouts during the week.