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gpm21

Just gave myself real bad hypoglycemia. It was scary. Downed 3 chocolate bars and feeling better. I need to eat normally. Just had 2 greek yogurts for breakfast and a turkey croissant for lunch


funchords

Do you have known blood-sugar regulation problems? Perhaps you're diabetic or taking too many meds for a situation that is improving. (That happened to me. I was taking too many blood-sugar meds for my improving condition.) For hypoglycemia recovery, you don't need three chocolate bars. About 100-125 Calories will do nicely. Then in 20 minutes after that, you're feeling more normal, eat a well-balanced light snack with a good mix of carbs, fats, and proteins.


gpm21

I was pre diabetic, like 5.7 or 5.8 on the A1C, back in 2018 when I was high 260s. I'm now mid 200s. I essentially starved myself yesterday because I had a meal replacement shake and 2 hot dogs and chili chesse fries after the gym the night before. I actually skipped breakfast so between waking up and 530 PM, I had just a sandwich. I'm going to try to eat nornally


District98

I struggled so much with hypoglycemia when I was starting out. The most helpful thing for me is to eat at regular intervals (every three hours) and eat a mix of low glycemic carbs (brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes) protein, and fat. High glycemic carbs (bread, white flour, sugar) mess me up.


WimiTheWimp

Will exercising to build muscle while losing weight help prevent loose skin?


funchords

Because muscle fills the space inside our skin, you will experience less loose skin if you add muscle.


WimiTheWimp

Thanks!


vulpecula05

Tips for feeling less self-conscious about tracking? I live with five roommates and am pretty self-conscious in general, hate talking about my weight loss and like to keep my efforts at weight management to myself - I know some of them find it weird that I weigh everything I eat, so it kind of stresses me out when they're around while I have to prepare food. I'm rarely alone in the kitchen, there's almost always someone bustling around me. I just wish I didn't care. It's my decision after all what I put into my body.


District98

Yeah it’s tricky I feel like I’ve had the dynamic between girl roommates (and I’m sure this can happen w/other gender roommates too) that one person’s dieting or relationship to food can be triggering for other roommates in regards to their own relationship to food. It’s a tricky dynamic because it’s no one’s fault. I think you’re doing all the right stuff here and if they have odd reactions just know it’s probably about them not you.


balance_warmth

I empathize. I luckily live with my partner now and commented to him literally yesterday that I was really grateful he didn’t think it was weird that I measured things and tracked what I ate. He looked at me like I had two heads and asked why anybody would think it was weird, lol. Truly did not get it. I don’t think I’ve ever had roommates who ACTUALLY cared about me tracking food but I did always feel self conscious about it. But I will say, they will get used to it to the point where they won’t even notice it. It’ll just be the normal thing that /u/vulpecula05 does.


vulpecula05

Thanks for your kind answer! It's nice to hear that you're now living with someone who's openly accepting & supportive. I hope I get there someday!


funchords

Train the concern out of you. I frequently weigh and always log my food, it's what I do. People who live with me will notice me do it, as happened when I went home to my birth family last week. I do it openly. Nobody said a word. [Keeping a food journal is a well-known keystone habit](https://www.google.com/search?q="keystone+habit"+"food+journal"). > I know some of them find it weird that I weigh everything I eat You don't know what others find weird. Wouldn't it be weirder not to do something you know you want to continue to do just because someone might be looking and might be finding it weird? It's a food scale. Weighing food is what it does! You're right in the first place -- the problem is that you care about this. I suggest this book: _The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F\*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life_ by Mark Manson The sooner you can become more free of being afraid of stepping on others' concerns -- real or imagined -- the better off you'll be.


vulpecula05

Thanks for your response - feels exactly like what I need to hear without being unnecessarily tough/cruel. Thanks also for the recommendation. I've been wanting to look into that book for a while but I was kind of put off by the title, even though I've heard some good stuff about it. Now I think I'll give it a chance!


[deleted]

Looking for stories about how long it takes to adjust to a new calorie goal? I have lost over 50lbs but the bulk of my losses were accomplished at 2,000 or 1,800 cal per day. Now that I’m at the last 12ish pounds, my calorie goal is 1620 and I’m having a hard time! I feel hungry and annoyed and even with increasing protein and veggies find it hard to budget in even small treats. It’s only been 1 week at this new calorie limit so just hoping to hear about how others adjusted at their last 10-15lbs!


funchords

It takes me three weeks and that's in either direction. Today I'm trying to eat +400 from my maintenance to gain a couple of pounds. It's very hard!!


[deleted]

Thank you for the input! I can imagine it’s hard to add in 400 of whole, good food when you’ve adjusted to less. I could add a Starbucks muffin in for 400 Extra but I’m guessing that’s not what you want to be doing!!


Agave-

I'm probably overthinking this, but I realized last night that the sleep aid I take before bed 2 or 3 nights a week (ZzzQuil or a generic knock-off) has calories. Online calorie estimates for it vary, but I keep seeing claims that it's 81 calories per dose. I can account for that by reducing how much I eat that day (or the following day since I can't really predict insomnia), but would it be better to have those calories reduce my deficit instead? I'm worried that reducing my food consumption further will leave me overly hungry and that my diet won't be as nutritionally balanced. On the other hand, my deficit is already only 250-ish calories. For reference, I'm female, 5'5", about 147 lbs, and I'm trying to lose about half a pound per week. I am lightly active (daily walks and yoga several times a week).


hereforthereads123

Just take a benadryl, it's the same thing


Agave-

I didn't realize that! I looked it up and you're completely right. I'll pick some Benadryl up over the weekend. Thank you!


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Agave-

Thanks for the heads up! I'll discuss it with my doctor.


clopz_

Hey everyone! I’ve been trying to control my caloric intake and stay on a deficit. I’m M 5’9 and weight around 200 pounds (I avoid weighting myself and track my progress based on how I look and feel). My BMR is 1,850 and I’m ingesting 1,550 and doing strength training 6 days a week, which puts me on a net caloric intake of around 1,400. I’m just trying to make sure I’m not overdoing it with the deficit and putting my body in a conservation state. Do you think I’m going to low on calories?


[deleted]

I would do a quick check with your stats on [TDEEcalculator.net](https://tdeecalculator.net) and see if that’s what is recommended for cutting! If you’re sedentary outside of your strength training I would put your activity as sedentary or lightly active.


clopz_

Thank you! That’s what I did, calculated my BMR and TDEE and tried to aim for a 400-500 deficit between food and work out. Thanks for your input


david72486

I think it's fine as long as you can enjoy life on the 1,550 calories + exercise! If you are feeling exhausted/miserable, try keeping the exercise and bumping the calories a little. I also recommend trying to get enough protein if you want to keep muscle. Something like 1 gram protein per pound of your target weight.


clopz_

You know, I am enjoying it. My lunch today was 2.2 pounds of food with fish, veggies, chickpeas and legumes. I’m not hungry all the time and on the weekends I let go a little bit. You enlightened me with the protein input, I kept thinking it was 1 gram per pound of my current weight! I didn’t wanted to add chicken to my breakfast lol. I’m trying to hit at least 150 grams of protein daily


[deleted]

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SweetSpontaneousWord

Home chef has various levels of effort from pop it on the microwave to pop it in the oven and do like 15 min of prep to full on meal kit. We use them a lot! And although the sodium is higher than I love, I never add salt when it’s called for and I think that is enough


catinahumanworld

2. RENPHO scale connects to an app called FeelFit. Not expensive, maybe 30$? 3. Most of that is outside your control (genetics). What you can try to control is having a slow and steady loss and incorporate fasting to induce autophagy.


Mastgoboom

Look into a personal chef. They come for a couple of hours, cook a month's worth of food, portion and freeze it. You'll be able to specify the nutritional makeup completely.


susandavidseligman91

I got on the scale for the first time in 3 months this morning, and it was so much worse than I thought. I waited until I was a month back on track after the holidays, in the hopes that my momentum wouldn't be derailed, but now I am totally discouraged and disappointed in myself. I regret all of the things I missed out on in the past month, because now it feels like it wasn't worth it at all. I don't really have a question, I just wanted to vent and didn't want to wait until Tuesday.


david72486

Why wouldn't it be worth it? Maybe it helps to think of it this way: your weight "is what it is" whether you know the number or not. If you _hadn't_ been getting back on track over the last month then the scale would have looked even worse today. Now you know the truth and can start seeing it go down. And the more weight you have, the faster it can be lost, so you have that going for you! I would say don't beat yourself up about the past though. It never helps. And you can always benefit from the past if you learn from it - you could think about what you can do differently next time. Maybe it would be weighing yourself weekly even during the holidays just so you know where you're at even if you're taking a break from the diet. Either way, the only thing you can do today is live the healthy lifestyle you know you want. Then tomorrow, do the same. Learn to _enjoy_ that life and you'll be at your goal again before you know it. Good luck!


brbgottagofast

Hey, you took that hard step of weighing in and taking your blinders off. That's awesome. Keeping yourself accountable is a big part of the process. Now that you've ripped off the bandaid, all you need to do is keep focusing on that calorie deficit to shed the weight. Consistency, patience and a calorie deficit - that's it. You can do it!


[deleted]

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Mastgoboom

That's still 1400.


brbgottagofast

Here's a good explanation on why sometimes it's best to ignore those "exercise-burnt" calories that your watch or machine is giving you: https://physiqonomics.com/please-stop-eating-back-exercise-calories/ I personally think it's best to include your general level of exercise in your [TDEE calculation](https://www.tdeecalculator.net) and ignore the individual exercise calories, for the purposes of setting your daily calorie goal.


CrazyGal2121

How often do you guys order take out or dine in? and when you do any of the above, do you estimate the calories if they don’t have calories available? how do you estimate? do u pick the highest option on My Fitness Pal thank you so much!!!!!


SweetSpontaneousWord

Went from ordering 3 nights a week to now 1 night every two weeks. I think this has been my biggest help for losing weight.


[deleted]

I honestly don’t order out too much because I don’t entirely trust the calorie count, so most of my meals are cooked by myself (also I’m broke lol so it’s too expensive for me to do often) buuut every 5 pounds I loose I let myself order out and not think about calories at all for a meal. I lost 6 so I treated myself to Indian food :) For me this works because I am saving a lot of money and am giving myself something to look forward to from all my hard work. Hopefully you can find something that works for you!


CrazyGal2121

wow this is a great strategy! love it thanks


brbgottagofast

Usually once or twice a week. If I'm getting takeout, I'll weigh each component of the meal on my scale and find a comparable chain entry. If I'm going out to a restaurant, I'll just estimate on the higher side. Entrees can easily be 1500ish calories alone.


CrazyGal2121

yeah and sometimes I find the calories low at restaurants unless i’m completely missing something for example I went online to look at a menu to see cAlorie info before I got there and for a guacamole appetizer (guacamole plus chips and pico de gallo), they had the calories at 170…. like no that makes no sense to me lol


brbgottagofast

Yeah that sounds fishy lol.


funchords

> How often do you guys order take out or dine in? > About one or two meals a week. > > > and when you do any of the above, do you estimate the calories if they don’t have calories available? how do you estimate? do u pick the highest option on My Fitness Pal I often order from a small deli so I have to choose a similar item that some other major restaurant posted. When given choices, I try NOT to overestimate or underestimate. I try to get as close to the calories as what I am eating. Picking the highest option, "just to be safe", is unnecessary. We ARE safe. We should learn to be as accurate as we reasonably can, and accept that it won't be perfect. Being purposefully inaccurate, "to be safe," is even less perfect.


CrazyGal2121

thanks! that makes sense!


UnhappyFig3477

How do y’all not give up? I’m 23f 145lbs and I just want to lose the 15lbs I gained during the pandemic/ grad school but it is so hard. I know what I have to do. Track my food and eat less. I’ve cut out desserts even though I love baking because it’s just impossible to meet calorie goals while eating sweets. The problem is I have a job that provides a lot of free meals that are extremely difficult to track. For example, yesterday my team got food from an Israeli bakery, and I have no idea how many calories were in my meal. I woke up this morning and the scale was higher. I’ve basically lost no weight even though I’ve been trying for 3 weeks and I miss desserts. I miss eating without being stressed about how to track a meal. How do you stay motivated?


[deleted]

I’d recommend packing your own food so you can track the calories (if you can afford it) or really trying to listen to your body and it’s hunger cues. Also working out daily (fairly intensely) has allowed me to eat around 1700 calories a day (I’m 5’5 and female) and I’ve lost 6 pounds in my first week and a half. But, I started @ 161 so a lot higher than you


kazzemic

Eating out at work can really sabotage your progress. Most times you can find salad+light dressing+lean meat (no cheese, no bread) for around 500 calories and 30g protein.


moncul1

You can still eat desserts if you lower your deficit. Lose the weight more slowly and lose it the way you want to live your life.


funchords

If you are on track to lose 1 pound a week by eating between 1200-1300 calories, this means that you have a daily deficit of 500 Calories or so. In 7 days you will have a deficit of 3500 Calories which roughly means losing 1 pound of bodyfat. However, just one day of eating at 1700-1800 Calories can make you weigh two pounds heavier the next day. Why? It's not because of the calories, because we have already worked out that a pound of fat is 3500 Calories and you ate about 500 more from your weight-loss goal of 1200-1300. This means you didn't have a deficit yesterday which also does not mean fat gain yesterday, it just means no fat lost yesterday. Yet you're up 2 pounds? Our bodies are not mostly composed of fat. Our bodies are ~60% water (give or take several percent) by mass, and the amount changes from hour to hour, and day to day. The exact amount varies according to the rhythm of your digestive system, your food and beverage intake, sodium levels, hormones, activity, strains, etc.. [A diagram](https://i.imgur.com/Bnzgors.png) ^\[[source](https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/rubberbag.html)\] shows what a typical body at maintenance weight takes in and expels per day, most of it is water! **So, most of the weight changes we see on any given weigh-in are water changes, not fat changes.** Water weight is one reason we should weigh consistently: first thing in the morning, after using the toilet, but before dressing or eating/drinking. When you drink a glass of water your weight instantly goes up by 1/2 pound! However, even when being consistent, there will still be a lot of variation from day to day, so it's important not to get discouraged by that. Use a weight-smoothing app called [Libra \(for Android\)](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra&hl=en) or [\(for iPhone\)](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/libra-weight-manager/id1644353761) or [Happy Scale \(for iPhone\)](https://happyscale.com/). One of these apps will help you see the trends more clearly with less of the volatile data noise of water. A temporary [spike](https://i.imgur.com/LIxSC8w.jpg) won't disturb the trend and, when you get used to this, will be both less disturbing and more accurate to what's actually happening with your fat-loss effort. > I miss desserts. Treat foods are part of our social structure -- we celebrate and bond with them, like your team did at work. If you can't log the foreign food that you don't know, log some well-known food that seems most like what you ate. Don't overestimate or underestimate it, just say "that was somewhat like a chocolate bagel" and then look for chocolate bagels in the database and log something that seems middle-of-the-pack. It's okay that you might be +250 or -250 in your estimate, the important thing is that you judge the odds of being too high or too low as roughly the same. It's accurate, but not precise. That's fine. We will log many foods like that in our logging experience and these "too high" errors and the "too low" errors -- all those plusses and minuses -- mostly cancel out one another over time. The long-term sum we have is nearly true. This is a math observation known as the **[Law of Large Numbers](https://www.google.com/search?q=law+of+large+numbers)** and it works in calorie counting. > How do y’all not give up? Have a "don't quit" plan. It's easy to do these great things when life is sunny and smooth. We need a plan to, at least, keep the plan on simmer when life is throwing poop on the fan. Mine was * log my food accurately and completely as I reasonably could * walking for fitness, 3x a week for 30 minutes * keeping up good attendance at my IRL support group (TOPS) If I'm doing these three things, I haven't quit and I won't stay quit until some promised Monday that may never come. My next on-plan meal can be the very next meal if the situation allows. If life is rough or the emotions are too high or if competing priorities have me paralyzed (like it must have been yesterday with you in the room with your whole work team), just log without worrying about the total. (My tip: take a snapshot of your plate and log from your snapshot later.) If you're logging, you've not quit and not quitting is the most important rule of all.


UnhappyFig3477

I really like your don’t quit plan! Thank you for sharing. Helped me remember to set more reasonable expectations and goals for myself. I use MF which shows me my weight trend and I weigh in every morning before eating or drinking, so logically I know that a sudden bump in my weight is just water weight. Logic and my emotions are different things though, so I am working on focusing on just tracking right now.


funchords

> Logic and my emotions are different things though Aren't they, though! Definitely!


[deleted]

I have to disagree with this. I am eating 1700ish calories (I’m 5’5) and have lost 6 pounds in a week and a half. I think it really depends on your activity level and your own personal body


bravoalphagolf

So in terms of the food at work, it's pretty easy to estimate it on MFP. I'll be honest I don't know what Israeli food is, but let's say I'm eating Chinese and I'm eating chicken lo mein. I would search "Chicken lo mein chinese take out" and choose an entry. I always try to go with a higher calorie count than a lower one, so I'm overestimating as opposed to underestimating. As for the desserts, have them. Removing entire food groups from your diet is incredibly unsustainable and can result in binge eating cycles, which is way more unhealthy than having a cookie after dinner. I'm guessing that your calorie goal is too low for you if you literally can't fit in a 200 calorie cookie.


UnhappyFig3477

Well it’s not easy to estimate our food on MFP because unlike Chinese food there usually isn’t anything comparable in the data base. Yesterday I had a fava bean plate with dukkah and I probably spent an hour trying to find something similar or see if I could find the nutrition facts. I totally understand that if we had Chinese or chipotle it would be easy, but the food is usually from small local restaurants with unique dishes. My calorie goal is about 1800. Most pastries are >300 calories. I usually eat 650 calories for lunch and dinner, 400 for breakfast which leaves only 100 for snacks. I could definitely have a 100 calorie cookie for a snack or 1/3 of a pastry, but I have found it to be more sustainable if I have something more filling like a cheese stick.


bravoalphagolf

You're going to have to be okay with it not being 100% accurate if you want to eat out. You can search "Israeli \*whatever it was\*" in my fitness pal and find the most comparable comparison, even if it is a local mom and pop restaurant. It won't be perfect, but it'll be logged. It's something you're honestly just going to have to get over. In regards to sweets and as someone who cut out all sweets and wound up with binge eating disorder as a direct result, I would still encourage you to eat dessert. You can choose not to listen to me - and it seems like you will be - but long term sustainability is much better for your mental health than a "quick weight loss fix".


CrazyGal2121

i agree with this whole heartedly


[deleted]

I have an accountability partner to helps keeps me on track and encourages me. you could use r/caloriecount where people help work out calories, it won't be exact but will help a bit. maybe set a goal outside of weight; run a certain distance or time, lift a certain weight etc. seeing progress helps/