"Never thought it was possible, but I successfully used spark people for 3 weeks, lost 5 pounds so far, and plan to continue."
How I did it: I always found the online calorie counter websites to be a pain --- slow to load, time-consuming to enter, and it seemed like something that I could just as well on paper, but I tried spark people and am just following their suggestions for amount of exercise and calories, and am thrilled at how well it is working.
I went off antidepressants a few months ago after 7 years on them. I didn't feel depressed anymore, but I imperceptibly started gaining weight, so weighed 12 pounds more than I did when I started, going from normal weight to overweight on a pretty small frame.
Having someone, even just a website, tell me what to do in a non-judgmental patient way and remind me that all I had to do was make small consistent efforts really helped. So far I've lost 5 pounds and plan to continue.
Specifically, this is what I did:
1. When traveling, I brought with me Indian food in a pouch. Each pouch is about 400 calories and when heated it is quite satisfying food. (It has to be heated to taste good, though.) Also tuna in a pouch. Also convenient to be able to enter calories directly from the package.
2. When home I did the following.
a: ate more meat. Chicken is low calorie without the skin and was easy to keep track of online. And it's somehow more satisfying than tofu and legumes.
b. Ate smaller portions than I thought I needed and was surprised to find them satisfying.
c. Made huge amounts of low-fat non-starchy vegie dishes and relied on them for feeling filled up. For instance, last night I roasted 2 huge pans of zucchini and summer squash and red peppers and onions with just 1 T oil in each one, plus garlic powder, chili powder. A huge bowl of this is about 100 calories.
3. Tracked even challenging days. One day I slipped and ate 3200 calories, but I just recorded the calories the best that I could and moved on. The BEST part about tracking calories is it let me acknowledge the mistake, realize that I was only 1200 calories over a reasonable amount so wouldn't take long to move past, and moved past it. New day, new webpage to track food on. And even with this mistake, I have lost 5 pounds in the past 3 weeks.
Coming up, I am going on a weekend trip somewhere where the food will be really good, and I've accepted that I will probably eat more than I normally would. I've in fact told myself that even if I ate 1 stick of butter on each of the 2 days it would be okay, just 800 calories extra and then easier to move on when I get back because I'd have enjoyed yummy food.
Conversely, I was also pleasantly surprised how little I am eating on some days without wanting more. I must be too high for my set point because I find I am eating like 1200 calories a day. I am guessing that once I lose the 12 pounds I gained so quickly I will want to eat more because I will be at my equilibrium weight.
Lessons & tips: If you have sufficient motivation, it's worth trying those websites just to see.
Resources: sparkpeople.com
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May 28, 06:31AM PDT
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