My name is Toni. I'm 30 years old and from the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area. I am a single Mom to a wonderful 13 year old son (who was recently diagnosed with Chrons Disease). I am hoping to join your group as I embark on my weight loss journey with Calorie Counting.
I am just coming off of 9 weeks using the new Weight Watchers Points+ system, and found it to be a plan that simply did not work for me. In 9 weeks I gained and lost the same 5 pounds over and over again. I simply refused to spend $40 a month and waste more time with a program that was not giving me the results I was hoping to see.
I am using Sparkpeople to track my food and nutrition progress, made my official weigh in day Friday's, and took my measurements to track inches lost too (which are just as important to me).
I am fairly active. I joined a gym in January and go 4-5 days a week. I enjoy Zumba, Step-Aerobics, and Body Sculpting and I work with a personal trainer.
For someone who is new to Calorie Counting, what is your best advice that you could offer me?
I really look forward to getting to know each of you and encouraging one another as we fight to win this battle!
Using Spark People to track calories is a great tool. I use them too but mainly use Daily Plate to actually track. But I like that Spark People is a community of people. I think of it as healthy living Facebook. My user name on there is NightAngelX.
I suggest counting your 'normal eating' calories for a week or two and see how much you normally eat, then reduce that amount. Give yourself a range of calories. Also some people calorie cycle. Meaning some days they eat higher calories but then eat less the next day to compensate. Basically they aim for a weekly average. I find this helpful for when I eat out.
Are you measuring yourself too? With all that exercise you may have been losing fat and gaining muscle and that could be why you were stuck on the same 5 lbs.
Looks like you are doing great though! Took me a year to lose 40 lbs! Congrats!!!
Welcome again! I hope others have more tips for you.
I may be stating the obvious but for ME--i won't lose if I eat a lot of carbs. I try to keep my carb count at 100 and I drink tons of water. I play with my calories a lot and keep it varied. one day may be 1250---and the next 1450. I selected a "range" instead of a set number.
Welcome and good luck. I find that planning is the key. I plan all meals ahead of time. I plan my my meals for the day, usually the night before or in the morning, this takes just a few minutes.
Ditto on the planning, and I'll go so far as to say, prepare them too. I know that's not always possible depending on your living situation, etc., but I ALWAYS pack my breakfast and lunch the night before. If I know/think I'll be home late and starving, I'll pre-prepare my dinner too, so it's just as easy as heating it up. For instance, I always always have frozen cooked rice and a few different kinds of beans in the freezer. Twice a week a make a big batch of varied frozen veggies and always have fresh spinach around. Sometimes there is an entre, like lasagna, in the freezer that I had made a week or two before. That way, I can just put some rice, veggies, spinach, oil, spices, etc in a container and it's ready when I am. (I'm vegetarian, but you could easily do the same with cooked chicken.)
Basically what we're all saying is that it's all about planning ahead. Good luck!! You truly can do it.
Welcome, Toni! I think you'll really like calorie counting! It has really changed my outlook on eating and weight loss since I started it in January. It really helps to keep me accountable to myself.
When I first started, I tracked everything I normally ate for a few days. I was shocked that I was eating anywhere from 2,500-3,500 calories per day and I didn't even realize it. I eat pretty healthy foods, but I was majorly overeating my "healthy" foods. I dropped my calories down to the range of between 1650-1850 per day (I change it up every day based on how hungry I am or what kind of food I am in the mood for!) and I've been able to lose one pound almost every single week since I've been calorie counting. Luckily, I eat pretty much the same thing almost every day (I am a creature of habit), so it's easy for me to track everything.
My advice to you is to be patient. Weight loss is a slow process and I've learned that I am not going to lose 10 pounds every week. Also, do you know if you are going to weigh yourself daily, weekly, monthly? I weigh daily because I retain water during PMS, TOM, and after a really heavy bout of exercise, so when I see a gain on the scale, it's relieving to know that it is not fat but that it is actually water. I keep track of my weight on a document and I can find patterns of when I should be retaining water so I know not to panic if the scale is up a little.
It's also helpful to have a digital food scale. I bought the Biggest Loser scale and I love it. I got it at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $15 because I had a $5 coupon, so they can be cheap! I use mine a lot instead of "guesstimating" how many grams or pounds something is. Oh, and something else...water, water, water, water, water! Drink lots of it!
Good luck to you, and this is a great board to come to for help! There's lots of good advice here!
log what you eat when or right before you eat it! You'd be shocked, you could forget a HUGE number of cals if you go back and try to remember at the end of the day. Good luck!
-If you're a smartphone user, you may fnid some of the calorie counting apps (such as LoseIt) more convenient than logging on a computer. But whatever works for you!
-Mentioned before, but I definitely recommend a range of calories, as opposed to a set number. For example, right now I shoot for 1400-1600, hoping for an average of around 1500. I also allow two higher calorie days per week (kind of my attempt at calorie cycling...but my high days are always on the weekends, lol) where I try not to go over 1800, but 2000 is my "red line". Anyway...shooting for an exact number every day can drive you nuts. We are human beings, not cattle on a feed lot!
-Give yourself some flexibility in challenging situations. Calorie counting is not an exact science and there are some times (social events, vacations, etc.) where it's just not possible to get an accurate count. Take your best guess, keep your portions reasonable and move on. For me, it's not about daily perfection, but long-term accountability!
Planning is huge! I am not a great planner in most of things I take on,but with calorie counting it will make you happier in the long run if you think ahead on what's going on today or this week that will effect the kinds of foods available to you so that you can fit them in your calories or have other items you can pack to have available. Calorie counting makes so much sense, I think you will see the results you are looking for!
Don't be afraid of fat, and don't forget to count your fat. I'm following a pseudo-Paleo diet, because it seems to work for me--if I eat good fats instead of grains, I feel full AND I'm not hungry. But I don't have much experience listening to my belly, so I count my calories to make sure I don't overeat when not being hungry. I use the LoseIt app to keep track of everything, and this would be so much harder without it...
Definitely get a digital kitchen scale. Weighing is much more accurate than measuring portions by volume (plus you aren't washing measuring cups every 5 minutes). Make sure it has a "tare" feature so you can put the bowl/plate on it and zero out as you add each ingredient.
Don't start out too low or you won't have anywhere to go when you reach a plateau. Many people have suggested tracking for a week or so to see where you're at without restricting toooo much. I would suggest just lowering enough to see the scale move and staying there until you stop losing, then lower some more. I made the mistake of restricting to very low cal from the start and I had lots of plateaus that I couldn't do anything about b/c my cals were already too low. I eventually got to goal, but it was painful! lol!
Pre-prepare, portion and freeze them. This method has been invaluable to me. I know in advance how many calories each meal has (so this makes my daily calories easy to count) and I cook for weeks in advance, so I always have something readily available.
Best tips/tricks/advice for a CC newbie!
Good luck!! You truly can do it. 
