A friend of mine used Myfitnesspal a few years ago and was successful in losing weight and keeping it off. I tried it since it is free but I had to manually enter just about every recipe I cooked so I gave up and joined Weightwatchers. If the recipes I make aren’t in their database already, and if I’m making a recipe I found online, I can import it - so convenient! So the only recipes I have to type in are the ones I found in my cookbooks. WW also assigns the points system which is easier for me to track. I have already gotten the hang of it so when I menu plan I pretty well know in advance which recipes will be high in points which is generally the really starchy ones specifically the rice and pasta based dishes. I will focus this year on reducing my portion sizes hoping to lose a little bit of weight then reducing the amount of points/calories I consume in one day.
This is a feature in MyFitnessPal now, too, just FYI. I don’t have the app anymore but I remember the import was within the recipe builder.
Thanks for letting me know. I was wondering after I typed my comment if one can import recipes into my fitness pal now. The last time I used it was maybe 15 or 20 years ago,
I just estimate my calories using other entries that are already in there. I rarely measure when making food, and I don’t measure my portions precisely, so entering recipes would not lead to precise results for me.
I have been eating and counting calories long enough that I can estimate whether a breakfast sandwich I make is a 300 calorie sandwich or an 800 calorie sandwich.
The main thing is that I’m tracking my weight, tracking when I’m eating (I do that with a glucose monitor now), and tracking when I’m off the rails eating too much of one thing. I sometimes keep notes to ask myself why I’m choosing to snack or overeat, or what factors made me decide to overeat.
I’d like to get to this place. When I manually enter recipes from my cookbooks I only add the dressing when I add salads for example since the vegetables are zero points. I’m getting a bit better at identifying foods that are higher in points. Starchy vegetables, pasta and rice are three high points foods I need to cut back on. And keeping track of why you snack or overeat is a great idea.
I really never considered whether I enjoyed the drivel or not. I just tried to keep whatever the point du jour was in mind as I cooked and ate. Most of what they shared was already known or just plain obvious. I guess what I have carried forward from the whole Noom experience was being more aware of what I was cooking and consuming in terms of nutritional value. I remember with both fondness and horror breakfasts of two eggs, hash-browns, bacon or sausage, toast, an eight ounce glass of juice, and coffee. Today was one egg scrambled with a bit of Mexican crema rather than cream, a buttered English muffins, about three or four ounces of juice, and nine gallons of coffee. It was delicious, sufficient, and satisfying. Ok, one more cup of coffee.
Which was my biggest pet peeve. And as mentioned previously, any half-educated woman my age having grown up with the beauty standard de rigeur — which still seems to be “the thinner the better, or at least 10lbs less than one’s current weight 
” is painfully familiar with calorie counts and nutritional values.
My weight is not a health issue for me, and I’m over the esthetic ‘expectations’ laid at our feet.
That said, I’m glad Noom taught you stuff you were unaware of heretofore. It’s a popular program for a reason.
We’ve been fairly successful in having at least a piece of chocolate or a scoop of ice cream every night in December, and are planning to continue this regimen throughout January.
I empathise with the HOs who don’t like logging numbers.
I have abandoned my fitness watch within a few days as I don’t like tracking numbers long term. I can now reliably tell on which days I have not walked enough steps etc.
I look at calorie counts listed on packaging and menus and use these to guide my choices but I don’t count calories I eat. At the moment my main goal with food is to try and avoid ultra processed foods and to be more plant based and include more fibre. I hope to reduce my alcohol intake but I feel that’s a bit of a losing battle at the moment.
I used Omada, for me a diabetes prevention app, for several years and enjoyed the classes and community support. It was sort of like HO at the time ( 2017-2021… ETA probably not that long). There was much less community over time. It was considered a program more than an app, and it wasn’t free, but sometimes covered by insurance.
I remember trying a few recipes.
I am trying to get back on track with a low carb approach (I was successful with Dr Ludwig’s Always Hungry program) as well as an earlier endocrine- based program for getting healthier that had a similar carb-control methodology, but right now i am travelling too much, holidaying too much and enjoying bread and butter too much. Heading out on another nature tour soon, they always feed us 3 large meals a day. The apps really arent made for cooks, I used to use Fitday and cook very simply but its no longer available. Maybe myfitnesspal has been improved and isnt just a list of US supermarket products anymore but my cooking/our eating is nothing like american standard. Noom creeped me out with the coaching, also I thought the diet was not as sound as the carb reduction methods so I dropped it almost immediately. I wish everybody who is working on a healthy body good luck this New Year - my goal is to maintain my physical fitness and reduce inflammation, all of which points to getting overeating especially the carbs under control and not to be talked into trying any of the diet meds.
Right now I’m sorta-kinda following The Galveston Diet, mostly because it was written by a lady of a ceetain age for ladies of a certain age.
I dont fast as long as they recommend (it simply doesnt work for me) but Cronometer is a suggested tool. Right now I’m working on drastically cutting down on sugar and increasing protein and fiber. Those alone are cutting my calorie count.
Im slowly getting my body chemistry back on track…down about 12 since October, so hoping that as things continie to improve, so will that number!
My big event is all next week so lots of soups and stews around the campfire (and I’ll be super active so actually am looking forward to it as a good thing!)
A very long time ago I went to a famous diet doctor in SF, you went to the office 6 days a week for a weigh in and quick injection (vitamins?)
It was about 500 calories per day; you could have an apple or orange daily … I chose the apple, more filling. You lost weight every day. If I cheated and ate 2 apples, I wouldn’t lose weight. I eventually got down to 117, still had meaty thighs. Even at that weight, I wasn’t satisfied!
Anyway, I learned to bake apples, so satisfying, warm. I prefer Rome apples for this and they’ve been impossible to find, finally found them at Lunardi, about ½ hour away.
Anyway, you core them, remove some of upper peel, add about ½ teaspoon cinnamon, wrap in foil, bake on sheet pan at 350° for an hour.
I’m trying to lose weight now and baked apples help, down to 140. I’m aiming for 125.
I’ve always fought to keep my weight down. Even if I weighed 100 lbs I think I’d still have meaty thighs, I shouldn’t have been trying to look like Cheryl Tiegs, impossible.
I wish I could go back to my younger years and be more realistic, happy with myself.
500 calories a day is starvation. Unhealthy and impossible to maintain in the long run.
I’m glad to hear you’re treating your body with more kindness. It’s horrendous what the diet industry and unrealistic beauty standards do to our collective minds. Downright shameful.
I hope you find peace and happiness with yourself, no matter your weight.
I don’t even want to know how much $ I’ve spent over the years, Optifast, Fen Phen, everything. Even now, on Ozempic for diabetes (A1C was 6.0 last test!) I have to eat very little in order to lose weight.
I guess we’d all do some things differently if we could live our lives over.
When I was a child, I never drank water, just good ‘ole Coca Cola in glass bottles and orange juice. Several cokes a day, no wonder I was a chubby child!
now now you are still blaming yourself. some of us are chubby - or have meaty thighs or meaty arms - no matter how sparing or healthy our diets are . Its how we are built to be. The doctor said I was too chubby when my Mom was breast-feeding me - soon, as a toddler I was being fed skim milk. I had the “thrifty” gene, and still do.
Yes, I didn’t accept the fact that we all have different body types. I didn’t have to be fat but I was striving for a body type that was impossible.
I watch a Japanese tv channel, so relaxing in this political climate here.
Have you seen the school lunches there? Everything is freshly prepared on-site, no pizza, tacos, chicken nuggets, Mac n cheese. Alice Waters tried to make changes in school lunches in Berkeley, I don’t know how that’s going on now. The Japanese diet is so much healthier.
I am sure that is true and I agree that there is something charming and lovely about the attention to detail among the Japanese. . But some of the preserved and smoked items they like are problematic, as is I am sure much of the fish and seafood, given all the stuff that gets dumped into the sea and the same microplastics we worry about. Its hard to avoid the effects of modern industrial life, though there was a lot that was unhealthy about earlier ways of life as well.
