How discipline are you? How do you develop that level of discipline?

6 months ago I was about 35 lbs heavier than I am now and pretty fat. I went to the doctor because of bad family history and they said my cholesterol wasn't that bad yet, but a concern. I said screw this, and dropped like 15 lbs the first month and now I'm back down to what I weighed in high school. I go to the gym religiously and eat a really clean diet. If I decide I want a burger or pizza or something its planned and never gets out of control. I understand how people say food is addictive and all that, but just like anything is that is addictive, you aren't going to quit until you want to. That was my biggest issue, I'd say man I need to lose a few pounds and wouldn't do shite about it. Then I got my act together and decided to actually put forth some effort and the weight melted off.

It pisses me off everyday, because I've done it before. I was feeling as good at it gets and I want nothing more to get back to that feeling, but then all of sudden I catch myself with a spoon in the peanut butter.

^^^^

This.

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Plan every meal

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This. Even if you want to cheat, plan a cheat day.

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I catch myself with a spoon in the peanut butter.

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Is this a no no? I have to be honest, I am currently cutting and I do this once a day to satisfy the sweet tooth.

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Is this a no no?

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For me yes. I don't track how much I'm eating. So when a serving is 2 tablespoons (~170 calories) and I'm mindlessly eating the stuff, the calories can add up pretty quick.

Don't go to the grocery store when you're hungry for starters...

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I would sign up for Avatar, but knowing my level of discipline thus far I would stay strict for a week and a half then ruin it by going out to dinner one night then never using it again for a month. Wasting $9.

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Nah man. Avatar. It is game changing. It sounds counter-intuitive but less restriction can mean better adherence long-term. And that's what we're really after.. long term adherence and progress.

Realistically, if your goal is weight loss you should start out on the conservative weight loss. If you have trouble being consistent or staying compliant, you probably need to reverse. Avatar will tell you when your cals are too low and need to reverse, also.

And remember.. Trust the system. Sometimes you'll feel like you want to rush it or change your goals.. Don't. You need to stick to each goal for at least 2-3 weeks, but the longer the better. The more consistent you are, the better the system can tailor itself to you.

Seriously, give it a real shot. I'm on a reverse diet, and my daily intake up to 2433 cals/day and my weight is staying steady as long as I'm complaint. Hell, if I am compliant I tend to still lose. I also haven't been working out since I fractured a rib and I haven't put any weight on still. This reverse means I finally have some wiggle room with my diet; if I don't blow out my macros that means I can have a serving of edy's slow churned or a beer and stay right on track. It means I can eat out with coworkers at lunch and not blow out my macros (assuming I plan for it, or choose the right option) It's not cheating.. there's no morality attached to the food. Most of all, I'm not fricking hungry 24/7 like I was before.

eta

If you do sign up for Avatar.. read all of the newbie articles!!!! People don't do this and it drives me nuts b/c there are questions that are asked time and time again in the FB group that are answered in those articles.

correct. and you can play with the macros if you want. goto settings and you can select the high protein option. you can also do high days and low days. can also do higher carbs/less fat or less carbs/more fat.

Hulk can you post your spreadsheet that you use to track weekly calories?

Lazy, put those macros into my fitness pal. if you want to do low carbs on non lifting days, you can use your total weekly macros to see if you were compliant or not. Weekly is what matters, not daily. if you hit the macro parameters and total calories for the week, you are considered compliant.

you can do low carb days/high fat days or vice versa. but the main thing is consistancy. Like hulk said, the more consistant you are the better the logarithm will learn your body and adjust for those specific tendancies.

Avatar really is a thing of beauty for taking the guess work out of macros. I mean so long as your getting your fiber intake, who cares if your carbs come from cheese cake vs brown rice? for weight loss/ body comp the difference in eating clean vs being consistant on a iifym plan makes only about a 5% difference. Well if you are satisfied you can make up that 5% by just staying on a week longer. Better than feeling guilty for eating bad.

now if you had health problems that would be different, but for body composistion, might as well enjoy the progress.

Done.

Hulk, this spread sheet is great. Thanks man.


Also I don't see a higher protein option. Where is that located hulk? I scanned through the account setup...Activity level, body type, goals, diet, personal info... etc

ETA: Nvm it was under advanced features.