- Joined
- Sep 21, 2016
If anyone is lurking and thinking about trying out CICO, I highly recommend it. I’m only a month in and have lost 6 pounds of ‘non water weight.’ I’m a normal BMI, but I was teetering a few pounds on the edge for awhile. Not anymore.
The adjustment period is hard. If you are used to eating a lot more than your TDEE, it will suck. The first thing I did was stop drinking soda pop. Replaced it with flavored water and now just regular water. That cut about 700 calories a day out of my diet.
CICO is pretty much up to you otherwise. I always think of it like a budget: “If I get burgers and fries from McDonald’s, I’ll only have 400 calories left for the day, and it’s only 1 PM.” You can allow yourself to fit the full McDonalds meal into your amount, right? Or you can just choose either the burger or the fries and have more calories to eat later on. Realizing that you don’t have to eat an entire combo meal all of the time was something that helped me too. I only drink caloric drinks if enough calories are in the ‘budget’ at some point of the day.
Pre-portioned snacks (I.e. for school lunch boxes and the like) are a bit more expensive, but it is so much easier to keep track of your calories and indulge without feeling the need to eat the whole box. I keep mine away from my desk so I have to actually get up and get a snack. It’s a little mental block that stops me, but it may help someone else so I’m sharing it.
I do a quite bit of body weight fitness to retain my muscle mass that I do have, but waiting until gyms open back up to really start to work on form.
@SickNastyBastard I have a question if that’s okay? This stuff has been pretty easy by staying inside and the fact most fast food is on MFP is really nice. I’m worried for when everything opens up and my friends start doing social things again— lots of going out to eat and the like. Is it okay to just ‘guess’ those calories if there’s no official amount? Or to get a smaller portion and to count it as a cheat meal? I just don’t want to fall back into the habit of feeling the need to overindulge because of social eating.
The adjustment period is hard. If you are used to eating a lot more than your TDEE, it will suck. The first thing I did was stop drinking soda pop. Replaced it with flavored water and now just regular water. That cut about 700 calories a day out of my diet.
CICO is pretty much up to you otherwise. I always think of it like a budget: “If I get burgers and fries from McDonald’s, I’ll only have 400 calories left for the day, and it’s only 1 PM.” You can allow yourself to fit the full McDonalds meal into your amount, right? Or you can just choose either the burger or the fries and have more calories to eat later on. Realizing that you don’t have to eat an entire combo meal all of the time was something that helped me too. I only drink caloric drinks if enough calories are in the ‘budget’ at some point of the day.
Pre-portioned snacks (I.e. for school lunch boxes and the like) are a bit more expensive, but it is so much easier to keep track of your calories and indulge without feeling the need to eat the whole box. I keep mine away from my desk so I have to actually get up and get a snack. It’s a little mental block that stops me, but it may help someone else so I’m sharing it.
I do a quite bit of body weight fitness to retain my muscle mass that I do have, but waiting until gyms open back up to really start to work on form.
@SickNastyBastard I have a question if that’s okay? This stuff has been pretty easy by staying inside and the fact most fast food is on MFP is really nice. I’m worried for when everything opens up and my friends start doing social things again— lots of going out to eat and the like. Is it okay to just ‘guess’ those calories if there’s no official amount? Or to get a smaller portion and to count it as a cheat meal? I just don’t want to fall back into the habit of feeling the need to overindulge because of social eating.
