Logging accuracy, consistency, and you're probably eating more than you think.
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SkinnyWannabe30 wrote: »I am looking for some advice....I finally have gotten on track with this weight loss journey, my head has finally caught up and I am determined to do this. I started wearing a bodymedia armband and getting a clearer picture of what I burn through the day, I have a desk job so I knew it would not be high but on average I burn about 2500. I started solid February 12th and have been tracking absolutely everything I put in my mouth and trying to be as honest as I can, I realize it won't be perfect especially when trying to track certain meals but I weighed in February 12th and as of February 27th I had lost 4 pounds and thought awesome I am finally on track, I proved to myself I was my own worst enemy before and not really be true to the process. I started adding in the exercise and about 90% of the time I am in a deficit of between 5600 and 7600 per 7 days. Since Feb 12th I went from 222.8 to currently 217.8....why am I not losing more?? the last 7 days from the 16th of March 16th of 22nd I was in a total deficit of 7347 and my weight remained the same when I weighed in on the 23rd.
It is normal that I would stay so early? I am eating between 1500-1600 per day and this week I dropped it down to 1450 to see if that made a difference but that would my deficit would be quit large.
Anyways, your advice and suggestions are welcome at what I should be looking at. I do realize I need to "clean" up my food still but I am very much trying to keep what I eat, good back and the ugly into my calories and not going outside of my budget.
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Maybe it's water weight? Are you weighing yourself the same time, preferably in the mornings? Are you weighing after you've eaten? Are you gaining muscle? Are you sneaking candy, sugar, carbs, adding extra sugar to your tea? Little things add up. At least that's what I believe my problem is.0
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Hi I dont know if i'm at the right place to ask this but I was wondering if after calculating the calories I ate, I still end up with calories left over, if its ok not to eat the number it says or I should eat the 200 or 300 calories left? My example: 1200 calories a day - 400 calories from working out = 1600...but after calculating everything I ate there's 300 calories left...
Thanks
I hope this is clear. 0 -
I'm amazed by the people being off by over 400 kcal as stated in the first post! That is more than an entire meal for me. How could anyone log that badly? That's like accidentally consuming 4 eggs and a whopping dollop of cream cheese.0
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once you lose the weight you want, and continue to keep losing you'll remember and notice a pattern in how big your portion sizes are. Until you reach that point you should log EVERYTHING and if in doubt always over-estimate. If you are still hungry after a day that you are more physical than you have put down in your weight-loss plan on here then reach for something in the hundred calorie range with lots a fiber (like an orange). Always ask yourself how hungry you are and if you say i'm so hungry I can eat celery...i'd say you are pretty hungry. Don't starve yourself, learn your portions and your body will learn them too. I lost 36lbs in 4 months from just reading my body for what it needed.0
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I try to make sure I record foods properly because it helps keep me on track and also make sure I eat healthier foods with good ingredients0
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I'm amazed by the people being off by over 400 kcal as stated in the first post! That is more than an entire meal for me. How could anyone log that badly? That's like accidentally consuming 4 eggs and a whopping dollop of cream cheese.
It is not that hard if you are not weighing/measuring your food and have no concept of how small some serving sizes are.
A 'normal' bowl of cereal to me is 2 servings - that's about 200 calories or so just there
A serving of peanut butter is pretty small - another possible 200 calories if you mess up the size (e.g. use a heaped tbs).
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melissalu4 wrote: »Hi I dont know if i'm at the right place to ask this but I was wondering if after calculating the calories I ate, I still end up with calories left over, if its ok not to eat the number it says or I should eat the 200 or 300 calories left? My example: 1200 calories a day - 400 calories from working out = 1600...but after calculating everything I ate there's 300 calories left...
Thanks I hope this is clear.
It honestly depends. If its a one off, no biggie. If its happening all the time, then it really depends on, among other things, how far off certain macros you are, the size of your deficit, hunger levels, what the rest of your diet looks like.0 -
xxZealousxx wrote: »At times I am so accurate that when I add food to my diary, I add each and every ingredient separately. For instance, chicken, vinegar, red chili powder, 1 g cabbage, etc. The calories in one serving goes up to 350 at times whereas the database shows 200 calorie in the same food.
Despite being accurate, I have hit my plateau and it's really annonying!
How long has your weight stalled for and have you changed your activity levels recently? How much did you lose up to that point?0 -
I'm quite new to logging foods, but how important is it to log everything even if they are not major sources of calories?
For instance, this morning I had a single serving of yogurt, a couple over easy eggs, and a piece of toast with Becel on it. Those got added, but I left off salt, pepper and some Tabasco on the eggs. It won't affect the calories AFAIK, but it definitely does leave me underreporting sodium which I'm consistently over on anyway. For other meals I generally don't use much in the way of creamy sauces but I do use S&P and various seasonings (or make my own out of herbs), and they would be a huge PITA to enter manually. If I'm not that worried about sodium intake (my BP is quite low), is there a weight loss/gain benefit to really tracking those things in fine detail?
I never bother. The calories are so small that it will not impact results.0 -
Despite what everyone wants everyone else to do, a lot of people who use MFP are not going to weigh their food. The fact that they're here in the first place is great, as it means they're actually trying, maybe for the first time in their life, and it would be discouraging to find that they can't input their food because something they ate is only listed in grams. There has to be a balance between what those who are intensely committed want and what those just starting out want. Yeah, I'm one of those who doesn't weigh things, but I am losing. Maybe not as quickly as others, but it's happening, slow and steady. Perhaps when I finally plateau, then I'll start thinking about weighing my food, but that's highly unlikely.
I find the same thing. Its hard to weight food every time using scales and measuring cups. One practical thing i find useful is to measure things using commonly used things such as cups and water bottles.
For ex. we can convert grams to cups using google. Then user regular coffee cups to approx your portion.
For liquids you can use typical 500ml water bottle and measure liquids. It might not be accurate but its close. 0 -
I am confused, because I have been losing weight. I sometimes neglect to log things.
Like yesterday my goal was to drink 200mls of vodka, but i think i accidently poured 275? Idk. Like I made 100mls but it was actually 125, the second drink i made was... idk i think around 104? Then i went to make another one, and i took like 1-2 sips and i passed out. how much did I drink?
I remember being in a jar of peanut butter, i didn't weigh it, i just estimated 2tbs, but how much did i really eat? i don't know. Today I ate 5 little chocolate things, how many calories are in those? This is a common theme of my weight loss. I lost 150lbs so far, and i am still losing, so does it matter if i am off on calories or not? just wondering, will it halt my results? It hasn't in over 2yrs.
If you're able to make consistent progress without weighing and measuring or even without logging or with inconsistent logging then no you don't need to change anything.
However, if results start to halt or they fail to meet your expectation, and you are not weighing and measuring, it's a good idea to do so to close the gap between what you think you eat, and what you eat, so that you can use a more accurate data set to make conclusions.
Also, at the very beginning of the post it specifically says "when fat loss stalls".1 -
I tend to over log food. Not much but some. If I know I'm not getting a full serving of something but more then half I may log it as 1. And that's because I know something will get missed somewhere or to make up for the tasting I do while cooking.0
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This is awesome, i dont even really think of these things while im logging my food... Gonna be super diligent today and see what my log looks like and how often im picking up random food items, like one cookie etc. this was a great reminder to always check myself !0
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melissalu4 wrote: »Hi I dont know if i'm at the right place to ask this but I was wondering if after calculating the calories I ate, I still end up with calories left over, if its ok not to eat the number it says or I should eat the 200 or 300 calories left? My example: 1200 calories a day - 400 calories from working out = 1600...but after calculating everything I ate there's 300 calories left...
Thanks I hope this is clear.
As long as you aren't over estimating the intensity of your workouts and exaggerating the calories burned (machines are very unreliable for their calorie count) then you CAN eat your exercise calories back. If you aren't starving and getting enough water you'll probably lose weight faster. But it's hard to stick with not getting all your calories long term.
You should eat your DAILY calories, but eating back earned exercise calories is up to you, I guess is what I really mean.0 -
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Walmart has cheap scales. I started off with a cheap one and have moved up to a bit better one and it inproved my weight loss and really made a differance. Another thing you can do is google to find the answer. Good luck.1
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birdiebunny wrote: »I tend to over log food. Not much but some. If I know I'm not getting a full serving of something but more then half I may log it as 1. And that's because I know something will get missed somewhere or to make up for the tasting I do while cooking.
I do the same thing! Id rather over than under loo0 -
Add me 0
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tiffanyking1976 wrote: »birdiebunny wrote: »I tend to over log food. Not much but some. If I know I'm not getting a full serving of something but more then half I may log it as 1. And that's because I know something will get missed somewhere or to make up for the tasting I do while cooking.
I do the same thing! Id rather over than under loo
that tends to be part of the conflict that I have in my diet regimen. I find that I lose more effectively when I'm eating packaged foods because they have the calorie nutritional information right on the packaging and I can just scan my bottle of protein, or my v8, or my individual pack of almonds, or my yogurt, etc. I get faster results that way. I know that it's healthier to have home cooked meals, but I don't normally measure when I cook anyway (I'm a pinch of this, pinch of that type of person) and I feel like cooking is a better alternative to eating out, not necessarily to something quick that good be healthy. For example, I'm totally addicted to these: http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/p/cytosport-muscle-milk-pro-series-40-chocolate-12-drinks/cy-2097?mr:trackingCode=660D84BD-0156-E411-AF04-BC305BF82162&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&id=CY-2097&sourceType=sc&source=FG&adGroup=40-60&keyword=CY-2097&cm_mmc=Google+Shopping-_-Product+Listing+Ads-_-40-60-_-CY-2097&cvosrc=cse.google.CY-2097&cvo_cid=61367160685online&gclid=CjwKEAjwsOKpBRCDtfOnzaDg3HsSJAAJ2ojiMCu-RFwd8-ujfAoexuaaivYsA4-sVhdXDgstEEMUURoC3QPw_wcB&kwid=productads-plaid^69685270189-sku^CY@ADL42097@ADL4VITAMINSHOPPE-adType^PLA-device^c-adid^61367160685#.VTlC7tzF87E
please don't tell me they're bad lol but the nutrition information is almost enough for a meal replacement when I'm eating 6 times per day, and definitely enough for a snack. I drank one for lunch today with an individual 90 calorie serving of cottage cheese. (might start another thread to ask about muscle milk) but when I can scan a barcode I find it's definitely more accurate for my food intake than my attempts at accurate measuring, especially when I'm eating out or eating at a friend or family member's house.0
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