do I need to tweak anything?

Sarah_HA81

I would appreciate if someone would look at my diary and recommend any changes. Only look at today as today is my first day of actual logging. Also, don't pay attention to the meals, I snack throughout the day so I log it randomly into categories, but it is 100% accurate. I think I need more veggies, although the stew had more veggies than I tracked. Other suggestions are welcome. I tend to eat the same thing pretty much everyday so I will be repeating this entry daily, which is why i need suggestions. Thanks guys...

EvanKeel

A few observations.

This is potentially problematic:

...but it is 100% accurate.

followed by:

although the stew had more veggies than I tracked.

While veggies aren't frequently the most calorie-dense foods (apart from starchy ones), inaccuracies in general can cause problems with your logging.

I would suggest eating to your calorie goal, though. If you feel like the goal is too high based on your activity, then lower it. Eat back at least half your exercise calories. On the subject of exercise calories, 80 calories burned for 15 min of strength training seems a bit high to me, but that's why I suggest eating half of them back, as opposed to all of them.

Are you going lower carb for a specific reason? That protein level is a bit high. There's no harm in that number for a goal, but it can be difficult to reach if you're not used to eating that much protein. You may wish to lower it slightly, while raising the fats to compensate.

funchords

Why is your protein goal so high? (You don't seem to be on track to hit it.)

What are your stats and your goals? (Need to know so we can help see if your plan will fit it.)

...now I want beef stew...

Sarah_HA81

I probably don't have my goals for my macros correct. That was from when I was doing a specific diet that I don't think was sustainable. The veggie I didn't track in the stew were more green beans. Not too important and not that many in there.. I'm 5'5" and 235.

lemurcat12

It looks like her protein goal is so high because she set a percentage based on her pre workout calories and it increased when she added the workout calories. That's a common issue when you use the MFP method, and I used to just worry about meeting my basic macros and use my exercise calories however.

For the OP, welcome!

On to the suggestions: First, why so many unused calories? Are you planning to eat 1200 or so without eating any exercise back?

For the diet itself, I personally would add more veggies and would probably just eat the eggs and not bother with the whites, but it seems okay. The bigger issue for me is that I like more variety, but you'll have to see how it goes for you.

One thing I noticed was just logging issues. You aren't weighing, which can be okay (contrary to much MFP opinion), although I actually find it easier than having to measure or estimate. But one thing you have to worry about are the entries you choose. You used a "beef stew" entry and noted that it does not contain all the veggies. If you are logging a homemade stew, you would want to create your own recipe to be sure it's actually reflective of what you ate, especially the amounts of items like beef and potatoes, plus any fats used. If you are going to eat it every day or quite often, it's worth the trouble to create a recipe which you can then just use. Similarly, the chicken entry you used has reasonable calories, assuming it's a 8 oz skinless, boneless breast, but it's a kind of weird looking entry (possibly what comes up with a bar code?) and how do you know your chicken was 8 oz? I like the non-asterisk entries for whole foods like meat--there's "chicken-breast, meat only, raw" or the like--you just put in the details of the item you chose. Also, with any meat it matters whether you weigh it (or judge the size) raw or cooked, as a cooked item will be smaller but unless it says otherwise the calories given are based on the larger raw size (i.e., an 8 oz breast won't be 8 oz after it is cooked, but it will have the same calories).

Especially if you plan to eat the same items a lot it's worth being really precise in choosing the entries.

Sarah_HA81

I guess I have so many unused calories because I don't know what else to eat? It sounds weird - but i'm not a huge meat eater, and i'm trying to not have anything processed. I don't know what I can eat that would have more calories. I'm also quite sure my exercise calories burned is way more than I actually burned. so I'm comfortable with around 1200 calories and then adjusting later if I need to.
Variety isn't an issue for me. It makes things easier for me.
Thanks for the tips for logging. The stew isn't going to be a repeated meal. It just happened to be there, I forgot about that when I made the original post.

I weigh and measure everything before cooking.

arditarose

Yours doesn't look bad but you really can't say things like it is 100% accurate and then say there were actually more veggies in the stew than you logged. You have to be accurate and get that deficit going.

EvanKeel

I don't know that I've ever had the problem of having unused calories that I couldn't easily find a use for. That said, I like peanut butter. It is technically processed, but my preferred brand has fairly limited ingredients: http://www.adamspeanutbutter.com/product

I like the no-stir crunchy.

arditarose

I have 500 unused today and ima eat gelato

lemurcat12

Sarah_HA81 wrote: »

I guess I have so many unused calories because I don't know what else to eat? It sounds weird - but i'm not a huge meat eater, and i'm trying to not have anything processed. I don't know what I can eat that would have more calories. I'm also quite sure my exercise calories burned is way more than I actually burned. so I'm comfortable with around 1200 calories and then adjusting later if I need to.
Variety isn't an issue for me. It makes things easier for me.
Thanks for the tips for logging. The stew isn't going to be a repeated meal. It just happened to be there, I forgot about that when I made the original post.

I weigh and measure everything before cooking.

I just wrote a long post about the issue of having trouble meeting your calories elsewhere today. My guess is always that it will work itself out--when I started I was going overboard a bit and didn't want to eat more than a normal serving size of meat (it felt like too much), and so had lower calories than intended. Since I felt full enough I didn't worry about it but I got less restrictive and eventually also started being interested in eating more anyway.

Starches tend to add calories--potatoes (which are in your stew, of course), sweet potatoes, rice and grains (pasta, corn), quinoa, etc., although I suppose you might count that last group as processed. Also avocado, whole eggs, full fat dairy if you eat dairy. Nuts, of course. Skin-on chicken (dark and white meat) instead of skinless breast, so on. You'll figure it out, though, as well as what works for you.

If you are trying to eat non-processed and weigh and measure before cooking I highly recommend seeking out the entries without asterisks, as those are added by MFP (from the USDA database, I believe) and tend to be more accurate. I've checked a bunch of them, and they are reliable IME and have many options for size (100 grams is the easiest, IMO).

And, yep, I'm skeptical about the MFP exercise counts too. A lot of people eat back half or two-thirds.

Sarah_HA81

yes i realize i said it was accurate but then as I typed I remembered there were green beans in the stew. But the rest is completely accurate. Thanks for the tips about entries without asterisks. I will use those from now on.