Looking for clean eaters
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I currently have it set to lose 1.5 lbs per week. I have tried TDEE. I have tried zig-zagging my calories. I do eat back most of my exercise calories. I have a HRM to monitor my burns. I have changed my workouts fairly frequently over the past year. Currently 3-4 days a week, I usually do a DVD workout at home - PiYo, TurboFire, or Jillian Michaels. I take Zumba weekly and another class that combines intense cardio with strength training. Most days at home, I burn between 150 and 450 calories. I also walk 30-60 minutes most days (but don't typically eat back those calories). At class, between 500 and 700. I feel like I have tried just about everything. Regardless, as I mentioned, my shift in diet is just more about health and nutrition. Obviously, if it sparks weight loss, GREAT! If not, I'm thinking of visiting with a nutritionist or dietitian perhaps.OP what sort of deficit are you running and not losing on? Excluding and then including exercise.0 -
Please try to keep your posts positive guys. I know it is the internet and a public forum and people tend to get wrapped up in stuff, but we all have a common goal in one way or another - to be healthy. I appreciate the input you all have offered, but let's try to keep the negativity to ourselves. Thanks!
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Do you weigh your solid food?? That's the question of the thread.0
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I am a very dirty eater. You would not believe the stuff I put in my mouth. Or what comes out of it.0
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No, I don't have a food scale. I do measure using measuring cups. I know that it is not as accurate. Just not in the budget right now and for me, it's about sustainability and I don't see myself weighing my food forever. Perhaps it's something to consider in the future to give me a better sense of how things weigh out, but it's not feasible for the time being.Do you weigh your solid food?? That's the question of the thread.0 -
sharitapita wrote: »
No, I don't have a food scale. I do measure using measuring cups. I know that it is not as accurate. Just not in the budget right now and for me, it's about sustainability and I don't see myself weighing my food forever. Perhaps it's something to consider in the future to give me a better sense of how things weigh out, but it's not feasible for the time being.Do you weigh your solid food?? That's the question of the thread.
I got a digital food scale for $9, it's lasted for several years now.0 -
sheepotato wrote: »sharitapita wrote: »
No, I don't have a food scale. I do measure using measuring cups. I know that it is not as accurate. Just not in the budget right now and for me, it's about sustainability and I don't see myself weighing my food forever. Perhaps it's something to consider in the future to give me a better sense of how things weigh out, but it's not feasible for the time being.Do you weigh your solid food?? That's the question of the thread.
I got a digital food scale for $9, it's lasted for several years now.
This. Measuring cups aren't even really "sort of" accurate. They rely wholly on how big or small you cut something, which has a huge impact on how much food there actually is.0 -
sharitapita wrote: »
No, I don't have a food scale. I do measure using measuring cups. I know that it is not as accurate. Just not in the budget right now and for me, it's about sustainability and I don't see myself weighing my food forever. Perhaps it's something to consider in the future to give me a better sense of how things weigh out, but it's not feasible for the time being.Do you weigh your solid food?? That's the question of the thread.
Well, the essence of weight loss is the deficit and if you are not measuring accurately, you are not logging/tracking accurately and all the efforts you are making with your exercise are being underminded by that. Whole and nutritious foods are great. You will still need to weigh and measure them - accurately. Until you are willing to do that, you are doing a great disservice to yourself.
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Weighing food seems rather tedious. Seems easier to exercise everyday and not eat back your calories.0
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Ok, here's a question, and it's more of a rhetorical one than one needing an answer: you said you already lost 40 lbs but are just now transitioning to eating more whole foods - so if the carbs/processed foods are causing you to hold onto weight for the last 10 months, why didn't they prevent you from losing those initial 40 lbs? Food for thought.
Honestly, it sounds like you are not in a calorie deficit. Have you recalculated your numbers for TDEE on a site other than MFP recently to see how they compare? You don't give your stats, but your calorie burns sound high to me.
As far as the food scale, you can get one for about $10-20, and they are really helpful, especially as you get closer to goal and your margin of error shrinks. You can gain weight on a clean diet just like you can eating anything else. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with whole foods, as I eat quite a bit of them, it just sounds like the source of your weight loss frustration may lie elsewhere.0 -
sharitapita wrote: »
This is why you aren't losing weight.
Eating healthy won't magically shed the pounds. Weight loss comes from a caloric deficit. You must be in a deficit to lose weight. If you are not weighing your food with a food scale, you are eating more than you think you are. A food scale is a necessity for weight loss.
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What I'm doing differently is that I am not eating such that I'm not hungry. I have had to cut my food intake the the point of my being hungry a lot and being ok with it. Being hungry means it's working. If I eat until satisfied...even if it's all "healthy" foods it's too much for me. I'll either stagnate or gain. Can't do it anymore.0
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What I'm doing differently is that I am not eating such that I'm not hungry. I have had to cut my food intake the the point of my being hungry a lot and being ok with it. Being hungry means it's working. If I eat until satisfied...even if it's all "healthy" foods it's too much for me. I'll either stagnate or gain. Can't do it anymore.
"Being hungry means it's working," is an incredibly unhealthy mental attitude. I lost 60 pounds never feeling hungry.0 -
A food scale is a necessity for weight loss.
Its a higly valuable tool and especially valuable if theres a stall, but its not a necessity.0 -
LoneWolfRunner wrote: »Weighing food seems rather tedious. Seems easier to exercise everyday and not eat back your calories.
If I didn't weigh my food I would probably still be around 250 pounds (the weight I was when I started to use MFP & weigh my food).
Did you ever hear the saying that it's hard to out exercise a bad diet? I don't mean bad by eating what some consider to be bad food (pizza, burgers, ice cream, fries, etc.), but rather thinking with exercise they can eat whatever they want all the time.
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sharitapita wrote: »I have lost about 40 pounds, but have been hovering around this number for about 10 months now.
Did you taper off? Have you been adjusting your calories as you lose?
I think there can be a couple of major reasons why this happens (based on personal experience). One is that you start out super motivated and count extra carefully and aren't tempted to go beyond your calories at all, but as time goes on that wears off, and--possibly even more significant--you start feeling pretty good in your new body and don't feel that it's quite as important to get that loss every week.
The other is simply that as you lose you need fewer calories, but people forget to adjust or hope they don't really need to.
I've been running into these a little now as I'm getting close to my goal and also have been doing this for a while. I'm still losing and just working with a smaller deficit and a focus on exercise and doing what I can sustain at maintenance, but it means there's a narrower margin for sure and you have to count more carefully if you are relying on counting.I have come to believe that processed sugar and carbs may be to blame. I eat pretty healthy, but have a sweet tooth. I thought allowing myself a treat a day within my calories wouldn't hinder my weight loss, but I think that may be the problem.
Others have said this, but if you mean you are eating at a deficit and not losing because of what you eat, I doubt it. It doesn't make scientific sense. If you mean these might be reasons you have having trouble counting accurately or going over what your calories should be, quite possible. I think people vary in what works for them, but I do find that cutting back on carbs or sweets can be helpful for me if I feel like I'm getting lax and lazy with the counting and compliance. This is in part because for me--although not for everyone--these tend to be the easiest calories to cut. (It's worked well this week, for example, as I substitute extra veggies for starch at dinner and also save some time cooking.)0 -
I don't know... I always could out exercise my eating. Granted now that I'm 57 I have to watch it more carefully, but I never had to even consider getting to the point of measuring food... but I suppose everyone has to find what works for them. If I feel I have eaten a little too much for a while, I just jack up my running for a week or two and it's all good...0
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Okay, crazy long even for me, so I broke this up. Feel free to ignore this part if it doesn't interest you:I have some great friends on MFP who are supportive and active. I get discouraged when I see their continued weight loss and they aren't eating nearly as healthy as I am, so I'm looking for other users who eat clean to help motivate me and to exchange tips and recipes with.
I'm not sure why it would bother you that they lose while not eating so healthy (as you define it), as you can lose weight eating any diet so long as it includes a deficit. I personally find it much easier to keep a deficit when I eat healthy (as I define it--you can look at my diary which is open and decide what you think, as I'm sure there are things I eat that you would disapprove of and probably things you eat that wouldn't be my cuppa, since people are different). I also find it important to eat in a way I enjoy, and I enjoy eating lots of veggies, cooking from whole foods, blah, blah, and just kind of feel like if others like different things (or a different mix), that's them.
I do enjoy talking about what's worked and not and exchanging ideas about eating healthy and so on, and contrary to what was suggested earlier in this thread I think a lot of posters around here try to eat generally well and care about nutrition. We just all have somewhat different ideas about what that means--and I don't mean Twinkies 24/7 or whatever. That's why it frustrates me when people are told that if they care about nutrition they have to go off to a special club of people who self-identify as "clean eaters," whatever that means.
But that aside, I think trying to eat healthier is great, although it kind of sounds like you might have been eating pretty healthy even before--am I wrong? (Not saying not to make the change, as if it's something you wish to try, I'm in favor.)
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What I'm doing differently is that I am not eating such that I'm not hungry. I have had to cut my food intake the the point of my being hungry a lot and being ok with it. Being hungry means it's working. If I eat until satisfied...even if it's all "healthy" foods it's too much for me. I'll either stagnate or gain. Can't do it anymore.
Eating healthier has actually helped many people because if you are eating high dietary fiber foods you are sated but with a much lower calorie count for the day. If you are hungry during the day eat a sweet potato, I physically can't eat two sweet potatoes in a day. I would feel like I was going to explode.0 -
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