Should I try less than 1200 calories a day?

missiontofitness

tentaclegirl wrote: »

missiontofitness wrote: »

tentaclegirl wrote: »

I measure my food, like by cups in measuring cups and I don't know how different that is from weighing it? is there a major difference so much that I have to go out and buy a food scale?

Measuring cups are for liquids. If you are using them to weigh solids (like cheese, grains, ect), you could easily be overeating and not realizing it. It's also difficult to know a proper serving of pasta without a scale as well.

Food scales are less than $30, and it will greatly help your ability to track your intake better.

i disagree with some of you on this, there are 2 types of measuring cups, one that comes with little lines down the side of it and thats for liquids and the other that usually comes stacked one in the other and thats for solids like flour, sugar ect... I will think about the food scale but after the gym membership, the portable water bottles, the gym clothes and shoes, the pedometer, the dumbells, the resistance bands, the fitness apps... all things that people told me I NEEDED, I'm a little out of cash on things that people keep telling me I NEED. No one has ever lost wieght without a food scale?

I've been at this for nine months, and I can assure you, the food scale was pivotal in this. People can lose without a scale, but that is because they are eating at a deficit. If you are at a standstill, you aren't. If you want accurate food logs, it is going to weigh things down to the gram for you, and you can have 100% confidence in your calorie logs for the day. With the measuring cups, things like flour and sugar are fine. But if you are trying to weigh oats, beans, tofu, ect, you are not going to get accurate results. They are not ground down fine like flour and sugar is, and you cannot level those off accurately in a measuring cup. Someone also provided an example of this with their measuring cup measurement being inaccurate.

People like me have been at this forever, and we can tell you what you need here on the site. All you listed above are great tools to invest in and have. Weight loss and maintenance isn't always inexpensive, but investing your money into the right tools can help you hit your goals and keep at them once you reach them.

My food scale was only $24 at Walmart (I got the Biggest Loser one), but they have smaller ones and ones with less add-ons for far less there as well.

Mediocrates55

I got my scale at Walmart for $10. Best $10 I ever spent. Once your deficit is 250 calories or under a day, eyeballing and measuring cups just will not give you the precision you need.

Serah87

missiontofitness wrote: »

tentaclegirl wrote: »

missiontofitness wrote: »

tentaclegirl wrote: »

I measure my food, like by cups in measuring cups and I don't know how different that is from weighing it? is there a major difference so much that I have to go out and buy a food scale?

Measuring cups are for liquids. If you are using them to weigh solids (like cheese, grains, ect), you could easily be overeating and not realizing it. It's also difficult to know a proper serving of pasta without a scale as well.

Food scales are less than $30, and it will greatly help your ability to track your intake better.

i disagree with some of you on this, there are 2 types of measuring cups, one that comes with little lines down the side of it and thats for liquids and the other that usually comes stacked one in the other and thats for solids like flour, sugar ect... I will think about the food scale but after the gym membership, the portable water bottles, the gym clothes and shoes, the pedometer, the dumbells, the resistance bands, the fitness apps... all things that people told me I NEEDED, I'm a little out of cash on things that people keep telling me I NEED. No one has ever lost wieght without a food scale?

I've been at this for nine months, and I can assure you, the food scale was pivotal in this. People can lose without a scale, but that is because they are eating at a deficit. If you are at a standstill, you aren't. If you want accurate food logs, it is going to weigh things down to the gram for you, and you can have 100% confidence in your calorie logs for the day. With the measuring cups, things like flour and sugar are fine. But if you are trying to weigh oats, beans, tofu, ect, you are not going to get accurate results. They are not ground down fine like flour and sugar is, and you cannot level those off accurately in a measuring cup. Someone also provided an example of this with their measuring cup measurement being inaccurate.

People like me have been at this forever, and we can tell you what you need here on the site. All you listed above are great tools to invest in and have. Weight loss and maintenance isn't always inexpensive, but investing your money into the right tools can help you hit your goals and keep at them once you reach them.

My food scale was only $24 at Walmart (I got the Biggest Loser one), but they have smaller ones and ones with less add-ons for far less there as well.

Yep this. Lost 121 pounds using a scale and still using it now and for a long time.

ColdPlum

I'm creeping on this thread, and for those of you who use a food scale, what do you do at restaurants? This is where I really get lost, personally. I end up having to eat lunch out a lot, though its all super, super healthy stuff, usually off of a paleo food truck with meals that are 100% organic, grass-fed, all minimally processed meats and veggies, but I have no way of knowing how much of anything I'm getting. Its better quality food than I would make for myself, but I KNOW my calorie count is off. What to do?

Serah87

ColdPlum wrote: »

I'm creeping on this thread, and for those of you who use a food scale, what do you do at restaurants? This is where I really get lost, personally. I end up having to eat lunch out a lot, though its all super, super healthy stuff, usually off of a paleo food truck with meals that are 100% organic, grass-fed, all minimally processed meats and veggies, but I have no way of knowing how much of anything I'm getting. Its better quality food than I would make for myself, but I KNOW my calorie count is off. What to do?

I estimate usually on the higher side, unless they have their nutrition listed then I use that.

Aemely

I find a cheap digital scale most useful for measuring foods that don't measure well in a cup, like pasta, meats, and vegetables. Pasta is the most important for me, as it's full of calories and I always underestimate portions.

Unlike others, I am not maniacal about weighing everything. I do not weigh individual serving size packaged foods (packaged bagel, sliced bread, half and half container, granola bars, canned soup, etc.). I do not weigh peanut butter, butter, jam, or any other condiment. I do not weigh a taco from Taco Bell. However, since I am not a vegetarian, part of my weight loss has come from adding more protein (meat) to my diet and eating less carbs.

If you won't weigh your food, you could eat more packaged, pre-portioned foods for a couple weeks to see if that helps (Trader Joe's frozen meals, for instance). That way, you would know that it's mismeasuring that is the problem, not some underlying health problem.

missiontofitness

ColdPlum wrote: »

I'm creeping on this thread, and for those of you who use a food scale, what do you do at restaurants? This is where I really get lost, personally. I end up having to eat lunch out a lot, though its all super, super healthy stuff, usually off of a paleo food truck with meals that are 100% organic, grass-fed, all minimally processed meats and veggies, but I have no way of knowing how much of anything I'm getting. Its better quality food than I would make for myself, but I KNOW my calorie count is off. What to do?

If the restaurant has nutritional information, I'll divide up my plate based on how much I want to eat that evening and overestimate a bit to compensate for my dividing/boxing the rest not being 100% accurate. Or, just not give a diddly darn and remember that it's only one day, and it won't derail me. I prefer option two when I go out and there's something good on the menu! But I still try to eat until I'm satisfied, and within reason.

missiontofitness

Aemely wrote: »

I find a cheap digital scale most useful for measuring foods that don't measure well in a cup, like pasta, meats, and vegetables. Pasta is the most important for me, as it's full of calories and I always underestimate portions.

Unlike others, I am not maniacal about weighing everything. I do not weigh individual serving size packaged foods (packaged bagel, sliced bread, half and half container, granola bars, canned soup, etc.). I do not weigh peanut butter, butter, jam, or any other condiment. I do not weigh a taco from Taco Bell. However, since I am not a vegetarian, part of my weight loss has come from adding more protein (meat) to my diet and eating less carbs.

If you won't weigh your food, you could eat more packaged, pre-portioned foods for a couple weeks to see if that helps (Trader Joe's frozen meals, for instance). That way, you would know that it's mismeasuring that is the problem, not some underlying health problem.

It is important to watch out for condiments too; peanut butter can easily put you over a hundred calories more than expected if not weighed out. I learned that when I first got my scale. What I thought was a serving was actually two. Prepacked stuff though doesn't need to be weighed generally, though. And a couple of us addressed the restaurant stuff, too. It's all about being accurate in your calorie logs, because being a little off on things throughout the day or week can sometimes lead to being way over than expected, and cause you to eat more than you think you are.

I also wouldn't use the word "manical" to describe people who use food scales. There are a good majority of us on that fully advocate them and have used them with great results.

Kalikel

Yes, the food scale will have you ending up with more calories a lot. Once in a while, it will show you that you're estimating higher than needed, but usually, it will turn out that estimated too low.

Of course you can lose without a food scale. Millions of people have and millions more will. But if your plan is to count calories, an accurate total is best. Why bother counting if you're not counting as accurately as you can, you know?

If you really don't want to weigh, you need to drop your calorie goal lower than whatever it is. Try dropping the daily total 100 calories each week until you start losing. Get to a point where you're losing. If you think you're eating 900, but you're actually eating 1280, who cares? It's still losing.

Irifeing

I would consider adding more exercise as well as looking at what are you eating on weekends. When you workout you may not burn as much as you think, if you cannot increase exercise time then try to increase intensity: move faster or/and lift more. Hope that helps.

JayRuby84

I don't have a food scale but everyone's responses here make me want to go buy one.

tomatoey

diannethegeek wrote: »

I agree with others on getting a food scale, but the first thing that popped out to me is that you say you're "lax" on the weekends. Depending on how your goals are set and how small your deficit is, it's entirely possible that you're undoing your deficit with two cheat days a week. I would start logging those, even if you go over, just to see what they're doing to your weekly calories.

Yeah, if weekends aren't going in, they probably should.

I actually didn't use a food scale during my big loss, just because it didn't occur to me. I did lose 50 lbs, BUT I think it's because I must have been eating far more than I thought I was before I started logging, so that even the sloppy cup estimates were a significant enough deficit to make a difference. I also think I had a much wider margin of error than you do now, though (my aim was to eat 1800 calories then, and burn another 250 off).

I am also not using a food scale now, but it's only because I bought two (cheapies), and both broke. What I do instead is google things like '1 cup cooked chicken with skin in grams' and then do a calculation for the database entry every time I log. That is a much bigger pain in the butt than just using a food scale, imo. (If I do get another, it'll be a quality one.)

With such a narrow margin of error, you will have to be much more careful about amounts than I was. (Like say you stick with the cups - are you levelling things off right at the line, or are they generous "cups"? Not a big deal, except if you (like most people) are tempted to fudge a bit, it'll hurt your progress [again, just because you have no margin for error]).

If I were you, I would measure with a food scale (I think you're getting the point), I would NOT go under 1200 cals, and I would add a 1/2-1 hour of very easy cardio every day, just to tick off a few more calories here and there. It won't be a huge burn, maybe 100-200 calories, but if you go too intense, your hunger will also increase and you'll set yourself up for overeating, which would defeat the purpose.

Easy cardio would be things like biking at no resistance or walking (not strolling, not sweating, but with purpose and briskly).

segacs

The food scale thing: They're cheap (usually under $20 for a digital one on Amazon) and mainly, they're enlightening. Before I got mine, I really honestly thought that portions were much bigger than they actually are.

Now, I don't think that food scales are absolutely essential to losing weight or anything. I mean, if you're overestimating but you're consistent about it, then all that will happen is, let's say you're losing 1lb/week and you think you're eating 1400 calories but really eating 1600 calories? Well that just means your TDEE is actually 2100 instead of 1900.

The thing is, consistency is tough. A food scale keeps me honest and helps me measure portion sizes for foods I'm not sure about. Eyeballing has tons of room for error, and when you add that together with all the other room for error built into this process (the 10-20% variance on food labelling, the difficulty in estimating exercise burn accurately, etc.) and when you consider that at my goal of less than a pound a week, room for error is SMALL... well, it's worth the investment.

It's helped for restaurant food, too. I don't take it with me, of course. But measuring at home is good practice, so it helps me eyeball portions in restaurants more accurately because it gives me a reference point for comparison.

jkal1979

Are you eating back any of your exercise calories that you burn? If so that may be another part of the problem. Along with eating more than you think you may be burning less than you think and that can wipe out your deficit. Try eating back only half of them if you are eating any at all.

Aemely

missiontofitness wrote: »

I also wouldn't use the word "manical" to describe people who use food scales. There are a good majority of us on that fully advocate them and have used them with great results.

If you have the time, energy, and motivation to weigh everything, that's great! I've found that I can lose weight without weighing everything (although I do measure most things, like peanut butter), but I totally understand that this approach may not work for everyone.

Unknown

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Aemely

jkal1979 wrote: »

Are you eating back any of your exercise calories that you burn? If so that may be another part of the problem. Along with eating more than you think you may be burning less than you think and that can wipe out your deficit. Try eating back only half of them if you are eating any at all.

Yes, very good advice.