Why people can't lose even though they eat 'nothing'

Francl27

So I was talking to my sister, who is quite a bit heavier than I am (not that much on the scale, but you can tell her body fat is probably 5% higher than mine at least), and tells me she really doesn't eat much at all. She actually only had a bowl of soup last night (maybe 75 calories worth?) because she wasn't hungry.

Then after spending two days with her this is what I found out...

- she drinks a glass of orange juice in the morning
- she eats half a baguette with jam for breakfast most mornings (likes sweet things for breakfast), or has a couple croissants
- she has a cappuccino drink every day
- she eats out most days at lunch (to be fair, I don't know what she eats at lunch)
- she has chocolate with coffee after lunch every day
- she had a cocktail or two a few times a week

So sure, she doesn't eat much in quantities, and might eat very light for dinner... but she packs up the calories without realizing it, especially with her drinks.

Needless to say... I'm very thankful for MFP! It's funny because in quantity I seem to eat more than she is, but I guess I just make better choices...

seltzermint555

Yeah, I know what you're saying. My mom's kind of like that. I am by no means a "clean eater" or anything. But my mom tends to go for easy frozen meals and similar things. She is puzzled by how I eat "so much" within my 1300-1400 calories. For example she likes a lot of frozen foods like Mrs Smith's pies or frozen lasagna...I think some of those portions are tiny and sad, but with a LOT of calories! So it does not seem like she eats much at all, and I eat a bigger volume of food most days. For example one of my favorite easy meals is French toast with fruit, and I'll have 3 slices of bread, 2 eggs, and sugar free syrup. To her that is an obscene amount of food and she would never eat that much at once.

obscuremusicreference

My weight gain can be put down to drinks and grazing on foods that are calorie-dense. I've never eaten an entire pizza/sleeve/bag of anything in one sitting--I think coming to terms with why I'm fat and my medical tests are normal would have been much easier if that had been the case. I feel for your sister, because it's pretty sobering when you finally realize just how much you were eating.

Alatariel75

It's so easy to overlook some really calorie dense foods when you just casually glance at your day. Beverages are especially sneaky, an iced coffee can set you back 400+ calories, which many people would just ignore when assessing how much they ate during a day.

47Jacqueline

Hard to convince someone that they are NOT eating nothing.

vicpoole188

In one of my weight watchers meetings the leader listed a few foods eg. party sausage roll, a couple of chicken nuggets, small fries, I think iced coffee and a few other small items (hiding that it added up to a day's worth of calories). She asked us whether we would feel that we had overeaten that day. To a person we said that we would feel like we hadn't eaten anything much at all that day. She then revealed another list as long as your arm including low fat milk, cereal, salad, fruit, chicken, vegetables etc and asked the same question. We all said no way we would be able to eat all that in a day. You guessed it! The calorie content was the same. I've never forgotten that demonstration. :-)

nutty192

Just been reading these letters. Please, what is sugar free syrup? Nutty

Alluminati

nutty192 wrote: »

Just been reading these letters. Please, what is sugar free syrup? Nutty

Syrup that has artificial sweeteners and waaaay less calories than regular syrup.

A staple for me as well, when I make our weekly Sunday breakfast of French toast topped with fruit, whipped cream, and bacon. It tastes fine to me, and worth saving 200 cals for something else.

nutty192

I have not seen this. Is it available in the UK? Nutty

irenehb

nutty192 wrote: »

I have not seen this. Is it available in the UK? Nutty

Sadly, not available in Australia either, though I am sure it can be ordered online for an arm and a leg.

Alluminati

irenehb wrote: »

nutty192 wrote: »

I have not seen this. Is it available in the UK? Nutty

Sadly, not available in Australia either, though I am sure it can be ordered online for an arm and a leg.

Aww, sorry to hear that, guys.

tiptoethruthetulips

You only spent two days with her and not full days at that. She probably eats more when she is by herself and probably eats more than she lets on. I was an expert at hiding how much I actually ate.

irenehb

I spoke too soon, seems queens has a sugar free maple syrup in supermarket but I've never seen it on the shelf.

irenehb

tiptoethruthetulips wrote: »

You only spent two days with her and not full days at that. She probably eats more when she is by herself and probably eats more than she lets on. I was an expert at hiding how much I actually ate.

True but I think the OP was saying many people don't realise how many calories they consume via drinks. On an epsiode of secret eaters, a guy lost weight because he was still eating his usual food intake but switched to diet soda during the recorded week.

KarenJanine

nutty192 wrote: »

I have not seen this. Is it available in the UK? Nutty

The Protein Works sell various flavours of low calorie syrups online: http://www.theproteinworks.com/zero-syrups-2195.html

nknjansen

It's a hard habit to break, but once someone is truly honest about how much they are eating, it's a lot easier to make healthy and satisfying choices that will let them maintain the calorie deficit in relative comfort and then make good decisions to maintain the loss.

You need to be honest about everything entering your mouth (drinks, "just one" candy, etc) and probably need to try out a food scale to get a true idea of how much you're eating as well.

I know it was a real eye opener for me.

Ninkyou

My mother (who now lives with me) says the same thing. "I really don't eat that much."
But after observing her... yeah.... she probably doesn't eat much in QUANTITY, but she eats alot CALORICALLY and she also drinks alot of calories.

Typically she has a bagel thin with cream cheese (who knows how many tbsp of it, but it's at least 2 servings from what I see). OR she'll have a bacon sandwich (which ends up being like half a package of bacon) with like 2-3 servings of light mayo.
She'll have 4-5 tall glasses of 2% milk with chocolate syrup
Then she'll have another bagel thin with cream cheese
Dinner is whatever I cook, and she probably eats like half of what I do.
And then she'll finish the day off with 2-3 servings of ice cream.

And then she complains that she can't lose weight. Well gee, it's no wonder.

Also, my mother is like the epitome of broscience believing and fad/yoyo dieting doing. She keeps saying lately she wants to get into doing smoothies and juicing. All of this makes me and I really wish I could help her... but she needs to figure it out herself or she'll never be successful. I can only help her so much. It sucks watching her though and not being able to do anything about it.


So yeah... you may not 'eat much', but everything adds up in calories.

scupit

Yeah, I used to wonder why I wasn't losing weight too...until I started tracking! When you track, you pay attention to every single bite. I was really bad about snacking on my kid's snacks. Pour them Cheezits and I have a handful. I mean, it's just a handful. Or just a couple of beers. Before you know it, you're way over your calories for the day. I have a friend who is obese and she constantly says that she doesn't eat much. And she always eats way less than I do when we go out to eat. BUt she also makes different decisions that I do. She will order pasta whereas I will order a salad and barely use any dressing. Different choices, different outcome.

melimomTARDIS

I have a friend who says similar. We hang out all the time, and I dont know if she eats differently when I am not around, but when we are together she drinks a 44oz pepsi every morning for breakfast, bits and bites throughout the day, and then a very large dinner, usually some sort of meaty-cheesy dish.

Its her life! I dont talk calories with her, at all. But she insists she only "really" eats once a day.

snowflake930

I agree with most of this. That is why MFP is such a valuable tool, and is why logging everything you eat and drink is so important to weight loss.
I have definitely become a person that eats my calories, not drinks them. The chewing of food is much more satisfying to me than drinking calories. Just me and that is the way it is for me.

yourpalsoap

nutty192 wrote: »

I have not seen this. Is it available in the UK? Nutty

you can get them on amazon!

search for "walden farms" and "da vinci gourmet". walden farms do lots of syrups and sauces that are virtually calorie free, but I haven't tried those. I own like 6 different sugar-free, dairy free syrups from da vinci though! the ones I've tried are all lovely! I add them to protein shakes, porridge, coffee and hot chocolate, etc :----)

gothchiq

So essentially, she gets a lot of liquid calories. A lot of people do. This is why I don't drink juice, soda, sweet coffee drinks that are really just milkshakes, cocktails, etc. The few calories I get, I need to have food satisfaction from them!

strueblood

Alcohol is the anti weight loss drug. I have, in the past, ate very healthy and within my calories even counting the alcohol and it's next to impossible to loose weight. Not only that, if you catch a bit of a buzz you get hungry and choose what ever you want to eat without a care. Yea, trying to lose weight and cocktails doesn't work.

enchant3755

irenehb wrote: »

nutty192 wrote: »

I have not seen this. Is it available in the UK? Nutty

Sadly, not available in Australia either, though I am sure it can be ordered online for an arm and a leg.

For those outside US who want sugar free syrup, you could make your own. My mom used to dissolve maple extract into hot sugar/water to make our syrup. You could use splenda, or a more natural sweetner, like monk fruit, truvia, agave and add the maple extract. It's possible if you experiment some. Agave is liquid form so maybe dilute a bit since it is strong.

PearlAng

strueblood wrote: »

Alcohol is the anti weight loss drug. I have, in the past, ate very healthy and within my calories even counting the alcohol and it's next to impossible to loose weight. Not only that, if you catch a bit of a buzz you get hungry and choose what ever you want to eat without a care. Yea, trying to lose weight and cocktails doesn't work.

Yep, that's my mom exactly. There have been times where she would eat very little and drink and wake up a few pounds lighter but I wouldn't exactly consider that a good, sustainable way of weight loss

tag624

this used to be me....eating 1000 calories on some days, then I would be so hungry I would binge every week, resulting in no weight loss, I decided to stick to eating no more than 2000 calories and if I wanted a cookie I ate it, finally I was able to lose some weight.

GothyFaery

Before I found MFP I used to say the same thing. And quantity wise, it was the truth. I would literally eat nothing all day at work but when I got home I would drink soda and have 1700+ calories for dinner. Then the weekends I would end up eating 2200+ calories. I never understood why I wasn't losing weight. When I started logging everything in MFP I was shocked.

Heartisalonelyhunter

I'm confused. Is she actively trying to lose weight? You say she is about the same size as you now which implies she was smaller than you before you lost weight. I don't understand why you're critisizing what/how she eats behind her back, especially if she has never been overweight?

PRMinx

A couple of criossants alone can be nearly half a day's calorie allotment.

williams969

GothyFaery wrote: »

Before I found MFP I used to say the same thing. And quantity wise, it was the truth. I would literally eat nothing all day at work but when I got home I would drink soda and have 1700+ calories for dinner. Then the weekends I would end up eating 2200+ calories. I never understood why I wasn't losing weight. When I started logging everything in MFP I was shocked.

Same for me. I "got away" with this for many years, as I had a very physical job with no time to eat. Just drank full calorie Gatorade and Pepsis all day at work. Ate calorie dense foods for dinner (lasagnas, casseroles, etc.). I only ate once a day, but surely I consumed 3,000 calories daily (which I did need at the time).

Well, well, sedentary housewife and student lifestyle now does not require such a large intake, but I continued the same consumption habits. Took a 20+ weight gain over a couple years for it to click--I was drinking half my calories (frou frou coffees, the Pepsi, wine all add up quick). Sure I ate "like a bird" (one calorie dense meal a day w/ nibbles during the day), but I drank like a glutton.

dbmata

PRMinx wrote: »

A couple of criossants alone can be nearly half a day's calorie allotment.

Yeah, but very good.