Does alcohol affect weight loss results?

deksgrl

Okay, well first of all, your goal of 1.5 pounds per week is too aggressive since you don't have a lot of weight to lose.

Second, if you are using a food scale, then why are your measurements for things like bananas and coleslaw not logged as "grams" instead of "1 small banana" or Tablespoons??

Also, TDEE of 1550 seems very low unless you are a petite person. At age 40, you would have to be 5'0 and 125 pounds to have a sedentary TDEE of 1550. But aside from that, if you are truly eating 1200-1300 calories a day, you should be losing, so I still suspect inaccurate logging. Unless you have some medical issue or medication that is interfering in some way.

JAT74

Suspect what you like! Unfortunately for me my body has never accepted a 'normal' way of eating. Some of that could be down to how sedentary my lifestyle is as I discovered when I started using a pedometer recently. I don't walk/move much most of the time and am either sitting at a desk or sitting on a sofa outside of my workouts and short dog walks. I don't have a commute to and from work and use a car to go to the shops as I am located in a small village.

By the way I'm 5'4" with a small frame, I weigh 145 ish now but I'm carrying 33% fat.

The goal I set of 1.5lbs per week was me being optimistic. I figured if I aim lower then I will be happy if I can lose 1lb per week. That will also allow for any slight overestimation of exercise or underestimation of calories in the food I am consuming. I am also not convinced my TDEE is as high as 1550, I would be surprised if it was 1350 given my body's response to food.

Most days since logging on here I have been under my calorie goal by 100-150 so even minute inaccuracies with logging quantities should not affect weight loss as there was plenty of room for movement.

I may have to lower calories further soon if there is no change on the scale and I am not losing inches. The only times I've ever been able to eat in the region of 1200 calories and lose weight is when I've been on holiday and then I generally spend 5-6 hours walking every day sightseeing (not exaggerating).

middlehaitch

Sorry you felt like I was wrong, I can only go off the information you have posted. I, and probably no one else on this anonymously board can't help you if your body works outside the normal spectrum.

My sedentary TDEE is 1165 so I do understand your logging method. I just think eating at the tried and true MFP plus exercise, eat back dependant on goal, is better than the method you are using. If yours gives you inspiration, so be it.

A food is a food, the USDA is the American standard database for the nutrition in food, and I use it, even though I too do not live in the States, because I know it is accurate.

You may be an expert in the way you log, but I still think you are being inaccurate.

Again, I am not trying to be harsh,
Cheers, h.

JAT74

Ok fair enough. I've tried eating at 1200 calories plus exercise or even only some of my exercise calories and I find I'm either eating at maintenance or I'm gaining which is why I changed to custom goals. The alternative would be to set it to 1200 and make sure to eat much less and be under goal every day unless I know I have burned off a minimum of 400 calories but then I wouldn't be able to log exercise unless I gave it a zero value.

Btw how did you get a TDEE of 1165? I'd love to have mine accurately tested but it's not possible where I live. I suspect my BMR is very low too but as these calculations are based on averages it makes sense as some people won't necessarily fit the numbers exactly.

middlehaitch

Jat 74, I am 61, 5'1 & 100-105lb. I have a sliding scale that I have maintained for 5 yr.
I am also an English woman living in Canada that visits the USA & UK frequently, so know how portion sizes can differ.
I eat at 1200which of course is maintenance and can do 3x 60 week exercise without it having to change, or nothing.
However, if I up my exercise, right now I am 5x60 plus weights 3x week, I have to seriously log and measure everything to get a calorie input that stops me losing.
It has taken 3 months and I have a TDEE of 1400 right now, still playing with it.
Once I have my TDEE sorted I will stop logging until my next change.
Knowing my MFP maintenance is my base gives me room to log the estimated calorie burn and analyse the numbers better that taking the calorie burn number as accurate and trying to eat to that.
ie: Zumba, web 600cal, instructor 240cal, I work it out to about 350, so that is now what I log for it.
I have done this for years so I know it is right for me.

Sorry that went on so long but I hope it gives a better understanding of where I am coming from.

Cheers, h.
Ps I don't worry if my numbers are not what MFP thinks they should be at the end of the day so long as I have eaten my 1200 and my weight trend is where I want it to be.

JAT74

Ok, I think I understand. So your saying that you eat 1200 no matter what exercise you do? Or now that you are working out more you eat more?

I agree about logging exercise and if I thought I would still lose at 1200 I'd eat to that everyday regardless of extra calories burned, though the problem is I'm just not convinced.

Sued0nim

I would say if standard fluctuations of a couple of pounds freak you out this much you shouldn't weigh so often - drop it back to once every couple of weeks

I'm up almost 3lbs today - water weight - sodium and hormonal - doesn't bother me because I track daily fluctuations and I was expecting it and have tracked it before.

If you know you're sticking to your calories, in a way that has always worked for you, and you get a blip over a couple of days' weights then you haven't accepted standard fluctuations as normal - so stop stepping on the scale so often

(Edit to add a missing possessive apostrophe on a plural - and this is why my pedantic heart shrivels a little every time I see loose used for lose and your for you're)

JAT74

I get what you're saying rabbitjb but it just seemed like I'd stalled or gained weight because for 2.5 weeks I was consistently losing at a similar rate, ending up at 142lbs. Then over the course of a week I went gradually up from there to 148lbs yesterday! I weighed myself this morning and the scales were showing 145.5 but it's now been over a week since I thought I'd lost a few pounds and got to 142 so as far as I'm concerned, in the last week I've gained some weight.

I'm definitely now going to try and lower my carbs again to around the 100g mark and also lower my calorie burns when I work out. I think that eating to around 100 or so under my goal calories for the day might also help as that would then take into account any overestimation.

I'll see how I get on with that for the next week or two and hopefully I'll start losing again.

middlehaitch

Jat, 1200 covers me at maintenance plus exercise 3x 60 a week. I have been doing this routine from when I started losing, and all through maintenance- since 2008.
I think my body just registers it now as part of my regular movements as I don't lose or gain if I do it or skip for a couple of weeks.
Once I add extra exercise I have to recalculate or I start losing.

Just an FYI I burn approximately 200 cal per hr doing most routines ( aqua, Pilates, belly dancing, body toning, etc), weight bearing I don't count, swimming I have just learnt so don't cover a distance worth counting, and Zumba is about 350 per hr.
I have on occasion spent way too much time analyzing my numbers, but this is also why I spend most of my time not having to count.
It works for me because I have been doing it a long time.
It is interesting how different methods work for different people.
Why don't you try amassing all your data on a spreadsheet and analyzing the trends. Something really simple may just pop out and slap you in the face.

Cheers, h.

Sued0nim

you may like sites like trendweight.com or apps like happyscale as you can enter daily weights (mine links in automatically from my fitbit) and it maps a trendline so that you can learn when you actually are stalling or when it's just to be expected

or it may drive you more mad .. your call

JAT74

Congratulations to you Middlehaitch, that's great you can maintain at that level and know that as long as you do 3 workouts you won't gain weight. If you need to eat more when you workout more then that's great too, you're really lucky.

If I was at maintenance then I would be more than happy eating that number of calories. I think that where I am at now, I may need to eat less than 1200 even exercising 6-7 days a week so unless the scale is going down every week, it's hard not to analyse the numbers. Your idea to put the data on a spreadsheet is a great idea, though not too sure how I would track that in a chart, though I can look at averages.

When I lost weight before on MFP, I spent a few months losing by adding up my weekly total calories to include the deficit I wanted/needed and dividing it up so that I had some 'high' days and other lower days so I could have days off eating the same amount.

Regarding calorie burns, I have been using burns registered on a HRM but I will try lowering the totals a little. I do JM Body Revolution and I usually register the cardio at around 330 cals and the intensity is probably similar to your Zumba, though it's only half an hour. It could be that in reality I am only burning 200 calories but it's difficult to know the true figure. For the other workouts I do as part of the program, they involve doing a non-stop weight training and weight bearing routine along with cardio intervals and it's very high intensity so I would expect the burns to be at least 300 too, though again I could be wrong.

JAT74

Thanks Rabbitjb, I haven't seen that website though I'll check it out and also the App. I did download an App called Libra so not sure if that's the same.

I agree with you about the punctuation by the way (I teach English as a foreign language), though sometimes when using phone or tablet keyboards mistakes can easily be made. I think loose is a terrible one though.

middlehaitch

Well, all I can say, is that through discourse, I think you are well aware of what you are doing, and need to do. This didn't come through well at all at the beginning unfortunately.
Do you teach ESL in the UK, or abroad?

Rabbit, thanks for coming up with those sites. I knew they were out there, but couldn't remember what they were called.
I had a chuckle at your previous pedantic heart comment, you are just like my partner, he would happily strangle most news editors.
Re: lose/loose, I have a new laptop with an erratic keyboard that is forever doubling and tripling letters. I live in dread of ever missing seeing it do the double o when I am typing lose on this board.
Cheers, h.

shballa

I rarely drink alcohol and when I do I noticed I retain fluid for the the next couple days. After a few days, my weight goes back down to where it was.

JimLily

To me, alcohol and weight loss/fitness goals to not go together. I feel like its a setback if i have even a few beers on the weekend. Makes me tired, sluggish, and de-motivated. Abstaining is the best choice for me.

JAT74

Maybe you're right about alcohol, but I drink so rarely I found it difficult to believe that it had affected my body so much, though now I realise it could be a combination of the alcohol, additional carbs and excess sodium all contributing to the scales showing my weight had gone up, unless of course it's down to not logging something correctly and I actually ate more than I thought or burned off significantly less.

middlehaitch don't worry, sometimes it's easy to misunderstand what someone is telling you on a forum because you can't gauge tone of voice or whether someone is giving advice or simply being judgemental but we got there in the end! I am going to look at the things you've suggested and watch the numbers for a little longer and hopefully the weight will start to come off.

In answer to your question - I teach ESL from home via telephone so I can work from anywhere in the world. I currently spend a lot of my time in Spain although I also have a base in the UK. I teach Spanish and French native speakers at the moment and have also taught German speakers in the past too. I'm not fluent in any of those languages though and my students already have a fairly good level of English otherwise it would be impossible by phone!

Where in Canada are you? My mum's originally Canadian (from Montreal) though she's lived in England for the past 50 years!

deksgrl

You might try increasing protein as you lower carbs. If you have any hormonal issues like PCOS, you might be somewhat insulin resistant.

JAT74

Hi deksgrl I've never been diagnosed with PCOS and I had a cyst removed last year so I would think they would have diagnosed it at the time, though I've never discussed this with anyone and I do have some of the associated symptoms. I generally try to get my protein up to around 100g but this can be hard, for example today I'm up to around 80g and I don't think I will be eating any more than I have logged (I pre-logged dinner). My carbs on the other hand are around 75g today which for me is a fairly low day.