check out my food diary and explain to me

2

Replies

  • I took a look at your diary. It just seems your skimming off to much. Breakfast should consist of a meal and not just coffee. One should be able to 3 meals a day between 400-500 calories and 2 snacks in between at 100 calories or less. You may need more vegetables/fruits incorporated into your day.

    Thank you - so does this mean that adding MORE food will do what? increase metabolism? obviously when you eat very little but do not drop anything on the scales, the thought of eating More scares you - as I think - well I am eating so little and NOT losing actual scale weight, doesn't that mean eating more will put on weight?. This is my problem, and this is the area I need to have explained to me.

    This isn't well supported, but I've definitely worked with people who could not lose eating 1100 cals/day and who started to lose when we bumped them to 1200+. I have a theory about this but won't go into it. The truth is that unless you are underestimating or have a major medical issue, you definitely will not gain in that range.

    thanks so much. It is as if my body is just really comfortable at 60 - it just will not shift, I have certainly toned up and added some muscle although just barely visible, my hips and thighs have reduced, but as for the scales - well they just don't budge. Its becoming a competition for me just to beat the scales, just through sheer willpower to not let them beat me.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I took a look at your diary. It just seems your skimming off to much. Breakfast should consist of a meal and not just coffee. One should be able to 3 meals a day between 400-500 calories and 2 snacks in between at 100 calories or less. You may need more vegetables/fruits incorporated into your day.

    Thank you - so does this mean that adding MORE food will do what? increase metabolism? obviously when you eat very little but do not drop anything on the scales, the thought of eating More scares you - as I think - well I am eating so little and NOT losing actual scale weight, doesn't that mean eating more will put on weight?. This is my problem, and this is the area I need to have explained to me.

    This isn't well supported, but I've definitely worked with people who could not lose eating 1100 cals/day and who started to lose when we bumped them to 1200+. I have a theory about this but won't go into it. The truth is that unless you are underestimating or have a major medical issue, you definitely will not gain in that range.

    I personally do think that if this happens it relates to the person's tdee lowering significantly enough to make the deficit much smaller than intended, maybe retaining water too to mask scale losses. But I know that of I don't eat enough it affects energy, so I'm sure it affects how much energy I am burning. On an old forum I posted on others talked about not losing until they raised their intake despite logging at all times so there clearly just be some circumstances in which this does happen
  • LazyNightOwl
    LazyNightOwl Posts: 166 Member
    Hi weightlossme, I'm not trying to be aggressive here. And I don't think anyone else is but I do sense a bit of irritation. Mung beans do have their share of calories...even their sprouts do. Also on a side note, does all the caffeine from the black tea make you jittery?
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I took a look at your diary. It just seems your skimming off to much. Breakfast should consist of a meal and not just coffee. One should be able to 3 meals a day between 400-500 calories and 2 snacks in between at 100 calories or less. You may need more vegetables/fruits incorporated into your day.

    Thank you - so does this mean that adding MORE food will do what? increase metabolism? obviously when you eat very little but do not drop anything on the scales, the thought of eating More scares you - as I think - well I am eating so little and NOT losing actual scale weight, doesn't that mean eating more will put on weight?. This is my problem, and this is the area I need to have explained to me.

    This isn't well supported, but I've definitely worked with people who could not lose eating 1100 cals/day and who started to lose when we bumped them to 1200+. I have a theory about this but won't go into it. The truth is that unless you are underestimating or have a major medical issue, you definitely will not gain in that range.

    thanks so much. It is as if my body is just really comfortable at 60 - it just will not shift, I have certainly toned up and added some muscle although just barely visible, my hips and thighs have reduced, but as for the scales - well they just don't budge. Its becoming a competition for me just to beat the scales, just through sheer willpower to not let them beat me.

    You did not add muscle. At most your body fat has lowers some and you are able to set l see existing muscle mass.
  • jnv7594
    jnv7594 Posts: 983 Member
    edited January 2015
    a salad that consists of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, celery, and mung beans - cut up on my benchtop and placed in a bowl - no matter what size the bowl - with nothing added to it - contains zilch calories - in fact its almost calorie deficit - it takes a body more energy to process then what the food contains - I don't use a recipe for salad - it grows in my yard and that's it!

    Um, no....you need to figure the calories for the salad. In the mung beans alone, one tablespoon is 45 calories, and you're likely eating more than a tablespoon. And there are calories in tomatoes, lettuce, etc...it's not a calorie deficit. This is why people say weigh and measure everything.

  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Need stats - age, sex, height, starting weight, current weight, goal to lose.

    47, height 157 (just) weight 60.25 kilos, current weight fluctuates between 59.5 and 60.5, its up and down depending on time of day when I weigh, and I only weigh in once a week. Goal is to get below 54. I was 50 kilos my whole adult life, then one child saw me at 54, then next child saw me at 56, now third child (shes four now) has put me at 60.

    Okay, you are in the healthy range, so any weight loss is going to be slow. I do think if you are measuring accurately you need to eat more, if nothing else, to ensure that you have a healthy diet. Adding in some healthy fats would be helpful.

    You're getting smaller at any rate, which is what actually matters more than the number on the scale. I would suggest perhaps trying weighing only every 2 weeks or so to see if you can take the focus off of the number. Perhaps set a fitness goal for yourself?

  • Drakerim
    Drakerim Posts: 3 Member
    edited January 2015
    jnv7594 wrote: »
    a salad that consists of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, celery, and mung beans - cut up on my benchtop and placed in a bowl - no matter what size the bowl - with nothing added to it - contains zilch calories - in fact its almost calorie deficit - it takes a body more energy to process then what the food contains - I don't use a recipe for salad - it grows in my yard and that's it!

    Um, no....you need to figure the calories for the salad. In the mung beans alone, one tablespoon is 45 calories, and you're likely eating more than a tablespoon. And there are calories in tomatoes, lettuce, etc...it's not a calorie deficit. This is why people say weigh and measure everything.

    I agree with jnv7594, you need to track everything accurately in order for this to work. It seems difficult when you start it but keep on it and in time MFP learns a lot of your eating habits and filling out your diary will be a lot easier. As for the weighing in, water retention can sometimes play a factor too. When I see I didnt lose my targeted weight for the week I just wait till the following week and see if it balances out and it always does. One week it will say I lost 1.8 pounds and the next it says I lost 4.
  • kisses71213
    kisses71213 Posts: 97 Member
    Your body is in starvation mode. It holds on to any food you put in it. You need to plan better and not eat too little. There is a happy medium.. and you need to find it! Good luck!
  • kisses71213
    kisses71213 Posts: 97 Member
    Also, your salad does have calories in it! How many mung beans/ tomato is in it? Those are full of calories!
  • stephxo1
    stephxo1 Posts: 191 Member
    Your body is in starvation mode. It holds on to any food you put in it. You need to plan better and not eat too little. There is a happy medium.. and you need to find it! Good luck!

    NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! You're not in a calorie deficit plain and simple. As long as you create a caloric deficit (meaning consume less calories than your body burns, or burn more calories than you consume… just different ways of saying the same thing), then you will lose weight every single time regardless of whether you’re creating a deficit that is small, moderate or large. Simple!

    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member

    Your body is in starvation mode. It holds on to any food you put in it. You need to plan better and not eat too little. There is a happy medium.. and you need to find it! Good luck!

    Where do these folks keep coming from?
  • stephxo1 wrote: »
    Your body is in starvation mode. It holds on to any food you put in it. You need to plan better and not eat too little. There is a happy medium.. and you need to find it! Good luck!

    NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! You're not in a calorie deficit plain and simple. As long as you create a caloric deficit (meaning consume less calories than your body burns, or burn more calories than you consume… just different ways of saying the same thing), then you will lose weight every single time regardless of whether you’re creating a deficit that is small, moderate or large. Simple!

    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

    thanks for the link. Very interesting reading later tonight. I always thought it was a crock of crap that a person eating too little does not lose weight - I mean - that's not even logical. I think my body is just really efficient at existing on what I do per day on 1200 calories, it perhaps needs to go lower to shift weight - just my bad luck. I am certainly healthy, not in any way deprived of nutrients etc on 1200 calories, so i must just be efficient at that level unless I started running like 6k a day etc as an extra use of calories.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited January 2015
    ...in fact its almost calorie deficit - it takes a body more energy to process then what the food contains...

    There is no such food.

    I don't use a recipe for salad - it grows in my yard and that's it!

    There's your problem. You are eating more calories than you think.

    :drinker:


  • mezeade
    mezeade Posts: 19
    Perhaps this is the weight your body wants to be? You're certainly not overweight. Just keep doing what you're doing- obviously you're slimming down if measurements are falling.

    I feel for you, I've stopped asking questions here because of the whole 'you're not weighing accurately' mantra/assumption. And really, telling her that mung beans have calories-how is this useful? Underestimating a small bowl of mung beans vs large is still not going to make much difference to her calorie count.
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    You dont have a lot weight to lose, so it will go slowly.

    but also you have to weigh every bit of solid food and measure every liquid ( except water)

    Here a video that makes clear how quickly we can go wrong by not doing so.
    Hope that that will help you :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
  • jnv7594
    jnv7594 Posts: 983 Member
    edited January 2015
    And really, telling her that mung beans have calories-how is this useful?

    It's useful because it's showing her that she's consuming more calories than she realizes. And if she's doing it with her salad, she might be underestimating calories in other areas as well. Calories, no matter how small of an amount, can add up very quickly when you don't keep accurate track of them. Mung beans are 45 calories per tablespoon, so say she eats 4 tablespoons, which isn't very much...only a fourth of a cup. That is 180 calories right there, and that's not even accounting for the other vegetables in the salad that have a calorie count as well. Plus the steak that she said was about the palm of her hand and some of the other guesstimating it sounds like she may be doing. If you're not weighing and measuring everything, then you're not doing accurate logging, and those calories will add up fast.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    this thread stuns me

    "I am doing everything right - weighing everything so don't tell me to weigh"

    Turns out you've been logging for a week and aren't weighing everything and are choosing generic, possibly incorrect entries from the database

    "Salad has negative calories - basically"
    No it doesn't. When I eat salad - I actually build a weighed recipe and log it in grammes, I roughly put the same amount in of everything so I am happy to log my own recipe in future, unless I change up ingredients and then I edit the recipe

    "I'm not losing weight"

    It's been a week of inaccurate logging

    this works when you actually do what you say in the OP - and you talk the talk really well

    try walking the walk for a few weeks, I'm sure you'll be successful
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    You only have 10 kgs to lose. One week is simply not enough to show a difference. Give it 2-3 more weeks. You may have lost weight, but it's being masked by things like water retention, glycogen...etc. Have you started a new fitness routine?
  • MacCroc
    MacCroc Posts: 50 Member
    Before you write something off as "crap", do some actual research into the topic. Prisoners of war and people in third countries are able to survive for the exact reason that their body gets accustomed to maintaining basic life functions on a very low intake by slowing down the metabolism.
  • mynameisnotemily
    mynameisnotemily Posts: 42 Member
    -What's in YOUR 'skim latte?' You have these often, you should create your own recipe. How much milk, exactly? Do you add sugar/syrups/etc?

    -Yesterday you had sushi for lunch. Did you make these yourself or eat out? If the former, weigh & measure each ingredient that goes into the rolls. If the latter, check the SPECIFIC nutritional information for those sushi rolls (ie: the restaurant you bought them at.) Avoid eating at places that don't list their nutritional information. If possible, check the information online before even going to the restaurant.

    -What's "1 steak?" - you should weigh the steak (raw) and enter the corresponding meat kind, ie flank, ribeye, etc, as well as whatever you use to stop it sticking to the grill. What's "half a bucket of chips?" Did you make them from a bag--then weigh the serving, use the nutritional info on the packet, and add any oil/etc you cook them with. Did you eat out? then see what I said before re: using restaurant-specific nutritional info.

    -Do you have any bits-n-bites throughout the day? a forkful of a friend's lunch, one little candy from the help desk's candy bowl, etc?


    Basically, don't use the nutritional info for generic or "homemade" recipes; create your own recipes & measure the servings to get an accurate calorie count.
  • thanks for the positive suggestions everyone - appreciated. and ONCE again, I have been doing this for THREE months not a week, just online for a week. I will take all tips on board, including the weighing issue etc.
  • eMka11
    eMka11 Posts: 106 Member
    I got electronic scales not so long ago and I am astonished how many things I was either overestimating or underestimating. I think it counts a lot to weigh your food, especially if you are trying to loose your last pounds
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    MacCroc wrote: »
    Before you write something off as "crap", do some actual research into the topic. Prisoners of war and people in third countries are able to survive for the exact reason that their body gets accustomed to maintaining basic life functions on a very low intake by slowing down the metabolism.

    you should read up on it yourself - the metabolism doesn't slow down enough to affect fat loss to that extreme (thermodynamics) - prisoners of war and people in famine regions are not fat when they are down to maintaining basic life functions
  • Delilahhhhhh
    Delilahhhhhh Posts: 477 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    this thread stuns me

    "I am doing everything right - weighing everything so don't tell me to weigh"

    Turns out you've been logging for a week and aren't weighing everything and are choosing generic, possibly incorrect entries from the database

    "Salad has negative calories - basically"
    No it doesn't. When I eat salad - I actually build a weighed recipe and log it in grammes, I roughly put the same amount in of everything so I am happy to log my own recipe in future, unless I change up ingredients and then I edit the recipe

    "I'm not losing weight"

    It's been a week of inaccurate logging

    this works when you actually do what you say in the OP - and you talk the talk really well

    try walking the walk for a few weeks, I'm sure you'll be successful

    +1
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Your body is in starvation mode. It holds on to any food you put in it. You need to plan better and not eat too little. There is a happy medium.. and you need to find it! Good luck!

    no
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
    OP, when you have a little weight to lose you have to be OCD on your food weighing. You are using generic terms for weighing and measuring.

    As it stands MFP even with weighing every single item has a margin of error.

    I have 17 to lose now and it comes off slow....You have to be patient and just keep logging and tweaking your diary.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    mezeade wrote: »
    Perhaps this is the weight your body wants to be? You're certainly not overweight. Just keep doing what you're doing- obviously you're slimming down if measurements are falling.

    I feel for you, I've stopped asking questions here because of the whole 'you're not weighing accurately' mantra/assumption. And really, telling her that mung beans have calories-how is this useful? Underestimating a small bowl of mung beans vs large is still not going to make much difference to her calorie count.

    Except it willl because she is doing this with EVERY ingredient. Meaning basically EVERYTHING in her log is incorrect.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    thanks for the positive suggestions everyone - appreciated. and ONCE again, I have been doing this for THREE months not a week, just online for a week. I will take all tips on board, including the weighing issue etc.

    Then your week-long log is indicative of three months of incorrect logging.
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
    ana3067 wrote: »

    Except it willl because she is doing this with EVERY ingredient. Meaning basically EVERYTHING in her log is incorrect.

    Right.

    And even IF you weigh every single gram, it still has a margin of error since food is not static with how many calories are in a single item.

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    jnv7594 wrote: »
    And really, telling her that mung beans have calories-how is this useful?

    It's useful because it's showing her that she's consuming more calories than she realizes. And if she's doing it with her salad, she might be underestimating calories in other areas as well. Calories, no matter how small of an amount, can add up very quickly when you don't keep accurate track of them. Mung beans are 45 calories per tablespoon, so say she eats 4 tablespoons, which isn't very much...only a fourth of a cup. That is 180 calories right there, and that's not even accounting for the other vegetables in the salad that have a calorie count as well. Plus the steak that she said was about the palm of her hand and some of the other guesstimating it sounds like she may be doing. If you're not weighing and measuring everything, then you're not doing accurate logging, and those calories will add up fast.

    Yep. for a while I was eating a LOT of gum and not logging it. Like almost an entire pack in a day. NOt a good move, I'm now going to log if I have more than one stick in a day!
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