Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong? Food Diary concerns

Tialuna18

Hi there. So when I started MFP I was around 134 area and I tried to lose some weight. Managed to get down to 122 by staying under / around 1200 calories past summer thanks to work distracting me. I realized that at that weight was low enough and I just wanted to maintain that weight so I changed my recommended intake to 1650 calories which said that I would be able to maintain said weight. More often than not I would reach around 1450 give or take the odd dinner out or work day where I'd eat less. Somehow within maybe 3 months of changing I put a majority of the weight back on averaging around 130- 132 so an additional 10 pounds Could anyone take a look at my food diary and see if the food options I'm choosing are a result of this? I really try my best to eat healthy I just can't think of any other reason. Maybe the times of day I eat? Portions?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

jenncornelsen

your diary is still closed

Tialuna18

I changed it recently? is it still closed?

ana3067

Then you clearly ate more than you think. What you eat has nothing to do with weight loss, HOW MUCH you eat does. If you used to exercise and then stopped now then that could also contribute to weight gain.

You don't weigh your food, which increases logging error.

PeachyPlum

Are you truly logging everything? I mean, it looks like you are because I see individual gumballs in such listed. But I also see 200 cal dinners on a regular basis.
Second are you weighing your food or guessing at serving sizes?
I'm just skeptical because it seems like you eat 600 cal for breakfast and then you just sort of nibble for the rest of the day. Is that accurate?

Tialuna18

ana3067 wrote: »

Then you clearly ate more than you think. What you eat has nothing to do with weight loss, HOW MUCH you eat does. If you used to exercise and then stopped now then that could also contribute to weight gain.

You don't weigh your food, which increases logging error.

I measure my food with measuring cups.. I never lie on my food diary. It clearly says how much I eat by the amount of cups. I find if I were to weigh things like two slices of toast would be ridiculous when a package clearly tells me the calorie count for it. I havent stopped exercising either. I just ate far less due to work. Now that I'm back in school I tend to pay attention more to meal times but I do still try to keep a normal portion.

Tialuna18

PeachyPlum wrote: »

Are you truly logging everything? I mean, it looks like you are because I see individual gumballs in such listed. But I also see 200 cal dinners on a regular basis.
Second are you weighing your food or guessing at serving sizes?
I'm just skeptical because it seems like you eat 600 cal for breakfast and then you just sort of nibble for the rest of the day. Is that accurate?

Very accurate. I like to have a big breakfast and then go the rest of the day. I swear I log everything I consume.

procyonlupus

Measuring and weighing are two completely different things. A tablespoon of peanut butter isn't the same as an ounce of peanut butter. I'd get a food scale, and measure that way rather than measuring cups.

LetrellC

Tialuna, I have been seeing Internal Medicine docs and a nutritionist regularly for several years now. Not saying I'm an expert but I have learned what foods do what to me. Just an idea of what to try.....

1. Drop your sugar to 40g/day or less.
2. Instead of the health bars, have a light greek yogurt. I have to have one a day. I use Yoplait 100 Greek Yogurt because it is lowest in sugar and contains protein.

I can eat anything I want to eat and am able to maintain my weight at 125. My calories are set at 1500. I rarely reach it and am eating all day long.

One thing to consider is that muscle weighs more than fat. That is what I have to be careful of when I exercise.....too much walking and and I will burn too many calories. I absolutely can NOT lose weight. Catch 22. I need to build up my large muscles while not losing weight...have to keep sugar down to prevent it converting to fat.

I just glanced at your diary. The only thing I saw on a quick note was you are over on sugar...without the restriction. Not saying to do as I do, just something to consider.

Thank you for sharing this with us! I'm looking forward to following your progress.

cavia

I eat that brand of bread. I weigh the slices. They are almost never the weight the package claims. If you want more precise results, you'll have to use more precise methods. Weigh all your foods using a food scale and save the cups for caloric liquids.

PeachyPlum

To clarify on weighing vs measuring:

Do you like to bake? You know how there's a difference between a cup of brown sugar and a cup of firmly packed brown sugar? That's what we are dealing with here.

Same goes for a bag of chips or box of cereal, which is why the packages always say "contents sold by weight and may have settled."

Weighing is the only way to know how much you are actually eating.

Tialuna18

PeachyPlum wrote: »

To clarify on weighing vs measuring:

Do you like to bake? You know how there's a difference between a cup of brown sugar and a cup of firmly packed brown sugar? That's what we are dealing with here.

Same goes for a bag of chips or box of cereal, which is why the packages always say "contents sold by weight and may have settled."

Weighing is the only way to know how much you are actually eating.

Yes I see how that can give miss matched results. Thank you for clarifications, everyone. I try to be as accurate as possible but I guess I'll just have to take it that step further.

SueInAz

It gets more nitpicky the less weight you have to lose. It's worse if you're small because our calorie burns each day aren't high (we don't have much mass to move around) so the margin of error is small.

I got tired of having to be really precise with my logging and eating so I switched from trying to maintain the shape I wanted by cutting calories to lifting weights. My weight is higher but I'm still the size I want to be. I can eat more and don't have to be nearly as diligent about logging and weighing everything to maintain my size.

ana3067

Tialuna18 wrote: »

ana3067 wrote: »

Then you clearly ate more than you think. What you eat has nothing to do with weight loss, HOW MUCH you eat does. If you used to exercise and then stopped now then that could also contribute to weight gain.

You don't weigh your food, which increases logging error.

I measure my food with measuring cups.. I never lie on my food diary. It clearly says how much I eat by the amount of cups. I find if I were to weigh things like two slices of toast would be ridiculous when a package clearly tells me the calorie count for it. I havent stopped exercising either. I just ate far less due to work. Now that I'm back in school I tend to pay attention more to meal times but I do still try to keep a normal portion.

Weighing food is significantly more accurate.

Also my package of muffins in my freezer right now lists a muffin as 250 calories for 85g. They are generally 80-81g only. The chocolate flavour, however, reads 85g on the package and is usually 90-92g.

And speaking of sugar, I just made some PB cookies. 1 cup is supposed to be 200grams.... came out to 208g, and that was with the cup not being 100% filled (a few mm of empty space on the top).

ana3067

LetrellC wrote: »

Tialuna, I have been seeing Internal Medicine docs and a nutritionist regularly for several years now. Not saying I'm an expert but I have learned what foods do what to me. Just an idea of what to try.....

1. Drop your sugar to 40g/day or less.
2. Instead of the health bars, have a light greek yogurt. I have to have one a day. I use Yoplait 100 Greek Yogurt because it is lowest in sugar and contains protein.

I can eat anything I want to eat and am able to maintain my weight at 125. My calories are set at 1500. I rarely reach it and am eating all day long.

One thing to consider is that muscle weighs more than fat. That is what I have to be careful of when I exercise.....too much walking and and I will burn too many calories. I absolutely can NOT lose weight. Catch 22. I need to build up my large muscles while not losing weight...have to keep sugar down to prevent it converting to fat.

I just glanced at your diary. The only thing I saw on a quick note was you are over on sugar...without the restriction. Not saying to do as I do, just something to consider.

Thank you for sharing this with us! I'm looking forward to following your progress.

None of this matters for weight loss and will not help OP. Being under 40g of sugar doesn't magically prevent fat gain if one is still eating 3000 calories. And health bars, whatever those are, are FINE to consume.

You rarely reach 1500 because you are either ONLY eating very nutrient-dense food (in which case, boring, pass me some pizza!) or you are underestimating how much you are consuming.

If you want to build up muscle you need to be eating more than 1500 calories. You need to be eating ABOVE your maintenance needs. So probably upwards of 2000 calories.

Tialuna18

See I can understand this being an issue if I actually consumed things really deemed unhealthy. Yes I tend to be over or at the brim of my sugar intake but I try to make sure it's natural sugars found in fruit or if anything Yogurt. I don't eat baked goods maybe once in a blue moon.

ana3067

Tialuna18 wrote: »

See I can understand this being an issue if I actually consumed things really deemed unhealthy. Yes I tend to be over or at the brim of my sugar intake but I try to make sure it's natural sugars found in fruit or if anything Yogurt. I don't eat baked goods maybe once in a blue moon.

...... bread can be calorically dense. Fruit like grapes and bananas are calorically dense. Peanut butter is especially calorically dense, and chances are you're actually eating 1.5-2tbsp whenever you log 1tbsp because 1tbsp is really tiny when measured out with a measuring spoon.

Bread is a baked good.

I'm eating all the things you seem to think are bad for weight loss/management and yet I've lost over 31lbs. How much you eat matters, not what you eat, and weighing helps to ensure you are actually eating how much you think you are eating.

Tialuna18

ana3067 wrote: »

LetrellC wrote: »

Tialuna, I have been seeing Internal Medicine docs and a nutritionist regularly for several years now. Not saying I'm an expert but I have learned what foods do what to me. Just an idea of what to try.....

1. Drop your sugar to 40g/day or less.
2. Instead of the health bars, have a light greek yogurt. I have to have one a day. I use Yoplait 100 Greek Yogurt because it is lowest in sugar and contains protein.

I can eat anything I want to eat and am able to maintain my weight at 125. My calories are set at 1500. I rarely reach it and am eating all day long.

One thing to consider is that muscle weighs more than fat. That is what I have to be careful of when I exercise.....too much walking and and I will burn too many calories. I absolutely can NOT lose weight. Catch 22. I need to build up my large muscles while not losing weight...have to keep sugar down to prevent it converting to fat.

I just glanced at your diary. The only thing I saw on a quick note was you are over on sugar...without the restriction. Not saying to do as I do, just something to consider.

Thank you for sharing this with us! I'm looking forward to following your progress.

None of this matters for weight loss and will not help OP. Being under 40g of sugar doesn't magically prevent fat gain if one is still eating 3000 calories. And health bars, whatever those are, are FINE to consume.

You rarely reach 1500 because you are either ONLY eating very nutrient-dense food (in which case, boring, pass me some pizza!) or you are underestimating how much you are consuming.

If you want to build up muscle you need to be eating more than 1500 calories. You need to be eating ABOVE your maintenance needs. So probably upwards of 2000 calories.

I'm going to have to disagree with you. I think Letrell is bringing up a good counter argument and what works for her might work for myself. Same as what works for you. I do tend to choose nutrient dense foods because I actually LIKE the taste of them I don't enjoy most sopping with grease foods and I'd rather feel full/ satisfied from a meal than eating one measly slice of pizza for the caloric intake of a more satisfying salad/soup. Again. there is the possibility for slight margin of error given I don't weigh my food but I assure you I do not lie on the measurements I do use.

Tialuna18

ana3067 wrote: »

Tialuna18 wrote: »

See I can understand this being an issue if I actually consumed things really deemed unhealthy. Yes I tend to be over or at the brim of my sugar intake but I try to make sure it's natural sugars found in fruit or if anything Yogurt. I don't eat baked goods maybe once in a blue moon.

...... bread can be calorically dense. Fruit like grapes and bananas are calorically dense. Peanut butter is especially calorically dense, and chances are you're actually eating 1.5-2tbsp whenever you log 1tbsp because 1tbsp is really tiny when measured out with a measuring spoon.

Bread is a baked good.

I'm eating all the things you seem to think are bad for weight loss/management and yet I've lost over 31lbs. How much you eat matters, not what you eat, and weighing helps to ensure you are actually eating how much you think you are eating.

Yes and if you were to read further into my diary you'd see bread is very much an on occasion meal choice. What your current weight is also plays into it. From what your profile picture shows you're heavier than I and like another poster here has stated the lower your current weight is the harder it can be to continue to lose. I used to be much heavier (in the 200's) and just cutting out a few things at that time led to a high weight loss. Now Im guessing since my percentage of fat has decreased I now will find it more relying on physical activity for weight loss/ body sculpting than dieting.

Timorous_Beastie

Underestimating isn't lying. It's just a matter of not having all the information. You asked what the problem might be, and not weighing your food is likely to be the main problem.

I love bagels. One of the brands of cinnamon raisin bagels I get is listed on the package as 150 calories. When I actually weigh it and compare that weight against the package, it's 2.5 times the serving size listed on the bag, so that 150 calorie bagel is actually 375 calories. I wouldn't know that if I hadn't weighed it, and I'd be eating an extra 225 calories every time I had one. If I had that every day, that's enough to gain about a half pound a week, if I was at maintenance.

Liftng4Lis

Tialuna18 wrote: »

ana3067 wrote: »

Then you clearly ate more than you think. What you eat has nothing to do with weight loss, HOW MUCH you eat does. If you used to exercise and then stopped now then that could also contribute to weight gain.

You don't weigh your food, which increases logging error.

I measure my food with measuring cups.. I never lie on my food diary. It clearly says how much I eat by the amount of cups. I find if I were to weigh things like two slices of toast would be ridiculous when a package clearly tells me the calorie count for it. I havent stopped exercising either. I just ate far less due to work. Now that I'm back in school I tend to pay attention more to meal times but I do still try to keep a normal portion.

Get a food scale, makes a huge difference.