Not losing weight after over 3 months, yada yada (please help though)
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maverickmagali wrote: »Since I can't afford a scale right now, are there any foods (aside from PB and nutella-like foods) that I might be underestimating severely? Is it typically condiments?
The following foods were really eye opening to me:
-- nuts. What I thought was one serving of nuts and maybe about 100 cal, was really about 4-5 servings and about 400-500 cal.
-- cereal. One serving is usually about 45 grams, and to me, that's just a dusting of cereal on the bottom of the bowl. Definitely not even worth it.
-- pears. Not the weight so much, but I've always thought of pears as all water. They aren't. They are roughly 100 cal.
-- cheese. Now this was a HUGE disappointment to me. I shed tears over this one. I love cheese ... and then one day I weighed the amount I thought was one serving ... the amount I would eat in one sitting ... and it was up around 600 calories!! One serving is teensy-tiny.
-- honey. I used to smear a large dollop of honey onto toast. Yeah, about 2-3 servings worth, not 1.
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maverickmagali wrote: »Since I can't afford a scale right now, are there any foods (aside from PB and nutella-like foods) that I might be underestimating severely? Is it typically condiments?
The following foods were really eye opening to me:
-- nuts. What I thought was one serving of nuts and maybe about 100 cal, was really about 4-5 servings and about 400-500 cal.
-- cereal. One serving is usually about 45 grams, and to me, that's just a dusting of cereal on the bottom of the bowl. Definitely not even worth it.
-- pears. Not the weight so much, but I've always thought of pears as all water. They aren't. They are roughly 100 cal.
-- cheese. Now this was a HUGE disappointment to me. I shed tears over this one. I love cheese ... and then one day I weighed the amount I thought was one serving ... the amount I would eat in one sitting ... and it was up around 600 calories!! One serving is teensy-tiny.
-- honey. I used to smear a large dollop of honey onto toast. Yeah, about 2-3 servings worth, not 1.
Ugh, yes. Cereal. Boo.0 -
Here's an idea about how many calories are in nuts ... this convinced me to start using a scale ...
http://www.thekitchn.com/a-visual-guide-to-100-calories-of-nuts-snack-tips-from-the-kitchn-2017780 -
First of all when you dont lose weight than you eat to much calories ( maintenance) You eat more calories than you think.
When you can't afford a scale, keep measuring with your cups but take less of the more calorie dense food, and automatically you have cut back a bit.0 -
I don't eat cereal much any more because I need more like 5 servings!
Peanut butter, nutella, cheese,mayo etc etc are just depressing amounts when you weigh them out
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Yeah, here's what I see for settings. It's good to know that the little checkbox comes and goes though, so I'll just keep checking back every now and then. I use the latest version of Chrome.0 -
I can't afford a $20 scale either. I got a simple one at Wal-Mart for $5. It measures OZ, but not down to a decimal. Opened my eyes about how much I was eating.0
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maverickmagali wrote: »
Yeah, here's what I see for settings. It's good to know that the little checkbox comes and goes though, so I'll just keep checking back every now and then. I use the latest version of Chrome.
Stupid MFP. Making me into a liar. I swear it's there...
But, you can manage without it as well. At "lightly active" I have to hit 6,000 steps before I am no longer in the red. Sedentary is somewhere between 3500 and 5000 but I always err on the cautious side so Id shoot for 5,000. That's just me.0 -
The following foods were really eye opening to me:
-- nuts. What I thought was one serving of nuts and maybe about 100 cal, was really about 4-5 servings and about 400-500 cal.
-- cereal. One serving is usually about 45 grams, and to me, that's just a dusting of cereal on the bottom of the bowl. Definitely not even worth it.
-- pears. Not the weight so much, but I've always thought of pears as all water. They aren't. They are roughly 100 cal.
-- cheese. Now this was a HUGE disappointment to me. I shed tears over this one. I love cheese ... and then one day I weighed the amount I thought was one serving ... the amount I would eat in one sitting ... and it was up around 600 calories!! One serving is teensy-tiny.
-- honey. I used to smear a large dollop of honey onto toast. Yeah, about 2-3 servings worth, not 1.
Okay, that cheese one is a litttle rough. I do eat deli cheese occasionally, and almost always just one average slice (e.g. not too thin, but definitely not thick) at a time. It seems like that's usually between 80-100 calories per slice, depending on the type of cheese or thickness. Is that about the same with a scale? Before I started tracking calories, trust me, I could just sit DOWN with some cheese. But I'm usually satisfied if I can get in a deli slice here and there, or a small handful of shredded in meal.
Otherwise though, I don't frequently eat that much of the foods anyone mentioned (my cereal usually gets stale or expires before I get halfway through the box, honestly), so I feel a little better about holding off on getting a scale until my finances are more in order. Whenever I do eat those things, I will super overestimate my portions to balance everything out. To be honest, I have some obsessive tendencies and I kind of worry that weighing my food would open the door into some seriously disordered eating for me personally.0 -
maverickmagali wrote: »
The following foods were really eye opening to me:
-- nuts. What I thought was one serving of nuts and maybe about 100 cal, was really about 4-5 servings and about 400-500 cal.
-- cereal. One serving is usually about 45 grams, and to me, that's just a dusting of cereal on the bottom of the bowl. Definitely not even worth it.
-- pears. Not the weight so much, but I've always thought of pears as all water. They aren't. They are roughly 100 cal.
-- cheese. Now this was a HUGE disappointment to me. I shed tears over this one. I love cheese ... and then one day I weighed the amount I thought was one serving ... the amount I would eat in one sitting ... and it was up around 600 calories!! One serving is teensy-tiny.
-- honey. I used to smear a large dollop of honey onto toast. Yeah, about 2-3 servings worth, not 1.
Okay, that cheese one is a litttle rough. I do eat deli cheese occasionally, and almost always just one average slice (e.g. not too thin, but definitely not thick) at a time. It seems like that's usually between 80-100 calories per slice, depending on the type of cheese or thickness. Is that about the same with a scale? Before I started tracking calories, trust me, I could just sit DOWN with some cheese. But I'm usually satisfied if I can get in a deli slice here and there, or a small handful of shredded in meal.
Otherwise though, I don't frequently eat that much of the foods anyone mentioned (my cereal usually gets stale or expires before I get halfway through the box, honestly), so I feel a little better about holding off on getting a scale until my finances are more in order. Whenever I do eat those things, I will super overestimate my portions to balance everything out. To be honest, I have some obsessive tendencies and I kind of worry that weighing my food would open the door into some seriously disordered eating for me personally.
My not too thin, but definitely not thick piece of cheese came in at nearly 200 cal.
And now when I put shredded cheese onto a baked potatoes it is a pinch rather than a handful.
Personally, I find weighing my food interesting. I'm a numbers person and (aside from the cheese horror) it is fascinating.
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This might help ...
http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/goodfood/pages/what-does-100-calories-look-like.aspx
I quote:
"Most cheese is high in fat, so for 420kJ / 100kcal you get just under a 30g matchbox-sized piece of Cheddar cheese."
And that site talks about several other foods too.0 -
The paltry 200g of cheese I sprinkled on top of my pasta bake the other night clocked in at 580 calories
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maverickmagali wrote: »PAV8888, I walk on average 3,317 steps and a little over half an hour each day, according to Google Fit. I am a woman, 23, 5'4", and 181 lbs as of this afternoon.
Oh, well, that's your problem! That's below sedentary! It takes about 6k to fill up sedentary for most people. And you count steps above that. You need something that syncs to MFP correctly. 0 -
A couple of things from your diary that I noticed:
Cheese - The cheese entries are exactly 1 oz. Are they single serving portions? Cheese, especially grated cheese, can be easy to underestimate.
Cereal - Most Honey Cheerio entries are 35g. That would be a small amount, less than 1 cup. (0.75 cups ~ 28g; 35g ~ 0.94 cups).
Eggs - you have two large for 185 calories a few times. I buy "large" eggs also and when I weigh them they average close to 50 g per egg, which ends up being 210 to 220 calories for 2 eggs.
Oils- I don't see any oils for your breakfast stuff like potatoes or eggs. Are you using PAM? or nothing?0 -
Get someone to give you a food scale for the next holiday/birthday-type gift.0
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MissElectricEyeliner wrote: »I can't afford a $20 scale either. I got a simple one at Wal-Mart for $5. It measures OZ, but not down to a decimal. Opened my eyes about how much I was eating.
That's what I bought in college, too! Mine was sub-$10, and it wasn't electric.0 -
christinev297 wrote: »The paltry 200g of cheese I sprinkled on top of my pasta bake the other night clocked in at 580 calories
Yep ... it doesn't take much cheese for those calories to add up.
I have been eating cottage cheese lately. It's not the same, but at least it's sort of cheese-like. I carefully weigh out 100 grams and eat it with cucumbers for an after-work snack, and that works out to about 100 cal.
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You have to be really careful with packaged foods with serving sizes on them too. Case in point - I bought some trail mix bites (to sate my carb cravings) that listed the serving size as 27g per 2 pieces. Lo and behold, whenever I weigh out two of them for a snack (I am also a numbers person and weigh nearly everything), I have never had less than 40g for 2 pieces. This is why everyone is telling you to get a scale. It is amazingly easy to eat more than you think you are, even if you're eating packaged foods with seemingly accurate serving sizes on the nutrition label.
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I've found that with slices of bread too ... one slice might be 35 grams and another slice that looks identical comes in at 45 or 50 grams. Not a huge difference, but these things can add up.0
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Packaged goods - I bought a box of (loose) pastries. A serving was advertised as "2 pieces" or "85g". 85g, weighed out, was 1.5 pieces, not two. With an extra third of a serving in "2 pieces", came and extra 30% calories.
Knowledge is power. Real information is important.0 -
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If you're not losing weight, you're eating too much.
How is this hard to figure out?0 -
billieljaime wrote: »maverickmagali wrote: »Since I can't afford a scale right now, are there any foods (aside from PB and nutella-like foods) that I might be underestimating severely? Is it typically condiments?
ALL OF THEM without a food scale.....it is why your not losing
yep!
I often play "guess the weight" before I put my food on the scale, and 9 times out of 10 I get it wrong.
some folks are really good at eye balling portion sizes. I unfortunately, am not one of them.
Until you get yourself a food scale, you're just playing a guessing game..
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I got my food scale on Ebay for $5.950
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The negative adjustment setting probably requires integration with an external app before it will show up. If you have been adding your Google Fit activities manually the button might not be enabled.
Your slice of deli cheese at 100 sounds adequate. 50g of egg is about 72 Cal. If you are frying the egg, or adding butter, or PAM spray you have to account for that.
PAM spray is NOT 0 calories. Very few things are, but manufacturers play with the rules. F.e. you may be allowed to claim your product has 0 Cal per serving if it is under 5 Cal per serving. So, let's call 1/3 of second of cooking spray a serving.. and it is 0 Cal.
You need to make sure you're using database entries that make sense.
Regardless of your settings, because of the 1200 calorie floor in mfp, you may well be dealing with 500 calorie or so deficit in a day.
Exclude from that deficit 100 to 150 Cal in logging errors and 100-150 Cal in extra exercise that you logged while it was already included in your activity setting... and you can easily end up with a very small daily deficit.
Add to this an initial weigh in on a day you were at a relatively low water weight and a subsequent weigh in on a high water retention day, plus maybe wearing the wrong shoes, or a heavier pair of trousers, to your doctor's office.. and there you have it. Only a few lbs lost in a few months.
You are losing weight. Slowly. Nothing particularly wrong with that. At least you're not gaining!
Now move more and eat less and you will lose weight faster, or keep on going at this rate, whichever you prefer!
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Heck, post on Craigslist and ask for a free scale. Someone might be looking to get rid of one. Honestly I'd recommend spending the 10 bucks - it's a very small investment in your future. We can play the guessing game but you won't know what in your particular case you're underestimating until you start weighing all your food. Also don't forget any blow out days you may have. The calorie contributions can be massive and you can't hide your head in the sand on that one - your body remembers
Read this: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p10 -
My Ozeri Pro food scale cost 12 and change on Amazon, and it is just amazing. Works perfectly. Sometimes I just look at it, that's how pretty it is!
I may have to remodel my whole kitchen, that's how pretty it is!0 -
85Cardinals wrote: »and it is just amazing. Works perfectly. Sometimes I just look at it, that's how pretty it is! I may have to remodel my whole kitchen, that's how pretty it is!
Say, I wonder if you've ever seen a kitchen scale you like? <ducks>
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christinev297 wrote: »
yep!
I often play "guess the weight" before I put my food on the scale, and 9 times out of 10 I get it wrong.
some folks are really good at eye balling portion sizes. I unfortunately, am not one of them.
Until you get yourself a food scale, you're just playing a guessing game..
I am very good at eye-balling, but I would not have GOTTEN good at eye-balling without having weighed a massive amount of regular food items several times beforehand, so the person with the problem will no doubt have little to base her eyeing up on
And even being good at it, I am at times wrong (usually I overestimate, luckily), so weighing is still important when I need to track my calories.
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