Will not eating enough really stop me from losing weight? Suggestions please!
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You know, this is really starting to aggravate me. I don't understand why you all would think I would lie about what I'm eating and then ask for advice. As far as medical problems, there are none that I know of, and I have had several different things checked including my thyroid, and was very let down when I found out it was normal.0
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cwolfman13, why would I lie about this, lol, that's everything I've had for the day, and it is pretty much a normal day. Some days, I may have ice tea, hot tea, or an occasional soda, but as far as food goes, my husband says I could probably go 24 hours without eating and it wouldn't even phase me. I just don't have much of an appetite
this is not a bunch of hocus pocus...this is math and people don't generally vary too much from the median numbers.
if this is really normal you need to see a Dr. pronto because you have something really jacked...people don't get to be 300 Lbs eating 1200 calories...'cuz math and science say so.0 -
cwolfman13, why would I lie about this, lol, that's everything I've had for the day, and it is pretty much a normal day. Some days, I may have ice tea, hot tea, or an occasional soda, but as far as food goes, my husband says I could probably go 24 hours without eating and it wouldn't even phase me. I just don't have much of an appetite
There are a lot of little pitfalls that people commonly fall into that lead to inaccuracate diaries. No one here is suggesting that you're lying. What they're trying to do is point out some of those issues (food scale vs. cups, inaccurate database entries, forgotten cooking oils, etc) to make sure that your diary is as accurate as it can be.0 -
2Poufs, I thought about that, just going about normal eating for a week or so, just to have a basis to go on
Do it for 2 weeks and see what you see. If what you've logged today is accurate, I'd bet good money you have an underlying condition that might require some medical supervision or intervention.
I understand eating 1200 a day and not losing. It's possible that's true, but inaccurate logging or eating more than you think you're eating are both far more likely. If 1200 a day is accurate, then it's medical. It's pretty much that simple.
Also, spend some time doing some reading on balancing your nutrients. Play around in the food database and buy yourself a digital scale for weighing food. Little things can make a big difference.
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If that really is your average day, you'll lose weight at a rapid pace.
Unfortunately, this type of day is not what made you the weight you're at now. If you're looking for an excuse as to why you "eat so little" but are still 300lbs, you're not going to get one here. No one (insert medical disclaimer here) is a special butterfly, you ate more than that, period.0 -
Okay, I'm done with this. I'm not an idiot, I know what I ate. I know how to use a measuring spoon. I don't like being accused of fibbing, when I'm telling the truth. Thanks for those who were being constructive, but to the accusatory ones, have a good day0
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since I know im logging my food, my diet is in no way representative of what it was before. Since I 'care' now..I am very mindful of what I put in my mouth. So if you looked at my diary you would see what a typical day looks like NOW, but it is not what represented me getting up to 200 lbs. I don't have a huge appetite, and am rarely hungry..mostly because I eat before I get hungry (pre MFP) BUT I cannot be trusted around buffets, pizza..and those types of things. I don't sit around the house and eat all day..I never did. but now that I am counting calories..I know I have had some meals that were easily 5000 calories. I went to bed with 200 calories left last night, and I actually looked for things to eat..but I just did not want anything..so I went to bed. This behavior though is 'new' and not typical for me.0
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You know, this is really starting to aggravate me. I don't understand why you all would think I would lie about what I'm eating and then ask for advice. As far as medical problems, there are none that I know of, and I have had several different things checked including my thyroid, and was very let down when I found out it was normal.
I wasn't trying to be mean or say that your lying. It is just that when people start to log they do it without scales and with the best intentions they massively under estimate what they are eating.0 -
Ppl don't think you're lying. What they think is u don't understand the system. U said "nothing to weigh." That's not possible unless you ate nothing. Anything you eat can, should, be weighed. Logging "one apple" or "1 bowl" of whatever or "one measuring cup" or "1 tablespoon" of whatever will get you a completely wrong calorie count. You can eat twice or more the calories that you think you are by logging in this manner. Look at the evidence: If you truly ate the amount of calories you think you are eating, you would be tiny. Therefore, to correct the problem, you will need to weigh everything you eat in order to get the true calorie count. Bread slices. globs of peanut butter. bananas. every last bit of it. Yeah I know it sounds blah, but it works, and that's the bottom line.0
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You know, this is really starting to aggravate me. I don't understand why you all would think I would lie about what I'm eating and then ask for advice. As far as medical problems, there are none that I know of, and I have had several different things checked including my thyroid, and was very let down when I found out it was normal.
Realize that it's less "you're lying" and more "are you really sure your logging is accurate?" A lot of people say, "I'm eating 1200 and not losing," when many of them aren't logging accurately or weighing food. That's why I suggest logging without changing anything for a little bit.
Also, "medical issue" can be something as hard to detect as Insulin Resistance or something almost impossible to detect like carb problems. Some folks just can't have a lot of carbs without gaining weight, even if they have low calories. That's why there are a lot of different diet approaches and you have to work through the things you can fix (logging, weighing food, lab results from the doctor), then sort of fumble about until you find what works for you.
Try not to take it personally. Let's just see what's going on and that takes time and diligence.
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if the question is will eating too little make you not lose, well no...of course not.0
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Appetite and calorie consumption aren't the same thing though. Eat a Snickers bar at 250 calories. Eat some cottage cheese at 80 calories. They both may fulfill your appetite, but there's an obvious surplus with the Snickers bar.I don't have a very big appetite, ironic as that may be in a woman weighing 300 lbs. I know I don't eat correctly, but aren't calories calories, regardless of where they come from. As I've started this change today, I am going to make a conscious effort to eat better, but I still don't see me eating as many calories as is recommended. Suggestions please!!
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Okay, I'm done with this. I'm not an idiot, I know what I ate. I know how to use a measuring spoon. I don't like being accused of fibbing, when I'm telling the truth. Thanks for those who were being constructive, but to the accusatory ones, have a good day
Let me say this again: NO ONE IS ACCUSING YOU OF LYING OR FIBBING. There is a huge space between intentionally lying about your food intake and accidentally making some common mistakes with your diary. People are trying to help you with the latter.0 -
You know, this is really starting to aggravate me. I don't understand why you all would think I would lie about what I'm eating and then ask for advice. As far as medical problems, there are none that I know of, and I have had several different things checked including my thyroid, and was very let down when I found out it was normal.
I don't think anyone believes you are lying. I know I certainly don't! I absolutely believe you are telling what you believe is the truth. However, I *do* think that either one or a combination of the following is true: your portions sizes are off; you have some days that are high enough in calories that they are far outweighing, so to speak, the low-calorie days; and/or you are not logging some things, either intentionally because you don't think they are enough calories to count, or unintentionally because you just don't realize they have calories. Math and Science just don't lie. Without an underlying medical condition, you would not weigh almost 300 pounds eating like today's example every day.
Watch the video posted earlier in this thread and then, using a food scale because it is the most accurate, weigh measure and log every single thing - solid, liquid or otherwise, including pre-packaged food - that goes in your mouth. That is the only way you will get an accurate pictures of your calorie consumption.
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diannethegeek wrote: »Okay, I'm done with this. I'm not an idiot, I know what I ate. I know how to use a measuring spoon. I don't like being accused of fibbing, when I'm telling the truth. Thanks for those who were being constructive, but to the accusatory ones, have a good day
Let me say this again: NO ONE IS ACCUSING YOU OF LYING OR FIBBING. There is a huge space between intentionally lying about your food intake and accidentally making some common mistakes with your diary. People are trying to help you with the latter.
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OP, to give yourself a fair shot at this, weigh EVERYTHING on a food scale, except for beverages. I put my spoon on the food scale empty, then scoop up the peanut butter, weigh the spoon with the pb on it, and then subtract out the weight of the spoon. Weigh your bread slices, they are sometimes different from what is listed on the package. Try to get grams for all of it. Log every beverage. I am 5'4", 130 lbs and I maintain on @ 1800 calories a day. Please watch the videos posted about how much difference their can be between measuring cups or eyeballing portions, and using a food scale. So many of us have been SHOCKED by how much more we were eating than we thought we were once we started using the food scale.
You can do this! You just need to make sure you are working with truly accurate info. Good luck :drinker:0 -
You may have eaten that today but it is not representative of what you eat in a normal day. Get a digital kitchen scale and weigh your food. Only use a measuring spoon/cup if weighing is not possible. Log every single bite that goes into your mouth. Use good entries in the MFP database (USDA entries, entries that match food packaging that you can verify yourself, etc.) Do it for a week while eating whatever it is that you eat on a normal day when you are not trying to lose weight. If you do that, you will see that you very easily are eating around 3000 calories per day in order to maintain a weight of 300 pounds*. Once you see that, you will see that you can easily eat 2390 while losing weight.
*My guess is that you chose either to lose 1.5 pounds or 2 pounds per week when filling in your MFP profile. If it was 1.5, you're probably eating around 3140, if it was 2, you're probably eating around 3390.0 -
Okay, I'm done with this. I'm not an idiot, I know what I ate. I know how to use a measuring spoon. I don't like being accused of fibbing, when I'm telling the truth. Thanks for those who were being constructive, but to the accusatory ones, have a good day
I don't know what you ate today. I do know that you did not become 300 pounds with a "small appetite." You have been routinely consuming orders of magnitude more food than you have logged today. If you can't accept that and recognize that you have a grossly distorted perception of your eating habits, you will fail here.0 -
And there's the peanut butter by the spoon entry...
If you want an accurate calorie count, you need to weigh your food.0 -
Lolz.0
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If you are using measuring cups and spoons to measure anything that isn't liquid, you actually are not using them correctly. For solid foods you must use a scale and weigh the items. Most people are eating more than they think they are, so it's not just you. You need to accept one of two options. Option A, you are eating more than you think. This would be completely consistent with people new to calorie counting. This is completely common and completely expected. Option B, you have a rare condition affecting the way you process calories. You have already been checked for the common problems (thyroid) so what you have is exceedingly rare. It's up to you to decide if you are just like everyone else and just need help with accurate logging (this will help: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101) or if you are extremely unique and have a condition that is incredibly rare.Okay, I'm done with this. I'm not an idiot, I know what I ate. I know how to use a measuring spoon. I don't like being accused of fibbing, when I'm telling the truth. Thanks for those who were being constructive, but to the accusatory ones, have a good day
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Nevermind. I found it. OP, do you usually skip breakfast?
Breakfast is a personal choice, nothing more. It does not " jump start " one's metabolism every morning, it does not provide extra energy, it's just a nice ( or often hurried ) meal if people prefer.
Meal frequency is a personal choice.
I ate breakfast ( and did not like it ) for 65 years, because supposedly it was " the most important meal of the day ". When I joined MFP two years ago, I learned otherwise and stopped eating breakfast and now eat two large meals a day. As a volume eater that makes me happy and sticking to the program has become easier for me.
I have lost 65 plus pounds by doing 18:6 and cutting out breakfast. Of course anyone's mileage varies, but breakfast is not a " must " for weight loss and /or healthy living.
Yes, I know, I was just asking because if the OP normally ate breakfast it would up her calories as opposed to today's low cals. That's all.0 -
OP, hopefully you read this as you seem to be only reading what you want to read. The #1 reason people aren't successful on MFP is because of inaccuracies in their logging. People would be saying the same thing to anyone because that is normally where the error is.
The FACT (notice I said fact as it isn't debatable) is that no one gets to 300lbs by eating 1200 calories a day unless they have a major medical condition. If you have truly been eating 1200 calories a day and gained this much weight, you really need to see a doctor, ASAP.
If you don't think that is the case, you are either not being honest with yourself about how much you ate or you do not know how to properly log. This isn't a bash (when I started I needed to learn this stuff as well), it's just a FACT.0 -
I don't think you're lying. I know for a fact you're mistaken. You did not get to 300 pounds eating at a level appropriate for very small, usually older, sedentary women. You just didn't. No matter how aggravating it is to read. You just didn't.
If you're not willing to listen to people who are familiar with the issues involved here, good luck on however you choose to try to lose weight.0 -
Being inaccurate doesn't mean that you are lying, it just means that you are logging inaccurately and probably don't know it. It really doesn't take much to be inaccurate. All it can take is choosing incorrect food entries in the database (and there are quite a few of them) and not using a food scale for everything. I suggest going into the helpful posts announcement and read the post about logging accurately.
Also you may think that there are things that you don't need to weigh but in reality you do. It was a real eye opener for me when I started weighing things like fruits, peanut butter, salad dressing, things that don't seem like it would make a difference but it really does.
I hope you are able to come back to reread the advice given to you with an open mind. People just want to help.0 -
Would you rather it be that you're just making some errors, or that you have some awful, rare medical condition that makes you gain at the maintenance level of a 4'11, 90 year old woman in a coma?0
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Okay, I'm done with this. I'm not an idiot, I know what I ate. I know how to use a measuring spoon. I don't like being accused of fibbing, when I'm telling the truth. Thanks for those who were being constructive, but to the accusatory ones, have a good day
Watch the video. Seriously.
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You know, this is really starting to aggravate me. I don't understand why you all would think I would lie about what I'm eating and then ask for advice. As far as medical problems, there are none that I know of, and I have had several different things checked including my thyroid, and was very let down when I found out it was normal.
It is ironic you ask for help but reject the help when people share their knowledge of the mistakes they made when they first started on the journey to loose fat. You more of less accuse people of thinking you are untruthful and an idiot. So, I say, continue on your path of getting negative results and when you are ready to follow the methods of people on MFP that are successful we will be more than happy to help you when you are ready for the help.0 -
she's not ready.0
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You know, this is really starting to aggravate me. I don't understand why you all would think I would lie about what I'm eating and then ask for advice. As far as medical problems, there are none that I know of, and I have had several different things checked including my thyroid, and was very let down when I found out it was normal.
I don't think you're lying. I think we're very bad at estimating what we eat (this is shown by studies). When I began logging, I wasn't very good at it. It isn't a natural skill.0
This discussion has been closed.
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