Getting Frustrated......again

2

Replies

  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    edited September 2015
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Is your FitBit set to lose weight? It looks to me like the FitBit is adjusting your daily calorie goal up to your TDEE (maintenance level). If you are eating back everything that's why you aren't losing. Although going strictly off the comments (I have looked more that a few days back in your diary), you aren't logging accurately every single day.

    My thoughts: tighten up the logging, and
    your FitBit

    Question, why do u say Im not logging accurately?

    I was basing that strictly on the comments above, days that have no entries, 1 serving of chocolate chip pancakes... Some of my entries say one serving, but I have weighed them out and compared it to the package. It's not uncommon to see 1.15 servings in my diary to make the appropriate weight of the food, that changes the calorie intake. Particularly on calorie dense foods. Other items, such as recipes that you have entered yourself will be one serving. I don't know which situation applies for you.

    Does anyone have the link for the guide to calorie counting thread?

    Edited: to fix the quotes
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,649 Member
    I'm curious why you slashed your calories from 2300 down to 1350.

    You don't have that much to lose - so are you set at .5 lb/week? Surely MFP gives you more than 1350 calories per day?
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    You have less than 25 pounds to lose, so setting high loss goals is unrealistic. This is also where you need to tighten up your logging. Set your deficit for 1/2pound per week loss.

    Use your food scale for all solid/semi solid foods, measure all liquids. Log everything you consume. Ensure you are using accurate database items. (1 serving of chocolate chip pancakes is not in any way accurate).

    Once you get your logging in line, and you are truly eating at a deficit, the results will come.

    The chocolate chip pancakes are made by me and I entered the ingridients in the mfp recipe log and calculated 1 pancake as a serving. How is it not accurate?

    It appeared as a generic entry. Items listed as "piece", "serving", "portion" etc tend to be grossly incorrect. Weighing portions in grams (even the ones you make yourself) are the most accurate method of tracking.
    Good luck :)
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Im sure that theyve all said it but its 100% deficit so if you arent losing quickly enough its because you are eating more than you think, burning less, arent being patient or have your calorie target set incorrectly.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/vismal/view/calorie-counting-101-661489
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    I'm curious why you slashed your calories from 2300 down to 1350.

    You don't have that much to lose - so are you set at .5 lb/week? Surely MFP gives you more than 1350 calories per day?

    I put my deficit at 11/2 lb per week but I'm not even losing 1/2.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    You have less than 25 pounds to lose, so setting high loss goals is unrealistic. This is also where you need to tighten up your logging. Set your deficit for 1/2pound per week loss.

    Use your food scale for all solid/semi solid foods, measure all liquids. Log everything you consume. Ensure you are using accurate database items. (1 serving of chocolate chip pancakes is not in any way accurate).

    Once you get your logging in line, and you are truly eating at a deficit, the results will come.

    The chocolate chip pancakes are made by me and I entered the ingridients in the mfp recipe log and calculated 1 pancake as a serving. How is it not accurate?

    It appeared as a generic entry. Items listed as "piece", "serving", "portion" etc tend to be grossly incorrect. Weighing portions in grams (even the ones you make yourself) are the most accurate method of tracking.
    Good luck :)

    Oh I see lol. Yeah I measure in grams all solids and use the recipe builder alot.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    How much do ylou have to lose by your ticker its about 18? You should be aiming to lose.5-1lb a week. 1.5 is a bit ambitious imo. Just accept you arent at the deficit you think you are. identify why.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Is your FitBit set to lose weight? It looks to me like the FitBit is adjusting your daily calorie goal up to your TDEE (maintenance level). If you are eating back everything that's why you aren't losing. Although going strictly off the comments (I have looked more that a few days back in your diary), you aren't logging accurately every single day.

    My thoughts: tighten up the logging, and
    your FitBit

    Question, why do u say Im not logging accurately?

    I was basing that strictly on the comments above, days that have no entries, 1 serving of chocolate chip pancakes... Some of my entries say one serving, but I have weighed them out and compared it to the package. It's not uncommon to see 1.15 servings in my diary to make the appropriate weight of the food, that changes the calorie intake. Particularly on calorie dense foods. Other items, such as recipes that you have entered yourself will be one serving. I don't know which situation applies for you.

    Does anyone have the link for the guide to calorie counting thread?

    Edited: to fix the quotes

    Oh ok. Well I do use the recipe builder alot, I do weigh solids in grams. I also log daily the only days I didn't log was last weekend due to me being out of town in a celebration.
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,649 Member
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    I'm curious why you slashed your calories from 2300 down to 1350.

    You don't have that much to lose - so are you set at .5 lb/week? Surely MFP gives you more than 1350 calories per day?

    I put my deficit at 11/2 lb per week but I'm not even losing 1/2.

    I think that may be too aggressive. Set your stats to lose .5 lb/week. I know, I know - it's slow. But you will be given more calories to work with. Which makes things a whole lot more uplifting and you'll be going in the right direction. At least try it for several weeks and see what you think.

  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    999tigger wrote: »
    Im sure that theyve all said it but its 100% deficit so if you arent losing quickly enough its because you are eating more than you think, burning less, arent being patient or have your calorie target set incorrectly.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/vismal/view/calorie-counting-101-661489

    Thank you.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    999tigger wrote: »
    How much do ylou have to lose by your ticker its about 18? You should be aiming to lose.5-1lb a week. 1.5 is a bit ambitious imo. Just accept you arent at the deficit you think you are. identify why.

    Yeah makes sense. I will adjust my deficit to 1/2 lb and see how that works. What about the calories I burn. Do I just ignore them?
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    edited September 2015
    Many of your entries do look inaccurate to me, but I have similar things in my own diary that are indeed right (ie: I've logged a solid as the 2 TBSP serving, but I've measured out the grams and just couldn't be bothered to find the grams entry). Do you weigh semi-solids, like peanut butter, too?

    I did notice that you eat out/eat fast food at least a few days a week. It may be worth cutting back on that since the calorie counts are approximations based on averages.

    My recommendation would be to try for 2-4 weeks to eat as many of your meals prepared at home, making sure you log everything in grams, and see if that helps.

    ETA:

    For your Fitbit - does it have the right info about you? I get around 500 calories, total, for my 10k steps. I start off with a negative adjustment of ~80, which ends up as +400 if I move enough. How many steps are you getting and are you logging exercise in Fitbit or MFP?

    ~Lyssa
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    I'm curious why you slashed your calories from 2300 down to 1350.

    You don't have that much to lose - so are you set at .5 lb/week? Surely MFP gives you more than 1350 calories per day?

    I put my deficit at 11/2 lb per week but I'm not even losing 1/2.

    I think that may be too aggressive. Set your stats to lose .5 lb/week. I know, I know - it's slow. But you will be given more calories to work with. Which makes things a whole lot more uplifting and you'll be going in the right direction. At least try it for several weeks and see what you think.

    Yeah I will try it. It's just confusing for me because I synced my fitbit to mfp and I see the exercise calories burned and I always question weather I eat them or ignore them.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    macgurlnet wrote: »
    Many of your entries do look inaccurate to me, but I have similar things in my own diary that are indeed right (ie: I've logged a solid as the 2 TBSP serving, but I've measured out the grams and just couldn't be bothered to find the grams entry). Do you weigh semi-solids, like peanut butter, too?

    I did notice that you eat out/eat fast food at least a few days a week. It may be worth cutting back on that since the calorie counts are approximations based on averages.

    My recommendation would be to try for 2-4 weeks to eat as many of your meals prepared at home, making sure you log everything in grams, and see if that helps.

    ETA:

    For your Fitbit - does it have the right info about you? I get around 500 calories, total, for my 10k steps. I start off with a negative adjustment of ~80, which ends up as +400 if I move enough. How many steps are you getting and are you logging exercise in Fitbit or MFP?

    ~Lyssa

    Yeah your right. Eating out needs to be minimized. I usually can do anywhere from 10k steps to 15k (ive got 20k on some days when I've walked for lunch break and jogged in the evening). I dont log any exercise on mfp since fitbit tracks all my moves and syncs them. Fitbit has all my stats. But what do u mean by starting of w a negative? Im confused about that part.
  • birdmoma
    birdmoma Posts: 2 Member
    Something is off on your kcal burn. To burn 2300 kcal per day is alot. Even with walking 14,000 steps per day (Fitbit), I don't come close to 700 kcal. You would have to be doing some massively aggressive exercise and if you were really burning that much per day + eating the kcal you say you are - you should be very fit.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    How much do ylou have to lose by your ticker its about 18? You should be aiming to lose.5-1lb a week. 1.5 is a bit ambitious imo. Just accept you arent at the deficit you think you are. identify why.

    Yeah makes sense. I will adjust my deficit to 1/2 lb and see how that works. What about the calories I burn. Do I just ignore them?

    I cant comment for fit bit but check you have it set up correctly with other users. The standard start point is to eat half back and adjust as needed based on results What you are trying to avoid is eating back calories you havent burned. The benchmark is tyhat if you arent losing for a period normally 8 weeks then thats a very good sign the sum total of your efforts mean you are at maintenance, personally id start making adjustments if I got to 3 weeks and no loss. People have given you plenty of ideas on how to tighten up your logging. the food weighing and logging should be your first port of call.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    edited September 2015
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    macgurlnet wrote: »
    Many of your entries do look inaccurate to me, but I have similar things in my own diary that are indeed right (ie: I've logged a solid as the 2 TBSP serving, but I've measured out the grams and just couldn't be bothered to find the grams entry). Do you weigh semi-solids, like peanut butter, too?

    I did notice that you eat out/eat fast food at least a few days a week. It may be worth cutting back on that since the calorie counts are approximations based on averages.

    My recommendation would be to try for 2-4 weeks to eat as many of your meals prepared at home, making sure you log everything in grams, and see if that helps.

    ETA:

    For your Fitbit - does it have the right info about you? I get around 500 calories, total, for my 10k steps. I start off with a negative adjustment of ~80, which ends up as +400 if I move enough. How many steps are you getting and are you logging exercise in Fitbit or MFP?

    ~Lyssa

    Yeah your right. Eating out needs to be minimized. I usually can do anywhere from 10k steps to 15k (ive got 20k on some days when I've walked for lunch break and jogged in the evening). I dont log any exercise on mfp since fitbit tracks all my moves and syncs them. Fitbit has all my stats. But what do u mean by starting of w a negative? Im confused about that part.

    If you have negative calorie adjustments enabled, when you first log in to MFP, you'll see something like this (these are my numbers):

    1500(GOAL)| 0(FOOD) + -81(EXERCISE) = 81 NET

    That 81 is a negative adjustment because I've barely moved so far. MFP estimates that I can eat 1500 calories to maintain my weight, but, even with my activity set at Sedentary, there is still the expectation that I get some steps in. I think it's around 2k steps for me before the adjustment goes positive.

    1000+ calories for that number of steps sounds kind of high to me. What's your current height/weight?

    ~Lyssa
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    birdmoma wrote: »
    Something is off on your kcal burn. To burn 2300 kcal per day is alot. Even with walking 14,000 steps per day (Fitbit), I don't come close to 700 kcal. You would have to be doing some massively aggressive exercise and if you were really burning that much per day + eating the kcal you say you are - you should be very fit.

    What is kcal? Do u mean calories. And for my height and weight 2300 is not alot. My body burns that in general more or less depending on how active I am. A body will burn about 1000 calories just by functioning.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member


    If you have negative calorie adjustments enabled, when you first log in to MFP, you'll see something like this (these are my numbers):

    1500(GOAL)| 0(FOOD) + -81(EXERCISE) = 81 NET

    That 81 is a negative adjustment because I've barely moved so far. MFP estimates that I can eat 1500 calories to maintain my weight, but, even with my activity set at Sedentary, there is still the expectation that I get some steps in. I think it's around 2k steps for me before the adjustment goes positive.

    1000+ calories for that number of steps sounds kind of high to me. What's your current height/weight?

    ~Lyssa[/quote]

    I do have it set at negative then. I remember I did this when I first got my fitbit after someone suggested I do this.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member


    1000+ calories for that number of steps sounds kind of high to me. What's your current height/weight?

    ~Lyssa[/quote]

    When I only get 10k steps my burn will be of a little over 500. Yesterday was a very, very active day for me. I think I ended the night with over 15k steps and my heart rate was elevated for the time i was dancing.

  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    999tigger wrote: »
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    999tigger wrote: »
    How much do ylou have to lose by your ticker its about 18? You should be aiming to lose.5-1lb a week. 1.5 is a bit ambitious imo. Just accept you arent at the deficit you think you are. identify why.

    Yeah makes sense. I will adjust my deficit to 1/2 lb and see how that works. What about the calories I burn. Do I just ignore them?

    I cant comment for fit bit but check you have it set up correctly with other users. The standard start point is to eat half back and adjust as needed based on results What you are trying to avoid is eating back calories you havent burned. The benchmark is tyhat if you arent losing for a period normally 8 weeks then thats a very good sign the sum total of your efforts mean you are at maintenance, personally id start making adjustments if I got to 3 weeks and no loss. People have given you plenty of ideas on how to tighten up your logging. the food weighing and logging should be your first port of call.

    Thank you.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    I think the setting on your fitbit must be off. What kind of exercises are you doing that burn over 1000 calories? I ran 5 miles today, and it didn't even burn 500. I think the problem is over estimating exercise calories, causing you to over eat.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    I think the setting on your fitbit must be off. What kind of exercises are you doing that burn over 1000 calories? I ran 5 miles today, and it didn't even burn 500. I think the problem is over estimating exercise calories, causing you to over eat.

    Hmmmmm could be. However the 1000 calories was just yesterday. If you see all other days are not like that.
  • suzeexoxo
    suzeexoxo Posts: 170 Member
    Today I have been a couch potatoe all day and my fitbit synced only +21 of exercise calories it says that so far I have burned a total of 1174 calories. Im 5'4 and weigh 172lbs. Is burning a total of 2300 for a day of normal body functions and activity(10k steps +) sound about right?
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    Today I have been a couch potatoe all day and my fitbit synced only +21 of exercise calories it says that so far I have burned a total of 1174 calories. Im 5'4 and weigh 172lbs. Is burning a total of 2300 for a day of normal body functions and activity(10k steps +) sound about right?

    If your fitbit is like my Garmin, it will tell you what you burn as BMR + Exercise. My watch at the end of the day says I burnt 1660 calories, but that is from being alive AND moving. I can't log the full 1660 as exercise. So on the app it might say +83 calories from my movement of the day.

    2300 sounds high to me. 10k steps isn't a lot at all and my band doesn't give me many calories at all for walking. I think I got another only an extra 150 calories or so for a 24k step day.

    So depending on what time of day it is, your body has burnt 1174 calories being alive and moving your today. For 2300 to be it, you need to somehow burn 1126 calories before the end of the day. How many hours are left in the day to burn the other 1126 calories?
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
    Too many days are inaccurate for calories burned; too many entries are inaccurate. If you were eating calorically for the last 2 weeks and it as accurate and you burned the calories in your diary you wouldn't be frustrated. So, tighten up entries for food and try a calculator like iffy.com for TDEE or at least BMR.

    You have at least one day you show about 1,000 calories burned, one at 700, and several at 500 and this is each week. Tough to imagine you are burning this many unless you are training for a tri and logging many miles of cycling and running.
  • choppie70
    choppie70 Posts: 544 Member
    I am about 5ft 3in and currently weigh 205 lbs. On days when I walk about 13,000 steps, my fitbit says I burn around 2,700 calories. I just went back to work this week and I was active longer and burned close to 3k calories for the same amount of steps. I have steadily lost my goal each week.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Suze, your ticker says you've lost 8 pounds. How long did this take you?

    I note by your diary that you use a lot of general entries, indicating that you don't weigh your solid foods. Make sure you weigh your food because measuring cups, spoons, and eyeballs are usually not accurate. Also, it looks like you don't log everything you consume (i noticed a day with very few calories), which I advise you do as well.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    What you eat doesn't matter from a weight loss perspective. If you're not losing weight over a period of years, you're eating too much.

    100% this.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    suzeexoxo wrote: »
    aggelikik wrote: »
    You are eating too much. Either you are not logging accurately, or the days when you go over, you go over enough to make up for whatever you managed to cut the rest of the week, or you overestimate your burns, or most probably, a combination of all this.

    I log everything and I estimate based on what my fitbit tells me I burn. This is why Im so frustrated.

    Then your food intake is not accurate.