My diary

msalicia116

Will someone look at my diary for the week and tell me what they think I'm doing wrong? I have a food scale, and thought that would help, but I still gained 1 lb this week. I can't afford to keep gaining every week. I don't care what I have to do, I just need to know what that is. My mothers advice is to reduce my calories even more. Just wow. But I'm considering it if no one has a better suggestion. Thanks so much!

chookywillow

your setting are on private.

msalicia116

It says public to me. Is there something I'm missing?

msalicia116

Yeah, just checked again under settings, diary... Public is checked. Should I be looking somewhere else?

Wolfena

It's public... but I don't see anything there screams you are doing something wrong, it looks pretty good to me! be patient

and hello

msalicia116

Hi Wolfena, and thank you very much for taking a look!! Even if you didn't find the culprit, I appreciate your time. This is breaking my spirit, 25 lbs can't continue to grow to be more so every input means a lot!

erickalynch19

From the look of things you aren't burning off enough calories when you work out. So might be the what wrong. For what I hear and everyone tells me is tour suppose to burn more calories then you eat or the calories that you didn't burn will turn into fat. I don't know if it's true but that is what I hear

TavistockToad

How long have you been trying to lose weight, how much have you gained?

erickalynch19

Oh the other thing that could be helping you gain is your eating to many carbs. You only need 150 carbs a day anything more then that can go against you.

mpd1009

Just looked at your diary. Cut back on some of the carbs. It appears that yesterday your calories were way in the negative. Do you do that every week? If so that will counteract everything. Look at other people's diaries so you can get an idea of what others are doing. Watch your sodium intake as well. Try to get close to your % in fat carbs and proteins. How much water are you drinking? Also try weighing yourself everday. This can help give motivation and insight . Do it first thing in morning before you eat and drink after you go to the bathroom . Stick with the same time. Some people say weekly weigh ins. I do everyday and then average it out at end of week for accuracy. If I gain anything I go back and look at my diary and see what I did the day before and determine if I need to chang something up. If I get fast food , I try to get salads or grilled chicken. Use this app when going out to eat it helps out a lot. I don't even look at a menu anymore. Hope I've helped

RoseTheWarrior

erickalynch19 wrote: »

Oh the other thing that could be helping you gain is your eating to many carbs. You only need 150 carbs a day anything more then that can go against you.

That is just false.

RoseTheWarrior

TavistockToad wrote: »

How long have you been trying to lose weight, how much have you gained?

This.

angelwowings23

I just went back about 5 days. I didn't notice anything that looks terrible going on in your diary. However, a few things probably could be modified to give you better results. I have a couple questions, as well:
1) Are you exercising along with dieting? If so, how often? For how long per session? What type of exercise?
2) How long have you been dieting and keeping your cals in the 1300 range (which is the caloric range I noticed you were trending)?

Before I can give you any further advice based on the above answers you provide, what I can note solely off your diary is that your protein is WAY too low on a day-to-day. They recommend .8g/lb of body weight. However, if you're exercising, I'd venture to suggest you get about 1g/lb. Additionally, I notice a significant amount of fruit. Fruit is great, don't get me wrong. But it can hinder fat loss. Start replacing some of those fruit servings with veggies.

msalicia116

ashorey87

I didn't go back in your diary very far, but one thing I noticed was your sodium intake is quite high on the few days that I did look at. You could just be retaining water. Try to lower your sodium intake, drink lots of water, and see what your results are.

msalicia116

This was my whole last week. My diary is open to show specific food but you can see the nutrition percentages if that makes it easier. These were recommended by MFP.

As for exercising: 3 times a week I do a circuit lifting for 25 minutes. Also, I go on about 3-4 walks a day about 5 days a week which includes 1 hike. Mostly because I have a very active son and a dog, so that gets me moving. That's it. With all that movement and only around 1200 calories, I have very little energy for more. My goal is to lose weight, so my diet in this case is more important to me than getting in more activity. But if there's argument that I need to move more and raise my calories to lose weight I'm all ears.

I have been trying to eat this way since January, and just started logging on MFP a little over 20 days ago. I think logging here will help. Yesterday I was pretty upset when I've been so active and eating the minimum to see I've gained yet another pound. That brings me to a little over 20 lbs total! It wouldn't be a big deal if I knew how to stop it or reverse it, but it's terrifying when I don't know why.

msalicia116

erickalynch19 wrote: »

From the look of things you aren't burning off enough calories when you work out. So might be the what wrong. For what I hear and everyone tells me is tour suppose to burn more calories then you eat or the calories that you didn't burn will turn into fat. I don't know if it's true but that is what I hear

I'm eating 1200 calories which is below my bmr on top of daily activities, I'm not sure how that's possible I'm eating more than what I burn. I should be burning more than that if I sleep the whole day.

msalicia116

RoseTheWarrior wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

How long have you been trying to lose weight, how much have you gained?

This.

I've gained 20-25 this past year. I would lose some by having very little calories, but I was sick if not being able to just have a healthy lifestyle and control my weight. So January I really started focusing on eating and doing it the right way. I believe I weighed 120 in January. My weigh in yesterday was 138! So I gained, even after my week of doing "everything right" which I posted images of.

It's clear I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I'm just destined to have to eat 800 calories everyday. But I really don't want to believe that's the case.

msalicia116

ashorey87 wrote: »

I didn't go back in your diary very far, but one thing I noticed was your sodium intake is quite high on the few days that I did look at. You could just be retaining water. Try to lower your sodium intake, drink lots of water, and see what your results are.

It's a little higher than it should be. I'll watch it more. Thanks

angelwowings23

I'm going to PM you.

thiosulfate

There are so many reasons why you could have gained 1 pound in one week.

- Not pooping
- Weighing during different times of the day
- High sodium
- New to exercise
- etc.


If you really think you are eating at a deficit, give it time. If you haven't lost anything in 1 month or so, perhaps contact your doctor.

RoseTheWarrior

Have you been to a doctor? Sometimes weight gain can be caused by physical issues, such as low thyroid, etc. I would get your blood work done ASAP, to make sure you're looking at this with all the facts. What is your height? How overweight are you? Did you perhaps start out underweight? I would look at sodium more than carbs. Honestly, you can eat only donuts and lose weight as long as your calories in are less than calories out. Sodium, however, will make you retain water. If you're using MFP numbers for food and exercise, make sure they're as correct as can be. When I started, I picked some random baked chicken breast number from the list, and later found it was listed at about HALF the actual calories (which I ended up researching on the Health Canada website). Exercise is also notoriously inflated on here. I've seen people post that they're burning 1200 calories for an hour of yoga, which is literally impossible.

So, first, get your blood work done to check for any anomalies. Second, check your calories in and out measurements. Third, lower sodium. Fourth, ignore everyone who says to cut carbs. They're not the devil. I've lost 80 lbs in 10 months and I can tell you, I eat carbs.

And finally, I don't know what circumstances you weigh yourself under. You should be weighing at the same time, first thing in the morning, after going to the bathroom, without clothing. If you weight at ANY other time, the reading will be different, due to what you've eaten, drank, the weight of clothing/shoes, etc.

Good luck. I hate to see someone so frustrated. I hope you determine how to fix this.

msalicia116

RoseTheWarrior wrote: »

Have you been to a doctor? Sometimes weight gain can be caused by physical issues, such as low thyroid, etc. I would get your blood work done ASAP, to make sure you're looking at this with all the facts. What is your height? How overweight are you? Did you perhaps start out underweight? I would look at sodium more than carbs. Honestly, you can eat only donuts and lose weight as long as your calories in are less than calories out. Sodium, however, will make you retain water. If you're using MFP numbers for food and exercise, make sure they're as correct as can be. When I started, I picked some random baked chicken breast number from the list, and later found it was listed at about HALF the actual calories (which I ended up researching on the Health Canada website). Exercise is also notoriously inflated on here. I've seen people post that they're burning 1200 calories for an hour of yoga, which is literally impossible.

So, first, get your blood work done to check for any anomalies. Second, check your calories in and out measurements. Third, lower sodium. Fourth, ignore everyone who says to cut carbs. They're not the devil. I've lost 80 lbs in 10 months and I can tell you, I eat carbs.

And finally, I don't know what circumstances you weigh yourself under. You should be weighing at the same time, first thing in the morning, after going to the bathroom, without clothing. If you weight at ANY other time, the reading will be different, due to what you've eaten, drank, the weight of clothing/shoes, etc.

Good luck. I hate to see someone so frustrated. I hope you determine how to fix this.

Your response was incredibly helpful! Initially I was under weight, so I didn't mind gaining about 7 lbs, but then it wouldn't stop! So my body was probably hormonalIy out of sinc. But it's been a year of this and I think it's time it understands a normal healthy diet.

I'm new to MFP so I will work on tailoring my food input, and I'm also going to buy a different scale. Mine is an old school one, and I think I need the digital type for accuracy.

I'm frustrated, but it will pass because I'm not going anywhere. I will reach my goal and won't give up until I do. Everyone has their roadblocks. I just wish my body was responding the way one would think with this type if monitoring and commitment. One thing I'm learning is that I expected to lose about 1.5 lbs a week, but it was probably more like .5, and with my sodium content, I probably retained water so it looks like I gained a lb instead. With such a small amount of weight loss it's extremely hard to see if there's results or not.

Brick by brick, day by day. There's a fine line between being consistent, and realizing what you're doing isn't the best option and change is in order.

I agree about the carbs. I did Atkins for 10 years, and now the second I do low carb it brings on a binge mentality. Never again.

I'm switching it up to 5/2, upping my cardio intensity and aiming for 4 times a week at 20 min, doing 3 days a week of weights for 30 min, and will reevaluate in 4 weeks. I hope this sounds like a good plan of action.

Thanks again for such a thoughtful response!

RoseTheWarrior

Sounds good! A digital food scale is a great idea. Measure by grams to be most accurate. Do get blood tested. I agree that about 4-6 weeks is enough time to see progress and if not, tweak it again. Good luck!

God_Makeup_Fitness

Honestly I didn't really look to much at your diary but I will tell you this. When I had my calorie intake at 1,200 calories because I wanted to lose weight I actually felt sick. And didn't feel like it was enough for me that I just gave up in two weeks. HOWEVER, when I actually made my calories higher to 1,550 and exercises 4 times a week for 45 min. I actually lost 8 pounds and I felt better because I had enough food and energy. I would eat oatmeal, egg whites , and one slice of bread with light butter and some fruit. Then I would have a snack. Then lunch. Then snack. Then dinner. I actually lose weight upping my calories but I didn't eat junk food I still kept it clean. So maybe give it a try ? In 6 weeks I lost 8 pounds. Hope it helped a little

msalicia116

God_Makeup_Fitness wrote: »

Honestly I didn't really look to much at your diary but I will tell you this. When I had my calorie intake at 1,200 calories because I wanted to lose weight I actually felt sick. And didn't feel like it was enough for me that I just gave up in two weeks. HOWEVER, when I actually made my calories higher to 1,550 and exercises 4 times a week for 45 min. I actually lost 8 pounds and I felt better because I had enough food and energy. I would eat oatmeal, egg whites , and one slice of bread with light butter and some fruit. Then I would have a snack. Then lunch. Then snack. Then dinner. I actually lose weight upping my calories but I didn't eat junk food I still kept it clean. So maybe give it a try ? In 6 weeks I lost 8 pounds. Hope it helped a little

Absolutely! There's so many variables, I appreciate knowing another point of view. May I ask your height and your weight loss goal? Are you close to maintenance? Thanks for your response, and keep me posted!