What am I doing wrong? Can someone take a look at my food diary entry for today?

aliciamarieUF
aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
edited October 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone.

I was on a role and was weighing 138 pounds a few months ago before depression hit me. I creeped up to 151 (this keeps fluctuating from 147 though, so not sure what my actual weight is at the moment). Anyway, although never stopped exercising altogether, I began to take my diet and workout routine much more seriously, especially considering that I have a sedentary office job now.

I have been going to the gym for about a month and a half and have not seen any weight loss (clothes don't fit any differently either) despite cleaning up my diet.

I was wondering if someone can take a look at my diary and maybe give me some suggestions? Keep in mind that the almond coffee and feta wrap from Starbucks is very out of the ordinary for me. Boyfriend slept over last night so we went out for breakfast this morning, but normally I just have 2 eggs and a cup of oatmeal for breakfast.

I noticed that my calories for the day went over the allotted 1,200. However, if I don't snack throughout the day I feel hungry and don't have energy at the gym. Even with all the snacking I did throughout the day, I STILL felt hungry during and after my workout this evening.

Sometimes when I'm too tired to cook, I'll have a protein shake right after my workout in place of dinner.
I have also been strength training in addition to cardio.

Someone please tell me what I am doing wrong.
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Replies

  • aliciamarieUF
    aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Well...for todays entry you ate 2154 calories. Your goal was 1200 and you gained 341 calories from the exercise you logged. So you overate from your goal by 613 calories net. Not sure what your goal was set on (how much deficit) but that is pretty far off from your goal.

    I don't know your stats so I can't really try to esitmate your TDEE to know what that is like in comparison to what you ate...but its clear you are eating more than you set your goal to and I'm not sure why you are.

    As for what you are eating that doesn't matter so much for weight loss, you eat what fills you up and you eat enough protein and thats about that. Looks to me like you are getting sufficient protein so what you ate to get there not a big deal. 2150 calories though might be a bit much if you are looking to lose weight.

    What is your age height and current weight?

    The problem is that I continue to feel hungry and sometimes will even cramp up or feel low on energy at the gym, despite the fact that I am eating over my calorie limit.

    I am 5'6", 26-years-old, and I am fluctuating between 147 and 151 right now.
  • aliciamarieUF
    aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
    Also, I have to be burning calories with strength training, no???
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    You need to log your intake for at least one month to get any idea if your are going wrong somewhere. One day is not going to do it. Too little information.

    Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Are you fairly sedentary in your day to day activities (like desk job) aside from your intentional exercise at the gym? How long and how often are your workouts and are the primarily strength training?
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    If you're constantly hungry, change your macros so you've got more balance (35p, 35f or c, 30c or f). And aim to get around 25g of fiber daily (if you havent been getting enough fiber, increase the amount slowly over 2 weeks). Make sure to drink enough water (until your urine is pale yellow straw color).

    Second the logging for longer and also wondering if you use a food scale.
  • Jewels_Ka
    Jewels_Ka Posts: 67 Member
    gebeziseva wrote: »
    aliciamarieUF wrote: »
    Also, I have to be burning calories with strength training, no???

    Strength training burns very little calories, almost none. Is it possible it is around your TOM? I get ravenous on such days and nothing can fill me up. The only reason I stop eating on these days is because the day is over and I fall asleep lol !

    What do you mean Strength training burns very little calories, almost non? - THAT IS ABSOLUTE LIE!

    Here is my non-solicited advice :) Talk to a dietician. Snacking is not bad, depends on what you snack on and you also have to get used to eating less, so don't go crazy. You seem tense... Take up Hot yoga - that will help you stretch and relax. GET OUTSIDE, even just for a brisk walk, but get some Vitamin D! Drink water. Also, I like to drink tea and I find that I always had to have something with my tea - Dates (Majool Dates) especially are great substitute for any snack with tea all you need is about 3 with your cup of tea. they are high in sugar so be careful on eating to many of them, but they are also good. Sunflower seeds, nuts, avocados - all high in fat but in good fat. NOT ALL CALORIES ARE THE SAME - so choose good ones. Love your self first and exercise because you love your body not because you hate it.
  • aliciamarieUF
    aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Are you fairly sedentary in your day to day activities (like desk job) aside from your intentional exercise at the gym? How long and how often are your workouts and are the primarily strength training?

    Yes, I unfortunately sit for 9 hours a day. I would say I do cardio for 40 to 50 minutes and then 4 sets of 4 different machines for whatever muscle group I will be working that day.
  • msilverjr
    msilverjr Posts: 2 Member
    Aerobic vs Anaerobic

    http://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/calories-burned-lifting-weights
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    aliciamarieUF wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Are you fairly sedentary in your day to day activities (like desk job) aside from your intentional exercise at the gym? How long and how often are your workouts and are the primarily strength training?

    Yes, I unfortunately sit for 9 hours a day. I would say I do cardio for 40 to 50 minutes and then 4 sets of 4 different machines for whatever muscle group I will be working that day.

    Well with your stats and general activity I can try using a TDEE calculator to see what your daily calorie need might be...keeping in mind this is an estimate not necessarily 100% accurate.

    I'll use this one: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Put in female, 149 pounds, 64 inches, 26 years old activity is 3-5 hours a week of moderate exercise.

    Put your goal as a 20% calorie reduction for weight loss.

    It gives your BMR as 1475, your TDEE as 2286 so it has you eating 1830 a day to lose about a pound per week. Now your diary has only one day but assuming its representative you ate 2150 calories which is only 100 calories less than your TDEE. Assuming you ate that everyday and you were 100% accurate in your logging and your TDEE estimate was 100% accurate you would only be losing 0.2 pounds per week meaning it would take over one month to lose one pound.

    Of course the TDEE estimate could be off, your calorie counting could be off, lots of things could be off....hard to say. What is says though is you should probably be eating less than you are to lose weight and if you are hungry you might want to look at changing your macro balance around and see what makes you feel more full. Often higher protein or higher fat with lower carb plus more dietary fiber can help with that for most people.

    all of this is spot on OP.

    Reset your calorie goal based on the above and stick with it for 4-6 weeks and see if the scale moves?
  • chezinkflo
    chezinkflo Posts: 19 Member
    Hi there, I can't see any drinks on your diary. What are you drinking throughout the day? Are you having plenty of water? Also, there's quite q bit of olive oil there, I have cut mine down to a couple of teaspoons per meal and that helped. I also changed to a low GL regime which means I eat slow acting sugars not fast acting ones. This keeps my energy levels steady all day no matter what I'm doing. Change the scrambled eggs for poached or boiled, and the snack crackers for a couple of squares of dark chocolate 80% or above and see if that helps.
  • aliciamarieUF
    aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
    Thanks to everyone for all of the great input. I will definitely try readjusting things.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    Why switch from scrambled eggs to boiled or poached? If OP likes eggs fried styles...?
    Maybe add things to scrambled (or omelette style) egg to be more filling, whether things are in the egg or on the side. Vegetables? Cheese? Some type of meat or fish? Beans? etc
  • spiveaa
    spiveaa Posts: 1,387 Member
    Things look great, one thing I would look at is you Olive oil usage. You using for cooking or for salads? You can see the fat continent is higher in those two teaspoons than you consumed all day.
  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 902 Member
    There isn't much on your diary, so I'll just give advice based on what I've read in here.

    If you feel the need to snack, try to snack on things that are lower calorie. I've chosen my snacks based on how many calories are in a POUND. Fruit, glorious fruit! Ahem. This way when I go to the store, I can measure out a pound of the fruit I want, and snack on it through the day, while knowing exactly how much that snack will cost me in calories. I'm anal about measuring it.

    My favorites, and their approximate calories per pound. FRESH, NOT DRIED. This is important
    Peaches - 178
    Pineapple - 227
    Plum - 206
    Grapes - 310
    Apricots - 217
    Red Pepper - 181
    Cucumber - 70 [I dislike this, but others like them]
    White Mushroom - 101
  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 902 Member
    edited January 2017
    wrote: »
    Why switch from scrambled eggs to boiled or poached? If OP likes eggs fried styles...?
    Maybe add things to scrambled (or omelette style) egg to be more filling, whether things are in the egg or on the side. Vegetables? Cheese? Some type of meat or fish? Beans? etc

    I like doing egg beaters so I can throw in a tooonnnnn of things and have a huge volume at same or lower calories. Can get an incredibly cheesy low-cal omelette this way. <3
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    Sounds great, my egg scrambled is really more of a veggie scramble with an egg to hold some of veggies together :)

    In the list of snacks you gave
    1 serving (1/4 cup, 30 g) plain roasted almonds is 170 calories. ....very helpful in between or before meals
    1 serving many cheese types 80-100 calories

    Just seen you are giving calories per pound, are you eating a pound (per day?) just curious.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Do you weigh solids you eat and measure liquids you consume? If not you may be eating 10-50%+ more than you think you are.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    I agree with Aaron. You're hungry because your calorie goal is too aggressive. I suspect you've asked MFP to set you up to lose 2 pounds/week, and you're not overweight enough to warrant losing at that rate. Aim for 1 pound/week - or even 0.5 pounds/week. That'll give you a higher calorie allowance every day. Your body won't fight back with extreme hunger. And, overall, you'll be more successful. Also, if you have the occasional maintenance day (because of PMS or a special occasion or whatever), it's not the end of the world. All a maintenance day does is push back your loss by one day.
  • a45cal
    a45cal Posts: 85 Member
    Others have mentioned this, but I wanted to hit on it a little more in depth: You seem to be using quite a bit of olive oil and butter, and blowing a lot of calories on it.

    For instance, on Tuesday, your lunch included a 4 oz piece of salmon at 100 calories and a tablespoon of butter also at 100 calories. Those two things are not equally filling, but they're reducing your calorie allotment by the same amount. You might be best served by cutting down on things that are only there to add flavor in order to get in more food that will actually be filling.

    Your eating style seems to be split amongst three meals and snacks. As an exercise to help you figure out what does and doesn't fit in for the day, perhaps try taking your daily calorie allotment before exercise and dividing by four meals. Then when you plan a particular meal, try to keep the total calories for that meal at or around that number, and switch out anything that's too calorie heavy for something else where you need to.

    Once you've really paid attention to the calorie loads of particular foods for a while, it becomes easier to figure out when you can't have something without going over, or at the least need to have less of it.
  • aliciamarieUF
    aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    I agree with Aaron. You're hungry because your calorie goal is too aggressive. I suspect you've asked MFP to set you up to lose 2 pounds/week, and you're not overweight enough to warrant losing at that rate. Aim for 1 pound/week - or even 0.5 pounds/week. That'll give you a higher calorie allowance every day. Your body won't fight back with extreme hunger. And, overall, you'll be more successful. Also, if you have the occasional maintenance day (because of PMS or a special occasion or whatever), it's not the end of the world. All a maintenance day does is push back your loss by one day.

    I actually have it set at a pound a week, and it allows me to consume 1,300 calories a day. :neutral:
  • aliciamarieUF
    aliciamarieUF Posts: 226 Member
    a45cal wrote: »
    Others have mentioned this, but I wanted to hit on it a little more in depth: You seem to be using quite a bit of olive oil and butter, and blowing a lot of calories on it.

    For instance, on Tuesday, your lunch included a 4 oz piece of salmon at 100 calories and a tablespoon of butter also at 100 calories. Those two things are not equally filling, but they're reducing your calorie allotment by the same amount. You might be best served by cutting down on things that are only there to add flavor in order to get in more food that will actually be filling.

    Your eating style seems to be split amongst three meals and snacks. As an exercise to help you figure out what does and doesn't fit in for the day, perhaps try taking your daily calorie allotment before exercise and dividing by four meals. Then when you plan a particular meal, try to keep the total calories for that meal at or around that number, and switch out anything that's too calorie heavy for something else where you need to.

    Once you've really paid attention to the calorie loads of particular foods for a while, it becomes easier to figure out when you can't have something without going over, or at the least need to have less of it.

    These are all really good suggestions...thank you.
  • sllm1
    sllm1 Posts: 2,130 Member
    I will reiterate what many have said - that your calorie goal is too aggressive, and that's why you're having trouble staying on track and with hunger.

    There's nothing wrong with setting your goal at 1/2 pound per week. If you set it too aggressively and can't do it, you won't lose anything in the long run. So what's wrong with going a little slower so that your weight loss plan is sustainable?
  • chezinkflo
    chezinkflo Posts: 19 Member
    re: scrambled eggs versus Boiled or poached ... Scrambled egg usually has butter added, boiled or poached don't therefore less fat and less calories. Given the amount of oils and fats that the op is using each day, anywhere she can cut down has to be a help.
  • leejoyce31
    leejoyce31 Posts: 794 Member
    chezinkflo wrote: »
    re: scrambled eggs versus Boiled or poached ... Scrambled egg usually has butter added, boiled or poached don't therefore less fat and less calories. Given the amount of oils and fats that the op is using each day, anywhere she can cut down has to be a help.
    I suppose she could scramble using butter cooking spray.
  • janekana
    janekana Posts: 151 Member
    edited October 2016
    chezinkflo wrote: »
    re: scrambled eggs versus Boiled or poached ... Scrambled egg usually has butter added, boiled or poached don't therefore less fat and less calories. Given the amount of oils and fats that the op is using each day, anywhere she can cut down has to be a help.

    It's definitely possible to cook scrambled eggs without butter, especially if you use a non-stick pan. Usually the butter/oil's for ensuring that the scrambled egg doesn't stick to the pan most times, there's not much difference in taste with or without either.

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