Please help me....In desperate need of expert advice

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Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    OP your diary has inaccurate entries, you do NOT weigh everything you eat, which leads me to the conclusion that you are eating more than you think.
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    Hi everyone
    I'm truly grateful for everyone's help, thoughts and opinions on here, the support has helped to pick me back up and carry on today. I even went out for a 45 minute walk in the pouring rain.
    So thank you everyone.
    If anyone would like to be friends please feel free to add me, Support is a great thing to have on any journey in life
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    @sunshine12870 I'm curious why you havent responded to any of the posts mentioning inaccurate logging/eating more than you think??
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    I especially want to say a huge thank you to those of you who have totally got that I'm big lady!!! 240lbs big!!! That I'm lugging that around all day not just when I'm exercising, so approx an extra 8 Stone, every minute of the day, no matter what I'm doing.
    That's like lifting 50kg at the gym, and keeping it lifted, never putting it down, has to stay with you all day every day, whether your just going about your daily routine or exercising, so my heart rate "IS" much higher and I burn more calories. Not to mention on the 2 days I deliver newspapers, the trolley is heavy and then loaded to the top with newspapers becomes immensely heavy, so that's more added weight again.
    So yes I do believe my calories burn is much higher than someone younger, fitter and at or around their ideal weight.
    I've checked my calories burn with both my FitBit and Polar chest strap hr monitor, they both give the same reading, so I'd have to assume it's pretty accurate.

    I never ever eat back my exercise calories and I always log absolutely everything, what's the point in not, your only cheating yourself . I take on board what people have said about maybe the accuracy of the weights of food I'm eating so not to take for granted what the packaging says it is and to check it myself, so I will be keeping an eye and making changes on that.

    I'm still not sure how many calories I should eat a day but a lot of people don't think I'm eating enough, which might explain why I'm getting more and more tired and weak.
    Think I will aim for 1800 weekdays and 1600 on weekends possibly, see how that goes, maybe I will just need to keep playing around with it till I find what works.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
    Stop using a fit bit.
    Take supplements for B12 & D deficiency.
    Eat 1500 calories a day and don't eat back any exercise calories.

    See if that works?
  • kcstar73
    kcstar73 Posts: 31 Member


    cqbkaju wrote: »


    I understand the desire to help and be encouraging, but please don't be misleading.

    Same thing with the various "thyroid" answers here...
    OP, go to the doctor and make sure you do not have a medical issue.
    If you do, then get it dealt with.

    Regardless, you have to make some lifestyle changes if you want to lose excess fat.
    A "thyroid problem" does not magically negate the need for proper exercise and healthy eating habits.
    To the contrary, it means you must work a bit harder than some other people and you have less room for cheat meals.

    I agree. Regardless, life-style changes aren't "magically" negated by having a "thyroid problem". In fact an endocrinologist will be quite forthright in telling someone with thyroid issues that healthy eating habits and proper exercise are a major part of the solution.

    What I meant to prompt the OP to consider, is that instead of this being only about "math" in fact it may not be. She should indeed follow the very chart provided--all the way down--including to the little blue box re: hypothyroidism and PCOS, should her answers direct her there, but perhaps not stop halfway down the chart even if her math is wrong. If other issues besides weight are a problem for her, then those things should also carry some weight (no pun intended) with regards to what approach to take next. When we stop short, suggesting that OP's is a "math" problem only, and don't also acknowledge there's possibly more going on than we've been made privy to, underlying causes might never be investigated, and the weight gain/loss question remains unresolved by the correct/healthiest solution.

    Hope that wasn't further misleading. Wasn't intentional.


  • xmichaelyx
    xmichaelyx Posts: 883 Member
    sunshine12870 wrote: »
    Can't be over estimating what I'm burning in a day as I go from my FitBit which tells me exactly what I have at end of each day. Profile is accurate and logged everything consistently for over 5 months now.
    The thing is not knowing if I'm taking in the correct amount of calories..is it to little...too much. So frustrated right now

    Fitbit isn't magic. Literally everything when working with calories is an approximation. If you're gaining weight, you're eating too many calories. Assume Fitbit is overestimating your burn and/or that your food measurements are overestimating your intake. Then adjust as needed.

    There is no question of this: If you're not losing weight, then you're eating too many calories.
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
    You are doing so well btw, keep it up! I thought I saw you'd been at a plateau for 5 months? That's awhile so you were right to ask for help, but if I'm wrong and it's only been a week or two, then don't worry, just keep at it. I second what AliceDark and others said --> Your body is telling you you're eating at maintenance level, but I'd hesitate to lower it too much because it is true that 1200 calories is the absolute minimum. If your BMR is around 1750, you should aim for something around that or maybe 2000. I think working on getting better at tracking your intake can't hurt, we can always learn something and get better. I found that a nice little digital kitchen scale came in really handy. I used to use measuring cups but a lot of things are much more easily measured in grams or ounces. This could really be the one thing that would benefit you. Mine was only $20 (I think that's about $10 UK pounds)

    There are two more things I think maybe you could benefit from, if you can manage to sort all the advice you've got! :) I think you'd do well to eat morn protein and less carbs. Don't try to limit carbs too much, but do try to increase the amount of lean protein you have in the morning. This will keep you feeling full longer throughout the day, and is based on real science :wink: I've found you can buy those little cartons of pure egg whites in the eggs section of the grocery store. Buy a litre or so and have at least 1/2 cup cooked for breakfast for a week or two.

    Eating more protein in the morning will help you with my second suggestion. Delete the snacks on myfitnesspal so that you only have Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. You can still snack, but you've got to put it in one of those meals. This will get your brain thinking more about each meal than it will about snacking through the day. Snacks are killers. Don't believe anyone who says more meals throughout the day is better for you it's simply not true. Protein is the trick though. Just as an aside, when you eat a lot more protein, you'll also have to make sure you're getting your fibre and water throughout the day.

    Oh, one more thing, if you have a smart phone, track your meals before you eat them, right then. It's much much harder to remember what you just ate when you sit down at the computer an hour or two later.

    Keep up the good work, you've done awesome so far and you'll get there! :smile:
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    courtneyfabulous wrote: »
    Stop using a fit bit.
    Take supplements for B12 & D deficiency.
    Eat 1500 calories a day and don't eat back any exercise calories.

    See if that works?

    My doctor has me on a very strong prescription only Vit D supplement for that deficiency and I have an injection every 10 weeks for my B12 deficiency, so that's all in hand. I'm due a check on my levels at end of February, at which point they have said they want to test my magnesium levels as well now. So should be interesting.
    I never eat back my exercise calories so no worries there, and yeah gonna play around with the xalories till I find the number that works for me as I think 1200 is too low for someone of my weight/size.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    edited February 2017
    sunshine12870 wrote: »
    I never ever eat back my exercise calories and I always log absolutely everything, what's the point in not, your only cheating yourself . I take on board what people have said about maybe the accuracy of the weights of food I'm eating so not to take for granted what the packaging says it is and to check it myself, so I will be keeping an eye and making changes on that.
    So, I don't mean this to come across like I'm picking on you, but this isn't true. Are you thinking about a specific timeframe when you say that you log everything, or are you logging somewhere other than MFP? As recently as about a week and a half ago (January 27-30), you have only partial days logged. And there are lots of blank days before January 9th. Am I missing something? If you've really only been logging for the last week, that's okay, but that doesn't give you any information about why you haven't been losing for the last 5 months.

  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
    sunshine12870 wrote: »
    courtneyfabulous wrote: »
    Stop using a fit bit.
    Take supplements for B12 & D deficiency.
    Eat 1500 calories a day and don't eat back any exercise calories.

    See if that works?

    My doctor has me on a very strong prescription only Vit D supplement for that deficiency and I have an injection every 10 weeks for my B12 deficiency, so that's all in hand. I'm due a check on my levels at end of February, at which point they have said they want to test my magnesium levels as well now. So should be interesting.
    I never eat back my exercise calories so no worries there, and yeah gonna play around with the xalories till I find the number that works for me as I think 1200 is too low for someone of my weight/size.

    I think the thing that people are struggling with here is that you CAN'T be both eating too little and at the same time gaining weight. If you are gaining weight it means that you are either eating more than you think or burning less than you think, or a combination of both.

    Were you losing weight at a healthy rate (1/2-1lb per week) when you were eating 1200 cals? If yes then go back to that. These numbers your using may not be 100% accurate but why not stick to what was working. If you start losing faster than is healthy or start having side effects, THEN it's time to eat more. When you start logging the packaged foods accurately you might find out that what you thought was 1200 was actually closer to 1600 (or higher) anyway.

    In terms of your exercise burn, fitbit is a great tool to get a rough idea but it is based on assumptions about your age, weight, height etc and how much an average person with these characteristics would burn based on the number of steps. These are only that, assumptions based on averages - you could actually be burning much lower (or higher - unlikely in the circumstances). BMR is also in the same category, being based on assumptions about the characteristics and averages. Again your BMR might be lower (or higher).

    Definitely worth chatting to your Doctor about possible hormonal or medical issues that may act as an impairment to weight loss.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
    Ok I took a look at your diary and see that there are missing weeks and incomplete days... what happened in those days? Did you have cheat days? Binges? Eat out? Just a couple bad days per week or a whole week off tracking per month is enough to undo your results from the days you are on track. I'd bet that's why you are not seeing weightloss- Whatever is happening on those untracked days/weeks is probably responsible.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
    sunshine12870 wrote: »
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    @sunshine12870 I'm curious why you havent responded to any of the posts mentioning inaccurate logging/eating more than you think??

    Hi
    Sorry, been looking after my Grandson today so haven't had a lot of time to myself.

    I have just posted a few messages now so if you read them you'll see the bit about my food/diary/logging etc.
    But I can say with 100% confidence that I log absolutely everything, maybe not been accurate with the weight of some foods as I was trusting food labels, that will now change .

    How can you say that when there is a whole missing week from January and more than 1 missing week from December? And incomplete days sporadically (unless on those days you really did eat only 30 calories?)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    edited February 2017
    The "exercise" from Fitbit is NOT AN EXERCISE.

    MFP-Fitbit integration uses "exercise adjustments" as a mechanism to equalise MFP's TDEE to Fitbit's calculated TDEE.

    In other words "MFP's guess per guided setup settings" + "Exercise adjustments" = "What Fitbit Calculated for the day.

    Whether this reflects reality or not is a totally separate question.

    But you can sit in bed all day and if for some reason Fitbit thinks that you spent 1000 Cal more than MFP has given you, you will get a 1000 Cal "exercise adjustment", or vice versa.

    As such eating back a Fitbit exercise adjustment is predicated ONLY on whether you think Fitbit is calculating your burn correctly.

    It is NOT predicated on whether you think you "exercised" that much.

    THAT SAID, I TAKE IT ALL BACK!, BECAUSE:

    Having looked at the OP's log I see that she is MANUALLY logging exercises in MFP.

    If MFP - Fitbit integration is enabled this manual log OVERWRITES what Fitbit has calculated for the same time frame (unless you go into Fitbit and subsequently delete the imported exercise)

    As such the OP is essentially manually calculating her burn.

    Which means that we have no idea what Fitbit is actually calculating her at.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    The "exercise" from Fitbit is NOT AN EXERCISE.

    MFP-Fitbit integration uses "exercise adjustments" as a mechanism to equalise MFP's TDEE to Fitbit's calculated TDEE.

    In other words "MFP's guess per guided setup settings" + "Exercise adjustments" = "What Fitbit Calculated for the day.

    Whether that reflects reality or not is a totally separate question.

    But you can sit in bed all day and if for some reason Fitbit thinks that you spent 1000 Cal more than MFP has given you, you will get a 1000 Cal "exercise adjustment", or vice versa.

    As such eating back a Fitbit exercise adjustment is predicated ONLY on whether you think Fitbit is calculating your burn correctly.

    It is NOT predicated on whether you think you "exercised" that much.

    THAT SAID, I TAKE IT ALL BACK!, BECAUSE:

    Having looked at the OP's log I see that she is MANUALLY logging exercises in MFP.

    If MFP - Fitbit integration is enabled this manual log OVERWRITES what Fitbit has calculated for the same time frame (unless you go into Fitbit and subsequently delete the imported exercise)

    As such the OP is essentially manually calculating her burn.

    Which means that we have no idea what Fitbit is actually calculating her at.

    I'm actually confused as to why she mentioned her fit bit at all as she is not eating back exercise calories anyways? I don't eat exercise calories back either so I don't bother logging it into myfitnesspal -but maybe she likes logging it just to see it and have a record?
  • catamish
    catamish Posts: 1 Member
    I had a similar situation .
    So I just wanted to add my story to help if it can.
    I'm 5'3 and 3/4 and was eating 1200 calories. This was too much if I'm not exercising daily .
    Now I don't look at calories I am mindful of carbohydrates.
    Check out the oxidative diet. With Jillian that hardcore trainer. She has based her workouts on this philosophy about how you metabolize your carbs.
    It was helpful for me to figure out why I wasn't losing weight.
    For me cutting out baked goods, starch, corn, wheat and these items with high sugar and starch and caffeinewas the key. It takes a few weeks to adjust and literally detox but you can do it.
    Don't forget to drink water when your thirsty too.
    Also when your under constant stress it effects your adrenal glands. Which causes cortisol and insulin surges which wreaks havoc with your metabolism.
    For me I had undergone two surgeries. One really knocked my hormones out of whack and that in combo with my high stress job did a number on my metabolism and energy levels.
    I learned that results come from good recovery time.
    This means what you eat and how much you sleep really affects how your body is going to respond to your exercise.
    Add in Chronic pain and your body is fighting itself.
    This chronic pain effectsyour recovery time so you need to address your pain the best you can.
    You can buy topical treatments like "freeze" or menthol ointments or emu oil to help Soothe your feet.
    soaking them helps perhaps in bath salts.
    Perhaps some new orthopedic inserts For your shoes or acupuncture to help nerve pain.

    I Definetly think low impact cardio exercise with weight training to provide muscle building is your key to success.
    3 times a week combined with a high protein diet and lower carbohydrate foods.
    Don't skip the fats as you need them to feel satiated or you'll end up snacking around.
    Check out Pinterest or the web for health low carb meals.
    Give yourself low carb snacks too with occasional small cheat .
    My cheat was a snack size of dark chocolate raisins .
    The old adage "no pain no gain "is not the way.
    In your case treating the whole body is the key to relax, build strength and flexibility and weight loss.
    Perhaps all the walking your doing is too much on your feet. Maybe quit one of the routes if you can and swim or bike in the gym like you planned on the other days you want to exercise.
    Take the stress off the feet.
    Speaking of foot pain, would stretching help alleviate some pain? Our ligaments and muscle become out of balance and lose strength after surgeries . Perhaps some specific foot exercises and stretching may help alleviate pain from a PT that you could do at home. In combo with massage of the over the counter pain relievers mentioned.
    Sleep is your recovery from all days events along with the 12 hr fast.
    So from my experience making a plan to sleep 8hrs,and having a fasting window of 12 hrs and not eating until my stomach grumbles helped me get my metabolism back. I know we're all busy but if you don't plan it then you have an irregular routine. You have to set your body right with a routine.
    I also took an adrenal support supplement for awhile to help my body deal with the stress of two surgeries and healing . This was not a stimulant.
    Adrenalplex. I had it checked by my doctor before I took it.
    Hope this helps.
    Michelle

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    Exercise aside. There is a problem here and I certainly don't know the answer.

    The OP should be losing weight while eating substantially more than has been discussed. Even 1800 Cal a day should be a substantial deficit at her weight and described activity level.

    The OP says that her logs are completely complete. While her logs are actually much more complete than many other logs I've seen, no, I would not call them completely complete. I especially don't like days where all count is lost, though I only see one to four days with that potential since January 1.

    So.

    When you're not out delivering papers... are you so tired you just fall asleep? That would point to a situation where raising your average calories a day and being more active throughout the day may be a better solution for you.

    Have you looked into potential health issues that may be making it difficult to lose weight? Are you feeling bloated/have oedema/swollen legs anything like that, all of which may be masking weight loss.

    Do you have regular bowel movements?

    What was your average weight during the week of December 25-January 31 according to your Fitbit? What was your average weekly weight last week?

    Anyway.

    Eat ~1600 Cal each and every day for 4-5 weeks ignoring everything else. make sure you log individual items such as eggs, ham, oil, cooking spray, salad dressings or condiments, any pop, beer, or wine you may enjoy, and that you weigh pre-made entrees/packaged items (hey: sometimes they weight less than advertised!) including items such as sliced bread.

    Do not miss a single day's logging. Whether you're going over target or not. If you're eating out, do your best to guess.

    Log your weight in the mornings after using the washroom and before eating or drinking anything using the same scale that has been positioned on a hard, unyielding floor, and equipped with fresh batteries. Record it on Fitbit which can be configured to automatically push it to MFP and trendweight.com and weightgrapher.com. Look for your weight trend over time using one or both of these apps.

    Update us ~ mid March?
  • kavahni
    kavahni Posts: 313 Member
    I'm not sure why a pp said women don't gain muscle. Of course we do! Muscle weighs more than fat. I would conjecture that if you took on a long and hard paper route, you are probably converting some fat to muscle, so you would tend to gain--at least initially. It is better to consider if your body has changed. I'm an old, fat, injured runner. Didn't start running until age 51 (57 now), and I work with a very knowledgeable, gentle trainer, who helped me discover that I could run when I never thought I would again. My point: when I am seriously on a training program, I can tell my leg muscles are harder and larger. Even through the adipose! Another thing is to get a copy of "The First Twenty Minutes." It compiles, in very readable style, information from the most recent fitness and nutrition studies. It debunks a lot of the myths we think are true ( like running and walking makes you lose weight--not true for about 2/3 of regular people--but it does make us healthier). Most of the "truths" we bandy about are from old studies conducted on elite male athletes. The results have little to do with real people like you and me. I found it uplifting, and it gave me good, solid info to work with.
    And finally ( whew!), see if you can find a water walking class. They are usually held in the dive tank at a pool, and involve wearing floats around either your waist or ankles. You "walk" in the deep water of the tank. Feels like you are doing nothing, but it uses2x the energy of land walking, strengthens your core massively, and is easy on your body. Take a class so you learn to do it properly, or you won't do it as well as you ought.
    Keep up your good work, and pat yourself on the back big time for persistence.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    I am also niggling about those half-filled days. OP, why did you not finish logging on those days? That's often something that happens after a binge. Do you ever binge?
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    I am also niggling about those half-filled days. OP, why did you not finish logging on those days? That's often something that happens after a binge. Do you ever binge?

    Morning CattOfTheGarage

    The answer to your binge question is a resounding NO I don't binge.
    There is no secret eating or comfort eating and nothing left out of my diary.

    I'm not the kinda person to try kid myself on, let alone others, what you see is what you get with me, open, honest and upfront.

    I've had things occasionally like Chinese or McDonald's, which I consider naughty treats, but I've added them to my diary, what would be the point in not doing so.

    On the days you see where the diary isn't complete whether that's no lunch one day or dinner another day (doesn't happen very often) I genuinely haven't ate at that time on that day.
    So the reason there is nothing there is because I ate nothing.
    Wrong I know, but on those days my health sadly gets the better of me and I'm not up to eating, can't face it and just need to go to bed to rest, then I usually pick back up again the next day and carry on.

    But please don't think I'm asking for help then trying to pull the wool or not being 100% honest with you all, as thats just not me.
    I'm genuine and have absolutely nothing to hide. x
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    Thank you again everyone for your encouraging words
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    Just to recap today.....
    I do now after speaking with many people find it hard to believe eating 1200 calories could possibly be my maintenance level, not with how big I am, I also believe that someone of my weight (240lbs) has to eat more than that.
    If my maintenance was 1200 I'd have a real problem as my weight comes down as then you are meant to keep lowering your calorie intake accordingly, I'd end up on about 800 calories if not less. Which is just not realistic or healthy.
    So I am going to do my best to aim around 1500-1600 calories a day, even tho some of you definitely feel I should be up at 1800 I'm not confident enough to take that big of a leap up in calories,.
    I will maybe reconsider the 1800 once I join the gym and my activity level is more and I'm using weights etc.
    Anyway.......

    I will now be tightening up my diary, (thank you to everyone that brought this to my attention) in that I will not believe food packaging labels as much as I have been, for example when it says a slice of cheese is 25g, I will be weighing it and checking it myself and then adding exactly the amount of grams, this will now apply to other foods.

    I will be going to docs to discuss this have a few checks done just to rule out anything on the medical side of things.

    Lastly I just want to let everyone know....
    Everything, and I do mean everything I eat gets entered into my diary, there is nothing hidden, no secret eating, no binge eating, no comfort eating etc.
    If I eat something whether it's healthy or not, naugty or nice, good or bad...it goes into my diary, I can't see the point in not doing so.
    Reminds me of a little quote I love..... "what you eat in private..you wear in public" .

    Where there are no entries on some days (doesn't happen often) I genuinely haven't ate at that time, health issues have got the better of me on those days and I can't face eating and just go to bed to rest, usually get up the next day, dig deep, find my inner lion and fight on again.

    So plan for now is.....
    Up my calories 1500-1600
    Make sure quantity/weights of food are accurate in my diary.
    Going to look into high protein low carb diets,(don't know much about any of that) and see if this is also something I can incorporate in.
    Join Gym beginning of March, start weight training along with cardio.
    Start swimming again and possibly aqua aerobics.
    And.....definitely definitely stick here with all you lovely people on MFP
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    edited February 2017
    If you have had a history of past dieting and are "shutting down" and going to sleep without eating when tired, you may want to check out the "Eat More 2 Weigh Less" group here on MFP. Have a look as to whether some of the experiences of the people there ring a bell for you.
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    edited February 2017
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    If you have had a history of past dieting and are "shutting down" and going to sleep without eating when tired, you may want to check out the "Eat More 2 Weigh Less" group here on MFP. Have a look as to whether some of the experiences of the people there ring a bell for you.

    Sounds interesting......have just joined
  • sunshine12870
    sunshine12870 Posts: 92 Member
    OK so here is my first shock of tightening up my diary and being more accurate.

    I had a tin of grapefruit Salad this morning,(you will see this in my diary a few times) I normally add it to my diary by what it says on the tin.

    1 Tin = 172 calories (that's what I've always entered)

    Today I put a bowl on my digital kitchen scales, emptied the contents of the tin and it came to 171 grams.

    171g = 55 calories

    So whereas I thought I was having 172 calories I've actually only been having 55.
    I'm a bit shocked by this to say the least.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    sunshine12870 wrote: »
    OK so here is my first shock of tightening up my diary and being more accurate.

    I had a tin of grapefruit Salad this morning,(you will see this in my diary a few times) I normally add it to my diary by what it says on the tin.

    1 Tin = 172 calories (that's what I've always entered)

    Today I put a bowl on my digital kitchen scales, emptied the contents of the tin and it came to 171 grams.

    171g = 55 calories

    So whereas I thought I was having 172 calories I've actually only been having 55.
    I'm a bit shocked by this to say the least.

    Something doesn't seem right there. That's too big a difference and way outwith legal tolerances. I don't know this product but is it a drained weight vs a non drained weight or something?
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