Crossfit, counting calories, no weight loss!
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matchbox_girl wrote: »I always thought I was doing great with logging. I thought twenty crackers was logged as twenty crackers and six pop tarts was six pop tarts haha. I don't understand I guess. I log everything if I can and the things I can't scan in I do just guess (my mistake). Slim fast, soup and crackers, and dinner didn't seem like I was eating too much most days but apparently I am.....yeesh. Might have to stop eating all together
look at my diary if you want...you will see what I eat...I am not actively trying to lose so my logging is a bit loose atm but during my loss I ate a chocolate bar every night...because I had the calories to do it...because I logged accurately....and I ate a lot of food.1 -
I tried to turn off my exercise calories so I wouldn't be tempted, but I think you have to be a premium member to do that. So instead I put in "extremely sedentary" and went from there. Still not enough.0
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hahaha... don't do that, because that won't help either! :-)
i don't agree with others that you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay in your macros / calorie goals. sugar is the devil. if you're getting it from fruits and vegetables, great... pop tarts? no.1 -
mikepicher wrote: »hahaha... don't do that, because that won't help either! :-)
i don't agree with others that you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay in your macros / calorie goals. sugar is the devil. if you're getting it from fruits and vegetables, great... pop tarts? no.
Sugar is not the devil. It's a simple carbohydrate, as is fructose.11 -
I'm still confused, I'm sorry. Everyone says I'm not tracking correctly but how else do I track the calories in, say, 20 saltine crackers? A serving is five, and there are a certain amount of calories in that serving. Therefore, I add four servings to my diary. I leave nothing out, ever. 15 pop tart binges and all....0
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mikepicher wrote: »hahaha... don't do that, because that won't help either! :-)
i don't agree with others that you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay in your macros / calorie goals. sugar is the devil. if you're getting it from fruits and vegetables, great... pop tarts? no.
you are so wrong...sugar is sugar doesn't matter where it comes from an apple or a chocoalte bar your body metabolizes it the same.
I ate a chocolate bar (big one) for 18 months everynight...lost 55+ lbs...and I am not a "sugar fiend" selling my wares for my next sugar fix.7 -
matchbox_girl wrote: »I'm still confused, I'm sorry. Everyone says I'm not tracking correctly but how else do I track the calories in, say, 20 saltine crackers? A serving is five, and there are a certain amount of calories in that serving. Therefore, I add four servings to my diary. I leave nothing out, ever. 15 pop tart binges and all....
The most accurate way would be to weigh them. Your package should have a weight in grams after the statement about 5 crackers being a serving. Weighing it will allow you to see if your five crackers weigh more or less than that. If it's more, then they have more calories. If less, then less.7 -
matchbox_girl wrote: »I'm still confused, I'm sorry. Everyone says I'm not tracking correctly but how else do I track the calories in, say, 20 saltine crackers? A serving is five, and there are a certain amount of calories in that serving. Therefore, I add four servings to my diary. I leave nothing out, ever. 15 pop tart binges and all....
it's not the crackers...or the pop tarts..its the 1/2 philly cheese steak or 9 inch banana or the med apple or whatever it is you are logging...
it should read 28grams of crackers, 125 grams banana, 78 gram apple, the cheese steak needs built in the recipe builder by weight and the calories calculated there.8 -
matchbox_girl wrote: »I'm still confused, I'm sorry. Everyone says I'm not tracking correctly but how else do I track the calories in, say, 20 saltine crackers? A serving is five, and there are a certain amount of calories in that serving. Therefore, I add four servings to my diary. I leave nothing out, ever. 15 pop tart binges and all....
The nutrition label on your box of crackers should specify how much that 5 cracker serving weighs. Weigh the crackers you're going to eat and use that as the entry in your diary. Ditto all packaged foods.1 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Honestly? I think you're eating out too much when you don't have a handle on portion sizes. Guesstimating how much of something you've eaten is fine if you're good at it or are only doing it now and again but when you're doing it for most of your meals it's going to be a problem.
When you do log things you're obviously eating at home you don't appear to be weighing them, or are using cups for solids. Neither of those are accurate. If you're not even using cups and are just eyeballing it makes it even harder to have any clue if you're actually eating what you think you are. Your results suggest you don't have reliable eyes at this point (which is very very common, none of us got overweight eating reasonable portions!).
On top of this is the inconsistency of what you think your intake is. Some days you are way over, others way under but with what looks like a tiny amount of food for the items logged.
So I suggest dramatically reducing the eating out. Don't ever use a generic recipe from the database, use the recipe builder and start using a food scale for all solids and cups for all liquids. Be consistent for 4-6 weeks and reassess.
Some days I actually don't eat much. Not because I wasn't tracking, but because some days I just don't eat very much at all. Others not so much. I track everything and if I'm guessing I try to overestimate it the best I can so that doesn't happen.
Example: a crock pot steak last night should have been about 400 cals, if that. Nothing was on it. Even in a case like that, I try to double the serving in my diary so I don't underestimate.
Some days I have slim fast and half a bowl of soup and that's it. Not because I'm tracking wrong, but because that's what I'm putting in my mouth.0 -
I'd say it's the guessing when there isn't nutrition information. So when you make dinner how do you calculate the calories? Do you use the recipe builder? Do you weigh out your portion after you've cooked it?
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I'd say it's the guessing when there isn't nutrition information. So when you make dinner how do you calculate the calories? Do you use the recipe builder? Do you weigh out your portion after you've cooked it?
Recipe builder. I find the recipe I make online and caclculate it with the ingredients from there.0 -
Also, the weight of packaged foods is important, but I would be way more concerned about the fact that so many of your entries are based on database entries other people have made. You have things like 1/4 of a recipe of nachos -- are you positive you used the same ingredients the person who created that database entry used? Or .5 of a "homemade" Philly Cheesesteak sandwich -- how do you know what kind of bread, how much meat, how much cheese? These entries could be throwing your logging way, way off. "Homemade - Chicken Parm With Pasta, 1.5 cooked" -- I don't even know what this is 1.5 of -- a plate? But how do you know how much pasta you put on your plate as compared to the person who built the entry? Your plate of Chicken Parm with pasta will probably look way different from mine and the variance could be hundreds of calories.
While weighing packaged foods is a good strategy for getting more accuracy in your logging, I think it would be more urgent for you to begin using the Recipe Builder to enter your own recipes and make sure you're accurately measuring the foods that are going into those recipes. I can make a sandwich that has 1,200 calories if I put the right stuff it in, so your 320 calories for half of a Philly could be way off.7 -
matchbox_girl wrote: »I'm still confused, I'm sorry. Everyone says I'm not tracking correctly but how else do I track the calories in, say, 20 saltine crackers? A serving is five, and there are a certain amount of calories in that serving. Therefore, I add four servings to my diary. I leave nothing out, ever. 15 pop tart binges and all....
WEIGH THEM! Weigh those 20 crackers and see how many grams that is compared to the grams listed beside the # of crackers. The number or cup size, or whatever, isn't as accurate as weighing the food. It's been stated several times to weigh your food. Don't look at the cups or number of crackers for a serving. Look at the grams of weight for that serving.6 -
Food scale and weigh solids in grams, not ounces. You must be hyper accurate with logging. Also use a chest strap heart rate monitor for your workouts, NOT a wrist strap one. it yields a more accurate result of calorie burns than anything else. Drink plenty of water. The average woman should consume roughly 2.2l of water per day. Food has water in it also. The average man requires about 3l per day. Also don't get discouraged! You got this!0
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matchbox_girl wrote: »I'm still confused, I'm sorry. Everyone says I'm not tracking correctly but how else do I track the calories in, say, 20 saltine crackers? A serving is five, and there are a certain amount of calories in that serving. Therefore, I add four servings to my diary. I leave nothing out, ever. 15 pop tart binges and all....
What they are suggesting to make sure it's accurate is to weigh those 20 crackers in grams, and compare it to the grams listing for a serving size on the box. There could be a discrepancy between the listed grams in 5 crackers and the ACTUAL # of grams in 5 crackers. In this case, x 4, so if it is off, the difference gets bigger witch each added serving.
Also, have you been taking body measurements? Sometimes you can lose inches before you lose pounds, particularly if you are doing some strength-building exercised. If you haven't started taking body measurements yet, please do. If you DID take them at the start, have you remeasured yourself recently? As others have said, be honest with your tracking, and like you did with the poptarts, review them to see how different things affect you. Someone can work fast food into their diet, but good for you eliminating it for now until you get a better handle on where you need to be. Good luck!
Edited only to correct a spelling error.0 -
Thanks everyone! I'm going to invest in a scale. I had no idea what a pain in the butt tracking food really is.3
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Watching this should help you understand why it's important to weigh packaged food like oatmeal, crackers, bread, granola bars, etc etc etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfcB7GbLmIM6 -
matchbox_girl wrote: »Thanks everyone! I'm going to invest in a scale. I had no idea what a pain in the butt tracking food really is.
So many people feel overwhelmed at first, but my experience is that after the first couple of weeks to adjust it gets *way* easier. You got this and we're pulling for you!
I was like "There's no way I can weigh everything" and here I am a couple of years later at goal weight, still throwing stuff on the scale. It only takes a couple of seconds from my day. And lots of people don't even continue to weigh once they hit goal -- it was just something I decided to do because I like being accurate. So don't get discouraged and think you'll necessarily have to do it forever. You can decide later on what works best for you.
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OP, I congratulate you on the healthy changes you are making, and I don't blame you on the chart thing - I always think it's a little brusque when people post that without any kind of personal comment or explanation, but it is a good graphic and I encourage you to take a look.
Your situation reminds me of what happened to me years ago when I tried what I now laughingly refer to as "the swim cure". I was desperate to lose weight as usual, haha, but I was unable to control my eating, and I discovered that swimming burns a gazillion calories an hour or something...so I decided I would just swim away the pounds. I started swimming my head off - for hours every evening. Naturally, all that did was force me to eat even more! As hard as I tried, I could not make myself reduce my intake when I was doing all that swimming. I'm sure my cardiovascular system thanked me for doing it...but you know what? I didn't lose a single pound over the course of about 10 weeks of the mermaid life, and I gave up. Might work for some people, but not me.
Fast forward a couple years after that...I found MFP. I started weighing and measuring my food and counting my calories. I started walking a little in the evenings, later got a recumbent bike to put in front of my TV, and some free weights. My exercise load did not put any stress on my body and it wasn't screaming at me for quick energy (carbs) like when I was being a mermaid. Over the course of several years, I've lost 107 lbs and I am continuing to lose.
What you are doing is great and I'm not disparaging it in any way, just sharing my experience as food for thought. Wishing you and your hubby great success and much health. :-)
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