Not sure whats happening....

smn888

Maybe its covfefe....

But seriously...

I started 3 weeks ago and so far so good... I've managed to lose 10 lbs. That's the first real weight loss I've had since the 90s. What's really puzzling me is that since I made a few small changes to what and how I eat.. I'm finding that I am having serious struggle to eat enough food. Before this site... I was easily a 3k+ a day calorie eater... its really shameful some of the 'meals' I crammed into my face. I weighed 280 lbs 3 wks ago... and 270 today, my goal is 200 lbs and MFP tells me that I need to stay under 1660 cals a day to do this. Knowing a bit more about what my intake was and the goal number in front of me I was deathly worried that this wouldn't work... "1660 cals... omg i'll starve !!" But oddly enough... I'm finding it difficult now to get 1300 cals a day into me. I'm not in any discomfort, very seldom feel hungry but if I dare try to close an entry under 1300 MFP gets mad and tells me i'm dying lol.... so I force another 100-200 cals into me just to get above the required 'safe' intake.

So... I mean really.... how bad is it if I only do 1100 cals on a few days ? MFP wont let me plan it.. and says its real bad... but I dunno it just doesn't feel right somehow forcing myself to eat more.

I'm not even sure why this is happening... I thought for sure I'd be hungry all the time. Well heres a few changes I made.. maybe in this mess someone can explain why I'm not hungry and what I can do to make it easier to hit 1300 cals a day.

1. I was a 6-8 cup a day coffee drinker. I cut that to 2-3 / day and I also cut my sugar from 2 to 1 tsp per.
2. I was a 2 meal a day kinda guy. 1 rather small one... and a huge one later.. sometimes needed a nap right after it. Now my meals are split into 3 /day and I try as much as possible to split the cals evenly across all 3. Usually works out to 300 / 400 / 400 and then I have to add snacks and such to get over 1300.
3. I changed somewhat 'what' I eat. I've gone from breaded stuffed chicken breasts to just plain skinless chicken breasts. I measure food out now rather than just 'fill the plate'. I eat eggs every morning. eggs are new to my diet. And I've added more fish... though its battered. I also stopped adding salt to my meals. I have apples and some veggies which are new to my diet as well.
4. I'm drinking more water, though i'm not near the 2L they want per day. I have to force myself just to get 1L down.
5. I'm sleeping a regular pattern now 7-8 hrs sleep per night. I was just kinda all over the place with that lol.

I think that's it... other than adding a few different foods and cutting salt and sugar out by a fair bit.. I'm not really making any effort. All I've done is reduce my calorie intake... and its working... but I struggle to keep up to 1300. Is my MFP goal thing off... or am I doing something wrong ?

Any ideas ?

clicketykeys

You say you're measuring your food - are you weighing it?

Also, to drink more water, I add zero-calorie flavorings. I get them in 2-qt packets from Walmart and use a packet in a gallon pitcher.

smn888

No I do not weigh my food. But I use portions. For example the chicken breasts... the nutrition info says that each piece is roughly 4oz and 100 cals. Now I can see for myself that some breasts are larger than others... but some are smaller too.. given that its only 100 cals.. the variance isn't going to be that bad and it will average out over several meals. Same for the whole wheat bread.. the nutrition info is per slice so I don't need to weigh it really. The peanut butter would be nice to weigh... but again being such a small amount the variance will not add up to much. Most of the food I buy and consume is like this... packaged or pre cut into portions that match the nutrition info on the side.

L1zardQueen

i find some bread brands are pretty close to the packaging label and others are wildly incorrect. Peanut butter is good as long as you don't mound it in the tablespoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

beanz744

OP, CONGRATS! sounds like u got it figured out from day one. u r losing around 1.2% a week, which is very healthy. however, u do need a food scale eventually because even though u r doing fine now. it would require u to be more accurate when u get closer to ur GW of 200 because the margin of error will be much smaller.

FOOD SCALE!

clicketykeys

I would suggest getting a scale so that you can try out weighing your portions. As @beanz744 says, it'll be especially helpful once you get closer to your goal weight. Additionally, you'll probably find that some companies are, ahmmm... slightly "generous" with their portions. This would help to explain why you're not famished all the time - you're eating more calories than you think. However, you've still got a good rate of loss. Congrats!

lynn_glenmont

smn888 wrote: »

No I do not weigh my food. But I use portions. For example the chicken breasts... the nutrition info says that each piece is roughly 4oz and 100 cals. Now I can see for myself that some breasts are larger than others... but some are smaller too.. given that its only 100 cals.. the variance isn't going to be that bad and it will average out over several meals. Same for the whole wheat bread.. the nutrition info is per slice so I don't need to weigh it really. The peanut butter would be nice to weigh... but again being such a small amount the variance will not add up to much. Most of the food I buy and consume is like this... packaged or pre cut into portions that match the nutrition info on the side.

4 oz. of raw chicken breast, meat only, is 136 calories. So that's a 36% percent error right there.

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/885?man=&lfacet=&count=&max=&qlookup=&offset=&sort=&format=Abridged&reportfmt=other&rptfrm=&ndbno=&nutrient1=&nutrient2=&nutrient3=&subset=&totCount=&measureby=&Qv=1&Q2097=4&Q2098=1&Q2099=1&Qv=1&Q2097=3.0&Q2098=1&Q2099=1

smn888

its the nutrition info right off the box. Canada and the USA test/report slightly differently... also... its probably not 100% real chicken lol. wouldn't surprise me anyhow.