please weigh in and MAKE me understand (help me)
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What kind of excercise are you doing? Walking 2-4 miles a day and eating according to my fitness pal should get you to where you want to be. I've only been using this app for a little over a week and have lost 4 pounds. I don't eat as many calories as it suggests but following the info on here is helping me to reach my goals. Are you logging in all your meals?? Just a suggestion. Good luck0
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Thanks for all the advice.. yes i have a scale I am no expert at using it though.. i will read about it after reading all your replies
I usually scan my food and or look at the calories on the lable. I know for a fact in Feb when I saw my dr that i was eating 6-7k calories a day... tons of food and that is why i was 180# he told me to write everything down that i eat and try to stay at 1200 calories a day and there would be no way i would not loose weight. so since my dr visit it has been my goal to drop weight and be healthy again.. Then we decided on our trip(made plans in July) for December and it gave me more motivation. I will keep closer track of my intake and see if it is a logging issue.. and cut back more if need be. Again thanks for all the replies. sorry for any grammar issues... 
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Pop into the stickied posts here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest
The first three threads are great guides to getting your logging nailed down. You'll get there, it takes a bit of practice if you've never done it. But you'll get more accurate numbers for yourself and can see tweaks that you might need to make.5 -
daisyfields79 wrote: »Starvation mode might be the wrong wording for it but your body does store everything you eat as fat when it's being deprived for a period of time. It does not stop storing over night, it takes time to change. So I refer to it as starvation mode but you can call it whatever you want.
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Thanks for all the advice.. yes i have a scale I am no expert at using it though.. i will read about it after reading all your replies I usually scan my food and or look at the calories on the lable. I know for a fact in Feb when I saw my dr that i was eating 6-7k calories a day... tons of food and that is why i was 180# he told me to write everything down that i eat and try to stay at 1200 calories a day and there would be no way i would not loose weight. so since my dr visit it has been my goal to drop weight and be healthy again.. Then we decided on our trip(made plans in July) for December and it gave me more motivation. I will keep closer track of my intake and see if it is a logging issue.. and cut back more if need be. Again thanks for all the replies. sorry for any grammar issues...
If you're uncertain that your previous tracking was accurate (via weighing everything you eat), it's likely you were eating more than you think you were. Hopefully tightening up on your tracking will yield the results you're working for.5 -
You already got linked to the pertinent thread, and I hope you've read it. Meanwhile, you're going to have to learn to be patient.3
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Thanks for all the advice.. yes i have a scale I am no expert at using it though.. i will read about it after reading all your replies I usually scan my food and or look at the calories on the lable. I know for a fact in Feb when I saw my dr that i was eating 6-7k calories a day... tons of food and that is why i was 180# he told me to write everything down that i eat and try to stay at 1200 calories a day and there would be no way i would not loose weight. so since my dr visit it has been my goal to drop weight and be healthy again.. Then we decided on our trip(made plans in July) for December and it gave me more motivation. I will keep closer track of my intake and see if it is a logging issue.. and cut back more if need be. Again thanks for all the replies. sorry for any grammar issues...
That's the same scale I have. If you are not losing track better, weigh prepackaged items, use the recipe builder, and don't forget to log liquids, nibbles, and bites. Good luck4 -
I started at 280# and lost 40# in18 weeks (about 2 pounds a week) by eating 600-800 calories a day. Since I started using this app (about 4 weeks ago) it and a friend kept telling me to eat more I realized I should be eating more (according to her and the app). So for the last 4 weeks i have been eating 1200-1500 calories and am stuck at 240 still. I have been more active trying to boost my metabolism but still stuck at 240. My wife and I are going to Cancun in Dec for our 30th anniversary I really want to be at my goal of 199 by then but short of going back to 500-600 calories a day i don't know what to do. I am a very impatient person so this is very frustrating for me. It only makes sense to me that if you eat less you will weigh less. I know that metabolism comes into play but eventually my body should start to loose weight again. Is my thinking totally absurd or can you all understand how this makes sense to me? And is my goal realistic? I have 14 more weeks to loose 38# this is almost 3 pounds a week...uggggg or should I prepare myself to go to cancun with my good old beer belly?
This is a logging issue. There is no way a 240 pound male would not lose weight (fat and lean body mass) at 1200-1500 calories. I can't see water retention making up for that. 600-800 calories would have given you "crash diet" type results. You would have been losing 4.5 to 5 pounds per week, which is very unhealthy even at your size.
For reference, I was 240 in February this year. I ate 2200-2500 calories per day - over 3000 on higher cardio days and lost comfortably 2 pounds per week for 3 months. And I'm 54, not a youngster anymore. I've since slowed my loss down on purpose.
So ultimately, you were probably eating closer to 1900 calories or so per day in your initial phase, probably too little, but not dangerous like 600 calories would be. And yes, it's easy to miss by a lot if you are not logging and measuring correctly.
Your friend gave you advice based on bad data. It wasn't bad advice because if you really were eating 600-800, any sane person here would give you the same advice.
It's a logging issue. Has to be.8 -
pateljennifer wrote: »I've only been using this app for a little over a week and have lost 4 pounds. I don't eat as many calories as it suggests
Why not?
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daisyfields79 wrote: »Starvation mode might be the wrong wording for it but your body does store everything you eat as fat when it's being deprived for a period of time. It does not stop storing over night, it takes time to change. So I refer to it as starvation mode but you can call it whatever you want.
No, it absolutely does NOT store everything you eat as fat. Not physically possible.5 -
So what about the types of food how much does that really matter... ie carbs vs protein? If calorie numbers are followed perfectly can I eat lots of carbs up to my calorie limit? I am also trying to drink a minimum of 100 oz of water each day.0
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So what about the types of food how much does that really matter... ie carbs vs protein? If calorie numbers are followed perfectly can I eat lots of carbs up to my calorie limit? I am also trying to drink a minimum of 100 oz of water each day.
So long as you're getting enough protein to preserve as much muscle as you can, for weight loss, the type of food doesn't matter so long as it keeps you satisfied, and the amount you eat is neither too much nor too little.
I deleted the water metric from my log. I just drink when I'm thirsty.8 -
I drink water when I'm thirsty. I don't like water. I'm wondering what MFP says you should be eating to lose 2# a week. When I follow MFP completely, don't go over, and only eat back about 1/2 of the exercise calories (often they are inflated on MFP), I lose the weight I'm supposed to by month.
As for what you eat, if you eat just carbs, you might not feel great. Balance your food and don't sweat the details at this point. Count any drinking calories, milk in coffee, any nibbles, they all add up. Measure in grams as it's more precise than ounces. Take your time, as many have said, so that you can learn how to do this and keep the weight off once you lose it.2 -
Measure in grams as it's more precise than ounces.
just tried to do this with dinner had to convert grams to oz on the cheese i used in my pizza burger dinner
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Measure in grams as it's more precise than ounces.
just tried to do this with dinner had to convert grams to oz on the cheese i used in my pizza burger dinner
The entry you chose is for fluid ounces, which is a volume metric not a weight metric. Unless you're measuring water, you shouldn't be trying to convert from grams to fluid ounces.2 -
If you're sure about your entries.... of course go with them.
If I was randomly logging a meal such as the one you describe, I would probably log it as per below.
Assuming you got the actual low moisture part skim Lucerne mozza, from the various entries in the database, I would assume it to be approximately 80 Cal per oz (28.35g)
if your 4fl oz represent ~120 grams, the entry you're using is wrong.
note that a fl oz does not equal an oz, unless you're talking water.
Note that a full fat mozzarella would have different values.
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Here's the thing: The first response you got was correct. If you were really eating 800 cal to start with, there should have been no way you were losing only 2 lbs/week. With that kind of starvation diet, and based on your weight, that should have given you about an 1800 cal/day deficit -- if you're sedentary, and not counting exercise -- meaning you should have been losing around 3.5-4 lbs/week. You were almost certainly eating more than you think.
My wife has the same problem. (So to speak.) She's on a medically supervised diet where in theory she's eating 800 cal/day -- only everyone in the house knows she cheats on it rather outrageously, so it's taking her much longer (and costing much more) to get to her target weight than she should. But with that few calories as your target you can still cheat a LOT and still lose weight. (How outrageously? I found a completely empty jar of this in the trash that I know she'd only gotten 2 days earlier: https://www.amazon.com/Maranatha-Natural-Foods-Chocolate-Almond/dp/B004SIA0AU )
But that's not healthy, and it's not sustainable. You'll have a lot of trouble getting the right nutrition, and you will likely lose more muscle than you'd like. If you want to get rid of the beer belly you need to hit the FAT, right? So slow and steady, with enough nutrition and plenty of exercise, is the way.
I know the goal is to look good with your shirt off for your vacation. You're not going to get a 6-pack between now and December, but you can at least look better than you do now. Weigh every single mouthful you eat. Use good numbers for the calorie content, not the numbers that make you feel better. (USDA database is most reliable. MFP has USDA's information in its own database, but generally doesn't return them with a simple search. Look up the calories on the USDA's site here: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list and then search MFP's database by the NDB No. For instance, if you're looking up BBQ chicken breast, search MFP for 05358 and you should find it.) Drink plenty of water. Get some cardio in, log it in MFP, and then "eat back" about half the extra allowable calories you gain from it. Recalculate your calorie needs every 10 lbs lost or so. Drink plenty of water. Do this right, and at 2 lbs/week you should be just over 200 by the time you go on vacation.8 -
www.convertunits.com is a handy site to know about.3
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Measure in grams as it's more precise than ounces.
just tried to do this with dinner had to convert grams to oz on the cheese i used in my pizza burger dinner
In that instance you can use the first serving choice - 0.25 cup (1oz/28g). If you weighed out lets say 100 oz of cheese, you would log it as 3.57 servings. Or as PAV888 suggested, weigh out 4 ounces and log it as 4 servings.2 -
Measure in grams as it's more precise than ounces.
just tried to do this with dinner had to convert grams to oz on the cheese i used in my pizza burger dinner
Find a better database entry for the cheese, or enter your own based on the package label. It should have the portion amount in grams on the label.
If you're using the app barcode scanner, be aware that the entry it picks is often not the best one. I frequently had to manually search or create personal entries because the barcode pulled up a junk entry.3
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