Beyond Frustrated
Replies
-
Change your goal on MyFitnessPal to lear at maintenance, and eat the calories MyFitnessPal suggests ensure you're using a food scale to get accurate measurements. Start a progressive strength training program to tone up if you're not doing so already. Good luck!
If you're completely obsessed with the idea of losing weight change your goal on MyFitnessPal to lose 0.5 pounds a week, but use more accurate tracking a food scale will help . You're not losing weight because you're eating more then you're currently burning and this you're eating at maintenance reason you haven't gained weight or lost it.-1 -
I will address one aspect and let other people chime in about the accuracy of your logs, though I too can guarantee you that until you track everything by gram (and chose the correct entries) there will be a substantial uncertainty as to what you're eating.
(which, by the way, may or may not be of concern when it comes to seeing results. a lot of people have succeeded in spite of problems with their logging, and even though logging is MY thing, it doesn't mean that it is THE thing for everyone.)
Anyway. Based on what YOU have logged for 16 days in a row:
Calories in 1175, Carbs 131g, Fats, 37g, Protein 72g, cholesterol 55mg, sodium 1813mg, sugar 24g, Fiber 8g.
Your macros multiply out to 1145 which means that the log entries you've chosen pass the first smell test of at least having "correct" macros.
Your fat intake is a bit low for a woman. You're coming in at under .35g per lb of bodyweight. You may want to even consider a minimum of 0.45g of "good" fats per lb of bodyweight.
Your fiber is low. You should probably be coming in closer to 25g unless you're over 50yo where at least 21g would be appropriate
Your protein is above the recommended daily allowance but falls a bit short of 0.8 to 1g per lb of bodyweight which would be closer to the amount you should be at to ensure the least amount of lean mass lost.
Note that the above discussed are "recommended" from various government sources or ideal for a purpose (minimizing lean mass lost) minimums. You can probably exceed the minimums if you want
(if you have known or unknown kidney problems or gout then the protein suggestion would change!!!)
Your 24g of sugar... may or may not be hindering athletic performance. In any case they are definitely not high especially since they include both naturally occurring and added sugars.
If your figures are accurate your deficit is quite steep, possibly counter-productively so, increasing stress and hormonal compensation.
Only you know how active you are. But you're within the normal weight range and you're trying to get leaner.
**(which may or may not be an appropriate goal, personally I would guess that it isn't and that instead of trying to lose weight you should be eating at maintenance and trying to increase muscle mass; but that's another story)**
An appropriate caloric deficit would be in the 10% to 15% range of your total daily energy expenditure.
In other words it is unlikely that your goal deficit should be greater than 250 cal a day.
At these small deficits it is almost impossible to gauge weight change by looking at the scale.
I would strongly recommend that you input your past and current weigh in data into something like www.trendweight.com, www.weightgrapher.com, happy scale for iphone, or libra for android and look at your weight trend over time.
If you are not post-menopausal your weight changes due to water retention are going to be larger than your weight changes due to fat loss or gain. You should be evaluating your progress in chunks of time that take these fluctuations into account.
Hope this helps ;-)
11 -
Lesscookies1 wrote: »
I didn’t disappear people. I am here looking for suggestions and help. Not here wasting anyone’s time. I was reluctant to open my diary because some will tear me apart for that one day I didn’t have a deficit or for that one time i ate bread. I am ready to answer any questions. As I noticed from some of the posts people read what they want out of what I am saying.
Sadly it happens a lot. Many people who claim that they can't lose weight on 1000 calories, or even say that they gained weight - when you ask them to open up their diary, poof, they disappear.fiddletime wrote: »I hate it when so many people try to help someone, only to have them leave.
Okay, so you've told us about those two slip ups that's fine. If you open your diary we can get a better idea of the reason you're not losing weight. Are you using a food scale to measure your intake? Measuring cups are better for liquids not solids. Let us know how you're tracking your intake as well.
Diary is public. I’d appreciate any help here.
You are not logging accurately, so you are eating more than you have realized. The good news is that once you learn how to log your food properly, you will be able to control how much you eat, and you will lose weight.
Some specific examples:
- Logging 1 ounce of cheese, and 4 ounces of chicken breast, for example. Weigh them with a kitchen scale, don't just guess the portion size
- Packaged foods also need weighing if you would like to be accurate. Even if they say that they are "1 serving", if you weigh it you will likely find that it is more. I regularly eat tortillas that say they should be 110 calories each, but each tortilla weighs more than they say a serving is, so they come out more like 130 calories each.
- "Chicken salad, home made". Make sure this isn't just a generic entry that someone else has made, because then it wouldn't at all be representative of your salad. For example, maybe someone else includes cheese and salad dressing, but your salad has different ingredients. And importantly, different *amounts*.
- "Restaurant - Veggie Burger With Bun" is essentially meaningless. MyFitnessPal does not know what was on your burger. You could try logging individual ingredients to get a more meaningful idea of what you ate.
9 -
Op refuses to answer the question about if she's using a food scale or not to track her intake, so anything in the diary I'm taking with a grain of salt thus the reason she hasn't even lost 0.5 pounds even. I think my advice was pretty sound.0
-
Lesscookies1 wrote: »Op refuses to answer the question about if she's using a food scale or not to track her intake, so anything in the diary I'm taking with a grain of salt thus the reason she hasn't even lost 0.5 pounds even. I think my advice was pretty sound.
Your advice above (eat at maintenance using a scale and increase muscle mass) is actually great for the OP!
You won't hear me disagreeing with it (and in fact I have included the same advice in my "woo" post)
3 -
Lesscookies1 wrote: »Op refuses to answer the question about if she's using a food scale or not to track her intake, so anything in the diary I'm taking with a grain of salt thus the reason she hasn't even lost 0.5 pounds even. I think my advice was pretty sound.
She said she isn't using a food scale, but refuses to accept the fact her logging is inaccurate.3 -
Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Lesscookies1 wrote: »Op refuses to answer the question about if she's using a food scale or not to track her intake, so anything in the diary I'm taking with a grain of salt thus the reason she hasn't even lost 0.5 pounds even. I think my advice was pretty sound.
She said she isn't using a food scale, but refuses to accept the fact her logging is inaccurate.
Thanks didn't see this information explains everything.1 -
People tend to get a little “rude” on occasion but don’t let it derail you good job coming back. In all actuality it most assuredly is a matter of incorrectly logging. That is no slight on you it’s just a learning curve. Your very best bet is to get a scale and start by weighing everything that goes in your mouth. Don’t change anything for the moment just take a week and see how it goes. There are years worth of experience here giving you advice. Sometimes not with a tone you would pick in a friend but still sound advice. Give it a try and see what happens.8
-
Another idea that just occurred to me is to increase your calories to maintenance and eat at that level for 4-6 weeks (to smooth out any fluctuations from your TOM, etc). Track your CICO just like you are now. Weigh yourself at the beginning and again at the end, but not in the middle.
If your weight doesn't change during that time then your logging is accurate and you can rule it out as the problem. Then you can run a calorie deficit from there to drop the weight.
Let us know how it goes for you. We really are trying to help, but we only have what you tell us to go on. We don't have any ulterior motives except to lend help where we can.
Good luck.4 -
Are you hungry all the time?2
-
The OP is small, but the food in the diary still doesn't seem to be substantial enough (or enough nutrients) for someone who is also exercising. She may be eating more than is in the diary due to inaccurate food logging but I think she should eat back some of her exercise calories. Not that she would lose weight by eating more, but she might still be in the maintenance range and it would be healthier. The sodium overall isn't that high, but I noticed a couple of days when it was and perhaps that causes some water retention that is masking some fat loss?
I also noticed that some foods she logged just had the calories and didn't include any macros. For example, she logs the calories in the coffee but not the g in the sugar column. She may only be thinking about calories, but it also makes me wonder about some of those entries--without all the nutrients what is she reading to get the calorie counts? The box/can labels have them all and so do the "verified" entries on MFP.4 -
Another vote for purchasing a food scale and weighing your food. It really can make a huge difference in controlling your calorie intake. For example, on October 28 you have the following entries:
House Coffee - Small Coffee With Milk and 2 Sugars, 1 small coffee 40
Generic - Tuna Fish Sandwitch With Cheese-melted, 1 sandwitch 526
Small fry - Small Fry, 2 ounces 230
Pereg Gourmet - Quinoa With Mushrooms, 0.13 cup 110
Red Wine - Cabernet Sauvignon, 9 oz 225
None of this, perhaps except the wine if you measured it, is accurate. How much milk and how much sugar in the coffee? There's no way to know if the generic tuna fish sandwich entry had the exact same quantities of the same ingredients as yours did. 2oz of small fry and 0.13 cups of quinoa - these need to be weighed in grams in order to really know how much you are eating. I don't know how you measured 0.13 cups.
As you are already a healthy weight you have a small margin of error and I think it would really help you to tighten up your logging.5 -
MFP has set your allowance at 1700? How tall are you and what is your age?0
-
Okay assuming you’re right about me logging in wrong, although that burger had nothing on it except burger and bun otherwise i would have logged it, and that my measurements are wrong, how many calories am I off? at the end of the day the deficit is still large that it if there are errors as such I should still be seeing some weight loss.
And i do log everything i eat, so no nothing is left out.
I also tend to air on the conservative side for those items that are not too specific. Say there are two options for the same item i pick the one with the highest calorie.
For my exercise, my trainer says i burn between 500-600 a workout. I log 500.
My coffee doesn’t rake two spoons of sugar it’s really between 1.5 and 2 i log 2.
Those are just some examples to give you an idea or my habits.0 -
tiptoethruthetulips wrote: »MFP has set your allowance at 1700? How tall are you and what is your age?
1200, early 40s and 5’20 -
Okay assuming you’re right about me logging in wrong, although that burger had nothing on it except burger and bun otherwise i would have logged it, and that my measurements are wrong, how many calories am I off? at the end of the day the deficit is still large that it if there are errors as such I should still be seeing some weight loss.
And i do log everything i eat, so no nothing is left out.
I also tend to air on the conservative side for those items that are not too specific. Say there are two options for the same item i pick the one with the highest calorie.
For my exercise, my trainer says i burn between 500-600 a workout. I log 500.
My coffee doesn’t rake two spoons of sugar it’s really between 1.5 and 2 i log 2.
Those are just some examples to give you an idea or my habits.
If you're not using a food scale you are most likely more off then you think that's what we're trying to say.6 -
You're frustrated, many people have provided the same suggestion - tighten up your logging. You could continue arguing about whether or not your logging is accurate even though it has been explained how it is not, or you could purchase a food scale and try that out for about 6 weeks and see how it goes. You have very little room for error in your logging. Also, even though you're not eating exercise calories so it's not currently impacting your calories in, it is highly unlikely you're burning 500 calories during your workouts.
Some people never have to weigh their food to lose weight. But if it's not working for you, it's time to be more accurate.11 -
You have tried everything except a food scale, looks like your only option. Give it a go.7
-
Thank you all, I will get a scale.10
-
Because you're petite and at a healthy weight already, you're probably not burning 500 calories during an hour-long kickboxing session. I would suggest sticking at the conservative end of the calorie estimate for calories burned--closer to 400 in an hour.
Looking at your diary, you have tracked dinners at 1 oz of cheese, or 0.13 cup of rice. 1 oz of cheese is the size of 2 dice. 0.13 of a cup of rice is 2 (measuring) tablespoons, or the size of a ping pong ball. Are you really eating that little?7 -
Just a few points from your diary that I've found to be wildly off in my own experience...
Six Star Whey Protein + - Whey Protein +, 1 scoop 180
Weigh that scoop! Is it a flat scoop, a heaped scoop, a scoop where the whey is packed tight etc. This could easily be close to 100 calories out from where you think it is.
Lebanese - Pea Stew With Meat and Carrots , 14 ounce 282
Did you create this recipe entry yourself, or is it a vague approximation based on someone else's database entry? Use those with care, since I've found they can be WAY off. It's better to build your own, or at least eyeball a portion and go, ok, that looks like 40g of peas, 50g of carrots, 50g of chicken, 10g tomato paste, 1 stock cube, and a tablespoon of oil, and add it all individually. It's a bit of a faff initially, but gets easier with time.
Coffee
Accurately measure what you have one time. Weigh the milk and log it. Weigh the sugar and log it. If it really does add up to 40 cals then fine, keep using a generic entry, but do at least check it out to make sure it's accurate for you. I use a generic entry for tea with milk, but since it's about 8 calories a cup, I'm ok with knowing it might be inaccurate.
So yeah. Try switching to grammes, weigh EVERYTHING, and log honestly. I think almost all of us have given ourselves that horrible surprise of just WHAT we were eating before we started logging accurately.
My logging isn't perfect (my diary is public - have at it), I eyeball low cal veg (after a long time of weighing), and I use a lot of packet entries without further weighing, BUT I'm achieving what I want so I acknowledge that my logging is a bit slack and know that I could tighten it up if I wanted or needed to.
Also, remember that by inaccurate logging, the only person you're actually cheating is yourself...
4 -
Have you only been tracking since October 16?1
-
I agree you need a food scale, but I feel like your real problem is you honestly just started really tracking your calories and you’re already at a low weight and maybe expecting too much too soon because your diet changes and exercise started before. Truth is you were eating at maintenance and now you very may be eating at a deficit but you only have a few weeks of data.
I’d hate for you to think people are saying you’re eating too much and you’re not, but not giving yourself adequate time to adjust to the calorie count thing.
Also be careful with how you’re weighing yourself. Same scale, naked, clothed, whatever just keep it in the morning before you eat and consistent with the conditions. It matters a lot when you only have a few pounds to lose. I weighed in at 127 yesterday morning and 123.8 this morning. Who freakin knows, but if I got discouraged easily I would’ve never seen the lower number today.
And one more thing about thinking you’re eating 1,000 calories - you don’t want to think that. It’s not sustainable or healthy. I did that for a few months a few years ago and dropped to my goal weight and was hot *kitten* until I realized I never trained my body to learn what healthy weight loss and maintenance calories felt like. I couldn’t eat intuitively so it didn’t stick and I’m back here doing it more slowly and it’s still working.5 -
Okay assuming you’re right about me logging in wrong, although that burger had nothing on it except burger and bun otherwise i would have logged it, and that my measurements are wrong, how many calories am I off? at the end of the day the deficit is still large that it if there are errors as such I should still be seeing some weight loss.
And i do log everything i eat, so no nothing is left out.
I also tend to air on the conservative side for those items that are not too specific. Say there are two options for the same item i pick the one with the highest calorie.
For my exercise, my trainer says i burn between 500-600 a workout. I log 500.
My coffee doesn’t rake two spoons of sugar it’s really between 1.5 and 2 i log 2.
Those are just some examples to give you an idea or my habits.
Nobody can know how many calories you're off because too many of your entries are just your best guesses.
What we can know: over time, the errors in your logging are substantial enough to cancel out the deficit you think you are creating.
So tighten up your logging and you'll soon see for yourself how many calories you're off.6 -
Yesterday I had 450 calories remaining from the 1200 goal that mfp set for me - although I try to stay at about 1000. The day before that I had 521 calories remaining of the 1200. The day before that I had 362 remaining. Of course on days I don't exercise the deficit is closer to 100-200 calories. Even if I am not 100% accurate with my measurements I am still creating a huge deficit not to see any weight loss.
A 500 calorie burn per workout is not a conservative estimate it's a generous one, unless you're working out for a couple of hours. Many people under-estimate intake and over-estimate calorie burn--I sure did. What kind of workouts are you doing and for how long? What's your daily activity level like outside of exercise--how did you set it in MFP?
There are some miscalculations in there for you. If you were creating the deficit you think, you'd be losing weight.4 -
You think you cut calories. You didn't.
Thank you for your reply but I actually know I did. I was eating a lot more and more food with higher calories until I stopped doing that and I started counting what I ate. [/quote]
You're not as accurate as you need to be if you're using measuring cups and spoons for solid foods.4 -
Because you're petite and at a healthy weight already, you're probably not burning 500 calories during an hour-long kickboxing session. I would suggest sticking at the conservative end of the calorie estimate for calories burned--closer to 400 in an hour.
Looking at your diary, you have tracked dinners at 1 oz of cheese, or 0.13 cup of rice. 1 oz of cheese is the size of 2 dice. 0.13 of a cup of rice is 2 (measuring) tablespoons, or the size of a ping pong ball. Are you really eating that little?
Yes that’s right about 2 dice size for the cheese and rice is definitely that little. I don’t eat much.3 -
For your calorie burn during exercise maybe invest in a heart rate monitor instead of relying on your trainer. The bigger you are the more calories you burn doing the same activity, so your trainer could’ve pulled that number from an estimate of someone twice your size.1
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.8K Introduce Yourself
- 43.9K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 430 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions