Stopped drinking every night and started eating very healthy and GAINING weight :(

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  • jasondjulian
    jasondjulian Posts: 182 Member
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    Tblackdogs wrote: »
    ...There are a lot of ways to have room in your diet for wine on the weekends but it takes accurate counting. ...

    You also need to have self-control and not drink an entire box of White Zinfandel. I know it's delicious and easy to do.... but still.

  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
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    CSARdiver wrote: »
    Your weight is an output of you behavior - specifically your caloric intake and output. If you gain weight (bodyfat) then you are eating more calories than you need and your body converts this to fat - stored energy.

    Treat this as you would a financial budget - balancing your checkbook. Log EVERYTHING you eat. Weight everything in the beginning so you narrow down the possibility of error. Do this for a few weeks and see if that changes. Look to those who have been successful with this - most diaries are open.

    Thanks so much, like others who have suggested this, it is excellent advice. I thought I was doing a good job of logging everything but there is always a great chance for improvement. Thank you! :)
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,572 Member
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    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    Girl. Track your calories correctly. You have to weigh your veggies (or log them), and log your weekends and wine. You're eating at maintenance my friend. I know it's stinky. But ya gotta eat less.

    I really thought I was, to be honest. I use measurements to log my food but you are probably totally right, there is room for improvement and accuracy. Thanks for taking the time to send advice my way :)

    I know. I definitely don't think you were lying or anything. It's just how it goes. Also, once you're relatively lean, if you're not losing but you're "measuring" your food...it could be time to get a food scale.
  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
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    gabriellejayde wrote: »
    so the only protein you are getting is in the 3 eggs a day? As others have said, you're getting too many calories somewhere, sometime.
    eating "healthy" doesn't mean you'll lose weight, and your meals don't actually look all that healthy to me. No chicken, tofu, or beans? No fruit? the only fat you get is from the half avocado?
    I'd suggest losing the alcohol all together and figuring out a more balanced meal plan within your targeted calorie range.

    Maybe its the rice - certainly from the wine, that's for sure. The meal I provided was just an example - I eat meat on weekends and sometimes will make chicken during the week. I also eat beans and sometimes tofu. But you're right, I don't eat them as often as I probably should. I eat strawberries in the morning and put bananas in my smoothies so i do get some fruit.
  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
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    Will_Run_for_Food wrote: »
    You gotta be honest with yourself, sister. Like the others have said, log everything and log it accurately. If you don't have a food scale, go get one. Use measuring cups and spoons. Try it every day for at least, say, a month and you will see where the calories add up. For the longest time I was "behaving" during the week but would blow it all on the weekend. I assumed that because I was good 5/7 days and worked out a lot, that I would be okay. But then I started logging what I consumed on weekends and it blew my mind how many calories are in wine and beer and desserts when I was really honest. And yes - nuts, oils and healthy fats are good for you in moderation, but if you're not measuring them accurately, you could be consuming twice as many calories as you think you are.

    TLDR: Measure your food with a food scale, measuring cups and measuring spoons and log ALL THE THINGS.

    Awesome advice - thank you! I was more than shocked when I finally forced myself to put in how many glasses of wine I would drink to see the calories - I was less than happy to see that number, lol. I've started searching for a food scale already - thank you kindly :)
  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
    edited February 2018
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    HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
    I'm going to sound like part of a broken record here, but the reality is you are eating too much. "Healthy" still adds up, and one or two meals on the weekend can completely undo an entire week's worth of 'work' (and then some).

    Here's the hard truth - you became sedentary from being more active. This has a HUGE impact on your body's needs (even though your stomach may not agree for quite some time). I never had to worry too much about my weight until, in my early 30's I got a desk job. I didn't change anything else about my lifestyle as I was pretty "healthy" to begin with. I gained close to 40 pounds in about a year, maybe 2.

    I tried what you've been doing - eating "healthier," eating out less, cutting back on soda and fast food - because, in the past, that was all I needed to do to get my weight back in check. All of a sudden, that didn't work. AT ALL.

    The hard truth was I needed to be more strict. I needed to correctly weigh and track everything. Yes, weigh, not measure. I needed to track (and be honest about!) my eating out. I needed to include all my snacks, sauces, dressings, oils, seeds, or dabs or sprinkles of this or that. It is SHOCKING how quick those little things add up to an insane number of calories!!!

    I lost half of the weight I had gained by doing that, then I decided to focus more on getting fit again and working on getting into race shape as my racing was starting to take off a bit at that point. I put some pounds back on, but kept tracking and the weight was still slowly coming off. An injury last year, when I chose not to track while dealing with the stress of trying to keep my leg attached to my body, and I put 10 pounds back on. Now, I'm back to working out hard again, and am recomping my body, with a very, very, very slow weight loss.

    I STILL have to track every calorie or I will overeat (at least if I want to keep losing the body fat). I still have a desk job M-F, and that still means my body needs a lot less than it wants.

    I really did not think 2 days could destroy so much! Thank you for putting this reality into perspective for me haha. Time to face the facts for me :).

    Sounds like I'm in the same boat you were once in - congrats on your own weight loss by the way! I'm definetly looking into a food scale and will move to weighing food instead of measuring it. Thank you for sharing your own story and for the advice; much appreciated!
  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
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    lucerorojo wrote: »
    68 calories in a tablespoon of Chia seeds, 30 calories in tbsp of ground flax seeds, 57 calories in 1 tbsp of hemp seeds. That's 155 calories right there. Plus how much oatmeal? If it is just 1 cup cooked that's 150, strawberries don't have many calories, about 25 for a half cup, but are you making it with water or something else? This could be 400 calories or more. This is not bad for a breakfast, plus your egg, but may be more than you thought. How many glasses of wine on the weekend? 2? 3? more than that??

    I'm aware of the extra calories from the seeds so I have been including that in my logging for sure :). I make sure with the extra calories, I'm still at a reasonable caloric amount for breakfast. And as for wine, I will often have 5 glasses of wine :( Shamed to admit it but I've known for awhile I need to cut back. I did stop during the week but may as well stop on weekends, at least until I'm back on track.

    Thank you! :)
  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
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    jasondjulian wrote: »
    Tblackdogs wrote: »
    ...There are a lot of ways to have room in your diet for wine on the weekends but it takes accurate counting. ...

    You also need to have self-control and not drink an entire box of White Zinfandel. I know it's delicious and easy to do.... but still.

    My go to is Jackson Triggs, guess I'll be putting that box of goodness back in the cellar for awhile. Thanks for the advice :)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    jasondjulian wrote: »
    Tblackdogs wrote: »
    ...There are a lot of ways to have room in your diet for wine on the weekends but it takes accurate counting. ...

    You also need to have self-control and not drink an entire box of White Zinfandel. I know it's delicious and easy to do.... but still.

    My go to is Jackson Triggs, guess I'll be putting that box of goodness back in the cellar for awhile. Thanks for the advice :)

    Do you buy box wine? When I decided to drink less wine, switching to bottles really, really helped me. First, you've got the natural portion control of the bottle (I mean, you can open another . . . but you really realize you're doing it). And just being able to see the amount of wine go down in the bottle was another reminder for me. Now I often have nights when I just have five ounces or so of wine.

    The box wine, in the end, was just too easy and convenient for me.
  • kaitlynb92
    kaitlynb92 Posts: 13 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    jasondjulian wrote: »
    Tblackdogs wrote: »
    ...There are a lot of ways to have room in your diet for wine on the weekends but it takes accurate counting. ...

    You also need to have self-control and not drink an entire box of White Zinfandel. I know it's delicious and easy to do.... but still.

    My go to is Jackson Triggs, guess I'll be putting that box of goodness back in the cellar for awhile. Thanks for the advice :)

    Do you buy box wine? When I decided to drink less wine, switching to bottles really, really helped me. First, you've got the natural portion control of the bottle (I mean, you can open another . . . but you really realize you're doing it). And just being able to see the amount of wine go down in the bottle was another reminder for me. Now I often have nights when I just have five ounces or so of wine.

    The box wine, in the end, was just too easy and convenient for me.

    Ugh, yes, I'm a box buyer :(. I'd like to lie and say because you can't see the amount left inside the box, you can't tell if you've had too much - but I definitely am aware when I over drink lol. That's a really great idea though! I plan to not drink at all for a few weeks, but I think I will move to buying bottles once I do drink again. Thank you!!!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    jasondjulian wrote: »
    Tblackdogs wrote: »
    ...There are a lot of ways to have room in your diet for wine on the weekends but it takes accurate counting. ...

    You also need to have self-control and not drink an entire box of White Zinfandel. I know it's delicious and easy to do.... but still.

    My go to is Jackson Triggs, guess I'll be putting that box of goodness back in the cellar for awhile. Thanks for the advice :)

    Do you buy box wine? When I decided to drink less wine, switching to bottles really, really helped me. First, you've got the natural portion control of the bottle (I mean, you can open another . . . but you really realize you're doing it). And just being able to see the amount of wine go down in the bottle was another reminder for me. Now I often have nights when I just have five ounces or so of wine.

    The box wine, in the end, was just too easy and convenient for me.

    Ugh, yes, I'm a box buyer :(. I'd like to lie and say because you can't see the amount left inside the box, you can't tell if you've had too much - but I definitely am aware when I over drink lol. That's a really great idea though! I plan to not drink at all for a few weeks, but I think I will move to buying bottles once I do drink again. Thank you!!!

    Oh, believe me. I was the exact same way. You know, but it was so easy to go back for one more glass. But the visual helped me so I wanted to share the tip. Good luck, I know you got this!
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    edited February 2018
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    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    Will_Run_for_Food wrote: »
    You gotta be honest with yourself, sister. Like the others have said, log everything and log it accurately. If you don't have a food scale, go get one. Use measuring cups and spoons. Try it every day for at least, say, a month and you will see where the calories add up. For the longest time I was "behaving" during the week but would blow it all on the weekend. I assumed that because I was good 5/7 days and worked out a lot, that I would be okay. But then I started logging what I consumed on weekends and it blew my mind how many calories are in wine and beer and desserts when I was really honest. And yes - nuts, oils and healthy fats are good for you in moderation, but if you're not measuring them accurately, you could be consuming twice as many calories as you think you are.

    TLDR: Measure your food with a food scale, measuring cups and measuring spoons and log ALL THE THINGS.

    Awesome advice - thank you! I was more than shocked when I finally forced myself to put in how many glasses of wine I would drink to see the calories - I was less than happy to see that number, lol. I've started searching for a food scale already - thank you kindly :)

    Alcohol calories add up very, very quickly. Like, those 5 glasses of wine (OMG how are you still standing after that?)? If you do a pour of 6.3 ounces (what a small IKEA wineglass holds) of white, you're talking 630 calories from wine alone. There goes the deficit.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    kaitlynb92 wrote: »
    jasondjulian wrote: »
    Tblackdogs wrote: »
    ...There are a lot of ways to have room in your diet for wine on the weekends but it takes accurate counting. ...

    You also need to have self-control and not drink an entire box of White Zinfandel. I know it's delicious and easy to do.... but still.

    My go to is Jackson Triggs, guess I'll be putting that box of goodness back in the cellar for awhile. Thanks for the advice :)

    Do you buy box wine? When I decided to drink less wine, switching to bottles really, really helped me. First, you've got the natural portion control of the bottle (I mean, you can open another . . . but you really realize you're doing it). And just being able to see the amount of wine go down in the bottle was another reminder for me. Now I often have nights when I just have five ounces or so of wine.

    The box wine, in the end, was just too easy and convenient for me.

    Ugh, yes, I'm a box buyer :(. I'd like to lie and say because you can't see the amount left inside the box, you can't tell if you've had too much - but I definitely am aware when I over drink lol. That's a really great idea though! I plan to not drink at all for a few weeks, but I think I will move to buying bottles once I do drink again. Thank you!!!

    I went through this last year as well. I can drink white wine like water, and the boxes are so economical! I stopped keeping wine in the house but was still drinking too much when I went out, so I switched to hard cider since I drink it much slower. I eventually started keeping wine at home again, but only red and only in bottles - I can stop at a single glass of red at the end of the day, plus I drink it slower. And no fooling myself about how much I'm drinking! Good luck!

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