What am I missing? Am i doing it wrong?

Porkieyorkie28

I've been using mfp to log calories for about two months. In that time I've lost nothing since my start weight. I've gained and lost about 5lbs several times. What am I doing wrong?
Feeling very disheartened by it all.

My daily calories are set at 1830. This is set to lose a pound and a half a week. My activity level is set at sedentary and I have my Fitbit logging my steps each day for activity. I typically do 10000 to 12000 a day in the week slightly less on a weekend. I'm currently 18st and a bit. Most days I am 500 to 1000 calories in the green as I eat back some but not all of my activity calories (otherwise I'd have a massive deficit).

My food is weighed or portioned, I use the scanner to check the product matches. I haven't changed the macro balance from the app default as I want to concentrate on calorie deficit.

Anything glaringly obvious that I am missing? Really need to lose weight, my gut is massive! Hate to think what my insides are like.
Thanks.

nooboots

Im just about behind you coming in at 19st. I have set mine to 1lb a week.

What I have noticed about this site, and its not just this site, is that you have to check the entries very very carefully. I havent got the sort of phone to scan in products but I would be wary of trusting this. The things I find on the entries make me laugh. Im forever going in and changing them to the correct calories.

I personally use everything per 100g and say I have 140g of something I put 1.4 of the 100g calorie count on the entry. I dont use any home made or brands I dont know. I check everything on the nutrition panel of the box or if Ive eaten out a brand I know is 'luxurious' like waitrose or marks and double the portion. I over estimate where possible if Im eating out (a lot unfortunately).

I dont weigh packaged goods unless I am suspicious of something, so like a little pot of humous is 200g, I will eat half one morning on my ryvita and then half the next morning and count 100g for each day. Im just about to eat a mini naan for breakfast and that says on the packet it is 189 (the entry on MFP is 198!!) so thats what I will log. Last night I weighed a cooked burger from iceland because I felt sure they had underestimated the calories, however it was correct so Im ok!

So far so good although this week I havent moved on the scale due to water, I cant bear the humidity, it makes me swell up. I am trying to remain positive about this as years ago I would have thrown in the towel, hence how I got to this weight in the first place. I will admit there is a slight panic in me about it as Ive done so well these past 8 weeks.

nooboots

Oh I just seen you mention exercise. i think Ive read on here that fitbits are not that accurate but I dont have one so I dont know. I suppose you have to be careful that you're not overestimating the calories from exercise. I exercise so rarely (90 mins of cycling yesterday has virtually killed me) that I dont have a lot of exercise calories.

Porkieyorkie28

Thanks no noboots. Good to hear of people in similar situation. Has it worked for you?

nooboots

Yes so far I have lost 16 lbs although this week I know I am retaining water and the scale shows 1lb increase. I am trying to ignore it and plough on. Its been hot here and humid (south east) and that is a killer for me everything swells up, my ankles are a right sight and I just feel heavy.
We have just done a 3 mile walk which nearly killed me but I managed just under 3 miles an hour which for me is massive. Only about 2 months ago I was walking at 1 mile an hour. But I have an ultimate goal of 13ish stone which takes me into next autumn and my momentum at weight loss has never taken me to an end goal so I have to keep this up.

steph2strong

Unfortunately it seems you are eating too much. I would disregard your fitbit calorie burn estimations. I would take MFP settings, change its from sedentary to lightly active and then eat to that calorie amount every day. I'm guessing you should be eating around 2000 calories or under, consistently, to lose weight. Your current calorie consumption level is putting you at maintenance, not a loss.

Porkieyorkie28

Thanks for the advice. Fernt21 I'll give that a go and see what happens.

Porkieyorkie28

Nooboots, keep going you'll get there. You sound very determined. 💪👍🏅

cmriverside

Okay, on your food log.

Nearly every food entry is "One," (such as the buns, "1" croissant, the Yorkshire pudding - 2 puddings, the Apple Blackberry pie - 1 slice, 1 egg or 0.5 egg yolk,) or exactly 100g on many items. I find that very suspicious...buns are never the size the package says. All burger patties are not 100g. One pudding could be 85 calories I guess, but doubtful..."One" is not a weight. You need to actually weigh it, and then adjust the portion size when you enter it into your Food page. The label may say a calorie amount for 100g but if you eat 147g, you have to adjust the portion size in your log.

Your food logging is the problem, I would guess. Almost all the foods you are eating are calorie-dense foods. You can't log "one" and expect it to be right. Two ounces on most of your meat choices? 50g of potatoes? That's just a couple or three bites. 30g of cole slaw? That's about a tablespoon.

Are you sure you're not making mistakes there?

nooboots

cmriverside wrote: »

Okay, on your food log.

Nearly every food entry is "One," (such as the buns, "1" croissant, the Yorkshire pudding - 2 puddings, the Apple Blackberry pie - 1 slice, 1 egg or 0.5 egg yolk,) or exactly 100g on many items. I find that very suspicious...buns are never the size the package says. All burger patties are not 100g. One pudding could be 85 calories I guess, but doubtful..."One" is not a weight. You need to actually weigh it, and then adjust the portion size when you enter it into your Food page. The label may say a calorie amount for 100g but if you eat 147g, you have to adjust the portion size in your log.

Your food logging is the problem, I would guess. Almost all the foods you are eating are calorie-dense foods. You can't log "one" and expect it to be right. Two ounces on most of your meat choices? 50g of potatoes? That's just a couple or three bites. 30g of cole slaw? That's about a tablespoon.

Are you sure you're not making mistakes there?

Doesnt that depend on what the food is and the entry though? For example I have just put on some baked beans, they come in a microwavable 'snack pot' as they call it. The calories on the packaging are the same as on the entry on here, but the entry here just says '1 pot rather than a weight'. As long as the calorie amounts add up to what is on the packaging thats ok surely.

I must admit from the few things I have weighed that are already packaged, I havent found any that are incorrect or over. I weighed my pot of cottage cheese this morning out of interest and it was less - and that was with the packaging - bloody cheek.

cmriverside

nooboots wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

Okay, on your food log.

Nearly every food entry is "One," (such as the buns, "1" croissant, the Yorkshire pudding - 2 puddings, the Apple Blackberry pie - 1 slice, 1 egg or 0.5 egg yolk,) or exactly 100g on many items. I find that very suspicious...buns are never the size the package says. All burger patties are not 100g. One pudding could be 85 calories I guess, but doubtful..."One" is not a weight. You need to actually weigh it, and then adjust the portion size when you enter it into your Food page. The label may say a calorie amount for 100g but if you eat 147g, you have to adjust the portion size in your log.

Your food logging is the problem, I would guess. Almost all the foods you are eating are calorie-dense foods. You can't log "one" and expect it to be right. Two ounces on most of your meat choices? 50g of potatoes? That's just a couple or three bites. 30g of cole slaw? That's about a tablespoon.

Are you sure you're not making mistakes there?

Doesnt that depend on what the food is and the entry though? For example I have just put on some baked beans, they come in a microwavable 'snack pot' as they call it. The calories on the packaging are the same as on the entry on here, but the entry here just says '1 pot rather than a weight'. As long as the calorie amounts add up to what is on the packaging thats ok surely.

I must admit from the few things I have weighed that are already packaged, I havent found any that are incorrect or over. I weighed my pot of cottage cheese this morning out of interest and it was less - and that was with the packaging - bloody cheek.

Well, of course. Did you weigh that pot of beans?

Wouldn't you rather know that those cottage cheese calories being off meant you could adjust somewhere else? I'm in the States, most packaged foods I've weighed have had more product than stated. They can be off by (legally) 20%. On an 1800 calorie day, that could be nearly 400 calories. If I relied on labels I could easily wipe out a deficit.

nooboots

No I didnt weigh the beans. Its interesting to know that over there they can be off by 20% is that over and under? I need to investigate that here.

kami3006

nooboots wrote: »

No I didnt weigh the beans. Its interesting to know that over there they can be off by 20% is that over and under? I need to investigate that here.

At least weigh things a few times to get an idea. Some foods are pretty standard and don't deviate, so I stopped weighting them. I've found some prepackaged foods that have wiped out my deficit by being more than 20% over. And, I've found a few that are lower and that allows me to eat more of it.

nooboots

https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and-packaging-the-law/packaged-goods

I cant make head nor tail of this or whether items can be more or not here, I think it means they can?

cmriverside

nooboots wrote: »

No I didnt weigh the beans. Its interesting to know that over there they can be off by 20% is that over and under? I need to investigate that here.

Yes, over and under. I find the actual product amount is mostly over the stated size, that is probably better for customer relations. It makes me feel like I got something for free.

I find that packages change too. My bread I've bought for many years used to say 80 calories for 31g. Now the label says 90 calories for 33 grams - which is better, in my opinion. The slices were always 31-35g anyway.

nooboots

cmriverside wrote: »

nooboots wrote: »

No I didnt weigh the beans. Its interesting to know that over there they can be off by 20% is that over and under? I need to investigate that here.

Yes, over and under. I find the actual product amount is mostly over the stated size, that is probably better for customer relations. It makes me feel like I got something for free.

I find that packages change too. My bread I've bought for many years used to say 80 calories for 31g. Now the label says 90 calories for 33 grams - which is better, in my opinion. The slices were always 31-35g anyway.

Well slices of bread are something that I would weigh as I cant see how they are standard myself. Im fairly at the beginning of what Im doing perhaps I will need to be more vigilant as time goes on. I personally (from years of counting many years ago) have found that here packages are usually underweight, its often a source of 'angry people in local newspapers' stories with a sad face about their half portion but then that might be a myth we all have of manufacturers!

nooboots

Right, Ive just been having an experiment in the kitchen

Mini naan - meant to be 67g, actual weight 50g
wholemeal pitta x 5, each one weighed 50-55g, meant to be 60g
packets of lentils/quinoa flavoured in packets of 250g each x 3 - 2 of them weighed 225, the other one around 240g
sandwich filler egg mayonnaise - 200g - correct
pate 175g - correct
cooked chicken slices 130g - 120g

I will continue with this when we get other 'portions' type foods as everything else we have is not packaged and processed like that although I do have some chicken portions in the freezer and will weigh those when I have one next.

Im a bit outraged actually that they're all so low. .

There is of course a possibility that my scales are off but I doubt it. I think this demonstrates my feeling that UK food manufacturers would never go 'over' on their weights. I think there are often trading standards sweeps which catch a lot of them out.

cmriverside

Im a bit outraged actually that they're all so low. .

I have a solution! You just need more attorneys (barristers.) I suspect that our highly litigious society is partially why ours are mostly over. That, or like I said, customer satisfaction - which is a big deal here too.

Porkieyorkie28

So nooboots your link says in the UK they can be at most 10% under or over. I don't think we're being mega ripped off. Trading standards are pretty good. Remember the porky lights saga and slimming world! 🤣 Good advice though to weigh everything.

Cmriverside, when I say 1of something it is because I have eaten 1, I scan the package and check against the panel and log that way. I do adjust weights in my diary. I would only have a tablespoon of coleslaw on a sandwoch or as a side. I have weighed slices of ham (average 30g), wife thinks im crazy. I take on board though that I may need to actually weigh more stuff. Thanks again.

nooboots

cmriverside wrote: »

Im a bit outraged actually that they're all so low. .

I have a solution! You just need more attorneys (barristers.) I suspect that our highly litigious society is partially why ours are mostly over. That, or like I said, customer satisfaction - which is a big deal here too.

Good point!