Too many calories left at the end of the day? Am I under eating?

senojylrac

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting and am just after some advice. I was a slimming world member for about 4 years and lost 2 stone which I managed to maintain. I finally decided to take a step back from SW in June this year and looked into trying Hunger Directed Eating. I have put on a little weight (although not as much as I thought I would in the circumstances!) and would like to try and shift this again. I have been using MFP for 50 days now and logging everything I eat.

My question is, almost every day I seem to have a LOT of calories remaining, sometimes as much as 400 by the time I go to bed. I'm quite an active person (single mother, student and dog owner!!) and have my Fitbit synced up to MFP meaning I earn more calories through the day. Despite losing a couple of pounds at the beginning I seem to have put a little back on again, even though I haven't really changed anything...I eat quite lightly during the day but tend to have a lot of snacks in the evening, within my calories...I am trying to work on the snacking but am starting to wonder if I'm under eating or something? I know this is possible but I'm not going to bed hungry and if I want to eat I eat (sometimes eating when I don't really need to but still within calories)

Does anyone have any advice please? I'd really appreciate any tips or pointers!! Thank you xx

tinkerbellang83

If in the medium-term you've not lost any weight then no you're not under-eating, likely you're not logging accurately and eating more than you think.

Can you open your diary to public and we can let you know if there are any common logging errors?

"Settings" then "Diary settings". In the Menu (or "More" page) tap "Settings" then "Sharing & Privacy" then "Diary Sharing." Select your preference from "Public," "Friends Only", or "Locked with a key" and save your changes.

senojylrac

Thank you I've done that now I think x

pjwrt

The trap I fell into is my "Exercise For Tasties". I was calculating how active I had to be to allow myself to overeat. On the surface, it seems like a good thing, right? Except I'm not active all the time.

Some days, 2000 calories are more than adequate (like today), but I'm totally capable of eating home-cooked vegetarian meals of 3500 calories on those days. Why? Because I like my cooking. A lot.

Sounds like a pep talk for our annual Day of Piggish Behavior, don't it. Good luck

tinkerbellang83

Ok immediate things jumping out at me:

Today
Pancakes 3 servings - is this your own recipe or have you just picked one out of the database, if it's not your own recipe you have no idea how accurate this or what the ingredients are.

Dressing 1 serving - again looks like a generic database option, it's very easy to underestimate dressing calories particularly if dressing is oil based.

Fried Halloumi - I had halloumi earlier this week, mine would have been around 285 cals for 80 grams, does this account for any oil used? I did mine on a george foreman type grill so used no oil so if you add a teaspoon of oil to it, you're talking nearly 400 cals.

Wednesday

Are you weighing things like cheese coleslaw - 45g is not an awful lot, same with the chutney.

Same question for some of the items going further back - are you picking generic database entries rather than creating your own recipes/checking nutrition info on packaged foods. Are you guesstimating weights? The below illustrates how badly this can go (I am not judging - I've been there myself) a food scale is a worthwhile investment even if it's just until you can learn to eyeball portion sizes properly.



E.T.A. there is also the possibility that your Fitbit isn't as accurate as you might hope - they are not 100% accurate and if once you've determined your logging calories in as accurately as possible and you're not seeing weight loss over a 4-6 week period then it is worth reviewing the accuracy of calories out. Many people here start with eating 50% of "earned" calories through trackers and then adjust up/down accordingly based on actual results.

senojylrac

Thanks for your reply.. The dressing and pancakes are both recipes that I've added myself with the proper measured proportions and split them.. I have been accurate with those.. The halloumi was weighed and dry fried..

I did guess on the Coleslaw but not on the Chutney, the couple of times I have guessed I've actually over estimated as I know from being on slimming world how different an actual weighed amount can be compared to what you think.. And I do think I have a fairly good grasp of how food looks especially if I can use tsp or tbsp measurements ...

The only time I struggle is with drinks from Cafe Nero and places like that when I obviously don't know the exact measurements of coffee etc.. I tend to use what other people have input on the database but try and check it if I can.

I do suspect I've been eating too much bread and sugary stuff tbh as I cut a lot of that out on SW and didn't really have any bread so I think it causes me to bloat now too.

Do you think I need to start leaving more calories at the end of the day then incase the fitbit is overestimating?

Thank you for your help xx🙂

tinkerbellang83

senojylrac wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.. The dressing and pancakes are both recipes that I've added myself with the proper measured proportions and split them.. I have been accurate with those.. The halloumi was weighed and dry fried..

I did guess on the Coleslaw but not on the Chutney, the couple of times I have guessed I've actually over estimated as I know from being on slimming world how different an actual weighed amount can be compared to what you think.. And I do think I have a fairly good grasp of how food looks especially if I can use tsp or tbsp measurements ...

The only time I struggle is with drinks from Cafe Nero and places like that when I obviously don't know the exact measurements of coffee etc.. I tend to use what other people have input on the database but try and check it if I can.

I do suspect I've been eating too much bread and sugary stuff tbh as I cut a lot of that out on SW and didn't really have any bread so I think it causes me to bloat now too.

Do you think I need to start leaving more calories at the end of the day then incase the fitbit is overestimating?

Thank you for your help xx🙂

To the bolded - presumably you want to lose fat not water, so whether bread causes a bit of bloat for a couple of days is inconsequential to long term weight loss.

If you think you're logging accurately. Try 50% of the exercise adjustment for 4-6 weeks, if you're losing more than expected adjust upwards, if you're losing less than expected adjust downwards.

senojylrac

OK I'll give that a go thanks so much for your help once again ☺

KarenSmith2018

The Fitbit is probably over estimating calories burn. Mine gives me 3000 a day. I cannot eat 3000 cals a day and maintain my weight.