Difficult having perfect calories every day

ArtsieSarah

Hi all, I need some advice/words of wisdom/help. I'm struggling to lose weight at the moment. I've done it before so I know counting works. But I've been in a plateau and I think it's my food choices. Some days I'm under and some days I'm over. It's not super perfect but I feel like it's keeping me from continuing and reaching my goal. Any suggestions?

Lietchi

What weight loss rate have you chosen and what's your calorie goal?
How's long have you been trying to lose weight and how much have you lost?
And what are you referring to specifically when you talk about food choices?

Without more info, some general comments:

Your intake doesn't need to be spot on every time, as long as it averages out. What can happen within an irregular food intake is that it may cause more weight fluctuations: differences in food waste in your body and also water weight differences (from a fluctuating carb intake).
As for the impact of your food choices, they shouldn't influence your weight loss in the strictest sense (calories matter for fat loss) but they can cause water weight fluctuations (sodium intake for example).

callsitlikeiseeit

very few days will be perfect. Your diary is closed so we can't tell you too much. Most days I am under my calories, but if I am not hungry, I don't eat back exercise calories. Then randomly, like yesterday, I have a day where I am over. It won't make a difference on the scale, since my deficit is large enough and frequent enough to compensate. If your 'over' days are wiping out your deficit from other days, that would explain why you aren't losing weight, but that is only one of many possible explanations for it.

2furryfriendz

Are you planning out your meals/snacks for the week? This way you know what you're going to eat all week. This may help in keeping within your allotted calorie intake.

Strudders67

As Lietchi asks, how long have you been losing weight? How much are you trying to lose / do you have left to lose? How long since you last lost anything?

If you don't have much to lose and/or have a small deficit, it may not show on the scales for a while. If you look at the app, via your phone, you can see a Week View that shows your average calories over a 7 day period. Many of us have days where we eat more and days where we eat less - as long as the average is roughly where you should be, that's fine.

It may be slow, but in one month or two months, you could be closer to your goal; if you stop now, you will be where you are now.

rosebarnalice

Sometimes when I feel stuck, I go on what I call the "salt reset" for two days.

I'll drop my calorie goal by 100 or 200 calories or increase my activity level for two days and switch to all homemade food with no added salt to avoid the hidden salt in prepared foods, which can really affect my water retention.

It's probably more psychological than anything, but by day 3 I've usually dropped about half a pound, but more importantly, I feel like I DID something to help resel my attitude :-)

paperpudding

I would say it is impossible to have perfect calories every day.

Once in a blue moon, I see my calories remaining is zero ie I ate exactly 1710 calories that day
( or at least I logged exactly 1710 , my logging isn't accurate to the last calorie anyway)

Aim for most days to be round about your goal, say 100 either side.

Alternatively look at your calories on weekly basis and just aim to get weekly total round the mark - this allows for higher and lower days, like most peoples real life.