CALORIES IN/CALORIES OUT
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Some full weeks i was boxing a few days + 2 zumba class’s
Friday last Here in Melb, Australia 🇦🇺 We had a snap 5 day lockdown i had zumba EVERY DAY... now im back to two days only zumba.. kids after school, working, kids sports taking it week by week what i can do🙏🏼
Okay but that's still purposeful exercise. Your MFP activity level is supposed to reflect how active you are OUTSIDE OF purposeful exercise. If you DON'T count any of that, what's your activity level like? During the times when you AREN'T boxing or Zumba-ing, what are you doing? Are you sitting down? Standing in one place, maybe moving your arms a bit? Walking or running around? Doing a lot of bending, reaching, lifting, digging, carrying things from place to place?2 -
You are running around with kids. You have household responsibilities, nights & weekends.
Set activity level to Lightly-Active.
Leave it alone, log food accurately, log exercise as best you can accurately - and correctly eat more when you do more.
You are a woman so require a month of good data to actually see a trend or have valid info to make a decision about.
Unless you want your workouts to start sucking due to deficit being too big, or worse side effects as body attempts to adapt to a crazy situation it senses.
As to logging workout - I'm betting you saw a big MFP Calorie adjustment that included the exercise, AND the fact your daily activity level as more than MFP was set for.
MFP was merely trying to correct itself.
If you were set to sedentary before, and had workouts coming in of say 200-400 or more, and are very active otherwise - I could see a total add-on to eating goal of 1000 easily.
I think the Garmin sync probably wasn't that bad, it was being misread.
I'm curious what Garmin reported for the Zumba calorie burn all on it's own - not you logging it after the fact and picking a database entry to use - yes that is likely inflated.5 -
ThankU
I have stopped sync’g now i know its BS really🤔
I still record what im eating makes me accountable.
Just seems these calorie counting cant be trusted! Only things certain is the scanning on products i know for certain if im correct👍🏼 But i visited docs also said 1500 was way too high originally had activity set to ‘very active’ =1500 cals i DIDNT drop ANY weight! (Wk1-4)
Lowered activity to ‘lightly active’ =1490 still NO CHANGE to weight (wk4-6)
TODAY I thought may ill change activity to ‘not very active’
=1200cals...
SEE WHAT HAPPENS NOW
No, scanning products is not certain. The database is still crowd sourced, i.e., regular MFP users create the food entries, even the bar coded ones. They may've entered them incorrectly, they may be for outdated formulations of the product, maybe even for another country's version of the product, etc. Compare to what the product label says the first time you use a bar code, make sure the entry is correct.
Frankly, the learning curve for logging accurately is one of the biggest issues for most people who don't lose weight as expected on X number of calories (at a calorie level that should work). This is not a personal criticism, it's just a recognition that all of us go through a learning process with logging (food *and* exercise).
Your food diary is private. If you make it public to other MFP users, some of the old hands may be able to take a look and help you refine your logging practice.
In the short run, make sure you're logging every BLT (Bite, Lick, Taste), not forgetting oils used in cooking, dressings, beverages, condiments etc. If you include a "cheat day", log that, too, even if you have to estimate. Measure or weigh your portions, especially for calorie-dense things. (Weighing on a food scale is preferred, not just because it's more accurate but because it's also quicker and easier once you learn the tricks. A food scale only costs about the price of a takeout pizza, so it's not prohibitive for most people.)ThankU
I have stopped sync’g now i know its BS really🤔
I still record what im eating makes me accountable.
Just seems these calorie counting cant be trusted! Only things certain is the scanning on products i know for certain if im correct👍🏼 But i visited docs also said 1500 was way too high originally had activity set to ‘very active’ =1500 cals i DIDNT drop ANY weight! (Wk1-4)
Lowered activity to ‘lightly active’ =1490 still NO CHANGE to weight (wk4-6)
TODAY I thought may ill change activity to ‘not very active’
=1200cals...
SEE WHAT HAPPENS NOW
No, scanning products is not certain. The database is still crowd sourced, i.e., regular MFP users create the food entries, even the bar coded ones. They may've entered them incorrectly, they may be for outdated formulations of the product, maybe even for another country's version of the product, etc. Compare to what the product label says the first time you use a bar code, make sure the entry is correct.
Frankly, the learning curve for logging accurately is one of the biggest issues for most people who don't lose weight as expected on X number of calories (at a calorie level that should work). This is not a personal criticism, it's just a recognition that all of us go through a learning process with logging (food *and* exercise).
Your food diary is private. If you make it public to other MFP users, some of the old hands may be able to take a look and help you refine your logging practice.
In the short run, make sure you're logging every BLT (Bite, Lick, Taste), not forgetting oils used in cooking, dressings, beverages, condiments etc. If you include a "cheat day", log that, too, even if you have to estimate. Measure or weigh your portions, especially for calorie-dense things. (Weighing on a food scale is preferred, not just because it's more accurate but because it's also quicker and easier once you learn the tricks. A food scale only costs about the price of a takeout pizza, so it's not prohibitive for most people.)
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Thanks guys... still troopering on :-D
Scanning
MFP is scanning product bar codes correctly as wats on the ingred list (Australian Food standard list req’)
EG: lunch now ( 12pm Sat here 🇦🇺) large salad & 125g chix, balsamic glaze & crushed nuts all measured👍🏼 Plus im doing protein ‘LADY SHAKE’ shake replacing 1 meal.
Oh & as im a ‘Jillian Michaels’ fan she posted alot of vlogs on CI CO been awesome ive done my (sedentary) BMR 1500
As working 2/3days, home duties ect...Mod activity i thought AMR 1800 plus then additional exercise, zumba x2 400 each ill calculate that day.
Jillian advised need 800/900 daily deficit too see faster results...
(we need to burn 3500cals to see 0.5kg... )
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balsamic glaze is calorically dense (at least I consider it so, heck even some balsamic vinegars are substantially more calories than other vinegars). How many GRAMS did you use?
crushed nuts are ABSOLUTELY calorically dense. How many GRAMS?
Large salad?
What is a large salad?
What does it have in it?
I am about to log right now:
251g of potatoes skin and flesh, boiled with salt (I had their raw weight but someone snagged a few when they came out of the pot. In any case, raw and boiled potatoes are within a gram most of the time...)
75g of carrots boiled, drained, cooked in salt and 110g carrots, raw (hey I had leftovers from yesterday)
380g (riced) cauliflower, raw
7g salted butter (2 of those grams are for olive oil spray, but I'm logging "loosely" these days)
240g Chicken, broilers or fryers, leg, meat and skin, cooked, roasted (after having looked for the closest SR Legacy entry using USDA's FoodData Central -- that's for my two "whole chicken legs" that I pan roasted.
I will also log 4g of lemon pepper seasoning (since I am logging "loosely") to account for the lemon pepper and lemon and herb spice and tarragon I used. I did not actually weight them. It's an eyeball.
Plus 4g of fresh garlic (since I have the entry handy) to account for 2g of freeze dried garlic that I threw into the riced cauliflower when I tossed it with butter after it came out of the microwave. That's also an eyeball based on previous weigh ins of the freeze dried garlic.
And 69.5g of Cliff almond fudge bar
During this loose logging exercise I will NOT log the two cans of coke zero I drank.
So there you go.6 -
balsamic glaze is calorically dense (at least I consider it so, heck even some balsamic vinegars are substantially more calories than other vinegars). How many GRAMS did you use?
crushed nuts are ABSOLUTELY calorically dense. How many GRAMS?
Large salad?
What is a large salad?
What does it have in it?
I am about to log right now:
251g of potatoes skin and flesh, boiled with salt (I had their raw weight but someone snagged a few when they came out of the pot. In any case, raw and boiled potatoes are within a gram most of the time...)
75g of carrots boiled, drained, cooked in salt and 110g carrots, raw (hey I had leftovers from yesterday)
380g (riced) cauliflower, raw
7g salted butter (2 of those grams are for olive oil spray, but I'm logging "loosely" these days)
240g Chicken, broilers or fryers, leg, meat and skin, cooked, roasted (after having looked for the closest SR Legacy entry using USDA's FoodData Central -- that's for my two "whole chicken legs" that I pan roasted.
I will also log 4g of lemon pepper seasoning (since I am logging "loosely") to account for the lemon pepper and lemon and herb spice and tarragon I used. I did not actually weight them. It's an eyeball.
Plus 4g of fresh garlic (since I have the entry handy) to account for 2g of freeze dried garlic that I threw into the riced cauliflower when I tossed it with butter after it came out of the microwave. That's also an eyeball based on previous weigh ins of the freeze dried garlic.
And 69.5g of Cliff almond fudge bar
During this loose logging exercise I will NOT log the two cans of coke zero I drank.
So there you go.
Yeah, so my dinner was like this:
177g - Beef, short Loin, Top Loin, Seperable Lean Only , Trimmed To 0" Fat, Choice, raw
85g - Pasta, white, cooked
10g - Land O lakes spreadable butter (verified against label)
114g - Mushrooms, white, raw
1g - nonstick spray
With desert...
4 FL oz - 2% milk (verified against label)
4 - oreo thins (I've weighed enough of these to know that a serving size is pretty spot on, really no variance)
I try pretty hard to be accurate with my at home stuff, since there are times when I'll be eating out for entire weekends and working my best guesses or using chain information.2 -
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Was the prepared bowl of food actually 280 g?
Since you logged just 1 bowl.
What if the food portion weighed 310 g though?
224 cal actually.
I almost always see a single serving size pack weigh more, sometimes by decent amount.
Multi-serving items where a person will normally eat the whole thing (soup) really show this up.
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mmmm..... want your desert!
Note that ice cream (and other items with a lot of air or high fat content) tends to weigh less than 1g per 1ml. And in Canada at least the package list the volume (ml) measurement, making it very hard to weigh the contents. (the database does have entries for a few of these items by weight; but you have to carefully check)
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My ‘lean cuisine’ meal is 202cal for the entire serving.
I dont often eat these pack meals but are great for when ppl over & i have cooked them a meal (eg:
full cream cabonara w’ all the trimmings incl sour bread Mmmm!!
Best I stick to my Lean cuisine 202 cal :-D0 -
Heres my diary.. & ive changed to public1
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Others have already made observations about consistently using a food scale, which is good advice (even for packaged products). It's not that weighing food is *absolutely essential* for success, but if someone is not losing weight on a calorie level that should trigger weight loss, it's a good idea to tighten up logging practices to rule that out as an issue.
In general, other than the portion precision issue, I'm not seeing huge issues in your logging. There are a few things in your diary I wonder about, but most are somewhat rare so likely not a total answer. For example, some of the entries look like they might be database entries for foods created by others (eggplant slice, chicken dinner, tomato relish). If that's so, we can't really be sure what people put in those recipes, so the calorie info is suspect. Also, is it the case that you're using no oils whatsoever in cooking, for things like the eggplant? Oils are calorie-dense, so if used it's important to log them. I do see some dressings & beverages, so I'll assume you're logging all of those (it's another thing folks often overlook). There was one day that looked like it might not be fully logged (this past Thursday), so I wonder about that, too.
Another question: I see that you have a baby in your photo (super cute one, by the way - that red hair, pink cheeks!). Have you given birth relatively recently, by any chance? (That can be a source of water weight fluctuation for a surprisingly long time, make scale results misleading).
I does seem to me that you should be losing weight on the calorie level you're logging, very likely, though maybe not super fast. (I skimmed back through looking for your current height/weight and didn't see it, though I may have overlooked it by skimming too fast.) How are things looking on the scale now, with the overstated Zumba out of the picture?
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Thanks ANNPT77, how does one go look at ppls food diary's??
Last Thurs, yes i was out for dinner w’ GF’s.. its a write off i just try eating lil less in early part of day.
I hardly use oils, if i use olive ill note it sometimes spray a pan a touch for extra tefflon. Yes i log dressings very rare i have them, 1/2tsp ect...
Baby... no that bubba is my 2nd is now 9 lol but size of 14yo! Still big cheeks n’ blue eyed Ranga lol.
The only thing i can come up with is obviously not moving enough, during days i work im a merchandiser on my feet 2/3 days in outta stores...how to measure AMR?
My weekly zumba still 60min two nightly ill be generous as i go hard big sweat 400cals.
So as i have my AMR as twice weekly that doesnt incl work and home duties!
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Yes incl packaging all up weighed 280g
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Its a packaged item that in Australia the food packaging rules are so strict why wouldn't i go off the front 202 calories???0
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Its a packaged item that in Australia the food packaging rules are so strict why wouldn't i go off the front 202 calories???
Because it's no guarantee that every package weighs exactly 280g. Often, there is a margin that manufacturers are allowed to operate within, for example between 275g and 290g. Sometimes, the strictest requirement is that they cannot sell you less than stated, not so strict on more. Often, weights are checked using random sampling. I'm not in Australia, but a quick skim suggests some of these things may be true there as well: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/guide-to-the-sale-of-pre-packaged-goods/pre-packaged-goods
As Ann said, it's not a requirement to weigh food for weight loss, it can just be a useful tool, especially if you are not losing as expected. On low calorie items an extra 10g may not make much difference but on higher calorie items, and things you eat regularly, it can.2 -
Its a packaged item that in Australia the food packaging rules are so strict why wouldn't i go off the front 202 calories???
I'm in NZ. The packaged food can be +/- 10% of the stated weight. It's common sense, it would be almost impossible to get them exactly right all the time. And I'm my experience manufacturers tend to err on the side of extra because people complain about not enough.2 -
So my whole point of emphasis on that discovery is that unless you weighed it, even packaged items - you don't really have correct calorie info.
I have many items like that - weighed once to see how much over and I don't keep weighing - just log the extra serving size from then on.
This was merely because there seemed to be a lot of trust in servings and calories when I didn't see weight being used at all.
Merely for the knowledge of where errors can be.
Some are acceptable levels, some can be checked if needed - all need to be aware of at least with knowing.1
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