Frustrated... my own fault?

LumpySpacePrincess1

Overestimating exercise calories, underestimating food calories.
Buy a heart monitor, buy a food scale. Stop confusing your body with one new trick after the other.

wibutterflymagic

You should weigh your food and stop changing everything every week when you don't get instant results.

This and if your fitbit says your burning 2200 and your only eating 1600 I'd say you need to go back up. Sounds like you are very active so you need to feed your body better.

thrillho3

Thanks for your feedback everyone!

For those who asked: TDEE = 2371, BMR = 1479. I weigh myself Wednesday mornings after I pee.

I live in SF (lots of hills to bike over), so I don't *think* I'm overestimating my calories for exercising. MFP says 20 min on a bike at 10-12mph is 191 calories. I also don't count the 20 min I walk during lunchtime...or any other time when I'm walking casually running errands or whatever....which is another question: do people count "walking" as exercise if they're just, say, walking to the store or something?

I lost my FitBit yesterday Before I get another one, I'll invest in a food scale and HRM. Can't hurt, right? :blushing:

I don't want to join a gym, so maybe I'll just start doing some body weight resistance stuff at home? Any suggestions? The thing is, I'm *really* muscular already. I know I won't "bulk up" if I lift weights, but...

thrillho3

I have (well, had--lost it this weekend) a FitBit One. I basically timed my rides and then input the start time in MFP.

thrillho3

Wow, you have gotten many replies (some of them good) just in the past few minutes. I took a quick peek at your food intake and that is a weak area for you. Pretty much every day I saw "non-optimal" food for losing weight. You are making some decent choices most days but then you sabotage yourself with kit kats, ice coffee, fried foods, etc.

-Also, as others have said buy a small cheap food scale and start measuring/weighing everything you eat.

-You've made a good start with the activitiy level although I think your may be a little optimistic on the calories used.

Been wondering about this (the "bad" foods). I thought it really didn't matter what you ate, as long as your calories were at a certain level, you would lose. I understand that some foods are more "optimal", but just because I ate half a Kit Kat last night, do you think I am blowing my chances at weight loss? Also, my iced coffee is black! No sugar :drinker:

thrillho3

Since you're sure your thyroid levels are good the next thing I'd do is start weighing and measuring food. Even though that's not something you want to do forever please try it for a week or two. You'll probably be surprised at the difference between an "eyeballed" serving size and a weighed one. Once you know what 62 grams of your favorite food looks like your eyeballed portions will be more accurate than they were, and you can randomly double check your serving size on the scale. That made a huge difference for me.

This makes sense to me. Thanks, I will try!

thrillho3

You have a few entries in your diary that say "homemade" in the name. I'm not sure if you created those entries or not, but if you didn't, the calorie count could be completely off, since whoever created the entry could have a completely different recipe than you do.

No, that's me. Recipes I make a lot, so actually those are the ones I'm most confident about, calorie & portion-wise

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

Like many other posters, I say stick with 1700 calories/day and DO NOT eat exercise calories back. Your exercise is not that overly strenuous firstly and secondly MFP overestimates calories burned like crazy. Start weighing, measuring and logging your food accurately. Try this for a good solid 6 weeks and see what happens. Take pictures and measurements. If you aren't losing it's because you aren't in a deficit, simple as that.

And as much as I'm all for enjoying weekends and stuff, you really have to be careful with things like happy hour and those few appies with friends or your fiancee. Especially since you don't weigh and measure your food you really have no idea what a true serving size looks like.

_HeartsOnFire_

Wow, you have gotten many replies (some of them good) just in the past few minutes. I took a quick peek at your food intake and that is a weak area for you. Pretty much every day I saw "non-optimal" food for losing weight. You are making some decent choices most days but then you sabotage yourself with kit kats, ice coffee, fried foods, etc.

-Also, as others have said buy a small cheap food scale and start measuring/weighing everything you eat.

-You've made a good start with the activitiy level although I think your may be a little optimistic on the calories used.

Been wondering about this (the "bad" foods). I thought it really didn't matter what you ate, as long as your calories were at a certain level, you would lose. I understand that some foods are more "optimal", but just because I ate half a Kit Kat last night, do you think I am blowing my chances at weight loss? Also, my iced coffee is black! No sugar :drinker:

It doesn't matter what you eat. There are NO bad foods. I eat what I want I've lost 44 lbs. It's about moderation NOT deprivation.

There are no bad foods (repeating for emphasis)
There are bad eating patterns/habits.

strongmindstrongbody

I don't want to join a gym, so maybe I'll just start doing some body weight resistance stuff at home? Any suggestions? The thing is, I'm *really* muscular already. I know I won't "bulk up" if I lift weights, but...

As long you're not sticking yourself with steroids, I can't imagine you getting too muscular. For bodyweight training, I'd go with You Are Your Own Gym. The author is a military guy and has like 125 exercise examples in the book. The exercises progress from easy to harder and he sets up the program to vary the reps/sets. Looks like a well-thought out program.

bubaluboo

Your cycling calories seem a little too high. When I cycle 80 min at 10-12 mph with hills (called light cycling even though i feel like I'm pushing myself to the limit) MFP gives me just 530 cals so 40 min should be 265 cals. I also use the endomondo app and that gives similar burn to MFP.

thrillho3

Your cycling calories seem a little too high. When I cycle 80 min at 10-12 mph with hills (called light cycling even though i feel like I'm pushing myself to the limit) MFP gives me just 530 cals so 40 min should be 265 cals. I also use the endomondo app and that gives similar burn to MFP.

Interesting... thanks!

thrillho3

I don't want to join a gym, so maybe I'll just start doing some body weight resistance stuff at home? Any suggestions? The thing is, I'm *really* muscular already. I know I won't "bulk up" if I lift weights, but...

As long you're not sticking yourself with steroids, I can't imagine you getting too muscular. For bodyweight training, I'd go with You Are Your Own Gym. The author is a military guy and has like 125 exercise examples in the book. The exercises progress from easy to harder and he sets up the program to vary the reps/sets. Looks like a well-thought out program.

Awesome, thank you :flowerforyou:

shapefitter

I will probably get flamed for this...but don't be so focused on the scale. I have been on my journey for 18 months, and have only lost 37 pounds. Only THREE of those pounds have been this YEAR.

I think you look great. Everything is in proportion, and in all the right places.
Three pounds, in 7 months, is half a pound a month, on average. I don't see a problem, or am I missing something?

I could be heartbroken that the scale isn't moving, but I am not. I eat an average of 2,000 calories a day. I lift 2-3x a week, and do cardio 2-3x a week ( no more than 5 gym days a week). Over the last 7 months, my body has changed. That is what matters to me. Would I like to get out of the obese range, and down to a few pounds into overweight? Heck yeah!


2/13, 4/13, 9/13 by crochetmom2010, on Flickr

ETA: it won't help your scale move, but DEFINITELY lift weights! Not only is there something that just feels empowering about lifting, but that is what shapes your body!

sufferlandrian

I don't want to join a gym, so maybe I'll just start doing some body weight resistance stuff at home? Any suggestions? The thing is, I'm *really* muscular already. I know I won't "bulk up" if I lift weights, but...

I'm sure some of the other folks on here can be more specific than I can but weight lifting doesn't always mean bulking up. More weight and fewer reps bulks up. Less weight and more reps means toning what you have. Toning or bulking means the more calories burned while at rest. So, weight lifting is a good thing either way.

Hang in there. Remember that as you lose weight you will need to make adjustments in BMR. Power is the only true measure of calories burned when exercising. Heart rate, Time and Distance only make estimates based off assumptions. Your program may be making assumptions that just don't fit you. Adjust accordingly.

MOST IMPORTANT!!!!! We all hit "False Plateaus" where food that we are eating make us seem to not be burning weight. However, if we evaluate what we are eating and get back to more healthy foods and less fats and salt, we'll find we were losing fat, just retaining fluids. So, hang in there. Buck up little soldier and push on. YOU CAN DO THIS! :-) :flowerforyou:

Chelz2013

One of my MFP friends just lost her Fitbit. She called the company and they said there's a way to track it. (not sure of the whole story but she used her computer to try to find it since her phone wasn't compatible).

FrauHaas2013

I bought an Escali scale with a Groupon coupon - I think it's great! You can ignore the weight it tells you, but pay attention to everything else - your body's fat content, water content, and muscle percentage! Sometimes I would notice that although my weight didn't change, my fat content increased, or I was retaining a lot of water. It's helpful. There are lots of factors that effect that number on the scale. Hang in there!

27toheaven

Hi !!

Just from looking at your diary your breakfasts on the whole are good but try adding more protein to them to get you feeling more satisifed. Other than that I think your eating too much processed food. Does weird things to your apetite makes you crave sugar!!
Switch to eating some green leafy veg with baked chicken/fish or something for main meals most of the time if possible.

timothydriver

I agree with some people on this topic others. I agree with not looking at the scale as much for sure I only weigh myself every other week. I disagree with getting a food scale I mean really "who has time for that?" I would suggest doing more cardio on a daily basis not just a few times a week rather at least 5 to 6 times a week. Try running or higher impact cardio. Right now I run 6 times a week and try to be in the gym at least 5 days a week. Over the month and a half I have been doing it I've lost 12lbs. So I would suggest doing more cardio for more time.

Francl27

Food scale made a huge difference for me. And eating at TDEE-20%.