Would you mind taking a look at my diary?

RachelSD7

I realise I could be opening myself up to a barrage of mean people, but I've found my weight loss slowing down, and as I like to do anything to the best of my ability, i thought I'd ask you lovely people for some constructive feedback on my diary. A few things you might want to know -
I work late lunches, and get very hungry. I eat a large breakfast to enable me to not binge on biscuits - maybe this is too big? I don't know.
I Zumba twice a week (when I can) and belly dance every thursday, and walk to and from work every day, but feel like some days I run out of calories well before I'm ready.
Should I carry on as I am, or is there wiggle room in my food diary?

lemonsnowdrop

Is 2,124 the amount of calories MFP alotted you with your lifestyle? Is your daily activity setting correct? Even though I work out most days, my lifestyle is set to lightly active (I work in a bakery) and I add in exercise separately.

Karissa_Clohan

Is 2,124 the amount of calories MFP alotted you with your lifestyle? Is your daily activity setting correct? Even though I work out most days, my lifestyle is set to lightly active (I work in a bakery) and I add in exercise separately.

Her goal is 1,200 a day - she earned 942 calories from exercising.

amnsetie

I suggest carry on.
Your food looks really good.
maybe you set it too low at 1200 but adding your exercise should fix that.
when you lose weight the food you need goes down but i'm not worried about that for you cos you took the 1200 + exercise route.

also when you lose weight your speed of weight loss slows.

take it easy. you be fine

Karissa_Clohan

I realise I could be opening myself up to a barrage of mean people, but I've found my weight loss slowing down, and as I like to do anything to the best of my ability, i thought I'd ask you lovely people for some constructive feedback on my diary. A few things you might want to know -
I work late lunches, and get very hungry. I eat a large breakfast to enable me to not binge on biscuits - maybe this is too big? I don't know.
I Zumba twice a week (when I can) and belly dance every thursday, and walk to and from work every day, but feel like some days I run out of calories well before I'm ready.
Should I carry on as I am, or is there wiggle room in my food diary?

OP, what do you mean running out of calories well before you're ready? Do you mean that you're still hungry?

Perhaps try to take note of which days (and even what time) you're noticing that feeling and adjust your meal schedule accordingly.
Since you had 624 calories left over yesterday, you definitely had some wiggle room to fit some more food in.

lemonsnowdrop

Is 2,124 the amount of calories MFP alotted you with your lifestyle? Is your daily activity setting correct? Even though I work out most days, my lifestyle is set to lightly active (I work in a bakery) and I add in exercise separately.

Her goal is 1,200 a day - she earned 942 calories from exercising.

Took a second look - my bad. This is the last time I reply to something at four AM. Haha.

kirstysnan

Your body gets used to t he amount of exercise you do so you need to set goals to do that bit more each week/month. Walking a bit further would be easiest - another route to work? walk past and come back?

yarwell

Double check your coffee entry - 30 ml of semi skimmed should have at least 1g of carbs I would think.

I'm not a fan of lean chicken - get something with more fat on to fill you up more. Consumption of white chicken meat has gone up in line with obesity - go figure ;-)

Your calorie burn for an hour of Zumba is perhaps optimistic. 746 calories in an hour is double the work rate of pro cyclists at peak output.

Karissa_Clohan

Is 2,124 the amount of calories MFP alotted you with your lifestyle? Is your daily activity setting correct? Even though I work out most days, my lifestyle is set to lightly active (I work in a bakery) and I add in exercise separately.

Her goal is 1,200 a day - she earned 942 calories from exercising.

Took a second look - my bad. This is the last time I reply to something at four AM. Haha.

Haha, I had to triple check my math before replying! It's 4 AM here as well - so I completely understand how you're feeling!

asciiqwerty

It is absolutely normal for the rate of weight loss to slow after the first spurt.
As you lose weight your calorie goal and BMR will change, so you need to adjust the settings in MFP, I find that I have fewer plateaus on 1400 than 1200 and weight loss is more consistent
check the activity setting you use in the BMR calculation too, as many folks "double up" by setting the BMR setting to active, then also tallying excercise calories seperately, I find setting the BMR calc to sedentary /lightly active and counting excercise seperately works better for me

abadvat

First things first, what are your stats and what is your goal?
In your diary I would amend a column and add fiber. Most of your carbs are from vegetables and might be worth looking into what is your net amount of carbs at the end of the day.

dholno

Two clear things come to my mind:

1. Don' t get me wrong but your diary is all over the place and have more holes than Swiss cheese.
Its is almost impossible to give you a honest feedback with that. Try logging religiously your diary every single meal for at least 1 (or 2) consecutive weeks and come back to the forum to see if we can give you some better feedback.

2. Pretty sure you are overestimating your exercise calories. As somebody mentioned before I also seriously doubt a female your size/age will burn +900 calories in a session (prolly you are burning less than half of that)....that is way beyond optimistic for a casual sport person whatever the activity....

DH

RachelSD7

It is absolutely normal for the rate of weight loss to slow after the first spurt.
As you lose weight your calorie goal and BMR will change, so you need to adjust the settings in MFP, I find that I have fewer plateaus on 1400 than 1200 and weight loss is more consistent
check the activity setting you use in the BMR calculation too, as many folks "double up" by setting the BMR setting to active, then also tallying excercise calories seperately, I find setting the BMR calc to sedentary /lightly active and counting excercise seperately works better for me

I guess I just panic when I realise how few calories 1200 is, and when I earn so much back from exercise, I'm cautious about eating any more than 3/4 of it.
My BMR is set to sedentary, as I work as a graphic designer and sometimes forget to finish my coffee, let alone walk around.
The 900 or so calories is MFP combining the Zumba and walking to and from work as one cardio exercise, but I'll try to tell MFP I only do half an hour, and see if that helps. Good to know I'm mostly on track though - thank you all for the advice!!