Please look at my log - what am i doing wrong?

michelleinpa

I would truly appreciate a more experienced eye to review my food log - I have barely lost any weight in the past month - I really thought I was excelling in the food department - lots of veggies, staying w/in my calories - no alcohol -at least 60 oz of water each day - but I am having little to no weight loss since Sep. 19th.

Do I need more fat or less? More protein or less? More calories? I really thought I was hitting a good balance, but maybe this is what my 42 year old metabolism is going to give me? I am more than willing to tweak, and would value a more experienced opinion.

thanks so much

ps. I walk aprox 6 miles a week

Neliel

maybe you could try cutting down a little bit more on the carbs? carbs take twice as much energy to burn than fat.

millerll

Hello! i took a look at your diary, and here are a few recommendations. First, I think that most days you are not eating enough calories. What you're eating looks pretty healthy, but you have a pretty significant calorie deficit most days. Try to add in a few more veggies or an extra piece of fresh fruit. A handful of nuts works well, too. There are several links in the general section for new folks that explain the concept of eating all your calories better than I can. I suggest you review those if you have questions.

The only other things I can recommend would be to track your sodium as well. Many processed foods are high in sodium, and that can wreak havoc with weight loss. If that doesn't work, try to cut a few carbs out. Sometimes that gets me over a plateau. Good luck!

Mom_to_Max

How are you doing on sodium? That can sometimes be the culprit, especially if you are eating a lot of lean type products - maybe get some more whole foods incorporated and maybe change up your exercise routine (bring in something that builds some muscle)

Regardless don't stop what you are doing - everybody feels like their weight loss stalls sometimes.

I see you lost 17 lbs so far - that's fantastic

KimSchnizleinWECHANGED

Without knowing more about your current weight, daily activity level, and what type of walks you take (speed) .... I'm not exactly sure how to help. The one thing I noticed when I started MFP is that their methods for calculating what a person's cal intake should be leave a lot to be desired. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SITE!! .... And I've recommended it to numerous friends, but it has its flaws. Technically, your carb intake is about what is recommended for a 1500 cal diet, but you could lower it a little (maybe like 150-160/day). Although, I also noticed that you rarely go over on carbs, and in fact, you tend to be under, on the average. I did notice that quite a bit of your carbs do come from sources other than fruits and vegies, but overall it does seem like you have a good balance. If your losses before this have been, at least a half to 1lb/wk ... I'd wonder if your problem might have to do with water retention. You also might consider going into your goals section, and trading a current nutrient tracking for tracking your sodium. If you have a, relatively, high sodium intake that can easily be the problem. You say you drink 60ozs of water/day, and I believe you, but it helps to record it so when someone looks at your diary they're able to see the amount. You also balance your cals, throughout the day, very well. You might want to consider adding some cardio exercise that really raises your heart rate more. If you can afford one, I'd suggest you get an HR monitor. You don't have to pay a lot for one that will meet some simple needs like measuring heart rate (of course), counting steps taken, and even how many cals you're burning. If it were me I'd also add some simple dumbbell and resistance training. No more than 3x's/wk (not 3 days back-to-back). You said that you walk, but didn't mention belonging to a gym, or whether you do other exercise. Belonging to a gym isn't necessary, and a couple of soup cans, and some online videos will do the trick!

I want you to know that you are doing GREAT!! You are watching what goes in your mouth, you're consciencously tracking your food, and are willing to open up some personal areas of your journey to get advice, and improve your walk!! BRAVO FOR YOU!!

KIM

mem50

I looked. I'm with Kim, Start tracking your sodium. Plus I noticed a few days when you were way under your calories. I did that accidentally. I was sick and not eating enough. I only lost like half a pound that week. I brought up the calorie intake and changed the exercise around. It helped. But it would help to know a little more about your activity. At least you are right about asking for help. We all do our best here to be there for the other person.

Kminor67

I'm going to repeat what others are saying, but I'm troubled by the amount of processed foods you are eating. Track your sodium, and you might see where the issue lies. I faithfully drink 80- 100 ounces of water per day, and I don't eat nearly the amount of processed food that you're eating. I'm thinking that you might be retaining water due to high sodium. The FDA recommends no more than 2500 mg of sodium per day, which is high. My Ear Nose and Throat DR says that I should have no more than 2000 mg. If you are eating processed foods, that is IMPOSSIBLE to achieve.

I try to stay high on my water intake, because sodium makes me retain water, and it affects my hearing. If I've had too much sodium and I don't flush it out, my ears HURT and I can't hear well at all. I don't know if you've noticed any hearing issues, but this could be part of the problem if you have them.

Also, it appears that you might be putting your body into starvation mode. You want to eat no less than 1200 calories + your exercise calories for the day. I know that some days this is not possible, but if you don't eat enough, your body holds on to fat reserves thinking that it's starving. Try eating more calories.

It also appears that you are not getting enough protein. Am I wrong in the observation that you are a vegetarian? I can understand that if you are, but try adding a hard-boiled egg, some tofu, or some reduced fat/sodium cheese. Going over on your protein is a GOOD thing, because it helps you gain lean muscle, which at rest burns fat.

Log your exercise, so you know how many calories you are burning. As I said before, you need to eat AT MINIMUM 1200 calories PLUS what you are burning with exercise, so that your body doesn't go into starvation mode.

GOOD LUCK!

~Kami

SouthernBell86

Okay, I totally agree that you should be tracking sodium, because if you're going over this (and it seems that with the high amount of processed food you're eating, you probably are frequently) it can wreak havoc on you.

You also definitely want to try and eat more protein and less carbs. I also think you are not getting enough fat. I know that we've always been told "low fat" everything, but on several days of your diary you only ate half your fat allowance, which is way way way too low. Your fat allowance is already only 15%, which is lower than the Mayo Clinic's recommendation of 20%-35% for a healthy diet.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat-grams/HQ00671

Quote from the page:
"Health experts at the Institute of Medicine recommend that healthy adults get 20 to 35 percent of their total calories from fat. Each gram of fat has 9 calories. So, if you're trying to eat 1,800 calories a day, you should have no more than 70 grams of fat a day — 35 percent of 1,800 calories = 630 calories, divided by 9 (calories per gram of fat) = 70 grams."

I also have this list of a few things your body needs fat for:

Providing long lasting energy
Helping you feel full after eating
Helping make hormones
Forming part of your brain and nervous system
Forming cell membranes for every cell in your body
Carrying vitamins throughout your body
Helping to regulate your body temperature and keep you warm
Providing two essential fatty acids, called linoleic acid and linolenic acid, that your body cannot make by itself

So on several days you have only been eating about 7% fat. The Mayo Clinic gave 20% as the low end of a healthy diet.

Your body may be going into starvation mode from a lack of dietary fat. It may be sensing that it isn't getting enough and thus holding on to all your bodies stores of energy. Not to mention that fat is SO important for brain function and cell function that it is probably using all the fat you're getting for those two purposes first, and all the other many uses are being neglected. I recommend you manually change the percentage of food you eat to at least 20% fat (lower the carbs percentage). It may take you a while to adjust to eating a healthy fat, so you can build up to it. Try eating full fat salad dressings (your body needs fats to digest carbs and the certain vitamins and minerals that are only fat soluble, so eating fat free salad dressing means you won't be able to absorb as much of the nutrients in your salad).

The salad dressings on the shelves are great though, weird oils are usually used. So why don't you mix your own salad dressing with olive oil, vinegar, spices and seasonings you already have in your pantry. Fresh Ground Flax seeds are great to put on your salad as well, because you get Omega 3 Fatty Acids (very important) and extra fiber!

Eating the proper amount of fat will easily bring your caloric intake up, which is something else you need to do. Don't try to eat less than MFP tells you, they've already calculated in a deficit, and your body needs calories and nutrients to function and in order to shed fat.

Anyway, these opinions of mine are based on the recommendations of the Mayo Clinic's website. "Low fat diet" doesn't mean eat as little fat as you possibly can. Unless you are under orders from your doctor to eat less than 10% fat then I think this may be your culprit.

Good luck!

lotusfromthemud

Echoing a lot of what's already been said, but I bet if you:

Add "sugar" and "sodium" to your tracking columns, you will be amazed. Anything processed or packaged is irresponsibly loaded with both.

Also, I agree that more protein and fewer carbs (especially non-processed ones) may help you.

HTH:flowerforyou:

NutritionDivaRD

Lots of good advice offered to you already! Definitely start tracking your sodium. Are you drinking water? You aren't logging it so I'm not sure. Get that water in! I track beverages that are less than 40 cal/8 oz. But I'm a big water drinker! And definitely get those healthy fats in! Eat more peanut butter or cashews (two things I noticed you must be fond of). Or add a serving of fatty fish (salmon and tuna have the most healthy fats). I wouldn't track sugar on MFP. It doesn't distinguish between natural and added sugars.

It looks like you're doing a GREAT job and making healthy choices. Just make a few minor changes and hopefully your loss will increase a bit. Good luck!

momof8munchkins

Just based on what others are saying and not seeing your diary I am going to repeat.. watch your soduim.. I am very sensitive to it and it does affect my weight loss, I get headaches and I get puffy all over if I get too much. I have lowered my sodium goal to 500 mg a day .look at the lables the food .. there is often hidden soduim.. even one can of regular peas usually has around 500 mg. I would also suggest you cut out the processed food and go for more whole natural foods , make sure your carbs are from whole grains and high in fiber like beans, oats, 100% whole wheat, brown rice,corn , potatoes.. eat good fats like olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil and butter, get rid of the bad fats- magerine and hydronated oils.. and I reccomend increasing your water intake to 10-12 glasses a day. I don't know which plan you are following but I highly reccomend Food Lover's Fat Loss System.. it's not a diet but a lifestyle change and it's really easy to stick too because you get real food that tastes delicious.., it is good food the whole will liek so you ar ento making two seperate meals. the basics are this you eat 6 times a day every 2-3 hours-
breakfast
snack 1
lunch
snack 2
dinner
snack 3
each one of your meals should be between 300-500 calories consisting of a healthy balance of one serving of protein, one serving of fast carbs i.e- breads ,pastas, corn potatoes, high sugar fruits, and a serving of slow carbs..ie veggies , beans, berrries and a one serving of fat. i.e. 1 tbs of butter , 1 ounce of cheese snacks around 100-200 calories like a piece of fruit or 1/4 almonds or 4 cups of popcorn. This plan has one wonders for me.. I am close to 40 and this time around it ahs ben harder to lost weight..but since doing this plan I feel so much better, i have more energy , I sleep better and the bonus.. I've have lost a total of 29 lbs..you get to eat real food , not diet food - I eat pizza, burgers, tacos, chili , hearty stews .. I also get coffee and chocolate and snack food.. I don't feel deprived. I just eat certain things at the right time of day and in the right portions and the weight is melting off. I have got my caloire goals set at 1575 a day.. allowing for 375 per meal , and 150 for snacks. If you want to add me as a friend you can look through my diary to give you a better idea of what I am talking about. good luck getting over the platue . I know those can be tough.. I hope this has helped. :happy:

edorice

Yes, go up to my home, goals, and enter sodium to track. I try to stay under 2300 mg of sodium a day.

Try to stay away from Burger King and many other fast food joints. If you must stop somewhere, get a turkey sub on wheat at Subway.

You're not exercising enough. Ramp it up. Six days a week. Walking isn't enough, it's...sub par. I would recommend taking a crack at Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD at Wal-mart or Target.

Too many carbs. Change your percentages to 40 % protein, 40 % carb, and 20% fat. It doesn't look like you're going overboard on fats.

Drink and track your water.

lloydrt

Kminor said it the best.....again, were not professional, but I will tell you michele, the only way I lost so much so fast was..............to avoid literally all processed foods...........ugh

yeah, please dont hit me hard, I bruise easlity, but again, Ill only put on here what I did to lose 105 lbs in 8 months, 9 days......I ate tons of vegetalbes and fruits in the beginning.....I was a big guy and when I got hungry, well, I said, OK.....lets eat healthy
also, I put some chicken breasts on the menu with pinto beans.............that was 90 % of my diet, for about 5 months, of then I lost 75 lbs, and since that time, about 10 weeks ago, I ve lost 33 more lbs.............I avoid most processed foods that contain alot of processed sugars or refined sugars........check this out, now they are injecting chickens with salt and sugar..........go figure

again, Im only telling you what I did, but Kminor had a great post about processed foods................Good luck Lloyd

edorice

.I ate tons of vegetalbes and fruits in the beginning.....I was a big guy and when I got hungry, well, I said, OK.....lets eat healthy
also, I put some chicken breasts on the menu with pinto beans.............

A great on the go source of chicken and pinto beans is El Pollo Loco. Out of fast food restaurants I limit my stops to Subway and El Pollo.

jleegirl

Thanks to everyone, i found this thread to be very helpful!! I've been a little over on my sodium and under on my fat, I'll be paying closer attention to that!