Something Always Seems to be Wrong

MistyMtnMan

Ok, I am still pretty new here and I have never counted calories and other nutritional information before this. I am starting to get frustrated because although I am doing well on my calories everyday, it seems like I am always over on something else. It's either too high sugar or sodium or carbs. I'm just starting to feel like it's impossible to keep everything under the suggestions. Should I be so worried? Please feel free to look over my food diary entries and give whatever suggestions, if any. Thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

Sarahr73

You can go in and adjust the percentage of carbs, protein, and fat. You can also up your calories. It will just give you a new pounds per week lost goal. I did that recently because I was always going over my protein. Go to Food-Settings-Goals and then adjust them to what you need. I uped my protein and lowered my fat and also gave myself 50 more calories per day. It onyl put me at .2 lbs lost per week lower.

With sodium you should stay below 2500. Just figure out where you are going over and try to avoid those foods. Or open your food diary, if it's not already and ask people to offer suggestions on how to cut back on that.

Mindful_Trent

Just remember that it is unrealistic to think that you can get "spot-on" with everything every day. MFP gives you carb/protein/fat recommendations as a % of your overall calories - but in reality, most people do just fine on a wide range of protein/carb/fat splits. I wouldn't go much lower than what MFP has for protein, or much higher for carbs, but if you're a little over on carbs one day and lower on protein the next - it's not that big of a deal. The pieces I consider most important are overall calories, sodium and fiber, assuming that you're not grossly over/under in any of the macronutrient categories and are eating a healthy, well balanced diet that is very light on processed foods.

mursey

It's true- It must be hard to get every goal in every category. I don't know what to tell you except that you may want to pick one kind of diet to follow. I follow a more Atkins- approach. . I count my sugars and carbs as the most important, and when I look at my diary I see what foods are giving me the worst sugar and carb counts and I try to remember that for the next day I eat. I do try to stay in my calories, but honestly on my kind of diet the calories are not the most important part.

Having said that, I've done a lot of research on these things, Weston A Price, Atkins, Blood Type Diet, Paleo .. and I decided to stick with low carb for me because all of these diets are reduced in carbs and I did well on any of these.

Also, the more you prepare your own food from scratch, and stick to real food and no boxed up, prepackaged, processed kinds of foods, the more control you will have over things like sodium.

I have recently realized I need to make sure to take a multi vitamin after doing my "reports" and seeing that as I diet, I'm missing some important vitamins.

sharoniballoni

You don't have to be on all targets and, in fact, can remove some of them from your food diary. You can go over on protein and fiber without worrying about anything. You'll be fine. I do my best to go over on my fiber. If you don't have diabetes or blood sugar problems, you are probably fine going over on that, too. Sodium is important to watch if you're trying to lose weight because eating too much of it will make you retain water and, therefore, gain weight.

Ben2118

Hit them one at a time, maybe a week at a time too. What I did, first week my sugar was silly high, so found yogurts etc, with less sugar in, stopped putting sugar in coffee. Then next was my sodium and so on, I always tend to go over on protein but for me thats a good thing.

You can eat more or less the same, you just got to find similar alternatives, for example one place I got Wholemeal pittas from they had 600mg of sodium in each!!, found another place with 250mg in. Went from a yogurt with 14g sugar and 180 cals to one with 7g sugar and 60 cals!, tastes just as good too.

It takes time but after a while you will have a good list of foods that will keep the Red digits away from your diary.

Hope this helps.

Ben.

MistyMtnMan

Thanks, and please feel free to look at my food diary entries and give me suggestions.

PlanetVelma

I checked out your food journal and nothing "jumps" out at me. Although, I worry more about sodium than I do fiber and I try to remember that natural sugar (ie sugar from fruit) is better than processed sugar (ie sugar from cupcakes) when i evaluate my food journal.

Does that make sense? lol

If you are very concerned about a certain level (sugar, sodium, etc..) you may want to make an appointment with your doctor and take a print out of your food journal (or see a nutritionist).

MistyMtnMan

I checked out your food journal and nothing "jumps" out at me. Although, I worry more about sodium than I do fiber and I try to remember that natural sugar (ie sugar from fruit) is better than processed sugar (ie sugar from cupcakes) when i evaluate my food journal.

Does that make sense? lol

If you are very concerned about a certain level (sugar, sodium, etc..) you may want to make an appointment with your doctor and take a print out of your food journal (or see a nutritionist).

Yeah I am mainly concerned with carbs and sodium. I am fine with going over on protein. Sugar always is over for me too but it's from honey or fruit, nothing ever fake. Maybe I'll take your suggestion on the nutritionist thing.

MistyMtnMan

Hit them one at a time, maybe a week at a time too. What I did, first week my sugar was silly high, so found yogurts etc, with less sugar in, stopped putting sugar in coffee. Then next was my sodium and so on, I always tend to go over on protein but for me thats a good thing.

You can eat more or less the same, you just got to find similar alternatives, for example one place I got Wholemeal pittas from they had 600mg of sodium in each!!, found another place with 250mg in. Went from a yogurt with 14g sugar and 180 cals to one with 7g sugar and 60 cals!, tastes just as good too.

It takes time but after a while you will have a good list of foods that will keep the Red digits away from your diary.

Hope this helps.

Ben.

Thanks man, those are some good ideas. I don't really care about protein and my sugar is always from fruit and honey and stuff. I guess I'm mainly concerned with carbs and sodium. I'll see what I can do for those.

Sarahr73

Hit them one at a time, maybe a week at a time too. What I did, first week my sugar was silly high, so found yogurts etc, with less sugar in, stopped putting sugar in coffee. Then next was my sodium and so on, I always tend to go over on protein but for me thats a good thing.

You can eat more or less the same, you just got to find similar alternatives, for example one place I got Wholemeal pittas from they had 600mg of sodium in each!!, found another place with 250mg in. Went from a yogurt with 14g sugar and 180 cals to one with 7g sugar and 60 cals!, tastes just as good too.

It takes time but after a while you will have a good list of foods that will keep the Red digits away from your diary.

Hope this helps.

Ben.

Thanks man, those are some good ideas. I don't really care about protein and my sugar is always from fruit and honey and stuff. I guess I'm mainly concerned with carbs and sodium. I'll see what I can do for those.

When I first started this, I ate like normal for a couple of days just to see how many calories I ate normally and where I got my sodium, protein, etc from. When I looked at your food diary, I looked for the things that had really high sodium, like chipotle, pizza kitchen, and so forth. Just keep mental notes on what is really high and try to avoid them or only have half with a salad on the side or something else lower in sodium. Another thing I do is if I feel in the mood for a certain food but don't have any idea how it will look in my food diary, I put it in and take a look at the effects. If it's bad, I make a different decision. Carbs are hard for me to keep down too, so I don't have any other suggestions than have been said.

hewhoiscd

Carbs aren't necessarily bad, long as they are complex carbs and not simple carbs. If you are working out hard, you need carbs for energy. What percentage do you have yours set at? I regularly go over my MFP carb goals, but that's 'cause I have a gram range on protein that I don't want to go over no matter what the percentages say. So, the cals go into the carb section instead. Look through my Food Diary and you will see what I mean. Worked for me so far

If you are concerned about sodium, stay away from frozen prepared foods and carefully look at the labels of all canned stuff. Also, drink LOTS of water.

As you say, sugars from fruits/veggies/honey is fine IMO. You just want to stay away from refined sugars as much as possible.

Painten

Ok, I am still pretty new here and I have never counted calories and other nutritional information before this. I am starting to get frustrated because although I am doing well on my calories everyday, it seems like I am always over on something else. It's either too high sugar or sodium or carbs. I'm just starting to feel like it's impossible to keep everything under the suggestions. Should I be so worried? Please feel free to look over my food diary entries and give whatever suggestions, if any. Thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

I know how you feel, right now i just stick to counting calories. I ignore every other number. When i sart to not lose weight and know it's not that i've eaten a load of rubbish then i'll look at other numbers. I'm definately a person that takes one thing at a time. If your stressing over so many numbers then just look at what stresses you least.

MistyMtnMan

Carbs aren't necessarily bad, long as they are complex carbs and not simple carbs. If you are working out hard, you need carbs for energy. What percentage do you have yours set at? I regularly go over my MFP carb goals, but that's 'cause I have a gram range on protein that I don't want to go over no matter what the percentages say. So, the cals go into the carb section instead. Look through my Food Diary and you will see what I mean. Worked for me so far

If you are concerned about sodium, stay away from frozen prepared foods and carefully look at the labels of all canned stuff. Also, drink LOTS of water.

As you say, sugars from fruits/veggies/honey is fine IMO. You just want to stay away from refined sugars as much as possible.

I custom set my calories to be 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat. I have been staying away from frozen and canned things. I also drink at least 4.5 liters of water a day as well. I think I'm still getting used to all this. Thanks for the advice.

kdiamond

You know what, even the most advanced body builder will tell you that macros (i.e. fats/carbs/protein) aren't as important as the calories consumed (for losing weight). Keep in mind the macros set by MFP are very generic. I've changed mine because I like to try to stick to 40 protein / 30 carbs / 30 fats (but often I go under/over on every category) and my weight has not fluctuated at all. So I would say don't worry TOO much, just choose the right foods...if sodium is the problem make sure you are eating natural unprocessed foods...processed = salt.

stormieweather

I never hit my goals exactly, but I do have priorities as to which matter most. Calories > Enough Protein > Minimal, but healthy Fats > sodium > sugar are the items I emphasise the most, in order. Every so often, I change my tracking and look at my fiber and my cholesterol to make sure I'm ok there too (I always am).