Please critique my food diary

mgmama

I have been losing SO slowly, it is really frustrating to me. I only lose every other week or so. I have been diligent this week about trying to eat back my exercise calories- I have a Bodybugg and I'm burning around 2,500 cal/day or more, yet even only eating around 1500 calories a day I'm not dropping weight like I feel I should. If you have the time or desire, please look at my diary and give me some ideas of things I can do differently, or reasons for it. It's not my time-of-the-month, and it's not water weight, I've been drinking a ton. Thanks!!!

ETA: I've been doing minimal weight lifting, and most of my exercise is walking around 3 miles a day, and the elliptical machine.

absie107

eat more fat. i know that sounds counterintuitive... but healthy fats such as real butter, beef tallow, coconut oil and olive oil are good for you. some research suggests consuming them with vegetables helps with the absorption of nutrients from the veggies themselves, and besides, these fats have good things such as vitamins A, D, E and K. also, fats do not stimulate an insulin response, though you seem to be doing fine with limiting sugar!

overall things look good... but personally i'd try to have a bit more lipid love in my life.

taso42_DELETED

15 lbs to go? Great job so far! Try a 500 cal deficit instead of 1000. And when you get even closer to goal, switch it to a 250 cal deficit. It's somewhat counter-intuitive, but I betcha your weight loss will pick up speed if you do this.

atomdraco

Your diet seems pretty healthy and looks great. It could be your exercises. If you are doing the same everyday, your body just got so use to it. All the best trainer out there would tell you something like this:
- change your routine, shock your body
- more weight training

Up your intake, since you have a device get a better reading on your daily burn, so use it! If you don't eat enough to fuel your body, it might just want to hold on your fat since it know you are not giving it enough.

Good luck!

pftjill

I see the beer on there quite a bit. I would cut that back to maybe 2/week. Did you know that fat provides 9 cals/gm, protein and carbs are 4 cals/gm, alcohol is a whopping 7 cals/gm. So close to fat. Eat more clean foods-fruits and veg. Eat better lunches. Pack a huge salad with a lean meat. I love doing a dark green leafy with apples, crasins and chicken or tuna with a vinaigrette. Just adding more fruits and veg in place of some of the other things will help out a great deal. Also someone stated-good fats-olive oil, nuts. Change up your exercise. If you are lifting light weights and not feeling anything-you are not doing enough. I know you didn't ask for help on this, but weights will not bulk you. Just work in the 12-15 range on reps and about 2-3 sets and make sure you are getting to muscle fatigue when doing it. If you don't feel it within 48 hours you are not doing enough weight. At that range you will not see size-so you won't get bulky.

taurie

Have you tried not eating back your exercise calories?


Also because you are so close to goal it is natural for the weight to come off slowly.

TOYGRRRL

Diet looks healthy except when I noticed the high sugar intake in form of girl scout and tollhouse cookies. Omg, they are a weekness of mine too. Salt may be a big culprit with the Asian food because bul ko gee is marinated in piles of soy sauce with other stuff of course but that ton of sodium may be holding you back.

sara_m83

I noticed you're not tracking sodium and eating a lot of processed/packaged foods. Try substituting some of your favourite packaged foods with stuff you could make at home and save yourself on calories and sodium. . Eating a lot of sugar and sodium can lead to water retention and bloating, making it difficult for you to lose.

PS. what are the odds your bodybugg is overestimating your calories burned per day?

mgmama

Thanks everybody! I appreciate this input from other people, it always helps to have fresh eyes on a problem!

Yes, there is a chance the bodybugg is overestimating, but I doubt by much. It is supposed to be accurate within 5%, and I feel that with the activity I'm doing during the day that a 2,500 burn seems reasonable.

I do seem to go over on sugar very easily (I did eat girl scout cookies one day when the day was over and I had hundreds of calories left over!), but I feel that a lot of that sugar is coming from fruit. I know sugar is sugar, whether natural or unnatural- but isn't fruit a better snack or part of a meal than adding another processed food? We live overseas and my diet has had to change based on what I can get my hands on at the time. We even went to a Baskin Robbins and I got the Low Sugar ice cream instead of what I really wanted.

I have tried not eating back my exercise calories and I end up starving! I could probably eat back LESS of them for sure....but then there's the suggestion that I should eat MORE calories since I'm closer to my goal. Those are opposite ideas, so not sure what to do about that!

Beer- yes! I do drink beer on Sundays after church (haha, I'm really not kidding!), and if we go out to eat. I only drink it if I feel like I have the calorie cushion to do so, but I know it would be better for me to eat 330 calories of salad than drink 330 calories of beer! LOL!! I really wonder if it's not possible to lose weight and still get to lightly/moderately drink alcohol as long as you count the calories? I could cut the beer but.......I could also cut off a toe or something. Haha, j/k!!

I think I definitely need to add some weight lifting, and switch up my exercise. You all have great suggestions to make me think!

AshinAms

Something that helped me before was to increase the volume of what I ate by eating way more fruits and vegetables. I was topping 15 plus servings of fruit & veg per day and losing steadily. Pairing that with olive oil or other good fats seemed to provide the kick my body needed. Also, I found I couldn't tolerate any processed foods & expect a loss (still can't!)

mgmama

Okay- I just changed my settings to show my sodium and HOLY SODIUM!!! I mean really, whoa! I had no idea egg beaters (which I was eating to get a good shot of protein in the morning) and Special K (which I just like because it is a low sugar cereal and I can eat 2 cups without having too many calories)- both of those have more sodium than I would expect. That's really interesting!

joanneeee

Moreeee [healthy] fat! 25% is a good ballpark, give or take 5%. Avocados, nuts and olives are easy additions to a diet.

Special K is horrible IMO. Someone once called it "junk food in low amounts" and I totally agree.

mgmama

Bumping for new eyes!

joanneeee

also you could swap to a grainier, nuttier bread for a lower G.I. option.