I'm frustrated with food and drinks

HSingMomto7Kids

I guess this is why I don't count my calories. Yesterday was day 1 that I joined here. I work-out 5-6 times a week. Today I didn't because I can't even walk today because I did a 5K yesterday. But I had extra 319 points yesterday due to to 5K and I still went over my calories. I'm so frustrated. Apparently drinking milk even made me go over. What the heck!! I want to lose weight and lately I see myself not losing weight very quickly. A friend showed me to calculate my calories. By those calculations I should be having around 1600 calories. By myfitnesspal it should be 1200. Either way yesterday I still went to a little over 1800 calories. This isn't me even having veggies as I have a tough time being sure I eat them every day.

beatlemom

1200 is a minimum. and you ran a 5k, which should have been a huge calorie burn, 319 seems kinda small to me. I cant lose weight at 1200. I raised mine to 1310. It's not an exact science and you may have to tweak the calorie thing a bit.

JulieBoBoo

In order to truly help we'd have to be able to see your diary so you need to set it at public. Also be sure that you're adding your exercise calories so that you get a bit more to eat every day. Making sure you're at the right activity level might also bump up your calorie allowance. Finally, if you still find that you don't have enough, change your settings from 2lbs a week down to 1.5lbs a week or even 1lb a week. If you aren't struggling as hard to take it off you won't get discouraged as quickly and you'll have a better chance of sticking it through. Good Luck!

mmelledge

My physician told me to eat 1400-1600 calories a day, then drop to 1200 if I plateau. I just set my mfp diary at 1500 calories instead of setting my desired weekly weight loss.

This way I stay right in mid-range. If I'm a little bit over or under, I'm still right on track!

maryd523

1200 is a minimum. and you ran a 5k, which should have been a huge calorie burn, 319 seems kinda small to me. I cant lose weight at 1200. I raised mine to 1310. It's not an exact science and you may have to tweak the calorie thing a bit.

A 5k is only about 3.1 miles, so 319 is about right.

In order to stay under your calorie goals, you need to make everything you eat be as low-cal as possible. You just can't eat like you used to. The cheese and mayo on the sandwich...gone. French fries instead of salad? Nope. Lean proteins instead of beef.

I would get rid of all milk, juice, soda, etc. You don't need any of it and it just uses up valuable calories. Stick to lots of water!

Good luck!

UpEarly

Maybe you're calculating the calories you need to eat incorrectly. MFP gives me 1720 calories a day (before exercise). After I exercise, I usually end up consuming 2000 or so calories. I've lost weight pretty consistently - 32 pounds since mid-April.

HSingMomto7Kids

I don't know how to put my food as public. Yes, I'll still eat pop chips, but I feel like it's better than cheetos. I don't go out to eat much. When I do I won't go to McDonalds etc.. I can't remember the last time I had french fries or soda although in the summer I will sometimes have soda, but it is pretty rare. Yes, yesterday I did have popcorn after the race, and then I had my pop chips snack. Maybe that's where I went wrong. It's just frustrating. I feel like all I can eat is fruit and veggies. It's annoying, and I feel I'm losing not much weight because I'm not. Ah!!

HSingMomto7Kids

Oh and really I've only got 15 lbs. that I want to lose.

Forensic

What are you set all, loss wise? At your weight-to-lose it ought to be about 0.5 pounds/week.

To set your diary to public, go to My Home, Settings, Diary Settings, and then select public down near the bottom.

Jomalone2

I've had to learn to plan ahead better. The longer you do it the more you learn and adjust. I know now if I eat too many calories for breakfast that I am going to have to stick with a protein shake or something very low calorie for lunch or vice versa. If I know my dinner is going to be high-calorie I have fruit and yogurt smoothie for breakfast. It will take time but you will learn how to choose your calories. I no longer put cheese on my salad. I buy almond milk instead of regular milk, low-calorie yogurt instead of regular yogurt and check the calories on the bread you buy before you buy it. Just because it says wheat doesn't always mean it is lower in calories - some brands are lower in calories than others.

You were right about the 5K burning about 300 calories. It also has to do with what your starting weight is/was. The less you weigh the fewer calories you burn. I have friends who log in the exact same exercise as I do but they burn more calories because they weigh more. Hang in there. You will get the hang of it. :flowerforyou:

mmelledge

Don't forget to track EVERYTHING you put in your mouth. I wasn't tracking no-cal sweetener at first (Truvia in this case), but then I realized just because it doesn't have calories doesn't mean it has no carbs.

Those little tastes and bites add up fast.

MIMITIME

Add your food before you eat it. It lets you know the calorie etc info and you can make adjustments if need be before you actually eat. It is the only way I can stay on track.

HSingMomto7Kids

It's not like I had 20 lbs. and now I have 15 lbs. left to lose. I was on meds for milk supply. I wanted to go off of it to lose weight. I only lost 2 lbs in about 60 days in a few days. I drink organic milk. It's what it is. Just have no clue what to do. Maybe there is nothing to do. IDK I read all labels etc.. for ingredients etc.. I'm not saying I eat healthy all of the time as I did have white cheddar pop corn yesterday, but I don't eat lots of junk, so I'm unsure how this can be. It's just frustrating is all.

melaniecheeks

Ok, you dont have a lot to lose, so it wont come off quickly.

Plus, are you still feeding? Then you need to make sure you're getting enough calories and nutrients for that.

Is there a specific date you have in mind that you feel you need to lose the weight for? How realistic is that?

HSingMomto7Kids

There's not a date that I need to lose by. I just thought 1 lb. a week would be reasonable. I just want to lose some weight. I'm working out 5-6 times a week. I thought paying attention to my calories would help. Instead it has totally stressed me where I am feeling like what is the point. Should I just quit working out and paying attention to what I'm eating, because that's how I feel right now. As far as nursing I am hardly making any milk. I don't even make an oz. each time I nurse, so that part probably doesn't matter.

melaniecheeks

OK. 1lb a week is actually quite hard, and given you dont have much to lose and have children to look after, I'd aim for 1/2 lb a week instead.

And it can be overwhelming to try to do everything all at once, so try to break it down into manageable stages; you're already working out, so that's good. If there's no problem fitting that into your life, then keep that going.

So look at your diet - the best way to use MFP is just to record your usual intake for a week or so, and then examine it and see where you can make changes. If you like, you could change your diary settings to public, so that we could see what you're eating and make suggestions for changes.

HSingMomto7Kids

So I just made it public so you can look at it. Amazingly, through all the stress that I felt yesterday I got up this morning to losing 1 lb. How on earth did that happen? Was it the 5K? I'm glad that I'm going to be recording my calories with support from you all here, but I'm not sure if I should listen to the myfitnesspal calories that I'm given of 1200 calories, or do I listen to the other one that I told you of that my friend told me about which is called The Harris Benedict Equation. I actually had 1,085 calories yesterday, but I still went over by -4 with fat and -15 by protein. It makes me feel like I can't drink any milk. I didn't eat dinner last night with everyone as they were eating Oscar Myer hotdogs, and I would have gone over by 200 calories with the buns etc.. Do you have any advice for me?

Thanks, Kelley

melaniecheeks

Hi Kelley, I'm glad the scales were kind to you this morning (but don't be a slave to that number on the dial)!

Thanks for making your diary public, it makes it so much easier to make constructive comments.

Firstly, I think your diet is pretty good - you're eating 3 meals a day, making sensible choices. It's just about impossible to hit all the numbers every single day - and don't forget everything you record is an estimate anyway, so allow for a margin of error - but you're getting close enough to be OK.

Going over on protein is no bad thing - consuming up to 100 or 150g a day is absolutely fine, and it wont hold you back. If you're doing any strength training or muscle building, then lots of good protein is vital for muscle repair. The calories are more important than the other numbers, so get them right first.

You do drink a lot of milk - is that what you usually do? You could maybe save some fat by switching to a 1% milk, but milk is really good for you, so don't reduce it too much.

caveats

Also echoing what others have said: try to step back and look at the big picture instead of letting the day-to-day get to you.

It's hard as women to measure progress day to day because our monthly hormonal fluctuations will make our bodies lie. I check in almost daily on my weight, but I like to watch my progress week to week. If I see a general trend toward less weight, I'm thrilled. If I see an uptick in a pound or two, I mark which week it is and, more often than not, it's the week I'm pre-menstrual and craving sweets. I tend to do awesome the week after I finish my period. But if month to month, I'm generally losing, then I think it's great progress and I don't stress too much over the day to day.

The key is just to be aware of what is going on in your life and adjust for it rather than get too caught up in "oh crap, I went 200 calories over today." The fact that you're minding what you're eating is already a huge step in the right direction.

HSingMomto7Kids

You do drink a lot of milk - is that what you usually do? You could maybe save some fat by switching to a 1% milk, but milk is really good for you, so don't reduce it too much.

Yes, I do drink a bit of milk. 1% milk tastes like watered down water to me. Some days unless I work out I drink 24 oz. in the timeI worked out along with just milk for the day which I know isn't the best to do. As far as the calories or protein goes I did a bit better since calculating it all out. I didn't realize pb had 200 calories! Wow! Do you all pretty much listen to what this site says to you as far as calories etc.. or do you listen to the theory of the BMR goes. This is why I'm not sure which to listen to.

Thanks!!

jadedone

You might not be eating enough. Some people who are pretty active find they need to ea 1500 or 1800 calories to drop pounds.

melaniecheeks

There isn't really a conflict - MFP uses BMR and then subtracts an amount of calories, so that'd you'd be losing weight on that even without exercising.

But any of these are just estimates - why dont you try a certain calorie goal for a week or 2 and then fine tune it?

HSingMomto7Kids

Okay so I think I'll listen to myfitnesspal and see if that help me by losing weight. It's probably bad being way under. Is that correct where I won't lose any? I had 966 calories last night and I should have had 1200 calories.

Thanks Again!!

rml_16

Well, you had a lot of milk yesterday! Try cutting back to skim or at least 1%. That will save some calories. Or maybe try soy or almond milk.

The key really is to find filling meals that are lower in calories, with a combo of fiber, protein and fat that will keep you satisfied on less.

And the beginning is tough because you're used to larger portions, but if you have the willpower to lower those portions for a period of time, you'll get used to eating less and find you don't need a lot of food to be satisfied.

rml_16

1200 is a minimum. and you ran a 5k, which should have been a huge calorie burn, 319 seems kinda small to me. I cant lose weight at 1200. I raised mine to 1310. It's not an exact science and you may have to tweak the calorie thing a bit.

319 is right for a 5K, unless you're very heavy. It's only 3.1 miles.

bcattoes

Did you log your 5k run? If so, you should have "earned" extra calories. Unless you are very tiny 1200 would not be the MFP recommendation after entering a 5K run.

mlb929

It sounds to me like you are seriously confused on eating healthy and well balanced meals. I would suggesting meeting with a dietician or nutritionist as maybe a little education would go a long way. I feel badly for you that you say you didn't eat dinner because the family was having hot dogs and buns, maybe if you are making more balanced meals for your family, you would find that you are staying within your calorie goal as well. I'm not judging you, just trying to point out the choices we make for ourselves and our family.

If you can't get to a professional, you may want to get a book on healthy eating and understand your choices. I have my favorite, but there are really a lot on the market, most have menu plans in them, try for a week or two and see where you fall in your way to change your behavior.

Also, for support you say you "only" have 15 lbs to lose, really that is still quite a bit of weight. Sure there are MFP people that have a lot more and some a lot less, but 15lbs is significant in your body composition.

In your exercise are you only doing cardio or weight training too? You may try to talk to a trainer to see if you can get a well balanced plan too.

It sounds like you may be filling up on milk. Just an out of the box idea - sometimes we crave things that our bodies are using to hold on to weight. Milk may be something that you are getting a lot of, but may be not used by your body correctly. Try giving up milk a couple of weeks and see if that makes a difference. Water, Water, Water and fiber are big helps to weight loss.

melaniecheeks

A suggestion I made elsewhere might be useful - aim for a calorie range, not just a single number. Calorie counting really isn't that precise, given the estimation in portion size etc. So if you aim to get between 1250 - 1350 calories each day, that's less stressful than having to hit a number spot on.

HSingMomto7Kids

To answer the questions here.. With the 1200 calories I meant that the 1200 calories is what I should be eating. Yes, with the 5K it added 319 calories. I did a work-out today, but I'm clueless on how many calories I burned.

I actually do see a nutritionist. I'm wondering why you are confused at my eating healthy and well balanced meals. Are you referring to feeding my family hot dogs? If so, we do eat healthy. It may not be all organic and all vegetables etc.. but we try healthier routes is for sure. We also buy the oscar meyer beef franks. And we do not eat hot-dogs very often either. I ended up eating a slice of cheese, and yogurt instead.

I know I still have weight to lose. After my 4th child I had 50 lbs. to lose, so having to lose only 15 lbs. not 13 lbs. after this 5th child is a small goal is for sure.

How much milk should we be drinking a day? I always have had milk at my meals. My other problem is trying to remember to drink water during the day. During my work-out no I have no problem with it, but during the day I could easily not drink until the next meal. Any ideas? I have no problem drinking less milk. Maybe I should decrease milk at dinner and replace it with water instead to see if that helps. I'm so glad I'm logging in my meals. It's making me see a lot clearer now. My 10 yr. daughter made a stir fry with whole wheat spaghetti. After I logged it I realized all of the calories. I was like really.. Wow!!

Thanks Everyone!!