Recommendations to Improve My Food Journal

lelaspeaks

So I feel like I eat pretty well everyday, but I'm open to suggestions for improvements. My journal should be open for everyone to see, but I'm looking for people to take a look at it and see what they would change about my daily calorie consumption. Increase something, decrease something, eat more times throughout the day, etc.

Here are my goals:
1. Lose inches
2. Lose fat
3. Build lean muscle

SW: 170
CW: 159.4
GW: 135-140

Thanks!

lelaspeaks

Bump

sr4ca

looks like you are doing fine to me. Only suggestion I would make would be to maybe change your settings. Maybe select sugar insteal of calcium?? Since overconsumption of sugar could affect your weight, this might be a better choice for you.

lelaspeaks

looks like you are doing fine to me. Only suggestion I would make would be to maybe change your settings. Maybe select sugar insteal of calcium?? Since overconsumption of sugar could affect your weight, this might be a better choice for you.

I had sugars at first but fruit shows up as high sugar foods and that's good sugar, right? Should I just ignore it and only consider the sugars that don't come from real foods?

utes09

I've set my daily value for sugar to 40 g and I subtract natural sugars (ie: fruit, milk) in my head. I only worry about added sugars. Like if I had frosted mini wheats for breakfast I'd leave that sugar amount.

momma3sweetgirls

I'd switch sugar for sodium. Sugar will include your fruits, milk, etc. and will likely always be hight. Sodium, to me, is more important to track. If you have a few high sodium days, your weight can actually increase from water retention. If you track it, you won't be so surprised if the scale doesn't move or goes up. Otherwise, looks good.

tinytemple

Looks good to me! I only thing I notice is that you eat seem to eat a lot of quinoa (which soo good) but as a result your carbohydrate intake is quite high, considering you are not doing much exercise - but that's only realy minor. Love how much protein you manage to eat!!

lizard053

It looks okay, though you could probably use more fresh fruits and vegetables. I didn't read everything clearly, unfortunately. Probably should have taken a better look at the nutrient totals... Lunches look kinda sparse, but I have nothing to say about that as mine are too.

lelaspeaks

Looks good to me! I only thing I notice is that you eat seem to eat a lot of quinoa (which soo good) but as a result your carbohydrate intake is quite high, considering you are not doing much exercise - but that's only realy minor. Love how much protein you manage to eat!!

I worry about that often too, but I have my nutrients set at 40 % carbs, 30% fat, 30% protein, so I would hope that's still not too many carbs?

lelaspeaks

PS - my Quinoa Salad lunch is made of quinoa, edamame, feta cheese, and red bell peppers with a lemon, garlic and olive oil dressing.

lelaspeaks

It looks okay, though you could probably use more fresh fruits and vegetables. I didn't read everything clearly, unfortunately. Probably should have taken a better look at the nutrient totals... Lunches look kinda sparse, but I have nothing to say about that as mine are too.

I wish I could eat more during the first part of the day but it is SO hard. I'm going to try to push more of my calories to the first part of the day. I wake up full quite a bit!

auroranflash

PS - my Quinoa Salad lunch is made of quinoa, edamame, feta cheese, and red bell peppers with a lemon, garlic and olive oil dressing.

That sounds super yummy.

lporter229

Your food diary looks very similar to mine. I would tell you to maybe cut back on the alcohol, but that would just make me a hypocrite

Besides, that's what we work for, right?

lelaspeaks

PS - my Quinoa Salad lunch is made of quinoa, edamame, feta cheese, and red bell peppers with a lemon, garlic and olive oil dressing.

That sounds super yummy.

It IS super yummy!

Jacwhite22

Honestly.....It looks pretty good overall. I would aim to get in more protein. I don't know exactly what you weight but I would aim for 1-1.5 g / lb of lbm. Also it looks like when you are under you are under by just a little bit but days you were over were 4-500 over. Also how are you logging food? Are you weighing it or estimating? What about calorie burn from activity?

lelaspeaks

Your food diary looks very similar to mine. I would tell you to maybe cut back on the alcohol, but that would just make me a hypocrite

Besides, that's what we work for, right?

UGH, I know! Especially because my husband and I brew our own beer and I'm on a bunch of social leagues - volleyball, kickball, etc.! I try to limit it to one or two nights a week now stick to as low calorie/low carb beverages. I also cut back as much as possible during the week and try to save some room on the weekends. Rough life.

monty619

macros seem to be pretty solid... my only recomendation is to cut a few more carbs and calories out on days you do not exercise if you dont do that already and maybe up the fats by a few grams on those days as well.

lelaspeaks

Honestly.....It looks pretty good overall. I would aim to get in more protein. I don't know exactly what you weight but I would aim for 1-1.5 g / lb of lbm. Also it looks like when you are under you are under by just a little bit but days you were over were 4-500 over. Also how are you logging food? Are you weighing it or estimating? What about calorie burn from activity?

Protein is the hardest for me, especially because I'm a recovering vegetarian! I weigh and measure most food. There are a lot of suprise calorie bomb days where I think I have my plan set out for the day and then someone asks me out to dinner, etc. I assume I need to start padding my calories everyday for occassions like that or just say no!

As far as calories burned from workouts, I take whatever I've actually done and subtract 10-15 minutes off of my actual workout. MFP is overestimating how much I've actually burned.

CW is 159.4 at 5'7". I work a desk job and work out about 2-4 days a week. I am recovering from a herniated disc, so workouts are rough.

lelaspeaks

macros seem to be pretty solid... my only recomendation is to cut a few more carbs and calories out on days you do not exercise if you dont do that already and maybe up the fats by a few grams on those days as well.

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind! My carb count is at 40%. Would you reccomend me lowering it?

Jacwhite22

Have you tried whey protein powder?

Honestly.....It looks pretty good overall. I would aim to get in more protein. I don't know exactly what you weight but I would aim for 1-1.5 g / lb of lbm. Also it looks like when you are under you are under by just a little bit but days you were over were 4-500 over. Also how are you logging food? Are you weighing it or estimating? What about calorie burn from activity?

Protein is the hardest for me, especially because I'm a recovering vegetarian! I weigh and measure most food. There are a lot of suprise calorie bomb days where I think I have my plan set out for the day and then someone asks me out to dinner, etc. I assume I need to start padding my calories everyday for occassions like that or just say no!

As far as calories burned from workouts, I take whatever I've actually done and subtract 10-15 minutes off of my actual workout. MFP is overestimating how much I've actually burned.

CW is 159.4 at 5'7". I work a desk job and work out about 2-4 days a week. I am recovering from a herniated disc, so workouts are rough.

lelaspeaks

Have you tried whey protein powder?

Honestly.....It looks pretty good overall. I would aim to get in more protein. I don't know exactly what you weight but I would aim for 1-1.5 g / lb of lbm. Also it looks like when you are under you are under by just a little bit but days you were over were 4-500 over. Also how are you logging food? Are you weighing it or estimating? What about calorie burn from activity?

Protein is the hardest for me, especially because I'm a recovering vegetarian! I weigh and measure most food. There are a lot of suprise calorie bomb days where I think I have my plan set out for the day and then someone asks me out to dinner, etc. I assume I need to start padding my calories everyday for occassions like that or just say no!

As far as calories burned from workouts, I take whatever I've actually done and subtract 10-15 minutes off of my actual workout. MFP is overestimating how much I've actually burned.

CW is 159.4 at 5'7". I work a desk job and work out about 2-4 days a week. I am recovering from a herniated disc, so workouts are rough.

I've considered it. Not sure which one to even try though!?

kg6blue

From one Minnesotan to another (congrats on getting out!) HA
I am in a similar situation as far as hight/weight (sadly not age!)

I just started talking with a personal trainer and for the last 3 weeks he's had me work at increasing my calories to net 1600 (I was at 1200, and that was too low) and limiting my carbs to 100 grams a day and try to get them in the beginning part of the day... (like no fruit past lunch).

The scale hasn't moved much, but I can tell I'm losing in inches!

And surprisingly (maybe not to many) the scale isnt' going up with the added calories, so I guess that was a good idea to increase.

Good luck on your journey!

kg6blue

Oh and another thing... ditto on added protein powder. I'm using the Ultimate Muscle Protein in chocolate, not bad on calories, tastes great even when mixed with just water. 20 grams of protein and only 4 grams of carbs.
Just a thought!

lelaspeaks

Oh and another thing... ditto on added protein powder. I'm using the Ultimate Muscle Protein in chocolate, not bad on calories, tastes great even when mixed with just water. 20 grams of protein and only 4 grams of carbs.
Just a thought!

From one Minnesotan to another - thanks for the recommendation! I'll look into it