Frustrated with calorie counting

Gagaluvr

I had a couple of questions with calorie counting. I just want to lose 10 lbs but lately my weight WILL NOT drop below 160 (always stuck at 162) and my goal is to reach 150. I know in the past when I did classic WW my weight dropped fairly easy. I dont know if with this calorie counting if i'm under my calorie goal per day or if its because I go over carbs or fat etc. I don't know what it is? I also exercise 3-4 times a week. I am getting frustrated and just want to give up or just start WW again. Can someone please give me some insight? Thanks!

SideSteel

I had a couple of questions with calorie counting. I just want to lose 10 lbs but lately my weight WILL NOT drop below 160 (always stuck at 162) and my goal is to reach 150. I know in the past when I did classic WW my weight dropped fairly easy. I dont know if with this calorie counting if i'm under my calorie goal per day or if its because I go over carbs or fat etc. I don't know what it is? I also exercise 3-4 times a week. I am getting frustrated and just want to give up or just start WW again. Can someone please give me some insight? Thanks!

You might want to unlock your diary so that people can look at your calories/macros and so other people can make irrelevant judgements on your food selection.

Do you use a food scale and measuring devices to track intake, and additionally can you tell me how long you've been stuck at the same weight?

erickirb

What is your weekly weight loss goal set to?

I would suggest a goal of 0.5lbs/week with the amount you are looking at losing.

On top of that I would suggest weighing all solid foods and measuring liquids to ensure you are not eating more than you think you are.

If you are not using a HRM I would suggest only eating back 50-75% of the cals burned according to MFP.

Gagaluvr

I don't log my foods on a daily basis because I normally eat the same meals. But its ususally egg beaters with 2 turkey sausage and coffee. String cheese or apple for snack, lunch is thin multigrain bread (sandwich thins) with fat free mayo, turkey and spinach and slice of light cheese with grapes. Protein shake for afternoon snack. Dinner is spinach salad with chicken, light cheese and salad dressing. We eat dinner EARLY so around 7 I might have light popcorn or raw almonds for a snack.

Gagaluvr

Oh and I do turbo fire, insanity or plyometrics with cardio which I know is hard on the body. But I have no idea how many calories these programs burn?

Gagaluvr

I have it set to 1.5 per week, activity level as active. exercise goals to 3 times per week.
Oh so you mean when I enter my exercise for the day, use the calories MFP calculates and only eat back 50% of those calories? I know I normally put in what the ellipitcal machine tells me how much I burned and then I enter that in (adjust what MFP says-normally MFP is over) but then how do I calculate when I do plyometrics? I have no clue how much calories that burns and in the past I wasn't putting those burned calories in MFP so MAYBE thats why I haven't lost weight due to the fact I didn't eat any of those calories back. Maybe my body was in starvation mode? Thanks everyone for your help!!

rileysowner

You still have not answered how carefully you measure. I can say from personal experience measuring (good kitchen scale and liquid measures) makes a difference. Most people estimate incorrectly.

Also some questions:

1) What is your weight loss goal per week?

2) Do you take your measurements? Scales are but a small piece of the overall picture.

I also recommend reading this http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

erickirb

I have it set to 1.5 per week, activity level as active. exercise goals to 3 times per week.

If you are set as active, I would suggest not eating back any of the cals burned from exercise. If you change to light active or sedentary than I would suggest eating them.

With the amount you have to lose 1.5lbs/week is much too aggressive and you risk having a large % of your loss come from lean muscle, instead of mostly fat.
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

Gagaluvr

No I don't have a kitchen scale ;( and with dinner I don't really measure the meat I put on my salad (ground turkey or chicken) but it really doesn't look like alot? Where did you purchase your kitchen scale? I wonder if I could use my shipping scale for ebay LOL

Gagaluvr

I have it set to 1.5 per week, activity level as active. exercise goals to 3 times per week.

If you are set as active, I would suggest not eating back any of the cals burned from exercise. If you change to light active or sedentary than I would suggest eating them.

With the amount you have to lose 1.5lbs/week is much too aggressive and you risk having a large % of your loss come from lean muscle, instead of mostly fat.
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

Thank you!

SideSteel

I don't log my foods on a daily basis

No I don't have a kitchen scale

^ These are the issues. You are guessing.

Correct this first, and after a month of doing this you will have a much better set of information to make decisions on.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you HAVE to do this, you can certainly find other ways to lose weight, but this would be the most reliable way to be accurate about it rather than guessing.

hamncheese67

So, just to say, but you really aren't counting calories so how could you be frustrated with it. In order for you to know if this works for you or not, you really should log consistently and accurately over a period of time.

Gagaluvr

I think its because months ago I was only doing cardio at the gym (walking uphill on a treadmill) eating the same food and was lost 5 lbs. Then I wanted to challenge my exercising so I started insanity/turbofire (which is HARD) and then my weight hasn't even dropped. You would think by doing a tougher exercise that you would lose weight not plateau. Thats why I think when I was doing insanity I wasn't eating enough calories. And the reason why i'm frustrated is that calories aren't the same per week and it all depends on this and that etc. I'm also frustrated because I make healthier choices than I used to (brown rice, whole grain bread etc) With WW you eat your points for the day and its done.

brooklynsprings

I have had the same problem. But I do know the days i do alot of exercise i am under my caloric intake. Which i am trying to judge and fix. From what i can tell by this program if i don't get to the 1200 calories a day my body goes into starvation mode. My thing is that I exercise late in the day and if i don't get to exercise i am over the 1200 and if i do get to exercise i am under. Just have to learn to juggle it i guess?

The_New_Christina

Also try switching up your diet, your body is getting used to the same food all the time. :drinker:

brooklynsprings

I love WW also but the bad part is that it has you eating out of a box which is NOT healthy at all. The sodium in one meal is a weeks worth. Try this alittle longer and stay true to your posting. We will both get there.

erickirb

Also try switching up your diet, your body is getting used to the same food all the time. :drinker:

You don't need to do this, your body doesn't see the food you eat it sees the amount and type of carbs, fats, proteins.

Gagaluvr

I love WW also but the bad part is that it has you eating out of a box which is NOT healthy at all. The sodium in one meal is a weeks worth. Try this alittle longer and stay true to your posting. We will both get there.

Oh I totally agree with you on the box meals. I would definitely stay away from those, very high in sodium etc. I will stay with MFP for awhile thanks ladies for the positive talk

wtfusernameisnttaken

Thing is, you're building muscle with those work out routines.... so you'll likely be losing fat, but building muscle, measure yourself. It's a bit more accurate depiction if you're losing or not.

jesspi68

In addition to the food scale and accurately logging your calories, just looking at what you said you eat it may be completely possible that you aren't eating nearly enough for your activity level. If you use the Scooby BMR calculator you can calculate your BMR and TDEE based on your activity level and can then calculate say TDEE - 15% and eat that every day. You wouldn't add exercise calories because they are already factored in. When I log a workout I manually adjust the calories to 1 because I figured my daily intake based on doing 1 - 3 hours of exercise a week.

ahviendha

As someone else said, if you adjust your goal weight loss per week (I was at 1.5 changed to 1.0) it upped my calories then the weight began falling off again.

I also began a higher intensity workout around that time, and noticed a plateau. My body needed more fuel for the workouts and more protein for building muscle. Once i began eating more (and it was just 170-200 calories more) I had more energy and lost 2 lbs soon after that!

Good luck!

Gagaluvr

Should I watch the carb, protein and fat intake more closely? I think on some sites they said to have protein 40, carb 30 and fat 30? Is that correct?

SideSteel

I think its because months ago I was only doing cardio at the gym (walking uphill on a treadmill) eating the same food and was lost 5 lbs. Then I wanted to challenge my exercising so I started insanity/turbofire (which is HARD) and then my weight hasn't even dropped. You would think by doing a tougher exercise that you would lose weight not plateau. Thats why I think when I was doing insanity I wasn't eating enough calories. And the reason why i'm frustrated is that calories aren't the same per week and it all depends on this and that etc. I'm also frustrated because I make healthier choices than I used to (brown rice, whole grain bread etc) With WW you eat your points for the day and its done.

But since you aren't tracking calories you still don't know how much you are eating. It is very easy to out-eat any additional exercise expenditure you may have from doing a more difficult workout, and if you don't track intake, you can't really tell either way.

Being in a calorie deficit is a requirement for weight loss.

erickirb

Thing is, you're building muscle with those work out routines.... so you'll likely be losing fat, but building muscle, measure yourself. It's a bit more accurate depiction if you're losing or not.

That is incorrect. You do not build muscle on a caloric deficit and those programs are cardio based not strength training (although there is some spread out in there) To gain muscle you need a caloric surplus, adequate protein, and heavy lifting strength training.

schicksa

Plateaus are totally normal, ESPECIALLY if you're eating the same meals every single day. Shake it up a bit, change the content of what you're eating; that will help jump-start your body into readjusting itself. From what you're describing you may not be eating enough (though without measuring your portions it's tough to gauge). With the different types of workouts you're going to be building muscle so make sure you're checking your measurements as opposed to just your weight. Also recommend going with the other replies...measure your food and track it every day. Otherwise you're not really doing it. Weight Watchers online tools are pretty much the exact same as MFP (I know, I've done it), just with weekly meetings and not simplifying it to points (they actually tell you what your ratio of carbs, fat, protein, and sugar is; weight watchers hides this and simplifies it for those unfamiliar with dieting).

If you're at 160-ish pounds, 1.5lbs per week is too high.

jacksonpt

I don't log my foods on a daily basis because I normally eat the same meals.

That's going to make it hard. Even if you think you eat the same every day, a little here and a little there quickly become not so little.

But its ususally egg beaters with 2 turkey sausage and coffee. String cheese or apple for snack, lunch is thin multigrain bread (sandwich thins) with fat free mayo, turkey and spinach and slice of light cheese with grapes. Protein shake for afternoon snack. Dinner is spinach salad with chicken, light cheese and salad dressing. We eat dinner EARLY so around 7 I might have light popcorn or raw almonds for a snack.

If you are set to active, that doesn't seem like NEARLY enough cals.

erickirb

Should I watch the carb, protein and fat intake more closely? I think on some sites they said to have protein 40, carb 30 and fat 30? Is that correct?

That is a good ratio, but as long as you get enough fat and protein as a minimum your ratio is not that big of a deal.

elyelyse

No I don't have a kitchen scale ... but it really doesn't look like alot?

"it doesn't really look like a lot" got me into trouble for a long time! lol.
You really may be guessing right, but there isn't any way to know for sure without measuring/weighing. So I think it's a good tool to add to your arsenal.

jacksonpt

I have it set to 1.5 per week, activity level as active. exercise goals to 3 times per week.

With only 10-15lbs to lose, a goal of 1.5lbs per week is probably too aggressive. Can it be done? Sure. Is it healthy and sustainable? Not for most people.

rileysowner

Did you take the time to read the link I posted above. That sort of approach will likely work well for you. Or use http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ to set your calories including your exercise and just eat that amount.

jacksonpt

Oh so you mean when I enter my exercise for the day, use the calories MFP calculates and only eat back 50% of those calories?

You said you are set to active. Is that because you workout, or because your day-to-day lifestile is pretty active? Are you active because you exercise, or are you active outside your exercise?

That will determine whether or nto you should be eating back the cals.