I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE THAT HATES THE RED NUMBERS
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The only time you need to hate the red numbers is if they go up to your deficit.
Going over by a few isn't going to hurt you one bit. I think the average deficit is 500 calories?
So If I'm allowed 1,300 calories to lose 1 lb per week, it's not gonna hurt me to eat 1,400 calories one day. I still have a 400 calorie deficit and that's all you really need to lose weight. Even if you eat the whole 500, you're not gonna gain. You'll stay the same, because that would equal your maintenance calories :bigsmile:
This ^^ I allow myself those extra 500 when I need it. Being in the red was a huge thing for the first year or more but lately I made it okay in my mind to not freak over it unless it is over by more than my deficit and I will just maintain that week. It has been way better than freaking out over the red negative number. If you have your deficit set at 2 lbs a week that is 1000 calories a day to maintain. Try not to beat yourself up too bad.
Stay positive!!! 0 -
The red nos. don't bother me. This is not an exact science, and you need a little wiggle room sometimes. As long as the red calorie number is less than 100, I don't worry about it. Works for me.
If you hate the red numbers, then you need to be a stickler about what you eat, and how much, and LOG EVERYTHING. One thing that keeps me in check is logging my dinner before dinner time -- if I know what dinner will be. This way, I know ahead of time how much room I have in terms of calories.
Good luck.0 -
It's like it's telling me I failed.
You did.
So encouraging!
*eye roll* Well, they did. You have no one to blame but yourself if you're going over your numbers. Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.
ETA: I think you know you're cheating yourself when you log incorrectly. You're only sabotaging your own weight loss.
No, she didn't fail.
She made a mistake. (a small one at that.)
You only fail when you stop trying.
Stop trying = quitting.
Going over on your numbers and not hitting them correctly = failing. I did not say she failed at weight loss. Just on the days she mislogs or goes over.
Here's some more flowers at the risk of being called mean for trying to give helpful advice: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
Helpful advice: Maybe open your diary and I can give you some pointers.
Not advice at all : You failed
Maybe you didn't mean it to be mean, I can understand that. It's difficult to translate 'emotions' in typing and words on a screen. But it wasn't advice.0 -
I don't like to be in the ~red~ for cal in take! doesn't happen often. I see whatcha saying!0
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This is why people think others are mean. She KNOWS she is over and she KNOWS its cheating herself. That was never a question! She is simply looking for support!It's like it's telling me I failed.
You did.
So encouraging!
*eye roll* Well, they did. You have no one to blame but yourself if you're going over your numbers. Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.
ETA: I think you know you're cheating yourself when you log incorrectly. You're only sabotaging your own weight loss.
And he agreed with her. So - in a way - yes, he was supporting her.0 -
This is why people think others are mean. She KNOWS she is over and she KNOWS its cheating herself. That was never a question! She is simply looking for support!It's like it's telling me I failed.
You did.
So encouraging!
*eye roll* Well, they did. You have no one to blame but yourself if you're going over your numbers. Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.
ETA: I think you know you're cheating yourself when you log incorrectly. You're only sabotaging your own weight loss.
*sigh* OP, good job on logging smaller portions than you actually ate!! CONGRATS. :flowerforyou:
I would rather have Adini's first response than her 2nd. Coddling isn't going to get me to realize something. I'd rather have someone slap the truth down on the desk and say, "Hey. Listen up. These are the facts and you can either curl up in a ball and throw a self-pity party or grow some ovaries and do something about it."....I'd take that any day over, "It's okay. Go ahead, cheat yourself and maybe you'll figure out how to still be a special snowflake and succeed."
ETA: the bolded quotes are what Adini said. I really wish MFP would change the quoting so that it would label who said what.0 -
It's like it's telling me I failed.
You did.
So encouraging!
*eye roll* Well, they did. You have no one to blame but yourself if you're going over your numbers. Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.
ETA: I think you know you're cheating yourself when you log incorrectly. You're only sabotaging your own weight loss.
No, she didn't fail.
She made a mistake. (a small one at that.)
You only fail when you stop trying.
Stop trying = quitting.
Going over on your numbers and not hitting them correctly = failing. I did not say she failed at weight loss. Just on the days she mislogs or goes over.
Here's some more flowers at the risk of being called mean for trying to give helpful advice: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
Helpful advice: Maybe open your diary and I can give you some pointers.
Not advice at all : You failed
Maybe you didn't mean it to be mean, I can understand that. It's difficult to translate 'emotions' in typing and words on a screen. But it wasn't advice.
I don't know how you missed it, since you're quoting my original post but here's the part you seem to be ignoring..
Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.0 -
Being in the red is not the end of the world. If your settings are set to to lose one pound per week...then going over by a few hundred calories will NOT be enough to cause weight gain. You'll still be at a deficit and will still lose weight.
I kind of understand what you mean though. Seeing the red numbers does get me a bit down.
So on days when I am feeling extra hungry, and want to be able to eat more, I may change my settings to lose 1/2 a pound per week, or even change them over to maintenance mode. Then you will be given more calories and won't be in the red.
If you do this, be careful, when you update your goals, MFP will automatically reset your macros. So if you had custom macros targets and you change your goals, you'll need to adjust your macros back to whatever you had them at before.0 -
Thank you for the tip, I just changed the setting to 1350 and now the red color means something.0
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There is some good advice up there. But don't be afraid of the red.
I try to hit red on protein. My favorite proteins are red anyway.
I don't care about the carbs or sugars because I get a lot of sugars from things like dairy and fruit.
I try to hit red every single day for Vit. A, Calcium, Vit. C, and Iron. If I don't hit red on iron, I take a pill.
Worry about your calories and don't cheat yourself on that.0 -
You can get rid of all the other numbers (protein, carbs, etc) by tailoring what you want measured, so then the only thing you have to focus on is calories. I hate those damn numbers too, but I know there's no point in logging at all if I don't do it properly. But there are days where when I have gone over by more than two hundred or so, I just stop adding and make it a point to do better the next day. Hope that helped.0
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Well I wouldn't want either...I wasn't saying, "Hey, you are being mean...you should sugar coat everything and lie through your teeth!" I was simply thinking that typing in "EYEROLL" as part of your response wasn't needed. Rolling your eyes at someone is hugely insulting and thus mean. I teach kids all day (my own and my classroom) to NEVER roll your eyes at someone. It makes the rest of her response seem much more hostile then direct and honest. She could have simply only written "Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over." and sounded awesome...why add an eyeroll?
This is why people think others are mean. She KNOWS she is over and she KNOWS its cheating herself. That was never a question! She is simply looking for support!It's like it's telling me I failed.
You did.
So encouraging!
*eye roll* Well, they did. You have no one to blame but yourself if you're going over your numbers. Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.
ETA: I think you know you're cheating yourself when you log incorrectly. You're only sabotaging your own weight loss.
*sigh* OP, good job on logging smaller portions than you actually ate!! CONGRATS. :flowerforyou:
I would rather have Adini's first response than her 2nd. Coddling isn't going to get me to realize something. I'd rather have someone slap the truth down on the desk and say, "Hey. Listen up. These are the facts and you can either curl up in a ball and throw a self-pity party or grow some ovaries and do something about it."....I'd take that any day over, "It's okay. Go ahead, cheat yourself and maybe you'll figure out how to still be a special snowflake and succeed."
ETA: the bolded quotes are what Adini said. I really wish MFP would change the quoting so that it would label who said what.0 -
Well I wouldn't want either...I wasn't saying, "Hey, you are being mean...you should sugar coat everything and lie through your teeth!" I was simply thinking that typing in "EYEROLL" as part of your response wasn't needed. Rolling your eyes at someone is hugely insulting and thus mean. I teach kids all day (my own and my classroom) to NEVER roll your eyes at someone. It makes the rest of her response seem much more hostile then direct and honest. She could have simply only written "Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over." and sounded awesome...why add an eyeroll?
This is why people think others are mean. She KNOWS she is over and she KNOWS its cheating herself. That was never a question! She is simply looking for support!It's like it's telling me I failed.
You did.
So encouraging!
*eye roll* Well, they did. You have no one to blame but yourself if you're going over your numbers. Plan better next time but don't beat yourself up over it, it happens. Don't make it a regular occurrence. Plan ahead. Log before you eat. Exercise to earn more cals so you're not over.
ETA: I think you know you're cheating yourself when you log incorrectly. You're only sabotaging your own weight loss.
*sigh* OP, good job on logging smaller portions than you actually ate!! CONGRATS. :flowerforyou:
I would rather have Adini's first response than her 2nd. Coddling isn't going to get me to realize something. I'd rather have someone slap the truth down on the desk and say, "Hey. Listen up. These are the facts and you can either curl up in a ball and throw a self-pity party or grow some ovaries and do something about it."....I'd take that any day over, "It's okay. Go ahead, cheat yourself and maybe you'll figure out how to still be a special snowflake and succeed."
ETA: the bolded quotes are what Adini said. I really wish MFP would change the quoting so that it would label who said what.
Because it made me roll my eyes. I'm not one of your students. Just because YOU perceive it as "mean, hostile, and insulting" doesn't automatically make it so.
Btw, I rolled my eyes at someone's sarcastic comment as I'm assuming they did not truly believe the post was "so encouraging."
The eye roll was at one person. The advice was to the OP.0 -
Meh. If I get into the red, I go work out for a bit.0
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Actually, I've devised a better solution.
When I see that I'm on the red, I immediately plan some form of cardio around the house: Wii Dance, Laundry, etc. It is clearly in proportion to the size of damage, but if the damage is under 200 calories, you have a chance to still fix it.
If it's greater than 200 calories in any one day then yes... you failed for that particular day. Do over tomorrow.0 -
Meh. If I get into the red, I go work out for a bit.
Well said!0 -
I've started logging what I plan to eat the night before in MFP. I don't always stick to it completely because things change, but it helps me determine what I can eat and what I should replace.
Also, I'd say don't limit yourself just based on what's in MFP. You can Google calories and add them on your own. If you restrict yourself completely and don't allow any leverage, you're more likely to slide.0 -
I go exercise more until they're gone, or admit I effed up and learn from it.
^^^This!!!0 -
I go exercise more until they're gone, or admit I effed up and learn from it.
Wish there was a way to exercise the sodium away. Usually my Red is due to 534534525234 mg of sodium because its so freaking hard to find anything that doesnt contain sodium.
Also pisses me off when I go to buy canned vegetables at the store and they add high fructose corn syrup to it. AND, if you want them to REMOVE the high fructose corn syrup.....it costs more. WTF?
I know this sounds kind of dumb or gross but to reduce sodium in my canned vegtables I replace the juice with water before I warm them, By the laws of osmosis or whatever it is the sodium leaves the vegables to even out with the waters sodium concentration, if you eat only the vegtables you really can reduce the sodium, They don't taste any different either. Also do the same with ham I get from the deli, I add it to a bowl of water and microwave, if you don't believe me just taste the Ham water after microwaving it, you can easily taste the salt that came out. Ham tastes fresher too IMO.
ETA: sorry no way to estimate just HOW much it reduces the content, so the red numbers will still be there, but at least you know yourself that it's at least a little better!0 -
it makes you work harder, red is so dam final.its like blood and death.
Right! I've changed my meals around because of this. I know I like to eat a lot at night so I eat a nice breakfast, a light lunch, and then my dinner isn't a big deal and the red numbers disappear.0
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