ANY HELP?

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE LOOK AT MY DIARY AND TELL ME WHERE I AM GOING WRONG.
I HAVE ACTUALLY GIVEN UP USING MFP NOW AND HAVE IN THE PAST.
I USED IT RELIGOUSLY FOR AGES, THEN GAVE UP, SINCE I THOUGHT I ROUGHLY KNEW
WHAT TO DO ETC, BUT MY WEIGHT WASNT COMING DOWN,
SO THEN I STARTED USING IT AGAIN A FEW WEEKS AGO AND MY WEIGHT HAS WENT UP!!!!!!!!
AM REALLY STARTING TO THINK WHATS THE POINT, I RUN 5-10K AT LEAST 3 TIMES A WEEK
AND HAVE UPED MY CALORIES TO 1400 THINKING I MAY HAVE BEEN EATING NOT ENOUGH.
ANY ADVICE I WOULD BE GRATEFUL
THANKS
FIONA

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    u dont log, so how can we comment?!

    i foudn one day where u ate 700 cals - starving yourself wont help - and one day u had only logged breakfast, how can anyoen comment on that?

    stick to it for at least a month, eat to your goal (within 50cals either way), log EVERYTHING, eat back your exercise calories, then come back if its 'not working'.
  • auntygill
    auntygill Posts: 108 Member
    Yes you must log else you wont know if you are eating over or under your calories .
  • AluminumKraken
    AluminumKraken Posts: 23 Member
    Only advice I have is maybe cutting back on the processed meals. I ran the report for Sept 1 - now, and a good 75% of your food is highly processed. Try cutting back on those (believe me, I understand convenience and all that, that's why I'm where I am, weight-wise), logging everything that you eat and drink, and keeping at it. Each time I start this, I typically end up gaining a bit in the first few weeks from the changes my body's going through.
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    THANKS,
    NO I HAVE STOPPED LOGGING AS I HAD BEEN BUT I WAS GETTING NOWHERE,
    SARAMB636 YEAH I DO EAT ALOT OF CONVENIENCE FOOD, BUT I DO MAKE SURE ITS ALL HEALTHY LOW FAT ETC, DO YOU THINK CUTTING THESE OUT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE??
    ON THE DAYS WHEN IM RUNNING, SHOULD I BE EATING ALL THE CALORIES BURNT?
    SURELY NOT EATING THEM IS BETTER THAN EATING RUBBISH JUST TO FILL THEM UP, ALSO CAN I SAVE THEM WEEKLY?? LIKE IF I DONT EAT 400 3 DAYS CAN I HAVE THEM AT THE WEEKEND OR AM I BEST JUST NOT TO DO THAT
  • Remember: It's a minimum or 1200 calories you should be having EVERYDAY! You can put your body into starvation mode (so weight GAIN!). It's great that you're out and about running, BUT if you are eating so few calories, you could be doing more harm than good.

    I recommend (with no knowledge of your physical condition, no medical knowledge and no awareness of your personal circumstances) to prepare your lunches or dinners for the week early, something tasty and healthy that will keep you going through the day. I tend to make soup (easy as tomato base, beans, carrot, celery - just go to the fruit and vegie section and pick out stuff that looks nice, its vegies so you can't really go wrong!) and separate it into different containers to take to work. This works well for me and I have only put back on the weight I lost because I got lazy (and super busy with exams and assignments with uni).

    Keep going at it, you CAN achieve the look and weight that you want :)
    Try and cut just ONE processed thing out a week - you have to start somewhere.

    Make sure you are eating (at least) the minimum amount of calories and remembering to drink water :)

    Start logging again, it can't hurt
    Take care xx
  • THANKS,
    NO I HAVE STOPPED LOGGING AS I HAD BEEN BUT I WAS GETTING NOWHERE,
    SARAMB636 YEAH I DO EAT ALOT OF CONVENIENCE FOOD, BUT I DO MAKE SURE ITS ALL HEALTHY LOW FAT ETC, DO YOU THINK CUTTING THESE OUT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE??
    ON THE DAYS WHEN IM RUNNING, SHOULD I BE EATING ALL THE CALORIES BURNT?
    SURELY NOT EATING THEM IS BETTER THAN EATING RUBBISH JUST TO FILL THEM UP, ALSO CAN I SAVE THEM WEEKLY?? LIKE IF I DONT EAT 400 3 DAYS CAN I HAVE THEM AT THE WEEKEND OR AM I BEST JUST NOT TO DO THAT

    Check out bbcgoodfood.com for healthy recipes. They take 30min or less to cook. It absolutely makes a difference what you eat. It doesn't help to 'save calories' for later because if you overindulge fat droplets will deposit themselves onto your adipose tissue within three hours (from the calories you didn't burn) this is according to a study done at Oxford university published health and fitness magazine August 2012. Calculate your BMR and TDEE. Eat at TDEE minus 20% for healthy weight loss. Don't drop below TDEE -20% because it isn't beneficial. Theres a free app called fitness nut that will calculate this and your macros for Yule customise MFP to the new calorie goal and your macros.
  • AluminumKraken
    AluminumKraken Posts: 23 Member
    I don't see how cutting out some of the processed foods could hurt. As far as eating the exercise calories, I know that after I work out at all, I definitely need to eat some of them back or I'm unbearable to be around, but some people don't need to eat them. I think that's more based on your preferences than anything. I see a lot of people on here eating back 50 or 75% of their exercise calories, and if you're burning 600 calories, eating a couple pieces of wheat toast, some peanut butter, and a banana will get you close to the 50% mark right there. I also don't know if you can 'save' calories for the weekend realistically (I'm still trying to stay close to my goal each day, lol). Maybe someone else can chime in regarding that. :-)
  • TinaOsborneRN
    TinaOsborneRN Posts: 73 Member
    You are welcome to join my Eat Clean: Lose Weight and Feel Great log to learn how to eat "clean". If you follow this way of eating, you will lost weight. It's basically very little processed foods, fruit, veggies, lean proteins, nuts and seeds. You should try it! Feel free to check out my diary as well.
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    Thanks,
    Yeah I guess i could try eating more homemade things, I am very busy (single mom, work full time, trying to fit in exercise, kids activities, housework) which Im sure some of you are, so i do take the easy way out!!!
    OK so i really need to just make sure i eat at least 1200 cals net, so i could actually eatt 1800 but burn 600 thats ok, but not eating 1300 say and burning 600!
    Thanks for all your comments I will start logging again and see what happens, i just feel I have hit a plateau for the last 3months :(
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    Check out bbcgoodfood.com for healthy recipes. They take 30min or less to cook. It absolutely makes a difference what you eat. It doesn't help to 'save calories' for later because if you overindulge fat droplets will deposit themselves onto your adipose tissue within three hours (from the calories you didn't burn) this is according to a study done at Oxford university published health and fitness magazine August 2012. Calculate your BMR and TDEE. Eat at TDEE minus 20% for healthy weight loss. Don't drop below TDEE -20% because it isn't beneficial. Theres a free app called fitness nut that will calculate this and your macros for Yule customise MFP to the new calorie goal and your macros.
    Im being thick what is TDEE??
  • krisiepoo
    krisiepoo Posts: 710 Member
    Thanks,
    Yeah I guess i could try eating more homemade things, I am very busy (single mom, work full time, trying to fit in exercise, kids activities, housework) which Im sure some of you are, so i do take the easy way out!!!
    OK so i really need to just make sure i eat at least 1200 cals net, so i could actually eatt 1800 but burn 600 thats ok, but not eating 1300 say and burning 600!
    Thanks for all your comments I will start logging again and see what happens, i just feel I have hit a plateau for the last 3months :(

    why are you stuck on the 1200 number? If you're only eating 1200 cals net, you might not be eating enough... I actually started losing weight when I upped my calories. You should figure out your TDEE and eat 15-20% below that. Not some arbitrary number from MFP.
  • krisiepoo
    krisiepoo Posts: 710 Member
    Check out bbcgoodfood.com for healthy recipes. They take 30min or less to cook. It absolutely makes a difference what you eat. It doesn't help to 'save calories' for later because if you overindulge fat droplets will deposit themselves onto your adipose tissue within three hours (from the calories you didn't burn) this is according to a study done at Oxford university published health and fitness magazine August 2012. Calculate your BMR and TDEE. Eat at TDEE minus 20% for healthy weight loss. Don't drop below TDEE -20% because it isn't beneficial. Theres a free app called fitness nut that will calculate this and your macros for Yule customise MFP to the new calorie goal and your macros.
    Im being thick what is TDEE??

    It's the number you burn from living + exercise. Check out "scoobys calculator" (google it). You enter in your stats, how much you work out and they'll giv eyou a number to eat. It's really worked for me and I'm eating more than ever
  • AluminumKraken
    AluminumKraken Posts: 23 Member
    Also, with being busy, make healthy meals ahead of time (when you've got the time), and freeze them to eat later on (if you have room). That way you have real, healthy meals that are almost as quick as the processed meals.
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    Thanks I will go look at the calculator now,
    its just what mfp told me to eat, but i did up it to 1400,
    I will check the calculator tho see what it says :) thanks for that

    Yeah sounds like a good idea, I could always do that at the weekends :) Thanks
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    Its saying I should eat 1964 cals a day to loose?? I presume at that number i eat that every day and dont think about taking off for my running??
    Wow looking at that then I was way undereating!
    Sorry for the questions
  • krisiepoo
    krisiepoo Posts: 710 Member
    Its saying I should eat 1964 cals a day to loose?? I presume at that number i eat that every day and dont think about taking off for my running??
    Wow looking at that then I was way undereating!
    Sorry for the questions

    Yes, if you put in how much exercise you do into the calculator then you eat that number everyday and don't take off for running. My caveat to that is, I put in modeate exerise 4-5 times a week but I have a 2+ hour long run some weekends and I up my cals a LOT on those days...

    I have seen MUCH more consistent weight loss when I have upped my cals. It seems counter productive to our ways of thinking, but it seriously works
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    thanks for all your advice folks just want to ask one last question,
    if i start eating the 1964 cals a day that the calculator told me,
    and am logging food on here, I wont be able to log my runs as
    it would then look like i was under eating, and the days im not running
    would look like im not lowering my cals at all so if anyone looked at my diary
    they would thinnk no much wonder im not loosing weight,
    does that make any sense??
  • krisiepoo
    krisiepoo Posts: 710 Member
    I log my runs under "notes" in the food diary. The cals aren't as important to me and I don't count the cals towards/against my daily allowance.

    That way I know what I'm running and how often but it doesn't affect/change my diary
  • fefe0201
    fefe0201 Posts: 49 Member
    I log my runs under "notes" in the food diary. The cals aren't as important to me and I don't count the cals towards/against my daily allowance.

    That way I know what I'm running and how often but it doesn't affect/change my diary

    Good advice thanks
    So I should change my cals to 1950 and just put my runs into notes, I'm kinda nervous about putting my cals up that much, seems to go against everything I thought was right, but I'm not doing well my way so willing to try anything :)
    Thanks Guys xxx
  • krisiepoo
    krisiepoo Posts: 710 Member
    I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what is working for me.

    I upped my cals to what I got from Scooby's calculator. On my long run days, i add another 500+ cals because I'm running for over 2 hours usually. So, I'm at 1880 calories/day plus extra on those long days.

    I add my exercises (I do Yoga on non-run days) into the notes section of the food section so I know what exercises I'm doing and for how long.

    Since doing this, I have lost a steady 1 pound/week. Remember, that by running/lifting you are damaging your muscles (in a good way) and they will retain water to repair themselves so you might see gains periodically but if you've been following your cals, you'll know its just water weight. I don't weigh myself for 2 days after my long runs because it deflates me.