Read my diary! (another "am i doing something wrong" post

pinkandloopy
pinkandloopy Posts: 77
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Yes, I know there are many but please help! Maybe a little premature as my weigh in day not til Sunday but I feel week to week like I'm doing everything right but nothing seems to be happening. I've only been losing weight for 6 weeks so seems a bit soon to have plateud ( can't spell, sorry).
My first week, I lost nothing, second week only 1 ib, wk3 I lost 4lbs (YEAH), wk 5, only .4 of a lb and last week I gained a 1lb. I know I'm very good at telling everyone else to chill out and wait and see, but I'd be interested if someone would view my diary and see if there's something really obviously wrong that I'm just not seeing.
I'm using diet chef but pretty unimpressed with meal choices ( don't eat meat) and delivery so won't be using them again but have about 3 weeks worth of food to eat: instead of the snack bars, I requested, they sent me numerous "cookies": they are oat based and pretty healthy but I wouldn't normally eat so many.

Replies

  • xojox
    xojox Posts: 187 Member
    i hate doing this as it feels like i'm bein mean!! but have you looked at how much sugar you're having.

    I always feel a bit *bluegh* if i have too much sugar, and a lot of these meal replacement plans actually have quite a high portion of it.

    Just an idea, cos otherwise it looks quite good x
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    thanks...actually I'm really careful about sugar. don't particularly like sweet things and apart from my one cup of coffee a day ( 1 brown sugar), I don't add sugar to anything and don't eat processed food. I rarely eat the shakes as they don't fill me up and as i'm vegetarian, I can make a pretty decent, filling meal for the same amount of calories but I'll give them up..amd maybe those damn cookies that I don't even really like and see what happens.
    Don't feel mean....when you ask non biased strangers to examine what you eat...you expect the no holds barred truth :smile:
  • fitgirl4life
    fitgirl4life Posts: 111 Member
    Hello! I'm also U.K. based so feel free to add me as a friend :wink:

    I had a look at your diary, just Sunday to Wednesday from this week. From what I can see your "Remaining" calories are anywhere from 200-600 for the day....to me that is a lot remaining, seems like you are under-eating. Remember that MFP already calculated a deficit for you. You're deficit might be around 400-500 calories a day already, so when you have 600 remaining, you are actually depriving yourself of over 1000 calories a day! That is a sure way to make your body hold on to all those calories you do put in!

    How about adding some trail mix/mixed nuts and dried fruit for a snack? They are packed with healthy fats and calories, so it's an easy way to add calories to your day.

    I try to limit my "Remaining Calories" to under 100/day. Even if I go over by 50 calories/day, I know I still have a deficit. You can find out your daily calculated deficit by looking at your "Goal" page, on the right hand side. Hope this helps :smile:
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    i hate doing this as it feels like i'm bein mean!! but have you looked at how much sugar you're having.

    I always feel a bit *bluegh* if i have too much sugar, and a lot of these meal replacement plans actually have quite a high portion of it.

    Just an idea, cos otherwise it looks quite good x

    OMG: thank you!! I'm so pious about my low sugar habits, i never even thought to track it. I've JUST added it to my tracked nutrients and looked back at the last few days and each day I've been over. You see...sometimes you really can't see what's in front of you. Think I'll bin those cookies, shakes and yoghurts. feel quite stupid now :blushing:
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    Hello! I'm also U.K. based so feel free to add me as a friend :wink:

    I had a look at your diary, just Sunday to Wednesday from this week. From what I can see your "Remaining" calories are anywhere from 200-600 for the day....to me that is a lot remaining, seems like you are under-eating. Remember that MFP already calculated a deficit for you. You're deficit might be around 400-500 calories a day already, so when you have 600 remaining, you are actually depriving yourself of over 1000 calories a day! That is a sure way to make your body hold on to all those calories you do put in!

    How about adding some trail mix/mixed nuts and dried fruit for a snack? They are packed with healthy fats and calories, so it's an easy way to add calories to your day.

    I try to limit my "Remaining Calories" to under 100/day. Even if I go over by 50 calories/day, I know I still have a deficit. You can find out your daily calculated deficit by looking at your "Goal" page, on the right hand side. Hope this helps :smile:

    thanks..most of my remaining calories are from exercise so I try not to eat them. Before I started "dieting", i hardly ate anything and realise now that I was probably eating around 800/900 cals a day so getting up to 1500 has been quite a struggle. I still can't quite believe that I have to eat so much more to lose weight. I'm really shocked that I've been eating so much sugar ( sure its more than before!) so I'm going to stop that now and will see what happens before I psych myself up for eating even more,lol... I don't eat meat and I have problems digesting wheat and dairy so its quite difficult to add extra calories; nuts, nust and more nuts?
  • balfonso
    balfonso Posts: 370 Member
    Hi pinkandloopy

    Just had a peek and looks like you're not drinking enough water, especially on the days where you have had a high volume of sodium. So perhaps lower the amount of sodium in your food otherwise, drink lots of water! If I know I've got a high sodium intake for the day, I make sure I have more than 8 glasses of water. :smile:
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    Hi pinkandloopy

    Just had a peek and looks like you're not drinking enough water, especially on the days where you have had a high volume of sodium. So perhaps lower the amount of sodium in your food otherwise, drink lots of water! If I know I've got a high sodium intake, I make sure I have more than 8 glasses of water. :smile:

    oops...actually I drink loads and loads...just not good at adding it. i checked my sodium and it always seems to say I have loads "remaining" but will keep an eye on it, thanks...off to get another glass (my 5th of the day!) right now :wink:
  • dealer
    dealer Posts: 3
    Some good answers here. Where MFP has helped me is seeing exactly where I am with my calories, as I tended to undereat then felt hungry the next day.

    Also I found that I initially lost weight very quickly, it then slowed right up and I actually gained some weight. This was simply to do with starting to exercise a lot (I had been very sedentary) and putting on muscle mass.

    Your mileage may vary, but eat sensibly, drink water, do exercise in moderation (hmm...should say that one to myself as I sit here with a sore achille tendon!) and the weight will come off.

    Oh one last thing that helps me, dont weigh yourself all the time!

    Take Care,

    Dean
  • rodney73
    rodney73 Posts: 15
    Gosh I just added sugar and I am over every day I have been dieting.........WOW I thought I was being careful
  • ProTFitness
    ProTFitness Posts: 1,379 Member
    As a professional it looks like you may not be getting enough of the right calories......To little food/ calories can be just as bad as to much food/ calories
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    Gosh I just added sugar and I am over every day I have been dieting.........WOW I thought I was being careful



    scary huh?
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    THANK YOU so much..all of you. I'm so glad I posted now. I'm so ****** full of myself most of the time and genuinely convinced I eat well and healthily when the big fat truth is screaming at me from the mirror :laugh:
    I will take on board everything that's been said (anyone want a month's supply of diet chef :tongue: ) and see what happens. Actually knowing exactly what I'm doing wrong is sure to help...and now I should probably do some work. I look after gorgeouss 11 month old twins who are both sleeping....and have been for almost an hour!! this is almost unprecedented and the first time in about 2 weeks...they must have known I needed to do something. I was going to make pancakes for their big brother as I feel guilty if I'm doing nothing but there was no flour...a sign.
    thanks again :love:
  • Holton
    Holton Posts: 1,018
    Too much sugar and absolutely no vegetables of any sort to speak of scream out to me. Vegetables are very nutritional, fueling, filling, and work wonders on your digestive system. Would definitely seek to add more fresh vegetables.
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
    I noticed that there weren't many fruits and veggies. They say you should be getting 5 - 10 servings a day. You aren't meeting the minimum. Although you say you don't eat a lot of processed foods, what do you think the oat biscuits, soup and diet chef meals are?

    You would do a lot better having a salad with grilled chicken for lunch and lots of veggies with 4 oz of protein for dinner. This would be lower on sodium, sugar and better on taste.

    Good luck, this is all a learning process for us
  • abricklin
    abricklin Posts: 156 Member
    some good responses already but the trend I have noticed is a lot of "quick add calories" and a few items that include calories but ZEROS across the board for carbs, sodium, protein, fat. Thats impossible. Thus, your "final numbers" are really inaccurate and you and we cannot get an accurate picture.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    The biggest thing I noticed is a lack of enough protein. MFP already sets protein on the low end and you are not even coming close to the amount suggested. Try adding beans, lentils, nuts, nut butters, tofu, tempeh, more mild in increase your protein consumption. If you are working out your body needs protein to help repair the muscles.
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    Too much sugar and absolutely no vegetables of any sort to speak of scream out to me. Vegetables are very nutritional, fueling, filling, and work wonders on your digestive system. Would definitely seek to add more fresh vegetables.

    anything added as quick calories are vegetables and salad!! I'm vegetarian so if I had to count every bean of leaf of spinach I ate to log them, I'd go crazy. So far this week, I've eaten 2 heads of broccoli, 3 packets of green beans, 2 packets of asparagus, 3 bags of spinach, 2 lettuces, 2 cucumbers and a punnet of tomatoes...along with half a dozen bananas, 2 punnets of strawberries, 3 mangoes and almost half a watermelon.
    obviously when I was writing my diary i hadn't planned on it being public and as I knew what the quick cals were, I didn't worry about it.
  • MzBug
    MzBug Posts: 2,173 Member
    Good job on the small meals/snacks to keep the metabolism going! My 2 cents worth... not enough protein, not enough water, not enough vegies, to many bananas and processed sugars.

    I understand about the "100 cal" entries being vegies, but it is important to log the vegies individually for the nutritional information. If you have a particular mix of vegies that you use daily, make it an entry under the My Foods so you can pop it in the log instead of entering every thing every time. Try to stay away from the processed stuff. There are yogurts out there that are lower in sugar than the ones you have been using. If all else fails you can get the plain and add fruit and sweetner to it yourself. Change up your fruits, google the lower sugar varieties... bananas are very high sugar (maybe 1-2 a week).

    Diet Chef won't always be there! From my experience when you avoid the processed foods you get to eat MORE (volume wise) in fresh foods. I have a hard time getting to the 1200 cal per day eatting the fresh food!



    You are on the right track. You can do it!
  • pinkandloopy
    pinkandloopy Posts: 77
    Thanks..for what it's worth i DID say in my original post that I was STOPPING diet chef and that I wasn't in the habit of eating ready meals or biscuits prior to starting it. Get the impression that everyone IGNORED that and dived straight in to tell me what a muppet I am :explode:
    I've never eaten very much, I have a small appetite and I think I was so focused on using up all my calories that I lost sight of what to eat. I've found myself eating yoghurts that I find too sweet, and oat cookies at the end of the day just to boost my calorie intake when i just can't eat anymore food.
    I have now closed my diary and I'm off to lick my wounded pride for a day or two.
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
    When you ask for advice, please don't be offended if you get it. It is hard to tell in the written word what the "tone of voice" is. :flowerforyou:
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