Frustrated, even furious
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If you go to the recipe section of your food diary, all you have to do is add all of the ingredients & set it for how many servings are in the recipe, then you log how many servings you had & it will calculate the calories for you......0
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Keep in mind some people on here are rude. Ignore it.
It is good to track your calories. I hated the idea of doing that. But, once I started, it does not take that much time and it is a great guide for seeing when I can eat more than I thought I could. Those are the satiated moments I cherish. On days when I know I have gone over my calorie goal, the next day I reduce my calorie intake. It helps balance things on a weekly basis. You might just stop with the scale for while. The scale is not your friend.
On the other hand, I have been trying to tell myself that hunger must become a friend for life, because I don't know how I will get my weight off without getting intimate with hunger, intimate enough to defeat it.
People who age gracefully are always light eaters.
Good luck on your journey.0 -
I have found that with the many cooked-from-scratch foods I eat it is simply not practical to calculate how may calories my portion represents. I don't eat food that comes from labeled packages and for me it would just take way, way to long to figure out exactly how many calories a certain bite has.
I guess then the oblivious answer is.... You really do not want it badly enough.0 -
On the other hand, I have been trying to tell myself that hunger must become a friend for life, because I don't know how I will get my weight off without getting intimate with hunger, intimate enough to defeat it.
People who age gracefully are always light eaters.
:noway:
Can you back that claim up?0 -
On the other hand, I have been trying to tell myself that hunger must become a friend for life, because I don't know how I will get my weight off without getting intimate with hunger, intimate enough to defeat it.
People who age gracefully are always light eaters.
:noway:
Can you back that claim up?
Lol. My thoughts exactly.0 -
Yes HOLLAR for me too! i too have had fibroids and it seems they are gone since non surgical tx. The good diet is part of keeping them gone from what i gather.
I too some days get frustrated especially when you cook from scratch and ha'vnt planned aheadgotta have those half done but fresh meals in fridge ready to go all the dang time), you got minutes till the next appointment, need still to work out that day etc!!!!!!
But then i breath remember that I couldnt breath at first and how uncomfortable my big belly is how my clothes dont fit and most important.... a big belly gets in the way of sex LOL.... so
Lets just hollar out loud stomp our feet a little and then laugh and go on!!!! Make it a great Day!0 -
Keep in mind some people on here are rude. Ignore it.
It is good to track your calories. I hated the idea of doing that. But, once I started, it does not take that much time and it is a great guide for seeing when I can eat more than I thought I could. Those are the satiated moments I cherish. On days when I know I have gone over my calorie goal, the next day I reduce my calorie intake. It helps balance things on a weekly basis. You might just stop with the scale for while. The scale is not your friend.
On the other hand, I have been trying to tell myself that hunger must become a friend for life, because I don't know how I will get my weight off without getting intimate with hunger, intimate enough to defeat it.
People who age gracefully are always light eaters.
Good luck on your journey.
Agreed! How rude is it of some people to come onto a calorie counting, health and fitness website, to ask a board for advice because what they are doing isn't working anymore, and then complain that they are telling you to do what the website was built for, with the experience that it has worked for them, and assert that they are special snowflakes that must not be treated in this manner? Rude. :noway:
As for light eaters...um, no. Just no. You can decide you will live your life perpetually hungry, unfulfilled, and in an adversarial relationship with food. That doesn't mean that everyone else needs that hangup. My neigbor was a tiny 69 year old, she'd been a health nut for most of her life, from So Cal. She ate like a bird. That's how she was taught to eat at the time she was a child. She sure was thin and petite. She also needed help bringing her groceries in from the car, couldn't clean her own floors, her hair was falling out, and she had horrible skin. I treated her often in the winter for bronchitis and pneumonia, and no matter how many immunoboosters I gave her, she was always sick somehow. She had no muscle. She was a sad sight in Northern Minnesota, with our 7mo winters. It all came to a head when she slipped on the ice and broke both wrists. Her bones were like swiss cheese.
She ended up moving into a retirement home. At 70. I wouldn't call that aging gracefully.
Food doesn't have to be the enemy.
I don't think you fully read the OPs responses. She doesn't want to do anything but eat and lose weight.0 -
As for light eaters...um, no. Just no. You can decide you will live your life perpetually hungry, unfulfilled, and in an adversarial relationship with food......
Food doesn't have to be the enemy.
^^^This - Right on
There always will be a large contingent of people here that don't eat a lot. You hear this message enough, and you start seeing posts that say "Why I am not losing?".
I am losing weight (and preserving as much of my lean muscle mass as possible) eating a good number of calories (I net between 1600 and 2000 on any given day).
Here is a story that I like to see more of!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1068478-don-t-quit-ever0 -
I have found that with the many cooked-from-scratch foods I eat it is simply not practical to calculate how may calories my portion represents. I don't eat food that comes from labeled packages and for me it would just take way, way to long to figure out exactly how many calories a certain bite has.
All you have to do is put the list of ingredients in your recipes in the recipe list. It will calculate the calories and every other nutrient for you. It takes about 5 minutes to put in a recipe. You only have to do it once and it it's there. Unless EVERY meal you eat EVERY single day is a BRAND NEW from scratch recipe the time is negligible. It sounds to me like you are making excuses not to make any changes. It what you are doing doesn't work for you, and you choose not try something different that is out of your comfort zone, then you must accept the results you get and continue to be upset and furious. You choose.0 -
I don't understand why everyone is assuming she eats 900-1200 calories when she is not counting calories? Why assume the worst? I don't think 900 calories was ever mentioned by the OP.I do lose when I am eating less (I think that normally I eat anywhere from 900-1200 calories)
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Thank you! I don't know how I missed that. Although she did also say she doesn't count calories and could be underestimating this.
OP, perhaps a good compromise would be to track for a couple of days meticulously to get a good idea of how much you are actually eating and then go back to not counting once you know with greater certainty where you stand?0 -
To be honest with you, everything that I have read here, particularly the habit of daily calorie logging and the belief that unless you know every little number attached to every little bite - you are on your way to anorexia, metabolic shut down, getting morbidly obese, or even death ...sounds like a clear prescription for weight-related obsession.
As you can see, I come to this forum very rarely because I don't care about THINKING of my weight loss every day. So I am not sure who is closer to "obsessive behavior". Neither do I have epic goals related to weight loss, lookin' good, breaking the weight bars at the gym, working out "truly intensively" as opposed to "intensively"... or acquiring Madonna type arms.
I mentioned the two pounds that come back up because I noticed this is what happens every time I eat a bit more - and it is indeed very annoying.
Maybe that IS water after all, as some mentioned. I will see next week when I weigh in.
Have you considered that your starved overworked body will struggle to put on muscle until you eat more? Maybe the 2lb increase is muscle increase to help your body cope with the intensive workouts0 -
I can't believe this thread is still going on. This OP isn't ready to change anything.
OP, We'll be here when you're ready to try.0 -
logging your calories, if even for just a month, isn't obsessive, it's a learning tool, and it works. it takes the mystery out of weight loss, and if i read your question correctly, that is basically what you are looking to do: take the mystery out of weight loss.
if you want to understand the relationship between food, your body and your weight, then track your meals, your exercise, and weigh yourself regularly until you actually do understand it. but by all means, if you want to stay in the dark and wonder and starve yourself, ignore every person on this site who has found success by logging their calories on a daily basis.0 -
I can't believe this thread is still going on. This OP isn't ready to change anything.
OP, We'll be here when you're ready to try.
^This. Hopefully she'll take a few days to process all the information & find something that works for her. I hope she understands that nobody here is trying to make her look or feel bad, that there's a certain level of frustration when somebody asks for help & then shoots down every single thing suggested to her. I also hope that when she's really ready to give things a try she comes back on the forum & asks for help, there are plenty of people here who are more than happy to share their experiences in the hopes of helping. Not everything works for everybody, but there are enough varied responses that she should be able to find something that works.0 -
Sorry to revive this thread, but first I just wanted to say thank you to all those who have been supportive and have also sent some very informative private mail. I also wanted to add that I did another food log trial today to regain perspective, just in case my stomach was completely off the mark. It wasn't really, definitely not by much.
I also used this calculator:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
...to figure out caloric needs and I got: 2061 for maintenance, 1649 for fat loss and 1320 for extreme fat loss.
My food diary today got me at around 1200 calories, maybe a bit over. So there - you got a log!
I will be honest with you again though - it took me for ALL ETERNITY (that is, at least 30 minutes) to enter and approximate each and every little bite I grazed on throughout the day. I tend to be a grazer, sometimes sneaking in very little snacks between meals that obviously add up and cannot be ignored (things like 4 almonds, or a little piece of watermelon, or four little lentil chips, or a slice of turkey breast right out of the fridge, etc)... probably because I always try to keep portions small during main meals and then, well - I am hungry.
This business obviously involves owning a digital food scale as well because it doesn't help knowing the calorie content if you don't know exactly the actual weight of the food you just ingested.
Today, around 1200 or maybe more calories, I was not hungry throughout the day - but I AM now!! (then again, right now I just need to get my behind to bed).
However, I know there have been days when I was eating less than today so on those I was under 1200 which is obviously neither necessary nor indicated.
Many of you were right that I probably need to allow for a bit of extra caloric intake in exchange of a slower rate of weight loss. But my recent weight loss rate has been nothing to write home about anyway - but this was maybe because of that thermogenesis state my body may have gotten into after 3 months of general deficit.
I AM tempted of going into a "maintenance" period and just eat more generally, but I got so used to controlling portions and keeping them dainty that this kind of bothers me. It is very easy for me to work my appetite back up to gigantic levels; plus portion control has worked so well for me so far (I have, after all, lost almost 30 pounds since May) that I am really reluctant to start "going to town" with my eating.
Then again, my weight loss rate has been slowing down significantly even at this tight caloric intake...so go figure.
I will try to increase to around 1350 or so (which is what the calculator says should be my "extreme fat loss" level)...and I'll see what happens.
Thanks a lot again!0 -
It would be a good idea to increase into the level the calculator is giving you, your body needs the fuel. Try it for more than a week or 2 so your body has a chance to adjust & see how it goes from there. Remember, you don't need to calculate every bite, add entire recipes & list how many servings are in it & the site will do the math for you when you add it to your diary. If you take a little time now & add your most commonly used recipes, they will be there for future use & the process will go faster. Also, jump on & log a few times a day, it's but a couple of minutes each time instead of a half hour to list the whole day plus you're less likely to forget those nibbles throughout the day.....
We ARE rooting for you & hope you find the success you're looking for......0 -
There's got to be a way to continue to lose weight without calculating every bit that enter my mouth every day.
Sure it's possible, but few of us have the self-control, body awareness, nutritional knowledge and honesty in the right combination to make it work.0 -
There's got to be a way to continue to lose weight without calculating every bit that enter my mouth every day.
Sure it's possible, but few of us have the self-control, body awareness, nutritional knowledge and honesty in the right combination to make it work.
This is very true IF you let yourself completely lose and simply eat as much as you can go for, which is what people who are not into conscious maintenance or weight loss do. Let's face it, most of us today are surrounded by lots of different foods, many with strong, addictive, extra-delicious taste - so it is very easy to NOT listen to the stomach when "he" says "OK, I am full enough now", and just continue to eat for pleasure. To me, it is surreal what huge portion sizes some restaurants serve today.
It's like they are on somekind of mass extermination program or something. Unless you becomne aware that you only need to eat 1/4 or less of that portion at one seating...you can easily overeat because the food IS tasty.
Not healthy, but definitely tasty and attractive.
HOWEVER, I found that as long as I remain aware and in relative control, merely listening to my stomach trypically works.
IT IS helpful to log for a few days, especially the foods most frequently consumed, just to be able to memorize the calories of different foods. For example, I found I was quite a bit off on watermelon - which I had been treated as a low calorie food when it is actually not that low because of all that sugar; so I was surprised to see it had more calories than I thought it had.
I still need a food scale because I am very fuzzy on how much an oz of anything is, so I might still be overestimating my daily caloric intake because I tend to make tiny portions, and then I record 1 oz when it's actually not an oz but much less.
I just still don't know what an oz actually is, especially having grown up in a country that has no clues about oz-es. Granted, I have never been able to guestimate grams either...so I need a food scale!
I will report back periodically - thanks everyone.0 -
I will try to increase to around 1350 or so (which is what the calculator says should be my "extreme fat loss" level)...and I'll see what happens.
Considering your photo you have posted, you don't need to be doing extreme fat loss, and that could actually be limiting your weight loss (especially since you've said you do some intense workouts most days).
This is an interesting read:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
If I were you, I'd aim for 1650, especially since you're hungry all the time. Eat larger meals throughout the day and possibly more substantial snacks too.0 -
Read most of the thread. Here are my thoughts
1. If you logged 1200 calories eaten, how many did you burn through exercise? You're probably netting less than 1000?
2. Give us a run down of what you eat in a typical day. What do you do for exercise (run, walk, etc? How long?)
3. If logging calories is difficult for you because you graze and just have a lot of small things to enter. Try something different. Try eating 5 or 6 small meals a day so your not grazing on 4 almonds here and a carrot stick there. Your hunger will probably be a LOT more controlled.
4. If sitting down at the computer every night and logging all your food takes to much time, keep a notebook on the counter or your desk and write stuff down. If you still want to enter it in the computer then at night, it will probably be easier. Or, there's almost apps for phones.
5. Maybe you could create a recurring weekly or daily meal plan and just eat from that so that you always know what calories your consuming. Just rotate it out for variety? Or look up the calories for each of your recipes at one time and just refer back to it when you need to log.
6. You mentioned your not from America. I'm assuming the dishes you're making from scratch are native to your culture (I don't think you said what it is). Are you using a lot of sauces or butter or oils in your cooking that you may not be realizing need to be counted?
7. Are you counting your drinks? If they need to be counted?
**Regarding the hunger. I'm trying Chris Powell's carb cycling right now (which ecentially is just reducing calories for me, since I haven't followed it to a T). Because of that, I've started eating 5 small meals a day. I am actually feeling hunger now and it's amazing because as soon as I feel hunger I look at the clock and BAM, it's time to eat! Yay!. I've been doing this less than a week but have lost 5lbs so far. I know some of that is probably water weight. But I'm not new to dieting and watching what I eat, so starting this for me is not like someone starting from scratch who loses a ton of weight from water.0
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