Have I been eating at "maintenance" all along?

jwdieter · January 2014

I was logging 1 med apple when I'd have my apple...in reality, my apples are around 200g (from Costco).

I ate a costco apple a few days ago - 321g. Was double the cals of my regular apple entry. Some bfa's there.

liloldDee · January 2014

Hi there, can I ask what your eating was like in the run up to you starting the diet? Is it possible that you were over eating quiet a but as this was the Christmas period? You may have gained weight for this time that showed up on the scales after your start day. At the moment what is your calorie deficit, how much have you set to lose per week?

Sweetface421 · January 2014

I was eating pretty much the same but not measuring or weighing anything. If anything, when I started paying attention to what I was eating, I realized that I was snacking more in the afternoons, after 2PM so I cut that out, as well as started weighing and measuring my portions.
I got rid of my scale last year. But over the past year or more, I have been to the doctor for various reasons, most recently in December, right before I started this latest weight loss attempt. Every time I am weighed, It is between 164-165 lbs. It never changes.

heybales · January 2014

Again, are you WEIGHING your food? It doesn't look like you are actually weighing your food on a scale, based on the few days I spot checked your diary. Measuring cups don't work for non liquid ingredients.

Yes, I use measuring cups for food items that require measuring and weigh food items that need to weighed.
For example, I measure cooked rice or cooking oil in a measuring cup but I WEIGH a slice of turkey. Is that incorrect?

Actually is not best method.

Does rice expand differently depending on amount of water absorbed and length of time cooked?

You weigh the rice uncooked and use the nutrition label for info on weighed serving - even if they give a measurement for ease of use, that's not as accurate.

Shoot, look at just the packaged items you may use. Perhaps even in a recipe.

You may use the package that weighs 16 oz. It may say serving size is 1.8 oz (probably grams though) and "about 8 servings" in the package.
But there is actually 8.9 servings per package, and if this was 150 cal per serving, even if you don't eat all 8 servings because part of recipe - you just ate more than stated.
Do that with several items in a recipe, and do your own measuring of a serving rather than weighing it out, you could be way off.

The calories is based on weight - you gotta have weight.
Measuring is for liquids where there is no variation possible from the weight the nutrition label is based on to the measuring you do with it.

WalkingAlong · January 2014

I was logging 1 med apple when I'd have my apple...in reality, my apples are around 200g (from Costco).

I ate a costco apple a few days ago - 321g. Was double the cals of my regular apple entry. Some bfa's there.

LOL@BFAs. I'm curious- was 321g the entire apple or was that cored?

lmarshel · January 2014

Sounds like you have it all under control...you're doing everything exactly right. Carry on!:drinker:

Sweetface421 · January 2014

I don't think I'm doing everything exactly right. That's why I asked for advice. I think that the people who responded gave me great advice and I intend to explore the information and adjust my diet accordingly to see if there is any change.

gigglesinthesun · January 2014

I was under the impression that a diet reset work under the following scenario: a heavily overweight person diets on 1200-1500 cals for months and months and loses quite a bit of weight, but eventually it stops. In that scenario the person will increase their calories for a period to re-feed, before cutting again to lose again.

For someone who has been eating the same calories for a year and they haven't lost anything what success is a diet reset going to bring?

Chances are that in a stressful environment of custody issues and running your own business etc etc there is something that is getting missed. It could be that your TDEE isn't as high as you assume (or as the calculators assume) due to unrecognised medical issues or whatever. It could be that you are simply missing something in your counting.

For example:

there aren't a lot of fruit and vegetables logged and the one you do log are in cup measure and not weighed

your breakfast sausages are listed at 1oz, that is very little for a sausage. Also it is listed as the cooked weight where as it is more accurate if you use the uncooked weight for meat. You also have a fried egg logged as one entry, but no oil to fry it in. Now did you make that entry for fried egg yourself and are you always using the same amount of oil to fry it in.

you have a 0.5 serving of a breakfast bruschetta - avocado logged for 41 calories. Just how small is this serving, because avocado is not exactly low calorie and neither is bruschetta.

Do you have any coffees, teas, alcohol, juices? Any supplements?

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/

Sweetface421 · January 2014

I haven't necessarily been eating the SAME calories for a year. I've just noticed that I've been at the same weight for a very long time and it didn't matter if I worked out really hard or didn't, or if I was eating under or right to my MFP calories, I hadn't experienced any weight loss for 25 days. So I wondered if maybe, all this time I had been eating below my BMR, I had been eating at a "false maintenance" level and need to figure out how to get my body to adapt to a higher caloric level so that I can eventually start eating at a lower calorie level, lose weight and not have a hellish maintenance level of eating once I reach my goal weight.

I don't fry in oil, I have non-stick pans. I don't fry bacon either, I cook it in the microwave on paper towels, which soaks up all the bacon grease.
I have been weighing meats after cooking, not before. Except for deli meats. I did not realize that I should weigh it uncooked.
For items such as berries, salad greens & vegetables, I have been using measuring cups. For fruits, such as apples & pears, I've been counting them either as a whole or by the slice, using the MFP database. I should weigh those, I'm guessing.
The avocado bruschetta is homemade, using an avocado, lime juice, salt & Italian parsley. I imported the recipe into the Recipe Builder to compute the calories. I measure out my less-than-a-tablespoon portion and use it as a spread on crackers & sandwiches.
I don't drink coffee or juice. I usually just drink water with lemon in it and I'll have a Diet Dr. Pepper once a day. I've cut down on those quite a bit! When I drink tea, I drink hot green tea, and when I put honey in it, I log it. I just haven't had any green tea in the last month. I haven't had an alcoholic drink since I started this weight loss attempt.
No, I'm not taking any supplements.

Thanks!

Have I been eating at "maintenance" all along?

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