Did I even eat bad before?

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ZacFields
ZacFields Posts: 62 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all,

The only thing that is making me nervous about this MFP program is how easy it seems to be for me to stay below my daily calorie limit. I'm beginning to wonder if I ever really at badly at all and thus, maybe I won't be successful losing weight simply by eating less.

I just got through putting in my breakfast and what I plan to eat for lunch. Here are the results:

Breakfast
- 1 packet Quaker Apples and Cinnamon Oatmeal

Lunch
- 1 Turkey pastrami sandwich with a slice of American cheese, Miracle Whip mayo, and mustard.
- 1 small bag (1.5oz I think) Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips.
- 1 small container of Mott's Cinnamon Applesauce

This should pretty much get me through to 5pm when I'll come home and have some dinner.

Total Calories in all of this: 690

I am 6'2" and weigh about 210 pounds. I am shooting to lose 1 pound per week (sedentary lifestyle) so my goal is roughly about 2,000 calories per day. So according to MFP, I've got to consume 1,320 calories when I get home this evening (or just to get to 1,500 calories I need to consume 810 calories.

The only difference between before trying to lose weight and now is that before, I'd go out for lunch about 2 times per week and consume about 800-900 calories, and my fiance and I would go out for dinner once or twice per week and consume anywhere from 1,000-1,500 calories. As far as daily food intake otherwise, I am fairly confident that I consumed around 2,000 calories or less most days anyway.

So my question to you all is: Are those two or three days per week where I was probably consuming 3,000+ calories really what has been keeping me at a higher weight? I am totally on board with this, but it just makes me a little nervous that I feel like I'm having to seek out extra foods to get me to 1,500 calories.

Replies

  • JodiS75
    JodiS75 Posts: 284
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    My completely uneductated, uninformed opinion :bigsmile: Eat more meals (snacks). Eat something within and hour of waking each morning (this is something I had to work to change). Eat a mid-morning and afternoon snack. That will help. Also, I read somewhere on here that if you eat more calories than your body can handle at once, you will store the leftovers as fat rather than your body spreading them out over time. Made sense to me.....
  • TracieJ65
    TracieJ65 Posts: 645 Member
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    Correct Modischultz, but I am speaking just from my humble 11 month experience. ZacFields your metabolism is probably working very slow because you are not consuming something every 2-3 hours. It doesn't have to be something huge, but just a snack in between each of those meals. Your metabolism works a lot better, and faster then. Also, I would venture a guess that your sodium intake is pretty high and if you track that, as well, and drink water, you will probably see a little difference in not only how you feel but the weight coming off. Sodium is something that I was consuming a heck of a lot of! Unintentionally as I thought I was doing well not "salting" things, but some of the processes foods that I was eating was LOADED with sodium.
  • ashleyreagan
    ashleyreagan Posts: 1
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    When I started I realized I wasn't eating ENOUGH calories and my body was in starvation mode most of the time, lowering my metabolic rate and storing everything it consumed. Since I've started eating more (healthy foods of course) I've been able to lose.
  • shawnspo111
    shawnspo111 Posts: 1
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    Two things that I would throw out there for you is...1. I realize you are trying to lose weight but your breakfast is really, really small. I am assuming that you are working out and if that is all your are eating in the morning your body is probably starving. For you to be successful in weight loss you have to fuel your body properly. The better your body is fueled the more efficient it will be. Anyone that I try to help lose weight I always tell them to try and taper their calories through out the day. Bigger breakfast, medium lunch and a smaller dinner. In general most people are more active through out the day and then less active at night. I know it's hard but you really have to try to get to your calorie goal. You might try adding a couple small snacks between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner to help. 2. As far as your eating habits before...just remember it only takes a calorie differential of 3,500 to lose or gain a pound. You said that you would go out 1 or 2 days for lunch and 1 or 2 days for dinner. I'm guessing sometimes those days were on the same day and sometimes they weren't. So you probably averaged 3-4 days of excess calories. If you are talking about 3 days of at least 1,000 extra calories then you are right at adding a pound per week (most likely fat). Over time that really adds up. Weight gain usually doesn't happen over night it happens gradually until we look at ourselves in the mirror and realize we have gained 20 pounds over the course of 5 or 6 years.

    Just my 2 cents.
  • Loseittoo
    Loseittoo Posts: 74 Member
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    Track your food. Everyday every meal.
    Make sure you weigh portions. Do you have a digtal food scale?

    Next yes your eating out coukd very well be where your weight gain has been coming from. What you think is a 800 calorie meal could very well be 1500 or more calories.

    As you track your food over a period of weeks you will see how bad your really did caloric wise. The first month is a very educational month. You will look back and see you were eating way more than you think.

    This works. Just track your food and eat well. Change your life for the good and for the long term.
  • alantin
    alantin Posts: 621 Member
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    So my question to you all is: Are those two or three days per week where I was probably consuming 3,000+ calories really what has been keeping me at a higher weight?

    It could easily be. Weight creeps on you. If you otherwise ate perfect maintenance diet but got only 100 Kcal too much each day, you'd gain about 0.9 pounds in a month. Barely noticeable? 10.4 pounds in a year.
    Do that for ten years.. Twenty..
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    do I think it's those days out? Not specifically. I think it's more that you are eating way under what you should be on the other days. (I'm assuming that your 600 some odd calories plus your dinner calories is adding up to somewhere between 1200 and 1600 calories total).

    I also am a 6'2" male (I was 33 when I started trying to lose weight) and I was relatively active and weighed 235 when I started, just slightly into the obese category). Even with that as my baseline, my calories (before exercise) every day were about 1850, add exercise and I was always over 2000 to start. Within 6 months I was down to 200 lbs even, and at that point I was eating about 2400 calories before exercise (and yes, I always ate my exercise calories). Remember, you can't be 20 lbs from goal and still try to have a 2 lb per week weight loss. By the time I was 190, my deficit was 200 calories, and it took me 3 more months to lose the last 10 lbs or so (something like that, I forget exactly off the top of my head, but it was far longer).

    The main difference for me was I was extremely strict for the first 4 months or so. Once I got to a point where I felt I could trust myself to eat out with the wife and still eat relatively healthy, I loosened up the reigns a little, but you have to put limits on yourself. I planned out my calories days in advanced, I went shopping (not relying on my wife to pick out my foods is important to me), I bagged foods on Sunday (our shopping day) for the week so I'd always have snacks at the ready, I spaced out my meals so I was never really hungry. I bought a food scale and measured my portions, I bought whole wheat products instead of white flour. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's really only 2 or 3 hours a week of extra preparation, the rest is all will power and mental strength.
  • ZacFields
    ZacFields Posts: 62 Member
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    Thank you all for the tips!

    Part of the "problem" I think is that I recently found out my cholesterol is too high so I've been slowly changing my habits over the last three weeks before starting MFP yesterday. If I think back to what I was eating before, I can see where I might have had a little trouble trying to count calories back then.

    I remember doing weight-watchers once and having a really hard time staying under the 32 points I was supposed to be allowed daily - I don't know what that equates to in calories but maybe I was eating worse before than I thought.

    I took the advice I got from many of you and traded my oatmeal this morning in for a ham and egg sandwich. If I have a granola bar this afternoon, I should only have about 850 calories left when I get off work at 5pm and I should have no problem getting above 1,500 calories at least.

    My next question: Is it okay (or adviseable) to regularly eat less than my goal of 2,000 calories as long as I'm getting at least 1,500 calories?
  • Loseittoo
    Loseittoo Posts: 74 Member
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    Dietary cholesterol has very little affect in blood level cholesterol. Exercise plays a huge part in production of good cholesterol,HDL, as well as regulating cholesterol levels in the blood.

    It always helps to try and make good food choices. But the importance of exercise can not be overstated.

    http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Cholesterol-Rich-Foods-Raise-Blood-Cholesterol.html
    Eating Cholesterol Does Not Raise Blood Cholesterol Levels

    The truth is, however, that there is no direct connection between the amount of cholesterol you eat and the concentration of cholesterol in your blood. In most people, eating cholesterol has little or no effect on this amount. In about 30 percent of the population, eating cholesterol does in fact increase the concentration of cholesterol in the blood — but it increases the "good" cholesterol.

    To put it in more scientific terms, eating cholesterol "results in a less atherogenic lipoprotein profile."
    http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/features/exercise-to-lower-cholesterol
    But recent studies have more carefully examined the effect of exercise alone, making it easier to evaluate the relationship between exercise and cholesterol.

    Researchers now believe there are several mechanisms involved. First, exercise stimulates enzymes that help move LDL from the blood (and blood-vessel walls) to the liver. From there, the cholesterol is converted into bile (for digestion) or excreted. So the more you exercise, the more LDL your body expels.

    Second, exercise increases the size of the protein particles that carry cholesterol through the blood. (The combination of protein particles and cholesterol are called "lipoproteins;" it's the LDLs that have been linked to heart disease). Some of those particles are small and dense; some are big and fluffy. "The small, dense particles are more dangerous than the big, fluffy ones because the smaller ones can squeeze into the [linings of the heart and blood vessels] and set up shop there," says Khera. "But now it appears that exercise increases the size of the protein particles that carry both good and bad lipoproteins."

    Next I would try to eat as close to my goal as you can. Your body needs those calories to function. If you let the deficit become too great your body will burn not fat but lean tissue. Think your heart. Just follow the plan, eat well and get good exercise. Think of this as a lifestyle change.

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