Food diary feedback

SecretDuck
SecretDuck Posts: 26
in Food and Nutrition
I have logged everything I ate in the past two days, including the milk for coffee and vinegar for the salad. It looks to be a calorie deficit by around 30-50 calories only. Assuming a margin of error by not knowing what my mother puts in her meals for me or what my pasta today exactly had, I believe I'm over-eating. My diary is what I always eat but today's difference is that I substituted Krave for porridge. I am gaining weight still so there's something else I have to do to cut the calories further and eat well overall.

Any help would be appreciated :)

Replies

  • samanthajoellen
    samanthajoellen Posts: 16
    Hi! Looking at your diary - you should cut calories at least to 1,500/day if you are trying to lose and gradually cut that down to 1,200/day. MFP is giving you too many calories. Try it for 3 days - I bet you will lose!

    55736468.png
    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter
  • norcalskater
    norcalskater Posts: 194 Member
    I agree. As a 5'8 male I weighed 172 lbs and 1650 calories a day for 3 months got me down to 156. 2000 is too high to lose. Your're maintaining right now with that number. Give yourself a 200-400 calorie deficit and you will start to see weight come off.
  • SecretDuck
    SecretDuck Posts: 26
    Thanks guys - I'll aim for that :)

    Which foods would you recommend for me to cut out? My breakfast comes at nearly 500 calories alone. Also, I seemed to have lost 2kg in the period of two days - is it water weight?
  • andylowry
    andylowry Posts: 89
    2000 calories is a weight-maintenance diet for a sedentary person. You can lose weight on that intake, but you'd need to move a lot-- walking, running, bicycling, et cetera.
  • 89nunu
    89nunu Posts: 1,082 Member
    wait. How are you people coming up with numbers on how much he should eat? How tall are you? How heavy are you? What is your activity level like?

    Important questions before anyone should tell you anything about 1200 calorie diets!

    Also if you are 50 under the calorie goal mfp gives you, you are already in a deficit. Mfp has the deficit build in for you depending on how much you said you want to lose at the beginning (500 cal under for 1lb, 1000 under for 2 lb a week)

    And yes the 2 kilo is probably water weight. Which is the first thing to go when you start cutting

    ETA: give this a read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • SecretDuck
    SecretDuck Posts: 26
    I'm 171cm tall and 97.5kg (down from the original 100kg). I walked for 20 minutes at a leisurely pace in the past two days and I plan to do gym at home and swim today for 30 minutes.
  • eena56
    eena56 Posts: 1,456 Member
    I would recommend trying to cut back calories by cutting out juice drinks from your diet, and trying to slowly reduce the amount of milk and sugar in coffee/tea. It's surprising how easy it is to drink a lot of calories!

    Also maybe try not adding cheese to meals, and maybe increase your salad helping and decrease your carbs slightly.

    You could do all of this gradually if it's hard at first.
  • SecretDuck
    SecretDuck Posts: 26
    I will reduce 2 sugars to 1 sugar in my coffee and tea. Maybe I will have tea in the mornings rather than coffee.

    The cheese was part of a restaurant meal - but I will ask them not to put any cheese on it. I have put more vegetables on my shopping list :)

    Not sure about fruit juice - even those which are apparently "freshly squeezed." There is organic iced tea which I always buy in the restaurant - Hampstead Elderflower Organic Iced Tea. Very little sugar, overall. Only problem is that I'm not sure if they are in supermarkets or come in large containers.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Hi! Looking at your diary - you should cut calories at least to 1,500/day if you are trying to lose and gradually cut that down to 1,200/day. MFP is giving you too many calories. Try it for 3 days - I bet you will lose!

    55736468.png
    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter
    So you're recommending that for a moderately overweight 20 year old male. Hmmmm or should that be EEK
  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    You say you log everything accurately...but from what I can see, you're not.
    - I assume you have milk with your cereal??? You haven't logged it.
    - 'Coffee with milk and 2 sugars' - not very accurate - how much milk do you use?? What type of milk - skimmed, SS, full fat??
    - 'Homemade - Chicken Paella, 1 serving' - did you create this recipe yourself? If not, it could be innacurate. You may make paella completely different to how I do...how much oil? Any veg - how much? How much chicken? How much rice? - it all adds up
    - 'Apple - Large, 0.5 whole' - what classes as a 'large' apple? It's much more accurate to weigh it.

    You've really got to be careful with your logging. Don't just assume everyone has the same amount and type of milk in their coffee. When you're cooking, track every ingredient you add, including oil, herbs, spices, etc. and weigh everything. If you're cooking for more than just yourself, add everything up and divide it by the number of portions. If you're not the one that cooks, make sure you're there when meals are prepared. Offer to help and monitor ingredients. Don't rely too heavily on the 'generic' foods in the MFP database - if you can, scan the item if you're using the app.

    You've only been doing this for a couple of days so you will gradually get used to it. My tips:
    - Weigh EVERYTHING (wherever possible) - even fruit, oils, vegetables, herbs, etc.
    - Log EVERYTHING - have a handful of crisps at work? Have a small nibble of something? Have a sip of a friends beer? Log it!
    - Be HONEST - just because you haven't logged it, doesn't mean you haven't eaten it!
    - Don't be disheartened - if you exceed your calories for one day, get over it and move on - just make sure it's not a regular thing.

    Weighing and logging seems tiresome at first, but soon enough it becomes second nature - as soon as you eat something you log it without even thinking!
  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    Thanks guys - I'll aim for that :)

    Which foods would you recommend for me to cut out? My breakfast comes at nearly 500 calories alone. Also, I seemed to have lost 2kg in the period of two days - is it water weight?

    100g of porridge oats sounds very excessive. Most recommended portions are 40g. No wonder your breakfasts are so high. Make sure you weigh the dry oats before cooking. Also, do you use milk or water? If you use milk you need to log it.

    *addition - 100g porridge taken from OPs diary
  • SecretDuck
    SecretDuck Posts: 26
    I have meals prepared for me by my mother and she doesn't believe in weighing at all. She just puts it all on a plate or bowl and I have to guesstimate the weight. So I log a similar food and pick the worst option, even though the real portion sizes are much smaller (like with the porridge for example - it's a very small bowl and it has milk in it). I doubt I'd be able to convince her to weigh the foods so I have to make do with the worst-case scenario - unless it is a chain restaurant which discloses their info.

    I notice that adding milk makes me go over the calories - but I have lost 2.5kg (water weight) already. Which makes it look like I'm overestimating the calories.
  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    I have meals prepared for me by my mother and she doesn't believe in weighing at all. She just puts it all on a plate or bowl and I have to guesstimate the weight. So I log a similar food and pick the worst option, even though the real portion sizes are much smaller (like with the porridge for example - it's a very small bowl and it has milk in it). I doubt I'd be able to convince her to weigh the foods so I have to make do with the worst-case scenario - unless it is a chain restaurant which discloses their info.

    I notice that adding milk makes me go over the calories - but I have lost 2.5kg (water weight) already. Which makes it look like I'm overestimating the calories.

    If your mum "doesn't believe in weighing at all" - why not do it yourself?! As she preps something, you quickly wack it on the scale. Guestimating weights and portions is never a good idea. Just because you're going with the worst option doesn't mean it's more than what you're actually eating. If you've never weighed your food before how on earth are you going to know what 100g or 500g looks like??? Different foods have different masses. A cup of spinach is a lot different in weight than a cup of chicken, despite looking the same quantity on the plate.

    It comes down to whether you really want to be accurate or you don't. If you're just going to guess there's no point logging. Explain to your mum that you want to do this and the reasons why. Or make your own meals! If you're serious about it, you will find ways to do it properly

    *ETA - a lot of people will probably bash me and say it's better to log something rather than nothing at all. But the idea of logging is to accurately track what you're eating. Guessing is not accurate.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    He might get wacked on the head a few times himself snagging Mom's food and putting it on some weird contraption but it'll get the job done and be totally worth it! :laugh:

    You may want to get Mom some measuring spoons so she could measure things like oil using the spoon rather than a typical kitchen spoon
  • SecretDuck
    SecretDuck Posts: 26
    I talked to her again and no dice. I guess until I can make my own meals, I will have to overestimate the portion sizes.

    And we don't have a food scale or measurement spoons but we do have a measurement bowl.
  • dietcoke281
    dietcoke281 Posts: 226 Member
    You're 20 years old - you can make your own food or at least weigh it yourself.
  • ChasCullen
    ChasCullen Posts: 2 Member
    To Secret Duck: I've found that working out, especially aerobics, will help get started on losing. But it IS true in my experience that MFP gives too high a goal and you need to cut it to 1500 calories a day, or less if a woman, in order to lose. I myself have your same difficulty. May you reach success and sustain it!
  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    And we don't have a food scale or measurement spoons but we do have a measurement bowl.

    Buy one?! They aren't expensive. You need to start finding solutions rather than just listing problems
  • SecretDuck
    SecretDuck Posts: 26
    I will see how it goes with my guesstimating. If I find that I'm not losing any more wight, I will get a food scale.

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