Logging accuracy, consistency, and you're probably eating more than you think.
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I am curious about the credentials of those who insist that the ONLY reason someone is not losing weight is because they are "over" eating. There are plenty of hormonal issues - especially thyroid but there are others - that impact a person's ability to shed pounds. It is ridiculous to claim that X calorie deficit will equal X pounds lost for each and every person - and if you don't fit into that formula you are doing it wrong.
You may also note that in one of the original linked studies the author's conclusion was that "some" people are eating more than they think and therefore are unable to lose weight. That means some people who are struggling to lose are accurately recording their calorie intake.
I have no doubt that some people do under report their intake and that is the cause of their inability to lose. But to state unequivocally that under reporting is THE ONLY reason an individual is struggling to lose is frankly irresponsible - unless you are the person's doctor and you have performed a full medical work-up.0 -
LinetShore wrote: »I am curious about the credentials of those who insist that the ONLY reason someone is not losing weight is because they are "over" eating. There are plenty of hormonal issues - especially thyroid but there are others - that impact a person's ability to shed pounds. It is ridiculous to claim that X calorie deficit will equal X pounds lost for each and every person - and if you don't fit into that formula you are doing it wrong.
You may also note that in one of the original linked studies the author's conclusion was that "some" people are eating more than they think and therefore are unable to lose weight. That means some people who are struggling to lose are accurately recording their calorie intake.
I have no doubt that some people do under report their intake and that is the cause of their inability to lose. But to state unequivocally that under reporting is THE ONLY reason an individual is struggling to lose is frankly irresponsible - unless you are the person's doctor and you have performed a full medical work-up.
It doesn't matter. Energy is not created from nothing. If you aren't losing weight, regardless of medical issues, you are eating at your maintenance level. Eat less to lose.0 -
LinetShore wrote: »I am curious about the credentials of those who insist that the ONLY reason someone is not losing weight is because they are "over" eating. There are plenty of hormonal issues - especially thyroid but there are others - that impact a person's ability to shed pounds. It is ridiculous to claim that X calorie deficit will equal X pounds lost for each and every person - and if you don't fit into that formula you are doing it wrong.
You may also note that in one of the original linked studies the author's conclusion was that "some" people are eating more than they think and therefore are unable to lose weight. That means some people who are struggling to lose are accurately recording their calorie intake.
I have no doubt that some people do under report their intake and that is the cause of their inability to lose. But to state unequivocally that under reporting is THE ONLY reason an individual is struggling to lose is frankly irresponsible - unless you are the person's doctor and you have performed a full medical work-up.
1). Please present an example where long term calorie deficits do not result in weight loss.
2) I did not state unequivocally that the only reason for stalled weight loss is under reporting. Your last paragraph is a huge strawman.
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LinetShore wrote: »I am curious about the credentials of those who insist that the ONLY reason someone is not losing weight is because they are "over" eating. There are plenty of hormonal issues - especially thyroid but there are others - that impact a person's ability to shed pounds. It is ridiculous to claim that X calorie deficit will equal X pounds lost for each and every person - and if you don't fit into that formula you are doing it wrong.
You may also note that in one of the original linked studies the author's conclusion was that "some" people are eating more than they think and therefore are unable to lose weight. That means some people who are struggling to lose are accurately recording their calorie intake.
I have no doubt that some people do under report their intake and that is the cause of their inability to lose. But to state unequivocally that under reporting is THE ONLY reason an individual is struggling to lose is frankly irresponsible - unless you are the person's doctor and you have performed a full medical work-up.
Where are the assertions that you are saying are being made? You are trying to make a point that is not even in line with the subject matter of the OP. So, before you talk about people being irresponsible, you may want to re-read the OP and use more critical and unbiased thinking.
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I know I do not eat exactly the number of calories that my log shows. However, I think I am pretty close, especially on a weekly basis. Since logging regularly the past few months my weight loss has picked up significantly, so I am confident I am reasonably accurate.
I do not have or want a scale, so I weigh nothing. I do measure many foods. My veggies are frozen. If a bag of broccoli has 5 servings and I eat the entire thing in a week, whether I had 1.3 servings Monday and .7 servings on Tuesday, or exactly one serving each day, by the time the bag is empty it is exactly 5 servings. The frozen chicken breasts I buy come in a bag with 10 servings but only 5 or 6 breasts. Not all are exactly the same size, but I call each breast two servings. But I have chicken almost every day...in the course of a week or 10 days, I will have exactly 10 4-ounce servings...this is good enough for my purposes and doesn't take much time or effort on my part. Anything that is high calorie...olive oil or or peanut butter I measure by the spoonful. I count individual almonds. Usually I just eyeball the broccoli, because when something is 25 calories per serving, whether you have one serving or two doesn't mean much in the big scheme of things.
I do know that I record every single bite of food I take...so the only error in my case in not estimating quantity perfectly but I am not far off and this evens out over a week or two. So while it is nicer to lose 1.6 pounds in a week than 1.4 pounds, as long as I am consistently losing in that range I am not worried. Being off by 100 calories a day, or even two hundred, will not dramatically impact weight loss.4 -
Remember that you don't have to weigh everything all the time.
But a scale is essential to calibrate your judgment - I grossly underestimated how much peanut butter I was using
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It's all a math game...well math and chemistry, which is really just physics.
When deficit goals are larger, you have more wiggle room for error while still losing. Generally speaking, I'd guess that people many people are ok with not losing X amount per week as long as they haven't stalled.
When deficit goals are smaller, that margin for error also decreases. Energy needs usually also decrease as weight is lost-unless activity is steadily increased to compensate. The closer your deficit target is to your maintenance, the easier it is to make a mistake and either hit maintenance or go over.
And from my own experience, I can say it makes sense with how I viewed tracking. When I was 80lbs over weight, I didn't track at all. I just kind of ate "better" (with no real thought or strategy on what that meant) and went to the gym. And I lost steadily.
As I've gotten closer to my goal weight, at 20 lbs from my goal weight, my energy needs have decreased along with my deficit (for various reasons), and I have to pay much more attention to the accuracy and precision of my tracking.0 -
MoiAussi93 wrote: »Being off by 100 calories a day, or even two hundred, will not dramatically impact weight loss.
If your goal is lose 0.5lbs a week, then being off by 100-200 calories/day would definitely impact weight loss.
Individual context and scope is important.
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MoiAussi93 wrote: »I know I do not eat exactly the number of calories that my log shows. However, I think I am pretty close, especially on a weekly basis. Since logging regularly the past few months my weight loss has picked up significantly, so I am confident I am reasonably accurate.
I do not have or want a scale, so I weigh nothing. I do measure many foods. My veggies are frozen. If a bag of broccoli has 5 servings and I eat the entire thing in a week, whether I had 1.3 servings Monday and .7 servings on Tuesday, or exactly one serving each day, by the time the bag is empty it is exactly 5 servings. The frozen chicken breasts I buy come in a bag with 10 servings but only 5 or 6 breasts. Not all are exactly the same size, but I call each breast two servings. But I have chicken almost every day...in the course of a week or 10 days, I will have exactly 10 4-ounce servings...this is good enough for my purposes and doesn't take much time or effort on my part. Anything that is high calorie...olive oil or or peanut butter I measure by the spoonful. I count individual almonds. Usually I just eyeball the broccoli, because when something is 25 calories per serving, whether you have one serving or two doesn't mean much in the big scheme of things.
I do know that I record every single bite of food I take...so the only error in my case in not estimating quantity perfectly but I am not far off and this evens out over a week or two. So while it is nicer to lose 1.6 pounds in a week than 1.4 pounds, as long as I am consistently losing in that range I am not worried. Being off by 100 calories a day, or even two hundred, will not dramatically impact weight loss.
If your weight loss is ticking along at a nice rate, then there is no real reason to change what you are doing (unless you want more/more accurate data). To quote the OP..."when fat loss stalls' (or even is slower than you expect and you are not happy with that rate) it's something to consider looking at.
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draco25000 wrote: »Do you guys ever go on 'diet' breaks, like I have around 2-3kg left to lose, and sometimes for a week I'll just eat maintenance calories and then go back to eating at a deficit the next week. (I'm going to also do this week beginning 22nd December so I can enjoy the holidays ^^) I know it slows down weight loss, but I find it quite easy and flexible to do, and it makes losing weight seem natural, I dunno haha
When I first started and lost my weight over about a year, I had a couple of diet breaks (and there are some 'natural' times to take them - over the holidays, vacations etc). I found they were very useful to get my hormones back into whack and just give myself a mental break. It helped with adherence over the longer term. I took one every three to four months and did them for 2 weeks.
You did a diet break 2 weeks?0 -
MoiAussi93 wrote: »I know I do not eat exactly the number of calories that my log shows. However, I think I am pretty close, especially on a weekly basis. Since logging regularly the past few months my weight loss has picked up significantly, so I am confident I am reasonably accurate.
I do not have or want a scale, so I weigh nothing. I do measure many foods. My veggies are frozen. If a bag of broccoli has 5 servings and I eat the entire thing in a week, whether I had 1.3 servings Monday and .7 servings on Tuesday, or exactly one serving each day, by the time the bag is empty it is exactly 5 servings. The frozen chicken breasts I buy come in a bag with 10 servings but only 5 or 6 breasts. Not all are exactly the same size, but I call each breast two servings. But I have chicken almost every day...in the course of a week or 10 days, I will have exactly 10 4-ounce servings...this is good enough for my purposes and doesn't take much time or effort on my part. Anything that is high calorie...olive oil or or peanut butter I measure by the spoonful. I count individual almonds. Usually I just eyeball the broccoli, because when something is 25 calories per serving, whether you have one serving or two doesn't mean much in the big scheme of things.
I do know that I record every single bite of food I take...so the only error in my case in not estimating quantity perfectly but I am not far off and this evens out over a week or two. So while it is nicer to lose 1.6 pounds in a week than 1.4 pounds, as long as I am consistently losing in that range I am not worried. Being off by 100 calories a day, or even two hundred, will not dramatically impact weight loss.
If it works for you, congratulations. However, I am terrible at eyeballing portions, so a scale is necessary for me.0 -
karintalley wrote: »draco25000 wrote: »Do you guys ever go on 'diet' breaks, like I have around 2-3kg left to lose, and sometimes for a week I'll just eat maintenance calories and then go back to eating at a deficit the next week. (I'm going to also do this week beginning 22nd December so I can enjoy the holidays ^^) I know it slows down weight loss, but I find it quite easy and flexible to do, and it makes losing weight seem natural, I dunno haha
When I first started and lost my weight over about a year, I had a couple of diet breaks (and there are some 'natural' times to take them - over the holidays, vacations etc). I found they were very useful to get my hormones back into whack and just give myself a mental break. It helped with adherence over the longer term. I took one every three to four months and did them for 2 weeks.
You did a diet break 2 weeks?
Sorry, just saw this. Yes, my diet breaks were about 2 weeks long.
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My problem is we make homemade stuff alot. For dinner we might just throw random stuff in a Crockpot not measuring anything. How do i log that? Even if i measure how am i gonna know how many calories or protein or sodium thats in it or that im eating?0
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Courtneycox17 wrote: »My problem is we make homemade stuff alot. For dinner we might just throw random stuff in a Crockpot not measuring anything. How do i log that? Even if i measure how am i gonna know how many calories or protein or sodium thats in it or that im eating?
What I do now, and I admit it is a PITA that I hope to get rid of when I get to maintenance, is to weigh each ingredient I toss in the pot, and then divide by the number of likely servings. A 3qt crock pot of soup full to the brim has 6 two cup servings -- two cups being the size of my soup bowls. Matter of fact, I did exactly this today for a soup I made.
It's not exact, but it's pretty close.1 -
Courtneycox17 wrote: »My problem is we make homemade stuff alot. For dinner we might just throw random stuff in a Crockpot not measuring anything. How do i log that? Even if i measure how am i gonna know how many calories or protein or sodium thats in it or that im eating?
For home made foods that are portioned out - I usually weigh as I put it in the bowl using the recipe builder to log the ingredients- then when mixed, weigh the entire amount - then just put that as the number of portions and log it that way. So if its say 450g, I put in 450 portions and then as I use it, I weigh what I use - say its 100g - put that as my portion size - so in this case, 100 portions. May look odd in your diary, but I find it easier.
Obviously, when you have something like a stew, each portion will not have a consistent mix, but its as close to accurate as you probably need considering the circumstances.0 -
Oh my goodness, yes! I just started measuring my milk and I've been drinking 2.5 times what I thought I was!0
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I have a question. Being new to this mfp. The set caloric intake for my goal weight... do I need to eat less than that or as close without going over it as possible? Also when I log exercising times it adds extra calories for me to eat... should I eat those extra or stick with my originally set calories0
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I have a question. Being new to this mfp. The set caloric intake for my goal weight... do I need to eat less than that or as close without going over it as possible? Also when I log exercising times it adds extra calories for me to eat... should I eat those extra or stick with my originally set calories
When you set your goals, it would have asked you how much you want to lose, and would have factored that in - so the goal is what you need to eat to (and still lose weight). You should eat those exercise calorie back, but I would recommend only eating a percentage of them (say 50 - 75%) to allow for any over-estimates in the calculations.
See how you go and after a while, assess the trend (look at trends as water weight can confuse things) to see if your loss is at a reasonable rate.0 -
Thanks for your info!0
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One thing that is very hard to account for, and frustrating, is that even if you weigh and measure everything that goes into your mouth at home, when you eat out those counts go out the window. Restaurant nutritional information is amazingly inaccurate. I can't count the number of times I've gotten the information off a website, then gone to the actual restaurant and realized that the food I was served had way more cheese or butter or dressing or sauce than the nutritionals obviously allowed for. I was just at a restaurant for a meeting and the kitchen didn't have enough meals prepared for our meeting (despite knowing exact counts a month beforehand) so I got mine boxed up to go. The restaurant's website says a shrimp remoulade salad comes with 2 T of dressing. I was handed 2 1/4 cups of dressing, so I asked and the waitress said "that's two scoops of the serving spoon that's in the dressing. That's what we put on the salad. Two scoops."
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