I'm a newbie, anyone want to look at my diary?

I'm not quite sure what you're looking for, here... It looks like you aren't getting protein with all of your meals or hitting your protein goals on a daily basis. Not that big of a deal, but I find that protein helps keep me full. If it's working for you, then fine. I also noticed that you're not hitting your goal each day, but you're still eating quite a lot of calories while being under, so if it works for you, that's also fine. Not really any junk food, lots of variety. Looks like a normal diary to me.

fitchlets wrote: »

rbfdac wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what you're looking for, here... It looks like you aren't getting protein with all of your meals or hitting your protein goals on a daily basis. Not that big of a deal, but I find that protein helps keep me full. If it's working for you, then fine. I also noticed that you're not hitting your goal each day, but you're still eating quite a lot of calories while being under, so if it works for you, that's also fine. Not really any junk food, lots of variety. Looks like a normal diary to me.

Thanks so much for looking over, I appreciate it. I'll try and up my protein a bit. I'm definitely eating a lot of food throughout the day, it's just that it's whole foods. Part of me wants to splurge on something to up my calories, but I fear I'll go down a path of binging.

Since you're new and you're afraid of binging, I would, perhaps, continue with this new way of eating for a bit more before "splurging" on something. There are many many people on this site who are of the "eat what you want, but in moderation" and that's fine if it works for them, but I am one of those who it doesn't work for. I eat "healthy" foods throughout the week and have a "cheat" meal on Saturday evenings, staying under my maintenance calories. Before starting this four months ago, I ate probably 2500+ calories a day, including a lot of sweets. It was quite a change to cut back so much and eat better foods, so I didn't start incorporating the cheat meals in to my weeks until I was a month or so in. I waited until I felt I had a handle on my eating habits before attempting to incorporate more "splurgy" foods back in.

This is just what works for me. Your diary actually looks very similar to mine on a daily basis. I eat 1400-1600 calories a day and eat quite a lot of volume, as well.

It's probably going to be trial and error for a while. You'll have to find what works for you. You can try my method and add a "cheat" at the end of the week, or just try to incorporate more indulgent foods in to your day, while logging them and staying within your calorie goals.

Ninkyou wrote: »

Invest in a food scale and weigh your food to log as accurately as possible.
Eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories.
Get more protein in.
Continue to log daily.

All this AND.... Have realistic expectations when it comes to weight loss. 8 lbs in 13 days is not sustainable. With 100 lbs to lose you may be able to lose 2 lbs/week initially, but eventually 1 lb/week and even 0.5 lb/week is recommended when you are closer to goal.

Kruggeri wrote: »

Ninkyou wrote: »

Invest in a food scale and weigh your food to log as accurately as possible.
Eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories.
Get more protein in.
Continue to log daily.

All this AND.... Have realistic expectations when it comes to weight loss. 8 lbs in 13 days is not sustainable. With 100 lbs to lose you may be able to lose 2 lbs/week initially, but eventually 1 lb/week and even 0.5 lb/week is recommended when you are closer to goal.

All of this

Stop over thinking it, keep it simple.

It took me about 18 months to lose 100 lbs. There will be weeks you lose more weeks you'll lose nothing, some weeks the scale will go up. It's understanding that the this is a process, you don't have to be perfect but you need to be consistent. Learn moderation, learn portion control, learn about yourself. Learn to have patience.

Set realistic goals & expectations, also not just goals that involve the scale. :

fitchlets wrote: »

Thanks all! Truly appreciate the input. Can you explain to me how the food scale works?

They just mean to weigh your food instead of using cups or scoops. Depending on how your fill a cup with food it could weigh 20g-40g (for example) whereas weighing food is a more accurate way of determining calories. Food scales are cheap and can be bought in most large supermarkets.

rbfdac wrote: »

fitchlets wrote: »

rbfdac wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what you're looking for, here... It looks like you aren't getting protein with all of your meals or hitting your protein goals on a daily basis. Not that big of a deal, but I find that protein helps keep me full. If it's working for you, then fine. I also noticed that you're not hitting your goal each day, but you're still eating quite a lot of calories while being under, so if it works for you, that's also fine. Not really any junk food, lots of variety. Looks like a normal diary to me.

Thanks so much for looking over, I appreciate it. I'll try and up my protein a bit. I'm definitely eating a lot of food throughout the day, it's just that it's whole foods. Part of me wants to splurge on something to up my calories, but I fear I'll go down a path of binging.

Since you're new and you're afraid of binging, I would, perhaps, continue with this new way of eating for a bit more before "splurging" on something. There are many many people on this site who are of the "eat what you want, but in moderation" and that's fine if it works for them, but I am one of those who it doesn't work for. I eat "healthy" foods throughout the week and have a "cheat" meal on Saturday evenings, staying under my maintenance calories. Before starting this four months ago, I ate probably 2500+ calories a day, including a lot of sweets. It was quite a change to cut back so much and eat better foods, so I didn't start incorporating the cheat meals in to my weeks until I was a month or so in. I waited until I felt I had a handle on my eating habits before attempting to incorporate more "splurgy" foods back in.

This is just what works for me. Your diary actually looks very similar to mine on a daily basis. I eat 1400-1600 calories a day and eat quite a lot of volume, as well.

It's probably going to be trial and error for a while. You'll have to find what works for you. You can try my method and add a "cheat" at the end of the week, or just try to incorporate more indulgent foods in to your day, while logging them and staying within your calorie goals.

And remember even those people who eat what they want in moderation now probably had to work up to that.

As far as cheats, lots of people swear by the weekly calorie balance. So say you consistently ate 100 less than your goal 6 times a week, that means on your cheat day, you can eat 600 over your goal, feel like you cheated or got a treat but still technically be averaging the same calorie intake!

For protein, I'd aim for 0.8 g of body weight (which is probably approx. 1 g per lb of lean weight). That or I find that a 30%/30%/40% protein/fat/carbs ratios work well for me.

It looks good, not a lot of super processed foods and lots of micronutrients. One thing I will say is that by not tracking your exercise you are ending up with a NET of calories that is a bit low and in the end it may make you want to go all out like you were saying. Some days you are at 1200-1300 calories and your 1500 goal is already a deficit. So if you're further burning even 200 calories at the gym you are netting only like 1000 calories.