Too Strict With Calories?

msjesslab · April 2015

Okay, I know this thread has been posted a 100 times before but hear me out. I am a 5'4, 128 pound female hoping to get down to around 120 pounds. I have been counting calories since January, but I have been much more consistent in my logging since about March. I started out at 144 pounds, and I've made really good progress. I set my calorie goal for 1400 and don't eat exercise calories back just in case I'm inaccurate with my logging. I log everything I eat, it's just not a possibility to weigh everything I eat on a scale because of my schedule (two par times jobs and full time student). I also serve at a busy restaurant, typically four to two days a week. I do not calculate the calories burned working either, because it can't really be accurately measured. This month I have been increasing my cardio and weight training so now I constantly feel hungry. 1400 calories used to be the perfect amount and I would typically go under even while exercising, but now I feel so restricted. I know since I am so short I don't have a lot of wiggle room. MFP actually recommends my calories should be at 1200, but I know I couldn't do that with working two jobs and school. I was considering going low carb, but I was just curious to see what you guys would recommend to knock off this last chunk of weight without losing my mind.

For cardio I typically walk at a very high incline (3.5 at 15) for twenty to thirty minutes, and fifteen to twenty minutes of stair master. For strength training, I love lifting and do mostly free weight workouts. Very rarely do I use machines beyond the leg press.

isulo_kura · April 2015

If you can't weigh your food accurately there is no way to know how much you are eating you are just guessing. Any number anyone suggests is pretty meaningless. You say you're eating 1400 but in reality you have no idea so you would be changing to low carb because something you are not doing accurately is not working which is pretty pointless. Low carb is just another way of restricting calories you would still need to count them accurately which you aren't doing now.

You are already bang in the middle of a healthy weight range so I would suggest rather than obsessing over hitting a specific number on the scale concentrate on you weight training in order to get whatever look you are after. if you go across to the fitness board may people over there will be able to offer specific advice for this

shadowfax_c11 · April 2015

Restaurant work is hard. I did it for 15 years. While you can't accuratly measure your actual burns you can consider that you are in the moderately to very active category. Since everything in a restaurant is usually weighed out and portioned and calorie info is often available so tracking what you eat at that job should really not be that hard. Just ask the prep cooks for the information on what goes into a dish. They should have all of those numbers for you. Then instead of grazing, as most servers do, plan what you will eat. For instance soups often have a lot more calories than you would expect. I recall that a cup of our chicken tortilla soup at my last job came in at something lie 900 calories. Breadsticks and those amazing big salads too will often be surprisingly high calorie.

I think as close as you are to your goal you should allow that it is just going to come off more slowly than you might like.

r5d5 · April 2015

Do you have MFP set up to lose 2 lbs a week? That would explain why you're suggested to eat only 1200. With so little weight to lose, you should have it set for only .5 to 1lbs a week.
The only way to "knock off" the weight is to be consistent and patient. The less weight you have to lose, the slower it will come off.
It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong per say. Just keep at it, be patient, and be kind to yourself! Congrats on losing the initial 16lbs! That's a feat!
Best wishes to you!

nxd10 · April 2015

I would not go low carb but I would watch carbs if you've been that overweight. If I keep my carbs under 40% I lose weight. If they go over that consistently, I plateau. Doesn't matter how that my calories are under. I like the science of Why We Get Fat. It has worked well for me. I've been maintaining 3 years.

I also really recommend getting a $35 fitbit zip pedometer. You do a lot of work in a restaurant but can also stand around a lot. That way you can eat back your calories and vary your calories with your day. Do a little experiment weighing and judging portion sizes at home sometime. They use that information to log by eye. I sometimes weigh and measure, but usually just eyeball carefully. I may not log everything perfectly, but I do log EVERYTHING and that helps tremendously. I tend to be under most days and I expect that is compensating for inaccuracy of measurement. But I do eat back all those calories.

tracylynne29 · April 2015

i think about this myself. im sorta in the same boat with the exception i work in a grocery store i go to work in the morning and at lunch i get something at lunch i just get something that i can eat a small portion and hope for the best although i do question my calorie intake and know that for that day i will be off

msjesslab · April 2015

If I can't weigh my food accurately there is no point in counting calories? I own a food scale so when I do have the time I do weigh my food, but that just isn't realistic when I work 10-12 hours a day and have school and try to work out. I eat mostly prepackaged veggies and grilled chicken. I know I can't be entirely 100 percent accurate without a food scale, but I would like to think I'm at least 80 percent accurate and my calories burned waitressing (approx. 75 in a half hour according to this article) would compensate for most of my inaccuracies. I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but I am a little offended by the implication I am "just guessing". I guess I might be overestimating my own accuracy though, I admit that.

I love strength training and I feel like I am about as muscular as I want to be, I just want to lose the fat on top. I've increased my cardio, which I think is why I'm so hungry all the time. I was just curious if anyone had similar problems or could help. A lot of you are just saying be patient, so I guess that's just what I need to do!

futuremanda · April 2015

msjesslab wrote: »

If I can't weigh my food accurately there is no point in counting calories? I own a food scale so when I do have the time I do weigh my food, but that just isn't realistic when I work 10-12 hours a day and have school and try to work out. I eat mostly prepackaged veggies and grilled chicken. I know I can't be entirely 100 percent accurate without a food scale, but I would like to think I'm at least 80 percent accurate and my calories burned waitressing (approx. 75 in a half hour according to this article) would compensate for most of my inaccuracies. I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but I am a little offended by the implication I am "just guessing". I guess I might be overestimating my own accuracy though, I admit that.

I love strength training and I feel like I am about as muscular as I want to be, I just want to lose the fat on top. I've increased my cardio, which I think is why I'm so hungry all the time. I was just curious if anyone had similar problems or could help. A lot of you are just saying be patient, so I guess that's just what I need to do!

What did you set your lifestyle to? I agree you're probably "active" or at least "lightly active". So if you're set to sedentary AND you're not counting your exercise calories to eat back, that's a pretty big margin of error. You could probably bump the lifestyle up one notch, or lower your goal rate of loss a notch (by 0.5 a lb), or start logging your exercise calories and eating half.

If you used to feel pretty satisfied and energetic, and now you don't, I'm guessing you could use a bit more.

The thing is, even the most accurate logs have errors. If you're feeling restricted and constantly hungry, and this isn't like, your first two weeks, then I'd say try upping your calories a bit (whichever method for that you choose). Give it 5-6 weeks and see how that goes. With 8 lbs to lose, it does not need to happen ASAP (and probably shouldn't), so if you only lose say, 2, that'll leave you with 6 left and give you an idea of whether you could maybe drop them back a bit more or stay the course or what. Sometimes we just need to try one thing and see how the numbers go!

Too Strict With Calories?

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