Weighing and measuring.

Weight fluctuate daily due to your level of hydration. Hydration levels can be affect by sodium, water intake and for other reasons. You will not gain two to three pounds of fat in a day because that would require a caloric excess of a minimum of 7000 calories.

As you weight train, you will gain some muscle mass which is a good thing. If your clothing is fitting looser it is an indicator that you are losing fat. The scale may not being going down as fast as wish because you are gaining muscle while in the process of losing fat.

Don't stress out on the scale. The scale only shows a total number. For example if I had a bag of fruit consisting of 10 lbs of ranges and 10 lbs of apples, now assume the apples represent fat and oranges represent muscle. The total weight of the fruit int the bag is 20 lbs. Now it I remove one lbs of apples and add one one lbs of oranges the bag still weights the same. My point here is the scale can't tell the difference between fat and muscle.

How you clothes fit is a very good indicator of progress. So, whip out the tape measure every couple of weeks and measure you waist , hip and neck and record your numbers. If you are losing fat, those number will get smaller. Continue to weight yourself but not everyday.

Weighing you food:
I've been weighing my food for fours years now and it makes a difference. Weighing is more accurate the say a cup of fruit etc. because how much fits in a cup depends on how the items is chopped.

The label on package for the most part is reliable. By law they are allowed a 20 percent variance. Therefore is the labels says 100 calories, you maybe getting anywhere between 80 to 120 calories.

I always weigh packaged foods. 95% of the time, the food is heavier than what the package says (and depending on the food, that can mean an extra 50 calories).

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Often water retention can mask a loss.

alfonsinarosinsky wrote: »

rushfive wrote: »

I believe it is safe to use the cans nutrient values... some quantities in the can may be off by 10%-0%, ie. ounces. It really is not much usually, . so I wouldn't worry about it.

How long have you been at this.... if only 2 weeks, give it more time, there is some water weight due to increase exercise.
On the sugar, macros... don't worry about going over on these, (unless medical condition) watch the calorie number.

Be sure on the calorie count of the foods you eat... some in mfp can be wrong. Usually not a big deal but it does happen.. I just watch for things that "seem to me" to be to low so then I check them with other items in mfp or go to another source to check it.

It looks like you are doing good, as long as you are weighting your food/drink, so keep at it, It takes time. Be patient.
Congrats on doing the weight lifting !!!!! Best thing for you and the hardest for me to do...
good luck.

Thank you. I've been at it for awhile now. I've been trying to lose weight since forever but got serious about 2 months ago. Before I was losing at a good pace but it's gone to a creep now or like I said a gain

2 month is not to long, but you should see a little downward movement. If you charted your weight loss for those 2 month would the overall look be downward? as you probably know weight loss is not linear.
If not, double check your calorie count, you may be eating more than you think or as said water weight.

The way it sounds to me is your are trying hard with exercise and counting cals. but have a few slip up days. Then after 2 months no weight loss... answer... eating more than you think. Do you have any medical issues. thyroid.?

GuitarJerry wrote: »

Life's too short to weigh pre-packaged foods.

Yeah but... I've had some 160 calories English muffins turn out to be 205-210 calories. For people who subscribe to Graze snacks (which I love), some snacks ended up 70 extra calories (that one hurt). Those waffles I love (Waffle Waffle) turned out 360 calories instead of 280 at the time (they changed the formula since, less calories, less taste, sad Fran, but still more calories than what the package says).

It just takes 2 seconds to weigh. Place your granola bar on the scale, zero it, open it, put the wrapper back on the scale, done. 90% of my granola bars are 3-5 more grams than what the package says (out of 38-45g, typically).

I'm saying that and still don't weigh my yogurt though, got to get to it... but with the fruit on the bottom stuff it's not accurate either anyway if you're like me and only leave fruit mix.

It's not a huge deal if you have a big deficit though, and most people on MFP do, but I don't (on good weeks I have a 1500 deficit at this point), so those calories matter to me.

alfonsinarosinsky wrote: »

rushfive wrote: »

I just checked your diary for a few weeks, seems you need to weight and log your food by weight. ie oz/grams...I know at times you cant so go with the package info... but when you can weigh the foods/drinks/condiments.
don't use cups, 15 pieces, 1 medium banana, etc.... weight everything you can.
Nuts can be wayyy off on the package. just be aware of that.

I would think you could lose a good amount at 1500 cal. if you weigh you foods. (not 1200) but that is just me.
I agree with everybody that water weight is happening so keep that in mind, and when possible weight the packaged foods.

Thank you. You're so right. I just weighed my banana and my mango and it came out quite differently. I'll be weighing everything from now on. Again thanks.

Yes, my eye-opener on this was the nuts. The cashews packages gives a serving in tablespoons then in parentheses says how many grams that is. Well it isn't at all easy to accurately measure whole cashews by tablespoons! One day after reading here on MFP about better measuring/counting I put my two tablespoons of cashews on the scale, and it was MUCH more than the grams that were listed on the package.

Also, one of the best things I learned here was about the "tare" function of the scale. Yeah, I'm slow...but I'd never used a scale before. Put bowl on scale, tare, then add food. Tare again if you're adding more than one food, like yogurt with fruit. -- And, another tip for things like peanut butter, nutella, jelly, etc. Put the entire jar on the scale, then scoop out what you're going to use and subtract to find the exact weight of what you're eating. -- These two tips were "duh" moments for me, as my kids would say. lol

Monklady123 wrote: »

alfonsinarosinsky wrote: »

rushfive wrote: »

I just checked your diary for a few weeks, seems you need to weight and log your food by weight. ie oz/grams...I know at times you cant so go with the package info... but when you can weigh the foods/drinks/condiments.
don't use cups, 15 pieces, 1 medium banana, etc.... weight everything you can.
Nuts can be wayyy off on the package. just be aware of that.

I would think you could lose a good amount at 1500 cal. if you weigh you foods. (not 1200) but that is just me.
I agree with everybody that water weight is happening so keep that in mind, and when possible weight the packaged foods.

Thank you. You're so right. I just weighed my banana and my mango and it came out quite differently. I'll be weighing everything from now on. Again thanks.

Yes, my eye-opener on this was the nuts. The cashews packages gives a serving in tablespoons then in parentheses says how many grams that is. Well it isn't at all easy to accurately measure whole cashews by tablespoons! One day after reading here on MFP about better measuring/counting I put my two tablespoons of cashews on the scale, and it was MUCH more than the grams that were listed on the package.

Also, one of the best things I learned here was about the "tare" function of the scale. Yeah, I'm slow...but I'd never used a scale before. Put bowl on scale, tare, then add food. Tare again if you're adding more than one food, like yogurt with fruit. -- And, another tip for things like peanut butter, nutella, jelly, etc. Put the entire jar on the scale, then scoop out what you're going to use and subtract to find the exact weight of what you're eating. -- These two tips were "duh" moments for me, as my kids would say. lol

++++++1. I agree. wow on the nuts and peanut butter. There is a learning curve with food weighting and most on the boards are very helpful to point us in the right direction. They have some great tricks.

Monklady123 wrote: »

alfonsinarosinsky wrote: »

rushfive wrote: »

I just checked your diary for a few weeks, seems you need to weight and log your food by weight. ie oz/grams...I know at times you cant so go with the package info... but when you can weigh the foods/drinks/condiments.
don't use cups, 15 pieces, 1 medium banana, etc.... weight everything you can.
Nuts can be wayyy off on the package. just be aware of that.

I would think you could lose a good amount at 1500 cal. if you weigh you foods. (not 1200) but that is just me.
I agree with everybody that water weight is happening so keep that in mind, and when possible weight the packaged foods.

Thank you. You're so right. I just weighed my banana and my mango and it came out quite differently. I'll be weighing everything from now on. Again thanks.

Yes, my eye-opener on this was the nuts. The cashews packages gives a serving in tablespoons then in parentheses says how many grams that is. Well it isn't at all easy to accurately measure whole cashews by tablespoons! One day after reading here on MFP about better measuring/counting I put my two tablespoons of cashews on the scale, and it was MUCH more than the grams that were listed on the package.

Also, one of the best things I learned here was about the "tare" function of the scale. Yeah, I'm slow...but I'd never used a scale before. Put bowl on scale, tare, then add food. Tare again if you're adding more than one food, like yogurt with fruit. -- And, another tip for things like peanut butter, nutella, jelly, etc. Put the entire jar on the scale, then scoop out what you're going to use and subtract to find the exact weight of what you're eating. -- These two tips were "duh" moments for me, as my kids would say. lol

The nuts I've been buying say that a serving is 28 nuts or 28g for 180 calories. But 28g is really 23 nuts.