This started out as an answer to "why did you get fat" but then it got long so...
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You've gotten some really great advice here spoken with a tremendous amount of concern and respect. I encourage you to read this thread community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10235545/seeing-the-light-buying-a-food-scale and reaching out to the poster to hear about what brought her to the realization that a food scale was really important for her success. I know for me I was quite surprised once I got it as well and started weighing things and truly understanding portion sizes.0
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tincanonastring wrote: »
This is why you weigh. It's so easy to eat more than you think you are without doing so.
Thanks for the video. THAT was actually helpful. So the question I have further is if I'm looking at a package of oats, here in the USA there is a measuring serving size of 1/2 cup at 120 (I don't know if there is, I'm just using an example and don't feel like looking). There is also grams in parenthesis. So wouldn't it stand to reason that 1/2 cup is 120 because it's listed as such. And if I'm honest by measuring (and I do) a flat and loosely packed portion of 1/2 cup wouldn't it stand to reason that it would be 120 calories, give or take deviation error?
While in school I worked as an intern for a company that worked on food labeling. INteresting place. They were the ones certain companies contract to to determine nutritional labels. There always were deviation error. The label is only an average of that deviation. So that is one large reason why I don't, as of yet, see the difference in weighing and measuring.
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You didn't watch the video did you?Itsonlymeagain wrote: »@derek... no I'm not part of any movement and I don't believe it either. I already said I want to lose weight because I'm feeling it in my joints, among other raesons. What I DID say is that medical doctors don't pay much attention for me because there is nothing for them to treat. High TSH? here's a pill. High aic? here's a pill. What does a medical doctor do for someone with normal labs? Not much.
I don't mean to argue but some people are being irrationally hardball and I don't appreciate that. There is not one way to do things and it's stupid, literally stupid, to say measuring 1/2 cup of oats is vastly different than weighing it. I'm not a stupid person. IT's not like I"m packing them down in tight. So when I say I measure the food I'm looking for an honest discussion on why this is so bad vs weighing. I don't see it. Sorry, I don't and being nasty instead if informational is not helping me or anyone else who may be reading and not commenting.
And no one is calling you stupid. It is a fact that humans underestimate food intake. Hell, they've done studies, and nutritionists (who deal with this for a living) underestimate their intake. You aren't lying, you aren't horrible, you aren't stupid. You're just like the majority of people trying to lose weight.0 -
You have the wrong attitude which tells me you are right, you won't lose the weight. You are being given good solid advice yet choose to close your ears and get defensive.
But...whatev0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »tincanonastring wrote: »
This is why you weigh. It's so easy to eat more than you think you are without doing so.
Thanks for the video. THAT was actually helpful. So the question I have further is if I'm looking at a package of oats, here in the USA there is a measuring serving size of 1/2 cup at 120 (I don't know if there is, I'm just using an example and don't feel like looking). There is also grams in parenthesis. So wouldn't it stand to reason that 1/2 cup is 120 because it's listed as such. And if I'm honest by measuring (and I do) a flat and loosely packed portion of 1/2 cup wouldn't it stand to reason that it would be 120 calories, give or take deviation error?
While in school I worked as an intern for a company that worked on food labeling. INteresting place. They were the ones certain companies contract to to determine nutritional labels. There always were deviation error. The label is only an average of that deviation. So that is one large reason why I don't, as of yet, see the difference in weighing and measuring.
Cups are a measurement of volume, grams are a measurement of weight. If the amount of food in the cup weighs the same as the grams on the package, yes, the calories would be 120. If there are 10% more grams of oats in the cup than what the package indicates, there are actually 132 calories in the cup you measured. 20% would be 144 calories. Say you ate that every day for 30 days and were 20% off on a daily basis because you didn't notice the slight mound in the middle fo the cup; that's 720 extra calories in a month that you didn't know you were eating and that's just one ingredient in your diet.0 -
allbarrett wrote: »Where do you think your weight came from if not your food? This is something I wonder when I see these threads (and they come up regularly). If CICO doesn't work for you...where exactly is the extra mass coming from?
There is a lot of back and forth here but I did address that already. I am a picker, a snacker, a mindless eater. The app has kept me accountable for that and I have not picked up a mindless snack in 2 weeks. I have not cheated at all. I'm quite sure I was snacking away 600-800 calories per day when you forget about that donut at breakfast and decide a cupcake after dinner is a good idea. Also, I mentioned the birth control hormones did me in. It's a horrible side effect for some people and others not at all. I'm an unfortunate few in that regard. I'm totally on board with CICO, not sure why you feel I"m not.0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »@derek... no I'm not part of any movement and I don't believe it either. I already said I want to lose weight because I'm feeling it in my joints, among other raesons. What I DID say is that medical doctors don't pay much attention for me because there is nothing for them to treat. High TSH? here's a pill. High aic? here's a pill. What does a medical doctor do for someone with normal labs? Not much.
I don't mean to argue but some people are being irrationally hardball and I don't appreciate that. There is not one way to do things and it's stupid, literally stupid, to say measuring 1/2 cup of oats is vastly different than weighing it. I'm not a stupid person. IT's not like I"m packing them down in tight. So when I say I measure the food I'm looking for an honest discussion on why this is so bad vs weighing. I don't see it. Sorry, I don't and being nasty instead if informational is not helping me or anyone else who may be reading and not commenting.
OK, let's take a breather here and talk about a few things.- Weighing your food is definitely better than measuring volume. It's much more precise. Volume varies with foods, but weight always remains the same. It's super easy, too. Just set the bowl on the scale, zero it out, and then add the food. I have one at home too, and I love it.
- You are going to need a more accurate measuring mechanism because, as you said yourself, you are short. What is a small difference to a tall person is going to have a big impact on a short person. I'm sorry, I didn't make life this way. It's unfair as hell but it is what it is. It's important for you - at least at first - to precisely measure your foods so you can actually see what your caloric intake really is.
- Most of us suffered from some major delusions or misconceptions on the way to figuring out how to lose weight. Playing nice didn't help. Other fat people don't want us to lose weight, because it makes them feel bad. Sociopathic hucksters know how much we want to lose weight, and we always buy the nonsense that promises an easier way, so they keep selling it to us and walking away with our money. We had to face things with a cold, confrontational attitude before we could move forward. I know it makes you mad. Well, get mad, damn it! You should be mad. You're suffering and there's a predictable, workable way out.
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Itsonlymeagain wrote: »allbarrett wrote: »Where do you think your weight came from if not your food? This is something I wonder when I see these threads (and they come up regularly). If CICO doesn't work for you...where exactly is the extra mass coming from?
There is a lot of back and forth here but I did address that already. I am a picker, a snacker, a mindless eater. The app has kept me accountable for that and I have not picked up a mindless snack in 2 weeks. I have not cheated at all. I'm quite sure I was snacking away 600-800 calories per day when you forget about that donut at breakfast and decide a cupcake after dinner is a good idea. Also, I mentioned the birth control hormones did me in. It's a horrible side effect for some people and others not at all. I'm an unfortunate few in that regard. I'm totally on board with CICO, not sure why you feel I"m not.
Well then, since you know you have cut out 600-800 calories per day, perhaps you need to have more reasonable expectations about how fast the weight loss will be and just wait another two weeks to see where you're at. Then you can reassess.0 -
They are not assuming you are lying... they are trying to give you tips on how to fix the "issue". It is very easy to "over estimate" even when measuring... and yes... those unweighed tomatoes can have an effect... because it is still extra calories... also what a "medium" tomato to you might be a large tomato0
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People aren't being irrationally hardball though. You're upset because they aren't telling you what you want to hear. We're growing frustrated because we're giving advice and everything is being rejected. You somehow think that you defy scientific fact.
Weighing food does not take long and helps so much. Example: Today I had Chicken Jerky. One serving size is 6 pieces (28g), I took 3 pieces, so you'd assume that's 14g right? Wrong. It was 17. That added 10 extra calories. Small, but it matters. If that was one small error, imagine what happens when you measure cups? A 10 calorie difference becomes 100 calories easily. If that happens several times a day, well, then that's several hundred calories over your calorie limit. You don't have to weigh food forever, but if you want to lose weight, then yes you should. You'll get better at eyeballing with experience, but if nothing else works for you why are you so willing to accept you have "issues" and something is "wrong" with you in the hopes that you will possibly be given some medication instead of trying to actually use a food scale? It's like you don't want to put in effort and that's why people in this thread may not seem so nice to you.0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »@derek... no I'm not part of any movement and I don't believe it either. I already said I want to lose weight because I'm feeling it in my joints, among other raesons. What I DID say is that medical doctors don't pay much attention for me because there is nothing for them to treat. High TSH? here's a pill. High aic? here's a pill. What does a medical doctor do for someone with normal labs? Not much.
I don't mean to argue but some people are being irrationally hardball and I don't appreciate that. There is not one way to do things and it's stupid, literally stupid, to say measuring 1/2 cup of oats is vastly different than weighing it. I'm not a stupid person. IT's not like I"m packing them down in tight. So when I say I measure the food I'm looking for an honest discussion on why this is so bad vs weighing. I don't see it. Sorry, I don't and being nasty instead if informational is not helping me or anyone else who may be reading and not commenting.
Watch this OP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY 0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »@ Shrinkingletters... Mmmm, I get what you are saying but 2 medium tomatoes are 2 medium tomatoes. It's not like I'm taking a 1/2 loaf of bread and calling it a slice or a 1/2 lb pasta and calling it a serving. There IS a difference. And don't forget that I have been speed walking for years now and also this summer added in biking. I'm not sitting on my butt. Any grams miscalculated in my lunch, for example, were burned taking the bike off the rack. Part of the reason I want to lose the weight is because I feel it in my joints and it's slowing me down. And there is nothing saying that I didn't underestimate either. I'm not making excuses although it may sound like it, I get frustrated when I feel people aren't HEARING me.
How much does a medium tomato weigh? When does it weight enough to be a big tomato? When does it weigh so little that it is a small tomato. If a medium tomato was 100 grams, and a large was 200 grams, and you have a 125 gram tomato, does it have the same calories as a medium tomato that is 100 grams? It all adds up. For vegetables, the calories per gram is low and it isn't as important, but start eyeballing nearly any kind of meat or fat, and a 10 grams here or there is almost a 100 calories different.0 -
"Example: Today I had Chicken Jerky. One serving size is 6 pieces (28g), I took 3 pieces, so you'd assume that's 14g right? Wrong. It was 17. That added 10 extra calories"
Ok, I guess this is part of my "issue" in understanding this and maybe I'm starting to see why you all don't understand me. I don't eat processed food out of a box like that so I have less to go on and it would indeed be highly tedious and not as accurate as you make it seem. For me it more a matter of here's my chicken and here's my jerk spices and oil for the marinade and then to "guesstimate" how much marinade is per chicken. As it is I have to add recipes to the app then try and portion it out myself. It's only a guess unless I literally portion the pot out in cups and weigh it. even then, what really do I have to go on. If I make a pot of lentil soup for, example, I have the ingredients in there and try to estimate out that 4 people are eating and we each had a bowl of approximate size so the calories= Xingredient+Yingedient+Zingedient/4.
Overestimating on whole food fruits and veggies especially is of minimal consequence IMO as its' quite hard to overeat high fiber foods like fruit and low calorie foods like veggies. Weight Watchers gives true veggies away as freebies, in fact.0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »"Example: Today I had Chicken Jerky. One serving size is 6 pieces (28g), I took 3 pieces, so you'd assume that's 14g right? Wrong. It was 17. That added 10 extra calories"
Ok, I guess this is part of my "issue" in understanding this and maybe I'm starting to see why you all don't understand me. I don't eat processed food out of a box like that so I have less to go on and it would indeed be highly tedious and not as accurate as you make it seem. For me it more a matter of here's my chicken and here's my jerk spices and oil for the marinade and then to "guesstimate" how much marinade is per chicken. As it is I have to add recipes to the app then try and portion it out myself. It's only a guess unless I literally portion the pot out in cups and weigh it. even then, what really do I have to go on. If I make a pot of lentil soup for, example, I have the ingredients in there and try to estimate out that 4 people are eating and we each had a bowl of approximate size so the calories= Xingredient+Yingedient+Zingedient/4.
Overestimating on whole food fruits and veggies especially is of minimal consequence IMO as its' quite hard to overeat high fiber foods like fruit and low calorie foods like veggies. Weight Watchers gives true veggies away as freebies, in fact.
Ok. I would eat chicken breasts, and I was told it was about 4oz in a serving (near the size of a deck of cards). Chicken breasts are huge, so clearly they were at least 1.5 times that size. Nope; they range from 8-10oz per breast.0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »"Example: Today I had Chicken Jerky. One serving size is 6 pieces (28g), I took 3 pieces, so you'd assume that's 14g right? Wrong. It was 17. That added 10 extra calories"
Ok, I guess this is part of my "issue" in understanding this and maybe I'm starting to see why you all don't understand me. I don't eat processed food out of a box like that so I have less to go on and it would indeed be highly tedious and not as accurate as you make it seem. For me it more a matter of here's my chicken and here's my jerk spices and oil for the marinade and then to "guesstimate" how much marinade is per chicken. As it is I have to add recipes to the app then try and portion it out myself. It's only a guess unless I literally portion the pot out in cups and weigh it. even then, what really do I have to go on. If I make a pot of lentil soup for, example, I have the ingredients in there and try to estimate out that 4 people are eating and we each had a bowl of approximate size so the calories= Xingredient+Yingedient+Zingedient/4.
Overestimating on whole food fruits and veggies especially is of minimal consequence IMO as its' quite hard to overeat high fiber foods like fruit and low calorie foods like veggies. Weight Watchers gives true veggies away as freebies, in fact.
Okay, well I ate some individually wrapped sweet potatos some time ago. They were all labeled as 77 grams. When I weighed them, they weighed between 72 and 137 grams. A difference of 66 calories.
Here is the deal, either you are going to start listening, or you aren't. We will be here when you are ready to listen. That's the bottom line.0 -
Ok. I would eat chicken breasts, and I was told it was about 4oz in a serving (near the size of a deck of cards). Chicken breasts are huge, so clearly they were at least 1.5 times that size. Nope; they range from 8-10oz per breast.
That's true. So a serving of chicken breast is not necessarily a whole chicken breast because our chickens are bred to be large. But if you go with the deck of cards size then clearly you can see the difference and cut the breast to size.0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »Ok. I would eat chicken breasts, and I was told it was about 4oz in a serving (near the size of a deck of cards). Chicken breasts are huge, so clearly they were at least 1.5 times that size. Nope; they range from 8-10oz per breast.
That's true. So a serving of chicken breast is not necessarily a whole chicken breast because our chickens are bred to be large. But if you go with the deck of cards size then clearly you can see the difference and cut the breast to size.
The point was, I was still underestimating.0 -
Here is the deal, either you are going to start listening, or you aren't. We will be here when you are ready to listen. That's the bottom line.
sooo. can you give me advice on how to portion out family sized cooking? It's obvious that I don't know how and to be completely honest I get what you are saying about the potatoes but that doesn't solve recipes. How do you determine calorie content of recipes? Even if you weigh each ingredient, as you all are suggesting, how do you determine portion size and calories per portion?
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Itsonlymeagain wrote: »Here is the deal, either you are going to start listening, or you aren't. We will be here when you are ready to listen. That's the bottom line.
sooo. can you give me advice on how to portion out family sized cooking? It's obvious that I don't know how and to be completely honest I get what you are saying about the potatoes but that doesn't solve recipes. How do you determine calorie content of recipes? Even if you weigh each ingredient, as you all are suggesting, how do you determine portion size and calories per portion?
It's super easy if you weigh things. Weigh the ingredients that go into the dish and log it as a recipe. Weigh the resulting dish (minus the weight of the pan), which gives you total weight (say 900grams). Enter 900 as the number of servings, then weigh out how much you put on your plate (say 150g). Log 150 servings. Done. Then, it doesn't matter how large your family's servings are, plus if there are leftovers, you know exactly how much to log when you eat some more the next time (just weigh it).0 -
Itsonlymeagain wrote: »Here is the deal, either you are going to start listening, or you aren't. We will be here when you are ready to listen. That's the bottom line.
sooo. can you give me advice on how to portion out family sized cooking? It's obvious that I don't know how and to be completely honest I get what you are saying about the potatoes but that doesn't solve recipes. How do you determine calorie content of recipes? Even if you weigh each ingredient, as you all are suggesting, how do you determine portion size and calories per portion?
It's super easy if you weigh things. Weigh the ingredients that go into the dish and log it as a recipe. Weigh the resulting dish (minus the weight of the pan), which gives you total weight (say 900grams). Enter 900 as the number of servings, then weigh out how much you put on your plate (say 150g). Log 150 servings. Done. Then, it doesn't matter how large your family's servings are, plus if there are leftovers, you know exactly how much to log when you eat some more the next time (just weigh it).
What she said^^ Literally will add probably 2 minutes total to your entire routine0
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