Need to smarten up

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sonyapatterson80
sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've been logging my dairy for over 15 days now. I barely ever go over the 1200 calories mfp says I need to stay at to lose 2 pounds a week up to lose 46lbs. I haven't lost anything in this time. Help please
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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Could you make your diary public? We may be able to offer better advice if we can get a peek at your logging.
  • angrydads
    angrydads Posts: 162 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    Could you make your diary public? We may be able to offer better advice if we can get a peek at your logging.

    It's true, we can see what you might need or skip...
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    Sometimes it takes a few weeks to see a loss. Plenty of people have gone five or six weeks without losing. Someone who lost two or three hundred pounds went five or six months without losing. It happens.

    You might be eating more than 1200 calories, too. If you don't weigh food, you might trust the labels and measurements, but they can be off.
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    How do do that? Pl[q="jemhh;34336236"] you make your diary public? We may be able to offer better advice if we can get a peek at y
    [quote="j
  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
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    I totally forgot at first about my coffee creamer calories. I only get 1200 calories, too. Might check for hidden calories like that.

    Made a difference for me, anyway.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Go to Settings/Diary Settings and then near the bottom you can choose to make your diary private, public, or available only to friends.
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    Cant figure how to work my phone. I keyboard hides the writing area. I think maybe the eating out and trusting the menu is a problem plus thinking that if I stay under 1200 I can eat whatever I want
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Did you start working out at about the same time?
    Are you using a food scale?

    A side note about 2 lbs per week setting and 1200 calories-

    MFP bottoms out at 1200 calories.
    MFP will estimate how many calories you need to maintain based on activity level and your stats. It uses this number to determine how many calories you can eat based on your selected rate of loss. Unless your predicted maintenance with current stats/activity level is 2200, your deficit is smaller than what is needed for 2 lbs per week loss. Example:

    My stats + sedentary activity level selection = 1650 to maintain (or so MFP predicts)
    2 lbs per week is 1000 calorie deficit: Since 1200 is the minimum healthy calories for women, MFP will not give me a goal below this number. Even if I select 2 lbs per week loss, the highest deficit MFP will give me is 450 calories.
    1.5 lbs per week is 750 calorie deficit: Again can't do it. MFP won't let me have a deficit higher than 450 calories at this activity level setting.
    Even if I change my activity level to Lightly Active, I can't get MFP to give me a 1000 calorie deficit. The highest I can get with that setting is 650 calories. So slightly more than 1 lb per week, but not 1.5 lbs.
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    I'm new at this so I'm just learning what to do. I will listen to whatever help or advice is offered.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited October 2015
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    I see a lot of "Homemade - " entries in your diary. These are user created. Unless you used the same ingredients in the same amounts as the user who created it the nutritional information for it is likely not the same for the dish you ate. This can quickly add up to hundreds of extra calories being consumed.

    I think you should look at this thread:
    Logging Accurately Step by Step Guide
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    No food scale and haven't recorded any exercise. I'm away from home right now. Trying to figure out how to get healthy before going back and continue to become fat. I'm on a bit of a soul searching vacation but going back to reality on the 25th
  • ShellyBell999
    ShellyBell999 Posts: 1,482 Member
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    Don't underestimate the calories you NEED to lose weight.
    Read this and its links
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10257474/starting-out-restarting-basics-inside/p1
  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
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    Eating out is super hard with calorie counting, UNLESS you eat at places that are chains and have printed nutritional values. (Subway on vacation? I think not!)

    Probably just a matter of underestimating the various delish sauces and stuff. Might be that you're not gaining, though. That's good. No?
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    What are your stats? Height, age, weight?

    I have a strong feeling that there are two things going on.

    1) there is a logging error. Use weight with a scale for more accurate results. Also, either use the actual products nutrition information or USDA information. Cups or guessing weight is highly inaccurate. I can get away with it to an extent, but I'm 5'11" and my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is ~2700 calories. If you are smaller (therefore TDEE is probably lower), then you have to be more accurate to make sure you don't eat too much.

    2) I have a feeling that 1200 calories is not 2lb/week. 1200 calories is the MFP minimum, so you could actually be at a little over 1lb/week. If that is the case, minor logging errors have a bigger impact on your results.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    sonyapatterson80 wrote: »
    Cant figure how to work my phone. I keyboard hides the writing area. I think maybe the eating out and trusting the menu is a problem plus thinking that if I stay under 1200 I can eat whatever I want

    Yeah, the android app broke a few weeks ago. If you use the web interface it works well enough. And you can eat whatever you want if you stay at 1200 calories, the problem is determining when you ate 1200 calories if you didn't make/weigh it yourself.
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    thank you.. I didn't know all this was in the app. Guess maybe I might be eating a lot more than I thought
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    I see a lot of "Homemade - " entries in your diary. These are user created. Unless you used the same ingredients in the same amounts as the user who created it the nutritional information for it is likely not the same for the dish you ate. This can quickly add up to hundreds of extra calories being consumed.

    I think you should look at this thread:
    Logging Accurately Step by Step Guide[/quo
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    pretty sure that's what's happenin
    MarcyKirkton wrote: »
    Eating out issuper hard with calorie counting, UNLESS you eat at places that are chains and have printed nutritional values. (Subway on vacation? I think not!)

    Probably just a matter of underestimating the various delish sauces and stuff. Might be that you're not gaining, though. That's good. No?

  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    Kalikel wrote: »
    Sometimes it takes a few weeks to see a loss. Plenty of people have gone five or six weeks without losing. Someone who lost two or three hundred pounds went five or six months without losing. It happens.

    You might be eating more than 1200 calories, too. If you don't weigh food, you might trust the labels and measurements, but they can be off.

    If you go months (2 or more) without losing you are eating at maintenance or you aren't keeping good records and you forgot that you actually went down.

    If you are eating at a deficit you should see the loss within a few weeks. I've gone 2 weeks without seeing a meaningful loss (didn't drop below weight X) while trying to lose 2lb/week and even 1.5lb/week. However, once the loss materializes the rate speeds up to make up for the "lost" time.
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    I'm 5'3 and the nasty scale jumps back and forth from 174 to 175
    nordlead2005 wrote: »
    What are your stats? Height, age, weight?

    I have a strong feeling that there are two things going on.

    1) there is a logging error. Use weight with a scale for more accurate results. Also, either use the actual products nutrition information or USDA information. Cups or guessing weight is highly inaccurate. I can get away with it to an extent, but I'm 5'11" and my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is ~2700 calories. If you are smaller (therefore TDEE is probably lower), then you have to be more accurate to make sure you don't eat too much.

    2) I have a feeling that 1200 calories is not 2lb/week. 1200 calories is the MFP minimum, so you could actually be at a little over 1lb/week. If that is the case, minor logging errors have a bigger impact on your results.
  • sonyapatterson80
    sonyapatterson80 Posts: 13 Member
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    I hope this starts happening and I'm going to try much harder to stay away from going out to eat.
    nordlead2005 wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    Sometimes it takes a few weeks to see a loss. Plenty of people have gone five or six weeks without losing. Someone who lost two or three hundred pounds went five or six months without losing. It happens.

    You might be eating more than 1200 calories, too. If you don't weigh food, you might trust the labels and measurements, but they can be off.

    If you go months (2 or more) without losing you are eating at maintenance or you aren't keeping good records and you forgot that you actually went down.

    If you are eating at a deficit you should see the loss within a few weeks. I've gone 2 weeks without seeing a meaningful loss (didn't drop below weight X) while trying to lose 2lb/week and even 1.5lb/week. However, once the loss materializes the rate speeds up to make up for the "lost" time.

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