What am I doing wrong?

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2ChaCha
2ChaCha Posts: 31 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Over the past two months I have cut my fast food intake to one small meal per week; I have decreased the amount of alcohol I drink, I cook pretty much all my meals at home and use clean, natural ingredients, even organic sometimes; I only eat lean meats, low-fat dairy in small amounts, whole-grain anything (and I have cut carbs way way down, maybe one serving a day), and fresh fruits/veggies, and I don't eat anything fried; I stopped drinking sodas and I rarely eat anything sweet; I don't snack; I drink ridiculous amounts of water every day; and I've started jogging two miles a day about three times a week. My wonderful results: I've GAINED 10 pounds. And no, it's not muscle, because my clothes fit even worse than they did before and I can't even stand to look at myself. So what am I doing wrong? I don't have time to run more cause I'm a single mom and I have to do it on my lunch breaks and some days I have errands to take care of or I get busy at work and don't get a break. Other than not eating at all, I feel like I've cut it down to the bare minimum. I'm miserable, and not seeing any positive results makes me want to give up. What do I do???
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Replies

  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,658 Member
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    It sounds like you're eating above maintenance.

    None of the stuff you listed implies eating at a calorie deficit, and that's the one thing required for losing weight.
  • lazykerry
    lazykerry Posts: 31 Member
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    I'm not the best person to answer this but if I had to guess, maybe you're just eating too much of the healthy food? Even healthy food has calories.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
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    Are you tracking all your intake and using a food scale? Please share as well your height, weight, and your daily calorie goal. Cheers!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    You mentioned everything except logging your food and staying within your calorie goals. Let's start there. Are you logging your food? How many calories do you average in a week? Would you be willing to open your diary for us?
  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 657 Member
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    You may be eating healthier, but are you eating less? If you are not already logging your foods into the MFP database I highly recommend it. I did the same thing a few years ago when I tried "dieting" by eating healthy foods and then gained a couple pounds. Then I gave up and thought that dieting wasn't for me. Now I am actually counting calories properly and building in exercise to coordinate with the foods. This is what will help you lose weight.

    The healthy foods are good and will make you feel better to a point, but if you really want to lose you will have to start counting calories and weighing your food.
  • 2ChaCha
    2ChaCha Posts: 31 Member
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    5'1, 160, I want to eat 1200 calories a day, but I never feel full. If I eat until I feel full I go way over. If I make myself stop, I eventually give in and binge. I eat small, low-calorie meals, but I'm hungry again in an hour. Tracking makes me insane trying to weigh every little ingredient in everything I cook and then divide it all up into portions. (I know, that makes me sound like an idiot, but I just haven't found an easy way for me to do it. My little two eggs with some cheese and mushrooms this morning took me five minutes to get logged. Not even joking.)
  • 2ChaCha
    2ChaCha Posts: 31 Member
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    And I totally understand the whole calorie deficit thing, but it seems to me that now that I'm eating better and less and working out more, I should naturally be better than when I was eating more and worse and not working out at all. Right?
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    Sounds like you're just caught up in the 'virtuous' cycle & eating too damn much of all the right things!
    (Been there; done that ;-)
    That's how I became a classic 'fit fat.')
    Now hold on to all those terrific changes & introduce calorie counting by weighing every scrap & morsel that goes in your mouth and you're golden, really.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    2ChaCha wrote: »
    And I totally understand the whole calorie deficit thing, but it seems to me that now that I'm eating better and less and working out more, I should naturally be better than when I was eating more and worse and not working out at all. Right?

    Eating "better" isn't going to create weight loss if you're still eating more than your body is using. Sometimes when we work out more, our appetite increases. If we don't monitor our calorie intake somehow, we could wind up completely cancelling out the impact of our workout and even putting on weight.

    Logging can be hard at first, but as you log more and build your foods lists, it becomes much easier. The first time you log eggs, cheese, and mushrooms, you have to find them. The next time you eat them, they will be in your recent foods list.

    If small, low-calorie meals make you hungry, experiment with bigger and larger calorie meals. As long as you're in a deficit, it doesn't matter how many meals you eat. Many of us prefer fewer meals with more calories -- I know that I do.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,658 Member
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    2ChaCha wrote: »
    And I totally understand the whole calorie deficit thing, but it seems to me that now that I'm eating better and less and working out more, I should naturally be better than when I was eating more and worse and not working out at all. Right?
    "Be better" != "losing weight."

    Conceivably, at least, you could be healthier. Or less unhealthy. That doesn't mean lighter.

    It just takes time to get used to logging. Depending on the size of the eggs, you're probably looking at 70-80 x 2 for those. About 110 for 28 grams of cheddar. Mushrooms, frankly, you could probably skip, but they'll be next to nothing.

  • cleo1234
    cleo1234 Posts: 1 Member
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    We all under estimate the amount of food we eat. Keep a food diary won't correct amounts and calories and go higher on lean proteins, less on carbs if have no health issues that forbid that
  • 2ChaCha
    2ChaCha Posts: 31 Member
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    1200 calories total doesn't really leave a lot of room for bigger calorie meals. 400 calories isn't really my idea of satisfying or filling.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited November 2015
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    2ChaCha wrote: »
    1200 calories total doesn't really leave a lot of room for bigger calorie meals. 400 calories isn't really my idea of satisfying or filling.

    Where did you get that calorie goal? That's the absolute lowest recommended for a woman, it could be that you could potentially eat more -- especially if you are exercising.
  • treehopper1987
    treehopper1987 Posts: 505 Member
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    Maybe try to focus on finding foods that make you feel full, such as protein-rich foods. Some protein-rich foods include meats, nuts, and beans. It's awesome that you are eating healthier! Maybe as some of the others have mentioned, you are eating more of the healthy stuff?
  • advisingwench
    advisingwench Posts: 53 Member
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    2ChaCha wrote: »
    Tracking makes me insane trying to weigh every little ingredient in everything I cook and then divide it all up into portions. (I know, that makes me sound like an idiot, but I just haven't found an easy way for me to do it. My little two eggs with some cheese and mushrooms this morning took me five minutes to get logged. Not even joking.)

    This may seem overly anal, but I've weighed every single pot and pan I own in grams and have the list of weights posted on my refrigerator. When I make a recipe that makes several servings, I weigh the entire thing, subtract the weight of the pot and divide by the number of servings. That gives me the exact weight of each individual portion and removes the guess work.

    As I said, that might be a little overboard but it doesn't take up much time and at least I know I'm tracking correctly :)

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    If you're gaining weight over a period of time, then you're eating more than your body can burn off. You can either find a way to eat less and feel satisfied or you'll probably keep gaining. Those really are the two options here.

    fwiw, these are my really general tips for hunger:

    1. Make sure that your calorie goals are actually set appropriately. Don't skip this step. A lot of people set goals that are too aggressive and then wonder why they're having a hard time. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    2. Look for foods higher in protein, fat, and fiber. These help us stay full and more satisfied longer. If you're using MFP's default settings, try to consider protein, fat, and fiber as minimums to reach every day rather than maximums to stay below.

    3. Drink plenty of fluids. Some people really do confuse thirst and hunger.

    4. Get plenty of rest. This includes sleeping enough and taking rest days from the exercise. Sometimes our bodies look for food when they're exhausted.

    5. Play around with your meal timings. Some people do really well on 5-6 small meals a day and others feel like they want to gnaw their own arm off eating like that. Skipping breakfast, eating breakfast, 16:8 fasting, 6 small meals, 3 larger meals, snacks, no snacks, meal timing won't make a big difference to your weight loss, but it may help your hunger levels, mood, concentration, gym performance, etc. throughout the day. Don't be afraid to try a different way and see if it helps.

    6. Wait it out. If you know you're eating enough and the other steps above aren't helping, you may just have to wait it out. Our bodies send out hunger signals partially out of habit. If you eat at a certain time every day your body will start to get hungry at that time. The good news is that these signals can be retrained to stop telling you to be hungry all the time. The bad news is that you may just have to be hungry for a little bit while that happens.

    7. I also think it's important to remember that there's a habitual component to hunger. This goes along with point #6, but if you eat because you're bored or you're used to eating in front of the TV or in the car or whatever it is, then you can replace those habits with others that are better for you. Things like keeping water on hand to sip instead of snacking or picking up hobbies that keep your hands busy or that get you out of the house more can help out a little while you're retraining your hunger cues. You might need to pay attention to why you're eating/hungry or what you're feeling when you eat and try to replace food with other things, but it can be really beneficial over time.
  • ngagne
    ngagne Posts: 57 Member
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    Portion size. Don't eat too many fruits. the cooking oil/butter when cooking at home.
    Typically all these when first switching to eating more healthily will get you. Fruits have a lot of natural sugars, which although better for you than refined sugars, will still hinder weight loss if you have too many servings. And once again, olive oil (or other healthy cooking fats like lard, tallow, butter/ghee) are all high fat - although healthy fat, it's still fat and calories and needs to be limited.
    Stay driven, patient, & make sure to measure what you cook/eat (use the MFP recipe builder to add your recipes as you cook them) & you will see results.
    Condiments can also be sneak-attack diet destroyers; I often feel like 'it's just alittle ranch that I'm using on my boneless, skinless chicken breast' (so I didn't measure it or log it in the past) but that little bit of ranch (or any condiment other than mustard, usually) has a heck of a lot of sugar, bad fat, and calories in just that little bit.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    1200 calories may be too large of a deficit for you. If it's triggering bingeing, and that's causing you to go way over, that's not a good situation. If you tell MFP you want to lose 0.5 or 1 pound per week, how many calories does that give you?

    At this point, wouldn't it be better for you to consistently lose 0.5 pounds per week than it would for you to be gaining?

    Weight loss isn't about how little you can eat, it's about how long you can stay at a deficit. Little losses add up over time, but forcing yourself down to an unreasonably low target, bingeing, gaining weight and eventually giving up won't get you where you want to be.
  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 657 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    2ChaCha wrote: »
    1200 calories total doesn't really leave a lot of room for bigger calorie meals. 400 calories isn't really my idea of satisfying or filling.

    Where did you get that calorie goal? That's the absolute lowest recommended for a woman, it could be that you could potentially eat more -- especially if you are exercising.

    Since she's 5'1'', it sounds about right. I think 1200-1300 is what it would recommend for a basic calorie intake to lose (if she doesn't add exercise calories).
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,658 Member
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    2ChaCha wrote: »
    1200 calories total doesn't really leave a lot of room for bigger calorie meals. 400 calories isn't really my idea of satisfying or filling.
    Five large eggs and half an ounce of cheddar is about 400.

    Seven ounces of chicken and seven ounces of broccoli is about 400.

    It may also be that 1200 is too low of a goal for you right now.

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