Orangetheory

245

Replies

  • schibsted750
    schibsted750 Posts: 355 Member
    edited January 2016
    I weigh myself every day, and the scale weight fluctuates by a pound or two every time. There's a significant amount of variability inherent in scale weight. E.g. if your scale weight fluctuates by plus/minus two pounds, then you could have weighed in at two pounds below your "true" weight the first time, and two pounds above your "true" weight the second time, without any real change occurring. How frequently have you been weighing yourself? Unless you arrived at this number by taking an average of many measurements, I wouldn't have a high degree of confidence in saying that you've conclusively gained any weight. If you were only using two measurements, one from four months ago and one from this morning, I would have no confidence whatsoever.

    Same with body fat measurement. All techniques of measurement have intrinsic error and 1% is just not that big of a difference.
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    Ok, ok. lol. I'll track meals more accurately. I'm a huge creature of habit with food. That's why I think there's more to it.
  • errollmaclean
    errollmaclean Posts: 562 Member
    aperz1 wrote: »
    The thing is the scale, calorie count still does not answer the question since my eating habits have not changed.

    You mentioned that your diet is pretty clean. That doesn't matter. The number of calories you're eating matters. The only way to accurately measure that is with a food scale.

    It's the most common error and the easiest to address. Once you accurately monitor your intake you will know if that is the culprit or if you have to look elswhere. I'd suggest ruling it out first. Almost everyone is surprised once they start weighing their food.
  • schibsted750
    schibsted750 Posts: 355 Member
    errollm wrote: »
    aperz1 wrote: »
    The thing is the scale, calorie count still does not answer the question since my eating habits have not changed.
    Almost everyone is surprised once they start weighing their food.

    Yeah, this really can't be emphasized enough. I truly had no idea what I was eating until I started tracking it.
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    My weight before starting was 126-128. Now, 131-134. Fat calculated with Bod Pod. No change in measurements. I see some difference in my appearance but wasn't surprised my fat % didn't change much.
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    What about using 21 day fix containers? I don't have a scale. I truly cannot imagine weighing all my food. How do ppl have the time to do this? Bod pod guy told me 1 gm/lb of protein and carbs and 50 gm fat per day. Anyone have a good meal plan site?
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    I have the containers and they just equate to measuring cups.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,023 Member
    In the same amount of time it will take to put food into pretty-colored tupperware, you can have that container on a food scale and actually know how much you are eating.

    If you don't want to use a food scale, you don't have to. But it is the only way to get a reasonably accurate picture of what your numbers are. You can weigh for a couple of weeks and see if your calories are what you think they are, or you can keep trying out ways to estimate and not know for sure what's going on.

    My food scale sits on my counter, and I put whatever container or plate I would use anyway on the scale and then measure out my portions. Takes approx 3 seconds more time. Easy peasy.
  • schibsted750
    schibsted750 Posts: 355 Member
    Weighing food takes a lot less time than you think. I thought it was going to take a long time, too, but it doesn't. We're talking a matter of seconds, definitely less than one minute per meal.
  • schibsted750
    schibsted750 Posts: 355 Member
    Here's the scale I use. I've never had any problems with it.
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    I get it, but cups equate to ounces to milliliters to grams. It's the same.
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
    aperz1 wrote: »
    My weight before starting was 126-128. Now, 131-134. Fat calculated with Bod Pod. No change in measurements. I see some difference in my appearance but wasn't surprised my fat % didn't change much.

    Depending on your height this sounds pretty light. What are your goals with OTF? Are you trying to lose weight or just improve fitness?

    A scale, for solids, is the most accurate way to determine how much you are actually eating.
  • schibsted750
    schibsted750 Posts: 355 Member
    Milliliters don't ever convert to grams. One is a unit of volume and the other is a unit of mass.

    Cups don't convert to ounces, either. A cup can be converted into fluid ounces, but an ounce is a unit of weight, and a fluid ounce a unit of volume, namely the volume of water that weighs one ounce. The weight of a fluid ounce will depend on the density of whatever's being measured.
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    Yes actually they do convert. I'm a nurse and 1 ml= 1 gram. 30 ml = ounce. 8 oz= cup . This is plenty accurate.
  • schibsted750
    schibsted750 Posts: 355 Member
    1 ml of solid metal does not weigh 1 gram. 1 ml of water does.
  • whooRAWRowlbear
    whooRAWRowlbear Posts: 47 Member
    Once you get your own system set up, it doesn't take too long. I spend maybe 30 minutes on a weekend weighing and packaging single portions of non-refrigerated snacks (nuts, pretzels) and have them all set up in a cupboard container so the fiance and I can grab and log when we get hungry or when I'm putting snacks in our bags for during the day at work. For refrigerated/"perishable" foods (fruit, cheeses), I slice up a single portion and weigh it in the morning, each morning when I make lunches (this doesn't add any time, since I slice cheeses and fruits anyways, I just add the step of weighing before I put them into bags).

    For meals I cook, I make 2-4 meals worth (so 4-8 servings total) at a time. Since I cook in sections (I'm not organized, nor do I have the kitchen setup to allow me to make multiple parts of a meal at once), I'll usually cook the things that I don't need to focus on (rice in a rice cooker, casseroles in the oven) first, then make things that take shorter times, and as I finish the entire meal, I just weigh each part, and box it for reheating (I'm still working on getting into the habit of weighing more things from homecooked meals instead of using measuring cups).

    I've had a small food scale for some time now, which is great when I just want to measure snacks, but I purchased one with a larger measuring surface (williams-sonoma.com/products/oxo-digital-food-scale/).

    For planning, I sat down one day and spent some time going through a couple of food blogs I follow and just wrote down recipes, plugged them in through MFP recipe builder, and planned meals for a few weeks out (I have all the lunches/dinners for January planned for fiance and I). It takes time, but it's much less stressful than me sitting down every week on Sunday trying to figure out what I was making for the week, and is much easier to track and stay on target than eating out or eating at the cafeteria at work. But I spend a lot of time on Pinterest marking recipes that interest me when I'm not looking at food blogs (most of which I found through Pinterest at one time).

    A lot of it takes time, adapting, and building a routine that works. But once you get used to it, everything takes less time and gets easier.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    You probably shouldn't come to a calorie counting website and then not like the suggestion of "count your calories accurately". That's kinda step 1 of MFP. If you aren't game for that I'm not sure what to tell you.

    There are basically 2 things that could be happening...

    1. You are eating more than you think and\or burning less than you think.

    2. You defy science or have a medical condition.

    Obviously, you can see why suggestion #1 should be ruled out before thinking about #2.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,023 Member
    edited January 2016
    OP, the oatmeal box says a serving is 1/2 cup, or 40 grams. When I put my half cup measuring cup on the scale and then weigh out 40 grams, the 1/2 cup is NEVER full. Depending on how all the little oats settle into the 1/2 cup, it can be anywhere from 44 to 50 grams. If you cut chicken up into bite size pieces and put it into a cup container, a different amount of chicken will fit in every time you do it based on the size and shape of the pieces. The calorie counts on foods are accurate for the weight measurement given, not the volume. Maybe someone will find and post the video showing how inaccurate volume measuring can be.

    Having said that, I'm going to bow out now. You asked for help finding the reason you aren't losing weight. Using a food scale will go a long way to helping you figure it out, and is fast, easy, and cheap. I'm sure you have your own reasons for not wanting to do that. Best of luck.
  • soccerkon26
    soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
    What exercises were you doing before OTF?
  • aperz1
    aperz1 Posts: 24 Member
    Mostly Beachbody workouts. So thirty minutes, and mostly less intense than OTF. I'm not trying to be obstinate, but I'm a creature of habit. My habits have not changed over the past 4 months. I have a few friends who've had same trouble at OTF. I know I've not gotten close to intensity with beachbody as OTF. So all things equal, it doesn't added up.