Artificial Sweeteners - Revisited

rileysowner wrote: »

krwallis wrote: »

stealthq wrote: »

So, how much had you lost, and have you adjusted your calories down to compensate? If you're getting close to your goal weight, errors in logging have more of an effect because you have less leeway. Have you tried tightening that up yet?

Personally, I have no similar experience with artificial sweeteners. Granted, I don't use anywhere close to the number you do. I'm more on the lines of 5 max per day.

I think you'd have better luck following the weight loss flow chart that gets posted all of the time rather than cutting out the sweetener. Unless doing that causes you to cut cals as well.

When everything came to a halt I had reached my halfway point. I'm 5'6", 45 yrs old, started at 202 and am sitting at 175. My goal is 145. Just last week I adjusted from 1200 calories a day to 1100 and I'm trying to stay as close to that as possible without going over. I track 95% of everything I eat, good or bad because accuracy is what counts in the long run. I was eating some of my exercise calories back and have decided to only do that on rare occasion and only half of them at the most. I was also eye-balling stuff and went back to straight measuring but I also wanted to make sure I was covering all bases so I did the artificial sweetener research and found lots of differing opinions on it. That's why I started the thread so I could see what others had to say on it. I meal prep every day and know exactly what I'm eating and at what time and of what and that hasn't changed since September unless we have an occasional night out, birthday or holiday. I mean we have to have a life while on this journey since its marathon and not a sprint, right? ;-) I have not been measuring regularly when it came to my liquids so I've started that back so that I can maybe see results there instead. I'm happy with how I'm starting to look and extremely ecstatic about how I feel so those are successes in and of themselves :-)

Just yesterday I went to the dr and after she took my pulse and blood pressure she commented, "Wow, you're going to live forever!" and smiled. THAT made all of my work worth it at that moment

So you don't track everything you consume. That is a problem as that 5% if it is calorie dense can make a big difference.

When you say you now are measuring, how are you doing that? Are you using cups and measuring spoons, or are you using a kitchen scale for solids (including grated [cheese] and ground ones [nut butters]) and the measuring cups and spoons for liquids.

When I said I track 95% of everything I eat I didn't mean everyday. I track 100% all day everyday of anything I eat and drink and I track it the moment I eat/drink it so I don't forget. The other 5% is only if I can't find anything comparable to what I have eaten on rare or special occasion (cheat meals, birthdays, holidays, etc.). I don't allow myself cheat "days" only an occasional "cheat meal" will I make an exception for and even then I don't throw caution to the wind and down everything I possible can with no thought of risk or consequence. I still make healthyish choices (depending on location) and watch my portions. Some restaurants make it difficult to impossible to track and I do the best I can on those "5%" occasions. I meal prep and cook everything from home sticking to the diet template that I have been doing since September which had great results until January. The only thing I can think of is I caught up to my calorie deficit and so its time to make some other changes somewhere which is way I questioned the artificial sweeteners in the first place. They may or may not have any affect but I also know they are not "good" for me so cutting them is a personal choice whether my weight is affected or not. (Secretly I hope it helps LOL!)

We use measuring cups and spoons as well as a food scale. I also use the same containers everyday when I bring my meals to work so my portions never change. When meal prepping all liquids are measured then cooked and all solids are weighed on a food scale with the exception of salad and broccoli. The diet template we follow calls for 1 cup of green vegetables and that's what I've been doing. We don't eat cheese or any ground solids like nut butter or spreads of any kinds. What you see on my diary is exactly, to a T, what I am putting in my body and if something is different I try to make a note of it at the bottom. I primarily only have coffee in the mornings and may have an occasional hot tea before bed (so soothing ) but I drink water all day. I average about a gallon a day.

The only other variable is the amount of calories that are being added to MFP during the synching of my Misfit Activity Tracker and how accurate that is. Rather than assume those are actually the amount of calories I earned back, I have quit eating most of them so that I don't go over my daily allowance by much if any. In the last week I have tried to eat as close to the amount of calories allotted for the day (1100) without going over regardless of the amount of exercise calories it says I've earned.

I'm just going to keep trying new things until something works or gives. I know my body is changing physically due to the compliments I keep getting so something is changing, even if its not the scale.