Ridiculous...!!! A month in and nothing has moved

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  • Jams009
    Jams009 Posts: 345 Member
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    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    Thanks for links and encouragement...will reassess. No health issues and take longer walks some days or nothing other days...overall ok with body except for sloppy jiggly mass around stomach and abs. I can't resolve having been slim good figure most of my life and so conciliatory of body now mid-60. Re measurements... I make minestrone soup so will select 1 cup from database for example...is that correct to do?

    No, lots of ingredients go into minestrone soup and different people will use different amounts. My minestrone soup would have a different calorie content to your minestrone soup etc... But my 100g chopped onion would be the same as your 100g chopped onion. Either log each ingredient seperately or use the recipe tab in the food diary, which is really handy btw. Same thing applies to all home made meals.
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
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    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    Medium is subjective. What you think is a med banana may be a large one to me. Did you measure it in inches?

    A tablespoon is a tablespoon and can be logged as such- just make sure its not a heaping tablespoon- that it is leveled.
    Do you have a digital scale? ($20)- put the empty spoon on the scale then zero it out (tare) so that it resets to 0. Add your peanut butter and re-weigh in grams.

    The components of your soup or casserole are added as a recipe. Add 1lb lean ground beef. 1can of kidney beans. 6oz raw pasta. 2 cups diced tomatoes- or weigh your tomato. ..etc. Then input how many servings this makes and MFP will give you calories/nutrition per serving- it is saved and add it to your log.

    Is it work? yes.
    Is it worth it? yes.


    Does accurately logging assist with weight loss?...yes.
    Otherwise how will you know how much you are eating?
    If you dont log accurately then whats the point of logging at all? :)
    Hang in there OP!
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
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    @janiceh2016 As a shorter woman it can be a real struggle. I popped your numbers in a calculator that shows how many calories you burn just from being alive (BMR), how many calories you burn from being alive and moving around (TDEE) and how many calories you should eat to lose a pound a week. Here is what came back if I put that you were sedentary activity wise.

    BMR - 1229
    TDEE - 1475
    Daily Calories for Weight Loss Goal 1180

    1200 calories a day is probably correct for you. With a calorie goal that low though, making sure you have a good handle on how many calories you are actually consuming becomes very important. I hate food scales, because it just seems like making a hard thing harder. However, you will likely need to have very tight food logging since your margin for error is so small.

    I would also recommend that if you haven't, have a work up with your doctor. Thryoid and hormonal imbalances can become more prevalent as we age. (Here's a link for all you citation needed nazis. http://endoassocaz.net/thyroid-disease-aging/) It never hurts to have a baseline of you health status.

    Good luck
  • Jams009
    Jams009 Posts: 345 Member
    edited April 2016
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    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    Here's a couple of other ways to weigh peanut butter.

    Take whatever you are adding the peanut butter to e.g. a slice of toast on a plate. Put it on your scale and 'tare' it (set it to 0). Add your peanut butter; it will show the weight of the peanut butter you added.

    Alternatively:

    If you have a digital scale that can read negative numbers, put the tub of peanut butter on the scale, tare it, and take the desired amount of peanut butter. The amount you have taken will show as a negative number e.g. 10g will show as -10g.

    For soups and casseroles etc. just weigh each item as you add it to the pan, then weigh the total amount of food and divide it into 'servings' using the recipe builder.

    I found it useful to weigh all my empty pans and write down the weights. Then when I make a big batch of something, I put the full pan on the scale and subtract the weight of the pan to give me the amount of food. I also use a standard serving size of 100g for all my recipes so if my casserole was 2240 grams, I'd call it 22 servings. If I then ate 350g of it I'd log that as 3.5 servings.
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    when i weigh cheese, it's usually a brand - sargento, kroger, etc. so i read the package for the calories the manufacturer lists for that cheese, then find a matching listing in the MFP database. once you do this, unless you log LOTS of food, it will stay in your frequent or recent list, but i find it only takes a few seconds anyway. then calculate the percentage and there ya go.

    btw, i find sometimes large variances even with things listed for the same brand and amount, which is why i check the packaging. just yesterday i was adding a food; two users listed the same amount, brand and item name, yet were 140 calories apart per serving. and i've seen listings that were two hundred calories low, so good to check the package calories.
  • blewbell
    blewbell Posts: 30 Member
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    Try strength training, I'm the same height but 20 years younger, and had to regain some muscle tissue (it is metabolic) before I could lose any weight. Went a month like you did with nothing. Also since you don't have much to lose, you won't be able to create the deficits needed to lose at a pound a week with 1200 calories - even if you weigh everything. I would set your goals to 1/2 pound a week. Actually, my goal is 135 at 5'2'', but I'm 20 pounds from that right now so I might think differently once I'm there. You may just need to focus on body recomposition - and eating cleaner of course.
  • Arekha
    Arekha Posts: 45 Member
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    I have the same problem...i am only 5'1", so things that are rounding errors for others can become significant for me. I lost a bunch of wt a couple of years ago by logging every morsel, then, life took over and i gained everything back. i dont think i significantly overate, but even small variances, or indulgences (one piece of chocolate), can add up.

    Having been through the cycle once, I plan to lose and be extra vigilant maintaining. Increasing activity level and not eating back all the calories also helps
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,339 Member
    edited April 2016
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    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    Hi Janice..feel free to add me, my diary is open. I make soups and casseroles weekly, actually I have a chicken soup in the crockpot as I type this! I'd love to help you, if I can xo
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,339 Member
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    Jams009 wrote: »
    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    Here's a couple of other ways to weigh peanut butter.

    Take whatever you are adding the peanut butter to e.g. a slice of toast on a plate. Put it on your scale and 'tare' it (set it to 0). Add your peanut butter; it will show the weight of the peanut butter you added.

    Alternatively:

    If you have a digital scale that can read negative numbers, put the tub of peanut butter on the scale, tare it, and take the desired amount of peanut butter. The amount you have taken will show as a negative number e.g. 10g will show as -10g.

    For soups and casseroles etc. just weigh each item as you add it to the pan, then weigh the total amount of food and divide it into 'servings' using the recipe builder.

    I found it useful to weigh all my empty pans and write down the weights. Then when I make a big batch of something, I put the full pan on the scale and subtract the weight of the pan to give me the amount of food. I also use a standard serving size of 100g for all my recipes so if my casserole was 2240 grams, I'd call it 22 servings. If I then ate 350g of it I'd log that as 3.5 servings.

    These...great ideas, and make the whole logging thing much easier for you in the long run. It's really only difficult for the first couple of weeks, until you start to have all your regular foods listed...then you need only weigh, find your food in the recent or frequent tab, and log it. Easy Peasy!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,981 Member
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    Jams009 wrote: »
    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    Here's a couple of other ways to weigh peanut butter.

    Take whatever you are adding the peanut butter to e.g. a slice of toast on a plate. Put it on your scale and 'tare' it (set it to 0). Add your peanut butter; it will show the weight of the peanut butter you added.

    Alternatively:

    If you have a digital scale that can read negative numbers, put the tub of peanut butter on the scale, tare it, and take the desired amount of peanut butter. The amount you have taken will show as a negative number e.g. 10g will show as -10g.

    For soups and casseroles etc. just weigh each item as you add it to the pan, then weigh the total amount of food and divide it into 'servings' using the recipe builder.

    I found it useful to weigh all my empty pans and write down the weights. Then when I make a big batch of something, I put the full pan on the scale and subtract the weight of the pan to give me the amount of food. I also use a standard serving size of 100g for all my recipes so if my casserole was 2240 grams, I'd call it 22 servings. If I then ate 350g of it I'd log that as 3.5 servings.

    The bolded is how I weigh peanut butter.

    Now that all my frequent foods are in my food diary, I spend less than 10 minutes per day weighing and logging (on days that I am not creating a new recipe.)

    I have a notebook next to the scale and transfer the numbers into my food diary when I get a chance.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,981 Member
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    2snakeswoman wrote: »
    If you're using things like tablespoons or measuring cups to count calories, remember that 1 tablespoon means 1 level tablespoon. It shouldn't be heaped in the middle AT ALL. I don't know why people think that grams are so much more accurate than ounces. My scale shows both, but it's so much easier to read in ounces than it is in grams because the lines indicating fractions of grams are so much closer together whereas 1/2 ounce (for example) is easy to see. It's a spring scale rather than a digital one. I might invest in a digital scale at some point in the future when our household cash flow is better.

    I started with a spring scale. Do get a digital scale. OMG, is it easier! I believe they are under $15 at Walmart. Definitely under $20.
  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Jams009 wrote: »
    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    Here's a couple of other ways to weigh peanut butter.

    Take whatever you are adding the peanut butter to e.g. a slice of toast on a plate. Put it on your scale and 'tare' it (set it to 0). Add your peanut butter; it will show the weight of the peanut butter you added.

    Alternatively:

    If you have a digital scale that can read negative numbers, put the tub of peanut butter on the scale, tare it, and take the desired amount of peanut butter. The amount you have taken will show as a negative number e.g. 10g will show as -10g.

    For soups and casseroles etc. just weigh each item as you add it to the pan, then weigh the total amount of food and divide it into 'servings' using the recipe builder.

    I found it useful to weigh all my empty pans and write down the weights. Then when I make a big batch of something, I put the full pan on the scale and subtract the weight of the pan to give me the amount of food. I also use a standard serving size of 100g for all my recipes so if my casserole was 2240 grams, I'd call it 22 servings. If I then ate 350g of it I'd log that as 3.5 servings.

    The bolded is how I weigh peanut butter.

    Now that all my frequent foods are in my food diary, I spend less than 10 minutes per day weighing and logging (on days that I am not creating a new recipe.)

    I have a notebook next to the scale and transfer the numbers into my food diary when I get a chance.

    Ditto.
  • 6pkdreamer
    6pkdreamer Posts: 180 Member
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    JustMissTracy wrote: »
    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    Thanks... 65 at 5'2" and over 140lbs... Lots of middle stuff. I am a good walker and given up the white stuff, treats and wine!

    Don't give up wine! You didn't make it this far to torture yourself!!

    Don't assume it was torture for Miss Tracy!
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    2snakeswoman wrote: »
    If you're using things like tablespoons or measuring cups to count calories, remember that 1 tablespoon means 1 level tablespoon. It shouldn't be heaped in the middle AT ALL. I don't know why people think that grams are so much more accurate than ounces. My scale shows both, but it's so much easier to read in ounces than it is in grams because the lines indicating fractions of grams are so much closer together whereas 1/2 ounce (for example) is easy to see. It's a spring scale rather than a digital one. I might invest in a digital scale at some point in the future when our household cash flow is better.

    I find the grams to be more precise. For example, if I weigh 2 oz of pasta, which is supposed to be 56 grams, if I weigh it in ounces and then switch it to grams, it's always over the gram limit. Just my experience.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    janiceh2016 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy: I understood 'tracking' meant choosing items from database..(i.e.) 1 medium banana... Did that for month then posted here with exasperation. So that was wrong way to do things. One of the links says weigh peanut butter. I would select 1 tablespoon from measuring spoon or 1 cup of homemade chili. No clue how to "weigh" peanut butter. Or break down every component in a soup or casserole.

    @janiceh2016 Use the "Recipe Calculator." Submenu when you're in the "Food Diary" section of the website. I make "casseroles" on the weekend that are several servings. I enter the ingredients (weighed/measured) and the recipe calculator does all the calculations for me. Then you save it. You can also save meals you have on repeat. :smiley: So handy!

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