I'm losing my mind...:(
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zonkiethegreat wrote: »queenliz99 wrote: »Food scale.
I have one, and I use it when I cook at home. Although to be totally honest, I don't cook a lot because of my business I travel a lot and often have to eat out for business dinners, and lunches.
Your mention of using a food scale specifically when you cook is interesting, because it indicates that you might not have thought to be weighing all your food. I'm not kidding. Things like fruit should be weighed (can't log "1 banana" since they can be different sizes, and eyeballing it can be quite off). Packaged foods should be weighed: my packaged food (including slices of bread) often contains 20% more weight than the serving size, so if I were to just log 1 serving each time then I would be consistently eating more calories than I log.6 -
Theres some pretty good advice here...0
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zonkiethegreat wrote: »queenliz99 wrote: »Food scale.
I have one, and I use it when I cook at home. Although to be totally honest, I don't cook a lot because of my business I travel a lot and often have to eat out for business dinners, and lunches.
That's your problem then.
"I weigh everything I cook but I don't cook often..."
You're ingesting more calories than you think.
Unless your tests do come back with a medical issue then I suspect this is correct, sorry to say! If you're having to eyeball and guess at your calories a lot, and it sounds like you are, then you're probably incorrect more often than you think.
I'm 5'6" and losing on 1300-1400 per day - I weigh almost everything (sometimes I'm a little sloppy but it's not affecting my loss yet), and I do next to no exercise (just a little walking some days). But, we only get take out or a restaurant meal maybe 2-3 times per month, and I can usually find accurate info online for the places we frequent.
I do think that all the eating out is most likely to be causing your issue - how long have you had this job where you need to entertain, and does it coincide with your weight gain at all?3 -
zonkiethegreat wrote: »queenliz99 wrote: »Food scale.
I have one, and I use it when I cook at home. Although to be totally honest, I don't cook a lot because of my business I travel a lot and often have to eat out for business dinners, and lunches.
Restaurants rarely make food that meets their own published calories. This is likely the issue. Try cooking at home more, and bringing packed meals and snacks.
Still ask for those test results though. You never know.1 -
After excluding all health conditions that could lead to this, maybe you can try a plant-based diet. It worked magic for MANY people in terms of weight loss, so I suppose it won't harm to give it a shot
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zonkiethegreat wrote: »queenliz99 wrote: »Food scale.
I have one, and I use it when I cook at home. Although to be totally honest, I don't cook a lot because of my business I travel a lot and often have to eat out for business dinners, and lunches.
Your mention of using a food scale specifically when you cook is interesting, because it indicates that you might not have thought to be weighing all your food. I'm not kidding. Things like fruit should be weighed (can't log "1 banana" since they can be different sizes, and eyeballing it can be quite off). Packaged foods should be weighed: my packaged food (including slices of bread) often contains 20% more weight than the serving size, so if I were to just log 1 serving each time then I would be consistently eating more calories than I log.
It implies that the op knew the problem all along and was in denial...like so many here.3 -
zonkiethegreat wrote: »queenliz99 wrote: »Food scale.
I have one, and I use it when I cook at home. Although to be totally honest, I don't cook a lot because of my business I travel a lot and often have to eat out for business dinners, and lunches.
Restaurants rarely make food that meets their own published calories. This is likely the issue. Try cooking at home more, and bringing packed meals and snacks.
Still ask for those test results though. You never know.
We go to a pub and i always have the schnitzel parmigiana, and it's never the same twice in a row. One chef piles on the cheese, another one puts on more sauce, more chips one visit, a small handful the next, sometimes the schnitzels are huge, other times small. The nutritional info they provide on their website is pretty much useless!1 -
Unfortunately, doctors are notorious for ignoring Free T3 and Free T4 thyroid numbers. Your TSH can be in the "normal" range but few people do well if their TSH is higher then 1.5. But most labs say up to 4.5 or 5.0 is "normal." If I don't keep mine at 1.5 I gain weight like crazy (and really fast!). If I don't keep my FT3 and FT4 in the upper 2/3 of the range I gain weight and feel like crap, and lose my hair, etc. etc. So checking your thyroid is always a good plan. All that said, IF your thyroid numbers come back not "normal" but actually in the functional range (upper 2/3 for FT3 and 4 and TSH no higher then 1.5) then I have to agree with others - the eating out is probably doing you in. If you must do so b/c of your job, then perhaps you can order half size portions and then only eat half of that and take the rest home? But you will likely have to come up with some creative way to cut way back on what you are eating when you're out. Don't trust restaurant numbers on this one.1
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Your overeating most likely. If I'm eating out, I check portion sizes first and foremost. If your in the USA the portion sizes are HUGE. Leave food behind on the plate. Order just a salad for one meal. No dressing, bacon or cheese with salads. Fish or vegetarian as much as possible. Red sauces for Italian rather than white sauce. If it's morning tea, I skip and take my own Apple.1
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Or change your job to one where you don't eat out. Your health is more important0
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Thyroid and PCOS are rough. My roommate has both and boy do they make her life hard.
I would like to suggest that you ask for your vitamin and mineral levels and stuff like that to be tested, as well as electrolytes, blood counts, and glucose/diabetes type stuff. When I finally confronted the doctor and told her that how I felt (weak, exhausted, constantly in pain) could not possibly be normal, she did a pretty comprehensive set of tests and it turned out I was pretty damned malnourished and borderline diabetic. I never knew you could be fat and malnourished at the same time, but apparently you can. She gave me some supplements, and I changed my eating patterns, and once the nutrients started coming in, hey presto! I could move! And things have moved on accordingly. A month ago, walking to the mailbox felt like a marathon. Today I walked 1.6 miles and still had the energy to run to the store and cook dinner afterward (I didn't wash the dishes though, LOL).
I think that's the only really helpful suggestion I can give you. Good luck!3 -
Are you on birth control?they all make me gain weight0
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I bet you feel like you are being attacked by everyone's "you are not logging correctly"s. Understand it is not their intention to call you a liar, we have all been there and made that discovery that we are awful at "estimating", especially restaurant food.
I personally didn't start loosing weight until I got a food scale and refused to go to restaurants that don't publish their nutrition menus online. I pre plan a week in advance what I am eating everyday, that way I can budget my calories for dates and social gatherings.11 -
Also, r/fatlogic on Reddit.com was instrumental for me to snap out of feeling sorry for myself and take REAL healthy actions.3
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Two things:
If you've spent your life dieting, you may have lowered your metabolic rate. You might want to find a place that tests that and determine what your RMR actually is.
More importantly: Restaurant food is a minefield.
It is so easy to walk into a restaurant and eat what seems to be a "reasonable" and "healthy' meal that has a full day's worth of calories. Restaurant food is made hyperpalatable by the addition of sugar, salt, and extra fat to things that wouldn't normally have those, and the portions you get are almost always significantly larger than the ones they publish on the calorie lists. And things you might think of as "best choices" (salads) are often MORE caloric than other choices.
When we had to stop eating out regularly (1x/ week) a few years ago - we ate what felt like huge portions of rich food, and my husband lost a lot of weight.
Can you pack some food when you travel? Or don't schedule business lunches and dinners on the same day, so that you only eat one BIG meal per day? Alternatively, you'll likely have to start cutting your restaurant entree in half and resolving to only eat a portion of it.
Seriously, as soon as you said you don't cook that often and you have to eat business lunches/dinners, I knew what was up.7 -
May I suggest LCHF diet? I have been on it and it has done wonders for my glucose levels that are taken 6 times a day. Range from 67 to 111 now, including 2 hour after meals. I assume since you are on Metformin your doc has given you a glucometer and strips? If not, Walmart sells generics that are inexpensive or demand that your doc issue scripts for you. The plus side of this diet is weight loss and no hunger. Google LCHF, Insulin Resistance and Dietdoctor. I hazard a guess that you are already insulin resistant.
I seldom forget to test since after my husband and I had Father's day dinner at an all you can eat Chinese food, our 2 hour was 264 and 295 respectively. I do not know what possessed me to do that, other then I was feeling comatose. Very, very bad, since normal for diabetics is about 140. My doctor never told me to check my 2 hr and relied exclusively on fasting sugar levels and A1C. The Endo just kept pilling on the pills since our A1C kept creeping up over the years. He kept saying that Diabetes is a progressive disease whenever I questioned him.
I went off the MFP wagon a few years ago (Blame to self, shame, shame)and only recently started logging my weight. I weighed 181 on Fathers Day in June and now weigh close to 168. Eating very simple meals at home so I can judge the calories, no snacks, threw out or donated all carbs that were in my kitchen. Not logging calories since I virtually memorized the calorie chart a few years ago and I do weigh and measure the food that has calories. No artificial sweeteners of any kind since they provoke an insulin response.
I hope this is helpful. Google it and inform/decide for yourself. Do not rely on my words only and forgive any typos.2 -
I'm with the others who think that the restaurant food is the culprit. I dislike work travel for this reason. What helps me on the road is keeping it simple.
Here's my strategy, if its helpful:
I pack protein bars or nuts, dried fruit or whatever travels well in my suitcase. Sometimes I'll weigh and make "snack bags". Or, if I'm in one place for more than a day I pop in the local grocery store or bodega and get stuff including fresh fruit. If you have a mini-fridge in the hotel room, even better; a microwave is golden because Lean Cuisine or some such makes for a tasty meal (I don't eat these at home). Don't forget to pack cutlery. I have a metal snap together fork/spoon/knife thingy. This takes care of non-business meals.
When eating out; I try whenever possible to eat things that are more easily estimated and avoid complex meals. And portions can be large, so I don't feel compelled to eat it all. Sometimes I'll put together side dishes to make a meal, but this only works for simple things like steamed veggies or a baked potato or whatnot.
All of the above is less of a PITA than it seems. For me I had to scale a mental hurdle and find my determined inner self.7 -
Just sharing my personal experience here, so take it for what it is. I was in the pre-diabetic stage, and a friend suggested I do LCHF. Within just a month, I was no longer getting pre-diabetic readings. I knew I couldn't keep up a permanent LCHF diet, so I have been doing IF and watching my processed food intake. I now have an a1c of 5.3. Some people find both LCHF and IF hard to do. I think IF is easier to manage since you are not restricting food groups, just times you eat.
Also, making sustainable dietary decisions now will help you maintain in the future, so find a sustainable method for you personally and keep at it. It may be slower than crash diets, but in the long run, you'll be better off.0 -
This section is very helpful
I think I'm going to try LCHF, because honestly I can't quit my job. I love my job, I love travel, and I love living in a nice apartment, so I can't just quit my job lol. I also do need to be careful because I don't want to become diabetic in the future.
For those recommending LCHF, is there a book or website you like to use as a guide?
Birth control -- I've been off BC since February because I'm planning on getting pregnant within the next year or so.
Hormonally, it's been strange, I had one doctor say I may have PCOS, and two other doctors tell me that I definitely do not have it, but I may suffer from a slight hormonal imbalance.Two things:
If you've spent your life dieting, you may have lowered your metabolic rate. You might want to find a place that tests that and determine what your RMR actually is.
More importantly: Restaurant food is a minefield.
It is so easy to walk into a restaurant and eat what seems to be a "reasonable" and "healthy' meal that has a full day's worth of calories. Restaurant food is made hyperpalatable by the addition of sugar, salt, and extra fat to things that wouldn't normally have those, and the portions you get are almost always significantly larger than the ones they publish on the calorie lists. And things you might think of as "best choices" (salads) are often MORE caloric than other choices.
When we had to stop eating out regularly (1x/ week) a few years ago - we ate what felt like huge portions of rich food, and my husband lost a lot of weight.
Can you pack some food when you travel? Or don't schedule business lunches and dinners on the same day, so that you only eat one BIG meal per day? Alternatively, you'll likely have to start cutting your restaurant entree in half and resolving to only eat a portion of it.
Seriously, as soon as you said you don't cook that often and you have to eat business lunches/dinners, I knew what was up.
I agree, how exactly do you get the RMR and all that tested? What kind of doc would I go to?0 -
I had my RMR tested through the wellness program at work.
Do a little research on LCHF - the one thing I think you might have trouble with is being able to eat that way on the road in a satisfying way. A lot of restaurant meals are going to have hidden carbs (again, remember that they add sugars to things that don't normally have sugar, to make them extra-tasty). It will depend on what kind of restaurants you tend to eat at.2
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