Help, please
rhjsgal354
Posts: 21 Member
I have made my Diary public so I can get some advice and advise me of why I'm not losing weight. I have not lost in the last month. I just need something to work. I stopped everything cold turkey sugar, chocolate, bread, flour etc. It's going on six weeks and I've lost 6 pounds, but I lost all that the first two weeks. I'm going to go to my doctor this next week and ask about a deeper test for thyroid. I think that's my underlining problem but they say no. I'm tired of messing around.
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I can't seem to access your diary but I know cheese stops me from losing and making sure I stay in a calorie deficit.1
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It's hard to say, but looking at your diary, it appears you are using measuring cups or guessing rather than using a scale and weighing your portions. You are likely underestimating how much you are eating. I've heard many people complain that 1 T. of peanut butter can often be closer to double the calories once they weigh it. Also, many entries for foods in the MFP database are incorrect. I often have to Google foods first (USDA or Calorie King seem pretty good), and then try to find the correct one in MFP.
I'm 5'8" and 184 pounds. When sedentary, I maintain on around 1650 calories. I find the calculators/MFP guides just don't work for me. I have not been diagnosed with a thyroid problem either, but suspect there may be one lingering. Still, I've been able to lose weight just by carefully tracking my numbers and weighing everything I eat whenever possible. It just means we can't eat as much as others.
Not sure of your stats, but if you haven't lost in the last month, maybe calculate your daily total from what you've logged for those 30 days. Assume you are mis-measuring or forgetting to add a few bites here and there and add 200-300 calories to each day. Then divide the total by 30. Guess that to be your maintenance level at your current activity level. Then decide how much of a deficit you can live with (500 calories/day?), and try sticking to that while carefully logging for another four weeks. If you lose a lot more than you expect, you can increase your calorie goal slightly. If you don't lose at all, then you know you were grossly underestimating before and need to drop your daily calorie goal a little more. If you gain and you've weighed your food and logged diligently . . . take your log back to your doctor and ask for more tests.
Hang in there. 6 pounds in 6 weeks is still fantastic! Good luck!6 -
I do weigh my food out. Sometimes I use measuring cups and tablespoons to measure everything. I scan a lot too, thankful for that feature. I check for the correct amount form everything, if it is wrong on the database, then I look for one that is a very close match. I track all my calories that I eat throughout the day as I eat them. I have even gone the that site to figure all my macros, I think they are nuts with the 2000? calories they wanted me to eat. I am the one that choose to decrease the calls to 1900. I can not eat 1900 calories and in my diary, you can tell that. I even fast 6 days a week, usually the 16/8. I can eat less than 1000 calls a day and still that scale doesn't move.......0
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So first off, 6 pounds in 6 weeks is a very good loss. There's no reason to be convinced something is wrong because... You lost a pound a week! That's great! It's working.
Second, sure lots of people may lose more than that and maybe you could potentially have lost more. So, I would ask if you have diabetes or insulin resistance, PCOS or any known metabolic disfunction? I suppose there could be something unknown but losing a pound a week suggests your body can lose weight just fine.
What I saw in your diary is it seems you're attempting a Keto level low carb diet??? But rice and pinto beans and tortilla chips and whatever that Burger King chicken for 18g carbs are not Ketogenic foods.
Many of your breakfasts are not Ketogenic with the sugar content of the berries being close to or higher than the total fat content of your meals.
I'm on mobile so it's not as easy to look at all the details, and I don't recall how overall fat consumption compared to carbs and protein day by day... But even if it evens out over the course of the day, the breakfasts are heavily leaning toward glucose burning.
I also don't recall what your sources of fat are and am unable to go back over it right now, but you don't want fake fats. I don't know if anything you had was though. I'm just adding that as it's fairly common. No vegetable oils or margarine and junk like that. No fat free or low fat stuff.4 -
I also noticed that the avocado that you're using to track is inaccurate. Fiber is technically a carb. So if your avocado has 10g of fiber, it should also have at least 10g of carbohydrates. I don't think this would make a massive impact or anything. I just know that for me, accuracy in the things that I log are important1
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Measuring cups (tablespoons, etc.) can be quite incorrect. The 1. T. of peanut butter you measure out with a Tablespoon might actually weigh (using a food scale) 32 grams instead of the 16 grams listed on the peanut butter jar - a double serving = double the calories.
1/2 c. of taco meat in your taco salad might not be 150 calories. I had a small serving of taco meat last night (I'll guess between 1/4 c. and 1/2 c.) using lean ground beef. It weighed 3.2 oz. once cooked, which worked out to 233 calories, plus I had to add the calories from the seasoning.
Or another example is that avocados come in varying sizes. Half of one might weigh 30 g or it might weigh 60 g. 1/2 c. of fresh blueberries for me weighed 125g or 71 calories; you've logged 1/2 c. as 30 calories.
Some can lose without logging. For me, it takes weighing everything, logging meticulously, and a lot of patience.5 -
I see what your saying, RunRachelleRun. A lightbulb just went off. Lol. Thank you. I have tried to stay way under the 1900 so that would make up for any type of oversight. I will be paying more attention to detail from now on. I am also going to be lowering my calories to 1400 and see how that goes.
CommandaPanda, thank you, I had not noticed about the avocado. I was told, "Eat an avocado a day and it will do you good", lol, not if its not being logged right.
Sunny-Bunny, I had been told I needed more berries, so I tried the few times. Truthfully, I like my fasting more than those berries.2 -
I totally understand. It took me a while to figure out what was going wrong when I was having trouble losing. And I still have trouble and have to keep checking on where I might be going wrong. Losing is hard!1
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rhjsgal354 wrote: »I see what your saying, RunRachelleRun. A lightbulb just went off. Lol. Thank you. I have tried to stay way under the 1900 so that would make up for any type of oversight. I will be paying more attention to detail from now on. I am also going to be lowering my calories to 1400 and see how that goes.
CommandaPanda, thank you, I had not noticed about the avocado. I was told, "Eat an avocado a day and it will do you good", lol, not if its not being logged right.
Sunny-Bunny, I had been told I needed more berries, so I tried the few times. Truthfully, I like my fasting more than those berries.
We don't ever NEED berries but their yummy!
When I have them, I eat them in the evening. I like to fast til about 2pm each day but with fatty coffee (aka Bulletproof coffee). If you believe Dave Aspreys take on it, any carbs we do consume are best eaten later in the day instead of early.2 -
I didn't see your diary, but saw the comments about the rice and beans and other carbohydrates. To get yourself into ketosis some programs say to go with 20 carbs per day. You might get some ketosticks to see if you are in ketosis and maintaining. If you are not in ketosis and burning fat, I think the higher calories from the macro calculators would not be appropriate. I'm at a stall right now, but I am T1 diabetic, low thyroid among other issues, and I have been a yoyo dieter as well. The posts here have helped me to understand that sometimes our bodies need to work on healing and we need to wait until our bodies reach an equilibrium in order to lose more weight. One other idea is to get a tape measure an measure your waist & hips & see if you are losing inches even though the scale hasn't moved. I truly wish you the best!4
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CommandaPanda wrote: »I also noticed that the avocado that you're using to track is inaccurate. Fiber is technically a carb. So if your avocado has 10g of fiber, it should also have at least 10g of carbohydrates. I don't think this would make a massive impact or anything. I just know that for me, accuracy in the things that I log are important
Many of us subtract fiber from carbs because it's not something that has a glycemic effect. I always remove fiber from my carb count to ensure my net carbs are correct.2 -
I did see that an avocado has 12 carbs and 10 fiber so I was off by 2 carbs ever avocado I had. It's ok though. I am going to regroup and start again on Monday. I need to restart and focus on the positive.2
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For me, if I don't eat enough calories, I dont lose weight. I am 5'9'" and I need about 2300 for my activity level. If I go under too much for too long the scale doesn't budge.maybe calculate more accurate tdee using body fat percentages make sure you aren't starving yourself2
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If counting and measuring calories and carbs isn't working for you, there are low carb diets that use food lists instead of counting. I have lost 50+ lbs on the Dukan diet. There are a few Dukan books... The one I am using is: _The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep It Off Forever Hardcover – April 19, 2011. Good luck!2
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