Can someone look at my diary and help?

This fluctuation could be for a number of reasons. Make sure you're weighing at the same times with the same circumstances each week...and give it more time. If you're in a consistent calorie deficit, positive change will happen.

If you just started exercising this week, that could be the culprit. You may be retaining water.

Like others said, 1-3lb fluctuations are normal. It can be as simple as when you last peed, sodium intake, time of day, etc... give it time and make sure you're weighing and logging everything you put in your mouth.

Be patient and give it time.

Weight loss happens over time and the scale will go up and down- it's usually mostly water weigt

Try comparing today's weight to your weight 1 month ago, not 1 day ago.

Women fluctuate all over the place because of their cycles. Also increased or new exercise makes muscles swell and retain water at first.

Just keep going.

micayla75 wrote: »

Thank you. :-)

I typically weigh most foods, but I'm not sure how to calculate some foodd even after weighing them. For example, my husband made BBQ in a crock pot with two different types of BBQ sauce. I have no idea how much sauce is on each one I eat or how to determine the exact information when combining different ingredients. This includes the ribs, which did not have its own nutrition information because it was purchased awhile ago, repackaged and frozen in our deep freeze. The only option I could find was a "homemade ribs" and I have no idea if that was close or not.

One more question, do people buy a scale for work? I typically eat a tuna sandwich (now one slice instead of two and I will be looking for a healthier bread) and an apple. I weigh my apple in the morning, but don't really want to buy a scale to weigh my tuna at work. I have been going by the packet information. If it is really imperative that I weigh that as well, I will, but it hardly seems like the tuna will be off by much.

I may have given the impression that I don't weigh a lot of foods, but I truly weigh/measure almost everything.

Some people have a scale at work, others don't.

I suppose it depends on your work environment - do you have a private office and/or do you not care if people see you weigh your food?

If having a scale at work would make you uncomfortable, skip it. I typically pack my lunch at home and assemble everything there so it's all weighed already. I do have a scale in my desk drawer and have used it on occasion. I have a private office space, though, so no one around to ask questions

My suggestion would be to weigh everything when you're at home for a start. Then, if you find your weight loss stalls for 4-6 weeks, get a scale for work

~Lyssa

Watch this video to see the importance of weighing food
https://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY

You can eat bread, cheese, and whatever else you want. Weighing these items will help you track your calories accurately. I would say it's better to weigh out, log, and eat 20 g of whatever cheese you like, than buy a "healthy" cheese (whatever that may be...) and just eat a hunk of it without knowing how much you are really eating.

micayla75 wrote: »

Thank you. :-)

I typically weigh most foods, but I'm not sure how to calculate some foodd even after weighing them. For example, my husband made BBQ in a crock pot with two different types of BBQ sauce. I have no idea how much sauce is on each one I eat or how to determine the exact information when combining different ingredients. This includes the ribs, which did not have its own nutrition information because it was purchased awhile ago, repackaged and frozen in our deep freeze. The only option I could find was a "homemade ribs" and I have no idea if that was close or not.

I eat a LOT of BBQ/Grilled/Smoked foods. It's true you have to estimate the sauce quite often, but what I've found that helps is not adding it until you are ready to eat it. For instance, I used to make pulled pork or BBQ beef in the slow cooker in the winter as well, and would just add bbq sauce and spices until it tasted right. Now, I'll add the beef and seasonings but no sauce. I weigh the beef beforehand and find the correct entry for it in a recipe. Then once it's done I shred it, add onions if I want and weigh those and put it into the recipe, then if I add the sauce I'll measure it out in cups. So one cup = 16 tbsp. If I add anything else that has calories I'll put it into the recipe as well. Since you are weighing things you can pretty much get a weight of the entire pot's worth of BBQ, or you can (and I have done this) take it out and weigh it in a separate bowl, then return it to the crock pot to keep warm. I figure each BBQ Pork/Beef Sandwich is 4oz so I set the recipe up for that many servings (divide total weight by 4oz). Then when you eat it, simply tare out your scale, add 4 oz, and you now know pretty accurately how many calories are in it. Since I saved the recipe I can repeat it easily with the same ingredients another time. My wife can even use it to make it while I'm not there and keep the calorie counts the same.

As far as grilled meats other than crock pot recipes, I'll simply weigh the meat beforehand, and if I'm eating sauce cooked on it I simply add 2 tbsp to my diary (because I like a good coating of sauce). If I add any extra sauce beyond what was cooked onto it, I'll add another serving of the sauce. It works pretty consistently for me. It just takes some attention to the recipe the first time around, but once you get the hang of it there's no issues staying pretty close on calorie estimates for that sort of stuff.

One of my favorite things to do is make a 'Shiner Bock' sauce. I take 1 Shiner Bock Beer, and measure out 1/3 of it (4 oz) and put it in a bowl. Then I add 1 cup of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce (whichever variety you want), 1 cup of a different BBQ sauce (I use a spicy one usually), then 1/4 cup brown sugar. Put that in a recipe, so it goes like this:

4 oz of shiner bock beer (yup it's in the database, just select .333 of a 12 oz beer) for 47 cals = 4 tbsp
1 cup of Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce for 560 calories = 16 tbsp
1 cup of Heinz Memphis Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce for 400 calories = 16 tbsp
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar for 180 calories = 4 tbsp

That ends up at 40 tbsp of the sauce recipe at 1187 calories. Figure 2 tbsp per serving or 20 servings @ 60 cals per serving.

That's a really simple sauce recipe I use often, man is it good on chicken and pork! If you can't find Shiner Bock Beer, substitute what you want, dark beers work best, just change up the recipe. I'll put that in my recipe list, and when I make it up I store it in a Tupperware container in the fridge for a week or more (it's made out of ingredients that are already stable so it won't hurt you if you keep it covered and in the fridge), then use it 2 tbsp at a time when grilling/cooking chicken or pork.

Now we just cook the meat without sauce and generally heat a little bit of that sauce up and add it 2 tbsp at a time to our cooked meats.

I am a BBQ addict, I have this down to a science. Let's just not discuss sodium.