Venting Over Weight Loss
Replies
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Emily_AK87 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
OK, good to know. And yes, vigorous cleaning is legit (I'm clearing out a hoarders house for an estate company and I only logged half my day there to be safe because it did seem high).
Ok. I'd still be watchful on the cleaning one. Vigorous cleaning would be like using a toothbrush to scrub down a tough to clean bathroom. If you're mostly just picking things up and moving it to another area to organize, it might not be vigorous.
Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
A quick thought on this: what's your MFP activity level set to? If housecleaning/decluttering is your normal M-F job, you should have set your activity level to "active" or, at a minimum "lightly active". If you did that during MFP's guided setup and you're now logging your work as exercise, you're "double-dipping" your calories burned from your job.1 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.1 -
Unfortunately, what it really boils down to is that machine calorie burns, MFP recommendations, etc., are all just estimates, and you can use them as starting points, but your results will give you a more complete picture of what's really going on. If you haven't seen any weight loss in three months, you're eating at your maintenance level. I get that it sucks, but there's really no other answer.
You said that you're going by portion size and not by weight, right? Before you change anything else, get a cheap food scale and start weighing your solid foods in grams. Mine was about $15 on Amazon, so it's not a huge expenditure, and it ends up saving me a ton of time because I don't have to wash measuring cups and spoons every day like I used to.
The other option would be to either drop your calorie target by, say, 200 calories or only eat back 50% of your calories. If that seems easier, try that first.1 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
OK, good to know. And yes, vigorous cleaning is legit (I'm clearing out a hoarders house for an estate company and I only logged half my day there to be safe because it did seem high).
Ok. I'd still be watchful on the cleaning one. Vigorous cleaning would be like using a toothbrush to scrub down a tough to clean bathroom. If you're mostly just picking things up and moving it to another area to organize, it might not be vigorous.
Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
I agree. My father was a hoarder. My sister and I cleaned his house one day and packed it all away and then moved it all to a shed. Some of the boxes got really heavy. It took us two days of working all day long to even see progress. I would call it a work out.2 -
I can't see your diary but I know when I was not eating enough calories Because I have small appetite/little time I didn't see results in the gym. Also are you looking at calories alone or macros? Getting enough protein/balance is important. I actually had to eat more but differently to see fat loss and muscle gain2
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Instead of worrying about how much your activity is or is not counting towards your daily calories why not start weighing your food and using correct entries (no homemade or generic). If MFP has given you a calorie goal of 1600 then stick to it. If you aren't losing you are more than likely eating at maintenance as others have said and you need to reduce until you notice the scale or measuring tape move.3
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I'm wondering if you are one of those people who are fortunate enough not to have too much weight to loose in the scheme of things. If you are at the top of your suggested bmi range, for example this makes it more difficult to loose than if one was higher up the into the over weight level, if I have made sense. This is where tight weighing of food and strict logging really helps. Your photo looks perfect.
I have about 35 pounds to lose to be considered a healthy weight by my Dr according to BMI (which I don't totally believe is an accurate deal.. Just my humble, uneducated opinion, though.)0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Also, I'm a little confused...your ticker says you've lost 15 Lbs...over three months that would be a tad over 1 Lb per week loss.
We'll, I just logged back in two weeks ago. 15 pounds lost since my last log in over a year ago.0 -
CafeRacer808 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld and @chocolate_owl are correct.
I took a look at your diary. I think you are eating at maintenance mostly because you're significantly over estimating your calorie burns when you exercise. Also check the portions by weighing/measuring.
When you input cardio into MFP, you should reduce the calorie burn it gives you to ~50% (maybe 75%) of what it says. So say it says you get 357 calories from the elliptical, you should enter about 179 instead. I also notice you're logging a LOT of "cleaning, vigorous" in your diary. Is it really vigorous? If it were me, I probably wouldn't log it at all (would not put that in the diary nor eat back any of those calories) and if I did, I'd log as light effort with the 50% reduction. The last time I logged housework like that what on moving day when I was carrying boxes around (to and from the truck).
MFP over estimates most calorie burns.
OK, good to know. And yes, vigorous cleaning is legit (I'm clearing out a hoarders house for an estate company and I only logged half my day there to be safe because it did seem high).
Ok. I'd still be watchful on the cleaning one. Vigorous cleaning would be like using a toothbrush to scrub down a tough to clean bathroom. If you're mostly just picking things up and moving it to another area to organize, it might not be vigorous.
Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
A quick thought on this: what's your MFP activity level set to? If housecleaning/decluttering is your normal M-F job, you should have set your activity level to "active" or, at a minimum "lightly active". If you did that during MFP's guided setup and you're now logging your work as exercise, you're "double-dipping" your calories burned from your job.
I'm lightly active in my profile. I think.... I'll double check that, tho.0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?1 -
Unfortunately, what it really boils down to is that machine calorie burns, MFP recommendations, etc., are all just estimates, and you can use them as starting points, but your results will give you a more complete picture of what's really going on. If you haven't seen any weight loss in three months, you're eating at your maintenance level. I get that it sucks, but there's really no other answer.
You said that you're going by portion size and not by weight, right? Before you change anything else, get a cheap food scale and start weighing your solid foods in grams. Mine was about $15 on Amazon, so it's not a huge expenditure, and it ends up saving me a ton of time because I don't have to wash measuring cups and spoons every day like I used to.
The other option would be to either drop your calorie target by, say, 200 calories or only eat back 50% of your calories. If that seems easier, try that first.
That's awesome, thanks!0 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?
This would be considered an "active" activity level. So, set you activity level to that and stop logging your job as exercise. And as stated upthread, use a food scale to weigh everything you eat.1 -
CafeRacer808 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?
This would be considered an "active" activity level. So, set you activity level to that and stop logging your job as exercise. And as stated upthread, use a food scale to weigh everything you eat.
She might not do this every day however. She said it was for an estate sale company and they don't have these types of houses every day. Usually they are more just organizing things because the owners have done the pre-work.1 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?
You're majoring in the minors here. Not saying that the cleaning/exercise is or isn't earning you the calories you think they are. But if they were - and your logging of food was precise - you'd be losing weight when you're not.
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CafeRacer808 wrote: »This would be considered an "active" activity level. So, set you activity level to that and stop logging your job as exercise. And as stated upthread, use a food scale to weigh everything you eat.
I asked upthread if she does this as her M-F job and she didn't answer. But you're right, I should've clarified that point again in my subsequent comment.
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I just started last Wednesday with calorie counting and I weigh and measure EVERYTHING and I account for everything - coffee, gum, a sugar packet - even if it's 0 calories, I make sure anything that goes in my mouth is in my log. Good Luck!2
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CafeRacer808 wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?
This would be considered an "active" activity level. So, set you activity level to that and stop logging your job as exercise. And as stated upthread, use a food scale to weigh everything you eat.
She might not do this every day however. She said it was for an estate sale company and they don't have these types of houses every day. Usually they are more just organizing things because the owners have done the pre-work.
Right, that's why I logged it. Was only for three days.. And I only logged one day worth.0 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?
You're majoring in the minors here. Not saying that the cleaning/exercise is or isn't earning you the calories you think they are. But if they were - and your logging of food was precise - you'd be losing weight when you're not.
This isn't an everyday thing for me. I fill in as needed. But I see what you're saying..0 -
One day doesn't make a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things. You should focus your attention on the everyday things that will give you the most bang for your buck, like weighing using a food scale or cutting your eat-back calories in half (or both). If you have unusually-high activity days, you can log them and eat back a portion of the calories, or not at all; if you have the rest of your numbers dialed in and are losing at an acceptable rate, one day here or there won't really matter.2
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Emily_AK87 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Emily_AK87 wrote: »Have you ever been in a hoarders house..? Not gonna justify it, but it's definitely a workout.. And like I said, I did only account for half my day there to get the calorie burn down from the apps suggested amount.
You don't have to justify anything to any of us. But (some) people are giving you good advice about why you aren't losing weight despite your best efforts.
The number of calories you burn doing something isn't related to how unpleasant it is. It's determined by how much work your body did, in the physical sense, of using muscle power to move weight over distance.
Such as carrying 50lb boxes of paper up and down stairs to a dumpster for an 8 to 10 hour day with a couple short breaks thrown in?
If you're not losing weight, it's because you're not in a calorie deficit. Full stop.2 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »I'm wondering if you are one of those people who are fortunate enough not to have too much weight to loose in the scheme of things. If you are at the top of your suggested bmi range, for example this makes it more difficult to loose than if one was higher up the into the over weight level, if I have made sense. This is where tight weighing of food and strict logging really helps. Your photo looks perfect.
I have about 35 pounds to lose to be considered a healthy weight by my Dr according to BMI (which I don't totally believe is an accurate deal.. Just my humble, uneducated opinion, though.)
BMI is very accurate for its intended purpose. This accuracy increases the closer you are to average height. The only outliers exist in the elite athlete population.
Know that the less you have to lose the longer your body will take to burn fat, so you should set a realistic goal of 1 lb/week and the closer you get to your optimum, set this to .5 lb/week. Don't be unrealistic in your goals.
Calorie estimation is a tricky business. There's an inherent margin of error of 20%, so ensure you are taking this into consideration. Bottom line if you aren't losing, you are not in a caloric deficit.
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You're wrong.nightengale7 wrote: »I have no idea what runaround is talking about, your calorie deficit is fine, in fact it looks like you barely ever eat back your exercise calories, so some days your deficit is huge.
The OP is not in a deficit or she would be losing weight. Doesn't matter what the diary says.
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I'm inclined to agree with you about the bmi, I was using it because it is "accepted", with some flaws, serves as a sort of guidance, imv. At the lower end of my bmi range I'd look all bone.
I looked at your diary. I see you are using a listing for bananas giving the size, if you can, there are some which gives, bananas by the gram. Bananas can be long and narrow or short and fat which makes your way of measuring rather inaccurate. I weigh mine. Also, using cups and tablespoons, for accuracy is not always the best way to do it. Something thickly shredded could possibly take up more space than if it were done thinly for example or you could be packing it in tight. Also a tablespoon, would that be flat or heaped, just to complicate things. The best way I have found is to use a scale, I've even weighed milk, (but I've no idea how to account for the drop always left in the bottom! tiny giggle). My scale was very inexpensive at a local shop. Please try to invest in a scale which works on grams, this will bring the accuracy of your logging, tight and its easier than looking at ounces too.
To start with use the balance mfp recommends for food groups, try to balance these and do not be overly frightened of using up to your "fat" allocation please believe it, the body needs "fat" in order to make your hormones and many vitamins are fat soluble others are water soluble. Also if you are using a bar of some kind, please remember they have a not less than or more than, weight to pass production, I'd weigh these too. I know it reads like a real pain. If you can do all this, eating back half the calories from exercise and still see no difference then we need to go back to the drawing board again. All the best. You will win, its a matter of finding what works for you.2 -
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The number of calories burned during exercise depends, at least in part, on how much you weigh. More weight to move means more calories burned. Chances are, the machine doesn't know what you weigh, so it uses a hypothetical person of average weight - 150 lbs. or so.
My TM seems to think I weigh a lot more than I do, because it will give me ridiculous numbers, something like 200 calories per mile. MFP seems to undercount the calorie burn since it doesn't include incline, but I'd rather undercount than overcount so I use the MFP numbers instead of the machine's. The opposite is true for the stationary bike, in that MFP doesn't care whether I am going 25 mph or 10 mph, it just asks how many minutes I ride, so for that I'll use the bike's numbers.1 -
Emily_AK87 wrote: »
It's not that bad. Check out this post:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10498882/weighing-food-takes-too-long-and-is-obsessive/p11
This discussion has been closed.
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