Small Net Total but Large Overall Total of Calories?

2.5 pounds a week is excellent progress! But after looking through your diary, I can see why it's not what you're expecting. You may want to invest in a food scale to weigh all of your food on to make sure you're eating the correct amount. Cups and spoons aren't the best at measuring and can cause you to eat more than you think. It's also best to ignore any entry that says "generic" or "homemade" such as the 4 grilled chicken strips. That says nothing as to how big the strips were. Plus you have days that aren't logged at all and days where you ended up several hundred, and even over 1000 calories past your goal.

Basically, tighten up your logging. Aim for at least 1200 net calories, if not your goal.

First of all, netting 1000 cals is not good, it's very low. Unless you are very small or inactive, you should be netting 1200 or more. Having said that, you aren't losing weight as expected, so you aren't actually netting 1,000 cals. Some things to consider:

1. Exercise calorie burns are often inflated, especially if you are using MFPs burns. Many people start off eating back half their exercise calories and tweak from there if needed. So your net is most likely not as low as you think.
2. If you aren't using a food scale, you are probably eating more than you think. Using cups and spoons or eyeballing tends to lead to underestimating how much you've had. If you would like to be more exact, get a food scale. Even if you only use it for a couple of weeks, it will help you see where you might be missing calories.
3. I'm guessing your goal is to lose @ 40-50 lbs maybe? In that range, losing 1 lb per week is perfectly normal, so you aren't really that far off! Tighten up your logging a little will probably get you right on track.

So my humble suggestion would be to set your goal to 1 lb per week and eat the calories MFP gives you. Start using a food scale whenever you can, and also double check the entries you use in the database - many of them are user entered and flat out wrong.

And since you mentioned yo-yo ing... Most people go too aggressive, then hit the wall, and quit. To end the cycle, try slow and steady wins the race. Better to take a full year to reach your goal and keep it off, than to rush through and yo-yo yet again. Take the time now to figure out how to eat in a way that you enjoy and that fills you up at the right calorie level. Because once you have that, you're set for life. Good luck :drinker:

jennahaines108 wrote: »

Hey all, I've been trying to get in shape and kind of yo-yo-ing for a few years now. But I recently got engaged and have actually stuck to a fitness plan for the last month without any hiccups (that's huge!).

So I'm 5'4" and about 200 lbs. and the bulk (no pun intended) of my fitness plan is strength training. However, I'm also walking/jogging quite a bit throughout the week for that extra cardio burn. Now, because I've been working out so much, my average net calories has been around 1000, which seems pretty good. My average intake alone though has been around 1800, which seems pretty high. And over the last 3.5 weeks, I've only lost about 2.5 lbs with those averages.

Now, I haven't freaked out just yet assuming maybe I'm gaining muscle or retaining water, ya-de-da... but should I be? Am I eating too much to see the kind of results I want (about 2lbs/wk) even though I'm burning a lot throughout the week?

you are not putting on sizable muscle mass in 3.5 weeks of netting 1000 calories per day.

If the exercise regime and especially strength training is a new thing there will be alot of water weight gain to repair those muscles which will be masking loss, personally I think if you are grossing 1800 and are feeling satisfied and netting 1000 I don't think you need to up your cals some people don't eat all of their exercise cals back (at least until you have been at it for a few months and get a better picture of how much you're truly burning) because they are just estimates even with devices used for measuring burns. You may be netting more than you think anyway. If what you're doing is sustainable and you're not starving/punishing yourself give it some time.

The best thing I can suggest is tighten up your logging with some digital scales for food measuring cups for liquids/sauces if you can, and be patient for your body to adjust to your new routine. Water weight both exaggerates and masks true fat loss the scales are heading in the right direction you're doing great. x