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DESPERATE AND ABOUT TO QUIT

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  • Posts: 765 Member
    edited December 2017
    punkinjdm6 wrote: »
    and my peanut butter is 0.5tbsp equals 12 calories thats what i mean.

    I wanna know what brand/label of peanut butter you're eating! Mine (Adams No-Stir Creamy) is 51 calories for 8 grams - that's a scraped/leveled-off-on-the-jar's-lip-"teaspoon" (an actual tsp would be 5 ml or ~4-5 grams). And that is based on me creating a food entry for the peanut butter, inputting all the nutrition label information so I know it is accurate, and calculating everything in grams. Note: I do use a different platform to create and log my food than MFP but unless something has changed, you can create custom entries here, too, still.

    Now compare that to your "12 calories for 1-1/2 teaspoons (aka, 0.5 tbsp)" peanut butter. Unless you found a super, super low calorie peanut butter your calorie intake accuracy is in the proverbial toilet.

    Weighing is where it is at. It still is not 100% accurate because nutrition labels are legally allowed a certain % error in their calculations, but it is the most accurate way we have readily available, and user friendly once you get the hang of it, to figure how many (ballpark) calories you are consuming.
  • Posts: 906 Member
    @HellYeahItsKriss, that was an great informative post on the use of the USDA data base.

    Do you think you could post it as a separate thread (the panic season approaches :)) so more people can see it, and it can be nominated for a sticky?

    Cheers, h.

    Sure, no problem. :)
  • Posts: 2,163 Member

    I wanna know what brand/label of peanut butter you're eating! Mine (Adams No-Stir Creamy) is 51 calories for 8 grams - that's a scraped/leveled-off-on-the-jar's-lip-"teaspoon" (an actual tsp would be 5 ml or ~4-5 grams). And that is based on me creating a food entry for the peanut butter, inputting all the nutrition label information so I know it is accurate, and calculating everything in grams. Note: I do use a different platform to create and log my food than MFP but unless something has changed, you can create custom entries here, too, still.

    Now compare that to your "12 calories for 1-1/2 teaspoons (aka, 0.5 tbsp)" peanut butter. Unless you found a super, super low calorie peanut butter your calorie intake accuracy is in the proverbial toilet.

    Weighing is where it is at. It still is not 100% accurate because nutrition labels are legally allowed a certain % error in their calculations, but it is the most accurate way we have readily available, and user friendly once you get the hang of it, to figure how many (ballpark) calories you are consuming.

    PB2. A powdered peanut butter.
  • Posts: 6 Member
    So I'll note that the OP just said that she didn't want to follow a idea with "ridiculous restrictions" --- by which I think what she meant is diets like Keto or Atkins.

    Personally I don't stress about logging accurately (although I do try my best to avoid really out-of-whack calorie logging). How does that work for me? Well, I use a walking treadmill desk (e.g., a Walkstation) and I use the "daily goal calories" as a an extreme maximum. So while MFP / Fitbit has me on a 750 calorie deficit goal, I usually end up exceeding it by 500 to 1500 calories, depending on how long I spend on the Walkstation. (On meeting-heavy days, I can't spend as much time on the treadmill desk. :smile: )

    So for me, the main thing which MFP and Fitbit is useful as a prod. I used to eat quite a lot of celery sticks with peanut butter when I was on Atkins. But once I started figuring out how many calories were in Peanut Butter, it's now a very rare snack, and I've learned to love celery sticks w/o any accompaniment. By logging, even though I'm not stressing about being super accurate, it keeps me accountable to myself, and so I now mostly have a salad for lunch. And by looking up the calories before having my morning or afternoon stack, it makes me stop and think whether I really needed that snack, or whether I was eating for other reasons (being bored, or tired because I didn't get enough sleep the previous night, etc.)

    Similarly, by using a Fitbit, by measuring how many steps I take, and how my stairs I take (as opposed to taking the elevator), it gives me the psychological prod to actually take those stairs, or to actually spend that extra hour on the Walkstation. (I try to do at least an hour on the Walkstation; yesterday I spent 2.5+ hours on the Walkstation. As a result I had a net deficit of 2300 calories, without feeling terribly deprived or hungry. And if the 2200 or so calories which I logged was off by even 20%, it's not a big deal.)

    BTW, I find that while I'm walking, it tends to suppress my appetite for a snack.
  • Posts: 363 Member
    SteamPug wrote: »
    3 meals and 3 snacks a day sounds excessive to me.
    3 meals and 3 snacks is only excessive if your calorie intake is excessive. I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks and average about 1350 calories a day. Keeps me from being hungry and keeps my blood sugar from going up and down.
  • Posts: 622 Member
    mgalsf12 wrote: »
    3 meals and 3 snacks is only excessive if your calorie intake is excessive. I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks and average about 1350 calories a day. Keeps me from being hungry and keeps my blood sugar from going up and down.

    Same.

    3 meals at 350 calories +
    3 snacks that are 100 calories each = 1350 calories
  • Posts: 25,763 Member

    On what authority do you say she does not need to go low carb? She may not "need" to eat any certain way but there are more than one way to skin a cat as they say and only eating 150 grams of carbs daily might work for her. I think she is very close to getting things going her way because she wants this thing.

    There is no evidence that OP *needs* to go low carbohydrate for weight loss. I'm not sure what about that is unclear to you.

    Saying it "might work" is totally different than saying she "needs" it.
  • Posts: 906 Member
    blambo61 wrote: »
    Egads! Dieting doesn't have to consume your whole life. Give IF a try if you haven't. Don't weight anything and don't count your calories. Fast tell lunch, eat a salad with some protein, eat an afternoon snack (200-300cal - count this), eat a small dinner, eat a small before bedtime snack. If that doesn't work, fast tell longer even to one meal a day. There is more than one way to get a deficit. County and measuring is a tool but that is all it is and it can take a lot of time and can also not be accurate and you may still go over. You can go over also with fasting of course, but let the scale be your guide. If the scale is going down that is all that matters. If it is not going down, do a longer fast tell it does go down. I would go bonkers weighing everything and counting everything. I suppose if you eat as often as you are eating, you might have to count because it would be very easy to eat too much. If you fast long enough, you can eat tell your full and not count. If you still are not losing, just shorten the eating window and eat tell full (your stomach will shrink and it will become harder to overeat). That will work for most. If not, then you can just count calories for the evening meal and restrict yourself based on that which will be much easier than doing that for 6-meals. Good luck!

    So i guess it's not important to hit 1200 calories, as long as the scale goes down, that's all that matters?
  • Posts: 906 Member
    edited December 2017

    On what authority do you say she does not need to go low carb? She may not "need" to eat any certain way but there are more than one way to skin a cat as they say and only eating 150 grams of carbs daily might work for her. I think she is very close to getting things going her way because she wants this thing.
    Blambo61 wrote: »
    What I don't understand is the resistance to try something, or resisting even the suggestion of trying something, especially for folks who are struggling making what they are doing work, especially when the suggester acknowledges that it may be better for some staying the course their on. If it works for her great, don't change (or make the changes you suggested). If it's not working, then you might consider a change. There is more than one way to skin a cat!

    It's interesting you and Gale seem to both of said the same thing..

  • Posts: 906 Member
    blambo61 wrote: »

    That's because it's true! There is more than one way to skin a cat. I'm open to more than one way.

    If it's true, then why did you edit it out of your post?
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