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For all those suggesting it - my logging is perfect. If I don’t put a food in there it’s because I already know its calorie density and do the math in my head instead
Your logging isn't perfect, by virtue of the fact you are not entering some stuff. That's what logging is, entering the data. If you know what it is, enter it.
And stop making decisions based on single data points. That's not how weight loss works. I'm up 1/2 a lb from yesterday, I know I did not eat 1750 calories over maintenance, ergo it can't be fat, ergo I don't need to worry about it.14 -
Hi,
I started dieting back in July this year. I thought I would be able to lose 30 lbs over 4 months or so with complete ease, but I soon realised it was going to be incredibly difficult.
I started at about 208, and by November I got down to 190, but then I gave up. Going low on calories (1900 as a 6'1 male) was killing me. I felt drained and miserable, but whenever I pushed my calories above 2100 I seemed to flatline or gain weight, so I just gave up, stopped dieting entirely and ate whatever I wanted. The amazing thing was that I barely gained weight. I probably gained back 3lbs over the course of 3 weeks or so..
Now I'm back dieting again as I want to get down to 175 lbs, but I'm finding similar frustrations - namely that I'm eating a low amount of calories for my gender and size (see my diary) but unless I eat about 1600 calories then I seem to gain weight on the scale back almost every day...
I weigh myself in the morning after going to the bathroom on a totally empty stomach, but shouldnt the weight be coming off way, WAY quicker than this??! It's been months of me eating at similar calories, and I just cant seem to get through this plateau - I hate having a small frame with a beer gut SO much - i just want ab definition. What can I do?! What's wrong with my diet?
1) Your initial goal was too aggressive, which you learned.
2) There is no way you were losing much weight on 1900 but gaining on 2100. There's just not a significant enough difference in those two calorie numbers to be able to make that determination. It is likely that you were seeing normal fluctuations and extrapolating the data in a way which it is not meant to go.
3) You are not gaining weight daily by eating over 1600 calories. That's contradictory to your previous statement of losing on 1900. Plus your logging is more spotty than a leopard. You just don't have enough data to be certain what's going on.
4) Daily fluctuations happen. Here's my loss chart from last year. There are daily ups and downs, but the overall trend is what matters.
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Imagine that! It's almost as if some people on youtube are being dishonest about what they're portraying for the sake of garnering likability, likes, and follows! Who would have thought saying what people want to hear wouldn't be accurate?
[/sarcasm]
Regardless of what you think your calorie, sodium, and water intake may be the scale is going to fluctuate on a daily basis. I have weighed myself daily (moved from weekly) since July and have seen as much as 5.6 lbs "gained" and "lost" in the span of ten days. It doesn't matter what somebody is putting on youtube, consistent, 1/2lb per day losses aren't sustainable or to be expected.
Now, I'm about your size (28 y/o male, ~6'1" 176 lbs this morning, 13.8% body fat per Skulpt analyzer, mirror supports being in that range) and have been as heavy as ~200lbs (probably 23-25% body fat), and as lean as ~158lbs (11ish% body fat) between 2006 and now (ages 17-28, 24 at leanest). I can tell you that going from about 200lb to below 170lb as a 17 year old was pretty easy, dropping that a similar amount of weight at 23 took considerably more attention (about when I started MFP). I started lifting seriously a few years ago, have added some decent muscle mass and now trying to get below 170-175lbs (as close to 10-11% body fat as I can) at 28 is proving far more difficult than I would've thought.
I think this is a pretty good infographic as far as setting expectations of what it takes to get to certain physique thresholds, used for the next section: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/cost-of-getting-lean-infographic
Breaking those thresholds down, for math's sake let's assume your lean mass is pretty similar to mine at 150 lbs; at 200lbs that put you at 25% body fat, at 190 you've made it down to 20%, a "very easy transition", essentially the low-hanging fruit of weight loss. You'd need to lose another 10lbs to get down to 15% body fat at 180, this is where some start to see some ab definition (I'm not in this "some" at 13.8% so YMMV). Note the changes in this transition; eating better, exercising more, fewer drinks, desserts and processed foods, "may require increased effort". In short, what got you to 190lbs might not get you to 180lbs. Put more effort into your nutrition planning and tracking and you should get better results. If you're not logging everything you consume, 100% of the time and using a food scale to MEASURE portions accurately, you logging is far from perfect.6 -
For all those suggesting it - my logging is perfect. If I don’t put a food in there it’s because I already know its calorie density and do the math in my head instead
What a unique logging method!
Glad to hear that it provides you with the information you need to make good decisions!
Well, now that we've established that, and after careful consideration, I think that the best I can do for you is to wish you all the best and to have a very nice day!19 -
This hive mind thing you guys engage in is very similar to reddit posters, it’s quite funny.
When I log I leave out a meal here or there. I don’t know if you were aware, but food packaging LISTS THE CALORIES OF SAID FOOD. Thus, you can quite easily do a piece of simple mental arithmetic to figure out whether said food will push you over your daily intake. I’m quite easily able to remember the calorie and macro count of certain foods after logging them hundreds of times over, perhaps the rest of you are incapable..
So none of you ever do this, I suppose? Your logging is water tight, every grain of salt counted?
Edit: rest of my post wasn’t included. I ate under 2000 yesterday and am back to 189.
I can fully accept small weight fluctuations but not ones like this5 -
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This hive mind thing you guys engage in is very similar to reddit posters, it’s quite funny.
When I log I leave out a meal here or there. I don’t know if you were aware, but food packaging LISTS THE CALORIES OF SAID FOOD. Thus, you can quite easily do a piece of simple mental arithmetic to figure out whether said food will push you over your daily intake. I’m quite easily able to remember the calorie and macro count of certain foods after logging them hundreds of times over, perhaps the rest of you are incapable..
So none of you ever do this, I suppose? Your logging is water tight, every grain of salt counted?
Edit: rest of my post wasn’t included. I ate under 2000 yesterday and am back to 189.
I can fully accept small weight fluctuations but not ones like this
How you log is absolutely your kitten given right!
When people tell you that you make no sense when you claim that certain things happen when you eat a certain number of calories, and that obviously something is wrong with what you're stating..... and then it turns out that you deliberately leave a few things out of your logging as the whim strikes.... then gee I wonder why you wonder why people are wondering why you're bothering to wonder why things are not working the way you claim they should be working.
I'm sure you'll be able to figure that sentence in your head too ;-)10 -
This hive mind thing you guys engage in is very similar to reddit posters, it’s quite funny.
When I log I leave out a meal here or there. I don’t know if you were aware, but food packaging LISTS THE CALORIES OF SAID FOOD. Thus, you can quite easily do a piece of simple mental arithmetic to figure out whether said food will push you over your daily intake. I’m quite easily able to remember the calorie and macro count of certain foods after logging them hundreds of times over, perhaps the rest of you are incapable..
So none of you ever do this, I suppose? Your logging is water tight, every grain of salt counted?
Edit: rest of my post wasn’t included. I ate under 2000 yesterday and am back to 189.
I can fully accept small weight fluctuations but not ones like this
You are the one asking for help. If we can't see everything you are eating, and how many calories total, that's a pretty big piece of information that's missing.
And actually, yes, my logging is pretty water tight in terms of things that contain calories, because I like to have solid data to assess. Not on a short term 'omg freak out at the scale' single data point level, at a long term level of weeks and months. I like to be able to assess my calories in vs my calories out to see if my weight loss trend is where I expect it to be, so I can make appropriate changes if need be, based on the trend.
But you just don't seem to be getting that weight fluctuates, sometimes a lot, and that scale weight is affected by a whole raft of things. I'm up 300 grams today since yesterday, and 500 grams since the day before that. I'm not freaking out, because I understand natural fluctuations and what caused that spike, and I know it wasn't too much food.
Stop reacting to single data points. Stick to a sensible deficit and reassess in 4-6 weeks.
ETA: you know that the contents of a package of food can be off by as much as 20% by law, right? If you are relying on what packets say, and assuming they contain the weight of food they say they do, that right there can add up to a significant amount of calories.
Also, if you want people to help you, maybe try not insulting them.9 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »This hive mind thing you guys engage in is very similar to reddit posters, it’s quite funny.
When I log I leave out a meal here or there. I don’t know if you were aware, but food packaging LISTS THE CALORIES OF SAID FOOD. Thus, you can quite easily do a piece of simple mental arithmetic to figure out whether said food will push you over your daily intake. I’m quite easily able to remember the calorie and macro count of certain foods after logging them hundreds of times over, perhaps the rest of you are incapable..
So none of you ever do this, I suppose? Your logging is water tight, every grain of salt counted?
Edit: rest of my post wasn’t included. I ate under 2000 yesterday and am back to 189.
I can fully accept small weight fluctuations but not ones like this
You are the one asking for help. If we can't see everything you are eating, and how many calories total, that's a pretty big piece of information that's missing.
And actually, yes, my logging is pretty water tight in terms of things that contain calories, because I like to have solid data to assess. Not on a short term 'omg freak out at the scale' single data point level, at a long term level of weeks and months. I like to be able to assess my calories in vs my calories out to see if my weight loss trend is where I expect it to be, so I can make appropriate changes if need be, based on the trend.
But you just don't seem to be getting that weight fluctuates, sometimes a lot, and that scale weight is affected by a whole raft of things. I'm up 300 grams today since yesterday, and 500 grams since the day before that. I'm not freaking out, because I understand natural fluctuations and what caused that spike, and I know it wasn't too much food.
Stop reacting to single data points. Stick to a sensible deficit and reassess in 4-6 weeks.
ETA: you know that the contents of a package of food can be off by as much as 20% by law, right? If you are relying on what packets say, and assuming they contain the weight of food they say they do, that right there can add up to a significant amount of calories.
Also, if you want people to help you, maybe try not insulting them.
Actually I was the one who was insulted, if you read the other posts you can see that. That’s what I was referring to with the hive mentality statement.
But yeah, forget it
-6 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »This hive mind thing you guys engage in is very similar to reddit posters, it’s quite funny.
When I log I leave out a meal here or there. I don’t know if you were aware, but food packaging LISTS THE CALORIES OF SAID FOOD. Thus, you can quite easily do a piece of simple mental arithmetic to figure out whether said food will push you over your daily intake. I’m quite easily able to remember the calorie and macro count of certain foods after logging them hundreds of times over, perhaps the rest of you are incapable..
So none of you ever do this, I suppose? Your logging is water tight, every grain of salt counted?
Edit: rest of my post wasn’t included. I ate under 2000 yesterday and am back to 189.
I can fully accept small weight fluctuations but not ones like this
You are the one asking for help. If we can't see everything you are eating, and how many calories total, that's a pretty big piece of information that's missing.
And actually, yes, my logging is pretty water tight in terms of things that contain calories, because I like to have solid data to assess. Not on a short term 'omg freak out at the scale' single data point level, at a long term level of weeks and months. I like to be able to assess my calories in vs my calories out to see if my weight loss trend is where I expect it to be, so I can make appropriate changes if need be, based on the trend.
But you just don't seem to be getting that weight fluctuates, sometimes a lot, and that scale weight is affected by a whole raft of things. I'm up 300 grams today since yesterday, and 500 grams since the day before that. I'm not freaking out, because I understand natural fluctuations and what caused that spike, and I know it wasn't too much food.
Stop reacting to single data points. Stick to a sensible deficit and reassess in 4-6 weeks.
ETA: you know that the contents of a package of food can be off by as much as 20% by law, right? If you are relying on what packets say, and assuming they contain the weight of food they say they do, that right there can add up to a significant amount of calories.
Also, if you want people to help you, maybe try not insulting them.
Actually I was the one who was insulted, if you read the other posts you can see that. That’s what I was referring to with the hive mentality statement.
But yeah, forget it
Maybe if you actually took on board some of what people have told you every damn time you've posted, we wouldn't all be so frustrated.
But, do it your way. Continue going in circles. I'll be over here enjoying being slim, because I actually understand how weight loss works.9 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »This hive mind thing you guys engage in is very similar to reddit posters, it’s quite funny.
When I log I leave out a meal here or there. I don’t know if you were aware, but food packaging LISTS THE CALORIES OF SAID FOOD. Thus, you can quite easily do a piece of simple mental arithmetic to figure out whether said food will push you over your daily intake. I’m quite easily able to remember the calorie and macro count of certain foods after logging them hundreds of times over, perhaps the rest of you are incapable..
So none of you ever do this, I suppose? Your logging is water tight, every grain of salt counted?
Edit: rest of my post wasn’t included. I ate under 2000 yesterday and am back to 189.
I can fully accept small weight fluctuations but not ones like this
You are the one asking for help. If we can't see everything you are eating, and how many calories total, that's a pretty big piece of information that's missing.
And actually, yes, my logging is pretty water tight in terms of things that contain calories, because I like to have solid data to assess. Not on a short term 'omg freak out at the scale' single data point level, at a long term level of weeks and months. I like to be able to assess my calories in vs my calories out to see if my weight loss trend is where I expect it to be, so I can make appropriate changes if need be, based on the trend.
But you just don't seem to be getting that weight fluctuates, sometimes a lot, and that scale weight is affected by a whole raft of things. I'm up 300 grams today since yesterday, and 500 grams since the day before that. I'm not freaking out, because I understand natural fluctuations and what caused that spike, and I know it wasn't too much food.
Stop reacting to single data points. Stick to a sensible deficit and reassess in 4-6 weeks.
ETA: you know that the contents of a package of food can be off by as much as 20% by law, right? If you are relying on what packets say, and assuming they contain the weight of food they say they do, that right there can add up to a significant amount of calories.
Also, if you want people to help you, maybe try not insulting them.
Actually I was the one who was insulted, if you read the other posts you can see that. That’s what I was referring to with the hive mentality statement.
But yeah, forget it
You’ve been offered a lot of solid advice, which you don’t seem amenable to taking on board.
As the saying goes, “keep doing what you’ve been doing, and you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.”7 -
one last thing from me: anxiety leads to cortisol in your blood which dampers fat burning mechanisms, therefore it leads to more anxiety to form a vicious cycle
so stop fretting over every little (kilo)gram0
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