Can someone look at my diary please? Not losing

k8andchr1smom
k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
edited November 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi.
Yes, I've seen the flow chart. :D

53 years old, 5'3 144, 35% body fat as per the bod pod, BMR 1188 per the bod pod. Sedentary but running (training for a 1/2 marathon) 3 times per week, 1 long run, 2 short ones. Training with a trainer 2 times per week, boot camp at the gym 2 times per week. 4 weeks in, no changes yet.
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Replies

  • notreallychris
    notreallychris Posts: 501 Member
    Can't see diary.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    Settings say its public

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/k8andchr1smom
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    edited January 2018
    1. Are you measuring your solids with a food scale?
    2. How are you finding entries like "creamy sweet potato bacon chowder"? Did you use the recipe builder to create that recipe?
    3. Some days look to be incomplete. Is that the case?
  • goodbyemyfatness
    goodbyemyfatness Posts: 18 Member
    Agreed with Alex too - I was gonna ask if you measure your food (at least to begin with so you know how big that portion size is). I just forgot to mention it in my response.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    goodbyemyfatness wrote: »
    Hey! Well I'm no expert but I took a peek at your diary. Have you calculated what your suggested macros should be? In my opinion, it looks like you might be a little heavy on the carbs and light on the protein. The other thing is, are you sure you're putting in every little thing you eat? Like every nibble at dinner time while you're cooking, treats when you visit a business and hit the dish, etc? Surprisingly those things can add up really quickly. The other thing is, you can't depend on the scale. Like if your weight starts ballooning, ok, then the scale will tell you. But if you're starting a training regimen, you may be building muscle so your loss may not reflect on the scale. And the only true measure of body fat would be to visit a doctor. Home devices can get you in the ballpark, but they're not completely accurate.

    Great job on the half marathon training! I'm a runner myself :) #runnersunite

    Car macros are at 22% for the 4 weeks. All recipes are using the builder. I don't cook so I don't nibble. And the body fat was done in the bod pod so I trust that it is accurate.



  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    edited January 2018
    AliceDark wrote: »
    1. Are you measuring your solids with a food scale?
    2. How are you finding entries like "creamy sweet potato bacon chowder"? Did you use the recipe builder to create that recipe?
    3. Some days look to be incomplete. Is that the case?

    I use the builder for recipes. I use a scale for fat, protein and the occasional chips, cups for salads and fruit. The last incomplete day, aside from today is NYE and last Friday. Not sure what happened that day.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    it doesnt look like youre weighing your food, which makes me question how accurate your recipe builder recipes may be.

    I actually do, or I use the nutritional info on the package. For example when I buy almonds I measure out 1 oz portions into bags. Do I measure the tomato I eat every morning? No. Do I weigh the avocado? Yes.
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    it doesnt look like youre weighing your food, which makes me question how accurate your recipe builder recipes may be.

    I'd also add that some of your entries are probably not totally accurate. 75 grams of avocado is not 85 calories.

    Get yourself a food scale, weigh all solids, including veg and fruit, measure all liquids.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member


    I'd also add that some of your entries are probably not totally accurate. 75 grams of avocado is not 85 calories.
    That is possible but how do I know which entries are accurate?

    Get yourself a food scale, weigh all solids, including veg and fruit, measure all liquids.
    Again, I have one. I didn't think I ate enough vegetables to make a huge difference.

    Thank you


  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited January 2018
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    goodbyemyfatness wrote: »
    Hey! Well I'm no expert but I took a peek at your diary. Have you calculated what your suggested macros should be? In my opinion, it looks like you might be a little heavy on the carbs and light on the protein. The other thing is, are you sure you're putting in every little thing you eat? Like every nibble at dinner time while you're cooking, treats when you visit a business and hit the dish, etc? Surprisingly those things can add up really quickly. The other thing is, you can't depend on the scale. Like if your weight starts ballooning, ok, then the scale will tell you. But if you're starting a training regimen, you may be building muscle so your loss may not reflect on the scale. And the only true measure of body fat would be to visit a doctor. Home devices can get you in the ballpark, but they're not completely accurate.

    Great job on the half marathon training! I'm a runner myself :) #runnersunite

    Car macros are at 22% for the 4 weeks. All recipes are using the builder. I don't cook so I don't nibble. And the body fat was done in the bod pod so I trust that it is accurate.



    Your carbs are not set at 22%. Not that it matters, I lost most of my weight on moderate carbs. (50/30/20)

    It doesn't look like you are completing your Food page? Or are you purposely leaving 500-700 calories uneaten every day? You need to be eating those calories "earned" by your exercise. That is the way this site is designed to be used. You want 0 at the bottom of your food page. (Zero - not 600 or whatever you are leaving..eat!!)

    Here: read these (the second one is a short video)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    goodbyemyfatness wrote: »
    Hey! Well I'm no expert but I took a peek at your diary. Have you calculated what your suggested macros should be? In my opinion, it looks like you might be a little heavy on the carbs and light on the protein. The other thing is, are you sure you're putting in every little thing you eat? Like every nibble at dinner time while you're cooking, treats when you visit a business and hit the dish, etc? Surprisingly those things can add up really quickly. The other thing is, you can't depend on the scale. Like if your weight starts ballooning, ok, then the scale will tell you. But if you're starting a training regimen, you may be building muscle so your loss may not reflect on the scale. And the only true measure of body fat would be to visit a doctor. Home devices can get you in the ballpark, but they're not completely accurate.

    Great job on the half marathon training! I'm a runner myself :) #runnersunite

    Car macros are at 22% for the 4 weeks. All recipes are using the builder. I don't cook so I don't nibble. And the body fat was done in the bod pod so I trust that it is accurate.



    Your carbs are not set at 22%.
    no, the setting is at 50% I keep mine at about 25% as per the nutrition pie chart

    It doesn't look like you are completing your Food page? Or are you purposely leaving 500-700 calories uneaten every day? You need to be eating those calories "earned" by your exercise. That is the way this site is designed to be used.
    No, I don't eat back my exercise calories. I have heard that the fitbit is very inaccurate and way over estimates what you burn. I'm not sure I could eat 600 more calories a day without eating junk food.

    Here: read these (the second one is a short video)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited January 2018
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    goodbyemyfatness wrote: »
    Hey! Well I'm no expert but I took a peek at your diary. Have you calculated what your suggested macros should be? In my opinion, it looks like you might be a little heavy on the carbs and light on the protein. The other thing is, are you sure you're putting in every little thing you eat? Like every nibble at dinner time while you're cooking, treats when you visit a business and hit the dish, etc? Surprisingly those things can add up really quickly. The other thing is, you can't depend on the scale. Like if your weight starts ballooning, ok, then the scale will tell you. But if you're starting a training regimen, you may be building muscle so your loss may not reflect on the scale. And the only true measure of body fat would be to visit a doctor. Home devices can get you in the ballpark, but they're not completely accurate.

    Great job on the half marathon training! I'm a runner myself :) #runnersunite

    Car macros are at 22% for the 4 weeks. All recipes are using the builder. I don't cook so I don't nibble. And the body fat was done in the bod pod so I trust that it is accurate.



    Your carbs are not set at 22%.
    no, the setting is at 50% I keep mine at about 25% as per the nutrition pie chart

    It doesn't look like you are completing your Food page? Or are you purposely leaving 500-700 calories uneaten every day? You need to be eating those calories "earned" by your exercise. That is the way this site is designed to be used.
    No, I don't eat back my exercise calories. I have heard that the fitbit is very inaccurate and way over estimates what you burn. I'm not sure I could eat 600 more calories a day without eating junk food.

    Here: read these (the second one is a short video)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

    Fine. You asked what was wrong. We're telling you.

    You're free to do whatever you want, have at it.

    (edit, I bolded your answers since you messed up the quotes)
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    No food is junk, it's just food.

  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    goodbyemyfatness wrote: »
    Hey! Well I'm no expert but I took a peek at your diary. Have you calculated what your suggested macros should be? In my opinion, it looks like you might be a little heavy on the carbs and light on the protein. The other thing is, are you sure you're putting in every little thing you eat? Like every nibble at dinner time while you're cooking, treats when you visit a business and hit the dish, etc? Surprisingly those things can add up really quickly. The other thing is, you can't depend on the scale. Like if your weight starts ballooning, ok, then the scale will tell you. But if you're starting a training regimen, you may be building muscle so your loss may not reflect on the scale. And the only true measure of body fat would be to visit a doctor. Home devices can get you in the ballpark, but they're not completely accurate.

    Great job on the half marathon training! I'm a runner myself :) #runnersunite

    Car macros are at 22% for the 4 weeks. All recipes are using the builder. I don't cook so I don't nibble. And the body fat was done in the bod pod so I trust that it is accurate.



    Your carbs are not set at 22%.
    no, the setting is at 50% I keep mine at about 25% as per the nutrition pie chart

    It doesn't look like you are completing your Food page? Or are you purposely leaving 500-700 calories uneaten every day? You need to be eating those calories "earned" by your exercise. That is the way this site is designed to be used.
    No, I don't eat back my exercise calories. I have heard that the fitbit is very inaccurate and way over estimates what you burn. I'm not sure I could eat 600 more calories a day without eating junk food.

    Here: read these (the second one is a short video)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

    Fine. You asked what was wrong. We're telling you.

    You're free to do whatever you want, have at it.

    (edit, I bolded your answers since you messed up the quotes)

    Thank you. I didn't realize the quote thing was messed up/

    I'm just confused as to how I'm eating too many carbs when my carb macro on MFP is 22%, and how I'm supposed to know if an entry is wrong.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    No food is junk, it's just food.

    That Is true. Thank you
  • MarylandRose
    MarylandRose Posts: 239 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621050/how-to-use-the-usda-food-database-mfp-food-database-for-accurate-logging/p1

    Great starting point for learning to pick out the best entries in the database.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    k8andchr1smom wrote: »
    goodbyemyfatness wrote: »
    Hey! Well I'm no expert but I took a peek at your diary. Have you calculated what your suggested macros should be? In my opinion, it looks like you might be a little heavy on the carbs and light on the protein. The other thing is, are you sure you're putting in every little thing you eat? Like every nibble at dinner time while you're cooking, treats when you visit a business and hit the dish, etc? Surprisingly those things can add up really quickly. The other thing is, you can't depend on the scale. Like if your weight starts ballooning, ok, then the scale will tell you. But if you're starting a training regimen, you may be building muscle so your loss may not reflect on the scale. And the only true measure of body fat would be to visit a doctor. Home devices can get you in the ballpark, but they're not completely accurate.

    Great job on the half marathon training! I'm a runner myself :) #runnersunite

    Car macros are at 22% for the 4 weeks. All recipes are using the builder. I don't cook so I don't nibble. And the body fat was done in the bod pod so I trust that it is accurate.



    Your carbs are not set at 22%.
    no, the setting is at 50% I keep mine at about 25% as per the nutrition pie chart

    It doesn't look like you are completing your Food page? Or are you purposely leaving 500-700 calories uneaten every day? You need to be eating those calories "earned" by your exercise. That is the way this site is designed to be used.
    No, I don't eat back my exercise calories. I have heard that the fitbit is very inaccurate and way over estimates what you burn. I'm not sure I could eat 600 more calories a day without eating junk food.

    Here: read these (the second one is a short video)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

    Fine. You asked what was wrong. We're telling you.

    You're free to do whatever you want, have at it.

    (edit, I bolded your answers since you messed up the quotes)

    Thank you. I didn't realize the quote thing was messed up/

    I'm just confused as to how I'm eating too many carbs when my carb macro on MFP is 22%, and how I'm supposed to know if an entry is wrong.

    You can figure out if an entry is correct by comparing it to reliable sources of information (for example, the USDA database). You'll also have to put a minimal effort into determining *how* much you're eating because that's an important part of reliable logging. Logging 150 grams of avocado every day when you're eating 150 some days and 180 other days is still going to result in potential problems even if you're using an correct entry for avocado.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited January 2018
    Well, for instance that avocado someone mentioned. Look it up on the USDA database to get the correct calories. A 75g avocado is about 105 calories. The other mistakes you are making could be adding 300-500 calories.

    Then you aren't eating back exercise calories. I guess you could assume this is a wash - OR you could start making more accurate choices.

    Here's a thread on the USDA food choices and how to use MFP with it:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621050/how-to-use-the-usda-food-database-mfp-food-database-for-accurate-logging/p1

    Read the threads we are linking for you.

    One of those threads I linked in my last post talks about macros, too. If you want to eat 22% carbs, why wouldn't you have your food diary set that way?

    The last few pounds of weight loss really requires accuracy in every detail, or you'll start under-eating (like you're doing) and then you'll develop health problems.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    Thank you for all of your help. I didn't think weighing--or not weighing--vegetables would make a difference. I do have 2 first degree relatives with eating disorder histories so I'm being mindful of that with regard to weighing everything I consume.
    Have a good weekend everyone
  • Biker_SuzCO
    Biker_SuzCO Posts: 54 Member
    I’ll just say that I had similar stats as you and it took me a long time to drop 20 pounds—more than a year. I noticed that I would drop 5 pounds every few months but weekly losses weren’t noticeable. I would keep at it! I ate about 1500 calories for the entire year, didn’t weigh my food at all so I was probably eating more at times. I had a similar running schedule as you too.
  • k8andchr1smom
    k8andchr1smom Posts: 72 Member
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    Your 1/2 an avocado weighs the same day in and day out, that just doesn't happen and the calorie content is too low.

    Tighten up your logging and you'll start to lose weight.

    You don't cook yet you use the recipe builder? That doesn't make sense.

    My husband cooks. And he's OCD about weighing every thing
  • WhereIsPJSoles
    WhereIsPJSoles Posts: 622 Member
    1. While you may have been trying for four weeks it looks like you've only been tracking for about two, give yourself time to see results. Be patient.

    2. You have a lot of restaurant entries, and while there's nothing wrong with that I kind of try to limit that food for no other reason than I don't know exactly how they prepared their dishes because I wasn't in that kitchen. So while I'm hoping this slice of pizza has x amount of calories, I have to realize that it has a margin of error that may or may not put my calories off.
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