Hard losing

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  • 1houndgal
    1houndgal Posts: 558 Member
    AtlasxMedic wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies everyone! MFT wants me at 1700 calories a day. I marked myself as light activity because when I’m off of work I spend my 1.5-2hrs at the gym and then relax at home.

    @Hearts_2015 I didn’t use an equation for my calories. When I started to clean up my diet, I based it off of needing more veggies and lots of protein. In all honesty, I started eating these foods and then calculated the calories. I obtained the calorie values from documents my previous nutritionist gave me. I do stand at a whole 5’6” though so that could be why I don’t feel like I’m starving at these lower numbers.

    @smnovosad1 I appreciate your kind words. I never really thought about water weight until posting this, so maybe I should be less hard on myself.

    @1houndgal Lol I am male (I need a better picture haha). As for cheat meals: I allow myself to have one occasionally, and what ends up happening is I eat fewer meals that day. For instance, I went out to lunch this week. My meal was around 800-1000 calories. My breakfast that day had been 350 calories. I ended up not having a protein shake that day, and for dinner I limited myself to 250 calories bringing my day to 1600.

    @orangegato I will definitely try that out. I’m being told my chicken is all 4 oz, but I’m not verifying. However, would that account for so much weight gain?

    Are you logging the foods you eat for your cheat meal also?
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    Okay I’ll try to address everything here.

    So I’m not new to logging food, I’m just new to MFP. I’ve spent the last 6 months manually logging my meals in a notebook. I chose to come here because of the community and the fact that it’s easier to log on my phone. When I had cheat meals for the holidays I logged those. When I did 8 shots of Fireball on NYE i logged that. That being said, I can definitely improve upon weighing everything out.

    When it comes to extras like cooking oil, butter, seasoning, etc. I rarely use cooking oil, but I’ll be sure to track when I do. I haven’t used butter in years for whatever reason. Whenever I use a sauce (like Frank’s) I check the label for the serving size. If it’s 1 teaspoon then I only use 1 teaspoon and I log it per the label. I’ve cross checked a few of the seasonings online for their validity and I have a chart I use now.

    Finally, the scale. I use the same scale on flat, tile floor in the morning without clothes. However, as I started to not see results I became obsessive. Friday alone I weighed myself 3x, and felt terrible after dinner (I had chicken) that I did a second work out. I haven’t weighed myself since because I need to avoid the obsessive stuff.

    You guys have given me a ton of info and it’s amazing. I know I’m not answering everyone’s questions, there’s just a lot so things are easy to miss. I will definitely tighten up with weighing things and making sure I calculate the little things like cooking oil. I’m also going to recalibrate my FitBit, and see if those numbers go up. Once I get more entries in my diary I’ll open it up.
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    Also, after my workout (only my cardio got calculated because my FitBit was charging), I had a rather large deficit. I ate my dinner and I’m still in a 1,000 calorie deficit. When I hit complete diary the app tells me I haven’t eaten enough. My dinner had a lot of sodium though, and if I eat anymore my sodium for today is gonna be insane. (Side Note: I think obsessing over sugar intake made me forget about sodium, so I think that’s factoring into my weight gain). Have any of you ran into this issue?
  • orangegato
    orangegato Posts: 6,572 Member
    edited January 2018
    Yeah MFP has minimal daily calorie guidelines of 1500/d for men, 1200/d for women. You can choose to not log your exercise on MFP or not eat back all/some of the calories your FitBit says you burned.
    ETA: eating back calories seems controversial on MFP - people seem pretty split about it. Most agree that the estimated calories for exercise seems too high no matter the tracker.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    AtlasxMedic wrote: »
    Also, after my workout (only my cardio got calculated because my FitBit was charging), I had a rather large deficit. I ate my dinner and I’m still in a 1,000 calorie deficit. When I hit complete diary the app tells me I haven’t eaten enough. My dinner had a lot of sodium though, and if I eat anymore my sodium for today is gonna be insane. (Side Note: I think obsessing over sugar intake made me forget about sodium, so I think that’s factoring into my weight gain). Have any of you ran into this issue?

    Sodium tends to increase water retention. There’s not a lot of reason to avoid it, unless you have high blood pressure or another heart-related condition that could be impacted. Personally, with a family history of high blood pressure on both sides (dad’s diet was out of control, but mom followed DASH protocol) I try to keep mine below the RDA of 2300mg.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    edited January 2018
    trending weight app for weight level. Especially if you have a fitbit. It connects to Fitbit for the weight information.

    Sodium and exercise can spike your water retention.

    IF you feel listless and unable to pace around your ambulance/at work etc this is a good indication that your deficit is too aggressive. Still having some trouble envisioning a Fitbit TDEE of 2100. Unless you're saying that it is your exercise adjustment that is 2100. In which case you either have a very high resting heart rate leading to an inflated burn from Fitbit, an incorrect settings issue, or you're trying to systematically under-eat.

    Tracking your "off" days is part of collecting data. Nothing wrong with having off days. Some people even have intentional re-feed days where macros come more into play (increased calories with the primary increase coming from carbs in order to restore hormones)
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    trending weight app for weight level. Especially if you have a fitbit. It connects to Fitbit for the weight information.

    Sodium and exercise can spike your water retention.

    IF you feel listless and unable to pace around your ambulance/at work etc this is a good indication that your deficit is too aggressive. Still having some trouble envisioning a Fitbit TDEE of 2100. Unless you're saying that it is your exercise adjustment that is 2100. In which case you either have a very high resting heart rate leading to an inflated burn from Fitbit, an incorrect settings issue, or you're trying to systematically under-eat.

    Tracking your "off" days is part of collecting data. Nothing wrong with having off days. Some people even have intentional re-feed days where macros come more into play (increased calories with the primary increase coming from carbs in order to restore hormones)

    My FitBit is updating as we speak and I’ll recalibrate it tonight. I’ll definitely look into trending my weight and see if that gives me any clues about what’s going on. Honestly, if this comes down to a water retention issue or a simple mismeasurement I will be relieved. Thank you for all the info you’ve provided (as well as everyone else)!
  • megs_1985
    megs_1985 Posts: 199 Member
    AtlasxMedic wrote: »
    Also, after my workout (only my cardio got calculated because my FitBit was charging), I had a rather large deficit. I ate my dinner and I’m still in a 1,000 calorie deficit. When I hit complete diary the app tells me I haven’t eaten enough. My dinner had a lot of sodium though, and if I eat anymore my sodium for today is gonna be insane. (Side Note: I think obsessing over sugar intake made me forget about sodium, so I think that’s factoring into my weight gain). Have any of you ran into this issue?

    I don’t like the sugar tracker on here because it counts sugar in good foods like fruit and dairy. I easily go over with just those things. You need to worry about added sugar like in salad dressings and processed food. Sodium isn’t an issue really but could retain water, drink more water to help flush it out. Maybe just try focusing on one or two aspects of your diet instead of every single number. If you’re not eating enough because you’re worried about a high sodium intake then that isn’t healthy. I lost weight before with only caring about calories (I’m back because of pregnancy weight) so doing it simply is possible.
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    So I opened my diary up now that’s there’s at least some data in there. I started the week at a lower weight than last week which was nice.

    Thanks to everyone for the advice and input. It definitely helped put things into perspective for me!
  • Lesscookies1
    Lesscookies1 Posts: 250 Member
    You're eating more calories than you think honestly. Buy a food scale if you want, and since you don't have much to lose set your loss rate on MyFitnessPal to lose 0.5- 1 pound a week and eat the calories suggested it will be more than 1200-1400 calories I believe, and eat back at lest half of your workout burned calories.

    Food labels can underestimate or overestimate by 20%, and if you've been gaining weight it's because you're eating more Calories than you think. Good luck.
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    @Lesscookies1 have you looked at my diary? I don’t think I’m eating more than I think? I usually have to scramble to eat more at night or the app won’t count my day since I’m below my suggested calories. I have a LOT to lose too so I’m going to stick to 2lbs/wk.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    You're using cups still. You need a food scale.
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    edited February 2018
    I have a food scale and I use it, but it seems obnoxious to weigh blueberries. Just a personal opinion.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    Same with the sunflower nuts, marinara sauce, pasta, salad dressing, peanut butter, jelly, cod, green beans, and breaded chicken breast?
  • AtlasxMedic
    AtlasxMedic Posts: 16 Member
    Alright. I have nothing against weighing food and I’m not saying you guys are wrong by any standard. Weighing food is important and can change a 900 Cal deficit into a 750 cal deficit. I just don’t think weighing my food is the underlying cause. Saturday I was 220 in the morning and fasted. Monday I was 217 in the morning and fasted. I didn’t change anything between those days. In the past I’ve gone from 218 on a Monday to 210 on Saturday. When you get a variance like that it’s hard to say it’s just one thing happening. I’m sure weighing my food plays a role, but I also think there’s something bigger. It could be a sodium issue, a carb issue, a fat issue, it could be a cortisol issue, etc. Heck, I have an infection in my jaw right now and I’ll probably gain weight with that and these antibiotics. There’s a lot that can play into this, and I don’t think writing it off as “food weight” is the correct course.

    So, I’ll make an effort to weigh more things and not just use defaults on MFP when I know the weight (as with the chicken and cod). I’d still like to figure out more of what’s going on though because this is beyond frustrating. If I’m completely off base here, then by all means lay into me and I’ll shut up.
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,143 Member
    karen8787 wrote: »
    i didn't look at your diary...i would suggest to increase your fat, and lower your protein. i would suggest maybe cutting out the protein shake after workout. i read somewhere (but didn't retain any of it since it doesn't apply to me) that there is no merit in protien shakes after a workout for the average person. try googling it to see if you find the reasons. if you really feel you are stuck try a fat fast for 3 days. a fat fast is 90% of your calories from fat and 10% from protein. 1000 calories per day at 250 cal for 4 feedings. you can also do 1200 over 4 meals. you will def see results from this....but coming out of it....you should stick to a ketogenic diet...where 60-75% of your cals come from fat.


    What!?!?!? No.
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