Calorie defecit not losing weight

rdruken wrote: »

Hi all, I use a food scale to weigh everything and my burn is measured by my apple watch. I include all oils used to cook meats and use measuring spoons for everything like jam to mayo on my sandwiches. Most days my defecit is well over 500 calories so even if somehow i was off by like 300 calories I should still be losing something. I go to the gym for an hour most days and my calorie goal is 1300 calories so I really can't go any lower. How can I open my diary to you?

1. You need to be weighing the Mayo and Jam, especially as those sorts of things can add up very quickly. The easy way to weigh stuff like that is to put the jar on your digital gram scale and hit tare, then once you've made your sandwich or other dish/meal, the negative gram reading is how much you used.
2. Without knowing what sorts of activities you're doing, it's impossible to evaluate whether or not the watch is being inaccurate.

So, what sorts of activities are you doing, and what is the watch estimating as your burn.

I see some things that may be no better than guesses like "Dessert - Lemon Meringue Pie, 0.1125 th of a pie." I agree with @stanmann571 that you want to be weighing your condiments, especially calorie-dense things like mayo. You have a fair amount of generic entries (like "Generic - Stuffing, 0.2 cup") and these are often no better than guesses. Things like "Homemade - Healthy Apple Crisp, 1 slice" were created by other people -- you have no idea what ingredients they used, how big their "slice" was, etc. Things like "Apple crisp - Apple crisp, 0.26666680000000004 slice" -- how are you possibly measuring that (even if the database entry matches the apple crisp you're eating)?

As others have said, there may be an issue with your calories out and how you're estimating it, but I think there is almost certainly an issue with your calories in and how you are estimating them. I think it is likely you are eating more than you think. I think your desserts and your cocktails almost certainly are higher calorie than what you're estimating for them. You have 109 calories for "1 glass" of vodka and cranberry. Just two ounces of vodka alone is about 140 calories, that's not even counting the juice.

rdruken wrote: »

Hi again! I typically do about 20 min of cardio on the elliptical or running track then basic weight lifting with hand weights and the machines, nothing too extreme. My watch divides burned calories into "resting" and "active", where resting are like BMR calories and any movement gives active calories. My resting calories are typically 1500-1620 and my active calories I aim to get at least 500 per day, some days (like if I went out for supper) I work to increase that to 800 or more active.

In terms of weighing jam and mayo I assumed measuring spoons like teaspoons and tablespoons would be just as accurate leveled out as the packages usually list serving sizes in tablespoons over grams?

Compare and see. You will probably be surprised.

20 minutes of running/elliptical and some light calisthenics isn't going to get you anywhere near the 800-1000 calorie burns you're recording.

reeeggiii wrote: »

I don't think that the jam or the mayo can add up to 500 cals per day, you have to eat a lot more of them... Maybe you have some hormonal issues? Your BMR might be lower due to medical anomaly

If you look at OP's diary, there is a lot more going on than just the jam and mayo. Typically in cases of logging errors it is never any one particular food -- it's a whole bunch of smaller errors, made consistently, that result in someone eating more than they think.

To suggest someone look into hormonal issues when they are using measuring spoons for their food and still using a bunch of generic/homemade entries is way premature.

I virtually guarantee OP doesn't have an anomaly, she's likely just like a lot of us were when we started -- terrible at estimating food intake and unsure how to log some items. It's really common, I went through the exact same thing myself. Combine that with over-estimating calories burnt through exercise and it will be very difficult to get the results you think you should.

rdruken wrote: »

well on the average day my active calories is about 550, but that includes about 400 cal at the gym and I have to walk a fair ways into school so I think a hundred other calories above my BMR is pretty reasonable for the watch to calculate

400 calories for 20 minutes of cardio seems pretty high.

reeeggiii wrote: »

I don't think that the jam or the mayo can add up to 500 cals per day, you have to eat a lot more of them... Maybe you have some hormonal issues? Your BMR might be lower due to medical anomaly

in what world would a "medical anomaly" be more likely than janejellyroll's advice above??

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

reeeggiii wrote: »

I don't think that the jam or the mayo can add up to 500 cals per day, you have to eat a lot more of them... Maybe you have some hormonal issues? Your BMR might be lower due to medical anomaly

in what world would a "medical anomaly" be more likely than janejellyroll's advice above??

It's a very common issue, well at least in my country I see people everywhere with similar problems, they usually don't know it until they struggle with diets. It was just a guess, you never know...

rdruken wrote: »

its not just 20 minutes of cardio at the gym, I typically start with that but I am there for an hour lifting weights and doing sets of jumping jacks to keep my heart rate high, like I run a lap here and there before I go do another set. Weight lifting does burn calories too, so the entire hour at the gym is about 400 average not the cardio alone. Sorry if that wasn't clear

Weight lifting does burn calories, but it doesn't burn as much as you think.