been doing this for a long time

gillrushhh · November 2018

my weight has been fluctuating my whole life. i log everything i eat, 1,200 calories a day, and i exercise at least 5 days a week, sometimes twice a day. i ocassionally won’t log a bag of popcorn or a tablespoon of nutella or a handfull of pretzels, but i really feel like i should be losing more. (yes those things add up and im trying to get better at not snacking). i eat when im hungry, i’m not starving myself. yes, i’m in college— drinking is unavoidable but for me, not all that frequent. twice a week max. yes, because im in college, dining hall food gives me limited options but i do my best. yes im young and growing and very active, but i’m around 148 right now and miss my 136 figure. (i’m almost 5’5). im not even quite sure why im making this post, but any help or advice or words of wisdom from people who have been there would really help. i just want to feel confident again!!!

janejellyroll · November 2018

You don't have to avoid snacking, but you do want to log everything you're eating (and drinking).

If you are consistently logging 1,200 calories, exercising five days a week, and not losing weight, I'm guessing there are some inaccuracies in your logging that are resulting in you eating more than you think you are.

gillrushhh · November 2018

hard pill to swallow. guess i gotta buckle down

janejellyroll · November 2018

gillrushhh wrote: »

hard pill to swallow. guess i gotta buckle down

Yeah, it's rough. Some people find that roughly estimating calories or logging almost everything works well for them, but other people (like me) find that they need to be a bit more rigorous in order to see the results they want.

jdog022 · November 2018

Are you tracking the alcohol? Twice a week could be 1000 calories or more and poof there goes your deficit

closed2018 · November 2018

Hey yea I get you. We all miss our former figures as well. Anyway u said that u would occasionally take a handful of pretzels or Nutella and whatnot,, but my best advice to you is to replace those with fruits and veg that boost metabolism. I had just cut out junk food for the past five days and during 3/11-7/11 I had lost a kilo (roughly two pounds). U GOT THISSS.

I mean yeh u can snack once in a while but don’t binge whatever u do. Like ONE meal of fast food once a week is fine. Bye

)

TavistockToad · November 2018

you're not eating 1200 cals

FlyingMolly · November 2018

If you’re eating at the dining hall you probably aren’t weighing out your portions, and even if ingredients are posted you don’t know how much of each thing went into what you’re eating. It’s going to be really, really difficult for you to log accurately, and that’s before we even address the issue of just skipping logging treats.

My suggestion is to start taking pictures of everything you eat before you eat it. Try to use the same size plates and the same angles, and photograph snacks, too. After a couple of weeks of doing that and seeing how your weight responds, you can use those pictures as references, to figure out what your portions need to look like for your goals.

MelanieCN77 · November 2018

Drinking is never "unavoidable." If you're leaning on that excuse, it's possible there are other faulty ways of thinking that are getting in your way.

smolmaus · November 2018

I think you know what you have to do. If you can't log your food accurately or choose what you want to eat every day because you eat in the food hall, you're going to have to look to your snacking and drinking as ways to reduce your calorie consumption. You can track that accurately so start there. Track it all for a week, see how much "extra" you're taking in that you don't really need and see if you can't slice off 250kcal a day or 1750/week. Switch from beer or cocktails to clear spirits and slimline mixers, skip the tablespoon of nutella and the pretzels, you can probably keep the popcorn if it's not smothered in butter. You have plenty of room to play around here without even touching the food hall issue.

I would still do my best to keep the food hall portions consistent though and eyeball as best you can. The whole protein portion the size of your palm, half the plate of veggies type of guidelines might be helpful.

apullum · November 2018

Drinking is absolutely not unavoidable, in college or anywhere else. Trust me—I’m a professor, so I was in school for a very long time and now teach at a university. As long as you’re drinking responsibly, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it, but there is something wrong with the mindset that you can’t avoid drinking. If you’re in social situations where you feel that you must drink even if you don’t want to, then those are not good parties to go to or people to hang out with.

You are already in a normal BMI range for your height. If you don’t like the way your body looks, I would recommend strength training to build muscle, rather than focusing on weight loss. Fat loss at this point would be very slow and would require very careful logging because your calorie deficit is going to be small. A few errors can easily wipe it out altogether, and you currently have a lot of error in your logging. Strength training will help you get the figure you want. Some colleges even offer weightlifting or other strength classes that you could take, either as a formal course or an extracurricular.

MelanieCN77 · November 2018

apullum wrote: »

Drinking is absolutely not unavoidable, in college or anywhere else. Trust me—I’m a professor, so I was in school for a very long time and now teach at a university. As long as you’re drinking responsibly, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it, but there is something wrong with the mindset that you can’t avoid drinking. If you’re in social situations where you feel that you must drink even if you don’t want to, then those are not good parties to go to or people to hang out with.

You are already in a normal BMI range for your height. If you don’t like the way your body looks, I would recommend strength training to build muscle, rather than focusing on weight loss. Fat loss at this point would be very slow and would require very careful logging because your calorie deficit is going to be small. A few errors can easily wipe it out altogether, and you currently have a lot of error in your logging. Strength training will help you get the figure you want. Some colleges even offer weightlifting or other strength classes that you could take, either as a formal course or an extracurricular.

I'd be willing to bet it's something the OP enjoys and doesn't want to give up, and they are abdicating personal responsibility rather than accepting that sometimes choices need to be made and they suck.

janejellyroll · November 2018

closed2018 wrote: »

Hey yea I get you. We all miss our former figures as well. Anyway u said that u would occasionally take a handful of pretzels or Nutella and whatnot,, but my best advice to you is to replace those with fruits and veg that boost metabolism. I had just cut out junk food for the past five days and during 3/11-7/11 I had lost a kilo (roughly two pounds). U GOT THISSS.

I mean yeh u can snack once in a while but don’t binge whatever u do. Like ONE meal of fast food once a week is fine. Bye )

There are good reasons to include fruits and vegetables in the diet regularly, but they aren't going to boost your metabolism.

been doing this for a long time

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