Please give me some advice :)

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Theresak86
Theresak86 Posts: 4 Member
edited July 2019 in Getting Started
Hi everyone.


Just wanting to reach out and see if anyone could give me some tips and point out where I could possibly be going wrong on the last 10kilos I'm trying to lose.

I have been using this site for the last 6 months and religiously enter my daily food intake Monday - Friday as I class weeekends time for me but never overindulge. I entered the information in my profile and it has given me a 1200 calorie intake and I am wondering if this is too low? I work out at the gym 3-4 times a week for 45min and roughly burn 350-500 calories (according to the machines so not accurate). Should I be eating more? even tho I graze throughout the day as I do an office job to reach my 1200 with fruits, nuts, eggs, roasted broccoli as snacks and so on. I would like to be seeing more progress on the scales than I have been, seem to go up slightly and then down but not continually going down in weight?

Any help would be much appreciated, I want this last 10kilos gone :smiley:

Thank you

Replies

  • Theresak86
    Theresak86 Posts: 4 Member
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    Hi Michelle,

    Thanks for your response, I do weigh my food if I am eating thing's like nuts, hummus and snack based foods to make sure I am only having the serving size and I tend to keep my snacks under 100 calories per snack. I eat one main meal a day which is at lunch and this would be something vegetarian, I don't eat a main meal at night, usually have a greek yoghurt with high protein as I will get home late from the gym. This is why I'm wondering if I am not putting enough into my body especially if I am doing cardio 3-4 times a week at the gym. I find the last 10kilos is alway's hard to shift :(
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
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    If you're not having the success you're looking for, I would weigh and log everything , food, drink, condiments etc. - including your weekends. As you get down to the last few pounds/kilos you have less room for error, and if you're not logging your weekends you could be wiping out your deficit even if you don't think you're overindulging.

    Seriously, weigh everything, not just the high-calorie stuff! It's definitely important to eat enough to fuel your body, but it's also important to have a more accurate idea of how much your actual intake is. Set your goals for a loss of 1/2 - 1lb per week as suggested, add a reasonable estimate of your workout calories burned, and eat what MFP tells you to. If you're still not losing, reduce the percentage of workout calories you eat - but if you're as accurate and honest as possible with both your stats/activity level and your exercise/intake, you should see results within a few weeks.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
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    Also - probably the best advice anyone can give on these forums... :)

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    I would guess that with such a small amount to lose that the untracked weekends are where you're running into problems. Even if you don't 'over-indulge' you might be undoing the work you've put in through out the week.

    Given that the deficit created by your daily calorie target is likely to be in the vicinity of a few hundred calories a day a weekend untracked, even if you're not over-indulging could be bringing you back up to maintenance. A extra few nuts here, a larger scoop there and a so on can quickly add up if you're not paying attention.

    G'luck.
  • Theresak86
    Theresak86 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thank you to all that's replied you have all given me alot of thing's to look at and reconsider, definitley going to try the TDEE calculator and access my intakes that way.

    I think the weekends are maybe what's stalling my progress even though i'll have what I would call a cheat meal where i'll eat whatever I want one night. But I'm also not eating as regularly as I do in my work week where I'm constantly supplying myself of good healthy choices as much as possible and still learning what's good as a vegetarian to have (Nuts will be going out as I have noticed they are high in calories). I will see how I go with these changes :smiley:

  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
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    the problem is that healthy choices a lot of the times means high calories. Eg - friend of mine was trying to lose weight got a "healthy banana bread" recipe from some nutritionist person.

    I ate some and was thinking - *kitten*, this thing is a calorie bomb, as she told me the ingredients and proceeded to eat half the cake.

    I asked her for the recipe, logged it and compared it to my normal banana bread recipe - mine has WAY less calories than her "healthy" one. And tasted better too. But hers was gluten free and all sorts of healthy things. She's not gluten intolerant btw.

    So yeah, we've all been there - myself included - eating "healthy things" but not realizing that was eating way more than should have been eating in terms of calories.

    YOu got this!
  • Theresak86
    Theresak86 Posts: 4 Member
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    Cahgetsfit wrote: »
    the problem is that healthy choices a lot of the times means high calories. Eg - friend of mine was trying to lose weight got a "healthy banana bread" recipe from some nutritionist person.

    I ate some and was thinking - *kitten*, this thing is a calorie bomb, as she told me the ingredients and proceeded to eat half the cake.

    I asked her for the recipe, logged it and compared it to my normal banana bread recipe - mine has WAY less calories than her "healthy" one. And tasted better too. But hers was gluten free and all sorts of healthy things. She's not gluten intolerant btw.

    So yeah, we've all been there - myself included - eating "healthy things" but not realizing that was eating way more than should have been eating in terms of calories.

    YOu got this!

    You are hundred percent right, as I recently started trying to be vegetarian/vegan and I am finding that when I log the foods in that they are highly processed, have lots of sodium and high in carbs and these are so called healthy recipes so I am definitley learning as I go on finding the better choice of healthy foods and spend ages reading ingredients at the shops or scanning them into myfitness that's when I noticed a handful of almonds is extremely high in calories haha
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    edited July 2019
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    Nuts are a great way to get some healthy fats and other nutrients, and many people find them satisfying, but yeah - calorie bombs! You have to weigh them carefully and not just grab "a handful". :) (Same with nut butters - most people are sad when they find out how much their "tablespoon" really weighs.)

    Sodium and carbs aren't "bad" (unless you have certain medical conditions), but they do have a tendency to make you hold onto water weight which can mask your fat losses. Some people also find it easier to control their appetite if they reduce the amount of carbs they eat, whereas others find carbs very satiating.

    It's a matter of individual preference - experiment to figure out what works best for you, and don't cut out any foods you really love... just learn to measure out weigh an appropriate portion. :)

    I have a few gluten free cookbooks, and many of those recipes are very high in calories! All the author is concerned about is making the recipe taste good, not with how many calories it has. The same goes for many so-called "healthy" recipes, as @Cahgetsfit mentioned. SkinnyTaste is an excellent source of lower calorie recipes.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    I was convinced a number of years ago that I was overweight because I was an omnivore and that if I went vegetarian that I'd lose all the weight because, y'know veggies = healthy. Right? This person didn't have an ounce of fat on the so I was sold.

    It comes as no surprise that unrestricted meals of chips (fries), double veggie burgers, bags of potato chips, litres of full strength soft drink, deep fried samosas, large bean burritos, vegetarian nachos and the like did little to improve my waistline =)
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
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    jssjmpp6shfd.jpg
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10697068/how-i-stopped-kidding-myself/p1
  • pgreen1017
    pgreen1017 Posts: 7 Member
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    I was wondering if anyone could tell me how I go from calorie counting to maintenance in myfitnesspal. Is there a setting to change it to "maintenance." Thanks for any help.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    pgreen1017 wrote: »
    I was wondering if anyone could tell me how I go from calorie counting to maintenance in myfitnesspal. Is there a setting to change it to "maintenance." Thanks for any help.

    Settings... Account SEttings... Update Diet/Fitness profile

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