Caloric Amount
Replies
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Justin_7272 wrote: »You need to use a food scale; you have too many measurements in non-weighted forms: volumes (cups, tbsp, etc.), serving amounts (slices, chips, crackers) and sizes (small, medium, large).
The foods you have listed in weight are also too precise (4 oz salmon, 100 g kale, .5 oz avocado), which leads me to believe these aren't actually being weighed, but rather guesstimates.
You're likely eating many more calories than you're counting. Even measurement cup sizes can vary, so weigh everything.
I second buying a food scale. I was shocked how much more I was eating before I got a food scale. A real 3-ounce serving of beef/chicken is visually much smaller than what I had assumed was a serving until I got my scale.1 -
Weight the dang popcorn. Changing your start weight... your call. Changing your current weight to correct? Good idea.
To be exact weigh the kernels unpopped.
Then recover and re weigh the uneaten kernels that never popped
Now you know how much popcorn you ate.
I don't advocate this but I decided a long time ago to just log my popcorn higher than needed and be lazy about it. About 2 months ago I was in one of my back to basics weeks where I do everything by the book logging every calorie and I realized I was logging it way too high... almost double lol. The funny thing about that is when I first started logging I logged it almost triple what it should have been. I have no idea what my deal is with popcorn.
I would not necessarily advocate this level of accuracy except in a situation like this where the OP really needs to get a handle as to exactly how many calories he is consuming.
If he is truly not losing on the calories he believes he is consuming he needs to get checked out to see what else may be happening (reason for extreme water weight retention? severe activity slow down to compensate for a very long period on low calories?) But, before he heads out into such investigative tangents, he really does need to nail down his intake and determine whether his stall is just because of eating more than he thinks.
So in this situation, and in my opinion, nailing his intake level requires that he more than doubles down on his accuracy efforts. And measuring the pop-corn with a cup is not quite militant enough in my opinion in this particular situation.1 -
Weight the dang popcorn. Changing your start weight... your call. Changing your current weight to correct? Good idea.
To be exact weigh the kernels unpopped.
Then recover and re weigh the uneaten kernels that never popped
Now you know how much popcorn you ate.
I don't advocate this but I decided a long time ago to just log my popcorn higher than needed and be lazy about it. About 2 months ago I was in one of my back to basics weeks where I do everything by the book logging every calorie and I realized I was logging it way too high... almost double lol. The funny thing about that is when I first started logging I logged it almost triple what it should have been. I have no idea what my deal is with popcorn.
I would not necessarily advocate this level of accuracy except in a situation like this where the OP really needs to get a handle as to exactly how many calories he is consuming.
If he is truly not losing on the calories he believes he is consuming he needs to get checked out to see what else may be happening (reason for extreme water weight retention? severe activity slow down to compensate for a very long period on low calories?) But, before he heads out into such investigative tangents, he really does need to nail down his intake and determine whether his stall is just because of eating more than he thinks.
So in this situation, and in my opinion, nailing his intake level requires that he more than doubles down on his accuracy efforts. And measuring the pop-corn with a cup is not quite militant enough in my opinion in this particular situation.
I agree. I was just making conversation. As I said I discovered my error during one of my return to basics weeks. I do this from time to time to check on things like popcorn or whatever that I might be a little lazy about. I go back to weighing/measuring and recording every single calorie that goes in my mouth. I helps me find errors and I think it helps sharpen my guessing skills for restaurants and other situations that are not in my control.3 -
I guess what is giving me a hard time comprehending is I always did the sort of generic log entries from day one and I lost weight so easily. Maybe it is because I've been on such a restrictive caloric level so long my body is resisting? But I agree, a hard handed weighing program must be in order. I even thought it was my Celebrex med so I stopped it for a month and there was no change, so I went back on it as it helps my early onset arthritis.1
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So if I weigh the poop corn and say it is a ounce. How to I know how much that is? the bag clearly says 3 cups 1700
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You may also be inadvertently reducing activity after a long period on low Cals, etc, etc. But first of all you need to figure out for SURE if you really are at the level of calories you think you are.
You can double check entries against the USDA Standard Reference Database and against other brands that make similar items. It would be quite unusual for an entry to have volume without ANY weight. Though some products do that... for example ready whip and ice cream in Canada (and especially these two products are traps because in both cases 1g is much more than 1ml)
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So if I weigh the poop corn and say it is a ounce. How to I know how much that is? the bag clearly says 3 cups 170
Oh, it's giving pre-popped weight per serving than - just like frozen items, pasta, pre-cooked many items.
If it says 3 cups cooked is a serving, but 1 oz is that same serving (shocked it wouldn't be in grams actually) pre-popped - how many are you making it for, how many nights.
If just yours - weigh the 1 oz, pop it up - all yours, volume doesn't matter, you made a serving.
If making more for whole family - weigh whatever you normally use - divide by serving weight to see how many servings you are making. Perhaps weigh out even serving size for easier math.
When finished popping - weigh the whole batch on the scale - quick math as to popped weight per serving - zero the scale, take out your serving weight. Leave the rest for family.1 -
I guess what is giving me a hard time comprehending is I always did the sort of generic log entries from day one and I lost weight so easily. Maybe it is because I've been on such a restrictive caloric level so long my body is resisting? But I agree, a hard handed weighing program must be in order. I even thought it was my Celebrex med so I stopped it for a month and there was no change, so I went back on it as it helps my early onset arthritis.
okay, here's something no one has touched upon, I don't think. I didn't read every post today, so I could have missed it.
When you first start out in weight loss, the body is used to (say) 5000 calories per day to maintain that 269 pounds. When starting weight loss, we cut that by probably HALF or more, to 2500 calories or less. The body WILL let go of quite a bit of weight in the beginning without precise calculations. But honestly, you could have been making thousands of calories in errors - it's just that you had plenty of body fat and it was easy to lose weight even if you were only cutting back a little.
It gets harder as you go.
You weigh less, so less is needed BUT also your body will slow down to keep pace with the intake of fuel. That's why we suggest refeeding (eating at maintenance) once every three months or so. That is sort of what you may have inadvertently done.
Adaptive thermogenesis https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/metabolic-damage/
Scientific explanation thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1
Diet breaks/refeed https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
Get your food on point. Use accurate food entries from the database.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p14 -
ok it is now July 26 and I'm still 245. I did remove jerky from my diet last weekend, so will see if that was the contributing factor.0
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I saw my doctor and they ran complete blood workup and all my numbers are excellent and within range. So they are mystified too...0
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Maybe I am not logging right. For example if I eat a banana the db says 105 calories. So if I weigh it on the scale, how do I enter that amount? I guess I'm been using the db listings too much??0
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Are you using the app or the web site? iphone or android?0
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I'd just type in banana to the Search field, then look at each option until I find one that has grams in the dropdown. Select one that allows you to enter how many grams you had and enter the weight of the banana.
And that's the weight of the edible part - you don't weigh the skin. The easy way is to weigh the whole thing then weigh the skin after you've finished eating. Deduct the skin's weight from what the whole fruit weighed.
Once you have a proper entry for Banana in your diary, you can use the last entry in your history and just amend the weight when you eat another one.1 -
And you may want to ensure that the entry you use has values similar to those found in the USDA Standard Reference database where 09040, Banana, raw, has energy of 89 Cal per 100g of edible fruit
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Maybe I am not logging right. For example if I eat a banana the db says 105 calories. So if I weigh it on the scale, how do I enter that amount? I guess I'm been using the db listings too much??
Either that DB entry gives an assumed weight - or you select from the serving 100g or 1g method.
Weigh yours - move the decimal point over correctly for # of servings.0 -
ok it is now July 26 and I'm still 245. I did remove jerky from my diet last weekend, so will see if that was the contributing factor.
You're still using generic entries.
0.5 ounces of avocado? That's like one piece that's a half inch square.
A tablespoon of black olives?
3 cups of popcorn?
A medium russet potato? My red potatoes are small - about the size of a raquetball, and they are 120g, or 86 calories. A normal sized russet potato is gong to be 400g or so, or nearly 300 calories. A "pat" of butter? Are you using restaurant individually wrapped butter? Because even a pat of restaurant butter is going to be anywhere from 36 calories to over a hundred.
You are going to have to start being more accurate. It's gone on for many months now.
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agree with the above. 3 strawberries? 1 medium apple?
0.75 of a large egg? how do you eat 3/4 of an egg?
use the food scale on all foods, search the database for entries with options to enter grams/oz. be specific on types of apples.
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Maybe I am not logging right. For example if I eat a banana the db says 105 calories. So if I weigh it on the scale, how do I enter that amount? I guess I'm been using the db listings too much??
You need to use a database entry that has bananas in grams (or ounces, assuming you're accurate down to a fraction of an ounce). "One banana" is a meaningless unit for the purposes of accurate logging.
Agree with the others--there are still a lot of entries in your diary in cups, spoons, etc. Weigh it all. Forget that you even own any measuring cups or spoons.0 -
I am pondering starting from a clean slate in mfp. I signed up at 269 3 years ago. So I might just start new at 246 today? pros or cons to this?
Others have advised you regarding the possibility of logging errors, so I'm not going to add anything else to that.
I do have a question regarding your initial weight on MFP, though. You don't need a "clean slate", your starting weight is your starting weight. But, do you update your current weight regularly on MFP (in My Home -> Check-In), or does the app still think you're 269? Because if you never updated your current weight, then MFP would be eternally giving you a caloric goal intake for someone heavier than you are now, and that could maybe explain the year long plateau.1 -
Gummi I do change my weight but it only goes from 245 or say 246... what I don' t get is I originally went from 269 down to 235 logging the way I do.. I over count things too, saying I eat more than I do... but once I started back up to 245 I got stuck. I guess the real science is to weigh everything like you all tell me.. It just seems odd it used to work the generic way ?1
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so my weeky summary is always less than 10k calories! but that is not weighing right obviously. because how do you weight movie popcorn? I guess 10 cups is 500 per listing. I can't really weight it.. yeah, I know it's a bad one to eat...
so for lunch at work I'm having my two cans of Walmart chicken breast raw out of can. 10oz total and a banana that I can't weigh. I guess I could buy a scale for work though0 -
Like we said though - the difference between you at 270 and you at 235 is significant.
It is easy to lose weight when you have a lot of weight to lose - even with making huge errors.
As you get closer to a healthy weight, you not only need to be eating less, but you have to get closer to that calorie number daily.
Have you reset your Goals recently? Go in and reset Goals to, "Lose 1 pound per week." Make sure your weight is current in there. Calories change as you lose weight, and it's possible you need to recalculate. Set your Activity level reasonably. Log your exercise when you do purposeful exercise.
Do that here: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided
Make sure to click, "Save changes," when you're done.
You keep arguing the same argument in every post. There is a solution.4 -
ok I went in an reset my loss per week from 2 pounds to 1.5 which bounced me up to 1600 allowable calories instead of 1500. So will see how it goes.. thanks all of you! I know, I'm a problems solver too and this has been really gnawing at me.1
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You weigh your popcorn kernels un-popped. You pop them and eat them. You weigh the un-popped kernels. You subtract one from the other and thus know what you've consumed.
yes, there might be a minuscule difference in terms of impurities, or scale zeroing imperfections but is sure is a heck of a lot closer to reality than measuring 10 cups
I hesitate to offer a further suggestion... but if I was contemplating eating a can or two of chicken and a banana, I would actually invest in about 500 to 600g of a mix of tomatoes and cucumers or lettuce or tri-colored coleslaw mix and would pour one of the cans of chicken over it.
with perhaps just some weighted out balsamic vinegar or lemon juice, or would, if adventuresome, weight some greek yogurt and mustard and make my own mustard/yogurt based dressing--I am weird with greek yogurt I use it everywhere!
Then I would repeat the experiment with the second can of chicken later in the day
This would dramatically increase my "5" a day vegetable portions and help me approach my "hidden" 10 a day target. It would also increase my fiber. And make me happier to eat my chicken.
But hey. As long as you're happy eating your chicken straight up... more power to you!3 -
thanks the recipe you suggested sounds good. I just eat the canned chicken straight as I'm at the office for lunch and I can pop the lid off and dump it into a paper coffee cup . It's not to bad other than a huge salt content. Then have my banana. I do have dinner salad every evening with dinner at 6pm and a vegetable with meals. 1
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manly hug and all that! It sounds "interesting" to be pouring the poor chicken out of a can and into a paper coffee cup! Tupperware containers / glass-lock / Glad containers may be of assistance? You could prepare the previous night and grab and go in the morning? I've even seen people use little "school lunch" bags with an flexible ice pack to keep their stuff cold. It does take more effort mind you.
There is little doubt that a high sodium diet may be making you retain some water and have a higher apparent weight; but, if you consistently eat higher sodium it doesn't really change things in terms of long term fat loss. And as long as your blood pressure and doctor are on board...1 -
I actually purchased a digital pocket scale to carry in my purse. Some people think that's going too far, but luckily I don't give a **** about weighing a banana or crackers or whatever at work. I don't use it at social gatherings or restaurants, but it's been incredibly helpful in measuring the exact "snackage" amounts I'm eating (again, mostly at work).2
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so my weeky summary is always less than 10k calories! but that is not weighing right obviously. because how do you weight movie popcorn? I guess 10 cups is 500 per listing. I can't really weight it.. yeah, I know it's a bad one to eat...
As bad as I am at estimating weight with my hands, I think I could get close enough to 1/4 lb increments.
And then take the container home to weigh it for next time you enjoy the popcorn.
While the estimate for already popped corn isn't as good as by kernals as PAV8888 described it - get's you better than totally unknowing.
And then the butter, ahh, do a search and find out who got one on their way out of the theater and weighed it at home with butter.
Or bring your own calorie free or low cal seasoning to sprinkle on it there.2
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