Eating Routine Help

Hi there,
I am a 175 lbs 5ft7in male currently 21 and am aiming to lose a lot of weight(body fat) and my goal is to reach around my ideal weight of around 145-150. My goal isn't to get big by any means, just to get leaner at my ideal weight with less body fat. I don't get much strength workouts in during the week(2 days- Fridays and Sundays about 1 hour each day with heart rate between 140-160) and tend to do 30 mins of cardio everyday. I have been plateaued at my current weight for a couple months now with small changes up and down but nothing big.

My current diet I'm trying to eat more protein as I am a vegetarian(can drink milk/eat cheese but no eggs) and lower my carb intake. My current diet is roughly the same everyday with a little bit variations over lunch but roughly comes out to the same everyday with respect to calories/macros.

Here is my eating habits so far for a day:

jvk9xaa1e1i8.png

Breakfast I eat at ~8am, Snack 1 - Bar at ~11am, Lunch at ~12:30pm, Snack2 - Peanuts at ~4pm, Dinner at ~7pm.

I have made sure that my diet is followed everyday and CICO is close to being accurate for everyday(lunch is the only variable but caloric amounts are farily accurate) but I still seem to not lose any weight.

Would you guys happen to have any suggestions with respect to my eating habits and my gym habits that I could improve to lose some weight(and body fat) to get more leaner?

Thanks so much in advance.

Replies

  • ghudson92
    ghudson92 Posts: 2,061 Member
    Are you weighing everything on a digital food scale? It looks like some of your entries are generic ones from the database, these can often contain errors. The best way to tighten up your logging is to make a food entry yourself using the 'per 100g' information on the product, and then weighing your portion accordingly. Make sure you log everything including cooking oils, condiments etc. These things all add up. Meal timing wont affect your weight loss.
  • Idream404
    Idream404 Posts: 5 Member
    edited August 2019
    ghudson92 wrote: »
    Are you weighing everything on a digital food scale? It looks like some of your entries are generic ones from the database, these can often contain errors. The best way to tighten up your logging is to make a food entry yourself using the 'per 100g' information on the product, and then weighing your portion accordingly. Make sure you log everything including cooking oils, condiments etc. These things all add up. Meal timing wont affect your weight loss.

    Hi, thanks for the reply. I am weighing everything on a digital scale for all meals other than my lunches which I weigh most of the time of the week(the days I make my food from home, usually 3-4 days per week). Sadly this lunch meal was the one from where I ate out so you're right its probably inaccurate . But usually my lunch is a mixture of lentil quinoa recipe which from my measurements earlier is about the same amount of calories +/- a few. I'm making sure to account for all condiments, etc. as well. So I think my caloric amounts should be close to accurate. Hmm
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    15 almonds is not a digital scale measurement.

    If you are not losing as expected you have to start over with your logging. Everything that passes through your lips with calories needs to be weighed and verified as much as possible. Condiments, salad dressings, cooking oil, any beverage that is not water, supplements, protein powders, samples from the grocery store, everything. If you eat the same basic food each day consider building your own list to be sure it is accurate.
  • Idream404
    Idream404 Posts: 5 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    15 almonds is not a digital scale measurement.

    If you are not losing as expected you have to start over with your logging. Everything that passes through your lips with calories needs to be weighed and verified as much as possible. Condiments, salad dressings, cooking oil, any beverage that is not water, supplements, protein powders, samples from the grocery store, everything. If you eat the same basic food each day consider building your own list to be sure it is accurate.

    Hi thanks for the reply. I was under the impression that 1 almond is 1 gram. So kind of just went of that as my measurement. I measured it again today and that's what I got for my measurement - 15g but I'll start measuring on scale more now though just to be sure. I did notice that I was using different almonds here than the ones I use at home but now I'm saving another 20 ish calories so thanks for making me look into that haha.


    Yeah I've been logging everything as much as I can. I'm making sure to not have anything extras throughout the day and if by chance I do, I log it as accurately as I can but like my breakfast is all measured(hopefully more accurately now with the almonds), my lunch from home I've made it into a meal accounting for everything, the amount of lentils in grams, the quinoa, oil, onions, tomatoes, other condiments etc. Snacks are packaged so I just use their values - so no measurement there. Dinner I've also been measuring. So I think the overall picture is that my calories should be as close as possible to the things I consume per day.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    I think 15g=15 almonds is fine...the extra or less is negligible, and I don't think that's the problem.

    You only have a few pounds to lose to get into the healthy BMI, around 160, so set your Goals on Myfitnesspal to "Lose 1/2 pound per week."

    Keep logging.

    Stay the course.

    It takes a long time to lose when you don't have much to lose.

    Here are a couple great threads:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Idream404 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    15 almonds is not a digital scale measurement.

    If you are not losing as expected you have to start over with your logging. Everything that passes through your lips with calories needs to be weighed and verified as much as possible. Condiments, salad dressings, cooking oil, any beverage that is not water, supplements, protein powders, samples from the grocery store, everything. If you eat the same basic food each day consider building your own list to be sure it is accurate.

    Hi thanks for the reply. I was under the impression that 1 almond is 1 gram. So kind of just went of that as my measurement. I measured it again today and that's what I got for my measurement - 15g but I'll start measuring on scale more now though just to be sure. I did notice that I was using different almonds here than the ones I use at home but now I'm saving another 20 ish calories so thanks for making me look into that haha.


    Yeah I've been logging everything as much as I can. I'm making sure to not have anything extras throughout the day and if by chance I do, I log it as accurately as I can but like my breakfast is all measured(hopefully more accurately now with the almonds), my lunch from home I've made it into a meal accounting for everything, the amount of lentils in grams, the quinoa, oil, onions, tomatoes, other condiments etc. Snacks are packaged so I just use their values - so no measurement there. Dinner I've also been measuring. So I think the overall picture is that my calories should be as close as possible to the things I consume per day.

    The almonds wouldn't make a big difference in that quantity. I was pointing it out because sometimes if someone takes a shortcut there they may take shortcuts elsewhere like taking package measurements. Since it happens often it seems like the best place to rule out a problem. My own logging style would be to weigh the almonds if I ate them everyday only because they are caloric. If I ate ~100 calories of them once a month I wouldn't worry about precision as much.

    If you are absolutely sure your logged calories are correct you have to be losing weight and you may just be waiting for your losses to unmask.

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

  • Idream404
    Idream404 Posts: 5 Member
    I think 15g=15 almonds is fine...the extra or less is negligible, and I don't think that's the problem.

    You only have a few pounds to lose to get into the healthy BMI, around 160, so set your Goals on Myfitnesspal to "Lose 1/2 pound per week."

    Keep logging.

    Stay the course.

    It takes a long time to lose when you don't have much to lose.

    Here are a couple great threads:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    Hi, thanks for the reply. That is true, I will try setting it to that and try for another month or so. Right now I'm just using values from a TDEE calculator and thought it'd be nice. I guess you're right about the waiting, I'll try for another month to see how it works out otherwise maybe its time for me to visit a doctor :'( . Thanks for those links. I will definitely look into those.


    NovusDies wrote: »
    Idream404 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    15 almonds is not a digital scale measurement.

    If you are not losing as expected you have to start over with your logging. Everything that passes through your lips with calories needs to be weighed and verified as much as possible. Condiments, salad dressings, cooking oil, any beverage that is not water, supplements, protein powders, samples from the grocery store, everything. If you eat the same basic food each day consider building your own list to be sure it is accurate.

    Hi thanks for the reply. I was under the impression that 1 almond is 1 gram. So kind of just went of that as my measurement. I measured it again today and that's what I got for my measurement - 15g but I'll start measuring on scale more now though just to be sure. I did notice that I was using different almonds here than the ones I use at home but now I'm saving another 20 ish calories so thanks for making me look into that haha.


    Yeah I've been logging everything as much as I can. I'm making sure to not have anything extras throughout the day and if by chance I do, I log it as accurately as I can but like my breakfast is all measured(hopefully more accurately now with the almonds), my lunch from home I've made it into a meal accounting for everything, the amount of lentils in grams, the quinoa, oil, onions, tomatoes, other condiments etc. Snacks are packaged so I just use their values - so no measurement there. Dinner I've also been measuring. So I think the overall picture is that my calories should be as close as possible to the things I consume per day.

    The almonds wouldn't make a big difference in that quantity. I was pointing it out because sometimes if someone takes a shortcut there they may take shortcuts elsewhere like taking package measurements. Since it happens often it seems like the best place to rule out a problem. My own logging style would be to weigh the almonds if I ate them everyday only because they are caloric. If I ate ~100 calories of them once a month I wouldn't worry about precision as much.

    If you are absolutely sure your logged calories are correct you have to be losing weight and you may just be waiting for your losses to unmask.

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

    Yeah, no I completely understand. I used to do that before and noticed that I was gaining weight(despite loggin a deficit) and since then I've tried to make sure I stay as true as possible. So I've definitely done what you've stated here before but I think for now I've learned from it and am working towards the correct way of measuring.

    Hopefully you're right about the unmasking. Maybe I should just start using a measuring tape for progress instead of looking at my weight everyday. Seems like it could be more accurate haha. Thanks for the link. I'll take a read through it.
  • mwoltermann
    mwoltermann Posts: 15 Member
    You may want to talk w/ a doctor. There might be a health condition involved assuming you are accurate in your calorie counting. There could obviously be plenty of reasons why this is normal but might not hurt to ask...
  • Idream404
    Idream404 Posts: 5 Member
    You may want to talk w/ a doctor. There might be a health condition involved assuming you are accurate in your calorie counting. There could obviously be plenty of reasons why this is normal but might not hurt to ask...

    Yeah I've been wanting to go to a doctor to get my thyroid checked. Recently moved provinces in Canada so I have to wait 3 months before my health card arrives so will be doing that real soon. I'm thinking it might be a condition as well.