Calories in vs out
RameezIqbal2015
Posts: 1 Member
Hey guys . Thanks for having me in here. So I’m running into a little bit of dilemma . I’ve been tracking calories to the best of ability and long story short have been using apple watch 4 to track what I have burned for the day . There’s been plenty instances where in vs out ratio was big but for some odd reason I find myself gaining weight instead of loosing . Does eating after 6 pm really is a thing or am I doing something wrong ?? Thanks for any advise or suggestions
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Replies
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Have you been using a food scale to weigh out your food portions? A lot of people find that what they thought was a serving was actually much bigger than the actual serving, and they are actually eating a lot more than they thought they were.
That’s a good place to start.
ETA that meal timing is irrelevant to weight loss. Sometimes playing with meal timing can help with controlling hunger but eating after 6 will not keep you from losing weight.13 -
How many calories are you eating and how many calories does the apple watch say you are burning? Are you weighing everything you eat? How long have you been tracking for? I see one of three possibilities:
1. You are eating more than you think you are
2. Your apple watch is overestimating your calories, and you aren't burning as much as you think you are.
3. You haven't given it enough time, and you are experience normal weight fluctuations on the scale, and need to give it more time.
Or it is likely some combination of the three of those. It is really calories in vs calories out. The time of day you eat your calories does not have any effect.14 -
Great input from other posters on the need to weigh food. Also keeping measuring cups and measuring spoons handy is a must. For Example: 1 tbs peanut butter is 94 calories, 1 tbs Olive Oil is 119 calories and 1 tbs mayonaise is 94 calories. And 1 cup of spaghetti is 210 calories. Without measuring it would be easy to eat more calories than your diet would allow.0
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Over what time period? When you say that your in vs out ratio is large, it causes me to wonder if you've recently upped your exercise levels and your muscles are retaining water.1
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I have an apple watch 4, and have been using it to track exercise for the last 9 months and have found that it is giving pretty accurate estimates of the calories burned. The new update includes trends, so you can easily look at 90 day results or use the old summaries by year to get an idea of monthly averages. Combining the resting rate and activity calories from the watch, gives an estimated Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Subtracting my average calories in from that gives my average daily deficit, which I convert to expected pounds loss per week (multiply by 7/3500) That seems to track pretty closely with my realized weight loss. I check this monthly and reassess.
Like the others suggest - weigh everything that you can, check food labels and don't trust the database (even checked items I have found to be incorrect!).
Check the watch's estimate of your resting rate (not exactly sure that this corresponds to BMR) but if yours is lower than expected or what was used to determine your calories in that could explain part of the difference. my watch suggests my RMR is probably 300 calories higher than the standard formula used by MFP to suggest number of calories in so I actually burn more than expected (so can actually eat more :-)
Finally, when using the watch/phone workout apps, I have found that some apps give inflated calorie burns that could skew results. (Sometimes the default app gets fooled, like the time I went horseback riding - my step count was way off for the day since it thought I was walking - LOL
As for eating late - I usually have a snack around 10 and it has not seemed to hurt weight loss! like PP it is CICO
Good luck with the tracking and journey!2 -
pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Great input from other posters on the need to weigh food. Also keeping measuring cups and measuring spoons handy is a must. For Example: 1 tbs peanut butter is 94 calories, 1 tbs Olive Oil is 119 calories and 1 tbs mayonaise is 94 calories. And 1 cup of spaghetti is 210 calories. Without measuring it would be easy to eat more calories than your diet would allow.
Except for the oil - those examples are all great reasons why measuring is NOT a must - but weighing is.
Especially the peanut butter and spaghetti.
Calories is per gram - not cups or spoons volumes.22 -
How long have you been tracking for?0
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72 days. I think some of the other posters may be out of country since there are references to grams. Since we don’t have the metric system in US it is just easier to track in ounces, cups and teaspoons. Grams are listed on all of the packages but then more work to convert.0
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pamhardwick8899 wrote: »72 days. I think some of the other posters may be out of country since there are references to grams. Since we don’t have the metric system in US it is just easier to track in ounces, cups and teaspoons. Grams are listed on all of the packages but then more work to convert.
Many of us are in the US and use a food scale to weigh in grams. It is much more accurate and means fewer dirty dishes to wash. You can buy a food scale at lots of stores like Walmart or Target or online for less than $20.20 -
pamhardwick8899 wrote: »72 days. I think some of the other posters may be out of country since there are references to grams. Since we don’t have the metric system in US it is just easier to track in ounces, cups and teaspoons. Grams are listed on all of the packages but then more work to convert.
Weighing small items in grams is pretty standard in the US as well, though I suppose the average person doesn't run across the need to. But any standard food scale will weigh in grams, the package lists grams, and there are entries in the database in grams, so you don't have to convert anything.
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I'm in the U.S. and I weigh everything in grams.
I even entered all my own foods into the database in grams. It's really not a good plan to use measuring spoons and cups.
https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk 12 -
pamhardwick8899 wrote: »72 days. I think some of the other posters may be out of country since there are references to grams. Since we don’t have the metric system in US it is just easier to track in ounces, cups and teaspoons. Grams are listed on all of the packages but then more work to convert.
US packages have grams plus a volume measure, normally. I'm in the US and when I weigh, I weigh in grams. Way easier than ounces (which have to go out to a decimal point to be as precise), and cups and teaspoons aren't accurate other than for liquids. And why bother dirtying a cup or teaspoon if you don't need to.6 -
cmriverside wrote: »I'm in the U.S. and I weigh everything in grams.
I even entered all my own foods into the database in grams. It's really not a good plan to use measuring spoons and cups.https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk
I even weigh my milk in grams.12 -
pamhardwick8899 wrote: »72 days. I think some of the other posters may be out of country since there are references to grams. Since we don’t have the metric system in US it is just easier to track in ounces, cups and teaspoons. Grams are listed on all of the packages but then more work to convert.
You weigh how much you ate of an item by grams.
You divide by how many grams per serving. (if no calculator and you weighed carefully this doesn't matter)
Now you know how many servings you ate - done.
Even if the food database lists the convenience cups or spoons per serving for an item instead of the grams - you are going by servings now.
2, or 3.33, or whatever.2 -
Since I don’t have a scale that weighs by grams then I have to find an American weight(measurement) in ounces/cups/tablespoons for the serving size &calories for the food I want in the MFP app or look at the measurement in the packaging.0
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pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Since I don’t have a scale that weighs by grams then I have to find an American weight(measurement) in ounces/cups/tablespoons for the serving size &calories for the food I want in the MFP app or look at the measurement in the packaging.
No you don't.
You can enter your own new food items and then you are building your own personal MY FOODS list with everything the way you want it.
Here's the How To:
https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032271992-How-do-I-log-a-food-that-is-not-in-the-database
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pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Since I don’t have a scale that weighs by grams then I have to find an American weight(measurement) in ounces/cups/tablespoons for the serving size &calories for the food I want in the MFP app or look at the measurement in the packaging.
I've never seen a scale that weighs by oz and not grams. I'm in the US. US packages typically have grams, not oz.11 -
Most packaging measures in both grams and ounces. And I use my scale every day that measures in ounces only...so maybe I can send you a pic to show you what one looks like.-1
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Most packaging I've seen has only one weight measure, and it's grams.2
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pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Most packaging measures in both grams and ounces. And I use my scale every day that measures in ounces only...so maybe I can send you a pic to show you what one looks like.
Weighing in grams is way easier. Your scale may have a small switch on it somewhere that will have it weigh in grams. If not, you might want to consider buying a new digital scale. They cost about 15$ and are very accurate. I grew up with cups and ozs in America, but moved to Italy 30 yrs ago and had to learn the metric system. Oh how I resisted! I converted until I got tired of it and took the easy way out. Grams all the way now. If I can do it--you can too. It's so accurate.5 -
CICO, is all the drives weight changes. What controls CI? Well, imho, is an entire different equation.2
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pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Great input from other posters on the need to weigh food. Also keeping measuring cups and measuring spoons handy is a must. For Example: 1 tbs peanut butter is 94 calories, 1 tbs Olive Oil is 119 calories and 1 tbs mayonaise is 94 calories. And 1 cup of spaghetti is 210 calories. Without measuring it would be easy to eat more calories than your diet would allow.
Except for the oil - those examples are all great reasons why measuring is NOT a must - but weighing is.
Especially the peanut butter and spaghetti.
Calories is per gram - not cups or spoons volumes.
So I should be weighing my peanut butter? Yikes...that will be a mess....but worth it cuz I love it!0 -
So I should be weighing my peanut butter? Yikes...that will be a mess....but worth it cuz I love it!
Yes! Most people find they are overestimating what one tablespoon looks like. I found I was underestimating and I could eat a bit more. I find the easiest way to weigh it is to put the jar on the scale, set it to grams, tare, take out what I am eating and measure that way. The negative is the amount you log.13 -
pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Great input from other posters on the need to weigh food. Also keeping measuring cups and measuring spoons handy is a must. For Example: 1 tbs peanut butter is 94 calories, 1 tbs Olive Oil is 119 calories and 1 tbs mayonaise is 94 calories. And 1 cup of spaghetti is 210 calories. Without measuring it would be easy to eat more calories than your diet would allow.
Except for the oil - those examples are all great reasons why measuring is NOT a must - but weighing is.
Especially the peanut butter and spaghetti.
Calories is per gram - not cups or spoons volumes.
So I should be weighing my peanut butter? Yikes...that will be a mess....but worth it cuz I love it!
Put the jar on the scale, tare it to 0. Then scoop out your PB, and the negative grams on your scale is the weight of your PB. Make sure to lick the spoon!15 -
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debrakgoogins wrote: »
Sorry, I started my post before you posted but got caught up in work before hitting "post".
If I had a dollar for every time someone posted the same thing I had previously posted I'd be on vacation right now.9 -
debrakgoogins wrote: »
Sorry, I started my post before you posted but got caught up in work before hitting "post".
If I had a dollar for every time someone posted the same thing I had previously posted I'd be on vacation right now.
Great minds think alike. It made me laugh. You might be the one who taught me that trick years ago. It's a game changer.4 -
I just put an empty spoon on the scale, tare it, then weight again with peanut butter on the spoon.
Log the amount of pb on the spoon and have it with a glass of milk.6 -
pamhardwick8899 wrote: »Most packaging measures in both grams and ounces. And I use my scale every day that measures in ounces only...so maybe I can send you a pic to show you what one looks like.
packaging may say ounces, with grams mentioned.
But the nutrition label almost always mentions grams in a serving. Maybe ounces where others might show cups or spoons. And you might confirm if those ounces is liquid volume, or actually weight.
Soup cans I've noticed get wonky.
But even the rough Servings per package can be off if you were to actually divide.
So don't use that if eating the whole package - use your own calculator. Maybe once, if you commonly eat the whole package of something.
It's saved that way in your Food list.
So if it's actually 1.75 servings - it'll be there next time.2 -
RameezIqbal2015 wrote: »Hey guys . Thanks for having me in here. So I’m running into a little bit of dilemma . I’ve been tracking calories to the best of ability and long story short have been using apple watch 4 to track what I have burned for the day . There’s been plenty instances where in vs out ratio was big but for some odd reason I find myself gaining weight instead of loosing . Does eating after 6 pm really is a thing or am I doing something wrong ?? Thanks for any advise or suggestions
ok lets get serious the theory of weight loss being attributed to calories in vs calories out is only one half of the equation. yes its true you will lose weight by having a calorie deficiency but if you are still eating and making bad food choices you will eventually plateau and stay unhealthy. you need to concentrate on healthy foods that will increase metabolism which promotes weight loss. there is too much to go into for this one post but if you would like to know more please let me know i would love to help you.2
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