No weight loss this weekend.
Replies
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faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.0 -
@faithdwind absolute props to you for still being here and for asking questions.
From personal experience, I asked a lot of what I thought were surely dumb questions, only to see the number of “reads”, and realize for every person who asks, a hundred others are too embarrassed to.
You’re doing the community a service. 😉
It’s those of us who floundered, but asked questions, that have been successful. I predict success for you! Hang in there. It does get easier- second nature, in fact.
4 -
springlering62 wrote: »@faithdwind absolute props to you for still being here and for asking questions.
From personal experience, I asked a lot of what I thought were surely dumb questions, only to see the number of “reads”, and realize for every person who asks, a hundred others are too embarrassed to.
You’re doing the community a service. 😉
It’s those of us who floundered, but asked questions, that have been successful. I predict success for you! Hang in there. It does get easier- second nature, in fact.
Thank you!!:)2 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g. Was it because I drained the can? Should I add another 100kcal to my diary since I ate the whole can? The whole can should be around 390g with the water, but I drained it all, causing the whole can to be 247, someone on reddit said I should add 150kcal to it since I ate the whole can.1 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g. Was it because I drained the can? Should I add another 100kcal to my diary since I ate the whole can? The whole can should be around 390g with the water, but I drained it all, causing the whole can to be 247, someone on reddit said I should add 150kcal to it since I ate the whole can.
0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.3 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal. But my brother says that I should just log the beans weight after I have drained them. Which one should I listen to, should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350?
I'm sorry if this is confusing.0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
2 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
Can you post a pic or link to the can of beans you ate? Maybe visuals will help.
0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
Can you post a pic or link to the can of beans you ate? Maybe visuals will help.
I can't take a picture or find a link to the pictures online, but I can tell you! ( I've gotten two servings)
Serving size: 1/2 cup (130g)
Serving per container: about 3.5
Calories; 100 Sodium; 0 mg
Total Fat; 0 g Potassium; 10 mg
Saturated;0 g Total Carbs;19 g
Polyunsaturated; 0 g Dietary Fiber; 5 g
Monounsaturated; 0 g Sugars; 1 g
Trans; 0 g Protein; 6 g
Cholesterol; 0 mg
0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
Can you post a pic or link to the can of beans you ate? Maybe visuals will help.
I can't take a picture or find a link to the pictures online, but I can tell you! ( I've gotten two servings)
Serving size: 1/2 cup (130g)
Serving per container: about 3.5
Calories; 100 Sodium; 0 mg
Total Fat; 0 g Potassium; 10 mg
Saturated;0 g Total Carbs;19 g
Polyunsaturated; 0 g Dietary Fiber; 5 g
Monounsaturated; 0 g Sugars; 1 g
Trans; 0 g Protein; 6 g
Cholesterol; 0 mg
Damn, there's a lot of quoting in this thread
And you weighed what you ate and didn't drink the canned bean water right?
All you need to do is find a comparable item in the database with a gram option (including @AnnPT77 's list) and either log 247 servings per 1 gram or 2.47 servings per 100 grams.
It doesn't matter how many servings the can says it has. It matters how many grams of edible beans were in that can. "About" 3.5 servings can mean anything. (I think it's legal for labels to be 20% off but not sure that's about the weight too.)
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Calorie counting is not an exact science anyway, remember loads of people are able to lose weight without counting every single calorie to the gram so try to not obsess 1
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"About 3.5 servings" means that as calculated, the number of servings does not come out exactly to 3.5. So it might be 3.3-3.7 . But the number of grams per serving should be accurate.1
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paints5555 wrote: »"About 3.5 servings" means that as calculated, the number of servings does not come out exactly to 3.5. So it might be 3.3-3.7 . But the number of grams per serving should be accurate.
With canned beans specifically, I wouldn't count on it. Generally, the weight includes the liquid, but most of us don't eat the liquid.0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
To be honest, I'm having trouble following the details of how you're weighing these.
What kind of beans are they? Just plain beans? If yes, weigh the drained beans, use one of the database entries I mentioned to estimate the calories.
If the actual weight of the drained, plain beans was 247g, then log it as 2.47 servings of 100g, and accept any reasonable calorie estimate that results. Don't use the calorie number on the can, because that's confusing in a situation where their calorie estimate included the weight of the liquid.
I'm not sure where you got the 200 calorie number. For most types of cooked, drained beans, that seems like a low estimate, but I don't know what kind of beans they are.
0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
To be honest, I'm having trouble following the details of how you're weighing these.
What kind of beans are they? Just plain beans? If yes, weigh the drained beans, use one of the database entries I mentioned to estimate the calories.
If the actual weight of the drained, plain beans was 247g, then log it as 2.47 servings of 100g, and accept any reasonable calorie estimate that results. Don't use the calorie number on the can, because that's confusing in a situation where their calorie estimate included the weight of the liquid.
I'm not sure where you got the 200 calorie number. For most types of cooked, drained beans, that seems like a low estimate, but I don't know what kind of beans they are.
This is what brought up the 200 cals:Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
She ate 2 servings of the black beans (260 grams) which ended up being the whole can) but, I think, is confused by the label saying 3.5 servings per can. So it's between 260 g for 200 calories or 455 g for 350 calories.
I also found this:
Op, please don't ever eat popcorn. 😋
Edited to add: I didn't change it to grams before taking the snapshot but the option is there. I just checked.0 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
To be honest, I'm having trouble following the details of how you're weighing these.
What kind of beans are they? Just plain beans? If yes, weigh the drained beans, use one of the database entries I mentioned to estimate the calories.
If the actual weight of the drained, plain beans was 247g, then log it as 2.47 servings of 100g, and accept any reasonable calorie estimate that results. Don't use the calorie number on the can, because that's confusing in a situation where their calorie estimate included the weight of the liquid.
I'm not sure where you got the 200 calorie number. For most types of cooked, drained beans, that seems like a low estimate, but I don't know what kind of beans they are.
This is what brought up the 200 cals:Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
She ate 2 servings of the black beans (260 grams) which ended up being the whole can) but, I think, is confused by the label saying 3.5 servings per can. So it's between 260 g for 200 calories or 455 g for 350 calories.
I also found this:
Op, please don't ever eat popcorn. 😋
Edited to add: I didn't change it to grams before taking the snapshot but the option is there. I just checked.
I still can't follow her arithmetic (but following arithmetic is not my long suit).
At 100 calories per 130g, which is what's on the can label per her PP, 247g of beans would be 1.9 servings (247 divided by 130 is 1.9), and at 100g per 130 calories, that would be 190 calories. Not 200, 190. (?)
I think that's not right, because the can (I think) assumes weight of beans + liquid, and she drained the liquid. I assume the liquid is not calorie-free (it's not just water, it's thicker), but I further assume it's not as calorie-dense as the beans.
At that point, for myself, I want to be using a USDA entry for beans. Nothing in the screen shot you show is clearly that, according to my understanding of finding USDA entries. The Heb one you show as selected looks like another one for canned beans (which would include the liquid).
When I use the 247g of drained beans, and if I assume it's black beans, I'd personally use one of the top four here, based on finding the first one of those that has a 1g or 100g option. (Personally, I don't care whether that's a "with salt" or "without salt" one, because I eat insanely high amounts of salt and my BP is fine, so that's not a priority for me, vs. other nutrient data and sheer convenience. YMMV. I also wouldn't deeply worry about "black" vs. "black turtle" for that calorie difference, but again, that's just me.)
So, when I find one where the drop down looks like this (yes, I switched from a phone app screen shot to a web screen shot, because what I'm saying is more clear that way), I would use that:
. . . and 2.47 servings of 100g of that is 326 calories. If it were me, I'd log 326 calories for 247g of black beans, and call that close enough. I think the can information, if used for drained beans, is materially wrong. IME, different brands of canned beans seem to have more or fewer beans, though I admit I've never measured. For sure, plain cooked beans, without liquid - such as if I cook my own - are more than 100 calories per 130 grams, from any reasonable source I can find, so I think the label's calorie value includes the less calorie-dense liquid. (130g of black beans, per the USDA- matching entry shown, would be 172 calories.)
Yes, this is all imprecise, no matter how one slices and dices it. Using the label values for the drained beans seems like a big-ish understatement of calories, for my tastes. Using the USDA entry seems better, though not perfect. Throughout, I'm admittedly trying to persuade OP that "perfect" is completely unachievable, and that an individual has to arrive at a personal comfort with some definition of "close enough". The above is my personal "close enough", nothing more.
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@faithdwind
Leaving aside the minutiae for a minute (ha!) how’s it going overall?
Are you on the bumpy ride down yet?
Remember, weight loss is not a free fall, just like reaching goal is not a flat plain of effortlessness, lol.4 -
springlering62 wrote: »@faithdwind
Leaving aside the minutiae for a minute (ha!) how’s it going overall?
Are you on the bumpy ride down yet?
Remember, weight loss is not a free fall, just like reaching goal is not a flat plain of effortlessness, lol.
It's going pretty good! Besides the thoughts of me overeating every time I eat something. Like I know I'm not overeating, but my brain doesn't let me allow it. Does this make sense?
Yes, I lost about 5-6ish pounds from last month! Was fluctuating between 190-191lbs, Monday weighed in at 185.6lbs. I switched it 1300 calories to 1500 after this post, because I would get dizzy from standing up, and be tired all day even after 10 hours of sleep. So.. sorry if I didn't listen to none of your guys' advice about how I should stay at 1300cal!!:(
Haha, I know, I think I'm kind getting used to not loosing a pound everyday, to make the weight loss quicker. ( I did water fasting, making me go from 259 to 193lb, but February after a fast I decided to just eat instead of fasting).1 -
Haha, I know, I think I'm kind getting used to not loosing a pound everyday, to make the weight loss quicker. ( I did water fasting, making me go from 259 to 193lb, but February after a fast I decided to just eat instead of fasting).
I'm not sure what sort of water fasting you did - but definitely change your expectation away from loosing a pound per day
Eat sensibly
Slow and steady wins the race - depending how much weight you have to lose, expect to lose maybe a pound or two on average per week.3 -
Can I make a recommendation?
Instead of focusing of quick losses, add some weight training and focus on building muscle.
I’ve put on a few (intentional) pounds from my lowest, while training, but my size has continued to diminish, and I’ve developed a pretty nice shape. Nice curves, getting a waistline, ribs no longer stick out almost horizontally to allow room for obesity underneath. My skin has retracted much better than expected, which I chalk up to training as well.
Weights help build shape, and allows you more calories to eat.
You don’t have to lift heavy. I don’t do anything earth shaking, but I do it consistently.
Weights also give me confidence, and I take a lot of pride in the little ones I do move, because I know 99% of other women just can’t or won’t.
Focusing so heavily on actual weight loss- your body basically consumes your muscles, and yeah, you get skinny, but everything is loose and floppy, or skinny-fat as some folks here disappointedly call it. It’s awful to reach goal and realize there wasn’t a six pack hiding under the adipose fat. I’m very grateful I started training about halfway through my loss.
No, you’re not going to turn into She-Ra or some muscle bound chick (I work hard doing many different exercises besides weights, and that takes a hella lot more work than I’m willing to do!). People just think I’m thin til I take off my jacket or T that people even realize I’ve got guns, which is fine by me.
Muscle is heavier but more compact and defined.
Even at 1500 I’m guessing you’re eating too low. Dizziness etc concerns me on your behalf. It’s so easy to do permanent damage fasting and eating to little. You’ve got to fuel your body.
Granted, I do a lot of stuff (because it’s all fun and I’m retired and like to be out and about) but I’ve been averaging and maintaining at well over 3000 calories a day the past two or three weeks- and I’ll be 60 shortly. If you’re working out a lot, it’s just as easy to underestimate your fueling needs as it was when I either didn’t care or didn’t understand and so grossly overestimated them for so many years.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10842208/moment-of-realness/p11 -
Yello, y'all. We all know I like numbers... but I have a headache and I LIKE numbers!
@faithdwind you're putting in a lot of work and it is admirable and impressive. But let's concentrate on the big picture for a minute.
The big picture is being able to continue doing this weight management thing for YEARS. Not just while losing much weight every day and week but making things easy enough so that you can continue doing them while you maintain.
So start thinking about the longer term and about making things easy!
Are you using the tare button on your scale yet? I know Anne mentioned it. It helps me avoid having to deal with container weight math!
Your bean conundrum reminded me of a similar canned salmon conundrum I had early on when I first started using MFP.
You can work around the problem in two ways:
-- use a different entry for your food. one that reflects the way you measured it as opposed to what it says on the can. In your particular case it was the suggestion to weigh your drained beans as you did. These beans are now "beans of the x variety boiled with salt". You use an entry that corresponds to that.
-- since you seem to like fractions and percentages you could have weighed the full can including water.
Let's pretend it was 1000g.
You throw out the water and you weight your beans that you're left with. Let's say 500g of beans.
You then eat 100g of beans.
That's 100/500 = 20% of the complete can.
You go back and log using the entry that includes the water. You log 20% of the 1000g
If you never weighed the full can, and don't have that starting point, you can just assume that the can weighs the same as the label claims that it does. Sure, some brands are more consistent in how they fill their stuff than others and it is worth being aware of it if you consume the item quite often. But in a once off situation the difference _cannot_ be large enough to be worth worrying about even if you're dealing with the most calorically dense item you can imagine.
What IS worth worrying about is whether you are using a weight trend app or website to record your weight. Especially since it seems that weighting yourself may be a point of concern in terms of your overall health... using a trending app and only thinking of your weight in terms of the trend may give you some mental clarity on the issue.
That said... not only is it NOT wrong to lose slower and with more activity. It is in fact an incredibly GOOD idea to continue losing at a deficit that is NOT too extreme, one that allows you to be as active as you see yourself being able to be active long term, and one that allows you to eat as close to your eventual maintenance level as you can get to.
The ladies who have been responding to most of your posts? They're AWESOME!
And... I was going to be "funny" and say "lose the fasting" but... please be smart and take better care of yourself.
Losing from obese is very good. Making yourself mentally sick or losing so fast you make yourself feel unwell... not quite as good. Balancing somewhere in between where you're moving towards reducing weight at a deliberate pace while eating at a reasonable deficit.... good.
IN MY BOOKS a reasonable deficit is NOT defined by "losing x amount of weight in y days". A reasonable deficit is defined as a percentage of how much you're able to burn in a day. If your actual TDEE (your actual maintenance calories) are 2000 a day, a reasonable deficit would be 400 Cal a day. That's 400 (20%), not 500 (25%). 25% might be OK for people who are still obese. 750Cal (or 37.5%) would just not be a great long term goal. And 1000 Cal (50%) -- I won't even go there, especially after several months of losses!
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>>>>The big picture is being able to continue doing this weight management thing for YEARS. Not just while losing much weight every day and week but making things easy enough so that you can continue doing them while you maintain.<<<<<
As @PAV8888 says, continuation is the key.
I reached a point, at goal, where I floundered for a bit because I was no longer “chasing” that goal. My brain was conditioned- still is- to think “loss is good” and if I’m no longer losing then something just be wrong. There IS an end point. If you keep going, or go “whoopee! I’m there!!!” and just go back to old habits, this whole effort is for naught.
I’ve had to refocus on Ain’t Going Back.1 -
faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
What's your alternative? Giving up? yes, eat 1300 calories, and make sure you're weighing your food carefully.
Okay, thanks!
BTW, when I weigh my food, It would exactly be at the serving I'm getting. But when I come back/shift it on the scale to make sure It is exactly the amount I'm getting, It shifts like 1-2 grams over or 1-3 grams under. Does it matter, If it does that? Can I still eat it or would you make sure its EXACTLY on (for example) 40g instead of 41-42g .
It's not going to be that big a deal. Adopt a rule for yourself: Either read the first number and believe it, or do the shifting thing and always use the highest or lowest or most frequent number you see. Just use the same rule every time, for consistency. (There's a long statistical-thinking justification for my saying that, but I'm not going to belabor it.) Personally, I'd pick the easiest (least fussy) one, which I think is "believe the first number", but it's up to you. Use one method.
After you use an overall consistent way of logging and tracking you can see if you lose as expected averaged over many weeks and ideally whole menstrual cycles (same day in each cycle).faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Yes, that might be the reason the scale didn't drop. As yirara said, you probably were losing fat - the thing we want to lose, right? - but adding a little water weight before your period, and the water gain hid the fat loss for a while. After you do this routine of eating/logging/weighing for a few months, you'll begin to understand some of the water-retention patterns your personal body usually goes through. Every woman is different.faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »faithdwind wrote: »
What if you don't "what if"? 😉 (This may not be true for you, but one of the things I learned during cancer treatment was that if I worried about things that might not happen, beyond minimal plans for handling them, I was just increasing my anxiety unnecessarily, and making myself unhappier than I needed to be.)
You say you'd seen an increment of loss on the scale, then there was a sudden jump. Those of us with experience are telling you that that sudden jump is almost certainly water weight or digestive contents, not fat gain, as long as your eating and activity levels have stayed consistent and there was nothing in there (moving much less, eating much more) to account for that much fat (re-)gain.
I'm curious, though: You say you only ate 1300 calories during the weekend. Is that 1300 calories, total, including both days, or 1300 calories per day? And what did you do, how many calories did you eat, during the week, between the weekends? Your results in two weeks (or any longer length of time) will depend on the average of what you do over all the days in the time period, not just the weekends.
I meant for the whole week(per day)! Sorry If I confused you. This will be my third week eating 1300 calories. I know that I said What if I didn't loose any weight in two weeks, but if I don't check until my 6th week, and no result, should I raise my calories?
Good, that makes sense, as a routine.
But I still don't like the negative "what if". I feel like that's encouraging anxiety, creating stress. Y'know what? Stress is one possible thing that can increase water retention, and water retention can hide fat loss on the scale. It's fat loss we care about, isn't it?
There exists an actual physical-psychological syndrome where people (usually women, unfortunately) become stressed about weight loss being slow, add water weight from stress, panic about not losing (maybe even gaining) when it's just about water retention (not fat), cut harder, create more stress, hold onto more water weight . . . on repeat. That is not a good thing. Implicitly, without wanting to be all alarmist about something that - yes - may not happen to you, we're trying to guide you away from the thought patterns that can lead in that direction.
https://bodyrecomposition.com/research/dietary-restraint-cortisol-levels
If you're adult, female but not in menopause yet, compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles - for example, last day of menstruation in each cycle. The third cycle might even provide better insight.
If you are not over-stressed by daily weighing, do that - first thing in the morning, after bathroom, same state of (un)dress, before eating/drinking is ideal. Record that weight. A free weight trending app would be a useful place to record. (Happy Scale for Apple iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others). The day to day weight fluctuations (water, digestive contents mostly) can be misleading. A trending app isn't magically insightful, but it can be a help, in sorting out progress from random stuff.
I'd suggest that you also tape-measure some key points, maybe once a month (same point in cycle!). The first time, make it a point to think how you can best be sure you're putting the tape at the exact same place, and level, every time. If you can, take some photos: Front, side, back, slim-fit but not compressive clothing or something like a bathing suit. (Don't do undies. Trust me, you'll want to be proudly showing off your "before" once you reach that "after". MFP has a "no undies in photos" rule.)
Sometimes one thing will show progress, when another doesn't.
If you literally have seen no new low-point weight** in 6 weeks (or 1-2 full menstrual cycles), I'd urge you to come back here, provide details, ideally open up your diary so the MFP old hands can take a look, and answer questions folks might have. Depending on details, it may make sense to increase calories, decrease calories, do some of the estimates differently, or something else.
** You will be asked what "no loss" means to you, if it comes to that. Sometimes people show up here, post "I'm not losing", and it turns out that they lost slower than expected, maybe even a pound a week, but that felt like "no loss" to them because they were trying really hard . . . so we tend to ask. 😉
The Community folks (me included) can sometimes be confused, repetitive, misunderstand, communicate unclearly in writing, and generally be fallibly human. Still, please know that many people here would truly like to see you succeed, want to help you, because weight management success has been so very powerful in their own lives. That's absolutely true for me. We will do our (imperfect) best to help you.
Really: Trust the process, follow the process, try to be calm, see what happens. If you don't get the results you reasonably hope for, we will try to help you figure it out, try a variation, see how that works for you. If you keep going, keep experimenting, adjust based on results, you can succeed at this.
Best wishes!
I didn't loose any weight this weekend.
Yesterday, I was 190, and today i'm 191.4.
BUT, sometimes when I come home, (last weekend) I weighed 191 in the morning and then weighed 189, in the afternoon. Am I in a plateu? What should I do?
Nope, not likely a plateau. You're just experiencing normal fluctuations.
Since around mid-month March, I've been anything from 125.8 pounds to 130.8 pounds, and that's just weigh-ins first thing in the morning under consistent conditions, for someone who's maintaining weight, not trying to lose or gain. It wasn't one extreme at the start, and the other at the end, either, those are just the high and low points randomly mixed in there somewhere.
This is the stuff that healthy bodies do. It's no big deal. It's not fat changes, it's water and digestive contents, primarily.
My swings would be even more extreme if I weighed at other times of day. Think about it: A pint of water - 2 cups - weighs roughly a pound, and it weighs that much whether it's in glass or in my stomach/bladder. When it's in my body, it's part of my scale weight. When I urinate or sweat it out, it's not part of my scale weight anymore. Ditto for food. That stuff changes by multiple pounds throughout Every. Single. Day.
Did you read this article yet? If not, please do!
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
What should you do? Hang in there, stick to a reasonable routine, see what happens over multiple weeks, whole menstrual cycles. Try to avoid stressing about it . . . stress can increase water retention, and it feels icky, besides.
It's going to be fine. Stick this out until you can compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles, or 4-6 weeks if you don't have cycles. Then, if there's no change, you might need to change something. Until then, try not to stress about it.
Okay, thank you! I'm thinking about just zig zagging diet for a week or two- I'm getting tired of staying in the same calorie deficit- I ate 1530 calories yesterday. Also- I just gotten my period today. Could that be a reason I didn't loose on 1300 calories?
Hun, I know you desperately want to lose weight. But please, Please read what AnnP has been writing to you, and then read it again, and then the link she posted. Yes, it's likely you would have gained water weight from getting your menstruation. Most women do. And yes, water has a weight, the amount of food in your digestive tract has a weight. And neither is bodyfat. But both influence the weight on the scale thought and might mask fat loss.
So, should I try eating 1300 calories for a few more weeks?
That's what I'd do, in your situation, if you're finding the 1300 calories practical in other ways.
Okay. Thank you! Do you know when the water weight from my menstruation?
No, I don't know. It varies from one woman to the next. Some women only see a new low weight once a month. Some see a couple of peak weight days during each cycle, maybe at ovulation and right before the flow starts, but it could happy any time during the cycle. Or there could be more than two peaks, or only one, or it could last a day or a week or, like I said, most of the month. It can be individual.
Keep track of your own data, you'll learn about your patterns. Your patterns are the ones that are important for you, not stuff about other people. Even once you know your pattern, you may have a weird month once in a while that's different. Rarely, some women's pattern is that there's not a predictable pattern.
It really doesn't matter, ultimately. If you're losing fat, eventually it will show up on the scale. Water retention doesn't keep increasing and increasing forever, in a healthy person. It goes up and down. If your eating and activity are at consistent calories, fat loss is gradual and fairly steady in the background. Eventually, it'll show on the scale.
Thank you again, I got one more question. My foodscale have2 MLS, and this morning I weighed milk in a measuring cup and the measuring cup in one ML weighed 615 and the other 597. I went with the one with 615MLso I added 240 to the 615 and poured the milk until it reached 855ML. But when I was done, the other ML weighed 837. And in grams It weighed 855g. Which ML Should I use? Am I using the correct one?
I fell like you may be making this more complicated than it needs to be?
Weigh the milk in grams**, not ML. Then, find an entry in the MFP database that has a grams quantity for the type of milk you're using. It may take a little longer to find one the first time, but after you do, it will stay in your recent/frequent foods and be quick to find, as long as you use milk reasonably frequently. You may need to use the serving size drop-down on some database entries to find one with grams, for milk, but they're there.
** Grams are a weight measurement. ML are a volume (size) measurement. For water, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. For other liquids that are not water, some are lighter per ml, others are heavier per ml.
This is an example of what I mean (screen grab below). This is from the web browser version of MFP, but it will work the same on a phone/tablet app version of MFP, just maybe a little different screen. I searched, then used the drop down to look at what serving options were available, found one with grams. (The red arrow is to show which entry I chose.)
This takes more time on the first use, but it's more accurate and you don't need to worry about those tiny differences in ml between different measures.
If it were me, I wouldn't worry much anyway: Milk is not all that calorie dense. Get close in ml, the calories will be close enough. Yes, sometimes you'll be a little over on calories that way, but other times you'll be a little under. The difference won't be huge (in context of your all-day calories), and the overs/unders will average out, over time.
It's good to be accurate, but it's not good to be so worried about accuracy that you're becoming anxious about numerically small details. It'll be OK.
Hi- Sorry if I'm annoying you, but I have a question. So, the can of black beans I ate said 130g for 100kcal so I decided to get two servings, which is 260g and on the back of the can it said "about 3.5 servings" and it was only about 2? Should I still have eaten 200kcal if I gotten 260g? I just felt like I ate the 3 servings.
I find canned beans confusing, too - especially since some brands seen to have more liquid than others.
I drain them, weigh, and use the USDA syntax entry in the MFP database.
Those are the ones that look like "Beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt" - description only a bureaucrat could love.
Usually they have an accurate 100g quantity in the serving size drop-down list (though the default is often cups). So, if I weigh out 137g beans to eat, I'd log 1.37 servings of 100g.
Close enough.
The same thing happened again today- the bowl I weighed the beans in was 58g and the whole can was 247 grams causing the bowl itself and the beans to be 305g on the scale, it was suppose to be 318. I still ate it anyways, only difference was that it was 10 calories off, but my brain doesn't let me think that- instead it makes me worry that it was 300kcal instead of 200kcal. I don't really know what my question is, but is there any way to calm down about it? I know it wasn't over 318g but it just keeps lingering in my mind making me think it was wayyy over 318g.
Someone else will do a better job than I can, of answering this. I'm not only pretty old (66) so have worked on my habits/thoughts for decades, but I'm also not as inclined to those kind of thought patterns by personality as some of my friends are.
I think that what may apply is some of the techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which are good ways of retraining our thought-patterns, and we can use them without a therapist. (There are self-help books, for example. I don't know that it covers this specific thing, but one I've seen others here recommend as specific to weight management is The Beck Diet Solution. I have not read it.)
For me, when I have unwanted thoughts or worries, I usually do one of two things:
1. Remind myself of the facts, no matter what they are. That could be "I already ate and logged the beans, and I can't change history, so I'll let it go." or reminding "the maximum discrepancy is truly 10 calories, and that makes no real difference in a day of XYZ calories, so I'll let it go".
2. Distract. When I'm focusing on unhelpful things - things I literally can't change or influence - or negative feelings that don't improve the situation at all - I try to redirect my thoughts elsewhere. Sometimes, that's just something like taking slow, deep breaths while focusing on how breathing feels. Sometimes it's by doing something else that requires mental concentration - home chore, hobby, whatever. Sometimes it might be doing something physical and focusing on that, like a short walk, or putting a fun song on play and dancing around a little. It could be a little indulgence, like some nice-smelling lotion. When I was doing chemotherapy, and inclined to low moods, I would watch comedy movies to distract me. Anything that redirects my thoughts can work. (If I were a religious person, prayer would be an option, too.)
For me, letting myself run with the undesired thoughts unchecked is not helpful. (You might differ.) Giving in to those impulses seems to make it more likely that I'll repeat them. I feel like if there are certain thought-patterns I let my brain travel in routinely, it kind of creates ruts in that unpleasant road that are easier to drive in next time, harder to drive out of.
There are quite a few sites on the web that talk about CBT techniques for "rumination" (one of the terms for thoughts overfocusing on something that isn't productive.) I don't know a lot about them, and it's important to avoid scam sites (those that are trying to sell something, for example). That said, this is a blog post from a therapy group in Los Angeles that talks about CBT techniques for managing rumination. They seem reasonably sensible to me (though obviously, not every single thing will work for every single person).
https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/stop-ruminating-and-end-depression#
P.S. Your description of the scale makes me think you may not have figured out one of the tricks yet, assuming you have a fairly typical modern electronic food scale. Does it have a "tare" button/function? If so, put your bowl on the scale, and press "tare". That should zero the display. Then, put the amount of beans you want to eat into the bowl. The scale will give you the weight of the beans. No arithmetic!
You can even do this with multiple ingredients. Imagine making a sandwich. Put the plate on the scale, tare. Put the bread on the plate, note the weight. Tare. Spread the mayo or butter or mustard on the bread, note, tare. Put a slice of cheese on the bread, note, tare. Put meat on the bread . . . etc. Easy, no extra plates. Can be done when making a multi-ingredient thing in a pan or bowl, too.
Another tip is to put (say) an open peanut butter jar on the scale. Tare. Take the knife or spoon you're going to use for the next step, and scoop out the amount of peanut butter you want. Most scales will display a negative number. That's the amount you took out, so note and log that (as a positive number, of course!). Easy, no extra dishes. I do this with things like cutting a hunk off a block of cheese, too - put the cheese on the scale, cut off what I want, read the negative. If your scale has a "stay on" feature that lasts a short time like mine does, you can even put the cheese block in your hand and cut off a bit, then put it back on the scale and read the negative.
When chopping something like (say) onions to put into something, I'll cut up the onion on my cutting board, put the board on the scale, tare, dump the chopped onions from the board into the dish I'm making, put the board back, and read the negative to know how much the onions I used weighed.
Thank you. Also- someone on reddit said I should add the can of beans as 350kcal instead of 200 since I ate the whole can, drained. Should I switch it back to 200 calories or keep it as 350 calories, since they said 130g includes the liquid, but they said that water doesn't have any calories, so I should log it in as 350kcal.
I'm sorry if this is confusing.
You're not confusing, though I get that you're confused (and/or worried). It's all OK.
Go up a few posts. Assuming they are plain beans, what I would do is drain the beans, and weigh the part I will eat. Then I use the USDA entries in the MFP database to log them by weight. There are entries for nearly all common types of beans (lentils, black beans, red beans, navy beans. . . ). They look like this (maybe with more words after what I listed):
Beans - Black, cooked, boiled
Beans - Kidney, Cooked, Boiled
Beans - Pinto, cooked, boiled
Lentils - Cooked, boiled
. . . etc.
So, I would search in the food database for "beans BEANTYPE cooked boiled" (replacing BEANTYPE with whatever bean I'm looking for. The good entries will usually be green-checked. Usually, the default quantity (the one that shows on the search results) is 1 cup. But if I select that entry, the drop-down on serving size options will show 1g or 100g, and I use those.
There is no material difference between plain black beans (or any given type of bean) between one brand and another. For plain beans, the above works fine. (It's worked fine for me for nearly 7 years, and I eat beans often.)
If the beans had some kind of sauce on them, brand may matter. I don't buy canned beans with sauce generally - I prefer to add my own, have more control over both flavor and calories. On the rare occasion when I did, I'd probably weigh the entire contents of the can (all the sauce), and log that total number of grams, even if I drained some of the sauce. If the sauce was something I thought might be high-calorie, and I drained off a fair amount of it, I might make a wild guess at subtracting a few calories. For example, if it were beans in a sweetened tomato sauce, and I drained off a couple of tablespoons of sauce, I'd consider whether it was worth my time to look up 2T of regular sweetened ketchup (a similar sweetened tomato sauce) and subtract those calories from what I logged. (I probably wouldn't bother, if it was an infrequent food, might if it was frequent and the guessed amount to subtract was pretty high - like 5% or my daily calories or something.)
If I did that, I'd log that same thing the same way the next time, and not fret about how far off my guess was. It can't be super far off, and consistency in logging is more important (IMO) than obsessive perfectionism . . . and I'm pretty precise in my weighing/logging (compared to some other successful folks here) when I say that.
For me, I need to keep this in a "scientific" "arithmetic" context: When I was losing weight, a lot of the time I was eating 1600 calories plus exercise. If something could be 20 calories off one way or the other, and it was fussy/effortful to be more precise than that, I'd just log it and go on with life. It's a waste of my time and energy - time and energy that could be better spent - to worry about it. I make a decision about how to handle a particular type of thing, then I do that going forward, and let worrying about it go. Life is too short, there are too many other productive things to do (worry is rarely productive, for me).
Some level of imprecision is built in: One apple is sweeter than the next, even if both weigh X grams, y'know? If my practices are consistent, reasonably (not obsessively) careful, it'll work out OK. And it has. For almost 7 year, first weight loss for a bit under a year, then 6+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since.
So, can I log it in as 200kcal instead of 350kcal for 247g, even though it was drained, and all the beans together was 247g, causing me to eat the entire can?
Can you post a pic or link to the can of beans you ate? Maybe visuals will help.
I can't take a picture or find a link to the pictures online, but I can tell you! ( I've gotten two servings)
Serving size: 1/2 cup (130g)
Serving per container: about 3.5
Calories; 100 Sodium; 0 mg
Total Fat; 0 g Potassium; 10 mg
Saturated;0 g Total Carbs;19 g
Polyunsaturated; 0 g Dietary Fiber; 5 g
Monounsaturated; 0 g Sugars; 1 g
Trans; 0 g Protein; 6 g
Cholesterol; 0 mg
I've been logging off and on for 10 years and for beans I do not drain have never, ever, found a can of beans across multiple brands that had as many servings as what the label claimed.
I do what Ann does - I use a USDA database entry for the DRAINED weight.1
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