Please critique my daily food diary. Not seeing results.

Are you using the MFP database to track your calories burned or are you using a heart rate monitor? I find the MFP exercise database tends to overestimate calories burned.

I gotta agree with Jane, while MFP is an AMAZING tool it would probably behoove you to invest in a heart rate monitor ($20 on Amazon) to get a more accurate count of calories burned. Also, people tend to underestimate caloric intake so be sure you are measuring things out and eating precisely one serving. Other than that, don't get discouraged my friend, hard work and discipline will pay off.

Three words: Cut the cookies. You'll feel better and reduce calories by replacing them with a healthy snack.

Way to much sodium and sugar!!!!

See this is where I'm confused and getting mixed answers.

In reference to eating too much sugar I'm eating a lot of sugars found in dairy (greek yogurt, skim milk), and I'm getting sugars from fresh fruits.

Now those will always get calculated into the daily chart as "sugar" but many on here are saying they don't really count as sugars.

Anyone want to clear this one up?

Your sugar intake is fine, imo.
MFP calculates sugar in a funky way.

Here's an explanation...


Fruit sugar and refined sugar sweeten foods, yet your body metabolizes them differently.
Fruit sugar, also called fructose, is a nutrient that is a natural part of the human diet. Refined sugar, also called sucrose, is a sweetener manufacturers use in processed foods and people add to coffee, tea, baked goods and other foods. The health risks associated with each of these sugars also differ. Consult your doctor about fruit and refined sugars in your diet.

Fruit Sugar
Fructose is a common ingredient in many foods. Fruits, honey and maple syrup each naturally contain fructose. Fructose is also a key ingredient in high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener manufacturers use to sweeten many processed foods and beverages, including breads, cakes, ice cream, sauces, ketchup, salad dressings and beverages. High fructose corn syrup is a mixture of fructose and glucose. Your body digests fructose and converts it into glucose, the sugar molecule your cells metabolize for energy. Eating fresh fruits is much healthier than eating foods with fructose sweeteners, particularly because fruits contain high concentrations of antioxidants, phytonutrients and fiber.

High Fructose Corn Syrup What Does Scientific Research Really Say About HFCS? www.SweetSurprise.com/
Sponsored Links Refined Sugar
Sucrose, also called table sugar, is a disaccharide that contains two different types of sugar molecules, fructose and glucose. Your body digests disaccharides by breaking up the link between the two sugars. Your liver converts fructose into glucose, metabolizes it for energy or stores it for future use. The first difference between sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup is sucrose contains a 1-to-1 ratio of glucose-to-fructose molecules, whereas high fructose corn syrup has a greater percentage of fructose than glucose. The second difference is a disaccharide takes longer for your body to digest, absorb and process than a mixture of unbound fructose and glucose molecules.

Glycemic Index
Eating fruits enables you to control your blood sugar better than eating refined sugar and sweeteners containing fructose. The glycemic index indicates how quickly glucose enters the blood and increases blood sugar after you eat a particular carbohydrate-containing food. The higher the glycemic index, the more likely the food will spike blood sugar levels and increase your risk of insulin resistance and diabetes. Grapefruit, peaches, pears and apples have a lower glycemic index than pure fructose, which, in turn, has a lower glycemic index than sucrose.

Health Risks
Fructose from fruit and sweeteners and sucrose increase fat production. Scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found consuming fructose increases liver production of fat, according to research published in the "Journal of Nutrition" in June 2008. The results demonstrated that increasing concentration of fructose in the diet increases the amount of fat the liver produces. Elizabeth Parks, Ph.D., lead author of the research study, said with regard to fructose, glucose and sucrose: “All three can be made into triglycerides, a form of body fat; however, once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it’s hard to slow it down."

I would think it's simply a matter of being so close to your goal, it's gonna be tough and slow to get the last bit off. You eat better than me most days and I lose 2lbs a week, but I'm 6'3 255lbs. Sodium doesn't really matter for long-term weight loss, sure you retain water but it's not like you gain a pound of water every week, it's going to stay somewhat consistent. Crap, your sodium isn't even that bad most days. I have much worse days than you do. Fruits and veggies, who cares, none of that matters for weight loss.

I guess the question is, WHICH hrm do you have? I wonder if somehow it's not overestimating. It seems like you're burning a ton, and if you're eating back those calories you might be going too far. What is your average heart rate on these 60-90 minute workouts? I ask this question because I initially had a crappy Timex HRM and it would overestimate by a factor of about 200%, I trashed it for a Polar FT60 which seems to be more accurate. If you're really fit (especially to be doing 60+ minutes of insanity workouts) it can actually be harder to burn calories since your body is more efficient.

One final thing, how long have you been at this? One thing I've found is that with big workouts, my muscles tend to hold a lot of water. When I take a long weekend off, I can lose 4lbs over the weekend easily. On a long enough timeline it doesn't matter, but it can be disconcerting in the early weeks.

I would think it's simply a matter of being so close to your goal, it's gonna be tough and slow to get the last bit off. You eat better than me most days and I lose 2lbs a week, but I'm 6'3 255lbs. Sodium doesn't really matter for long-term weight loss, sure you retain water but it's not like you gain a pound of water every week, it's going to stay somewhat consistent. Crap, your sodium isn't even that bad most days. I have much worse days than you do. Fruits and veggies, who cares, none of that matters for weight loss.

I guess the question is, WHICH hrm do you have? I wonder if somehow it's not overestimating. It seems like you're burning a ton, and if you're eating back those calories you might be going too far. What is your average heart rate on these 60-90 minute workouts? I ask this question because I initially had a crappy Timex HRM and it would overestimate by a factor of about 200%, I trashed it for a Polar FT60 which seems to be more accurate. If you're really fit (especially to be doing 60+ minutes of insanity workouts) it can actually be harder to burn calories since your body is more efficient.

One final thing, how long have you been at this? One thing I've found is that with big workouts, my muscles tend to hold a lot of water. When I take a long weekend off, I can lose 4lbs over the weekend easily. On a long enough timeline it doesn't matter, but it can be disconcerting in the early weeks.

I have this HRM:
http://www.amazon.com/Timex-T5G971-Unisex-Personal-Monitor/dp/B000P8VWQS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321387281&sr=8-1

My average Heart Rate doing "Insanity" is around 135 - 150 BPM, during the workout it's usually around 170-175 BPM.

I've been doing the cardio workout aspects for about three months. I only started adding on some weight lifting and additional jogging in the last two weeks.

Interesting, that's the HRM I was using before I got the Polar. It was consistently 2x higher than what I was actually burning. It would show 600 cals for a 30 min walk at ~125-130 average heart rate. Using my polar and/or a pedometer it was only 250-300ish. Do you know anyone with a good HRM that you could at least borrow and compare?

Assuming that the HRM is accurate for a moment, it's basically just gonna be trial and error. Try eating 250 cals less a day and see if anything changes. Or hell, eat 250 more. If you start gaining weight, then you know you're understimating calorie intake or overestimating calorie expenditure. You have to remember, everything is just an estimate so the accuracy can be way off. Your BMR is an estimate, your activity level is an estimate, your calorie intake is an estimate and your calories burned is an estimate. Quite a margin for error. Try a month of eating a small amount more or less and see what happens. Not everybody fits the same mold.

I have the FT60. It's a little more expensive than an FT4 or 7 but the one feature I liked was that it had an automatic VO2max test built into it. One more variable to increase the accuracy.