csplatt Member

are you willing to make your diary public for troubleshooting? it can be helpful.

What works for me is eating a lot at once. I cannot do "six small meals." When I eat my lunch at work, I eat everything that I packed all at once. That really gets me to dinner.

I have spondylolisthesis and some loss of disc height, some degenerative facet joints. I maintain my health by counting calories, NO RUNNING (only walking or cycling… elliptical also bothers me). Many of my lower body exercises are done with no weight, just body weight.

can you make your diary setting public so we can look at your entries? all signs point to you’re eating more calories than you think, on that kind of a timeline! your weekly average is likely maintenance

great! the first week is a dramatic drop due to water, so don’t get discouraged when other weigh ins so slim losses or even none at times. lots of things in our body “weigh” something including waste leftover in our intestines!

all it does is give you a random five week estimate. you aren’t missing anything.

What do you mean by cheat? Don’t set rigid rules. I eat chocolate chips and ice cream weekly and sometimes Lays potato chips — I just use a food scale and log the calories.

Do you mean you can eat 1500-1600 plus eating back exercise calories? One thing to consider — I am 41 and close to your size (a little taller and a little lighter) and my MAINTENANCE calories are 1600. I wonder if instead of all these changes you simply needed to shave off 150 cals per day and keep at it? Just a thought!

If giving up 300 worth of deficit still results in a weight loss rate you like, then do what you want!

Considering that you have admitted this took an unhealthy/obsessive turn recently, I would recommend you pay attention to appropriate calories but not macros (carbs, protein, etc)

i pre log food for the day in the morning and include a treat. love halo top ice cream

yep! tonight i had a cheese filled breast stick because counting told me i could! if i was just trying to maintain on my own, i would have told myself not to eat the breadstick.

Have you tried reducing your calories by 1-200 per day? My job leads to a dissapointingly low maintenance level. What MFP tells us we need is just an estimate. I cannot eat more than 1600 and stay the same size. What makes you insist that you are certainly in a deficit?

You should talk to your OBGYN about this. Breastfeeding burns hundreds of calories per day already. Plus you don’t want to hurt your milk supply by under fueling yourself.

i eat my exercise calories because i set my activity level to sedentary— but i always assume my burn estimate is too high so don’t eat it all

Can you start by counting calories at maintenance? Get used to what you need to stay the same size, then if you want, you can try to stop counting. I personally like counting at maintenance when I am done losing weight because I end up eating enough vs too little.

When you do the fried eggs or the chicken thighs, are you putting oil in the pan? If so, make sure you log it. When you eat chips or cream cheese, etc — use a digital food scale. The day you had 4 ounces of red meat for lunch… did you use any oil or sauce? Was it ground beef? 80/20? 90/10? Just a few places to possibly…

Seems like a red flag to me that you are exchanging weights for intense cardio. Do you want the NUMBER or do you want the BODY? If your weight is staying the same, lifting heavy weights is actually a great move for changing the way you look without worrying so much about the number.

Some people have already mentioned this, but you are pulling generic listings that aren't accurate. Example: Hamburger, 6 ounces for 300 calories. Instead, you need to enter in the exact kind of bun you ate as its own entry under Dinner. Nature's Own, whole wheat with sesame seeds? Hawaiian Roll brand slider buns, white?…

Do you put your food on a digital food scale and log it by the ounces or grams?

i use an air frier that has a lift up lid and i put it on the setting specific to that meat with an internal thermometer. it’s fantastic so if my family wants pork loin, i put the setting on GRILL or BAKE, select pork / well done, insert thermometer, and close lid. it beeps when it’s done

Carry on as usual! The gain will likely disappear.

can you change your diary settings to public?

my scale shaves 2 lb off if i do a double step on as well. just pick one — either consistently log the first one or the second — and don’t worry about which one is “correct.” if the number starts to decrease, your work is paying off.

How are you calculating the 1200 and how are you calculating calories burned exercising? Is your diary public so we can look at your logging?

But how much are you eating? And how are you calculating that total of calories? Have you tried decreasing that number since you began? How many days have you been trying?

I struggle with photos. I love the way I look in the mirror but photos cause me to have a crisis.

Honestly it sounds like you are right on track. Slow and steady.

Weight fluctuates. It depends on hydration, time of the month, what we ate yesterday, how much of a bowel movement we had recently, all the things. weight gain (scale goes up) doesn’t necessarily mean we are having fat gain. I am still curious as to whether you are eating as little as you think you are though. It’s odd to…

Sounds extreme and unnecessary if you can get a food scale and just start measuring the foods you plan to eat the rest of your life! But maybe the juice will be super tasty and offer some good nutrients.