Am I doing something wrong with my diet?

PitbullMommy

PitbullMommy

New member
Maybe I'm just frustrated, but I want opinions as to whether or not I'm going about this correctly.

I started my diet (read that to mean lifestyle change) on the 18th of July. The scale originally started in a downwards motion, but now it's stopped. And I've only lost 2# (my counter says that I've lost 5...but I'm headed back up to my original weight). I totally feel like I'm doing everything correctly...and the scale still refuses to obey! So, I'm going to post exactly what I'm doing and see if anyone can spot where I might be going wrong. I don't mind a slow downward motion...but when your goal is 1.5# per week in loss and you're just not meeting it and you're doing what you feel is right---it really sucks and is depressing.

My required daily intake of calories to maintain my weight is 1600. I have been aiming to consume about 1400 calories per day and aiming to walk between 6 and 12 miles per week (as actual exercise, not counting my daily routine). With my calculations, without even exercising I can expect to lose about 1# per week. With exercise, slightly more (really it averages over 1.5# per week in loss...but I'm not always spot on with my 1400 cal intake). I keep tabs on my fiber and protein intake and meet or exceed my needed amount daily, esp on the fiber (I aim for grains and veggies).

So, with this in mind...I just don't see why the scale continues to hover around 185. I am meticulous with calorie counting. I drink only water (alright...and I may have 4oz of milk per week with cereal, lol) and my food choices are rather healthy (in my mind). Consisting of a heavy portion of soy burgers, edamame, 7 grain pilaf, high fiber granola bars, fruits and veggies (aiming for those high in fiber and low in calories). My lighter portions are whole grain bread, low fat cheeses, higher calorie/lower fiber fruits and veggies, pasta, rice, etc.

I do not understand how after all of my effort...the scale can sit at 185...or it can start to go up. My hours of work are screwed up this week and I'm working overnights...so, weighing myself after a shift when I've eaten lightly seems fair (I try to not drink or eat 4+ hours before I get home so that I have a decent expectation on the scale reading). I also try to weigh myself again later in the evening (say after 8 hours of sleeping).

Can anyone make any suggestions or see where I'm going wrong? I feel like I'm doing it right...but maybe I'm blind to something obvious.


Sami
 
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How are you keeping track of your calories?

And are you tracking any other nutrients - is fiber/sodium/protein etc...
 
Don't take this as scientific advice akin to Steve's, but sometimes when I plateau in my weight loss it seems that upping my caloric intake in something like a good fat cheat meal can jolt it back into working order.

There's been several times I've kicked myself for eating something I shouldn't have and dreaded getting on the scale the next day, only to find out that I lost more weight than usual.

So if I were you (and this is just my uneducated opinion) what I would do is have a cheat meal, then an intensive workout, and see what happens.
 
you said in your diary that you are keeping tabs on fiber/protein - where are those numbers falling? and veggie burgers can be high in sodium, low fat cheeses are notoriously high in sodium...

What type of high fiber bars are you eating and what' on the ingredients list?

While studies of late have shown that it's no worse than sugar -i'mnot totally buying it - I will not go near HFCS - and it's made a huge difference with me - and it's an ingredient in a lot of thigns including things you'd expect to be healthy - like whole grain breads, mass produced granola bars, etc...
 
Sorry guys! Didn't expect so many replies so quickly.

Maverick, I've upped my intake today to 1600 to see what happens. I'm doing the >.< for tomorrow's weigh in though. lol.

Maleficent, I aim to take in at least 30g fiber per day and 70g protein. I make fiber quota each day, I'm usually not more than 5g off on protein intake (if I'm off at all). You had mentioned tracking sodium, that I do not track (how?). I may consume 3oz cheese every other day or every 2 days. I'm not a big cheese eater. I do consume alot of soy though (usually edamame, but I consume at least 1 vegetarian burger per day--my favorite is Boca's Bruschetta Tomato Basil Parmesan. 70 cal, 10g protein, 260mg sodium [I'm betting at 12% that's not a good rating, lol]).

The fiber bars I tend to go towards are FiberOne (which I try to eat seldomly since they taste too damn good to be THAT good for me) and Kashi. I also should mention my aim to eat higher fiber cereals, I pretty much buy anything Kashi that is low(er) in sugar and high in fiber. If there are better granola bars to buy, recommend some! The fiberone bars are a favorite by my fiance...and they give him horrible gas, LMAO! :ack2:

Thanks so much for your help. I'm betting a reply will include information about my sodium intake? Do you think it's water weight that I'm carrying around instead of extra fat? Anxiously awaiting replies :)

Sami
 
I only guess at stuff -steve's the smart one 'round here - i know he's out for a few days on a mini vacation but he might pop in...

water weight is a possibility - but that tends to be a very easy out for people... like ooh i had chinese food for dinner last night and gained 22 lbs :D


I keep expecting to see an answer like - i keep track of my calories in , dailyplate.com, thisiswhatieat.com - and that will give you a breakdown of actual calories and nutrients including sodium...

In a lot of cases where people arent losing weight it's because they aren't being as diligent in portion control asa they once were - and they are eating more than they think they are...

How much water are you taking in a day... including coffee/tea/whatever liquid... 30 grams of fiber isn't a huge number, but if your fluids are low... then it could leave you feeling - -ummm- stopped up (like if you're not pooping every day - you might want to up your water) and when you're not thinking about poop -- good god it's only tuesday and im already on poop - do take note of the color of your urine - unless there' a medical reason for it - like meds you might be on- or excessive doses of vitamin b (that makes your pee neon) your urine should be a very pale yellow to almost clear...

the 70 grams of protein seems a little low... to me anyhow.. I'm not sure what a huge factor it plays in actual weight loss-but it does play a role in retaining muscle... it's suggested that 1 gram of protein for every lb of lean body mass to shoot for...
 
So I'm not the only one that eats chinese and gains 22#?! ;)

I should mention that although I aim for 30g of fiber, I usually wind up consuming in the 40's...some weeks I'll go into the 50's...but that usually leaves my stomach all wobbly. I consume about 3 liters of clear fluid per day. I have this jug I carry with me. As far as portion control, I'm very diligent. I break out the measuring up...teaspoon/tablespoon, etc. My only "non-diligent" portion issues might be with butter or something. But when it says "50 calories for 1 tablespoon", I charge myself 75 for putting it into something. I may overdo it...but I try to overcalculate for my American ways, lol.

On the same note with fiber, I poop at least twice a day...not feeling stopped up at all. Urine is always very dilute, as is expected with my water intake.

As far as protein, I was under the impression that 0.8g/kg was the expectation for someone that was on a "moderate" exercise regime. :freaks: Damn the vegetarianism! I'd hate to leave my ways of eating just for extra protein. Guess I'll get to google some high protein ideas...*gags at the idea of protein shakes*.

I'll take a look at these websites. I usually use calorie-count.com, but maybe I need something else too. This is why I started my diary. I am anal about counting calories.

Sami
 
Alright, maybe I have figured part of it out...

I visited myplate.com...and got signed up...all the good stuff. It says that my daily NEED for 1.5# weekly weightloss is 1600...not 1400. Am I supressing my metabolism because I've received bad information. I feel sad now :(
 
In the nutrition forum - there's a stickied thread - that will give you a link to the harris benedict formula - that will give you an approximate number of calories based on age/gender/current weight - and add in some activity as well...

In the weight loss in the media thread there' a sticky from Real simple magazine that uses a very non-complex formula to figure number of calories
And Your Number Is…
You Exercise: Almost never
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 12

You Exercise: Lightly, one to three days a week
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 13.5

You Exercise: Moderately, three to five days a week
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 15.5

You Exercise: Vigorously, six to seven days a week
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 17

You Exercise: Vigorously, daily, and you have a physical job
Multiply Your Current Weight By: 19
Click to expand...


Keep inmind though it's just a range... depending on the condition of your metabolism you could go higher or lower there is no one size fits all number - you really have to play - but you arebetter going higher than lower so you've got wiggle room downt eh road.
 
It would really help if I could remember where I had obtained my information. I have read the stickied threads. Perhaps I didn't use them because I felt I already had the information. I joined dailyplate.com. My fiber and protein needs are being met. Today's sodium is elevated. I'll keep going here for a week or so and see if it helps. I didn't find any different numbers for calorie counting with using this, so I'm pretty spot on with my counting :) The good news...my diet is apparenty very low in cholesterol, lol.
 
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Hi there Pit Bull Mommy,

Sounds like maleficent has got some good ideas for you. My first reaction was that I thought your protein was low. The normal formula is .8g/lb. So taking your weight 185 x .8 comes to be 148.

Boosting your protein intake will also boost the thermogenic effect of your diet (without going into too much detail, this is the amount of energy taken from the food you eat in order to perform the functions of digestion of that particular food).

Great that you got set up with daily plate. I think that will help you a lot.
 
Where is everyone finding the higher recommendations like 0.8g/lb? I am finding multiple sources recommending 0.8g/kg. If I were to consume 0.8g/lb that would be 148g of protein. That's ALOT. Even dailyplate. com is only calculating 0.8g/kg of protein. Can someone show me where it says to eat 0.8g/lb? I can understand eating about 1g/kg...but anything more seems like I'm never going to get there. 148g of protein is roughly equivilant to eating 6 cups of shelled soybeans/day. Yowzers! I would definitely have to take on some protein shakes.
 
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How often do you weigh yourself? Maybe i can share some experiences with you. I weighed about 260lbs in April, i have managed to get down to 192/193ish (I haven't weighed myself in a few weeks). However for the first few months i weighed myself daily and it was a stressful and deteriorating routine. Sometimes my weight just wouldn't move for 2 weeks and then one day it would jump down 5 lbs. I kicked the scale habit and now weigh in at most once a week, but i prefer doing it every other week. I have found this to be a much better routine as i can keep motivated, and feel great without worrying about the scale. Do you do different types of physical activity? Or only walking? One of the best things you can do is just mix up your activity, try jogging, or using a stair master and mix that up with walking. Once i started to jog the weight just melted off, and i have found a gym routine that allows me to use different equipment along with different weight routines. Have you considered a gym membership? (if you don't already have one)
 
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Generally the protein calculation is based on lean body mass... (the very wise steve has a few posts on it.. :) determining your lean body mass can be a little tricky... so you're kind of just estimating...
 
ya determining lean body mass is a bit of a pain and perhaps just a guess as mal said. what i do is for example:

i weigh 136, 21% body fat. so i go 136 times 0.21 and apparantly i am carrying around 28 pounds of fat on me. so i take my total weight, minus off the 28 and that is what i go by for lean body mass. so if i go by the 1g/lean body mass formula i should be eating around 108 g protein a day. during my loosing stage i never followed this formula and sometimes even got in 50g of protein per day and now i regret it because i lost some muscle and my body could have been firmer in the end. but now especially since im strength training i realize how crucial protein is. good luck!
 
I weigh myself about every 1.5-2 days. Sometimes I'll go three days or more between weigh-ins...sometimes I do them more frequently. It really depends. Whenever I weigh, I try to do so right after I've had at least an 8 hour stint without food (ie. sleep). I try to vary what I do as far as activity. Most (say 90%) of my activity outside of work would be walking my dogs. Now, I do have a very active job...so, this isn't my only source of exercise. I do also partcipate in fishing, swimming and trail walking (what I would consider different from flat-surface walking since there are so many things that involve actually getting your entire body involved). I have considered a gym membership...but really the thing holding me back is the fact that my dog cannot be involved. We exercise as much as WE can for OUR benefit. My dog is a working dog and competes in competitions. So, he always benefits from walking some calories off. In a good week, we'll get 3 weightpulls in and some resistance training (for him...which is primarily trail walking for me and does involved a good amount of exercise in encouraging him). I am trying to kick the feeling that a gym membership would mean abandonning him on some level. It's a mental game thus far.

I have also been working on upping my protein. Yesterday I was able to consume a whopping 106g. I'm mentally trying to stay focused on healthy meat for my fiance and I and am actively seeking out a fresh fish market in the OKC area. Given that I can find sashimi grade fish, there may be a good chance that I'll start making sushi at home again. Until yesterday, I felt it was more of a high carb meal than anything else. Turns out it's high protein too, whodathunk?

BTW, this week has been excrutiatingly nice outside. I'm working on increasing the amount of time that Brogan and I are walking from 3 miles to 4 miles this week. We usually walk at 3-4mph for the first leg (half) of the walk and 2-3mph for the second half. Thank the lord for my pedometer...
 
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hmmm

Have you tried walking about an hour a day, with 10 minutes of stretching before and after? I did that for 3 months and lost 10 pounds a month ( a long time ago, I'm starting it again, mind you :) ) and I didn't even diet. (which I'm doing now.) Its not a hard workout, and it clears your mind and relieves stress also.

You also said that you didn't have much milk.
I read that drinking 2 glasses of 2% or 1% milk a day gradually decreases belly weight, and it curbs your appetite so you wont eat as much high calorie foods.

And maybe you should try to decrease calorie intake by another hundred calories, its not much, but it would probably help.
 
I should specify. My diet is kind of restricted. I consume about 16oz of milk per month, it usually makes me sick after that amount. I have to limit my amount of cheese intake too (anything over 6oz of cheese per day pretty much puts me out for 3 days). I was diagnosed with being lactose intolerant when I was younger. The symptoms have improved, but I've pretty much avoided everything but soy milk.
 
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