What are you guys eating to stay at 1200 a day? That seems low. I usually eat between 1400-1800. I have been running lately and that shit makes me hungrier than normal.
Here is an example of a day where I recorded 1204 calories and didn't exercise, so no extras that day.
Breakfast: medium cappuccino with skim milk, Yoplait Greek honey vanilla yogurt, pumpkin spice vitatop (250 calories total)
Well, I think this is a good example of why Moe said people estimate wrong. I don't see how this is 250 total. Either you didn't eat full servings of each of these things and are estimating how much you did have, or you forgot something.
Note: I am reading this thread while eating a peanut butter scone. I generally try to keep it around 1300 to 1400 when I'm not actively dieting; 1200 calories can make me stabby.
Here is an example of a day where I recorded 1204 calories and didn't exercise, so no extras that day.
Breakfast: medium cappuccino with skim milk, Yoplait Greek honey vanilla yogurt, pumpkin spice vitatop (250 calories total)
Well, I think this is a good example of why Moe said people estimate wrong. I don't see how this is 250 total. Either you didn't eat full servings of each of these things and are estimating how much you did have, or you forgot something.
Yogurt, 150. Vitatop, 100. Cappuccino, zero?
Hmmm, MFP says my yogurt was 100 calories. I looked on Yoplait's site, and it also said 150, so now I'm not sure. FWIW, I think this is the nutrition info I was recording for the yogurt: www.fatsecret.com/Diary.aspx?pa=fjrd&rid=1722622
But I'm going to double check the label when I get home! MFP hasn't always been right with their nutritional info, so it's a good reminder to verify when I use it.
The cappuccino is 50 calories, according to Caribou Coffee's website.
Actually I think MFP is right - the yogurt that I have is only 4 oz and the one on the Yoplait is 6 oz, so it has more calories. Not sure why the 4 oz 4-pack is not listed on their site though?
I am glad you are right for the sake of your counting, but I think using that example, we can see Moe's point about them not being right all the time or estimates being off. If you were eating the bigger size, for example, but MFP just assumes the smaller one, your count would be off. If that happened for one or two other items, every day, I can see people thinking they are eating 1200 calories, but really, they are closer to 1400 or 1500 easily and might never really notice the difference.
Yes, I agree; please see my first post. I certainly don't believe that what I track is down to the exact calorie but I am usually pretty good at checking to make sure that what I scanned in using the app matches the product label or website (if I happen to have one - if it's from a restaurant or something then I just have to hope it's a good estimate). I'm getting results so I have to believe that what I'm consuming is fairly close to what I record.
Post by bostonrunnah on Jul 18, 2012 10:51:13 GMT -5
1100 to 1300 cals a day depending on what I'm eating. I'm trying to lose 10 more lbs (down 40 since 1/9/12 - huzzahhhh) and I'm burning approx 600 cals a day in the gym/ bootcamp.
There are a few people who have stated that they religiously weigh all of their foods, but I really think that those who are not have no clue how off they are on their counts. A measured Tbsp of peanut butter is WAYYY more than the grams they provide in the serving size. Like almost as much as 1.5 times as much. Those calories add up when you're needing to eat at a 500 cal deficit just to lose a pound/week. Maybe that's what Moe is talking about.
I have no idea how many calories I eat. Back when I was actively losing weight, I aimed for 200 cal breakfasts, 500 cal lunches, and 500 cal dinners. Treats/snacks were burned off through exercise. That got me into a good enough groove that I've been able to maintain the loss without tracking. If I had to guesstimate, I'm somewhere around 1500 a day.
I joined MFP a couple of years ago but never got into the habit of using it. Does it give you sample menus like what nahoku listed out? That was really helpful. I need to get back into weight-loss mode soon.
There are a few people who have stated that they religiously weigh all of their foods, but I really think that those who are not have no clue how off they are on their counts. A measured Tbsp of peanut butter is WAYYY more than the grams they provide in the serving size. Like almost as much as 1.5 times as much. Those calories add up when you're needing to eat at a 500 cal deficit just to lose a pound/week. Maybe that's what Moe is talking about.
Well, yeah, like toledo said, anybody serious about losing weight is going to take out the measuring spoon and measure the peanut butter, then find a unit that matches it on MFP. I would even check the calorie count from the label of peanut butter and compare it on MFP. I also weighed my chicken last night, counted my tortillas and compared the calories of the labels of my sauces on to the nutrition info on MFP for my enchiladas. Your result is going to be the work you put into it, MFP doesn't do all of the work, it's a tracking tool.
There are a few people who have stated that they religiously weigh all of their foods, but I really think that those who are not have no clue how off they are on their counts. A measured Tbsp of peanut butter is WAYYY more than the grams they provide in the serving size. Like almost as much as 1.5 times as much. Those calories add up when you're needing to eat at a 500 cal deficit just to lose a pound/week. Maybe that's what Moe is talking about.
Well, yeah, like toledo said, anybody serious about losing weight is going to take out the measuring spoon and measure the peanut butter, then find a unit that matches it on MFP. I would even check the calorie count from the label of peanut butter and compare it on MFP. I also weighed my chicken last night, counted my tortillas and compared the calories of the labels of my sauces on to the nutrition info on MFP for my enchiladas. Your result is going to be the work you put into it, MFP doesn't do all of the work, it's a tracking tool.
I agree that it's about the work you put into it. My point was that relying on your measuring spoon is what leads to inaccuracies. The only way to be accurate is to WEIGH everything, not rely on measuring spoons/cups. That's all.
There is a woman who uses Livestrong with me and she told me to do the following when figuring out if I'm really eating one serving when cooking two servings of a meal. Cook the food, place a container on a scale, zero it out, fill container with food, serve self, reweigh in original container to make sure half remains. Feed other half to SO.
She also recommended doing the same to marinade before putting in the pan and then measuring the left over to see how much had soaked in to the meat.
IMO, weighing all your food means you have an unhealthy obsession.
Nobody needs to be that tightly controlled. Holy shit.
Not sure if this was directed at me, but I wanted to point out weighing some foods (e.g. those that are measured in grams or ounces) is important so you can grasp exactly how much a portion size is. Dining out gives us an unrealistic idea of what constitutes an appropriate portion size. For example, 2 ounces of pasta is a serving size. It's roughly a fistful of pasta, but I'd rather have it be accurate so I don't short myself. It's gotten so I can estimate it, but I still test myself every now and then to make sure I'm staying on the ball.
I don't weigh stuff that I could use measuring spoons or cups for, and I don't weigh vegetables or fruit. For those I just go by a typical serving size.
I personally have a very healthy relationship with food. I'm in the middle of the weight range for my height. I like my wine and I enjoy dining out. And I do both of those things on a weekly basis - cheat days are important! But if I want to drop the 12 or so pounds I have left to lose, I HAVE to control my portions pretty strictly as past experience has told me if I don't, I maintain like nobody's business.
Post by pittsmcgee on Jul 18, 2012 11:44:00 GMT -5
I do 1200 plus some of the calories I burn when I exercise. Sometimes all, depending upon if I am drinking that night or not. I weigh portion sizes and dressings, peanut butter, etc. But not meat. I don't have scale for it but just eyeball it
MFP has me at 1640 daily to lose 1.5 a week. So far, I've been tracking 10 days (stayed under all but 2 & those were less than 150 over) and have gained 4 pounds. That, ladies, is the story of my life.
But I now know my sodium has been way higher than I thought & my potassium has been dismal (like 10% RDA)& I'm going to step up my workouts so we shall see.
1470 according to MFP. With exercise, I probably eat 1700-1800 and burn 400-600.
ETA: For the first month or so, I weighed some of my foods, especially meats. I had no idea how over I thought a serving size was. Now that I am more familiar with serving sizes of most of the foods I eat (a TB of peanut butter is about the size of your thumb, serving of chicken about the size of a fist, etc), I don't have to do that anymore. But weighing it for a while was a huge eye opener for me and really, really explained why I was as fat as I'd gotten.
My RLS was out of control the past couple months, to the point of madness every night. I thought I was getting "enough" potassium, but using MFP showed me how sorely wrong I was. I've been making a concerted effort to get more in, and the RLS has abated like whoa.
When I hit a plateau after the first month with MFP, I finally looked in the expanded breakdown in MFP and was shocked at the high sodium and high sugar amounts I was taking in. Since cutting back on those (not easy!), the plateau lifted.
I am always way over on potassium. Too bad I can't just share some of mine with you.