Hey guys!

I am new to cal counting and I need some guidance!

I started my plan last week and have been completely on target with reaching a daily goal of 1700 cals a day. I am tracking EVERYTHING on sparkpeople and working out a total of 270 minutes a week (3 days of Zumba, 1 day of step aerobics, and 1 day of body sculpting classes).

I'm eating 106 g's a day (average) of lean protein (from sources such as egg whites, steamed shrimp, fish, and grilled chicken breast).

I'm averaging 46 g's a day of fat (I'm doing really good there, at least I THINK I am)

I'm averaging 236 g's a day of Carbs...which all come from complex sources. I'm eating brown rice, Thomas light multi-grain english muffins, whole wheat pasta, and wasa multigrain crispbread. I do have veggies and some fruits, but fruit is usually 1-2 servings a day.

I haven't been seeing the kind of movement on the scale that I think I SHOULD be seeing based on how hard I am working out and how perfectly I am following this plan. My only "guess" is that I could be eating too many carbohydrates. Could this be stalling my weight loss?

I'm willing to cancel out my dinner carb (which usually ends up being 2 oz. of pasta).

Yes, I am weighing and measuring EVERYTHING I am eating.

Any input would certainly be appreciated!

I'm not an expert, but I've found it easiest to just get used to not having pasta for a while. Not because it is necessarily bad for you, but because it just seems too calorically dense for how un-filling it is (not to mention, it just makes me crave more carbs).

I think that if you cut out some of the carbier items such as the pasta or the rice, and upped the amount of meat/protein you have in your meal instead, you'd probably end up lowering your overall daily calories and find yourself MUCH more satisfied at the end of the day.

This is usually my pattern of eating, and it seems to work pretty well:
-Breakfast (this is where I eat most of my carbs, usually a big bowl of fiber cereal, sometimes a multigrain english muffin, but I usually add eggwhites or some sort of protein)

-Lower carb snack like roasted cocoa/cinnamon nuts/veggie sticks with a little hummus/etc

-Lunch is almost always only protein and veggies, and I usually make lunch my biggest meal of the day

-Another lower carb snack

-Dinner is protein and veggies, and if I want dessert, I try and really limit the carbiness because it's horribly addicting for me. So, some plain greek yogurt with some berries, or chopped almonds in it (nomnomnom), or sugar free jello...anything to get the sweet fix without triggering my inner cookie monster.


There are many ways to diet, and this just happens to work for me, but I feel it is overall a pretty sound approach to calorie counting. Breakfast is always very satisfying

I was recommended to lower my NET carb intake to 100-125g per day. I was eating about 250g per day.

I have lost 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks.

Try multigrain stuff that has a lot of fiber because you can subract the fiber from the carb grams to get the NET carbs. Also, I eat more peanut butter, guac, hummus and a little more meat. I cut out cereal in the AM as it was a TON of carbs. I usually have a small amount at dinner or none at all.

I'm satisfied with the amount I am eating...it's really not that bad Good Luck!!

What is the concept with the "net" carbs? I have been eating high fiber carbohydrates. My "net" might already be in that range.

Net carbs are the amount of carbs left over after you subtract the grams of fiber.

For example a bagel thin has 25 grams of carbohydrates but also has 7 grams of fiber. 25-7 = 18g NET carbs.

I was eating a lot of high fiber food too before and I was still over 200 on my carbs. 100 g is not as much as you may think. LOL! Certainly wasn't for me. I was shocked at how much carby food I was eating.

Unfortunatly, Sparkpeople doesn't give me the option to track Fiber, however, I'm going to do a little research on this and see where I stand. I'm certain I'll be much higher than I thought I would be. We'll see Thanks for your help!!!

It's a pleasure to help you! The carb thing is what TOTALLY busted my plateau!

Switch to LiveStrong MyPlate... it allows you to track fiber! And the database of food is huge.

Awe, but I have such an awesome love affair with Sparkpeople

I use My fitness pal--it tracks fiber too. I also use spark people though for other options though. I just track my food through MFP because it has a huge data base and tracks everything I need nutritionally.