I've been on my new diet plan for 5 days straight now, and I've yet to really lose anything. I'm counting calories, but feel like often I am under calories and don't know how to fill in those last ones remaining at the end of the day. MyFitnessPal wants to put my exercise in to replace calories, but I'm not sure I should trust that as a totally accurate tool?
I also have no idea how to monitor how many carbs/fats/sugars I'm eating, etc. Does anyone have a good way of doing this? A method to their madness that's working for them? Right now I have two meals replaced with shakes, so that's the easy part, but then dinner with my boyfriend, he cooks something healthy, but its usually homemade so I'm not sure if I'm tracking the calories correctly.
Another issue of mine is the exercise -- my day is sedentary, so when I exercise, I pole dance, which is doing cardio & strength training, but I have no idea how many calories I'm actually burning, cuz its not the same as my 30/minutes on the elliptical in cardio...
I'm in the right place, I know where I want to go, but I'm sitting here, having lost nothing really, after a weeks worth of work, and I'm wondering if maybe I'm doing something wrong somewhere.
5'3", no allergies, in pretty decent health, don't smoke, cut back tremendously on drinking, am eating food I generally wouldn't choose right away but that I like, haven't eaten out at ALL... I guess I'm scared I'm doing something to hinder my weightloss. Am I not eating enough?
5 days really isn't very long to judge if something is working or not. I think I have read that you should give it like 2 weeks to see before adjusting. It is really scary to just ride it out and feel like u might be doing it all wrong, i struggle with that too. But it takes time.
How many calories are you aiming for and how many are you eating? I use sparkpeople to track mine and it counts in carbs, protein, fat, etc...
If you have two meals being replaced with shakes that is probably why you can't find enough calories. Maybe only do one? Adding in some full fat type foods helped me, like peanut butter can help get those calories up lol Maybe just write down everything you eat on a day where your calories are kindof low and see if there is anything you can replace with a different more caloried version?
I may try sparkpeople instead of mfp and see if it gives me a different outcome! I think my issue is that I don't know how to fill those calories with healthy calories vs unhealthy ones. I like having the shakes for two meals a day, but I think maybe I should try switching my one meal per day to lunch instead of dinner, so that I'm getting that big caloric intake at midday instead of later in the evening.
I should wait at least one week before I try to change anything. I'm not gonna change anything quite yet, but I shall definitely invest in some peanut butter and celery and see if that can help boost my calories with healthy fat, thanks!
I would gauge at 5 weeks, not 5 days. If we could make such changes in 5 days, people would be more motivated I think. The hardest part of this journey is that it can take weeks for scale progress and months for visible mirror changes.
If you are not counting, then there is a good chance that you may not even be in a calorie deficit, which is the most important key to this. It is actually quite difficult to eat in a true deficit which is why so many people rely on counting.
To answer your question, I don't count sugars, I just make better choices for that (ie. avoiding candy bars). For carbs and fats, do you know how to read a nutrition label? If you are eating something that you haven't cooked, and is not measured/portioned from a recipe that has been calculated, then a best guess is all you can do. A palm size for a 3-4oz portion, a fist for a cup, etc. But to be honest, after doing this for 10 years, those guesses are often inaccurate. If you are just starting this journey, you may want to consider doing the cooking in order to count until you get a handle on how to guess.
Also, meal timing is irrelevent and quite personal - if you feel better with a real dinner, go for it. Is there a reason you are choosing shakes? They digest fast, often are too high in sugar (this of course depends on what you making as a shake), and leave people unsatisfied. Shakes were generally designed for people who have had surgery or people who need excess calories. When losing, whole healthy foods tend to satisfy and help with hunger much more.
Unless you've been weighing/measuring food for a VERY, VERY long time, it's impossible to estimate how much you're eating. IMO to count calories you need measuring cups and preferably a kitchen scale. I've seen one chicken breast range in size as small as 4 ounces or as large as 8. So think about investing in a kitchen scale -- that way, at dinner you can put your plate on the scale, zero it out and actually weigh your portions.
You cannot gauge success based on one week, it generally takes at least two and up to six weeks to see if a new way of eating is effective (and according to your ticker you've lost four pounds, has that been in those five days? You're doing INCREDIBLE if so -- For reference, I've been watching my calories/exercise since mid February).
I don't personally measure sugars but I do use Calorie King software that allows me to set protein/fat/carb targets within my calorie range and also allows the user to measure anything from fiber to salt to exercise to water intake if they so desire. It's not free but it's more than paid for itself in the convenience factor.
A little heads up -- while shakes are convenient, you can't rely on them forever and it's a fact that a shake won't sustain you as long as food, even if the shake has the same calories as the meal. A lot of people discover that eventually they start getting ravenously hungry between meals so you might want to consider replacing shakes with real food down the road.
I was at 164 a couple days before I started and before that, I had cut back on how many times a day I was eating and had dropped down to 160, so part of that was before I went so strict.
At this point, I know I'm expecting results early, but its good to hear from others that I'm being unrealistic, I think I've gotten so excited by the idea of losing weight that I am expecting to see it right away.
Thanks for your responses. I may have to be more strict with my boyfriend on what he cooks for dinner (or at least my portions).
My shakes are not the best for me, I'm sure, but I truly believe my weight gain is a direct relation to overeating and mostly fast food 4-5x a week and just being unhealthy, no real exercise, so I figured going so strict as I have would REALLY kill the lbs quickly, but it is taking its time. I appreciate the input a LOT, guys, thanks!
While I'm not losing any lbs, I have lost an inch each from waist & hips, so I hope that's more of an indication that my pole dancing and exercise is replacing my fat with muscle and that's why my weight isn't dropping much.
There's so much to learn. I wish there was a set of classes that can teach you everything you need to know about weightloss, lol.
sticking it out is the worst when you are not seeing the numbers that you want to see. You could try to measure yourself instead.. that may help.
You could also try to eat almonds to add calories to your diet. Fresh fruit and veggies also are a great choice. I often have a hard time getting to my calories needed for the day.. I have found those snacks help out.
It took me a month before I started seeing any real changes to my weight, so 5 days isn't enough time to gauge whether your plan is working for you. You seem to have everything under control, so I don't see why it shouldn't work for you. Just keep at it and you will start to see changes in the next week or so
I'm 6 weeks in and it took about 2 to see any real results, now it's about .5 - 1 pound every 8 days or so.
I use Sparkpeople to track my calories, I weigh my food on a food scale. After 2 weeks of no losses I made some changes (lowered my calories and changed the times I was eating so I wasn't as hungry) and the weight started to come off.
The great thing about Sparkpeople is that I can look at my lower calorie days when I was satisfied and see what I ate (generally higher protein and fat) when I'm struggling with hunger.
It's only been 5 days. Give it some time. It's a learning process.
Just my opinion, but I'd ditch the shakes for the most part, and learn to eat healthy nutritious food, for loss and get some exercise, your choice for fitness.
Do you really want to do shakes 2 meals a day for the rest of your life?
As the others have said, 5 days is not long enough to see if a program is working or not.
AND, as others have said, the shakes are probably a bad idea. Especially if you are still figuring out your fat/carbs/protein ratios. Most shakes out there have a lot of sugar and too little protein or fat. You can easily trade out those shakes for veggies and hummus or cottage cheese, an ommelette, or an apple and peanut butter or other 300 calorie mini meals and get a more nutritious bang for your calorie buck.
I don't know how Fitday works nowadays, but in my fitness pal I am able to put in recipes. I can also look at graphs to see what my carb/fat/protein ratio is for the day. I would imagine Fitday has something similar.
One thing you can do to help you figure these out is to read every label and start comparing products. Why have regular yogurt when greek yogurt has more protein? Why have flavored greek yogurt when plain greek yogurt with fresh strawberries has less sugar? Little by little you can start doing these substitutions, but that comes from eating real food. Shakes will not teach you to eat right.
I'm actually currently losing weight with shakes following the Simple Diet. One of the things the Simple Diet requires is for one to eat 5 fruits/veggies a day along with the required shakes. So when I drink one of my shakes, I always eat a serving or two of veggies. This would help you get in more healthy foods and more volume. I'd totally suggest incorporating some more veggies through the day. (shake +veg, veg/fruit as snack, shake + veg, veg/fruit as a snack).
Usually I can't track as accurately if someone makes my meals for me. I don't trust them at all and my husband's version of "healthy" is not truly healthy. I know sparkpeople you can create recipes but I'm not sure about mfp.
Although it's hard to know if you are eating enough unless you tell us the amounts (ie "I've been eating on average 1200 the last few days but mfp wants me to eat 1500"). Also, you can wear a pedometer to track how many steps you take during the day. It may encourage you to take a few more steps at work! And 5 days isn't enough to really count! You can do this though! I believe in you!
Five days isn't long enough to know if it's working or not. It took me 2 weeks to lose anything starting off...so you may just take a bit longer.
Are you weighing/measuring everything you eat?
Are you drinking only non calorie drinks?
Do you drink coffee with cream and sugar?
Do you log everything you eat/drink?
I was very easily drinking my calories! You may be eating well, but your morning coffee, afternoon juice/soda/sweet tea could put you over wthout you even knowing! So if you aren't doing it already, measure the stuff you add to your coffee and log every drink you have.
I am drinking only diet soda and I use 0cal sweetener in my coffee and almond milk, so I'm def not drinking my calories unless I'm actually drinking alcohol, & then I try to be sensible. I am counting calories with MFP app, however I am not weighing/measuring my food. I may have to invest in a food scale. Thank you for the replies everyone! I guess what I'm doing is working, but it's a big challenge!
I don't think I'm doing this right...
