This whole weight loss thing eludes me completely...!

I am soooo frustrated. Exceptionally so in fact, to the point I am ready to "unbookmark" this site and use my scale in a game of shot put outside.

Firstly my CC says I need to eat 1500 per day to lose weight. Um, hello??? I am finding this close to impossible. Almost always end up between 1600 and 2000 per day. I am getting really frustrated with trying to figure out each night how many calories are in my food!! I cook ONE meal a night to feed my family, I am certainly not about to make something different for myself as it is costly and a pain in the behind. That being said, trying to figure out exactly what your calorie intake is from a homemade lasagne or spagetti bol or fish and chips or whatever is a real mission as the site does not recognise half of what is in my recipe. Arrggg! I love my tea - but it is 70cals per cup of tea. I have cut down a lot but seriously if I had to go back to drinking what I normally would I would only be allowed one other meal a day. 

I am 71kg and 5.5" by the way, mom to three children and 32 years old.

 Another thing that I am not sure is accurate is my exercise calories burned as if I log 30 mins of ta-bo on here it gives me about 350 cals and on other sites I get other amounts - normally lower. So.....what now? 

Another thing - while I am venting my frustrations. What the hell is water weight? I have seen it all over this site and don't have a clue what it is.

Another thing - anyone else think their scale is a demonic evil bridge troll from hell who is hell bent on making your life a misery? I hate my scale, actually completely loath the stupid thing. Problem is, I have a love hate relationship with it because I cannot stay off it and it ALWAYS have bad news to tell me. Down  1.5 kg yesterday and up 2kg today....the story of my weight loss. You should see my graph. It makes any mountain range look a little flat!!!!

Oh *sigh* I guess how boring would the world be if we were all stick thin?

 

First, just take a minute and breeeeaaaaath.

Now you can't seem to stay with 1500 for you 1.5 weight loss per week.   So instead go to 1750.  That will still give you a 500 per day deficit and keep you satiated.  Maybe the 1500 with exercise just was not cutting it for you.  Water weight will kill your motivation if you do not learn how to recognize it.  So you weigh yourself often, I do daily, so that if I see a 2 pound jump, I know damn well I did not consume an extra 7000 calories on top of the 2000 I ate.  The more you eat, usually the bigger the sodium intake, so drinks lots of water.  And when you feel hungry through out the day, grab a bottle of water and drink, it does help.  I hate my scale too but I love it when it tells me what i want to see.

Good Luck.

use the recipe analyser.  it's not hard to calculate the calories in homemade food - it's much easier than trying to guess what you're getting in a restaurant.  just input all your ingredients, decide what portion of the entire recipe you're going to eat, and stick to that.

i play around with the number of servings all the time when cooking.  if you enter your ingredients and calculate the whole recipe as one serving, then you can look at the numbers and decide, okay, the whole lasagne is 3000 calories, so i can eat 1/8th of the pan with a salad. 

and remember that all the numbers here are estimates.  especially with the activities, you have to judge how hard you're working.  compare the tao-bo numbers to the running numbers and ask yourself what would be a comparable level of exertion for you.

and--yeah--if your weight is fluctuating 1.5-2kg/day, that's water weight.  or your scale is a troll bridge.

Quick explanation of water weight.

A large proportion of your body weight is water.  The amount of water in your body fluctuates from day to day, sometimes by 1-2 kg.  

Fat and muscle are more stable. They do not fluctuate from day to day. It takes a longer time to gain or lose fat and muscle.

So, if you are 2kg heavier one day than the day before, that is "water weight".  Your body is storing more water.  The water will go away. It is nothing to worry about.

The thing to pay attention to is not the change from day to day. That is not meaningful. The thing to pay attention to is the change from week to week, and from month to month.  

 

 

 

 

thank you for all the advice and explanations. Water weight does make more sense now, and I must have a fair amount of it.

I presume the more sodium you consume, the more water retention, the more of a bridge troll your scale is the next day BUT it is water weight. Mmm think I have got it.

Thanks for the advise on my cals as well, and for reading my vent. Reading back over it a couple of hours later I do come across rather like a woman possessed LOL, I am quite normal I assure you.

 

Original Post by gdp2812:

I am soooo frustrated. Exceptionally so in fact, to the point I am ready to "unbookmark" this site and use my scale in a game of shot put outside.

(snip)

Another thing - anyone else think their scale is a demonic evil bridge troll from hell who is hell bent on making your life a misery? I hate my scale, actually completely loath the stupid thing.

First of all- Don't go  - this place is for support, and we got your back...

Second, check out this thread (you're not alone with your scale frustrations):

http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/post/717 46.html

It's great for a laugh!

 

our stats are similar, except that i have no kids. and that i am 162 pounds, a little heavier.

one tip is to ensure your foods are fat free or 1% - this goes for peanut butter, cheese, salad dressing, cream cheese... all of em. ALL of em. reason being, is fat (which should be less than 20% of your menu) is worth 9 calories per gram. it is super calorie dense. that is why a tsp of olive oil is 100 calories. by cutting down on fat, you bank a whack of calories for other foods quite effortlessly.

fat-free and low fat foods really don' taste much different. imho, if you notice a difference in taste, you eat way too much of them anyway. 

people who go over the calorie intake everyday usually use full fat or no-good cuts of meat. lean ground beef is better than medium, and ground turkey is even better... always choose the best in terms of low fat. ditch pork chips for pork tenderloin. ditch chicken drumsticks for breast.

usually it is one or two food items sabotaging your diet.  if you eat a bag of microwave popcorn every day, ditch it for air popped. thinking you can't live without chocolate is foolish and addictive behaviour ~ identify what foods are sabotaging your diet and give them a stern talking too.

the scale? hah. it is an inanimate object. the day i realized i was mad at a hunk of plastic, i started weighing myself 3-5 times a day and charting it in an excel spreadsheet (i work in a lab so it was an experiment? ya?). after a few months, i had a VERY clear idea of how my weight can fluctuate (7 pounds in a day!) and how much my boots weighed. i now weigh myself once a week for no real reason, as those numbers mean nothing.

if you can't do that, then ya, shot-put it into the neighbours pool! buy a measuring tape instead. 

thanks santonacci - that post cheered me up!! thanks for the advice spookychick. I am normally quite good with the lowfat stuff, and buy most of my groceries "lite" or lowcal" stuff.

My biggest problem is that I just LOVE FOOD. I know you should eat to live and not the other way around - but hell - how boring would that be. Moderation and portion control is another one of my problems.

I do worry about only weighing weekly as suggested in a lot of posts as what if you are having a day where you are retaining a lot of water and then it looks like you have actually lost nothing at all.....then the demonic scale will take up flying lessons for free!

Oh well, there are good things - not all doom and gloom. I am more aware of what I eat, I am getting more exercise than I have in YEARS and I have stopped smoking for just over a month !! 

I went to a dietitian and she recommended weighing yourself weekly instead of daily...Makes sense when you consider the meaning of water weight!

 I have  been going over my daily allowance of calories too.  Like you, my problem is portion control, and I am a grazer--I snack all day if there is something in the house.  Now when I go to the store, I only buy what I need.  If it's not in the house, I can't eat it!  I find celery to be kind of boring, but the crunchy texture is what I need in place of chips.

Don't weigh yourself everyday...your weight fluctuates too much, especially throughout the course of one day. Pick one day(I use Sunday) and weigh yourself as soon as you wake up(it's also important to weigh in at the same time of the day).  If anyone weighs in everyday, they're going to get frustrated, because it seems like they're going up and down, when they're really not.

Original Post by gdp2812:

Firstly my CC says I need to eat 1500 per day to lose weight. Um, hello??? I am finding this close to impossible. 

[...] 

I am 71kg and 5.5" by the way, mom to three children and 32 years old. 

The CC BMI tool says this: 

Based upon your current Body Mass Index (BMI) of 26.1, you are currently classed as slightly overweight.

A healthy BMI for your gender and age is between 20 and 25 and a reasonable weight loss rate is 0.5-2 pounds a week.

Since you're close to what should be your "goal weight", you will have a narrower range of calories you can eat to lose weight safely.  That should mean you only have to tweak your calories a little (500 cals/day).  But it also means the weight will come off slowly (1lb/week).

It also says this:

You burn 1800 calories during a typical day. Remember that this estimate is based on your body weight, height, age, gender, and your average level of activity. 

I assumed sedentary, because I like to add my burned calories in my Activity Log because they vary day to day.

So, yeah, you should eat 1300-1500 calories per day to lose weight.  Or you should exercise more to create a 500-1000 calorie deficit. 

 

Original Post by gdp2812:

Another thing that I am not sure is accurate is my exercise calories burned as if I log 30 mins of ta-bo on here it gives me about 350 cals and on other sites I get other amounts - normally lower. So.....what now? 

Calories burned do vary based on the individual as well as the intensity.  But one reason for the difference between CC and other sites may be that CC lists the calories you burn during a given period, whereas some other sites might list the extra calories you burn during that period.  CC will calculate this difference for you when you log the activity, so it doesn't include it in the original "score".  Does that make sense?

Don't worry too much about the mountain peaks on your graph.  Your weight does fluctuate all over the place, hour to hour even.  I weigh in daily, but I consider the number to be just "data" for the graph.  On your CC graph there is a green trendline that follows your raw data scores.  Look to that line to see how your weight is moving.  Don't worry too much about the black line.  It's "wrong" by +/- 5 lbs anyway, depending on how and when you weigh yourself.

Oh, I was sooo where you are at one time!!!  It is so frustrating.  Here are some things I have learned:  As mentioned, don't weigh yourself everyday.  I was doing it and it made me so crazy, I was ready to stop.  I have picked Sunday mornings for my weigh day as soon as I get up.  Try not to obsess, this will only make it worse for you emotionally & physically.  There is no clean cut way to know precisely how many calories you burn by doing what, so just try your best.  You will find out that you will probably be pretty close.  There are a lot of tools and websites that can help you figure that out.  That goes for food & exercise cals.  Also, on women's health website, they have a pretty good tool:  On lazy days with no exercise:  Take your (weight in pounds X 15) - 500.  This is how many cals you should aim not to go over.  On exercise days, take (weight X 18) - 500.  Hopefully this helps!!  Good luck!

thanks for all the great advice everyone!

That's why these forums are so great - they keep me sane.

I have not weighed myself since Thursday *victory dances around the room* so I will now make Thursdays my weigh in day and I think I will start to measure as well just incase the scale is suffering from pms on a Thursday - so I can get a more accurate idea of what is going on.