[Closed] My fitness pal???

Depends on the data thats been input. You need to get the brand specific. Yu cant really have generic blackpudding by the ve nature of blackpudding every one has eir own recipe

i put in 1 slice, the options had 1 slice to choose.

Yeah but how many types of black pud were they when you searched for it.....

Barcode scanner on the app helps

Also you know by its nature also mackrel is a very oily fatty fish but mackrel fats aint bad fats , black pud fat is bad fat.

This is going to come across very bluntly, but it is not meant to offend. The other day you were saying that you are no longer losing weight despite eating not a lot. That's a lot of relatively unhealth food you're eating there Ton.

but eating mackeral can put you into the red on your daily count?
that is boolax surely.

Hi Ton

I've been using it for about a month or so. For bought produce it's great and you can check its accuracy against the packet. It is a bit of a faff and involves some guestimation when cooking from scratch.

It's working for me (4 kilos in 4 weeks), mainly I think because it highlights the bad nibbles and picky food I tend to eat after a glass of vino or two.

But in those 4 weeks I've only been over the daily calorie intake once, on my birthday when I went out for a chinese. It's taking quite a bit of self control!

What glupton said btw .....

george, but it is not the type of food that keeps weight on necasserily.

wow, what am i doing wrong, i can't eat that much..

breakfast..

2 egg omelette

lunch..

1/2 tin baked beans

dinner...

sensible home-made. last night/tonight bowl homemade chicken/sweetcorn soup.

2 x mugs coffee one sugar/milk
1 x nightime choc horlicks light made with water

daily calories arond 12-1300

at the weekend i have toast/butter/marmalade breakfast. poach eggs/toast for lunch.

i struggle to lose weight on that.

The bar code scanner is a get tool for it.

Other than last week, i have found it spot on for my weight loss.

Wheni am entering what i eat i always edge on the larger portion size. Try to give myself some float in the system.

I have now dropped 13 lbs since 1 Jan and i think my metabolic rate might be slightly less, last week didnt quite make my target.

No - it's the volume. If I was to attempt to eat that lot I'd feel like shit and have to exercise like hell to keep myself from piling weight on.

my daily calories on the mfp are 1900, with 1 hours cycliny it goes up to 2340
the amount i have used today with the food i have post is 1153 calories.

You're trying to loose weight, and that's your diet? Is your username accurate?

duane, i have lost 5 stone since march the 1st last year.
my bp and cholesterol reading have dropped into a safe level, i ride everyday now, i have lost 6 inches from my waist and 8 inches from my chest, i also now only have 1 and half chins.... 😀

i checked mackerel on another website

112g fillet (so not in oil, or tommy sauce); 230 cals, 140 of which from fat

Compare cod - 100g serving, 82 cals, 6 from fat.

Roast chicken (skin off) - 100g serving, 79 total, 4 fat

The oils in fatty fish are good for you for many other reasons, but not for calorie control. If you stripped the fat out of the mackerel it would be almost the same total w/w as cod or chicken.

dont forget to put in your drinks as well.

I found MFP pretty accurate, and lost the predicted amount of weight when I used it, but as with any system, if you put garbage in you get garbage out. You've got to feed it the correct data.

I've never once managed to stay under the daily sugar recommendation on MFP
The fruit puts it way over

just shut my mfp account......gonna email [s]idave[/s] a bloke i know for some sage advice to get me boosted. 😀

Ton not all calories are equal. The reason ts worked todate is because you were so far beyond your ideal weight.

Seriously google and read about clean foods and try to stick to them. They can be a bit bland but spices and herbs , fruit and veg are your friends.
What you have eaten today would leave me seriousy lethargic and feeling crap.

Does taste good occasionally though !

Spot on with the sugar and fruit, its almost impossibe to stay under the reccomendation and i have eaten NO sweets since 31 Dec nothing. Dont even have sugar in tea or coffee.

on a serious note, today is my blowout day trail rat, i only eat like this once a week now.
i just thought it odd that healthy oily fish could be read as being bad on the mfp.

Leaving you 750kcal for everything you eat of drink over the rest of the day if you forget about the calories burned through exercise. 750kcal for everything after lunch including drinks is a pretty small meal in the evenings.

My guess is that the MFP calorie calculator thing builds in what would be considered "normal" exercise into it's nutritional goal figures. If you have a job that doesnt let you take your 10000 steps/day or whatever then you will be using less than that. Hence the reason you are no longer losing weight.

Give me a shout on facebook if you want to discuss anything related to this.

Ton, I find the calorie burn predictions for exercise ambitious at best. Garmins are known to over exaggerate calorie burns but even that comes in well under what Fitness Pal predicts.

I've lost 4kg in a month, I try to not rely on the exercise to meet my target – that is I eat what I'm allowed and any exercise is a calorie bonus.

Is black pudding recommended for any diet aiming to lose you weight ❓

The nutritional data in MFP is mainly (all?) user-submitted, so yes it can be a bit wonky at times - but it's usually pretty obvious when you search for something and get 5 results all roughly the same then one that is completely out of whack.

Most common problem I see is people entering the data straight off the pack using the 100g amounts, not "per serving" amounts.

MFP is great by the way. I've lost over two stone using it and I'm keeping it off.

And yes, I regularly have a sausage and fried egg roll for breakfast.

s black pudding recommended for any diet aiming to lose you weight

Course. Anything in moderation.

Or "IIFYM" if you prefer

Ton, listen to Glupton:

glupton1976 - Member
This is going to come across very bluntly, but it is not meant to offend. The other day you were saying that you are no longer losing weight despite eating not a lot. That's a lot of relatively unhealth food you're eating there Ton.

..and perhaps have a read of the race weight thread I posted. Basically, I'm eating twice as much as you, but not all the shit you're eating. so I'll be healther despite eating 2500 cals per day and 3000 on ride days, I'm losing weight.

I use MFP to record my cals too. Pretty much the only good things you ate was your eggs, beans (tomatoes (assuming they are fresh and you didn't fry them in oil)and the toast if it was wholemeal.

In summary of race weight, the things that'll fill you up and are good for energy and weightlos wise are wholemeal and organic products, plenty of fruit and veg. Wholemeal really fills you up and is healthier.

Example, so far I'm at 1400cals (excluding the 1000 I lost from my ride) and have eaten:

Granola plus 2 slices wholemeal toast

Dates and natural Cereal bar

Wholemeal bagel with ham & salad

Recovery XS shake (post ride).

I wont get near 1000 with the dinner we have planned, but will be having a Biltong & Jarlsberg snack at 8.30 to compensate and get some protien in.

kryton.......i have managed my weight loss without eating any of that shyte you reccommend.

FWIW today I've had:
Porridge
One banana,
One apple,
2 eggs worth of scrambled eggs,
Two slices of wholemeal toast,
and four glasses of water.

I will have tricolor pasta for dinner and some more fruit before I go to bed.

This evening I am doing some kickboxing training for an hour then going for a run for an hour.

I am losing weight at a nice rate and feeling much more healthy for it.

And to put it bluntly its that attitude that will slow down your continued weightloss .

Because you were so far the wrong side of healthy it fell off once calories were restricted. How ever that will only work so long , you are now plateauing and need to take further measures to continue your progress which by the way has been going very well and im chuffed that you have managed to go so far.

Been using MFP for a month or so regularly and it's really helping.

Only "challenge" I have is exercise and Kettlebells aren't listed - and swimming is a bit subjective.

Yes, what Trail_rat said Ton in reply. Well done so far, you are obviously doing really well, but to continue and to be healthy whilst doing it, try changing your diet to something healthier. Bear in min just restricting diet can restrict vital vitamins and nutrients as well, so look for where you can re-address the balance.

Just trying to assist. 🙂

I know sod all about nutrition, good fat, bad fat, all that science type stuff, but doesn't common sense tell you that if you're trying to lose weight then shovelling a load of bacon, sausage and black pud in ain't the way to go about it?

You've done the low hanging fruit - well done. You are mow entering the world of marginal gains. Good luck 🙂

trail rat and kryton, advice taken onboard and noted.
cheers fella's.

but doesn't common sense tell you that if you're trying to lose weight then shovelling a load of bacon, sausage and black pud in ain't the way to go about it?

[i]4 stone shovelling bacon, eggs and (good) sausages into my gob on a daily basis. [/i]

proving you can eat a lot of one food group and still be malnourished 😉

well, that wasn't [i]all[/i] I ate, but I had that for breakfast every day!

Isn't that the equivelent of the Atkins diet, proven time and again to be one of the most unhealthy things you can do?

Kryton57 - Member
Isn't that the equivelent of the Atkins diet, proven time and again to be one of the most unhealthy things you can do?

I think you will find that's not the case.

Well said Steve.

Also nothing wrong with bacon and eggs, toms and mushrooms. Black pudding fine in moderation, and I find beef sausages to keep the fat side in check. Although I find people (not suggesting the people here) to be scared of fat due to the insistence that low fat diets are good.

So is that where mfp falls down a bit? It only really knows the calorific and fat content of branded food?.

So is that where mfp falls down a bit? It only really knows the calorific and fat content of branded food?.

Not quite, data for most ingredients/food is available and used in MFP - eg 100g of lean steak has n calories and x fat, it's never going to be bang though but just as accurate as any other data out there can be when using variable raw ingredients

So is that where mfp falls down a bit? It only really knows the calorific and fat content of branded food?.

It has fields for calories, fat, protein, carbs, sugars, salt, fibre, fat breakdown, vitamin A and C plus calcium and Iron - BUT most foods will not have all of them filled in. Depends on the person that entered them. Pretty much everything has the basics though (calories + macros).

When I add new branded foods I put in everything that's on the standard UK nutritional label, but that doesn't give you Vitamins or fat breakdown.

just put my evening meal in.
homemade chille con carne, made with lean mince which is drained after cooking, 2 chille's, 2 onions, 1 can red beans, 1 can chickpeas, served on grated cauliflower.

i have 1000 calories left after entering it into mfp, however my fat intake is 18 over and my protein is 42 over.

i dont like mfp.

it is telling me that i will weigh 16stone 8lbs in 5 week if i keep eating like i am.

it is telling me that i will weigh 16stone 8lbs in 5 week if i keep eating like i am.

Just forget about all that stuff and use it as a rather good food diary

jota......i have cos it is obviously talking boolax 😆

most of this thread is B/S.
😆

Night, night.
😉

Solo - Member
most of this thread is B/S.

Bacon and Sausages, yes that's the problem.

FWIW I'm with Ton on this one.

If i ate all the carbs that others are suggesting, ie wholemeal bread, bagel etc I'd be 2 stone heavier, tired and have no energy.

Feel much more alert and energised on higher protein diet. Plus my cholesterol and risk of diabetes have dropped significantly since i cut out the carbs.

Guess we are all different.

I found MFP useful to spot high calorific snacks, but i found the weight loss estimates to be very inaccurate and highly variable from day to day.

Carbs...... Did you read the thread ?

Ton - how can you possibly have 1000 kcal left after entering that?

coz he iz giant init?

george, my target is 1900, 80 mins cycling gives me a extra 1088
so 2988 to use.
the breakfast i had was 440
the breakfast for lunch was 713
my dinner was 774

total 1927 calories.

I don't worry about the daily fat recommendations etc TBH, but I find MFP really useful. Lost quite a bit of weight without starving myself or eating excessively healthily. Just mostly homemade meals with lots of veg.

I also reckon the exercise calories it gives are massively optimistic.

The most important thing for long-term weight loss is finding a healthy diet you can live with for the rest of your life. The best thing you can do for this - and for your all-round health - is to get used to eating loads of vegetables. I mean *loads*. And cutting down on fat and sugar.

Ton - I think I can see the problem there. 80 minutes cycling at what I assume would be a fairly easy to moderate pace would come nowhere near 1088kcal - maybe 500-700 kcal at the very most.

Here's a suggestion, do with it as you please. How about forgetting about all the mumbo jumbo fancy diet crap that it looks like you're starting to struggle with a wee bit and just go for a balanced diet that contains all the nutrients and fuel sources that your body needs. Set yourself a calorie goal that doesnt have added extra bonus calories for exercise (to eliminate the huge potential for error through energy use miscalculation) which will let you lose or maintain your weight - I dunno - say 1800kcal/day.

Glumpton, you dont know that. Its hard to tell at the best of times becaue the energy you use is dependant on speed, aero, terrain etc.

I think Ton still weight a fair bit (forgive if i am wrong) So he will use a shed load of energy on a hilly course.

I wouldnt be surprised if he uses close to 1000 cal.

stevewhyte - I wouldnt use that by absolutely burying myself for 80 minutes.

Mfp is about 300 cals OVER estimating according to my Garmin with HRM.

I do pretty much what Glupton says ie yesterday I was an estimated 1112 calories under my goal due to a ride. I ate over my prescribed calories (2300) at 2450, but was full and not hungry.

Don't feel the need to stuff yourself just becuase of what MFP says - listen to your body.

I also reckon the exercise calories it gives are massively optimistic.

Yeah I agree - I tend to take around a third off what either MFP or Endomondo think I have burnt. (Endo gives me 800kcals for my 11 mile fairly flat commute!)

They are working from a very broad estimate and only have time, distance and your weight to work it out from. Heart rate helps get a better estimate - either via heart rate monitor or just taking your pulse at some "average" point during the ride and using that (various online calculators available).

I've started trying to use MFP again since starting keto to make sure I'm eating enough fat but I just find it tedious and makes me feel like I'm obsessing about it again. Guess it works for some people but now I know the rough amount of what I can/can't eat I don't think I'm gonna bother with it. Lost 11 stone without it and just having the rough estimates of calories in my head, so I think I can go without!

I only use MFP as a food diary, the other stuff is just too inconsistent to bother about, it's almost impossible to get an accurate calories burned figure on any of the devices/apps etc. Well, one of them may be accurate but you've no way of knowing which.

Yesterday's run data from my Garmin
[img] [/img]
.
The same run entered into MFP
[img] [/img]

the other day, i hate poached eggs, veg soup and tinned mackeral"

I imagine the increase in calories on that day was because you hated those things so much that you ate pie instead.

I'm reading through this thread with interest as since the start of jan i've been using MFP to lose weight. I have been quite strict on the calorie intake and only been over a handful of times. I generally run 4 times a week and cycle 1-2 times. I have lost 6 pounds which i was quite gutted about as i wanted to lose a stone. but the biggest thing for me is that i have lost alot of fat and some of my clothes are too big now so it goes to show you can turn fat into muscle but not lose too much weight. I know feel quicker on the runs, better up hill on the bike and feel i look better after shedding the fat. Losing weight and keeping in shape is a lifestyle choice which is a combination of eating well and exercising frequently. The only problem is that if you exercise alot you need fuel so this is where the healhty eating comes in.

The only problem is that if you exercise alot you need fuel so this is where the healhty eating comes in.

He summed it up better than we did.

The only problem is that if you exercise alot you need fuel so this is where the healhty eating comes in.

Fat is a pretty good fuel - so that's where the calorie deficit comes in.

But glupton - fat only comes after carbs. You probably already know (but for the benefit of the audience) carbs get burned first in endurance cycling, then fat whilst trying to avoid muscle metabolism.

You need to carry enough carbs, then some fat reserves, but not so much fat it weights you dowm. And "good" fat too, not chip fat.

to burn fat, eat fat,
i am gonna get a t shirt printed with that on it.

back on the boring good stuff today.
1 slice of flax bread, 2 poached eggs
veg soup for lunch
chicken salad for tea

not much more than 1400 cals today.

IMO opinion ton, and I'm not a qualified professional of any sort, 1400 cals is too little and not healthy for a grown man.

But then, who am I to say.

You say that as if there is no way for the body to turn protein into carbohydrate.

How is 1400kcal not a healthy amount to eat? If there was no other source of fuel available to the body other than food intake on a given day then I'd probably agree with you. BUT and it's a VERY BIG BUT, there is another source of fuel and that's the fat reserves that are stored all over the body. The exact fat reserves that you're trying to use up.

Say you had a whole load of innertubes that you were trying to use up, you wouldn't keep buying replacement innertubes every time you got a puncture would you?

Say you had a whole load of innertubes that you were trying to use up, you wouldn't keep buying replacement innertubes every time you got a puncture would you?

You wouldn't buy half a patch either.

But I don't know the answer - as I mentioned I'm not an expert. But for an average requirement of 2500 as well known and none of ton's circumstances taken into account, losing 1100 calories sounds a lot of a deficit thats all.

I'm happy to be corrected, it just sounds a lot to leave to remain healthy, and have energy to ride.

You wouldn't buy half a patch either.

Why buy patches when you have a cupboard full of innertubes?

As long as the diet is providing all the necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients that the body needs - why eat anything over and above that?

The only reason that I can see for eating over and above the minimum that the body needs is simply because you like eating. A bit like buying bike parts when you have perfectly working bikes - look at the shiney shiney...

[b]The only reason that I can see for eating over and above the minimum[/b] that the body needs is simply because you like eating. A bit like buying bike parts when you have perfectly working bikes - look at the shiney shiney...

The "generic" requirment is 2500 though Glupton. But I appreciate your comment re Ton's potential "reserves..."

I'm moving on now.... 🙂

That generic requirement is to enable someone of generic height, generic build, generic BMR and generic activity level to maintain their current weight. Want to lose weight - eat less.

How is 1400kcal not a healthy amount to eat?

Not a nurtionalologist but MFP recommend against eating [i]too[/i] low and will actually warn you if you regularly log less than a certain amount.

The theory goes that when you get below a certain level your body assumes that food is getting scarce and reacts by slowing your metabolism and increasing fat storage.

Which leads to plateauing and means that when you return to "normal" calorie intake your weight will yoyo.

That's the theory anyway.

It is (misleadingly) referred to as "starvation mode" and it is HOTLY debated on the MFP forums.

I'm not qualified to comment. All I know is that sticking to the MFP recommendation (which is ~500kcal below TDEE) has worked well for me and hasn't felt that difficult, so I'll keep doing it.

ton IMO the crux of the problem is that you see eating good stuff as boring. Really doesn't have to be.