peeperjj's Journal, 28 Jul 18

The numbers online never work for me :/. Just looking at my numbers spreadsheet and it seem that last week my 2300 deficit didn’t produce a loss at all. Yet the week before my 700 deficit caused a loss of 0.8#. 😳 I did however raise my protein 7% and lowered carbs 7%. So perhaps muscle because of the protein? Have a hard time believing I’d gain half a pound of muscle in a week to offset the deficit but if combined with water retention from high sodium intake AND muscle recovery then it’s possible I guess. Are you the same build/activity as this man? It’s frustrating to find my own numbers lol. What worked two years ago doesn’t work now and has changed.  

Yes, we don’t even have to know how to count 😆 all we need to do is search the item on this app 😏 ✔️ 

I like to count though 🤔. But this app is awesome when in a hurry and just doing a search! I’m wondering how accurate the exercise portion is though. Nothing online agrees.  

I don’t take into account the calories I burn exercising  

Maybe that’s why I keep losing weight 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

@peeperjj - What worked for me was to carefully log and then look at the data. A bit of a pain because I had to make an Excel spreadsheet to put the food, exercise, and weight next to each other... I have had to do this 3 times because what worked for me at one weight range was no longer working at another weight range.  

That's exactly what I was thinking to myself this morning, ad I figured out my numbers. 😊 

I have hand written spreadsheets :). One has weekly start and end weights, loss/gain, % loss/gain, calories in, out and net, weekly macros and monthly weight losses. The other has weekly & daily average of calories in, out, macro grams and % along with ending weight and total loss/gain plus an area for me to make as to my activity. A= active(normal activities & gym), SA= somewhat active( lower normal and gym), VA= very active (active plus things like track meets, playing basketball etc)... I try to write it all down in my calendar so I can get an idea as to if I lose more walking around a lot for like 4 hours or say a 20 minute basketball game. So far my activity always changes so that doesn’t factor in much.  

I’d do better if I could get two weeks together that sort of lined up lol. Being away from home almost daily with three kids and their activities, o can’t stick to a strict eating plan. I tried and we were all angry all of the time. I eased up, allow 3 meals out per week, cut other home meals to make up for it and increased my gym time slightly. BUT I can never be consistent with everything and I think that’s the main issue. BUT I’m working to gain muscle and raise My BMR some so I’m okay with a stall right now or even a slight, VERY slight lol, gain. It’s also hard to stick with what the trainer says. I’m impatient! I dislike working out but to me this is a way to get to an end goal of more muscle so it’s not like a workout if that makes sense. 2x 30m cardio, 1x weekly lifting working lower and upper on 4 machines each then one hour class that changes weekly. I don’t see how that changes fat or muscle or strength. It’s the same or less than I was doing before. Well, 1-4 hrs cardio weekly before and playing with the kids using them as weights, stretching etc. so I changed some cardio for a class and 20-40 minutes of weights. I sneak back in to try and get an hour I’m NOT including 10 second breaks between sets OR the time it takes to walk to the next machine. I note times then divide in half to account for the short breaks.  

@peeperjj - Yes it looks like your ARE tracking :) What helped me was seeing the calories, carbs, exercise, and next days weight loss, on one line. Unfortunately Fat Secret wont do this for you :( This is what showed me how I was taking in the same calories, carbs, exercise, but the next days weight loss totally changed from the month before. This allowed me to make the changes I needed. However, my previous WOE was working *totally fine* until I hit a new weight range. 

Do you mean like tracking the weight loss the day after working out? I’m trying to do that on paper but I need to make another spreadsheet. I’m less overwhelmed with more spreadsheets with less information on each. Like one mainly for macros and one mainly to track losses. I seem to need to change it up every 10# or so. BUT I didn’t track overall activity until 6 weeks ago so my data is hard to follow when trying to... I can’t rhink of what I want to say grrr. It’s just hard when 7 weeks ago I have 1445 listed as CO and 6 weeks ago I have 12352 as CO because I track even sleep now.  

Becc@- I love figuring it all up when I have time. But kids don’t leave me alone for half an hour even so it’s hard to make meal plans and figure up a full day or full week. But I do keep things on hand so that if I’m needing lower calories for dinner I can make chicken fajitas with no tortillas or homemade soup. Then I have protein shakes ready made for when I need to get more protein I’m before bed. I’m just anal enough that I wish I could have exact numbers with exact meal plans and stick with it lol. I could if I was single and no kids. *sigh* but I love them and won’t trade them so... I’ll do my best haha.  

@peeperjj - 6 weeks of data is sufficient in my opinion. In my case, I needed everything on one line to infer 'causality'. I only care about weight loss, both on a daily and weekly basis. I am looking for related factors. I needed to put each day on a single line in Excel and then stare at it. I then did sub totals of the data over a period of days and even a full week. The truth was then staring me in my face.  

Peeper, I just lost a long response to your comment. Short version : I'm 58 with 4 grown children ages 36-31, so I completely understand the busy days you have. Even with having fibromylgia and breast cancer, I couldn't get right with eating for my health. Not until hubby retired and we moved from L.A. to rural New Mexico, could I do this. So, I very much admire you for taking care of yourself while caring for your family. 😊 

@peeperjj - But yeah what @Becc@ said. You do what you can, family responsibilities come first of course :) 

@adef, I hadn’t wanted to take the time to do dailies. I get obsessed then overwhelmed lol. BUT my youngest starts school in 2.5 weeks so I may find the time to go back and do it. AFTER I organize my house, get in some more gym time and several naps! Lol. And thanks ;).  

Becc@, good for you getting where you need to be to be successful;). I only have 3, all girls, 13, 9 & 4. But they all play basketball, middle is in the gifted program and a School ambassador. Oldest is in 2 archery clubs and track. This year she starts volleyball and school basketball so 8 weeks turns into like 12 weeks plus practicing before games start. Oh and they want her to try out for cross country. Both of my older girls are in 4H and have gardening and poultry projects. Hubby farms and thankfully that doesn’t involve me much... yet. We have 18 chickens, 4 kittens, 7 cats, a dog and 4 horses. Oh and the oldest did summer pride as we had time (School workouts for sports) and volunteers at the library for 9-20 hours a week in the summer. I’ve been home 10 weekdays this summer not including summer pride lol. I love seeing them excell though and wouldn’t change it! As a stay at home Mom I’m able to be at everything.  

Oh and becc@, I couldn’t get my eating and weight under control during treatment either. I wanted to. I tried. But we ate out a lot when kids were busy. Then I couldn’t eat without feeling bad. Next meds made me want to eat. I gained when not eating and when eating too much! I had a low dose steroid occasionally to help with the meds but they assured me that wasn’t causing the gain or any muscle mass like the steroids some body builders use. I was able to attend every single thing for my kids minus field trips. Had started cutting back on those before cancer so picked 1-2 each to go to. By being there for them I kept my spirits up! As I’m sure you did, i realized I was stronger than I knew. My depression even got better but after it ended I had anger issues. They think because I did too much during chemo. I think it’s because of everything else going on. Long story but let’s just say my kids were more support than any single adult family member who lives close!