Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Thu Oct 08, 2015 6:24 pm
On MyFitnessPal, they'd ask you if you are tracking every bite, weighing food and no estimating. Actually they referred to a neat video which showed the difference weighing makes over measuring, in some cases you can measure a 1/2 cup of something but end up with 20% more calories because the bits were smaller than the nutrition guide expected and you ended up with more items in your 1/2 cup measure (i.e. things were packed more tightly).
That convinced me to move to weighing and my scale is on the counter all the time now. When I have supper, I end up with several extra dishes - my plate, plus things to measure each of my veggies and meat portions. In the morning I measure out my berries (I count a cup but have only a half cup so don't weigh those), then put the bowl on the scale and add my cereal. A very small portion of cereal equals one serving so it is important I measure every day. When I guess and then weigh, I'm often off by 10 grams which doesn't sound like much but that's 20% of the serving. If everything I had was off by 20%, I wouldn't lose weight.
Make sure you are eating all your calories though. MFP has me at a 500 calorie a day deficit and I stay there, eating the extra, not trying to generate large deficits. Since that's been working for me, I'm not changing it.
And, of course, higher protein, higher fat and lower carbs. The higher fat is new for me now that I can tolerate it (couldn't at first.) But it does help satiate and I make fewer bad choices (not no bad choices but fewer) when I get enough fat each day.
Drinking your water and avoiding excessively salty foods is also good.
And yes, being over tired makes a difference. Is your amount of sleep based on the fitbit on sensitive or normal setting. Mine is on sensitive and my goal is 6 hours but I seldom hit that. I do manage a pretty consistent 5.5+ hours, though.