I didn't realise how much the little snacks were hurting me!

[concernedchild]

I'm a large lady. That's being polite. I'm 19st13lbs. By virtue of this weight, my maintenance calories are 2600.

I'm eating at 1800 odd, and have been really frustrated that I wasn't losing weight. Surely an 800 calorie deficit should have the weight falling off me.

But I recently tracked all the extra snacks that "definitely can't hurt" and realised I was eating closer to 2500 a day!!! No wonder I wasn't losing. I was absolutely shocked by this and also a bit annoyed at myself because I was working hard in the gym and just not getting anywhere.

So yeah, just a rant. But now I'm taking berberine to kill the food noise and I'm eating in a proper deficit. Hoping to lose a stone in the next 50 days

Biscuits are the devil's work. But oh so delicious. I drink a lot of coffee and I have to really exert self control to not have a digestive with them. They add up!

I weigh everything I track, it was just all the untracked treats

I'm committed to it this time. 2 months till I start my summer plans and I wanna be at least 1.5 stone lighter

Nuts are my other weakness. I eat too much of them because they are healthy.

There really is no point at all if you are not going to track EVERYTHING you eat and drink or guess at calories, but you seem to realise that now.

Good luck, I am sure it will fall off at 1800 calories a day :)

I don't touch nuts, far too calorific and a waste of calories however "healthy" they are, you can get far more filling food for the calories in a handful of nuts which isn't going to fill you up at all.

Yep I always do an eye roll and move on from those posts...there really is no point commenting!

@Loubilou23 id convinced myself it was okay because I was eating in such a large deficit, but I was really undoing all that worn

What are your suggestions for healthy snacks @Loubilou23 ? I am not very overweight. Just need to lose half a stone.

It is incredibly easily done

This is why I baulk at (although have given up arguing) when people say that anyone overweight by 5, 6, 7, stone or so must have 'disordered eating'. There was another thread which calculated how it was possible to put a stone on, year on year on year by simply eating the calorie equivalent of a couple of biscuits a day over your requirements. Its that easy and doesnt need any deep naval gazing about eating your emotions or trauma or insulin resistance etc etc, its as simple as a little too much at eat meal to gain weight over the years.

. Im afraid Im one of them who does like big volume but also cooked from scratch. I love the high life, restaurants etc.

A cheese board in a restaurant, easily done, easily about 1000 cals (because of course I want the butter and the biscuits and the honey drizzled over it)

Nuts, very difficult to stop at around 10 or 15 grams, theres like nothing there, eat double that and you're looking at nearly 300 cals, just for a very small handful of nuts. And then of course the next handful, just chucked in the mouth doesnt count, they're like silent calories, they disappear, Im sure!!!

So if you can make your meals smaller and use elements within the meal as the snack that might help. So dont have the potatoes with the meal, have them as a separate snack later so that you're nibbling if you feel the need. Some people do better eating little and often some people need to eat big and infrequent. Its about what suits you

It's mad how many calories are in things. On my days where I'm not trying to be healthy, I can rack up 4/5000 calories with not much effort.

I definitely have disorder eating, but I'm shocked by how many calories are in everything

Not all calorie counters are the same, I’m using cronometer known for its accuracy, I also hear nutricheck is good.
really inaccurate info on mfp.

Once you get in the habit of looking at packets and seeing the calorie content certain things just don't become worth it. Digestive biscuits are nearly 80 calories for 1! Would I rather have 3 of them and want more or in my case a protein bar and be content and vapor with that!

It's why I think the the no or low UPF phenomenon is a bit of a misnomer in regards to fat loss. Yes they are healthier than processed shite but it's still entirely possible and very easy to gorge on cheese, nuts and fattier cuts of meat.

I'm going to remember this every time I reach for a biscuit (often) "it's not worth the calories" because it's so true.

What IS worth the calories? I am not that keen on chocolate and I eat it maybe once a month.

I use nutracheck 🫶🏻

I forget to add up things like milk in my tea and then realise I've just 'forgotten' 160 calories. Or eating an orange because it's 'good' and other 100. My dh will bring up a cuppa with 3 digestives at 75 each, and before you know it I've lost 500 calories

It definitely is but UPFs have horrific effects on the body x

I use MFP, am loathe to transfer over to something else as I have a lot of saved recipes on there as I cook everything myself (mostly)

I think you have to check and double and triple check MFP when entering a new food. I do find it a bit clunky though because the phone app doesnt sync properly with my laptop and also it doesnt always show you nutritional information for the food item you pick when in recipe mode, just doesnt work, dont know why, also the list of recent foods is only 4 pages so I have re enter food quite often if I havent used it recently.

I wonder if there is a way to transfer my recipes over to another app?

Personally I think it's quite toxic to look at it like this, because some days a bit of chocolate or a biscuit will be worth it. It's just up to you to keep control over it

OP, I was 19st last July. I've lost 6st in 8 months. You can do it!

Volume is worth the calories. I would rather not be hungry than have 2 of those 90 calorie biscuits and still be starving!

Amazing, congratulations!!

I have lost 14lbs in 7 weeks on 1500 calories a day, you may need a lot less to lose weight but within my 1500 calories I can have a few snacks and a treat :) some of the things I have as a snack would be an apple, a banana, a punnet of blueberries, some grapes, a babybel, some slices of ham, some celery with philadelphia in the middle, some cucumber rounds with a bit of houmous and half a pickled onion, a small packet of sweet and salty popcorn, some fage yoghurt with a drizzle of honey and a weighed sprinkle of granola, little chicken satays, water biscuit crackers with philadelphia. I do also allow myself one sweet thing a day at about 200 calories things like a mini magnum, twister, crunchie, flake, freddo, 2 squares of lindt chocolate, packet of fruit pastilles, dime bar, creme egg etc.