so confused : hi there,  my aim was to... - Weight Loss Support

Weight Loss Support

114,582 members60,908 posts

so confused

Tina87 profile image
16 Replies

hi there, 

my aim was to get back to eat healthy and as I was working from 11-20 I thought I prepare my lunch. 

I took a box with lettuce, cucumber and red peppers, mixed my own dressing (to avoid sugar) and had rivita and carrot sticks with it. as its a long day I took 1 1/2 rice crackers/cakes, an apple, a nectarine, a hand full of grapes and a banana. I clearly passed my 5-a-day. I felt good about myself as I normally would have a bit of cake in the afternoon with my coffee. when I wrote all of it in myfitnesspal I got a bit shoked as after the apple it said 'you goal is less then 186gramm of carbohydrates' and the banana said the same. so I can't eat both???? and I thought fruit is good. 

Written by
Tina87 profile image
Tina87
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
16 Replies

Hi Tina,

Fruit is good as is veg so certainly dont stop eating them but if you look at your intake for the day every item there is some form of carbohydrate. My fitness pal blocks all these as carbs in general but its worth noting complex carbs are different. nutritionmd.org/nutrition_t...

There are some other links on that page that may be useful too. 

Basically unless you are planning a low carb diet, dont worry about it :) 

Hope that gives a little clarity, and good luck with the loss :) 

H706

IndigoBlue61 profile image
IndigoBlue61

I feel the same as you, find it very difficult to keep to MFP goals 😕 

Anon-E-Mouse profile image
Anon-E-Mouse in reply to IndigoBlue61

Hi IndigoBlue61  

Not sure if you are aware that you can change your goals on MFP...

If not then when you're in it, look along the bottom line right hand side, and click on the three dots with More written underneath it and then choose 'Goals' from the list. You can adjust as you choose.

This might help.

Mouse 🐭 

IndigoBlue61 profile image
IndigoBlue61 in reply to Anon-E-Mouse

Thank you, that's useful, 😊

TheHud profile image
TheHud

Fruit is good, just drop the crackers ;)

Zest profile image
ZestHealthy BMI

Hi Tina87,

I copied and pasted your post from yesterday to the latest Monday group weigh-in thread, as you had posted in an out of date thread, and at that time both myself and moreless  happened to 'respond' to your post with an extremely lengthy reply - but we are both concerned that you may have not yet seen our replies, and I don't want to spend time repeating the information unnecessarily here, as it took me a while to type my reply yesterday, and I am sure that Moreless took time too, so please could you go to this link and scroll to the very bottom of the thread to read our replies:

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

I really hope that our suggestions will help you to go forward - I would say that most of us use Myfitnesspal as an 'aid' to calculating the overall calories, but we don't get too bogged down with the individual macronutrients, as we follow the advice of the NHS plan regarding that side of things, and that should ensure you eat a healthy balanced diet. 

Hope the responses we gave you in the thread responses we wrote are helpful to you.

Lowcal :-)

Rere2016 profile image
Rere2016

Possibly add some protein? As in an egg or a bit of tuna/ chicken etc 

i had no idea myfitness pal did all that, i must take a look at it when i get the time, i am just following calories and walking to health,  but i daresay that i will plateau at some stage and maybe then it will help me. thanks, and i am sorry you are confused by it all, i am sure someone on here can help, good luck to you x

suzybenj profile image
suzybenj

Friut= sugur=carbohydrate.

All fruits are not equal in this respect. Look up gi load for fruits- you will see bananas are top of the pile for carbohydrate. I guess my view would be if you are losing weight I would not worry too much. Sounds like a super lunch and v healthy:-)

Good luck and keep going:-)

It's old-fashioned, but I think you're better off simply counting your calories - then you can have whatever you want as long as you keep to your calorie allowance. (Obviously it makes sense to focus on healthier foods while doing this rather than 1500 cals a day of Mars Bars.)

I think having to worry about your carb intake at the same time as trying to lose weight just makes the job more fiddly and difficult. Fruit is largely pretty good for you, even though it is sugary, so it seems rather daft to have to worry about 2 bits of fruit being too much.

If you are losing weight and feeling well on what you are eating, then you are probably doing mostly the right thing, whatever your fit bit says.

Rjm0 profile image
Rjm01 stone in reply to

Agreed. If you burn more calories than you eat you lose weight. The balance is so you get the nutrients.

nhs2015 profile image
nhs2015

Fruits are good for you but too much is not the best as they have a lot of sugar. I reduced my intake of grapes as they are very sugary. 

Eat more raw veg and lean protein. Fruit is sugar and fibre pretty much which is why we chose it over raw veg! Better than a peice of cake any day though! Don't faff over 1.5 or 1.75 portions of rice cakes....life's really too short! Try to enjoy your food and don't become obsessed. I avoid bread because of what it brings to the table. I eat salads with raw veg and drained tuna most mornings and make enough to have for linch and any pickings through the day. I swear by it. I know the calories in a tin of tuna and I don't count raw veg or salad. Easy peas lemon squeeze!  I eat loads of avocadoes too, 2 or 3 a week if i can get them to ripen! They are good for you, you need fat in your diet.....I am steadily losing weight, slowly slowly catchy monkey!!!!! 

Obese-Lisa profile image
Obese-Lisa

yeah I got that shocker too but considering fruit is full of water and sugar I know take multivitamins and avoid bananas.

Venusflytrap profile image
Venusflytrap

You chose 4 fruits and 3 veg, maybe consider 4 veg and 3 fruit!  Your fruits are quite sweet ones too, which will give a higher carb content.  Berries have a lot less carbs than any of those and are in season now.  I would add some protein to your meals, even if it has to be a skinny latte or a plain, or low sugar yogurt.  Think low fat protein like cold lean meat, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, fromage frais or quark, if you like them.  We add protein to our diets because of its filling power and its relatively low kcal.   Even a couple of teaspoons of peanut butter or some cheese spread would give you some protein and allow you to resist the call of the cake later on.  If the option is cake or fruit, then fruit will give you better nutritional value for the carb total. But you seem to be eating fruit and veg instead of balanced meals.  What you did was a great start, but you might lose weight better yet with a few tweaks.  Good luck with those lunches the rest of the week.

skinnylizzie profile image
skinnylizzie

You need to have a bit of protein at each meal within your calorie allowance then add 2 fruits per day as any more is too much sugar ,then bulk it out with green veg and small amount of other veg which are higher in carbs eg 2small new potatoes one carrot one small parsnip etc you have to count or you wont know how much you have had, if you just eat fruit it wont sustain you, add in half pint skimmed milk and a yogurt for your  calcium intake. this has worked for me. Good luck

You may also like...

I’m new here amd confused!

September and advised to reduce carbs. I’ve bought an Apple Watch and try to use my fitness pal to...

Very confused !

diets . Two of the reasons were ‘ eating too many calories ‘ and ‘ eating too much dairy . It also...

Anyone else totally confused about food?

about things like cracker breads. They contain added sugar, salt and all manner of bits that don't...

So far so good... I think !

So far so good. Just one question?