A question for the Ladies

[jennasue]

Hello Ladies.  I am new to fitbit and I have been trying to track what I eat but do find it hard to estimate some of the food intakes in calories, mainly for home made things like a lovely zucchini slice I did in the weekend and found myself breaking down each and every  ingrediant!!  Time consuming. My question I would like to ask is do you find that at "that time of the month" you put on weight or just stay the same?  I have done pretty well so far but over the last 4 or so days - when it started - I have still being eating well and doing plenty of exercise but I have stayed the same. In fact,  I think I have been under in my calorie intake for  some of those days. Maybe also could be due to tracking my food intake? Any  suggestions?  I find it so frustrating and also depressing.  I need inspiration!!

[KelZ96]

Water weight! And try myfitnesspal. It syncs with fitbit aswell and you can create meals and it will tell you the calories. Super easy!

[lori-rae]

Hi Jenna,

First part regarding calories for homemade.. I try to close estimate, because it is timeconsuming and sometimes lol, the actual numbers are scary (can it be that much, really!?) or I find a item that is very close in size and ingredients and use it for the numbers.. and then I work a bit harder or longer on the treadmill to offset the unknown calories 🙂

I definately hold or gain weight at that time! Tis frusterating yes but I have accepted its part of the cycle and try to stick to my eating and exercise goals. Sometimes chocolate hollers for me tho, reeeally loud .. haha! Keep up your efforts, you're doing great! 😄

[jennasue]

Hi lori-rae, thanks for the tips.  I will give it a go. I know I can download my fitness pal to my smartphone, but does it also need loading onto my computer as this is what I use for my logging in??  Sorry if it seems a silly question but only have been doing this since last week - still learining!!  Anyway, thanks again.

Jenna

PS, who doesn't hear chocolate calling!!!  I try not to go overboard, yesterday I had a chocolate mint biscuit, but had 1 half in morning snack and 1 half as after dinner snack - mainly did the trick!!

[lori-rae]

Sorry Jenna,  can't help with that one, haven't used that app/program. Rocking a Blackberry and it isn't available on that platform. I'm kinda new to using the fitbit online, I've done alot of syncing but not so much logging. Have made a committment to be diligent about using all the tools of this cool fitbit

program. Add me to your friends if you like.. 🙂

PS: I luv choc mint anything!!

Lori

[howekaren]

I use myfitnesspal, and have for over 2 years now, and it makes things so much easier.  You can input recipies and meals, choose from frequent foods, and it syncs fairly quickly.  It is an app that downloads to your phone or tablet, but is simply a web site that you sign into on the computer.  No downloading necessary for the computer.  I also like the fact that the phone app can scan bar codes of products to make searching that much easier.

As to weight gain, I do tend to stay the same, or gain a little, but my scales measure body fat % and water weight %, and the difference is always the water weight.  Which makes sense.  Your body is building an excess of material that is essentially fluid, and as it passes out of the body, your water weight % adjusts. 

[lori-rae]

Thanks for the info! 🙂 The phone app would defintely be handy, I will look it up for/on the computer. Between the two apps (fitbit & myfitnesspal) I'm thinking iphone might be in my future, haha along with a new scale 😄

[MRose]

"That time" is always an issue! I only weigh every two weeks to offset it a bit; doing it daily can often be defeating. Our bodies (some more than others) are meant to hold the weight a bit at that time, but it's almost all water weight. For the chocolate craving, try this:

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/04/flourless-chocolate-cookies/

LOVE this recipe! I substitute the powdered sugar with the Splenda or Truvia baking mix, get rid of the egg yolk and just do 3 egg whites, and use the darkest chocolate chips you can find (lower sugar/fat content). They're wicked rich so one or two should do the trick! 🙂 I have added vanilla hemp protein a couple of times to make them more of a meal bar.