Frustrated and discouraged

[maritacatrina]

I'm feeling a bit frustrated and discouraged. fit tracker says I should have 213g of carbs, 128g of protein, and 38g of fat a day, and I'm finding it very difficult to achieve this.
I work 11 hour days and it's go! go! go! all day. This is good in that I have lost over 60 lbs without having set foot in a gym or done a workout, but I don't want to lose muscle mass, which I don't think I have because I do a lot of loading and unloading and lifting heavy trees and shrubs all day so that keeps at least some areas of body really toned, but I have NO time to eat a meal. No lunch breaks at all.
Here's a breakdown of what I've been eating throughout the day on the go for the last week or two: breakfast is shredded wheat or oatmeal with fresh berries and 35 cal almond milk, then during the day at work it's things like a hard boiled egg, a banana, a plum or two, a meal bar like an atkins bar, a couple rice cakes, a slice or two of ezekiel 4:9 bread with a piece of cheese or some smoked salmon, sometimes a couple ounces of cold chicken breast if there's leftovers from dinner the night before, an ounce or two of blueberries or raspberries, maybe an ounce of beef jerkey, then for dinner at home it's usually chicken or fish or pork with a veggie like corn or green beans or asparagus, sometimes a small bit of roasted potatoes, sometimes a salad with lots of veggies and chicken in it. If I want a snack after that I'll have some berries.
I get on to fittracker after all this (which feels like I've stuffed face all day) and tally it all up and I still come out way too low- like 1200+ calories instead of 1700+ I should supposedly be getting. Also, fat is always higher than it should be- like 50g instead of 38g. A couple of nights this week I made a protein shake because protein was so low, and even with that it was still too low.
I also seem to be breaking (acne) out all of the sudden, which is not normal for me. could this be due to me trying to up protein? I don't feel abnormally tired or anything like that, but it feels like nerves are shot lately, ever since I started keeping this much track of what I eat.
For most of weight loss I didn't really pay attention to the whole fats/carbs/proteins thing, just kept over all calories low (under 1500) and kept sugar really low. Now since I've started this fit tracker I feel as though I'm doing it all wrong when I was feeling on top of the world.
Could I be getting too much sodium? How much is too much?
Am I making mountains out of molehills?

I apologize about the rant, I'm just really frustrated and having a hard time figuring this whole thing out with crazy work schedule, and I feel like weight loss so far has been one of- if not the biggest accomplishments of life and I don't want to go backward. Does anyone else feel this way at times? I'm just not sure what to do and am fighting the urge right now to just say 'screw it!'

[Boss Man]

Hi there .

Firstly there is no need to apologise for anything. It's quite normal for someone in your situation to feel like ranting, because all your efforts seem to be in vain or for nothing, so I completely understand your situation and it just proves you're human and there's nothing wrong with that at all .

The breakout might be down to the extra protein, if for example the shakes were loaded with carbs or simple sugars, or you added carbs like milk lactose, as it might possibly be a reaction to the carbs.

Alternatively it could be a reaction to something else in it, like some kind of herbal ingredient, if there's any such thing in it.

Another possibility is the heat. Perhaps it's a reaction to being a bit more sweaty than usual, or you reacted to something you came into contact with at work, or you recently started using some new kind of face product perhaps and didn't consider that as a possible cause.

Secondly, if you're not getting lunch breaks, you should be, because that's probably contravening some kind of human / workers rights, so I'd take that up with the higher powers.

Breakfast. Add in some Chicken, or some Eggs, or some Turkey or Ham ot beef up the Protein.

Corn is a Grain and Green Beans are legumes, so be aware of that, as Corn has a moderate amount of protein and Legumes have more, so you're not just eating sources that carry almost exclusively or indeed exclusively Carbs.

Your weight may consist of some excess Water. I think Beef Jerky may be a bit salty and excess Salt can lead to things like hypertension, water retention and something called Edema, (fluid in the Legs), so cutting Salt may result in a recution in excess water if you have any.

I would suggest downloading something called Diets in Details and putting a days calories into that, just to have something else to compare to what the Fittracker says, so you know if there may be any glitches with Fittracker.

Alternatively use these simple rules.

1g Fat = 9 calories

1g Carbs = 4 calories

1g alcohol Carbs = 7 calories, but I'll assume for now, that you won't need to use that one.

1g Protein = 4 caloires. This is true of most proteins, with the exception of Casein found in things like milk, that has 8 calories per gram, but the use of the 4 calories per gram thing will work adequately for all protein related calculations.

Also, when you mention all those foods you eat at work; do most of them count as snacks or components of a full meal and how do they slot into your working day, regards approximate consumption times / meal spaces?

[maritacatrina]

Thanks so much! I had the day off today and I just decided to not keep track today. I didn't pig out or anything, I just took a day off from keeping track. I also gave myself a mental pat on the back for how far I've come, and a mild scolding for expecting to be an expert a week and a half into a new routine. It was good, had a great day at the lake with family.

Alcohol sugars are a non-issue for me- I don't drink alcohol at all. I don't want to waste calories on liquid- I'd rather chew them.

As far as when I eat throughout the day, I eat something every couple of hours. We're agricultural so it's regulated a little differently as far as labor laws go, and I do give all employees a sit down lunch break- I just don't take one, because it usually gets interrupted anyway by something or someone that needs attention, and I tend to lose momentum if I stop and sit too long. Also, working outside in full sun and 90 degree heat, the last thing I want to eat is something that comes out of a microwave, I'll eat whatever it is cold.

As far as the 2 protein shakes I've had, they've been with fresh strawberries and a splash of unsweetened almond milk. I sell a lot of berry plants and also work near a lot of u-pick farms so fresh produce is always in abundance. We don't do cow's milk in our house at all because daughter is very allergic, so she and hubby drink soy milk and I drink almond milk. The only thing in life that has changed other than trying to increase protein that I can think of that would maybe affect acne is that I quit all caffeine almost 2 weeks ago, when I was drinking several coke zero's a day. So come to think of it, I also have not had aspartame in that length of time either- which was more the reason I quit drinking those in the first place. Now it's just water or sodium free, zero calorie, zero everything sparkling water.

[maritacatrina]

I also forgot to mention in the original post that I also eat things like raw broccoli florets, baby carrots, green bell peppers. Did I mention hard boiled eggs? I was eating raw almonds too, but I have laid off those since fit tracker says I should only have 38 fat calories a day.

Thanks so much for the breakdown of grams to calories- that'll make it a little easier to keep track through the day, although I still feel like when I'm keeping fat down where it's supposed to be, everything else is way lower too.

Here's what I stocked fridge with last week:

eggs
low fat cottage cheese
salmon
cod
chicken breast
broccoli
carrots
avocado
spinach
green peppers
rice cakes
ezekiel 4:9 bread
plain oatmeal
strawberries
blueberries
raspberries
plums
bananas
peaches
pepperjack cheese
dried cranberries
tomatoes
onions

and more, but that's what I can think of at the moment. These all seem like healthy things to me, am I on the right track?

[maritacatrina]

And I will totally check into diets in details, thank you again!

[maritacatrina]

aaaanndd..... when I think about it, sodium level could probably go down some, but it's got to be way less than when I was eating the same stuff but also drinking around 4 or 5 20 oz bottles of coke zero a day...

[Boss Man]

38 fat calories a day? You sure that wasn't 38g Fat a day, as 38 calories is only 4.22g a day.

If a sedentary man consumed 2,000 calories a day, limits on Fat are reccomended at 70 a day in total and 20 for saturates, accounting for 28.28% of total.

In a females case with 1,800, I can't quote specifics, but working off the above, your limit could be 63g Fats in total and 18g saturates, but you could probably get away with a bit more on exercise days.

So your upper limit for saturates would be 162 calories a day, from a rough limit of 567 calories total fat.

38g fat per day would equate to 342 calories, hence why I questioned it, as the 38 calories of fat, equating to 4.22g per day, could possibly cause a minor deficiency in essential fats like Omega 3 and 6.

[maritacatrina]

oopsies, yes, I meant fat grams.

[marcusgarvey]

I just wanted to post up some encouragement. Hang in there, it is all going to be worth it to chase after the quality of life you are looking for

[maritacatrina]

Thanks for the encouragement!!