Losing Weight

Why spend your days looking at the back of food packets ? We've enough to be doing day to day without having to contend with that. With the slightest bit of discipline there really is no need to do it.

The calorific value which, by definition is how much heat (energy) we extract from food, will be different from person to person as it is dependant on many factors (height, muscle mass, an individuals capabilities to metabolise the different foods to name a few) ... 

Eat good food regularly, don't overload on portions, keep blood sugar low (fasting is brilliant to do this) and keep moving. Do that and you won't have a weight problem.

you can't be 100% accurate with it, but if you're tracking and doing it regularly and to a decent level, the weight loss follows every time for me. 

My issue is routinely tracking, I just fall out of the habit and really struggle to get back on it. 

I do find folks talking about cutting out sugar and the weight loss following, that it's just a consequence of then eating healthier generally, it's not sugar itself that is the problem. But whatever works for people, go for it, as long as it's sustainable for you.

Feeling rotten lately so want to get back in the habit. Starting to slowly get back to the gym for strength training so if I get back to the routine of calorie counting I should be in good shape come summer

Interesting, thanks for sharing 

I trust the labels, they have not led me wrong in years. I trust that they are regulated to the EU and IE standards they are supposed to be regulated to.

If I'm being extremely diligent I won't have any takeaway where I don't know for sure what's in the food. 

Your TDEE is a trial and error process for the start. There are general online guides that can give you a ballpark, but it's best to follow your guide calories, then monitor for a week or two to find your maintenance. If your weight is consistent then thats your maintenance.

I'll generally calculate my TDEE as if I'm doing absolutely nothing all day, and create my deficit. I'll then add on exercise from there.

If I'm adding exercise I'll allow myself to eat back 70 percent of the approx calories burned, to account for overestimation. 

This is all presuming I'm in a deficit. I've been eating in one for the last 7 weeks now and have 1 more week left before I enter into a surplus. I often eat at maintenance too.

Weigh out 30g once to give you an idea of what it is. It's f*ck all. No adult in the history of cereal has eaten the recommended portion size. 

You may as well not be tracking because if you're eyeballing things then you're almost certainly overestimating. Just a complete waste of time to half heartedly do it (as your results are showing)

The calories burned running is likely an overestimate too.

You can track and have nice things. You can snack, whatever you like. Tracking doesn't mean no snacking.

But your diet is not one I'd look at and expect weight loss from. Far from it.

What does?

Tracking calories?

I track calories and have a packet of crisps every single day. Plenty of other foods i eat i enjoy greatly. I have nice foods on weekends. 

I'd rather take the time to weigh something for 10 seconds and another 15 to throw it into MFP, than be fat. I know which one makes me more miserable. Shockingly enough, it was being fat.

Eat in a deficit purely from spoons of sugar and you'll lose weight. 

The repeated mention of sugar on here is like the blind leading the blind.

If you're not losing weight you're either tracking incorrectly, your TDEE estimate is too high, or you aren't tracking at all on certain days and you're way overeating on those days.

You've probably got 300 calories from 2 biscuits and 1 small chocolate bar. If your portion size of biscuits is 2 rather than 1, then thats 450 calories between your biscuits and chocolate. If you're not weighing the bran flakes you're likely overestimating your portion. Full fat/Low fat/Fat free milk? Going to be differences of 20 calories per 100 ml. Cheese is very calorie dense.

50g of bran flakes and 250 ml of full fat milk is 320kcals X 2 = 640. Add on your snacks and you're very likely over 1000 already, and you've not accounted for the rest of your breakfast, your lunch or your dinner.