Gaining weight, not losing, totally confused.

kristinhull1

Im Kristin. 23 years old. 4'11 and my start weight was 184. I do the bikini body mommy challenge everyday. 3 days strength training 8-20 mins long, cardio/ HITT 20-40 mins long and a rest day. I use to eat 2000+ calories. Drink most of my calorie intake and lay on the couch all day. I thought my weight would just come off fast. Im starting week 3 today with my strength training. I went from 184 to 183 to 184. Then this morning I was up 185. I dont understand why im not losing weight. Im eating 1500-1800 calories a day and working out. No pop inless I have calories left over every once in a while. I dont know what im doing wrong,

fitcrt

Did MFP set you to eat 1500-1800?

mitch16

You might still be eating too many calories per day. Eat a little less, work out a little more, and avoid soda as much as possible/drink more water!

resispa

I'm a male, 26, 5'10, around 204. I do weight training 4 days per week, 40 mins cardio 6 days per week and MFP has me at 1860 on a cut.

kristinhull1

MFP says 1200. Id starve. So I started using livestrong. It gave me a more reasonable goal 1700. When im use to eating 2500 cals a day and go down to 1700 im still hungry letteralone 1200. All I drink is water. Except once or twice a week.

funchords

Just did your calculation. Your body needs 1500-1800 to maintain weight at your couch-potato activity level.

What are you doing wrong? Everything. Seriously, start over. Don't quit, but start over.

Let's take a longer term view. It's 5 years later. You have a normally weighted body now, having lost it all years ago on Super Diet or something. Now, what are you eating every day? What are you doing every day? Are you eating real food? Are you having fun, being active and walking or maybe a jog through a nice park?

Start living like that, entering those foods and those activities into MyFitnessPal. Set your calorie goal to 1200, but don't try to hit it for a while -- just change your life so that you're eating real food and doing real activities that move your body. Start slow, adding only a few changes every so often. Gradually transforming and logging.

What you'll see in the MFP log are opportunities to change a higher-calorie food or a bigger portion into a better food or smaller portion. You'll see a chance to change a snack into one that is lower calorie and higher in nutrition. You'll see that soda can be swapped with diet soda, or water, or tea with lemon. But you can't do all these things at once.

A life like that isn't bought in a shake, or in a powder. It's real food and really fun and active. You can make steps toward being that person.

Do this, and you'll start to lose a pound every 1.5 weeks based on my calculations. It's slow, but you're shorter and it's what's doable.

eldamiano

You are not eating at a calorie deficit to lose weight, contrary to your beliefs. There is no way you would be able to do so much exercise on top of eating within calorie goal and not lose.

kristinhull1

I am eating what I want when I want just not going over 1500-1800 cals. I workout 6 times a week. And only drink water now

kristinhull1

Idkwhat that means.

eldamiano

Sorry to sound blunt, but you cant be. You would lose weight otherwise. You are clearly underestimating intake/overestimating outgoing calories.

leggup

OP: Can you open your diary? It would help the community see what exactly you're doing. Also, how long have you been doing this? Seeing your weight fluctuate from 183-185 over the course of a few days is meaningless. Body weight fluctuates. Day-to-day fluctuations are just noise. Real weight loss (and gain) is measured over the course of several weeks.

If all else is constant and you're not losing weight, then you have found your maintenance calories. You need to create a deficit to lose weight. You can do this by eating less, although exercise can help you eat move. You are quite short, which means that your calorie needs are going to be lower. Since you are already hungry, I suggest you open your diary so that we can see whether you can make different food choices to increase satiety. High volume veggies, lean proteins, and whole grains (like grilled chicken with broccoli and a bran roll) will leave you full much longer than high fat/sugar food.

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kristinhull1

Ive been doing this for 21 days. I eat what I want. Just stay under the calories my LIVESTRONG gives me. idk what a calorie deficit is or how to find out what it needs to be.

kristinhull1

So instead of 1600 cals a day eat less.

eldamiano

If you have put in to MFP that you want to lose 1/2lb per week for example, then stay under the number of calories suggested. At the moment, you arent doing this.

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kristinhull1

So I should eat 1200 cals a day even with working out, Dont eat cals back that I burn?

snowflake954

This has been said, but open your food diary. Are you logging and weighing all your food acurately? Or are you "guesstimating"? You have to be precise in the beginning. Start over. Know exactly how many calories you can eat a day before exercise. It takes work and patience in the beginning, but after a few weeks it gets easier. You can't halfway do this. You have to commit to get results. Wishing you the best.

kristinhull1

Thank you

NewMeowLean

There's a middle way between 1800 and 1200! You are short so 1800 kcal sounds like a lot. (I am 5'5 and my maintenance calories are 1760!). So you could eat 1500 for example and eat foods that are filling (and not calorie-dense).

kristinhull1

I set my activity level on my app for LIVESTRONG to Sedentary. Is that would I should mark my activity as. Even tho I work out 6 days a week 8-45 mins. I still relax alot. It says I should eat 1400.

MollyGirl32

It is possible that you have an underlying health issue. Consider going to your doctor just to make sure. Have them check your Thyroid, check for PCOS, do a full panel (B12, D....).

kristinhull1

I already thought about that. Had to wait till after the weekend to call my dr. Im callng him in a few hours to do a check up.

Liftng4Lis

Can you open your diary? Are you weighing and measuring everything you eat? How long have you been at this?

april32many

Hey there-

I just wanna let you know that when I work out a lot and eat right, I gain a day or two before a big drop. I always have. I kept charts for two years on my gains and losses and inevitably, before I'd drop a couple pounds I'd put on one. My chart looked like a heart beat monitor on a slow decline. So, that's another answer! I really like what funchords said. It can be really frustrating when you're doing the right things and don't see progress, but if you don't weigh and measure (at least for a bit to make portions a habit and let the stomach shrink) then you won't lose. Finally, some people say that you don't have to starve to lose weight and while I agree, I will say that whenever I've lost weight and kept it off considerably, it's because I've gone to bed a little bit hungry. I know it's not like that for everyone but it's like that for me:( Calculators set me at 800 calories a day to lose with my currently sedentary lifestyle. I've been keeping it right at 1200-1400 a day with no gains. For now, until school lets up, maintaining is progress.

You'll figure it out. It's only been 3 weeks. It takes me around a month to start noticing changes. Keep at it!!!

SpockAdventures

At 1200 calories, you wouldn't starve. It would take you some time to get used to the drastic reduction in calories, but if you can stick with it for a while, your body will adjust and 1200 will feel perfectly satisfying. Some tricks to help your body adjust, after every bit of food you take, take a sip of water and no matter if you are eating breakfast, dinner, or a snack, take at least 20 minutes to eat it! Just give it a try for a week, you'll see results and you might be surprised at how easy it actually is!

BTW, I advise this from experience. It's currently what I'm doing - I know I have to retrain my brain to want less food and if you put yourself on a diet that is super structured, you can take out the choices and then you can learn to not think of food at all except for when it's time to eat!

kristinhull1

Thanks everyone. I have been measuring my food in cups. Like today I had 2 cups or multigrain cheerios for breakfast with a half cup of milk, plus a few tsp of sugar. Gets me 430 cals. I use livestrong more then I use this site because this one only wants me to eat 1200 cals a day. From a person who use to eart 2500+ that doesnt look like a goal I can make right now. With a sedentary lifestyle on LIVESTRONG it says to eat 1400. Thats a little better.

jkal1979

Are you logging your food intake on here or on another app? If you were to open your MFP diary like people have been asking, we can all give you suggestions on helping you with accuracy when it comes to logging your food.

erickirb

Could be water retention due to the increase in/change in activity and workouts. I would say stick with is for 3-4 weeks, If you don't lose at that time I would lower cals by 200ish/day.

Francl27

1200 is probably too low... you're supposed to eat back exercise calories. I checked http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and it says 1800 calories too. My guess is you're underestimating your calories and that's why you're not losing.

kristinhull1

So I should probably stay a few hundred below my goal just incase im underestimating calories.