Haven't Lost Any Weight in over 2 Months

bokaba

I am getting discouraged because I haven't lost any weight in over two months. I weighed 283 pounds when I joined on 9/02/14 and weighed that much today with a couple of pounds either way. I should be losing 1.5-2 lbs a week. With about 9 weeks, I should have lost between 13.5 and 18 lbs making my total weight 269.5 to 265 by now. This clearly has not happened.

I am probably not logging correctly and MFP is probably overestimating my workout calories, but I usually never eat exercise calories to make up for it and I cannot imagine that my logging could be so bad as to make the past two months an exercise is futility. Whatever I am doing is clearly not working for me.

I am happy that my fitness has improved over the past two months. On lifting days, I am able to do 70 pushups in a day (when I started, I could do zero) and I am able to bicycle sever miles (I could make it around the block a couple of times two months ago).

If I am unable to lose 1.5 pounds or more in the next week, I plan to stop logging and join a weight loss program offered by my physician and see if that works better for me. I know it is unrealistic to expect big losses quickly, but zero progress in two months is unacceptable to me and I realize much of it is probably my own fault.

I think that my frustration is understandable. Has anyone else experienced this kind of lack of progress?

libbydoodle11

bokaba wrote: »

I am getting discouraged because I haven't lost any weight in over two months. I weighed 283 pounds when I joined on 9/02/14 and weighed that much today with a couple of pounds either way. I should be losing 1.5-2 lbs a week. With about 9 weeks, I should have lost between 13.5 and 18 lbs making my total weight 269.5 to 265 by now. This clearly has not happened.

I am probably not logging correctly and MFP is probably overestimating my workout calories, but I usually never eat exercise calories to make up for it and I cannot imagine that my logging could be so bad as to make the past two months an exercise is futility. Whatever I am doing is clearly not working for me.

I am happy that my fitness has improved over the past two months. On lifting days, I am able to do 70 pushups in a day (when I started, I could do zero) and I am able to bicycle sever miles (I could make it around the block a couple of times two months ago).

If I am unable to lose 1.5 pounds or more in the next week, I plan to stop logging and join a weight loss program offered by my physician and see if that works better for me. I know it is unrealistic to expect big losses quickly, but zero progress in two months is unacceptable to me and I realize much of it is probably my own fault.

I think that my frustration is understandable. Has anyone else experienced this kind of lack of progress?

Are you weighing out your food?

What medications are you on?

TimothyFish

It is impossible to eat less than you burn and remain the same weight for two months. Whatever your daily calorie limit is, you need to reduce it.

bokaba

I am on omeprazole (for GERD) and levsin (an antispasmodic drug that targets the digestive system). I have begun weighing and measuring foods within the last few weeks. My daily calorie limit with a 750 calorie deficit is 2500 with no exercise or 2250 with a 1000 calorie deficit. So, my maintenance with no exercise is 3250 and upwards of 4000 with the exercise recommended by MFP. I am not sure it would be a good idea to go lower than a 1000 calorie deficit because most consider a 1000 calorie deficit to border on starvation (not starvation mode mind you, only where your body doesn't have enough energy to carryout basic functions).

SLLRunner

TimothyFish wrote: »

It is impossible to eat less than you burn and remain the same weight for two months. Whatever your daily calorie limit is, you need to reduce it.

This.

ana3067

Dude, you've lost almost 20lbs in TWO months. Why the hell are you complaining about lack of results? You are either BSing this thread or you are BSing your weigh-ins, because your ticker clearly states 17lbs lost.

Your logging IS bad. You are using generic MFP entries for recipes and you are not weighing your food.

You've posted already about plateaus and weight loss issues, and we told you that your logging was off even though you told us to assume your logging was tight. It wasn't, and it isn't. On average you eat less than I do, at least according to your log. And you're still taking like 500 unnecessary supplements.

Stop using homemade generic entries, enter in your own individual ingredients in recipes or in the general diary, weigh your food, calculate your estimated energy needs from a website like exrx.net and subtract 20% from it and set as your goal (include exercise int he calculation if your exercise is consistent, if not then log and eat back half or more of the calories and don't include exercise in your estimate), and be consistent.

So yeah, your goal is probably too steep and you are over-eating because you are eating a lot of fast food, using generic entries, and not being smart about logging.

bokaba

It should not say I lost 17 lbs. I just changed it because I created my account before I started logging and used that weight instead my weight when I began logging.

ana3067

In that case you are clearly logging incorrectly.

Signs:
1) not weighing food
2) Being inconsistent with intake, so of course you have no idea hwo much you need to eat to lose
3) Not even meeting your net intake needs. If you've set 2500 as your net needs to lose weight before accounting for exercise, then even if you exercise you need to be eating 2500 calories. And if you do exercise then you should be eating at least half of the calories you log from exercise to have a better idea of how to adjust your calorie goal if not seeing results.

The only thing you'll get from doing some program at your doc's office is a super low calorie meal plan and you'll probably not figure out how to maintain the weight you lose.

Estimating 40% body fat as a random %, 2800 is given as a maintenance calculation for net needs. Subtract 20%, that's around 2250 to lose 1lb/week. So if you are that high of body fat, then you could just be eating too much, considering you don't weigh your food and eat out a lot. But either way, you need to start actually being consistent with intake and meeting your set up goal intake so you can actually know how to adjust your intake needs.

eldamiano

"I am probably not logging correctly and MFP is probably overestimating my workout calories"

Given you know this, havent you just answered all of your concerns?

Liftng4Lis

bokaba wrote: »

I am probably not logging correctly and MFP is probably overestimating my workout calories, but I usually never eat exercise calories to make up for it and I cannot imagine that my logging could be so bad as to make the past two months an exercise is futility. Whatever I am doing is clearly not working for me.

Weigh and measure everything.

justalittlecrazy

Your calories per day seems really high. Do you have an extremely active job? Are you on your feet morning to night lifting and carrying most of the time?

I weigh 306 right now and am set at lightly active. My goal is 1.5 lbs per week and my daily calories are at 2290. I am on my feet most of the day, just doing basic daily stuff. Unless you are working a strenuous job, it seems odd that your calorie needs would be considerably higher than mine.

My guess is that your problem is both having your activity level set too high and not being careful with logging. If your daily calories are set 300 calories to high, it only leaves you with a deficit of 400 calories, which would be really easy to eat through without careful logging. It doesn't matter what weight loss program you join. If you don't keep accurate track of your intake, you won't lose.

malibu927

As everyone said, you need to accurately weigh and log everything. Yesterday you logged cheese pizza. Was that a recipe you created or was it from somewhere like Pizza Hut? Anything like that out of the database you can't be sure that's what you're consuming due to different amounts/kinds of ingredients used between two people.

bokaba

justalittlecrazy wrote: »

Your calories per day seems really high. Do you have an extremely active job? Are you on your feet morning to night lifting and carrying most of the time?

I weigh 306 right now and am set at lightly active. My goal is 1.5 lbs per week and my daily calories are at 2290. I am on my feet most of the day, just doing basic daily stuff. Unless you are working a strenuous job, it seems odd that your calorie needs would be considerably higher than mine.

My guess is that your problem is both having your activity level set too high and not being careful with logging. If your daily calories are set 300 calories to high, it only leaves you with a deficit of 400 calories, which would be really easy to eat through without careful logging. It doesn't matter what weight loss program you join. If you don't keep accurate track of your intake, you won't lose.

I have my activity level set at sedentary. There is a 300 calorie difference on the calculator for men and women.

Ludka13

Use a food scale.

Given that you started working out some of this weight may be water or muscle gain. Have you been tracking your measurements as well as your weight?

I looked at your diary and the numbers for that plain cheese pizza seem to be about half of what they should be. When I google I get 952 calories for 3.5 slices of cheese pizza. The stuff you've been getting could have even more than that. Some pizza is dripping with oil.

If you love pizza so much make your own. You can buy frozen pizza dough at the supermarket. Take a frozen ball out in the morning, put it in a big tupperware container with a cover and put it someplace warm to rise all day, like an oven with a pilot light. Or your kitchen counter. In the evening punch it down and put it on a pizza pan (don't worry about getting it round), put on your favorite sauce and part skim mozzarella slices or grated mozzarella (and or other cheeses). You can add chopped veggies for toppings. Put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Voila. You have fresh pizza and you control the calories. What you don't eat you can save for lunch or dinner for the next day.

SXMEnrico

your physician is just going to put you on a calorie deficit diet and then you're going to be back to where you started which is figuring out what you are logging incorrectly.

leggup

I'm seeing a lot of inaccuracies in your diary.

Nov 10
-Lowfat - Whole Wheat Pancakes, 3 pancakes: Use a food scale.
-Apple - Green - Small, 2 - Raw : That is meaningless. 2 small apples could be any size.
-Strawberries - Raw, 4 small (1" dia): Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Fruit - Banana (2 Fruit), 0.25 banana: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Pizza - Plain Cheese, 3.5 Slice: Meaningless, use a food scale.

Nov 9
-T - Tomato Slice, 2 slice: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Cheese - Swiss, 1 cubic inch: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Romaine - Chopped Romaine, 2 cups: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Olives - Black, Pitted, 3 large: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Pizza - Plain Cheese, 3.5 Slice: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Spinach - Raw, 2 cup: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Trader Joes - Coconut Cream, 1/6 CUP: Do you have a 1/6 cup measuring cup?
-Oatmeal Quick Oats - Great Value, 1/2 Dry Cup: Meaningless, use a food scale.

Nov 8
-Trader Joes - French Toast, 2 slices: Unless pre-packaged, this is probably inaccurate. Does this include the syrup/toppings?
-Homemade - Sanwich-Turkey, 1 sandwich: Did you create this entry using the recipe builder? Otherwise, it's inaccurate.

CoolBeans520

Do a lot of cardio starting with low intensity(keeping your heart rate down) such as a 30 minute to 1 hour walk or jog etc... Than once you get accustomed and drop some weight go for high intensity interval training(Insanity is a good one) to really speed up the process. It will also get rid of a lot of water weight due to that you will be sweating like maniac. You will be surprised on how much extra water weight people have and believe or not drinking more water helps prevent water retention because it tells your body your getting adequate amounts of water so it doesn't need to store any excess of it. At your weight at least a gallon. I drink at least a gallon especially if your getting a lot of sodium in your diet... More or less if it's due to something on long the lines of a thyroid imbalance/medical condition you should contact your doctor.

cosmichvoyager

It's not a bad idea to take occasional breaks when you feel frustrated or "diet fatigue". I don't mean eat whatever you want, stop exercising, load up on a lot of high calorie junk etc--rather, try to eat at maintenance for a week or a few weeks. I do that periodically: if I have a lot of socializing and know I will be at restaurants and in situations where it is difficult to log accurately I just eat around maintenance calories and keep exercising, walking a lot. Sometimes I still lose weight, sometimes I don't, sometimes I gain a pound or 2. Over the weeks and months the weight trend keeps going downward and I don't feel like I am missing out or leading a restricted life.

I am aware that this is not for everyone but I like doing it every other month or so. I only really use my food scale for fats and proteins too. Sorry, not going to weigh lettuce. That isn't gonna work for me

lemurcat12

bokaba wrote: »

I am getting discouraged because I haven't lost any weight in over two months. I weighed 283 pounds when I joined on 9/02/14 and weighed that much today with a couple of pounds either way.

How often do you weigh? If we are talking two individual dates, they could be outliers. Do you weigh yourself somewhat regularly? Do you measure yourself or have some clothes to test by?

I should be losing 1.5-2 lbs a week. With about 9 weeks, I should have lost between 13.5 and 18 lbs making my total weight 269.5 to 265 by now. This clearly has not happened.

As others have said, you need to get the logging figured out so you know what your calories are. Then, if you aren't losing, you need to accept those are your maintenance calories and lower them. The calculators are just estimates and can be off for an individual. Among other things, if your body fat percentage is high, they usually overestimate calories needed.

Once you know you are logging accurately you can figure out what you need to eat to lose 1-2 lbs/week. If for some reason that's significantly lower than makes sense for someone of your stats, then that's a starting point for a doctor to investigate, but so far there's no reason to assume that's so.

xcalygrl

If you aren't weighing your food and measuring your liquids, you're overeating. It's that simple. Before I started weighing my food, I couldn't figure out why I was stuck. Turns out, I was overeating by enough to cancel out my 500 calorie per day deficit (thus eating at maintenance).

Also, if you ever "sneak" a bite of anything (nut butter, a piece of chocolate, whatever) log it. You aren't doing yourself any favors by sneaking a taste and not logging it. (I've been guilty of this before. Hell, I'm still guilty of it now.)

And are the recipes yours or the generic ones in MFP? If they aren't yours, don't use them! Make your own so you know you're eating the actual calorie/fat/protein/carb numbers in the recipe.

And for reals man, lay off all the supplements. There is no reason to take 16 different supplements, some of which probably double you up on some vitamins/minerals. Does your doctor know about all of these? What does he/she say about it?

I'll say it again because it really is that important: weigh all solids and measure all liquids to know what you are actually eating. If you aren't willing to do that, there's nothing any of us can do for you.

And I'm pretty sure I've told you this all before, so this is really just for grins and giggles.

Sued0nim

And

Sued0nim

SLLRunner

rabbitjb wrote: »

And

Nice food scale!

jcr85

This is an easy fix.

First, stop all those supplements you are wasting your money. All you need is a good multivitamin and fish oil.

Second, until you get the hang of estimating calories and weighing your food buy everything prepackaged.

Third, cut on a strict 500 cal deficit for two weeks. By strict I mean if your goal is 2500 cals hit 2500 cals everyday for 14 days. If you lose weight at an acceptable rate in those two weeks then keep cutting at a 500 cal deficit if you didn't lose the weight you wanted to then drop another 250 cals and repeat until you find your correct deficit. The formulas to find your BMR are not an exact science and everyone is different.

prettigirl01

all im going to say is I don't weigh or measure anything and as of a few weeks ago ive been doing just fine. I was thinking about buying a food scale but decided that im not going to. I don't need to and I don't care what other people think. do what works for you, what makes you happy. ive come to realize that there are a bunch of so called know it alls on here, people who try to bring you down when youre living up to their standards. if you continue to listen to everyone who thinks that their way is the only way then you'll never get anywhere

leggup

prettigirl01 wrote: »

all im going to say is I don't weigh or measure anything and as of a few weeks ago ive been doing just fine. I was thinking about buying a food scale but decided that im not going to. I don't need to and I don't care what other people think. do what works for you, what makes you happy. ive come to realize that there are a bunch of so called know it alls on here, people who try to bring you down when youre living up to their standards. if you continue to listen to everyone who thinks that their way is the only way then you'll never get anywhere

OP doesn't HAVE to use a food scale. Many people can get by without weighing or logging anything by just eating less, moving more. I think it's great and preferable to lose weight without a food scale. However, "do what works for you, what makes you happy" as you say, is bad advice because it is NOT working for the OP. OP is not losing weight, so the OP needs to change something.

Using a food scale is not the only way. The OP could just eat a little less every day. That's hard to quantify, though. It's speculation whether it is actually less food unless it's weighed.

kimny72

prettigirl01 wrote: »

all im going to say is I don't weigh or measure anything and as of a few weeks ago ive been doing just fine. I was thinking about buying a food scale but decided that im not going to. I don't need to and I don't care what other people think. do what works for you, what makes you happy. ive come to realize that there are a bunch of so called know it alls on here, people who try to bring you down when youre living up to their standards. if you continue to listen to everyone who thinks that their way is the only way then you'll never get anywhere

Except OP is posting because he hasn't lost weight in two months. So obviously not weighing/measuring food ISN'T working for him.

OP, you are not logging accurately, so you have no idea how many calories you are eating. Some people are able to eyeball close to accurate portions, a lot of people can't. You are eating more than you think you are - you are eating too much. If you are not willing to find or create correct entries in the log, and you are not willing to measure your portions, then calorie counting will probably not work for you. Maybe you would be better off with a doctor's plan. Good luck.

gothchiq

I have had plateaus, yes. Very frustrating! Be sure to weigh/measure everything you eat and log every little thing, even a cup of black coffee for example. Then switch up your exercise routine in some way. If you were doing elliptical, switch to weights and stationary bike for example.

gothchiq

Lemme put it this way, if you are a person who doesn't have to weigh or measure, but you are still losing weight, then you're successful and you don't need to change anything. *but* if what you are doing is not working, then it makes sense to try for the greatest possible accuracy in order to achieve your goals. I'm not here to judge anyone, just to help if I possibly can.

acorsaut89

Alright OP - just gonna say it loud and proud: quitting this style and going on a doctor referred program may give you the results you want in XX amount of weeks, BUT what happens when that program is over?

You know the saying give a man a fish he eats for today, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime? Same rule applies here: if you have someone giving you a detailed outline of every single bite of food you're putting in your mouth for 6 - 8 weeks, of course you're going to lose, they're monitoring you like a child. What happens when that program ends? You have to learn to fend for yourself, you have to learn to feed yourself in the real world where the only person you're accountable to is yourself.

I am happy that you want to use the programs available to you, but just be careful because if they're babysitting you now to lose 10, 12, 15 lbs whatever, you're going to need to be babysat forever or the weight will just come back on.

The best results for me came when I started understanding what goes into my body and what kind of exercise my body needs. I learned for myself new eating habits, new grocery shopping habits, new ways of looking at food - I learned for myself, no one sat there and told me to have exactly one serving of this, and one of that - I did it, for me by myself every single day. To me, you need that kind of commitment and dedication; it seems like you just want to wake up skinny one day and never have to worry about losing it - it's a constant battle and you have to earn those pounds, they don't just drop for most of us.

As many have said, stop taking so many supplements! This causes your kidneys/liver to work overtime to process these things you're putting into your body when you can get MOST of them from food most of us already eat. You don't need to weigh, I don't weigh a whole lot of my food, but you need to be really conscious of what you're actually eating. Like did you really eat 1/4 of 1/2 of an avocado? Did you really eat dry quaker oats for breakfast? I couldn't do that. I think you're logging is off by a bit, and if you're going on what MFP gives you for exercise calories you need to cut 1/3 or 1/2 off of that number because MFP grossly overestimates those burns.

Overall - I don't know that a doctor recommended program is needed, maybe just a little more dedication. It seems like you need someone to tell you what to do and you don't want to figure this out for yourself, you just want someone to say eat this not that and the fat drops: it really won't work like that though.

gothchiq

Let's see, you had a pretty high level listed for your maintenance calories. Try eating 2000 calories. My husband weighs 315 lbs and at this stage of the game he is eating 2000 to lose at a slow and steady rate. I'm sure it will decrease as his size decreases but right now it works. I see that you are far more active than he is lol so even if you weigh nowhere near 315, eating 2000 will probably put you at a deficit so you can lose, but without starving you to death.