Not seeing results, help!
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I'm not using any particular formulas - I'm following the very simple words of my doctor which is it's all about calories in vs. calories out. It doesn't matter what kind of calories you take in necessarily (though you want healthy ones to avoid malnutrition), nor how you burn them off, it's just making sure that there is a deficit. It's not nearly as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be.0
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Your diary isn't open. Are you weighing and measuring your food? Logging everything? If not, you may be eating more than you think.0
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SpockAdventures wrote: »I'm not using any particular formulas - I'm following the very simple words of my doctor which is it's all about calories in vs. calories out. It doesn't matter what kind of calories you take in necessarily (though you want healthy ones to avoid malnutrition), nor how you burn them off, it's just making sure that there is a deficit. It's not nearly as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be.
May I ask how you know how many calories to eat on a daily basis then - isn't there always some kind of 'formula' involved to lose weight healthily? Very few of us are average and you need to eat less than you use up. If you're at a slow rate of loss like 0.5lbs a week, you need to know more accurately otherwise it's hard to stay at 250 under.
Agree about doesn't matter what food you eat as long as at a defecit0 -
SpockAdventures wrote: »I'm not using any particular formulas - I'm following the very simple words of my doctor which is it's all about calories in vs. calories out. It doesn't matter what kind of calories you take in necessarily (though you want healthy ones to avoid malnutrition), nor how you burn them off, it's just making sure that there is a deficit. It's not nearly as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be.
May I ask how you know how many calories to eat on a daily basis then - isn't there always some kind of 'formula' involved to lose weight healthily? Very few of us are average and you need to eat less than you use up. If you're at a slow rate of loss like 0.5lbs a week, you need to know more accurately otherwise it's hard to stay at 250 under.
Agree about doesn't matter what food you eat as long as at a defecit
You have to know your Basal Metabolic Rate first - how many calories you burn on a daily basis without additional exercise. Then you figure the deficit based on that. My BMR was 2000 (I started out at 192) and began eating 1100-1200 per day, so without exercise had an 800 calorie deficit. When I add exercise in, and I don't eat back my calories (and I feel fine, I don't have energy issues), I'm at a 1200 - 1400 calorie deficit.
Once you know your BMR, it's very easy to determine how much you are willing to cut out of your diet.0 -
I've been weight training on/off for a while. Recently I decided to get back on it and sort out my nutrition after a slight almost relapse with anorexic tendencies. I started and within 2 weeks my weight went up by 6lbs. What people often don't realise is the water weight from inflammation that you gain at the very start. Perhaps this is what is masking your weight 'loss'? According to MFP, I'm eating way under and I don't eat my calories back....yet my weight has maintained persistently at this higher level. I'm now starting to really look into my nutrition over weight. Making sure I'm healthy and not obsessed with the physical mass shown on the scales. Even at my lowest weight, which was low...to now, I've only gained around 3% bodyfat. yet my weight has increased quite a lot (stones!) Just use the scale sparingly and keep your food and exercise in your mind, not the scale number x0
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SpockAdventures wrote: »SpockAdventures wrote: »I'm not using any particular formulas - I'm following the very simple words of my doctor which is it's all about calories in vs. calories out. It doesn't matter what kind of calories you take in necessarily (though you want healthy ones to avoid malnutrition), nor how you burn them off, it's just making sure that there is a deficit. It's not nearly as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be.
May I ask how you know how many calories to eat on a daily basis then - isn't there always some kind of 'formula' involved to lose weight healthily? Very few of us are average and you need to eat less than you use up. If you're at a slow rate of loss like 0.5lbs a week, you need to know more accurately otherwise it's hard to stay at 250 under.
Agree about doesn't matter what food you eat as long as at a defecit
You have to know your Basal Metabolic Rate first - how many calories you burn on a daily basis without additional exercise. Then you figure the deficit based on that. My BMR was 2000 (I started out at 192) and began eating 1100-1200 per day, so without exercise had an 800 calorie deficit. When I add exercise in, and I don't eat back my calories (and I feel fine, I don't have energy issues), I'm at a 1200 - 1400 calorie deficit.
Once you know your BMR, it's very easy to determine how much you are willing to cut out of your diet.
Oh so you did use a formula - just checking
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SpockAdventures wrote: »SpockAdventures wrote: »I'm not using any particular formulas - I'm following the very simple words of my doctor which is it's all about calories in vs. calories out. It doesn't matter what kind of calories you take in necessarily (though you want healthy ones to avoid malnutrition), nor how you burn them off, it's just making sure that there is a deficit. It's not nearly as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be.
May I ask how you know how many calories to eat on a daily basis then - isn't there always some kind of 'formula' involved to lose weight healthily? Very few of us are average and you need to eat less than you use up. If you're at a slow rate of loss like 0.5lbs a week, you need to know more accurately otherwise it's hard to stay at 250 under.
Agree about doesn't matter what food you eat as long as at a defecit
You have to know your Basal Metabolic Rate first - how many calories you burn on a daily basis without additional exercise. Then you figure the deficit based on that. My BMR was 2000 (I started out at 192) and began eating 1100-1200 per day, so without exercise had an 800 calorie deficit. When I add exercise in, and I don't eat back my calories (and I feel fine, I don't have energy issues), I'm at a 1200 - 1400 calorie deficit.
Once you know your BMR, it's very easy to determine how much you are willing to cut out of your diet.
Oh so you did use a formula - just checking
Lol yes yes, I suppose I do use a formula. Just not any of these super crazy ones that people try to use. Mine is just (BMR - (Calories In - Exercise Calories Burned) = Deficit, then 3500 Calories / Deficit = # Days to lose 1lbs.
There's my formula. lol0 -
SpockAdventures wrote: »Don't eat back your exercise calories, for one, and for two just have patience. Vanity weight (instead of health-based weight loss...like 30+lbs and such) is a lot harder to lose than those with weight related health issues. And yes, I agree that you could be seeing a very small weight loss but isn't showing up on the scale because your muscles are developing. Just be patient and keep looking at this whole thing as just a change in lifestyle (cause you'll need to continue the exercise and healthy food to maintain your ideal weight) and the weight will come off. Just don't forget to count every single calorie! Good luck!
If you are using the MFP formula you should eat back at least 50% of your exercise calories - if you're using a HRM probably more
If you're doing cut from TDEE then this don't eat exercise calories advice is appropriate - otherwise you can ignore it, particularly if your base level is as low as 1200 - you need to fuel workouts and avoid crash and burn
So, I should be eating back my calories? I was starting to think that because I've been eating them back, I've been maintaining my weight rather than losing.0 -
SpockAdventures wrote: »Don't eat back your exercise calories, for one, and for two just have patience. Vanity weight (instead of health-based weight loss...like 30+lbs and such) is a lot harder to lose than those with weight related health issues. And yes, I agree that you could be seeing a very small weight loss but isn't showing up on the scale because your muscles are developing. Just be patient and keep looking at this whole thing as just a change in lifestyle (cause you'll need to continue the exercise and healthy food to maintain your ideal weight) and the weight will come off. Just don't forget to count every single calorie! Good luck!
If you are using the MFP formula you should eat back at least 50% of your exercise calories - if you're using a HRM probably more
If you're doing cut from TDEE then this don't eat exercise calories advice is appropriate - otherwise you can ignore it, particularly if your base level is as low as 1200 - you need to fuel workouts and avoid crash and burn
So, I should be eating back my calories? I was starting to think that because I've been eating them back, I've been maintaining my weight rather than losing.
Should I follow MFP or my TDEE?
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You're short and you're close to your goal weight, so unless you're super active, you're going to have to get by on eating fewer calories than taller people who have more to lose unfortunately. IMHO as a fellow short person at roughly the same weight, now that you've tightened up your logging by measuring and weighing in the last week, give that a few weeks to see how things pan out. Be super meticulous about the logging, as a little bit here and a little bit there can wipe out your deficit.
If that still doesn't work after a few weeks, try eating back only half your exercise calories, as they may be overestimated.0 -
I went through this same thing- not seeing the scale move significantly for over two months (5'7", 160lbs, 45min lifting or cardio per day, 1450 C allowance per day).
Things that helped me get out of it:
- Eating HIGH protein, 160 grams per day
- Lowering carbs
- Lowering fats
- Increasing fibre to at least 30 grams per day
- Doing HIIT instead of steady state cardio
- Zero alchohol, and zero cheats (fit everything into my macro goals daily)
- **GETTING A COACH** keeps me accountable and modifies my diet plan as needed
Suddenly started losing 2lbs a week with these modifications, while eating the same amount of calories (I do not eat back any excersize cals).
You could try some of that!-1 -
Thank you, very helpful! Maybe I've been eating more without really realizing it, because when MFP tells me "you've earned an extra 417 calories!" I make sure to eat another 417 to not be under 1,200, and I sometimes risk going OVER the limit. But according to the replies on here, it seems like I won't have to live that way! lol0
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morgymorgluvsu wrote: »I went through this same thing- not seeing the scale move significantly for over two months (5'7", 160lbs, 45min lifting or cardio per day, 1450 C allowance per day).
Things that helped me get out of it:
- Eating HIGH protein, 160 grams per day
- Lowering carbs
- Lowering fats
- Increasing fibre to at least 30 grams per day
- Doing HIIT instead of steady state cardio
- Zero alchohol, and zero cheats (fit everything into my macro goals daily)
- **GETTING A COACH** keeps me accountable and modifies my diet plan as needed
Suddenly started losing 2lbs a week with these modifications, while eating the same amount of calories (I do not eat back any excersize cals).
You could try some of that!
That's great to know! As I said earlier, since I'm new to all of this I've just been following what MFP has set up for me so it would've taken me a little longer to figure all that out. I've been eating a lot more carbs than protein and fats (good carbs like fruits whole grains etc.) so I wonder what my results would be like if I altered that a bit0 -
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You might want to average out your intake for the last month and see how many calories you've been eating. Divide by 30/31 of course. And then compare that number to an estimated TDEE calculation, e.g. using scooby's calculator or exrx.net to include your average exercise. If you are way over what those websites recommend, then you know that you just need to eat less - probably can start with halving your exercise calories first and monitor.
But whether you do TDEE or net method is really all your own choice. I have done both, and I am preferring the easier consistency that TDEE offers and it's easier to adjust up/down with this method. With net you are eating all over the place and don't really know where to lower the numbers. BUt for people who are inconsistent with exercise they may find it to be really helpful.0
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