Working out - eating mostly healthy but no weight loss what's going on

StillwaterLady

Hi - I have been trying for a while to lose some weight - not a lot - but enough to reduce my BMI and my risk of heart disease. The problem - the scale remains locked in the same spot. I am now doing the 30 day shred - on day 13. I do a 20 minute yoga practice. Eat healthy. I'm fifty - so are my expectations reasonable?

jemhh

Are you tracking what you eat? Measuring it out? Logging the calories? Have you calculated how much you should be eating to maintain so that you know what to eat in order to have a caloric deficit? If not, your expectations are unreasonable. It doesn't matter what food you eat if you eat too much of it.

pander101

Eating healthy doesn't mean anything in terms of losing weight. It's great in the long run but you can eat healthy all you want and still gain weight. Weightloss is a calorie deficit. Your body needs to burn more calories than you are putting in. Log all your food, weigh solids and measure liquids, and be cconsistent. If you are using MFP for calorie burns for exercises then eat about 50%-75% back, MFP overestimates.

StillwaterLady

I am tracking - it says to eat 1200 calories a day to lose weight which is difficult but I am exercising too.

Sabine_Stroehm

Have you been dieting for 13 days or just doing 30DS for 13 days?
I'd suggest either opening your diary, or posting a day or two here for us.

wilsoncl6

If it says eat 1200 calories for MFP, you have your weekly weight loss goal set too high unless you are adding in your calories from exercise or your exercise isn't strenuous enough. Also consider that, dependent upon your diet, you can retain water but that usually causes weight fluctuations as the water is retained and then released. There are many variables that go into it but the main factor is "actually" taking less calories in than you are burning. You will lose weight if you eat less calories than you burn. That is probably where you are going wrong. You can't guesstimate, you have to be very accurate.

Sabine_Stroehm

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

If it says eat 1200 calories for MFP, you have your weekly weight loss goal set too high unless you are adding in your calories from exercise or your exercise isn't strenuous enough. Also consider that, dependent upon your diet, you can retain water but that usually causes weight fluctuations as the water is retained and then released. There are many variables that go into it but the main factor is "actually" taking less calories in than you are burning. You will lose weight if you eat less calories than you burn. That is probably where you are going wrong. You can't guesstimate, you have to be very accurate.

How do you know it's set wrong? Assuming gender, without knowing her height, weight, age, and how much weight she needs to lose, it's impossible to know, really. It's a clear possibility, but not de facto.

StillwaterLady

I was on MFP off and on the last few months. It is deflating not to see some result. Yes, I am measuring and counting food/calories. I tried Slimfast and lost a pound or two but stopped as I wanted to try healthy food instead without being tied to a product. No, I didn't measure my body other than my waist and hips. I thought increasing cardio alone with the Shred and going for a two mile walk three times would help me see some results - plus I did the 21 no sugar challenge. MFP says 1200 before exercise - prior to exercise. 1 pound a week.

Sabine_Stroehm

StillwaterLady wrote: »

I was on MFP off and on the last few months. It is deflating not to see some result. Yes, I am measuring and counting food/calories. I tried Slimfast and lost a pound or two but stopped as I wanted to try healthy food instead without being tied to a product. No, I didn't measure my body other than my waist and hips. I thought increasing cardio alone with the Shred and going for a two mile walk three times would help me see some results - plus I did the 21 no sugar challenge. MFP says 1200 before exercise - prior to exercise. 1 pound a week.

Without knowing anything else, all I can say is: best of luck.

Spocky

Most of the cases the problem is eating too much. But if someone eats too few calories the metabolism can slow down, so for those people some suggest eating a bit more once a week. I take my vitamin intake from pills because I only eat one apple a day. I lost 6 kg in the past 5 months, so my speed was about 1kg in 3 weeks. And if you are gaining muscles the scale will go down more slowly but you will look better. (I am not an expert, just an opinion.)