excersising everyday and staying within calorie intake but not losing weight

jambo0611

Hi everyone. First time posting on here and looking for some advice. I am back to using my fitness pal. I lost just over 2 stone last year from Jan to June and looking to lose another stone by October this year. Trouble is I have stayed the same weight since June last year. I keep well within my calorie intake every day and exercise every day (gym usually twice a week and football once a week and walking dog every day) I do have the odd "treat" but logging it on my fitness pal it still shows I'm within my intake of calories a day. Can anyone give any advice on what I could do? just want to add that there is a history of thyroid issues within my family and I have even thought about getting my thyroid checked to see if this is effecting my lack of weight loss. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

cincysweetheart

Are you actually weighing your food? Weighing solids, measuring liquids? Estimating often leads to eating more than you think you are? Also, are you eating back your exercise calories? If so… how much? And where are you getting your burn totals from? Also have you been lowering your calorie goal as you progressively lost weight?

Typically if people aren't losing weight, it's because they are under-estimating how much they are actually eating and/or over-estimating how much they are actually burning.

_KitKat_

First...Awesome job maintaining the 2 stone loss!

Have you reset your goals after the loss? Smaller bodies burn less, also the amount safe to lose decreases....so the deficient is smaller. Having a smaller deficient make the loss slower and the margin of error pretty much disappear.

Normally when weight loss stalls for an extended period, the numbers are off somewhere.
Either normal daily burn is set too high, exercise is over estimated and/or more calories are consumed then thought. Non of these things are intentional, it just means you have found your maintenance setup. This is great. For the next month be obsessed with logging (weighing all solids, measuring all liquids), do not change anything from your normal for the last half year. This calorie number will be your maintenance calories. To lose 1lb a week subtract 500 calories from your daily average. 1lb = 3500 calories. For 1 stone you should really only aim for a half a lb loss per week or a 250 calorie per day deficient. As you can see that is not much so the margin of error is very small. One large meal out can ruin it for the week.


Eta with this way, you do not eat calories back and when you figure your maintenance number don't eat back exercise for that time either, you can log it as 1 calorie. With this you are figuring out you TDEE number (total daily energy expenditure)

jambo0611

I don't actually weigh my food to be honest. I bought myself a smaller plate for eating in the house to lower portion sizes. I'm not sure what you mean by "are you eating back your exercise calories"
When I lost the 2 stone last year and when it suddenly stopped I did lower my calorie intake but I still wasn't losing weight (I would lose 2lbs then next week gain 3lbs then next week lose 1lbs etc etc) I upped my exercise routines, doing more cardio and purchased myself weights to do in the house.
with logging what I am doing exercise wise, I am logging what I do in gym (usually 30 mins on bike and 15 mins on treadmill walking and running) although I don't log that I spend 10-15 mins lifting weights. My phone automatically logs what I have walked that day by adding in how many steps I take a day.

mymodernbabylon

You are probably over-estimating what you are eating then. You need to have a scale to weigh all foods except liquids. AND make sure that you give your body a chance to recover as too much cardio can stress the body.

_KitKat_

Weighing food is needed when the deficient becomes so small.

Eating back exercise calories are the extra calories mfp gives when you log exercise.

Finding maintenance takes some people forever, you are a step ahead. Weighing food will give you the true calorie number. Then it is just math.

The weight fluctuations you mention are normal, if you weigh often you would see you fluctuate from morning to night. That is why it is hard to see a half lb loss. I fluctuate in a 3-4 lb range daily.

Sued0nim

You are eating at maintenance - but well done on finding it

Start weighing your food again if you want to lose

lulalee

It is always worth having your thyroid checked as I have hypothyroidism and it DOES make losing weight harder.

corriehaines

Are you not supposed to eat back your exercise calories? Does it not calculate the deficit? My Fitbit syncs to myfitnesspal and increases my calorie intake as I log my exercise or steps in my Fitbit. They all work differently and I think I am using myfitnesspal wrong.

GetThatRunnersHigh

corriehaines wrote: »

Are you not supposed to eat back your exercise calories? Does it not calculate the deficit? My Fitbit syncs to myfitnesspal and increases my calorie intake as I log my exercise or steps in my Fitbit. They all work differently and I think I am using myfitnesspal wrong.

@corriehaines

MFP tends to over-estimate burns, so it's recommended to eat 50-75% back. I see that you're using a FitBit, estimates vary but are generally correct from personal experience. Set MFP to sedentary, only log food in MFP, and let the FitBit take care of calories you "earn" from exercise. Start out by eating 80% of what your FitBit gives you and look at the trends after a month or so to see if it's accurate for you. It could go 5-15% underestimating or overestimating, trial and error will help you figure that out.

mburgess458

rabbitjb wrote: »

You are eating at maintenance - but well done on finding it

Start weighing your food again if you want to lose

Or if you hate weighing for some reason, just start eating a little less. Like rabbit said, you have found maintenance so just eat a few hundred calories less than you have been.