Help I'm Gaining instead of losing. Suggestions Please!

ana3067

|At your weight, you don't need to lower your goal. You simply need to log accurately, which you are clearly not doing. Until you log properly then you have no idea how much you are eating. You don't need to work out to lose weight at all. It's for health.

You'd benefit from making your diary public and buying a food scale (or at the very least measuring your food).

ncfitbit

GiveMeCoffee wrote: »

Just to give you an idea I'm a 43 year old female started at 285 lbs and lost over 120 lbs eating 1500-1900 calories. That included eating my exercise calories. I would suggest logging on here not pen & paper. Without logging you don't know how much you are eating.

Rest days are important, you don't have to workout 6 days a week.

Read this link it will help:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

Great advice and awesome success, GiveMeCoffee! Here's another wonderful success story:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1454303/2-years-of-maintenance-130-pounds-lost/p1

Good luck and stick with it!

ncfitbit

I forgot to ask if you are weighing yourself on the same scale. It sounds like you started at the Dr. office scale, but is that where you are weighing in each week? I found out early in my MFP days that my scale was way off so I invested in a really good one.

jnv7594

You said you're eating a lot of "baked chicken usually boneless thighs, Rice, broccoli, ground turkey, corn tortilla's, cheese, cheerios, almond milk." The thing is, it's not about what you eat, it's how much of it you eat. As others have said, make sure to use a food scale, and weight EVERYTHING. Even prepackaged foods. Going over several grams here and there on serving sizes adds up very quickly.

ndj1979

gia07 wrote: »

1800 to 2200 a day is 400 calories difference. 400 x 7 = 2800 calories extra you can be eating more in the week. I am confused as what is your daily calories for MFP and how much exercise are you doing (how many is the calories you burn)? And you are eating back those 400 calories if this is what you burn on exercise day?

Weight your food like others said. It would be helpful to see your diary.

given OP's stats 1800 to 2200 should still be a deficit…

OP if you are gaining you are somehow overeating and putting yourself into a calorie surplus..

get a food scale and weigh/log/measure everything you eat for two weeks and see how that goes...

ndj1979

ChefSteveUrso wrote: »

I know what you're going through. Similar to you I was 351 last April and have lost 94lbs so far. Especially at first, I needed to consistently log and weigh my food in order to lose weight. I could not lose anything if I was eating 2200 cals a day. You just have to get used to eating less, but better quality food. At 1400-1600 cal a day I consistently lost 11lbs a month for 8 months, it slowed down during the holidays but I didn't gain any this year. Eat 300-400 calorie meals and a couple 200 calorie healthy snacks like almonds and dates, fill yourself with plenty of vegetables and keep your protein a 4oz per meal. Brown rice, potatoes, and whole wheat pasta eat no more than 1 cup per meal which is around 200 cals. Drastically reduce your sugar and simple carb and processed food consumption. And also get cardio exercise several times a week. I ride my bicycle and swim a mile in the ocean for exercise because it's fun and I enjoy it, and I will do it. Good luck, If I can do it you can do it. Friend me if you want, I also share a lot of my personal healthy and delicious recipes.

this is all unnecessary …

just get in a calorie deficit…food type does not matter, unless OP has some undiagnosed medical condition that would make her sensitive to certain foods, carbs, or sugar…

HockeyGoalie35

focus on inches, you could be building muscle you didn't have before

ndj1979

HockeyGoalie35 wrote: »

focus on inches, you could be building muscle you didn't have before

highly doubtful...

Camo_xxx

Fat loss = calorie in - calories out To create a deficit. Don't over complicate it.
fitness and strength is achieved from working out. Aerobic workouts for stamina, lifting for muscle mass.

1. If you are not losing fat you are not in a calorie deficit.
2. If you are not weighing ever bite of food that you eat you have no clue how many calories are going in. Get a scale, be diligent.

BWBTrish

Weigh your solid food and measure you liquids. so you know exactly how much you eat.

Example video of overestimation/difference when measuring solid food or going by serving sizes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

Lounmoun

Have you always weighed yourself at the same time, under the same conditions on the same scale? Different scales will give different numbers. Use the same scale.
Weighing in the morning one day vs. the afternoon another day will give you different numbers as your weight fluctuates throughout the day. It is recommended to weigh in the morning after you use the bathroom but before you eat or drink anything.

jgnatca

You could start losing simply by reducing your daily intake by 100 cals. Try it and see if it works.

Pick one scale and go with it. Scales can vary between each other by five pounds. Your own weight can vary by as much as five pounds in a single day, and that's not fat lost/gained!

MFP gives you a lower starting number because it is expecting you to eat your exercise calories back.

Patience, I think you are about to see progress.

GiveMeCoffee

jgnatca wrote: »

You could start losing simply by reducing your daily intake by 100 cals. Try it and see if it works.

Pick one scale and go with it. Scales can vary between each other by five pounds. Your own weight can vary by as much as five pounds in a single day, and that's not fat lost/gained!

MFP gives you a lower starting number because it is expecting you to eat your exercise calories back.

Patience, I think you are about to see progress.

She doesn't know what she's eating she isn't logging. It's all guessing

jgnatca

I hear you, GiveMeCoffee. Lots of good information will come out of better logging.

MKEgal

Dropp100 wrote:

what I think it boils down to is I need to eat less cals which is going to be super hard. MFP has me at 1550 a day (I just signed up last night). I will not be eating cals back. My height is 5'3" age 33 gender Female, Weight 302.

No, you do not need to eat so little (1550), at least not yet. By the time you do, it won't be hard at all. I started at 1750, and I was 275 lb. Now I'm at 1400. (Well, probably 2/3 of the time.)

You're currently probably eating close to 3000 cal/day to support your current weight.
Subtract 1000 from that & you should lose 2 lb/week.
Adjust as you lose weight & hit a plateau, subtracting 50-100 cal & waiting a couple weeks for it to take effect. Don't go below 1200 calories unless your doctor OK's it & monitors your health.
But you're right, don't eat back exercise calories. My doctor & dietician had never heard of such a thing. Treat exercise as a bonus for losing weight.

"Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake.
However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity."
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/physical_activity/index.html

Going by BMI a healthy goal weight would be 105 - 135. That sounds impossible right now, I know, so don't get discouraged. Just look to the next 5 lb mark, then the next. Make a list of every 5 lb you will lose, every time you drop 1 BMI number, every 5% (or 10%) of your starting weight you lose, when you'll go from obese to overweight to healthy. When you hit those marks, write down the date.
Also note when you first walk a mile, when your waist gets below 34" (the healthy limit for women), when you first jog... the NSV's are important too.

And celebrate!! Have little rewards for every 10 lb or so, a bigger one for 50 lb, etc.
I've gotten new earbuds, cute socks. Would like to check out some state parks for their hiking trails, when the weather gets better; maybe take a bento picnic.
For getting into onederland, I'm going to color my hair (probably today).
When I hit 100 lb down, I'll get a massage. (23 lb to go!)
At goal, I'll get a couple sets of nice lingere, and some clothes that fit.

Also, take a "before" picture, and take measurements every couple weeks. Sometimes even if you're not losing weight you'll lose inches. And when you get 50 lb down, or 100, or 150, you're going to be so happy to be able to see how far you've come by comparing to your first picture! (After I hit 50 lb down, I've been taking a picture every 10 lb.)

I think I will have to purchase a food scale I over estimate all my food.

Many people do.
I've done OK so far without one, but am thinking that as I get closer to my goal it might be a good tool because I'll have less wiggle room.

The ground turkey is 800 for the whole package. I did not eat 70% of it.
A bag of cheese is 800 cals no way I ate anywhere near half a bag

No, of course you didn't. But how much _did_ you eat?!?!
Did you divide the turkey into 1/4ths (200 cal)? 1/3 (300 cal)? Or did you eat half of it (400 cal)?
Don't look at how much a whole package costs in terms of calories, figure out how much you're actually eating.

I'm getting ready to go work out with my trainer now! I really need this rest day but he wouldn't take no for an answer. How much exercise is too much exercise? I know it sounds foolish, because really no exercise is too much, daily exercise is good. But I don't want to burn myself out or work out too much. Like I don't think I'm going to work out 6 days a week for 1 hr plus 3 (2 hour 2 a days). That seems like a lot with no results.

Are you paying him per session? That might be why he's pushing to meet with you.
You shouldn't need to meet with him every day.
Get him to design you a program that you can follow on your own (he should write it all down), tell you how to modify it as you get more fit (increasing weight, repetitions, time on the treadmill, incline on the treadmill, speed on the treadmill), show you how to do all the exercises correctly & safely, then check in with him maybe once a month for a tuneup to your program, and to make sure you're on the right track.

Do rest at least 1 or 2 days a week. Especially in the beginning, don't push so hard, because you'll get hurt, get frustrated, get tired, and be tempted to give up.
Listen to your body. You know what you need.
(At the same time, realize when you're actually aching & need rest vs. you're being lazy & trying to avoid exercise. Be honest with yourself.)

To maintain weight, 30 minutes a day should do it for most people.
To lose weight, many people need to do at least twice that.
Doing 2 hours twice a day is insane. Stop that. If the trainer has been pushing you to do that, drop him NOW. Consider reporting him to his certifiying organization. (Which is what? Do you even know? Is he certified?)

I generally do at least an hour (sometimes as much as 90 minutes) of cardio at least 5 (sometimes 6 or 7) days a week, plus weightlifting at least twice, sometimes 3 days a week. As you can tell, it's flexible. If I'm really feeling blah, I won't go, and that's OK. But if I'm iffy I'll push myself because I know I need it.

As for not seeing results, you've been at this about a month now, right?
It's possible that you're starting to see muscle building (newbie gains), and of course muscle repair takes water so you're going to be a little heavier because of that.
But you should start seeing some inches lost, and some weight lost, pretty darn soon...
IF you're eating at a calorie deficit.

Here's a newbie help post I did, which has links to helpful info including sexypants (which was already posted), how to log & weigh food accurately, setting goals (weight, calories, macros), motivation / encouragement, etc.

The basics; don't complicate it

You're probably eating more than you think

Important posts to read

ana3067

^^ and someone at 200lbs doesn't need to eat so little. I'm 160 and I eat 600 calories more. But then again I'm also not ignoring the calories my exercise burns that I must eat back (incorporated into my TDEE) and I also do not use terrible generic mathematical equations to recommend caloric intake numbers. So OP, yes, do eat back your exercise calories - at least half - if you are doing net method. You only forgo eating them if you are doing TDEE method, which includes them averaged out into your daily intake needs. Ignoring exercise calories and starting out at a super low calorie intake number is not going to do you any favours in the long run.

Liftng4Lis

You're eating more than you think. Weigh and measure all consumption.

dougpconnell219

Springfield1970 wrote: »

juleszephyr wrote: »

Who set your calorie goal, what are your stats age, gender, height? Have you plugged all this into MFP for a guideline amount? 2200 seems an awful lot of cals, especially allowing for weighing logging +/- factors!!

Not at 300 pounds.

Go to Scooby's calculator and put some stats in.

Of course, with each 5 lb you lose you need to re assess your calorie needs.

Does mfp do this automatically if you input your weight?

Sophiareed218

Were you using the same scale to weigh yourself? Scales can vary a lot. Another thought is water weight. If you were eating at a deficit as you claim, you could still gain water weight due to medication, sodium intake, exercise, or menstrual cycle. If it's not water weight, and it's not error from the scale, then you are not eating at a deficit. I agree with others that a food scale is best to measure your foods. Don't be discouraged, I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of what's going on. Good luck!