Anyone gotten a physical to figure it out????

MNSchulz88

Here's my story in a nut shell.
I am 5'5'' and normal (happy) weight is 150lbs. I am currently at 181lbs after having 2 children in the last 3 years. My youngest is just now 14months old.
I have finally (starting Jan 8) decided to get back in shape. No more babies (got my tubes tied), no more birth control (hormones) and no more diet pills (tried everything in years past).
I have since Jan 8 started on 1200-1500 calories a day and working out (strenght and cardio) 30-60 min a day, 4 days a week.
I drink 64+ ounces of water a day and no carbs after 3pm.
I eat oatmeal, egg whites, protein and everything that everyone is telling me will help me drop 31 pounds. I have a desk job and walk 1 mile on my 2 fifteen min breaks daily.
I NEED ANSWERS, since Jan 8 of really giving it my all I have lost NO weight. My clothes do not fit better and I'm getting very very discouraged as it has been 4 weeks. I have gone from 179lbs-181lbs consistantly since beginning my new way of life.
I'm about to get a physical to see what is wrong with my body????
OPEN TO ANY SUGGESTIONS!
Everyone around me agrees, I should be losing pounds or inches with all my hard work........anyone have a similar situation and find the answer?????????????????

AskTracyAnnK28

Having a physical is always a good thing.

But if you are not losing weight it's because you're eating more than you think you are. Remember to weigh, measure and log everything you eat and be honest with your logging.

Sued0nim

You're most probably not logging properly and eating more than you think

Weigh all your food on a digital scale, scan barcodes, build your own recipes, pick MFP database food entries with care (never choose other people's homemade recipes)

Log your exercise with care, double click on calories and half them

Eat that and check against your weight loss

(Timing and carbs means nothing)

maxit

You might be eating more than you think you are. You also might be stressing out a whole lot (increases likelihood of weight problems because of stress hormones), sleeping insufficiently (increases likelihood of weight problems because of stress hormones), have an underactive thyroid. As for whether carbs "matter" or not, if you are developing insulin resistance, they will matter. By all means consult your primary care provider.

snarlingcoyote

I'm 5'5" and my happy weight is 150lbs; my advice is not to follow MFP's guide on your calories and use a TDEE calculator online.

I went out and manually calculated my TDEE based on several different theoretical bases a few years ago and finally, by keeping meticulous track on my own spreadsheets (tracking every bite that goes in my mouth and every second I am out exercising etc.), figured out that my TDEE (that is, how many calories I burn in my daily life), without adding any adjustments for exercise, is about 1458, which is totally wacked from MFP's guesstimate for me.

Additionally, if you are exercising right from the start, wait a few weeks before expecting to see weight loss. We little people with generous figures can retain a LOT of water while our muscles build.

psmd

I was having the same issue for the past month, I was fluctuating between 160-162 every.single.day. So I finally started weighing everything by the gram or ounce and over the past week have gotten to 158.4, consistently for the past 3 days. Eating 1300-1450 calories per day.

I would suggest weighing your food (as mentioned above) on a digital food scale. You can do it, good luck!

atypicalsmith

Absolutely weigh your food. You'll be surprised at the number of calories you are actually eating. Also, do stupid exercises: Walk in place while waiting for a doctor appointment, play Cupid Shuffle on youtube, lift weights and do jump rope exercises while watching television! It's amazing how much difference this will make.

elphie754

MNSchulz88 wrote: »

Here's my story in a nut shell.
I am 5'5'' and normal (happy) weight is 150lbs. I am currently at 181lbs after having 2 children in the last 3 years. My youngest is just now 14months old.
I have finally (starting Jan 8) decided to get back in shape. No more babies (got my tubes tied), no more birth control (hormones) and no more diet pills (tried everything in years past).
I have since Jan 8 started on 1200-1500 calories a day and working out (strenght and cardio) 30-60 min a day, 4 days a week.
I drink 64+ ounces of water a day and no carbs after 3pm.
I eat oatmeal, egg whites, protein and everything that everyone is telling me will help me drop 31 pounds. I have a desk job and walk 1 mile on my 2 fifteen min breaks daily.
I NEED ANSWERS, since Jan 8 of really giving it my all I have lost NO weight. My clothes do not fit better and I'm getting very very discouraged as it has been 4 weeks. I have gone from 179lbs-181lbs consistantly since beginning my new way of life.
I'm about to get a physical to see what is wrong with my body????
OPEN TO ANY SUGGESTIONS!
Everyone around me agrees, I should be losing pounds or inches with all my hard work........anyone have a similar situation and find the answer?????????????????

Then you are not in a calorie deficit. Are you weighing your food? If not I would start there.

Also- why no carbs after 3? No veggies with dinner? (Veggies are carbs). This is absolutely not needed to lose weight.

MNSchulz88

Well thank you very much everyone! Looks like the answer is to get the physical and a food scale! :-) Appreciate the input!

MNSchulz88

Can you elaborate a little more please?? I like what your saying but not quite sure I understand....

snarlingcoyote wrote: »

I'm 5'5" and my happy weight is 150lbs; my advice is not to follow MFP's guide on your calories and use a TDEE calculator online.

I went out and manually calculated my TDEE based on several different theoretical bases a few years ago and finally, by keeping meticulous track on my own spreadsheets (tracking every bite that goes in my mouth and every second I am out exercising etc.), figured out that my TDEE (that is, how many calories I burn in my daily life), without adding any adjustments for exercise, is about 1458, which is totally wacked from MFP's guesstimate for me.

Additionally, if you are exercising right from the start, wait a few weeks before expecting to see weight loss. We little people with generous figures can retain a LOT of water while our muscles build.

sofaking6

MFP will give you a calorie allowance based on an assumption of no exercise. So you add your exercise calories and MFP adds those to your daily allowance. So your daily number can fluctuate a lot and is also dependent on how many calories you log for your exercise.

TDEE is based on your average weekly amount of exercise and will give you a daily calorie allowance that won't change from day to day and also won't prevent you from losing if you overestimate your calories burned.

It won't help you with the calories consumed though - still need a scale for that.
-
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Delilahhhhhh

My two favourite threads to the rescue!!!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

snarlingcoyote

Okay - well, about 3 years ago, I guess, I started reading up and found out that we all have a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). Your BMR is what your body would burn if you lay in bed all day. Your TDEE is what you burn when you go about your daily activities. In general, your TDEE is anywhere from 1.1 to 2 times your BMR, depending upon how active you are.

Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns when you are completely at rest. (Here is the best explanation I've got bookmarked. I love Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate.) Your TDEE is your BMR times your activity level.

Okay, so that's all well and good, but there are about 5 or 6 different ways to calculate your BMR and they all vary. Additionally, although you wouldn't know it from some advice I see, we know that your metabolism can slow down ever so slightly (a very, very small amount) as you settle into a diet. (Totally not enough to make you stop losing though!)

So I set up a spreadsheet with some of the various BMR calculations and then started tracking every single bite that went into my mouth every day after I was in a good place, doing around the same exercise on the same basis.

I eventually found one BMR calculation that worked for me (I could not even tell you which one it was! I will look and see if I have that in my notes somewhere.) and then, if I set my TDEE at 1.1 (I am exceedingly sedentary in my current job) and accounted for my calories burned as best I could - MFP's calories come closer for me than FitBit's, go figure - plus my calories eaten (if I chew a stick of gum, I log it!), I could come pretty close to knowing how much weight I would lose. Of course, every time I lose a pound, I adjust my weight. And every few weeks, I measure my body fat %. I plugged that into the calculation on my spreadsheet, so everything auto adjusts.

Now, there are obviously short-term variables to take into account in this. For example, monthly visits from Cousin George. But longer term, it works for me!

BWBTrish

Like said/advised in some other postings you started...start weighing your food and measuring your liquids

You eat more than you think I see half a cup of this or that. a cup of veggies a medium banana etc

So yes get a physical if you think you need that, always good to be checked.
But for sure you also eat more calories than you think.