When you think you are doing everything right but not working, what did you change?

chatnel

Curious to hear about those success stories as I hear alot of people (myself included) baffled on to why the scale is not moving after exercising and logging. My eating is pretty good, I mostly weigh my food and exercise regularly but I am still at heaviest weight, just does not make sense.

Were you in the same boat? when that scale started moving what did you do differenly? was it incorrect logging of food, underestimating calories burnt exercising, medical condition or other?

jenncornelsen

Almost everyone who isnt losing is either logging theyre food wrong, over estimating theyre calorie burn, or both. Sometimes people just dont know what to set theyre calories at

jhackwell2

Despite being at the gym 5-7 hours a week and eating well, I was continually gaining weight. All medical tests came back normal. It took 2 years of trying harder, working harder, pushing more before someone finally said, "I think you're just stressed out." So I started slowing down, which felt like the opposite of what I should be doing. I cut back on work by 5 hours a week, I starting going to yoga, I took more walks with the dog (instead of always running) and I took a mindfulness course. About a month later I started seeing results. We really underestimate the effect that stress has on us. Struggling to lose weight is especially stressful because you think about it many times a day, every day. I had to take a hard, honest look at my life, my schedule, and my expectations and learn to be kind to myself.

jenncornelsen

Awesome advice even for those who dont need to lose!

megsb1991

Change what you're doing!
I couldnt understand how I'd lost 6 pounds in 4 weeks and then it just stopped and nothing was coming off.
I was road running, using the treadmill, weighing my food, counting everything but nothing worked!
So I stopped. And allowed myself a moment of putting on my problem solving head. If somethings not working, what do you do? Change what you're doing!
Last week, I switched from endless road running and using the treadmill to interval training and weight lifting. I swapped the scales for a measuring tape. And I swapped mind numbing anxiety of 'WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??' for 'chill, lets do some nice yoga'.
Have I lost weight? Dunno havent checked yet. Lost inches? Dunno, haven't checked yet.
Do I feel better? Hell yeh! I feel stronger, more mindful and my boyfriend said my butt looks good!
I'm happier. Staying at the same weight for a few weeks is absolutely fine by me for a while.

sijomial

I simply cut my daily calorie allowance which tipped me from glacial rate of loss to the expected/desired rate of loss.

It appears that either:
1) My actual TDEE is lower than calculators estimate.
2) My food logging wasn't precise enough.
3) My exercise calories were exagerated.

Now looking back I think it's was actually a combination of all three....
1) I believe it to be true (unfortunately - I like food!).
2) True - but I'm a big believer that consistency is more important than accuracy.
So although I could have tightened up my logging it's a bit of a chore long term to weigh everything (I use scales for the calorie dense items or those where it's easy to underestimate servings).
3) Using a more sophisticated set of tools I estimate that my fairly basic HRM at the time (Polar FT7) was about 10% too generous.

cblue315

If you do what you've always done, you get the results you've always got.
All of these posts are telling you the same thing.
Change it up. Do something different.

Jolinia

jhackwell2 wrote: »

Despite being at the gym 5-7 hours a week and eating well, I was continually gaining weight. All medical tests came back normal. It took 2 years of trying harder, working harder, pushing more before someone finally said, "I think you're just stressed out." So I started slowing down, which felt like the opposite of what I should be doing. I cut back on work by 5 hours a week, I starting going to yoga, I took more walks with the dog (instead of always running) and I took a mindfulness course. About a month later I started seeing results. We really underestimate the effect that stress has on us. Struggling to lose weight is especially stressful because you think about it many times a day, every day. I had to take a hard, honest look at my life, my schedule, and my expectations and learn to be kind to myself.

This scares me. I'm a natural born bundle of stress, and getting rid of this last ten or so pounds is really aggravating me, and I might be just biting myself in the butt with that. I guess I should chill out and have some patience for once.

scrittrice

1. Tightened up my logging. Worked every time.
2. Tried to be patient. How long have you been "doing everything right"? Are you doing a new exercise routine? That will make you retain water. I gained weight the first few weeks and almost always see a bounce in weight the day after lifting.

abarriere

I am in the same boat as you right now. 8.8 lbs down in month one, 1 lbs down so far in month 2. Reflecting on February, these are the things I think attributed to this.

1. one week of only working out twice, plus having people in town, so eating out more out and having more drinks than usual.
2. the rest of February, i have been doing very well, and I am noticing my athletic performance has improved. I am getting good at the workouts, so I think it's time to shake them up a little. My trainer is working on new cardio workouts for me and is starting to give me more challenging exercises.

I weigh in/get body fat checked at the gym on saturday, so that will tell me if my body fat as decreased even if the weight has stayed relatively the same.

debubbie

I tightened up on my weighing foods and and went from logging most things to everything, especially the olive oil or butter I used to saute my foods. Even a swig from a Dr. Pepper was included in my logs. Doesn't seem like much but that 1/4 a can of Dr. Pepper I was having was about 40 calories, that eyeballed amount of peanut butter was 50 calories more than what I had logged. You do this 5 or 6 times a day and you have racked up over 200 calories each day. My other problem that I noticed was that my daily calorie burn was set too high and according to my Polar Loop I was burning about 300 calories less each day that what I had thought. Between my inaccurate logging and incorrect accurate level, I was 500-600 calories off of my goal each day!

Once I changed these things, I have been consistently losing weight each week. Some weeks more than other and I think that is partly attributed to getting several more thousand steps in each day.

Also, I use my HRM's calorie burn estimates instead of MFP because MFP estimates mine to be 2 and sometimes 3 times more than my HRM. Sad to see so few calories burned, but this has definitely helped me to lose weight.

subversive99

chatnel wrote: »

I mostly weigh my food

Change this, at least for a bit, would be my recommendation.

chatnel

Some great responses thank you. Maybe I am stressing too much about it just trying to get down for my wedding in 3 months. On the positive i do feel much fitter and stronger and it's a good feeling.

mamadon

It's all about the calorie counting. Make sure that you calories are set for the correct amount. Either letting MFP do it, or figure out your tdee and subtract about 500 calories. It's essential that you weigh, measure and log all your food. There's a saying, good health is made in the gym and weight loss in the kitchen.

Smallc10

I got a Jawbone UP24 and it really set me straight. I wasn't moving nearly as much as I thought I was a work which meant I was consuming more calories than previously thought. It was pretty eye opening actually.

chatnel

So frustrating how hard it is to lose but how easy it is to gain

Fairlieboy

You loose weight when you have a calorie deficit. The responses above all tend to reflect this. Best tactics is a lower carb diet as it helps minimise hunger. Reduction in food eaten is 80% of weight loss. Exercise is pretty much a waste of time. Makes you healthier but not lighter. And most calorie over eating is too much dairy or too many nuts. Many find their weight loss sabotaged by minibinges. (These are unforeseen social events generally). I found a 5:2 diet easiest to keep my calorie deficit at 20% of TDEE. So that helped 1kg per week for 12 weeks.

shannonbun

For me at least, I had to take a break. After a weight stand-still (gaining and losing the same pound for like 2 weeks), my college had a bunch of snow days that meant I couldn't weigh myself at the gym or exercise there. I was eating ramen and vending machine snacks and really mellowed out during the snow days, and I swore I'd go back and have gained 5 pounds or something. The opposite happened; I'd lost like 3 pounds during the time I gave myself a break. Stressing about weight loss doesn't help, at all. It's my achilles heel to always need to know how much I weigh every day. Having that taken from me made me chill out and take a breather, give my muscles a rest for once, and it worked. I don't know if that's helpful for your situation, but it worked for me

JAT74

I feel a bit like that right now. Since 5th January I've been doing Jillian Michaels Body Revolution (6 workouts every week, minimum calorie burn 250 cals per workout and that's being conservative) and on top of that I've either been walking for an hour (minimum calorie burn 250 calories, again being fairly conservative) and some days I even do an extra cardio workout DVD or gym based workout on the machines for 40-45 minutes too.

In addition, I've been counting calories and eating 500 calories under TDEE (which is 1000 calories approx.) plus eating around 500 of my exercise calories back.

For the past 2 weeks I've also been doing the 5:2 fast diet, which means eating only 550 calories 2 days a week, therefore creating an additional deficit on those days of 1000 calories per day.

All in all, that should DEFINITELY mean I'm on track to lose at least 1lb per week, but it should be more like 1.5lbs.

In reality I've lost a total of 8lbs in almost 9 weeks, but nothing at all for around 10 days and the majority of my weight loss so far was in the first few weeks.

I weigh all my food, never leave anything out and log less exercise calories than I probably actually do so it's very frustrating when I'm not losing as much as I should be but don't know where to go from here.

I'm planning on continuing the way I have been, because I can't eat less without feeling very tired due to the exercise I'm doing and I'm emjoying it and don't want to stop. I still have over 20lbs to lose and I just can't see how I'm going to get the rest of it off.

mikeyninja

When I plateau I usually have to increase intensity. Usually adding weight and powering through reps. Best of luck.

sigmarhose

This is so helpful. I have wondered why the harder I work to lose, I gain. the stress of the job, home, school, etc. really plays into this. I find when I walk in the mornings during the summer, I lose more weight then when I go to the gym in the winter. Hmmm....

chatnel

Thank you this is very helpful. I thought there was something wrong with me good to know I am not alone. Frustruatly, when you ask for advise on here and you usually get "well you must not be logging your food correctly"

EvgeniZyntx

The things to eliminate first include poor logging and over reported exercise burns.
The reality is that the majority of people that have issues with weight loss, once those elements are removed, fail to address the elephant in the room: their activity level.

We try to address that by increasing exercise activity. Which is great but often enough not enough. 3-5 sessions a week of exercise is 900-1500 cals burned. Per week! But it's often difficult to ncrease beyond that because of time issues, or injury or stress - inflammation or hormonal response are counter productive to scale weight loss.

The answer lies in lifestyle - moving from sedentary to active, focusing on LBM retention and increase may result in anywhere from 20% to 80% increase in cals consumed - that's 360 to 1200 more cals per day. Simply because we spend significant more time in non-exercise activity. Of course, changing general activity level is very hard. It's very difficult to change jobs if you spend 6 hours sitting, etc... But there is an easy way to evaluate and change habits.

Short term: Try this, for two weeks, see if you still aren't seeing results.

Set an alarm every hour and go for 5 minutes of walking.
Or get a pedometer and make sure you walk your 10000 steps every day.
Create strategies to do this - walk or bike to work. Use the car less, watch less TV, spend more time standing. Etc...

Long term: take on resistant training of some sort. Every lb of LBM gained uses 9-21 cals per day at rest you get to multiply that by your activity level. And even in exercise.

It's important to understand what "move more" really means.

chatnel

Good advice. I do wear a fitbit and have a desk job so sit on my a*rse for over 8 hours as well as driving to and from. If I do not go to gym I am lucky if I do 5K steps per day.

karen_fitzgibbon

I started weighing all of my foods. I was majorly underestimating my calories.
Then I looked into the 5:2 diet thingie. In the last 4weeks I have lost 5kgs and 12cm. But it's also teaching me the difference between hungry and wanting to eat.

grace4u2receive

Have you cleaned your body of toxins?

"The liver is your body's filter, charged with neutralizing all sorts of substances from the waste products of everyday metabolism to the ever-increasing load of toxins in our air, water, food, cosmetics, and workplace.

One of the most serious results of an overstressed or toxic liver is that it becomes so bogged down, it can't fully metabolize fat. As a result, it dumps fat and cholesterol back into the bloodstream, sabotaging your weight loss and putting you at risk for numerous health problems, including indigestion, fatigue, high cholesterol, depression, mood swings, lupus, arthritis, and other autoimmune conditions.

A toxic liver also creates disastrous results for your skin, leaving you with a tendency to blotchy patches and rashes. Meanwhile, your colon - designed to eliminate both natural bodily wastes and toxins is likewise laboring under a double strain. An overworked colon means that toxins and bile (a crucial substance produced by the liver) can sit in your gut too long.

Eventually, your body reabsorbs the toxins and sends them back to the liver once again. What's the point of struggling to manage our food intake if our organs are giving way under the strain of processing a toxic overload?"

Quote taken from Ann Louise Gittleman's book, The Fast Track One Day Detox Diet

I lost 6.4 pounds in 11 days, by changing what I ate to reboot my liver and get rid of the toxins. I no longer feel fatigued, no more brain fog and have tons of energy. Also helped get rid of stubborn fat and help push me to my goal and beyond!



An encouraging group for getting healthier and detoxing!

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/103019-revitalized-bodies

EvgeniZyntx

chatnel wrote: »

Good advice. I do wear a fitbit and have a desk job so sit on my a*rse for over 8 hours as well as driving to and from. If I do not go to gym I am lucky if I do 5K steps per day.

There you go. Changing that is more likely to result in long term results.

Oh, and ignore the detox woo woo above.

CathReese33

I have gone back to weighing - EVERYTHING! It seems that even measuring is not accurate enough. Saved myself 400 calories today - this is often the difference between eating at maintenance or not

grace4u2receive

[/quote]

Oh, and ignore the detox woo woo above.
[/quote]

Why ignore it?

Are people really afraid to eat healthier to drop pounds and feel amazing? So many diet pills, magic formulas (many are fraud). But to just change what you eat (food), drink and by taking care of your body. Your body releases those toxins through waste sounds pretty easy to me. We Spring clean our houses because we can see the dirt, just because we can't see inside of our bodies does not hide the fact that our bodies are toxic. Our bodies will hold onto the fat, since our livers are so bogged down.

I can understand if I was giving weird information or telling you to starve yourself, but I am not. I have been on this fitness journey for two years and accomplished my goal. Wish I would have found detoxing at the beginning, to get the pounds off safely and so much quicker.

My husband and I are doing one now! He was so excited when I went through a detox in December and lost 6.4 pounds. He does not workout much but began to see my results of how easy the weight came off. He wanted to do one too!

In the January detox, he lost 6 pounds and this detox he has already lost 6 pounds in 5 days. We still have five more days to go! He was in the obese category and by losing weight through this detox he is now wanting to working out regularly!

Just want to share the joy I found in taking care of our bodies. If your work them to hard you burn muscle instead of fat. If you do more rest based training along with a good detox. Watch those pounds melt away!

Tons of information and encouragement for those wanting to get results in the Revitalized Bodies group shown on my other post!

debrakgoogins

Fairlieboy wrote: »

Exercise is pretty much a waste of time.

Not to divert from the original question but I have to interject. Exercise is not a waste of time. Being stronger, healthier, more flexible and lean is very much worth it. There are times that I get frustrated because I feel like my loss is less than I would like. Then, I take my measurements and realize the combination of weight loss and exercise is doing what it should.

Now back to the original question, everyone has said it. Change it up. Did you see success and now that it has stalled you are afraid if you change your routine, it won't work? You don't know until you try. Maybe you are not eating enough for the amount of exercise you are doing. Maybe you're underestimating your calorie intake. Accurately log. Try a different workout routine. Look closer at your macros and see if your diet is too high in fats or carbs. Try replacing one processed carb a day by a whole grain or fresh fruit.

DawnieB1977

I lose weight really slowly and used to get really disheartened about it, so I just stopped obsessing over the scale. I lost 66lbs after my 2nd baby, and 10 inches off my waist, hips and thighs.

I wasn't as strict with weighing and measuring then, yet I still lost. I'm now losing after my 3rd baby and much more strict. And guess what? I'm losing at exactly the same rate.

So my advice? Don't stress over the scale, take measurements and go by the fit of clothes. If you're doing it right it will come off.