HELP! I'm busting my butt and still gaining!
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Showe53188
Posts: 32 Member
Hello, my name is Samantha and I am 26 years old. I have been walking 1-2 miles everyday. Oatmeal for breakfast salad for lunch and a meat and fresh vegetable for dinner. What am I doing wrong? What can I change?
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How long have you been doing this for? What's your starting weight, how much have you gained? How often do you weigh? Can you open your diary?0
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Open your diary so we can advise you better. Ensure you track every mouthful, don't forget drinks, and check portion sizes. What you burn through walking will vary enormously on your weight and speed. If you haven't already, consider changing your MFP settings to lightly active and not tracking walking separately.0
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Showe53188 wrote: »Hello, my name is Samantha and I am 26 years old. I have been walking 1-2 miles everyday. Oatmeal for breakfast salad for lunch and a meat and fresh vegetable for dinner. What am I doing wrong? What can I change?
- Are you weighing your foods ACCURATELY?
- Are you getting accurate calorie burns? E.g. are you using MFP's suggestions or a HRM?
- Are you actually eating in a deficit?
OP, your thread doesn't really tell us what you have and haven't done. Not the best for information, so I'm going to assume you aren't measuring things accurately and aren't getting accurate calorie burns.
Doesn't matter if you're eating oatmeal for breakfast, salad for lunch and meat for dinner - you need to be in a caloric deficit.
If you're using MFP's suggestions for calorie burns, I suggest you only eat 50% as they are known for over-estimating. If you're using your HRM for calorie burns, then I suggest you eat 50-75% as they aren't full-proof.
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IsaackGMOON wrote: »Showe53188 wrote: »Hello, my name is Samantha and I am 26 years old. I have been walking 1-2 miles everyday. Oatmeal for breakfast salad for lunch and a meat and fresh vegetable for dinner. What am I doing wrong? What can I change?
- Are you weighing your foods ACCURATELY?
- Are you getting accurate calorie burns? E.g. are you using MFP's suggestions or a HRM?
- Are you actually eating in a deficit?
OP, your thread doesn't really tell us what you have and haven't done. Not the best for information, so I'm going to assume you aren't measuring things accurately and aren't getting accurate calorie burns.
Doesn't matter if you're eating oatmeal for breakfast, salad for lunch and meat for dinner - you need to be in a caloric deficit.
If you're using MFP's suggestions for calorie burns, I suggest you only eat 50% as they are known for over-estimating. If you're using your HRM for calorie burns, then I suggest you eat 50-75% as they aren't full-proof.
Agree with this.
I've been at this for 11 months, been in maintenance for 4 months and this to a tee.
Weigh your food.
You could also be overestimating burn and eating too many back if you are accurately weighing.
Weigh your food, and give it a few weeks.
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It's not what you eat, but how much you are eating. Open your diary.0
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everybody is going to take a guess but there is only 1 correct answer.
here are the 11 most common reasons and I assure you that the answer you seek is listed
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/0 -
I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!0
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Brilliant article!everybody is going to take a guess but there is only 1 correct answer.
here are the 11 most common reasons and I assure you that the answer you seek is listed
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/
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Showe53188 wrote: »I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!
Love your attitude! Keep it up, you will get there
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Showe53188 wrote: »I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!
Yup, much of the time we already know what we are doing wrong but don't want to admit it to ourselves, let alone to others. Go for a week of accurate logging (weighing all solid and semi solid food (peanut butter for example) and measuring all liquids except water), then open you diary and come back here. People are really good at giving suggestions to tweak your food to maximize the calories and macros.
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The usual suspect is: Eating too much.
I'd start the investigation there.0 -
Brilliant, that's the first step right there. I track everything, even when I've gone horrifically, embarrassingly over. Then when I wonder why I haven't lost after a couple of good days and I've forgotten the feasting, I can look back and see where I could do better.0
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Showe53188 wrote: »I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!
perfect !
success will follow
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sgthaggard wrote: »
Brilliant article!everybody is going to take a guess but there is only 1 correct answer.
here are the 11 most common reasons and I assure you that the answer you seek is listed
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/
Yes, everyone should ready this.0 -
4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »Showe53188 wrote: »I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!
Love your attitude! Keep it up, you will get there
It's a learning process, so don't be hard on yourself! I look back on what I logged to start with and wince,quite frankly. What was I thinking??! Chuckle.
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Showe53188 wrote: »I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!
Samantha, I'm so proud of you! You have a wonderful attitude! You can do this!0 -
mulecanter wrote: »sgthaggard wrote: »
Brilliant article!everybody is going to take a guess but there is only 1 correct answer.
here are the 11 most common reasons and I assure you that the answer you seek is listed
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/
Yes, everyone should ready this.
That is a great article for sure.0 -
Also the descriptions of the food you ate are really vauge. I could make a bowl of oatmeal that could be as low as 110 cals (Quaker Reduced Sugar A&C) or I could make a huge, quantity unknown bowl of it full of dried fruits, nuts, maple syrup and brown sugar. It could easily go north of 500 cals a bowl.0
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Showe53188 wrote: »I just want to take a second to thank everyone who's replied. I read it all and realized that I don't track as accurately as I could and i eat back my calories way more than I should. I looked at an even deeper issue. My food diary is closed. I asked myself why and I realized because I'm embarrassed because I guests mate way too much. A lot of my diary I have either exercised a lot more than it shows so it looks like a over ate hundreds of calories or I didnt input my dinner or somedays didn't put my food or exercise at all. What I reay need help with is making sure i track everything. Thank you everyone for calling me on my *kitten*. I needed a dose of reality!
You just being you means you already have a bias to underestimation when it comes to food intake, and overestimation when it comes to calorie burn.
My suggestion....buy a food scale, weigh EVERYTHING. Get a Heart Rate Monitor. I use a Timex Zone Trainer, $70 on Amazon. I dont trust the machines (...never trust the machine hehe...)
I estimate a lot, but I am also educated in this way bc I have weighed everything I put on my plate. I literally put the empty plate on the food scale when dishing up a salad (and my salads are awesomely fatty!).
Lastly, actually calculate your bmr using the Mifflin St Jeor or Updated Harris Benedict Equation, times the result by your activity level, and use the lesser of the two resulting numbers (or the average of the two) as your calorie goal. I am using the former, and it seems to be working for me. Revisit the equation after 3-5 lbs of loss, to keep at a certain reduction level. I reevaluate after 2 lbs to keep at a 2 lbs per week loss rate, even though most days I dont really hit the zero mark and am usuallt in the green.
Whether you like it or not, its about numbers. You HAVE to play the numbers game if you want to lose weight. And just remember...60% of the people in this country dont, and they are obese because of it.
Good luck!0
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