Help! Not sure what I'm doing wrong!
Replies
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Hey MFP peeps,
I'm really confused and frustrated at the lack of weight loss. I've been tracking for 40+days and eat a fairly clean diet and I've only lost 2 pounds.
Background: ate paleo for 2 years and only exercised 2 times a week. Needless to say with all that bacon and butter I gained 10lbs.
Currently: I'm 190 and have my daily calories at 1870. I do crossfit 3-4 times a week and sometimes add a run or 2. At work I'm on my feet all day moving around. I track my steps and on a daily basis I'm well over 10000 steps. I've competely changed the way I eat, prepping my food for the week and no more bacon, butter or cheese. I have a couple of protein shakes a day and on my cheat days, I still log.
I'm at a loss, some say I'm not eating enough but is that possible?!? I feel somewhat satisfied.
Any advice would be great!!
Why don't you try setting your activity level at Lightly Active and use the adjusted calorie goal .... plus be diligent about weighing your food. See if that helps.
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momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
One thing that you need to realize is that the advice from your doctors is for you. You are on a medically supervised diet. It's not a one size fits all type of thing. Giving advice based on what your doctors are doing for you is not a good idea.
Also understand that you cannot gain muscle on a calorie deficit. You cannot build something out of nothing. With the amount that you eat you are going to end up losing even more muscle than if you had a reasonable deficit. If you increased exercise you are probably retaining water for muscle repair.0 -
I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.0
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sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.
Sometimes prepackaged items are not the same weight listed on the nutritional facts. Personally, I work so hard at weighing everything-I don't go out of my way to empty a little container of yogurt and weigh it. If you're weighing everything else, you should be okay. Weighing out your bread slices can be helpful as well, though I choose not to do that. They can definitely weigh more than the package says.
As far as restaurant eating goes-you guesstimate the best you can if the nutrition facts aren't available. The nice thing about weighing your food all the time is you get better at eyeballing your restaurant meals. I eyeball vegetables in grams now. Adding a tablespoon of oil or butter is usually a good idea as well.0 -
Highly caloric items measured by volume as opposed to grams can result in large inaccuracies.
You measure by grams at home. You pick good database entries (verified and sometimes even cross-checked to outside sources such as the USDA database).
You measure the contents of pre-packaged foods (like yoghurt and bread) a few times and discover that some are not the same all the time; but maybe 1g off and close enough for government work.
Others are sufficiently off (slices of bread, Walmart protein bars) that maybe it is a good idea to keep on weighing them.
There are various strategies for restaurants!
-ballsy: take your scale with you
-sample: take a meal to go and go home and measure it (suitable for a place you go to frequently)
-half-sies: take half of everything and place in togo container. Measure at home.
-eye-ball: mark 1 eye ball at your service
You can also check the web-site and go with what you find there. Read carefully. For example subway sandwich calorie counts do not include sauces, most do not include the cheese, and they only include a certain amount of veggies.
Most people do find themselves decreasing the frequency and variety of eating out when counting calories.0 -
Have your measurements changed? You could be gaining muscle. Are you getting enough rest days? Have you thought about decreasing your sugar (all sugar not just added sugar) and sodium?0
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If you're not losing, you're not in a deficit. Lower your activity level and eat at the new amount for a few weeks, then reevaluate.0
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sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.
At home I weigh all that I can. Prepackaged stuff I go with their counts. If I see my weightloss has stalled for a reasonalble amount of time, that will change.
I eat out a lot too, and unfortunately, you can use the count they give you for the food but that is just the average made to the specs the coproate office gives them. For example: At Chili's: Chef A may put less sauce on a burger than Chef B and neither are what was measured for the "official" company measurement.
If I am worried about those discrepancies I can always save/bank some calories during the week as a buffer zone.0 -
sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.
I think weighing the apple and oats is a good idea, but personally I don't bother weighing a single serving of pre-packaged yogurt or a package of nuts that is single serving. It may well be off a bit, but like you I use these at work where I don't have a scale (unless I were to go use the postal scale) ;-) and I am confident enough that they will even out over time.
When you are trying to recomp or lose the last few pounds and having trouble it might be worth refining it down even more, but for most people it's probably not necessary. Weighing in general I think is, in part because it's less work than the cup thing and in part because for a variety of items the cup/tsp/tbsp thing can be quite imprecise. And for stuff like avocados I think it's important since the "small avocado" type entries can be so off compared to the actual numbers.
Restaurants are tough, but I am proof you can be successful without cutting restaurants out, as they are an important part of my social life. If you mostly go to restaurants with calorie counts, I think you shouldn't have too much trouble--I'd try to watch whether the meal seems consistent with what the menu item said and maybe add in a few extra calories, but I'd probably generally trust the calorie counts until I found I wasn't getting results. I would try to be very aware of any extra calories I might be getting -- bites of other people's meals or desserts, bread on the table, etc. (I mostly go to dinner places that have no calorie counts and those are a pain -- I always add in lots of extra butter when trying to log them. However, I buy lunch from places with counts reasonably often and have been successful just mostly using those counts.)0 -
I have been losing rapidly until I came to a sudden stop about 6 weeks ago. I lost 90 pounds in 10 months, and that included a cruise and vacation 12 nights long. I have been diligent all along with weighing and measuring. I will stop measuring and just weigh from now on. I am eating 1200 calories, am 62 years old and am 5'3". I still weigh 200 pounds so I am nowhere near goal. Walking, using the treadmill and now starting weights. Frustrating.0
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i have almost lost 100 pounds in 9 months
I weigh EVERYTHING!
Also the pre-cut serving size 46 gram and 210 calorie cheesecake...which wasn't 46 gram at all but more...and well 43 calories more!
Weighing your food is simple. Put your plate on the scale and use tara to get back to zero. Put your food item on..write down the grams. use tara again to zero out..put next item on..and write down...etc etc.
Believe me, not losing weight is a matter or not having a deficit.
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sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have been losing rapidly until I came to a sudden stop about 6 weeks ago. I lost 90 pounds in 10 months, and that included a cruise and vacation 12 nights long. I have been diligent all along with weighing and measuring. I will stop measuring and just weigh from now on. I am eating 1200 calories, am 62 years old and am 5'3". I still weigh 200 pounds so I am nowhere near goal. Walking, using the treadmill and now starting weights. Frustrating.
It sounds like you've put a lot of effort into trying to do the right things, so you've got this! Being very careful about weighing food should help quite a bit. I am your height and age and am losing at a nice steady 3/4 -1 pound per week rate (which is right for the amount I have to lose - you can safely lose a bit faster). Based on your starting weight, it's great that 90 pounds are gone - I bet you are really feeling the difference and your body is thanking you!! But more than 2 pounds a week is not a rate of loss that you can realistically maintain. 1 to 1.5 pounds a week would probably be more like it for the moment (I didn't plug the numbers in, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, please).
A 6-week plateau is frustrating but definitely not unheard of. If you tighten up your weighing and logging, at 1200 calories, with some exercise and eating back part but not all of your exercise burn, you should definitely see the weight loss kick in again.
If you are just now starting with weights, you may see a little water weight increase on the scales. This is normal and temporary, so don't let it get you down.
Thank you for the reply. I feel a little better today. Monday is my weigh day (I usually only weigh once or twice a week) and I lost 3 pounds! I am now below 200 pounds for the first time in over 30 years!!!
Yesterday I just put it in the hands of the Lord. I read the advice here and I did a few thngs afterthinking and praying about what you all told me. I did change my numbers to losing 1 1/2 pounds a week instead of 2 pounds a week. I began to weigh everything. I compared a few things to what I was doing before and a few things were off more than realized. I never did use rounded measuring amounts. I always leveled off measuring cups and spoons, but there were still a few things off from what the package said a cup would weigh. I ate back some of my exercse calories.
Yesterday was a big day as we had lunch with my Mom in her rehab facility (I am sure it was cooked healthy, but no scale) and I had company here for dinner. I was able to weigh it all and control the portions and selections, but still more calories than I normally eat. I even had a bit of dessert with real whipped cream! I thought for sure the scale would be up, even though I stayed within my calories (with exercise calories included) but I wasn't. So it was a victory! Thanks again.0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »arditarose wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
Your doctors and dietician told you to eat below your BMR and not eat exercise calories back? And that you can replace fat with muscle?
Yes they said I can eat below BMR
Yes said do NOT eat exercise calories back
No did not say you replace fat with muscle. But with exercise you build muscle and burn fat. They are not interchangeable.
I agree it's probably not good advice to tell others to eat below their BMR. If you're being monitored by a doctor and you're obese, it's probably not going to do any longterm harm. But eating below BMR _CAN_ do long term harm to people who are not obese and not getting supervised by a doctor/clinician.
Grats on your weightloss.
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momma_4boys wrote: »arditarose wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
Your doctors and dietician told you to eat below your BMR and not eat exercise calories back? And that you can replace fat with muscle?
Yes they said I can eat below BMR
Yes said do NOT eat exercise calories back
No did not say you replace fat with muscle. But with exercise you build muscle and burn fat. They are not interchangeable.
That is not exactly true. Typically when it comes to fat loss and muscle gains, you need to pick one or the other. Some obese beginners can have luck building a tiny bit of muscle in a deficit or maintenance, but really to gain any considerable muscle mass you need to lift/resistance train on a progressive overload program and eat at a calorie surplus.
When you are eating as low as you are..you are just losing muscle mass along with fat. Period.0
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