What am I doing wrong?

LondonNYC
LondonNYC Posts: 15 Member
in Motivation and Support
I've been working on losing weight for the last 7 weeks or so, and I've been doing a combo of eating healthy and exercise. I've been trying to get to 10,000 steps a day on my FitBit and stick to a healthy diet with very little processed food.

This week I got on the scale, fully expecting to see good news. To my surprise, I had gained a pound and a half! I brushed it off as a bad scale day, and kept up my working out and eating well. Today I weighed myself again, expecting better results. Nope! Nothing had changed after a week of hard work.

So here's my question: what am I doing wrong? I know muscle weighs more than fat but my measurements haven't budged either. Help! I'm so discouraged.

Replies

  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    Your ticker shows 21 lbs. lost. If that was over 7 weeks, it is an average of 3 lbs. per week. Don't expect that rate to keep up. You may have weeks where you won't lose.
  • cwkwkw2
    cwkwkw2 Posts: 23 Member
    To reach a calorie deficit and lose weight, you may need to start weighing your food so you have a more accurate count of your daily calories. Sometimes when I estimate and then later weigh my food, I have underestimated the ounces and thus my calories are much higher than I thought. Are your clothes fitting better? Focus on that right now until the scale starts to move a little more. Good luck. Don't give up!!!
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
    Biggest causes of short term trend reversals in a long term downtrend ( all water retention related ):

    1) Hormonal cycles or deficiencies ( ToM or not eating enough fats )
    2) Spike in Sodium or Carb intake
    3) Change in exercise/activity that results in an additional need for tissue repair.

    Other possible causes include logging inaccuracies, taking readings under different conditions, over estimating caloric burn, failure to recalibrate/recalculate after significant changes.

    For instance, you should probably recalibrate your FitBit every 10 lbs or so to increase the accuracy, as well as recalculate the macros and calories for your meal plan. Otherwise, your deficit from nutrition is shrinking ( slower loss ), and your expenditure from exercise is increasingly over estimated.
  • heytherejune
    heytherejune Posts: 7 Member
    edited July 2015
    1. Try to measure your weight at same time (i.e when you wake up)
    2. Are you logging calories? You're saying that you ate healthy and didn't eat processed food. Losing weight more about calories than what you ate. Technically you can lose weight eating nothing but bigmacs if you have a calorie deficit
    3. Weight loss is not linear - if you saw weight changes in short period of time (like few days), then you should be fine if you are eating well/exercising. If not, make sure you are measuring calorie accurately (a lot of good stickied posts on this forum).
    4. Are you doing any weightlifting? It sounds like you're doing cardio/counting steps rather than doing weight training. Don't buy into the "muscle is heavier than fat" myth. If your measurements are not changing, it probably means that you are not losing weight. I would trust the measurements more than a weight scale.
  • tincanonastring
    tincanonastring Posts: 3,944 Member
    edited July 2015
    this is a friend's standard advice:

    1. Enter stats into MFP and set for x amount of weight loss.
    2. Eat to the number that MFP gives you.
    3. get a food scale and weigh all solid foods, and as many liquids as possible.
    4. log everything
    5. make sure that you are using correct MFP database entries
    6. realize that there are no bad foods and that while the majority of foods should come from nutrient dense sources, there is nothing wrong with having pizza, ice cream, cookies, etc, as long as ones micro and macro needs are met.
    7. macro setting are typically .85 grams of protein per pound of body weight; .45 grams of fat per pound of body weight; fill in rest with carbs.
    8. find a form of exercise that you like and do it < not necessary for weight loss, but is for overall health and body comp.

    couple stickies I would recommend:

    Recomposition:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/33125652#Comment_33125652

    Bulking:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10049766/bulking-a-complete-guide-for-beginners

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


    ETA: OP - can you open your diary so we can see your food logging?
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    LondonNYC wrote: »
    I've been trying to get to 10,000 steps a day on my FitBit and stick to a healthy diet with very little processed food.

    1. Exercise for fitness; log to lose weight.

    2. Weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you do everything right but maintain, or even gain. Others you lose a whole lot in a "whoosh."

    You lose weight by eating fewer calories than you burn—period. Open your diary for personalized advice, but you need to log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. Logging works.

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE, the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If you eat less than that, you will lose weight. You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

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