Doing everything right, not losing.
becbo22
Posts: 283 Member
Hey guys.
For almost a month, I've been eating at a deficit and went from exercising 3 days a week to 6. At least 30 minutes per day, I run, some days I walk for another 30-40 minutes on top of running, and do strength 2-3x a week. I'm 5'11 and currently weigh 260. I originally started at 302 2 years ago and have been stuck at around 260 for a year. I weigh my food and log religiously. I also wear a fitbit charge so I know how much I'm moving. When I started getting back into it, I lost 3 pounds, but at TOM I gained it back, and even though TOM is over, it hasn't left. I am always under my calorie goal of 1780, other than one or two off days where I went over by less than 100 and one random maintenance day. Why is the weight not coming off? I am working my butt off and getting nowhere. So frustrating!
For almost a month, I've been eating at a deficit and went from exercising 3 days a week to 6. At least 30 minutes per day, I run, some days I walk for another 30-40 minutes on top of running, and do strength 2-3x a week. I'm 5'11 and currently weigh 260. I originally started at 302 2 years ago and have been stuck at around 260 for a year. I weigh my food and log religiously. I also wear a fitbit charge so I know how much I'm moving. When I started getting back into it, I lost 3 pounds, but at TOM I gained it back, and even though TOM is over, it hasn't left. I am always under my calorie goal of 1780, other than one or two off days where I went over by less than 100 and one random maintenance day. Why is the weight not coming off? I am working my butt off and getting nowhere. So frustrating!
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Replies
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If you're weighing and loggin accurately, and it has you in a defecit but you're not losing, you may need to talk to your doctor.0
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If you're looking for 1) eat more to lose or 2) "starvation mode" . . . I'm not going to say either of those.
I know you said you wear a fitbit/activity tracker but is it possible you're not eating what you think you are? For example, yesterday you logged 0.13 of a cup of maple syrup. How do you know it's that much? Did you weigh it out? That's a very odd amount to eat in my opinion.
I can say that when I started really tightening up what I ate and started working with a dietitian I saw the biggest difference. I am 5'10ish and I'm a big person, broad shoulders so I get it - we eat more because there's more of us and it's a tough balance to get the right amount of calories in. However, my dietitian asked me to try something for 6 weeks and what she asked was this: stop counting calories, just stop. Eat every 3 - 4 hours with meals/snacks made up a specific way IE each snack has a carb and a protein, each meal is half veggies, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carb. At first I was like seriously lady? Do you know what could happen with that? But it really worked. Also eating every 3 - 4 hours has helped me to not binge at meal time. Have you every tried something like this? I noticed a huge change not only in how I looked but my work outs are way better and I feel amazing.
Maybe just some food for thought.0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »If you're looking for 1) eat more to lose or 2) "starvation mode" . . . I'm not going to say either of those.
I know you said you wear a fitbit/activity tracker but is it possible you're not eating what you think you are? For example, yesterday you logged 0.13 of a cup of maple syrup. How do you know it's that much? Did you weigh it out? That's a very odd amount to eat in my opinion.
I can say that when I started really tightening up what I ate and started working with a dietitian I saw the biggest difference. I am 5'10ish and I'm a big person, broad shoulders so I get it - we eat more because there's more of us and it's a tough balance to get the right amount of calories in. However, my dietitian asked me to try something for 6 weeks and what she asked was this: stop counting calories, just stop. Eat every 3 - 4 hours with meals/snacks made up a specific way IE each snack has a carb and a protein, each meal is half veggies, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carb. At first I was like seriously lady? Do you know what could happen with that? But it really worked. Also eating every 3 - 4 hours has helped me to not binge at meal time. Have you every tried something like this? I noticed a huge change not only in how I looked but my work outs are way better and I feel amazing.
Maybe just some food for thought.
I currently eat small meals every 3 hours. I just don't have the categories set up right in my diary. I tried eating intuitively for the greater part of the past year, and I couldn't lose, so I decided to go back to counting calories.
Thank you for the suggestions.0 -
Your logging looks ok to me. Are you eating all your exercise calories back? If so, try eating only 50-75% back for a month and see if you've lost any weight in that time.
I think counting calories could work for you, you just might have to be careful with the exercise calories.0 -
strong_curves wrote: »Your logging looks ok to me. Are you eating all your exercise calories back? If so, try eating only 50-75% back for a month and see if you've lost any weight in that time.
I think counting calories could work for you, you just might have to be careful with the exercise calories.
I usually eat most of them back, so I will try that. Thanks!0 -
Links I recommend:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
Also this handy chart:
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I gave up on losing weight many times as after three or four weeks, there was no change. Finally, in November of last year, I became determined. It was SIX WEEKS before I started losing the weight!!! Don't give up; if you're truly doing everything right, and it looks like you are, it will happen.0
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How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.0 -
Have you measured yourself. Weight loss is frustrating so I feel you! Even after losing 85 lbs, the frustration hasn't gone away. There was one summer I at 1400 calories, did insanity in the morning, and ran 3-7 miles in the afternoon. Lost only 4 lbs over the course of 3 months. But I looked completely different in my before and after pics.
For me, no matter how hard I try, weight loss is periodic. Sometimes I lose a significant amount sometimes I don't even if I'm eating the same amount of calories. Don't give up. Don't get frustrated. I was told that it had something to do with leptin or something. Idk.
I would try switching your diet up a little and see if that helps. But sometimes you just have to ride out a stall.0 -
How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »I know you said you wear a fitbit/activity tracker but is it possible you're not eating what you think you are? For example, yesterday you logged 0.13 of a cup of maple syrup. How do you know it's that much? Did you weigh it out? That's a very odd amount to eat in my opinion.
Actually, that happens a lot if you're weighing food that is listed in cups. If a full serving is a quarter cup (as it usually is with syrup, if I remember correctly) and you use two tablespoons or weigh out half of a serving, MFP is going to log it in as 0.13 cups. (It rounds up decimals, in my experience.) The presence of weird decimal numbers isn't immediately a bad or weird thing. I weigh out half-servings of stuff all the time.
OP, regarding the actual question: I'd agree with experimenting with not eating back exercise calories in their entirety. I think I had the same problem when I started going back to the gym recently. Looking at my TDEE and all other basic estimations, plus the fact that I hadn't lost any weight, I was basically eating at maintenance when eating back exercise calories.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.
What are you doing that burns 1,500 calories a day?0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.
I have mine set to that too, the 1500 exercise calories is a lot. I still think you should halve eating that amount back, give it a month and then reassess. You might be wiping out your deficit by eating all the exercise calories back.
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atypicalsmith wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.
What are you doing that burns 1,500 calories a day?
I don't have a job right now, so some days I spend several hours walking and running.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.
OP, are you logging your exercise AND have the Fitbit synced with MFP?
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atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.
OP, are you logging your exercise AND have the Fitbit synced with MFP?
Yes, but the fitbit amount adjusts to less based on what exercise I've logged.0 -
Your calorie estimates for running are massively over-inflated.0
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Well, if you have been eating all of those calories back, your first step is definitely to stop eating all of them. I'd go with half like the others recommended and work from there.0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »I know you said you wear a fitbit/activity tracker but is it possible you're not eating what you think you are? For example, yesterday you logged 0.13 of a cup of maple syrup. How do you know it's that much? Did you weigh it out? That's a very odd amount to eat in my opinion.
Actually, that happens a lot if you're weighing food that is listed in cups. If a full serving is a quarter cup (as it usually is with syrup, if I remember correctly) and you use two tablespoons or weigh out half of a serving, MFP is going to log it in as 0.13 cups. (It rounds up decimals, in my experience.) The presence of weird decimal numbers isn't immediately a bad or weird thing. I weigh out half-servings of stuff all the time.
That's good to know . . . I guess I didn't consume foods where this happened previously so I've never seen it in my own logging . . . it just seemed like an odd portion lol.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »How long has TOM been over? It typically takes me a week after to lose the water weight, so don't give up yet.
Also yeah, you're probably wiping your deficit eating your exercise calories back... MFP numbers are WAY inflated. Only eat 50% back, if that... Personally, I suggest using http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ so you don't even have to worry about adding your exercise calories... you'll notice that your overall goal will be much lower than MFP with your exercise calories.
OP, I hadn't noticed that when I glanced at your diary. Wow. 1,500 calories of exercise? And you're eating it all back? I can't even imagine burning 1,500 calories by exercising. That would be equivalent to about five hours of walking. What is your activity level set to?
I actually have it set as sedentary because even though I exercise a lot, the rest of the day I'm just sitting around.
That's the right way to do it if you're going to log all your exercise separately (so you avoid counting it twice, once in your daily activity and once via the exercise log) but 1500 calories in an exercise session is a LOT and probably unrealistic, and if you're eating all those calories back I am pretty positive that's the culprit here. MFP is notorious for giving too many calories for exercise.
To give you an idea, here's an example. I am lighter than you and consequently burn way fewer calories from exercise, but even so, running 5K at a 9:45min/mile pace (about 6 mph, so not super fast but definitely a run for someone with short legs like me) I burn around 200 calories. That's about half an hour of running for me.
You are a little more than twice my weight, so you will burn more exercising, but even if you burned 3x what I do running at that pace you would still be at only about 1/3 of the exercise burns you're logging. You see what I mean?0 -
I would also say that your estimated burn is inflated.
try eating half, not all back and go from there.0 -
Suggest you plug your weight and run distance/time into an online calculator such as this.....
http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator
Don't put blind faith into apps and gadgets - always try to cross check against another source. Running calorie burns are down to physics - use an app to accurately track distance/speed but the calorie estimates in your diary seem way off to me.
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You are logging running and walking PLUS getting credit for them through your fitbit. You are double dipping.0
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acorsaut89 wrote: »acorsaut89 wrote: »I know you said you wear a fitbit/activity tracker but is it possible you're not eating what you think you are? For example, yesterday you logged 0.13 of a cup of maple syrup. How do you know it's that much? Did you weigh it out? That's a very odd amount to eat in my opinion.
Actually, that happens a lot if you're weighing food that is listed in cups. If a full serving is a quarter cup (as it usually is with syrup, if I remember correctly) and you use two tablespoons or weigh out half of a serving, MFP is going to log it in as 0.13 cups. (It rounds up decimals, in my experience.) The presence of weird decimal numbers isn't immediately a bad or weird thing. I weigh out half-servings of stuff all the time.
That's good to know . . . I guess I didn't consume foods where this happened previously so I've never seen it in my own logging . . . it just seemed like an odd portion lol.
It is super weird the first time you see it!
I think whether one notices or not depends on what sort of stuff they eat and if they eat whole portions or not. A quarter-cup is not a super common portion size, as far as I can tell. The only other time it seems to come up is in cheeses, and most cheeses are by ounce or gram in the MFP database, not by cup. 0 -
Liftng4Lis wrote: »You are logging running and walking PLUS getting credit for them through your fitbit. You are double dipping.
No, it's not, the exercise logged goes to the Fitbit and overrides whatever the Fitbit recorded.0 -
Liftng4Lis wrote: »You are logging running and walking PLUS getting credit for them through your fitbit. You are double dipping.
Oh yes this too, if your fitbit is synchronized to MFP you don't want to log any running or walking...0 -
+1 on overestimating your exercise burn.0
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Your cals burned just seem way too high. 900+ calories burned for walking 3 times a day ranging from 20-30 minutes each? That doesn't seem right at all.
You're overestimating your calories burned thus putting you in surplus for the day. That's why you're not losing any weight.0
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