What am I doing wrong?
maplegirlst
Posts: 23 Member
I started out in early July with outstanding weight loss (1-2 lbs./week) on a low carb/low calorie diet. Now it seems I am gaining some of the weight back instead of continuing to lose (gained 1.6 pounds since August 1st). Husband has mentioned that I might not be losing weight because I am eating too little - starvation mode. I'm eating about 1300 calories, 100 units of carbs and 100 units of fat a day so I don't think this is the cause. Am I eating too little? Too much? Too many carbs from fat? Blerg. I can't really use the "muscle weighs more than fat" argument because my exercise consists of walking and a weekly Zumba class - not really muscle building activities.
I realize that once again I am obsessing about my weight instead of overall health and that a weight fluctuation of 1-2 pounds isn't a big deal but I am still concerned about losing my momentum and July weight-loss.
What am I doing wrong?
For reference:
5'4", female, 32.
July 1st: 200.9 lbs
August 7th: 192.9
August 8th: 194.1
August 12th: 194.5
I realize that once again I am obsessing about my weight instead of overall health and that a weight fluctuation of 1-2 pounds isn't a big deal but I am still concerned about losing my momentum and July weight-loss.
What am I doing wrong?
For reference:
5'4", female, 32.
July 1st: 200.9 lbs
August 7th: 192.9
August 8th: 194.1
August 12th: 194.5
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Replies
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It is impossible to gain weight from eating too little.0
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Opening your diary might get you more specific advice (if you're comfortable sharing it). Otherwise, these are my really general tips:
1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.
2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.
3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.
4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.
5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.
6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.
7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.
8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.
9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.0 -
Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.0
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"Starvation mode," in the sense that your husband is using it, isn't an actual thing. If you open your diary you may be better advice -- unexpected weight gain can sometimes be related to logging issues. This could also just be a fluctuation. I often see my weight go up twice a month -- when I ovulate and right before my period. The amount you have "gained" is well within the daily range of variation for most people.0
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Your body may fluctuate in weight +/- 5 lbs any given day. It has to do with water retention, eating a meal that takes longer to digest (so it sits in your guts a little longer). I would highly recommend weighing in just ONCE a week, in the morning, right when you get up. That way you aren't frustrated with a couple pounds here and there.0
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what @dianethegreat said0
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A pound and a half in five days is nothing to worry about. Are you in TOM right now?
Also, starvation mode does not work that way.0 -
@diannethegeek pretty much summed it up. Sounds like you just need to tighten up the logging and you'll be fine. Most of this is probably water weight fluctuations - mine varies ~6lbs/day.
Have you considered incorporating resistance training of some sort? Very beneficial and provides a whole new set of exercises to work on.0 -
raellehousek wrote: »Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.
None of this is true.
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Thank you everyone for your replies. I have opened my diary for public viewing. I've been pretty serious about logging my food with the correct ingredients and servings. I think weighing my food might be a good idea.
Malibu927: What is TOM?
Nuke_64: Can you elaborate? I have heard what raellehousek wrote about many times.
I have been thinking about upping my exercise. There are some classes at my gym that I've been wanting to try. Most notably; spinning, Hatha yoga and TRX. I wish my gym offered krav maga or another martial arts class. Starting in September they are offering Zumba twice a week. I am very excited about this. It has taken me my whole life to find a fitness/cardio activity I actually enjoy (aside from going for walks).
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Time of the month/your period0
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diannethegeek wrote: »Opening your diary might get you more specific advice (if you're comfortable sharing it). Otherwise, these are my really general tips:
1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.
2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.
3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.
4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.
5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.
6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.
7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.
8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.
9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
You've got this in a word document, saved on stand by to cut and paste don't you? LOL-1 -
I was going to ask about TOM as well. I usually gain about a pound and it stays there for a week. Then, I lose it plus some. Last month I lost the pound plus another 1.5 lbs!0
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raellehousek wrote: »Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.
Wut? My salad today was way more than 5 ingredients and still under 400 calories. Where is this "rule"?0 -
madhatter2013 wrote: »raellehousek wrote: »Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.
Wut? My salad today was way more than 5 ingredients and still under 400 calories. Where is this "rule"?
Right? Has this person ever had a good lasagna? Pie? Meatloaf?0 -
shrinkingletters wrote: »madhatter2013 wrote: »raellehousek wrote: »Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.
Wut? My salad today was way more than 5 ingredients and still under 400 calories. Where is this "rule"?
Right? Has this person ever had a good lasagna? Pie? Meatloaf?
Seems to have very unflavorful meals.
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My weight can go up and down by a few pounds in a day (feel free to look at my weight report). Usually an elevated weight will be followed my a loss. I wouldn't worry about it at this point. Keep at it!
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Lol! Thanks!
I am on day 19 of my (approximately) 25 day cycle. My TOM is due in about 8 days. I guess that puts me at about the tail end of my ovulation. At what point in a lady's cycle do most of us gain weight?0 -
madhatter2013 wrote: »diannethegeek wrote: »Opening your diary might get you more specific advice (if you're comfortable sharing it). Otherwise, these are my really general tips:
1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.
2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.
3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.
4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.
5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.
6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.
7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.
8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.
9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
You've got this in a word document, saved on stand by to cut and paste don't you? LOL
Yes I do! This one and my general tips for hunger are both copy/pasted from text documents on my computer. It's just easier than trying to remember all of the points I want to make in every thread.
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diannethegeek wrote: »madhatter2013 wrote: »diannethegeek wrote: »Opening your diary might get you more specific advice (if you're comfortable sharing it). Otherwise, these are my really general tips:
1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.
2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.
3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.
4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.
5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.
6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.
7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.
8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.
9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
You've got this in a word document, saved on stand by to cut and paste don't you? LOL
Yes I do! This one and my general tips for hunger are both copy/pasted from text documents on my computer. It's just easier than trying to remember all of the points I want to make in every thread.
Good because it's such good, relevant information! 2 thumbs up from me
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maplegirlst wrote: »
Nuke_64: Can you elaborate? I have heard what raellehousek wrote about many times.
"Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain."
As you lose weight, you do need less calories but the basic formula of calories in need to be less than calories out stays the same.
"You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out."
Except for what I mention above, this doesn't matter--CICO (Calories In vs Calories Out).
"Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less."
If eating "whole" foods is your thing, great.* That has nothing to due with weight loss. Processes foods can have a lot of salt which may swing your water retention, but that will either stabilize or go away. The real goal is to lose fat, weight it a good indication of that, but water retention can mask what is really going on thus why the saying "weight loss isn't linear" is said here a lot.
(*I do like to make a lot of my food from scratch, but most of them have a lot more than 5 ingredients. My hummus has 9, my marinara sauce over a dozen)
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Just following up. But first, thank you everyone for your replies! It is so nice to have this community!
I am still holding steady around 192-194. I've definitely lost some momentum. I don't feel like I've been as serious about tracking my food and staying within my calorie/carb limits. I'm going to try to get back on track this week. Weekends are definitely harder than weekdays!
Well, that's about it. Have a great week everyone!
~Maple0 -
Here is another hint: You have chicken thigh at 2 for 113 calories. ONE is Chicken -about 218. This of course would vary, depending on weight and I used one I had this week as an example. Had I eaten two of them that would have been a 323 difference. WEIGH everything!
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maplegirlst wrote: »Just following up. But first, thank you everyone for your replies! It is so nice to have this community!
I am still holding steady around 192-194. I've definitely lost some momentum. I don't feel like I've been as serious about tracking my food and staying within my calorie/carb limits. I'm going to try to get back on track this week. Weekends are definitely harder than weekdays!
Well, that's about it. Have a great week everyone!
~Maple
I hear you on weekends. I have no idea how much I ate yesterday. tighten up the logging and you hopefully will see a change
weigh everything!0 -
Once your intake is the same as your burn, you start to maintain.raellehousek wrote: »Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.
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raellehousek wrote: »Once your body gets used to what you're doing it starts to maintain. You'll need to switch something up- change of food and/or push a little harder in your work out. Whole foods give you better nutrition than processed (not sure what your diary is like) rule of thumb is to stick to things with 5 ingredients or less.
No. If you're eating at a deficit, even if it was the same foods every day, you would still be lose. Your body doesn't magically start to maintain.
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When you wake up each morning, your body will tell you if you you're burning calories or not. I can feel the difference if I've cheated or followed my goals.-1
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If you get to the point where your body is not burning calories, you will never know. It's scientifically proven. [/quote]
Lol. Pretty much.
SMH.
Anyway, OP, either you're retaining water because your period is due soon (I stop losing 2 weeks before mine shows up), or you're just eating too much. Definitely tighten your logging.
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