Frustrated!!

lil_lizt

so 4 weeks ago I weighed in at 138.8lbs and I was sooo excited to break the 140lb barrier but within 2 days I was back at 142.6lbs and I've been there ever since. Neither my weight nor my measurements are changing despite going to the gym, weighing and measuring my food and although I've had days where I've gone over, I've been diligent the rest of the time and log everything, even my cheats.

I worked my numbers out on scoobys workshop using the TDEE method as I find it easier to stick to having the same amount of calories per day. I don't have a HRM so all my exercise entries are from the mfp database or machines, but I don't eat them back anyway.

I'm getting really discouraged by this whole process, and my hatred of my body is getting stronger. Help!

leahcollett1

im the same hun, i was so excited last week of being half a pound away from my 3 stone award and this morning ive gained 1.5lbs but lost 2lbs of fat.. this has proven to me that water has played a massive part in this weeks weigh in.. so yours could be too. have you changed your exercise at alll?

Sued0nim

If you are running TDEE you don't log exercises

If you have eaten over some days have you eaten under others to compensate and stick with your weekly defecit

Maybe your TDEE is wrong, you may have overestimated, and you need to cut harder

I'd give it another 2-4 weeks though then change ...it may just be a stall

Protranser

Well, it's not fat you've gained, unless you ended up eating something upwards of 13300 above maintenance (seems very unlikely from your listed weighing/measuring habits.) I get frustrated with the scale sometimes too, sorry you're going through it

Sued0nim

leahcollett1 wrote: »

im the same hun, i was so excited last week of being half a pound away from my 3 stone award and this morning ive gained 1.5lbs but lost 2lbs of fat.. this has proven to me that water has played a massive part in this weeks weigh in.. so yours could be too. have you changed your exercise at alll?

You're using a scale to judge fat loss? Yeah...don't do that ..it will not be right ...the only thing that is useful for is progression over months ..but not as an absolute number ..they are out by 7-10% points in general and affected by hydration, how you stand, callouses on feet etc

1.5lbs in scale weight is easily a water fluctuation you're right

Protranser

.

Sued0nim

Also read http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

I am concerned you said weighing "and measuring"... There should be no measuring, just weighing

leahcollett1

rabbitjb wrote: »

leahcollett1 wrote: »

im the same hun, i was so excited last week of being half a pound away from my 3 stone award and this morning ive gained 1.5lbs but lost 2lbs of fat.. this has proven to me that water has played a massive part in this weeks weigh in.. so yours could be too. have you changed your exercise at alll?

You're using a scale to judge fat loss? Yeah...don't do that ..it will not be right ...the only thing that is useful for is progression over months ..but not as an absolute number ..they are out by 7-10% points in general and affected by hydration, how you stand, callouses on feet etc

1.5lbs in scale weight is easily a water fluctuation you're right

i know hun, but im the sort of person that gets motivation from seeing the scales reduce - so when it doesnt i get a little down - i know exactly what your going to say weight loss isnt linear - i know.. which is why im holding onto the fat measurement lol its that little silver lining on this gloomy non loss day lol

Sued0nim

leahcollett1 wrote: »

rabbitjb wrote: »

leahcollett1 wrote: »

im the same hun, i was so excited last week of being half a pound away from my 3 stone award and this morning ive gained 1.5lbs but lost 2lbs of fat.. this has proven to me that water has played a massive part in this weeks weigh in.. so yours could be too. have you changed your exercise at alll?

You're using a scale to judge fat loss? Yeah...don't do that ..it will not be right ...the only thing that is useful for is progression over months ..but not as an absolute number ..they are out by 7-10% points in general and affected by hydration, how you stand, callouses on feet etc

1.5lbs in scale weight is easily a water fluctuation you're right

i know hun, but im the sort of person that gets motivation from seeing the scales reduce - so when it doesnt i get a little down - i know exactly what your going to say weight loss isnt linear - i know.. which is why im holding onto the fat measurement lol its that little silver lining on this gloomy non loss day lol

I get it

Bacchants

I took a quick peek in your diary and saw on wed there was some high cal food logged and missing meals. Was this a cheat day? As if you're overeating on your cheat days then you could be reducing your weekly deficit to much lower than you think.

Try and log your cheat days accurately so your weekly deficit will be more accurate.

lil_lizt

rabbitjb wrote: »

Also read http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

I am concerned you said weighing "and measuring"... There should be no measuring, just weighing

Measuring liquids

leahcollett1 wrote: »

im the same hun, i was so excited last week of being half a pound away from my 3 stone award and this morning ive gained 1.5lbs but lost 2lbs of fat.. this has proven to me that water has played a massive part in this weeks weigh in.. so yours could be too. have you changed your exercise at alll?

I've changed from the elliptical to classes

rabbitjb wrote: »

If you are running TDEE you don't log exercises

If you have eaten over some days have you eaten under others to compensate and stick with your weekly defecit

Maybe your TDEE is wrong, you may have overestimated, and you need to cut harder

I'd give it another 2-4 weeks though then change ...it may just be a stall

Yes I've eaten under some days, I'll give it another few weeks to see if any difference

Protranser wrote: »

Well, it's not fat you've gained, unless you ended up eating something upwards of 13300 above maintenance (seems very unlikely from your listed weighing/measuring habits.) I get frustrated with the scale sometimes too, sorry you're going through it

Thank you, I'm sure it will move eventually. Well, I hope lol. I wouldn't mind if my measurements were going down but they're not budging either lol

lil_lizt

Bacchants wrote: »

I took a quick peek in your diary and saw on wed there was some high cal food logged and missing meals. Was this a cheat day? As if you're overeating on your cheat days then you could be reducing your weekly deficit to much lower than you think.

Try and log your cheat days accurately so your weekly deficit will be more accurate.

That's all I ate all day, although I did graze on it most of the afternoon, not in all one sitting. I log my cheat days, as you can see from Saturday's drinking lol

lil_lizt

leahcollett1 wrote: »

rabbitjb wrote: »

leahcollett1 wrote: »

im the same hun, i was so excited last week of being half a pound away from my 3 stone award and this morning ive gained 1.5lbs but lost 2lbs of fat.. this has proven to me that water has played a massive part in this weeks weigh in.. so yours could be too. have you changed your exercise at alll?

You're using a scale to judge fat loss? Yeah...don't do that ..it will not be right ...the only thing that is useful for is progression over months ..but not as an absolute number ..they are out by 7-10% points in general and affected by hydration, how you stand, callouses on feet etc

1.5lbs in scale weight is easily a water fluctuation you're right

i know hun, but im the sort of person that gets motivation from seeing the scales reduce - so when it doesnt i get a little down - i know exactly what your going to say weight loss isnt linear - i know.. which is why im holding onto the fat measurement lol its that little silver lining on this gloomy non loss day lol

I'm the same chick, it's more annoying to me that before I started exercising the weight was falling off me, and I lost 18lbs in 4/5 months. My boyfriend keeps promising me that I'm changing shape but after taking measurements today I think he may be lying to shut me up haha. I guess I'll keep at it and see if anything budges over the next couple of weeks. If not then I'll try cutting my calories down a little further

leahcollett1

i noticed you started body combat - when i began body combat i didnt lose any weight for 3 solid weeks, i swore i wasnt doing something right.. however it was just muscle repair as the 3rd weigh in i lost 2lbs... so it takes time for the body to adjust switching from eplitical to classes is a drastic change for your body

lil_lizt

Yeah maybe you're right, I was just so happy to be in the 9 stone range lol

leahcollett1

keep at it, dont change anything and give your body time to adjust to the change

leahcollett1

p.s 9 stone range is fricking awesome!!!!!!!!

lil_lizt

leahcollett1 wrote: »

p.s 9 stone range is fricking awesome!!!!!!!!

It was, I'm back in the 10 now lol which Wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't so short

leahcollett1

mate 10 is fricking awesome lol - i would actually most likely cut off my pinky finger to be that weight

nordlead2005

You can't be consistently under your "goal" intake and not losing weight over 4 weeks unless your goal is to maintain or add weight. Many days show over 1k calories under your goals and only a handful show over your goal (and not by much).

Your goal seems to be set to 1927 calories on rest days, that is more than I eat and I'm a 198lb 5'11" guy trying to lose weight. A quick BMR estimate puts it at 1283, and lightly active puts your NEAT maintenance level ~1730. To eat 1927/day and lose 0.5lb/week you would have to exercise for 447 calories/day. More effort than I put in every day (if you exercise 4 times/week like I do you would have to burn 782 per exercise day).

Basically, your numbers don't make sense.

Set your goal to 1lb/week loss and your rest day calorie intake goal should be ~1230. Eat back 50% of your exercise calories as logged on MFP. You should lose ~1lb/week and it should show up on the scale within a few weeks. If you want to eat more, eat say ~1330 and you'll lose 0.8lb/week, or ~1430 for 0.6lb/week, it might take a little bit longer for it to show up on the scale, but it will happen.

If you want to use the TDEE method vs the MFP NEAT method, then stop logging exercise for calories (zero out the calories if you still want to log the exercise) and set your goal to say 1600 calories. Then you'll lose whatever you exercise off + ~0.25lb/week which should be 0.75-1lb/week. In a few weeks of accurate logging, calculate actual TDEE and set your goal to TDEE*0.8.

Also, don't drink 4.5L of calorie laden drinks in a single day. It is only setting yourself up for failure. It is one thing to have a treat on occasion and go over your goal, it is another thing to drink that much.

nordlead2005

I also find trendweight.com interesting. I just started using it 2 days ago and after looking at it I would recommend it to anyone who is trying to lose weight. We may all "know" that our weights fluctuate, but trend weight is a great way to have a visual reminder.

lil_lizt

These are my numbers on scoobys which I've changed my exercise level down today, previous it was set to 5-6hrs of vigorous a week. I usually do 2-3 hrs a day 4-5 times a week, with classes such as boxing, body combat etc and I'm also starting kick boxing. I also lift weights, swim, elliptical etc. The 4.5l was my monthly night out, which was well needed lol, I've cut back from every weekend.

I do weigh in daily and use happy scale to log but it's not moved in either direction at all since the 19th of last month. But when it does I like seeing the fluctuations, although the day after a high sodium meal always gives me a jolt lol.

leahcollett1

so based on that your daily calories to lose weight hun is 1746,? not 1908? plus does the meal s effect it? as i always state 3 meals a day im eat 1750 calories a day

lil_lizt

I had it set to 5-6 hrs a week previously. I usually smash that in a week easily lol

SingRunTing

Just as an FYI, I've always had to bump my activity level lower on Scooby to have success. I work out ~4 or 5 hours a week, but lose at the correct rate when I have Scooby set to 1-3 hours a week.

The point is: TDEE calculators are based on population averages. To find the correct calories for your personal TDEE - X%, you need to experiment. You've found that the amount you've been eating isn't right, so bump it down a few hundred and try that. Stick to it for a month or so and see what happens. If it's still not right, adjust again. Just make sure you're giving it enough time in between adjustments since weight loss isn't linear.

nordlead2005

So, if you are using TDEE, stop logging exercise calories. It makes it harder to see if you are meeting your goal.

Also, if you really are logging accurately, then whatever your weekly average is IS your TDEE (it is easy to find weekly average through the phone/tablet app, not so easy through the website), not what scooby or any other website says.

Also, 5-6 hours of exercise is not the same from person to person. 90 minutes of me playing Ultimate frisbee is more like 40 minutes of jogging, 40 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of standing around. Compare that to a 90 minute run and I'm probably burning half of the calories. I exercise ~4.5-5hr/week, but not at the calorie burn rate of someone who runs 5hr/week, so any TDEE calculator will probably overestimate for me.

lil_lizt

Thanks guys, I've knocked it down to moderate 3-5hrs and see if that makes a difference, gives me 200 less a day