Last Couple of Kg Not Budging

Options
13

Replies

  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    edited October 2015
    Options
    taeliesyn wrote: »
    taeliesyn wrote: »
    If you're absolutely certain you are logging as accurately as you can (Sorry, you're numbers seem a little too 'round' to me). With your fairly small margin of error, have you actually checked your kitchen balance/scales are accurate? You could be eating more than realise if your scales have drifted, and are saying 100g, when in reality you've got 110g. Drift isn't likely to be that large, but it could be a cause or factor.

    They're digital food scales, and I deliberately have round serving sizes. Any left over vege gets fed to my rabbits and guinea pigs. Everything else is round because that's the size of what's in the packet.

    Digital or analog doesn't make a difference to whether or not they have drifted/lost their calibration.

    As for rounding, and everything else being round because that's the packet size..... I guess that means you don't weigh the packet stuff, and there is definitely variances in the weight of packet stuff.

    Yes I do weigh the packet stuff and if anything it's usually 5 or 10 grams under the serving size. I guess that's because with some foods it's very hard to get every little bit out of the container / packet. I will check my scale calibration though.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,485 Member
    Options
    Hi, just a couple of comments.

    At 5'1 and 130lb my 60min cardio calorie burn was 200 average. ( did the math)
    I know you don't eat it back but you are looking for a bigger loss than your exercise is giving you.

    If nothing else is working, cancel your cheat day and eat to 1200 for a month and see if that makes a difference.

    Put new batteries in your scale, if they have been in over a year.

    If you haven't done any strength training before, have a look at nerdfitness.com it has a good bodyweight programme.

    I wish I could help but I am stumped, at your weight on 1200 +50%ex cal I lost 1lb per week.

    Cheers, h.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Options
    Hi, just a couple of comments.

    At 5'1 and 130lb my 60min cardio calorie burn was 200 average. ( did the math)
    I know you don't eat it back but you are looking for a bigger loss than your exercise is giving you.

    If nothing else is working, cancel your cheat day and eat to 1200 for a month and see if that makes a difference.

    Put new batteries in your scale, if they have been in over a year.

    If you haven't done any strength training before, have a look at nerdfitness.com it has a good bodyweight programme.

    I wish I could help but I am stumped, at your weight on 1200 +50%ex cal I lost 1lb per week.

    Cheers, h.

    I agree with all of this. I know you're not eating exercise calories back, but your burn seems over estimated. I'm 5'4" and 130ish and I gave up on cardio because I know I burn only about 200-300 in an hour and I can't do an hour very often.
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    edited October 2015
    Options

    Ok thanks. What would you suggest as resistance training for beginners?

    When I bought my treadmill, I got two 8-pound hand weights with it, and when I'm walking, I will use those. I'm not looking to build muscle, just trying to hold on to what I have. They do make a difference. I'd definitely recommend incorporating something like that. I'm going to get some 10-pound ones here in the next couple weeks, I think.

    I also wanted to add (I know you said you don't eat back your exersise calories) that if I went by what my treadmill says I burn, I would be in trouble. After 1 mile at 3.6 mph on a 6% incline, it says I burn 165 calories. Most online calculators I have used tell me anywhere from 112 to 125 for my weight. That's something to keep in mind if you ever do want to eat those calories back.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
    edited October 2015
    Options
    arditarose wrote: »
    OP, I wish I had more advice for you. Since it happens to me too, all I can say is I ask myself how honest I'm being...and just how far those extra licks, or an unweighed lunch on the go (although honestly, that never happens), may be adding up. I don't do cardio, but it looks like you do so I can't tell you to add that.

    How many calories are you eating?

    I'm on the minimum 1200 calories and I'm always at or below that except on my cheat day once a week. On exercise days I'm about 250 calories below my allowance. I always weigh carefully and log exactly what the scales say. I only eat home made food except on cheat days, so basically I don't eat anything I can't log. My fitness levels are not that great but I'm trying to improve that gradually, as someone who loathes exercise that's hard. I'm currently doing 220-260 calories in half an hour on the treadmill 3-5 times a week, which is a big improvement on what I used to be able to do so I have seen some gradual improvement with fitness. I would be classed as skinny fat, as I look slim in clothes but carry flab on my thighs / bum / hips.

    So I know this is probably what your treadmill read out is but here's my two cents worth . . . I weigh in at 255lbs, with just shy of 140lbs of LBM on me. I am 5'10 tall and run 5KM 3/week, and do cross fit the other 3 days usually. I burn about 275 - 300 ish calories in 30 minutes of running on the treadmill based on a Polar HRM that I wear. So I am significantly bigger than you (and when you're bigger you burn more calories) and I burn close to that in 30 minutes of hard running - like sounds like I'm in serious pain, can't breathe, all out kind of running. Is it possible that your readout is wrong? That's a lot of calories to burn in just 30 minutes.

    ETA: on the first page you stated your maintenance is somewhere around 1500 or 1600 calories? The screen shot you showed was waaaaaaaay off of that . . . did I miss something? If I did, my apologies but I re-read many of the posts and I'm confused as to how you got from 1500-1600 to 6000+ with 1088 from exercise? :S
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
    edited October 2015
    Options
    deleted because of duplication
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Options
    acorsaut89 wrote: »
    acorsaut89 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    OP, I wish I had more advice for you. Since it happens to me too, all I can say is I ask myself how honest I'm being...and just how far those extra licks, or an unweighed lunch on the go (although honestly, that never happens), may be adding up. I don't do cardio, but it looks like you do so I can't tell you to add that.

    How many calories are you eating?

    I'm on the minimum 1200 calories and I'm always at or below that except on my cheat day once a week. On exercise days I'm about 250 calories below my allowance. I always weigh carefully and log exactly what the scales say. I only eat home made food except on cheat days, so basically I don't eat anything I can't log. My fitness levels are not that great but I'm trying to improve that gradually, as someone who loathes exercise that's hard. I'm currently doing 220-260 calories in half an hour on the treadmill 3-5 times a week, which is a big improvement on what I used to be able to do so I have seen some gradual improvement with fitness. I would be classed as skinny fat, as I look slim in clothes but carry flab on my thighs / bum / hips.

    So I know this is probably what your treadmill read out is but here's my two cents worth . . . I weigh in at 255lbs, with just shy of 140lbs of LBM on me. I am 5'10 tall and run 5KM 3/week, and do cross fit the other 3 days usually. I burn about 275 - 300 ish calories in 30 minutes of running on the treadmill based on a Polar HRM that I wear. So I am significantly bigger than you (and when you're bigger you burn more calories) and I burn close to that in 30 minutes of hard running - like sounds like I'm in serious pain, can't breathe, all out kind of running. Is it possible that your readout is wrong? That's a lot of calories to burn in just 30 minutes.

    ETA: on the first page you stated your maintenance is somewhere around 1500 or 1600 calories? The screen shot you showed was waaaaaaaay off of that . . . did I miss something? If I did, my apologies but I re-read many of the posts and I'm confused as to how you got from 1500-1600 to 6000+ with 1088 from exercise? :S

    It's kilojoules.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
    Options
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    acorsaut89 wrote: »
    acorsaut89 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    OP, I wish I had more advice for you. Since it happens to me too, all I can say is I ask myself how honest I'm being...and just how far those extra licks, or an unweighed lunch on the go (although honestly, that never happens), may be adding up. I don't do cardio, but it looks like you do so I can't tell you to add that.

    How many calories are you eating?

    I'm on the minimum 1200 calories and I'm always at or below that except on my cheat day once a week. On exercise days I'm about 250 calories below my allowance. I always weigh carefully and log exactly what the scales say. I only eat home made food except on cheat days, so basically I don't eat anything I can't log. My fitness levels are not that great but I'm trying to improve that gradually, as someone who loathes exercise that's hard. I'm currently doing 220-260 calories in half an hour on the treadmill 3-5 times a week, which is a big improvement on what I used to be able to do so I have seen some gradual improvement with fitness. I would be classed as skinny fat, as I look slim in clothes but carry flab on my thighs / bum / hips.

    So I know this is probably what your treadmill read out is but here's my two cents worth . . . I weigh in at 255lbs, with just shy of 140lbs of LBM on me. I am 5'10 tall and run 5KM 3/week, and do cross fit the other 3 days usually. I burn about 275 - 300 ish calories in 30 minutes of running on the treadmill based on a Polar HRM that I wear. So I am significantly bigger than you (and when you're bigger you burn more calories) and I burn close to that in 30 minutes of hard running - like sounds like I'm in serious pain, can't breathe, all out kind of running. Is it possible that your readout is wrong? That's a lot of calories to burn in just 30 minutes.

    ETA: on the first page you stated your maintenance is somewhere around 1500 or 1600 calories? The screen shot you showed was waaaaaaaay off of that . . . did I miss something? If I did, my apologies but I re-read many of the posts and I'm confused as to how you got from 1500-1600 to 6000+ with 1088 from exercise? :S

    It's kilojoules.

    Ha ha gotcha! I was like wait a minute . . . . thanks for clarifying :)
  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    Options
    Just to clarify my exercise burn is in kj, not calories. According to the treadmill I do 1088 kj (which is 260 calories) in 32 minutes. That's with the incline up to 4 or 6 and intervals of running. How inaccurate is it likely to be? Surely not a huge amount? And I should still be in deficit anyway even if it is off a bit. Sorry 'bout the confusion - most of our food packaging here lists kj instead of calories so that's what I use. I weighed myself this morning and weight hasn't changed one bit since last Saturday :/ You've all given me some useful ideas though so I will be buying a new food scale today that's more precise than mine, adding some resistance training and cutting back the treats a bit more.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Options
    Just to clarify my exercise burn is in kj, not calories. According to the treadmill I do 1088 kj (which is 260 calories) in 32 minutes. That's with the incline up to 4 or 6 and intervals of running. How inaccurate is it likely to be? Surely not a huge amount? And I should still be in deficit anyway even if it is off a bit. Sorry 'bout the confusion - most of our food packaging here lists kj instead of calories so that's what I use. I weighed myself this morning and weight hasn't changed one bit since last Saturday :/ You've all given me some useful ideas though so I will be buying a new food scale today that's more precise than mine, adding some resistance training and cutting back the treats a bit more.

    Only since last Saturday? You know, you're not necessarily going to lose weight every week. Weight loss is not always linear. Sorry, someone should have asked you how long it's been since you lost earlier in the thread.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,485 Member
    Options
    Your burn still feels a little high to me. Really it only matters as far as you trying to calculate what your CI /CO dynamic is because you are trying to figure out why you are not losing.

    Wish there was an ah-ha moment, but I am as stumped as you.

    Cheers, h.
  • sinbad714
    sinbad714 Posts: 28 Member
    Options
    Patience with vigilance. It may take several weeks per pound. Use the libra app for progress.
  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    Options
    arditarose wrote: »
    Just to clarify my exercise burn is in kj, not calories. According to the treadmill I do 1088 kj (which is 260 calories) in 32 minutes. That's with the incline up to 4 or 6 and intervals of running. How inaccurate is it likely to be? Surely not a huge amount? And I should still be in deficit anyway even if it is off a bit. Sorry 'bout the confusion - most of our food packaging here lists kj instead of calories so that's what I use. I weighed myself this morning and weight hasn't changed one bit since last Saturday :/ You've all given me some useful ideas though so I will be buying a new food scale today that's more precise than mine, adding some resistance training and cutting back the treats a bit more.

    Only since last Saturday? You know, you're not necessarily going to lose weight every week. Weight loss is not always linear. Sorry, someone should have asked you how long it's been since you lost earlier in the thread.

    Last week was when I last weighed myself. My actual weight hasn't changed for about 3 months. I just would have expected a small loss given the extra exercise I've been doing.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,485 Member
    Options
    @NinjaChinchillaNZ how active are you in a normal day?
    I ask this as I have just weighed myself after spending 10 days sick, only moving around the house, no exercise, and eating my sedentary maintenance of 1200 cal (I usually eat around 1400) and I put on .5 lb.
    This leads me to think if your regular day is very sedentary, you may just have to move more during the day to meet your basic calorie goal.

    @arditarose no it isn't just since last Saturday, though I did wonder and went to check the initial post.

    Cheers, h.

  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    Options
    @NinjaChinchillaNZ how active are you in a normal day?
    I ask this as I have just weighed myself after spending 10 days sick, only moving around the house, no exercise, and eating my sedentary maintenance of 1200 cal (I usually eat around 1400) and I put on .5 lb.
    This leads me to think if your regular day is very sedentary, you may just have to move more during the day to meet your basic calorie goal.

    @arditarose no it isn't just since last Saturday, though I did wonder and went to check the initial post.

    Cheers, h.

    I exercise 3-5 days a week, and do lots of housework other than that I do sit a lot. I have just noticed today my stomach looks smaller and thighs feel firmer even though that doesn't translate to a weight loss on the scale, perhaps it will drop again in the next couple of weeks. I know that the number on the scale doesn't necessarily reflect progress but still hard to stay motivated :D
  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    Options
    And wouldn't you know it, my kitchen scales just broke so now I definitely have to go out and buy new flash ones today!
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,485 Member
    Options
    That sounds a positive. Just hang in there and it will slowly drop.
    I just asked about the regular daily activity because I got a surprise when I stepped on the scale and had gained, and it made me wonder about yours as I had just posted to you and didn't know your activity level, just your exercise.

    Just a note, if you start strength training, don't be surprised by a gain. It is water weight, not fat, and will even out.

    Cheers, h.
  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    Options
    That sounds a positive. Just hang in there and it will slowly drop.
    I just asked about the regular daily activity because I got a surprise when I stepped on the scale and had gained, and it made me wonder about yours as I had just posted to you and didn't know your activity level, just your exercise.

    Just a note, if you start strength training, don't be surprised by a gain. It is water weight, not fat, and will even out.

    Cheers, h.

    Thanks for the warning, I intend to start with small hand weights while on the treadmill. I do think my the amount of calories calculated as maintenance is higher than it should be, I did calculations on a bunch of other websites and they all vary hugely.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Options
    @NinjaChinchillaNZ how active are you in a normal day?
    I ask this as I have just weighed myself after spending 10 days sick, only moving around the house, no exercise, and eating my sedentary maintenance of 1200 cal (I usually eat around 1400) and I put on .5 lb.
    This leads me to think if your regular day is very sedentary, you may just have to move more during the day to meet your basic calorie goal.

    @arditarose no it isn't just since last Saturday, though I did wonder and went to check the initial post.

    Cheers, h.

    I exercise 3-5 days a week, and do lots of housework other than that I do sit a lot. I have just noticed today my stomach looks smaller and thighs feel firmer even though that doesn't translate to a weight loss on the scale, perhaps it will drop again in the next couple of weeks. I know that the number on the scale doesn't necessarily reflect progress but still hard to stay motivated :D


    Yeah, be sure to take measurements. I've been in a deficit for 7 weeks now and have only lost a pound or two, but my hips are down a whole inch and surprisingly my calves are a half inch smaller.
  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
    Options
    Hey guys, after your suggestions last week I made some changes and have lost 0.9kg (nearly 2lb) since last Satuday!

    I threw out our old kitchen scales - I didn't realise until I mentioned it to my partner and he reminded me that they were at least 8 years old. The first thing I noticed using the new ones was that 5g of butter on the new scales looked like less than 5g on the old scales, so that's one thing.

    I also discovered that a "large" egg where I'm from is A LOT bigger than what MFP considers to be a large egg. I eat eggs most days and that was the one thing I wasn't weighing, as I assumed there wouldn't be that much variance. I was using the generic "large egg" entry in MFP to log them. Turns out my large eggs are about 30-40% more calories than MFP thinks it would be.

    I guess my margin of error is just that narrow that those things were offsetting it. One of the disadvantages of being short I guess! So thanks for helping me figure out what was going on. Only 1.3kg to get to my goal weight now!