Helllllppp

JennB629

Hi. I've been on my journey now for a few months now. The first time I did this I seen a nutritionist & she helped me lose 35lbs in 5 months. I got pregnant, and here I am, 3 years PP STILL trying to lose weight.... I need help.

I'm 31, 5'4" And in between 172lbs & 175lbs... Roughly 25-30lbs to lose. I'm eating a 1,200 calorie diet, and since I have ZERO interest in the gym currently. I been walking. Some days I burn 400 calories, other days 500, or 600. Depending how long I walk for... BUT!! I'm not losing weight, I feel like my legs are muscular... But I want to lose pounds.

DeguelloTex

If you're over 170, doing some exercise, and not losing weight, you're not really eating just 1200 and netting 600-800. You're probably eating more than you think and burning less than you think.

How long have you not been losing weight?

LKArgh

You are eating more than you think. A lot more.
Check your logging, using a food scale.

JennB629

DeguelloTex wrote: »

If you're over 170, doing some exercise, and not losing weight, you're not really eating just 1200 and netting 600-800. You're probably eating more than you think and burning less than you think.

How long have you not been losing weight?

Since I started. A few pounds here or there, but nothing drastic... How many calories should I eat then, if I'm eating "too" much? Before when I lost weight I was on a 1,500 calories diet & lost weight with working out. Please help!! Thank you

ShashayLee

Do you use a food scale & weigh everything? You should be losing weight if you are really eating 1200 calories. Once i started to weigh all my food, i got my portion sizes under control & the weight has come off nicely.

JennB629

ShashayLee wrote: »

Do you use a food scale & weigh everything? You should be losing weight if you are really eating 1200 calories. Once i started to weigh all my food, i got my portion sizes under control & the weight has come off nicely.

I don't weigh my food, but I do measure things.

ShashayLee

trying weighing, it is way more accurate & use grams, i noticed a huge difference. Scales are cheap, check walmart. You will be surprised i know i was It's become a habit now to carry my weigh scale with me at work. My co workers are now used to it & don't comment any more lol

DeguelloTex

You probably want to weigh your food. Without that, there's really no way to know how many calories you're actually eating.

If you were really eating that amount, you'd be losing weight. If you've stayed in a small range for a few months, you're eating at your maintenance level. And that's nowhere near 600-800 net calories.

Yi5hedr3

Unless you are walking all day long, you are not burning even half that much. Your solution is to tighten up calorie counting, and cut your carbs to 100 or less each day.

JennB629

I never weighed my food before when I lost weight so that's why I didn't try it this time.

So, I should eat 800 calories & burn 400 & not eat back those calories? Bc I don't usually eat back my workout calories.

JennB629

ShashayLee wrote: »

trying weighing, it is way more accurate & use grams, i noticed a huge difference. Scales are cheap, check walmart. You will be surprised i know i was It's become a habit now to carry my weigh scale with me at work. My co workers are now used to it & don't comment any more lol

Lol thanks!! I will check out Walmart... But how many calories should I be consuming??

DeguelloTex

JennB629 wrote: »

I never weighed my food before when I lost weight so that's why I didn't try it this time.

So, I should eat 800 calories & burn 400 & not eat back those calories? Bc I don't usually eat back my workout calories.

No, that's way too little.

Mrj183

your body composition would be changing. weight is culmination of water, bones, muscle and fat. Use a mirror or clothing size to gauge progress. Muscle is way heavier than fat so dnt always take the scales as gospel. if youre nit smaller re evaluate your food. it may ve the tyoe of food.

seska422

JennB629 wrote: »

ShashayLee wrote: »

trying weighing, it is way more accurate & use grams, i noticed a huge difference. Scales are cheap, check walmart. You will be surprised i know i was It's become a habit now to carry my weigh scale with me at work. My co workers are now used to it & don't comment any more lol

Lol thanks!! I will check out Walmart... But how many calories should I be consuming??

You should be consuming at least 1200 plus 25-50% of your exercise calories.

Weighing your solid food, measuring your liquids, and double-checking that you use the correct nutritional information for everything will get your actual calorie consumption down to where you want it to be.

psuLemon

Mrj183 wrote: »

your body composition would be changing. weight is culmination of water, bones, muscle and fat. Use a mirror or clothing size to gauge progress. Muscle is way heavier than fat so dnt always take the scales as gospel. if youre nit smaller re evaluate your food. it may ve the tyoe of food.

Muscle is denser than fat, but that doesn't even matter as the OP isn't gaining muscle on a low calorie diet and no progressive overload lifting program.

The two biggest errors (one has already been discussed), 1. logging accuracy (food scales are the best way to be more accurate) and 2. consistency. If you open your food diary OP, we can look at the latter as well.

MommyL2015

You should net no fewer than 1200. So if you exersise, eat those calories back but I would underestimate what you burn to be safe.

As you lose weight, weight loss moves slower and slower. I'm 5'1" and down to my last 6 pounds, which at 1200 calories, I expect to lose about .2-.3 pounds a week, I try to walk as much as I can so I can eat more and get a bit more of a deficit because I'm not a happy person when I'm hungry.

kami3006

Weighing vs measuring video:

https://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY

ohmscheeks

Odd... I am the same height and started at the same weight. When I stuck to 1200 cal, I lost weight every single day... I can't fathom someone eating 1200 cal and not losing anything for a few months! Doc in a box?

seska422

ohmscheeks wrote: »

Odd... I am the same height and started at the same weight. When I stuck to 1200 cal, I lost weight every single day... I can't fathom someone eating 1200 cal and not losing anything for a few months! Doc in a box?

That's why people are recommending a food scale. If you don't weigh your food, what you think is 1200 may be as many as 1500 or 1700 calories or even more. We can't ever get exact calorie amounts but the way to get as close as possible is with a food scale.

ShashayLee

looking at an online calorie counter you should be able to do up to around 1595.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
I eat back around half of my exercise calories & I think many on here do around half to 75%

kshama2001

JennB629 wrote: »

I never weighed my food before when I lost weight so that's why I didn't try it this time.

I find it easier and faster to weigh than measure.

I've lost weight many times without even counting calories, but I like the mindfulness of doing it this way.

Maxematics

JennB629 wrote: »

I never weighed my food before when I lost weight so that's why I didn't try it this time.

So, I should eat 800 calories & burn 400 & not eat back those calories? Bc I don't usually eat back my workout calories.

No, you shouldn't eat 800 calories, but like others have said you are eating way too much. At your height and weight, even with a larger margin of error you should still be seeing weight loss, especially since you said you don't eat back exercise calories. This would be easier if you had an open diary, but based on what you've said it seems like you're actually consuming 1700+ calories per day and not anywhere near 1200.

psuLemon

Also regarding calories, you need to find a balance between eating below your TDEE but still getting enough nutrients to sustain healthy body functions.. that won't happen at 800 calories or 1000. Since you did well on 1500 calories before, that might be a good starting point along with using a food scale and logging daily.

Kalikel

If you're not weighing the food, it may look like it's working out to 1200 calories, but actually be more than 1200. So, you need to either weigh the food or drop the calorie goal by like 100/every two weeks until you see a loss.

Weighing is a pain, but so is measuring and weighing will sometimes give you fewer things to wash. Sometimes. Sometimes not, lol.

Soopatt

Well, there are two ways to do it, both accomplishing the same thing.

Weight Loss Strategy 1 : You can weigh all your food and liquids with a digital scale which will ensure you are eating exactly 1200. You will lose weight.

OR

Weight Loss Strategy 2 : You can not weight everything on the scale and continue to eyeball. Eyeball 800 instead of 1200 as your eyeballing seems to be out by a fair margin. As your 800 eyeballing guess will probably be closer to 1200 in reality, you will lose weight.

Both accomplish the same thing, but strategy 1 will be less stressful and more reliable and you wont have anyone panicking that you are not eating enough (which you wouldnt actually be doing in version 2 as your eyeballing is off).

I use strategy 1 and I also resisted for a while - the scale is really your friend and I promise its not a big hassle when you get used to it.

angelexperiment

You probably are eating maintenance cals. Probably more than you think since you are not weighing foods ( you want a scale with a Tare function btw not the cheap 5 plastic scale) Otis a difference knowing you are eating 4 oz chicken vs 9 oz 110 cals vs 230 cals.

JennB629

Okay I went & bought a scale. I am going to consume 1,250 calories & NOT eat my workout calories. Thanks everyone for your help...

One website said to lose weight fast, I need 1,495 calories... So I guess what I'm not sure of is how many I should consume!

DeguelloTex

You can almost definitely lose weight eating more than 1200. 1500 might not be an unreasonable range with that amount of exercise.

psuLemon

JennB629 wrote: »

Okay I went & bought a scale. I am going to consume 1,250 calories & NOT eat my workout calories. Thanks everyone for your help...

One website said to lose weight fast, I need 1,495 calories... So I guess what I'm not sure of is how many I should consume!

If you are exercising, you would want to eat a bit more calories to fuel your body. Large deficits aren't always more beneficial as it can increase the amount of lean body mass lost.... Personally, I would rather start a little high and taper down as necessary than start low and try to taper up.

JPLambertski

I just wanted to say thank you to all the commenters here and to JennB629 for starting this thread. My wife and I are both struggling with this same issue: according to our diaries, we should lost plenty by now and we're going nowhere. We have a digital scale but only use it in those rare circumstances where there's no easy way to measure what we're eating more conveniently. For the next month I'm going to use the scale religiously and see what happens. Thanks again!

DaddieCat

JPLambertski wrote: »

I just wanted to say thank you to all the commenters here and to JennB629 for starting this thread. My wife and I are both struggling with this same issue: according to our diaries, we should lost plenty by now and we're going nowhere. We have a digital scale but only use it in those rare circumstances where there's no easy way to measure what we're eating more conveniently. For the next month I'm going to use the scale religiously and see what happens. Thanks again!

Congrats on taking that final step. Log accurately and you will see results. Food labels can be off by up to 20% as far as calorie count or weight is involved. There is next to no regulation oversight on this, so weighing and measuring accurately will make all the difference for you.