Y am I not losing weight?
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twinnermom441 wrote: »I agree with above posted statement to watch your sodium intake. People concentrate so much on calories (still important to track them) and ignore sodium. That is where you'll see a difference. My trainer told me to keep my sodium intake below 2000mg per day. I try to keep it at 1200. You also may not be drinking enough water every day. You should be drinking at least half of your body weight in water. I drink a gallon of water every single day (well over the half my body weight). Sometimes more depending on my workouts-I sweat a lot!!!!!
this makes absolutely zero difference to fat loss, period. This is like buying stuff on your credit card you can't afford. Having less water in your system is not a desirable thing, nor is having low sodium.2 -
I burn a lot through walking but it's because intake a lot of very long walks/hikes with the baby, I also don't weigh my food, but I do try to estimate high...if I don't know the exact calories of what I've eaten I use the highest available comparable food. I also go down as low as 1000 calories some days when I am particularly lazy, and up to 1400 when it's a busy day. I figure for my own personal sake, if I'm trying to create a 1000 calorie deficit per day and it's only 800...I'm ok with that.0
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GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.0 -
GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
Maybe they're running at 7 mph1 -
GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
Exercise is not meant to be included in your daily activity level, however whatever works for you is working. Theoretically you add your exercise calories to the level you choose from below:
Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
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GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
I wouldn't say fitness trackers are wildy optimistic. Treadmills and other machines are. Fitness trackers, especially with heart rate monitors, are pretty accurate in my opinion.
I believe I posted earlier my burns from a run. It's less than 500 calories for running 6.5 miles in an hour. That takes into account my heart rate. If that was wildy optimistic, I would be very sad. It averages out to be about 75 cal/mile ran. It would make me sad if I only burned about 40-50 calories/mile ran. My fitness tracker estimate is below what many calculators online say.
So yes, many machines are not accurate, but I'd say fitness trackers are pretty accurate.
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You weigh less than 16.68 pounds? (A gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs)twinnermom441 wrote: »You also may not be drinking enough water every day. You should be drinking at least half of your body weight in water. I drink a gallon of water every single day (well over the half my body weight). Sometimes more depending on my workouts-I sweat a lot!!!!!
The recommendation to drink at least half of your body weight in water daily (more than 14 gallons a day for most people) is dangerous misinformation. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/water-intoxication2 -
RosieRose7673 wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
I wouldn't say fitness trackers are wildy optimistic. Treadmills and other machines are. Fitness trackers, especially with heart rate monitors, are pretty accurate in my opinion.
I believe I posted earlier my burns from a run. It's less than 500 calories for running 6.5 miles in an hour. That takes into account my heart rate. If that was wildy optimistic, I would be very sad. It averages out to be about 75 cal/mile ran. It would make me sad if I only burned about 40-50 calories/mile ran. My fitness tracker estimate is below what many calculators online say.
So yes, many machines are not accurate, but I'd say fitness trackers are pretty accurate.
For you perhaps. I have a charge HR and have compared with most of my MFP friends and they all report the same thing. Fitbits seem to be more accurate for females of a certain weight range. My fitbit says I should be losing almost a pound a day...
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GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
Exercise is not meant to be included in your daily activity level, however whatever works for you is working. Theoretically you add your exercise calories to the level you choose from below:
Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
Actually this is how most TDEE calculators do it. We only recently got fitness trackers, and people dieted with CICO long before that. I think it is actually the right way to do it since you are not relying on a tracker which is wrong for many people.1 -
pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »The way that MFP is designed, yes, you are supposed to eat back the exercise calories. People say 50-75% of them, because the program tends to overestimate. The reason for eating some of these back is to fuel the workouts and provide the nutrition needed to maintain healthy body functioning. Eating 1200 calories and then working out without eating some of that back, would create a steep deficit that won't be supported long-term.
My dietary aid would kill if she knew a diet program actually told you to do that!
You need a new dietary aid. Seriously.4 -
jandsstevenson887 wrote: »So I guess I'm a weird anomaly but I haven't weighed a gram of my food and I've lost 1lb/week or more since starting MFP in January. I've now lost 20lbs.
I'm 5'3" and I started at 154 and I'm now at 134. I don't even have measuring cups. I'm working overseas and I eat in a work cafeteria for every meal so I can't make my own food. I do the best I can estimating. I don't own a fitbit and I use the calorie burn that Runkeeper gives me or that the spin bike reads after putting in my weight and age. I always give myself an "error cushion" and only eat back about half of my exercise calories. I don't eat in restaurants because there aren't any where I am. I only drink water and one cup of coffee a day.
It is possible without a food scale but you have to be as honest as you can and overestimate what you are eating.
I've gone from obese to normal weight in 217 days. Half of that was without a scale, and estimating many things. I know I measure and estimate accurately. I know that from making comparisons previously. I know that from checking once I got a scale. And I know that because I lose weight at roughly the predicted weight when I measure things using volume measures or estimate.
The message here should be (often lost in the "buy a scale" hyperbole), if you aren't losing weight eating what you believe to be a calorie deficit, you aren't accurately accounting for your calories. In that case, you need to buy a scale.1 -
GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
Exercise is not meant to be included in your daily activity level, however whatever works for you is working. Theoretically you add your exercise calories to the level you choose from below:
Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)
Actually this is how most TDEE calculators do it. We only recently got fitness trackers, and people dieted with CICO long before that. I think it is actually the right way to do it since you are not relying on a tracker which is wrong for many people.
I refuse to buy a tracker, because I'm a stubborn ol' lady. The only thing that would be nice is a heart rate monitor, but then again I just check my heart rate the good old fashioned way. The calculators that MFP uses are not based on TDEE so there may be some confusion for anyone that's worried enough to think too hard about it.0 -
RosieRose7673 wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
I wouldn't say fitness trackers are wildy optimistic. Treadmills and other machines are. Fitness trackers, especially with heart rate monitors, are pretty accurate in my opinion.
I believe I posted earlier my burns from a run. It's less than 500 calories for running 6.5 miles in an hour. That takes into account my heart rate. If that was wildy optimistic, I would be very sad. It averages out to be about 75 cal/mile ran. It would make me sad if I only burned about 40-50 calories/mile ran. My fitness tracker estimate is below what many calculators online say.
So yes, many machines are not accurate, but I'd say fitness trackers are pretty accurate.
For you perhaps. I have a charge HR and have compared with most of my MFP friends and they all report the same thing. Fitbits seem to be more accurate for females of a certain weight range. My fitbit says I should be losing almost a pound a day...
Maybe it's Fitbit then. Who knows! I have an Apple Watch so maybe they are different.
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RosieRose7673 wrote: »RosieRose7673 wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »pumpkinRIP02 wrote: »The calories plus what it says 2 eat from exercising, but I don't eat it all. I leave 200 to 400 left every time, sometimes more. I don't have a scale I use the bar codes and measuring spoons and stuff. I am 5ft 4 in Age 28
You aren't supposed to eat the Exercised off calories back on!
You actually just doubled you're calorie intake by doing that!
Huh? Yes you are. That's the point.
no it totally depends on how you set your goals. I use lightly active although I sit all day, and that accounts for any exercise I do. Fitness trackers and estimating calories for treadmills etc are wildly optimistic. I ignore all extra calories earned and my weight loss is exactly as predicted. I see non-obese people on my wall posting that they burned 1400 calories in 120 minutes of running. Eating that back would result in weight gain, there is almost no question.
I wouldn't say fitness trackers are wildy optimistic. Treadmills and other machines are. Fitness trackers, especially with heart rate monitors, are pretty accurate in my opinion.
I believe I posted earlier my burns from a run. It's less than 500 calories for running 6.5 miles in an hour. That takes into account my heart rate. If that was wildy optimistic, I would be very sad. It averages out to be about 75 cal/mile ran. It would make me sad if I only burned about 40-50 calories/mile ran. My fitness tracker estimate is below what many calculators online say.
So yes, many machines are not accurate, but I'd say fitness trackers are pretty accurate.
For you perhaps. I have a charge HR and have compared with most of my MFP friends and they all report the same thing. Fitbits seem to be more accurate for females of a certain weight range. My fitbit says I should be losing almost a pound a day...
Maybe it's Fitbit then. Who knows! I have an Apple Watch so maybe they are different.
My Fitbit Charge HR is accurate for me, if not slightly an underestimation. The only time it was a bit odd for me was when I was trying to bulk and I only gained half of the weight I should have using its numbers. From what I've gathered due to user reviews and posts on MFP, Fitbit seems to be far off in overestimating for those who are obese and spot on for those who are leaner. Just to reiterate my stats, I'm 5'3.5", 111 pounds, and my Fitbit Aria puts me at an average of 18% body fat which is obviously way off and I would estimate I'm closer to 21 or 22%, as I still have leg fat but I have visible abs and a slim upper body. Of course there will be a margin of error for any fitness tracker, and I don't think Fitbit is close to perfect, but I usually question people who say it's so far off the mark that it's absurdly inaccurate.
There was a post on these boards a few weeks ago where a user claimed how Fitbit was so off and gave them so many extra calories that they gained weight eating them. They then went on to state how they'd get 7000+ steps for driving without walking anywhere. Well, duh, no wonder you got hundreds of extra calories and gained weight eating them back. I blame that error on the user, not Fitbit. If you know you didn't walk those steps, why are you not logging into Fitbit and reporting that as driving time instead of whining about how it gave you extra calories and you gained weight when you're the one who chose to eat them? I also see people who think the TDEE number Fitbit gives are the calories you should eat back. People who assume they burned 1500 from exercise when it's their BMR + activity for the day thus far.
I usually eat my calories back, but if I'm actually hungry for them. If I don't feel hungry, I'm not going to force myself to eat them. It's all about experimenting though. I do use the HR model which I've heard is more accurate. I'm curious as to what I'd get from a non HR model or even something like a Garmin or Apple Watch.1 -
This here is the issue. To reach "light" activity you need to have an activity level equivalent to walking 6000-7500 steps a day and not count these walking calories because they are already accounted for in your activity level. Here are the steps you need to consider to ensure a more accurate estimation of your calories:
1. Set your activity level to sedentary.
2. Eat back only 50%-75% of your exercise calories.
3. Don't expect to lose 2 pounds a week if you are not very heavy, because MFP caps the calorie level at 1200 and people go on thinking if they pick 2 lb they will achieve that on 1200 calories when it's not always possible for lighter people.
4. Try to buy a food scale if you can. It made a world of difference to me and I went from losing half of my expected loss to losing exactly as much as I'm supposed to lose.
5. Log the foods as soon as you eat them. Leaving logging until later may result in forgetting some of the things you ate.
6. Random bites can add up, so don't forget to account for those.
7. Remember that weight loss is not linear. You may go a week or two without losing, or you may even gain weight due to water retention, food, hormones...etc. Just be patient. That weight will drop off eventually.5 -
You weigh less than 16.68 pounds? (A gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs)twinnermom441 wrote: »You also may not be drinking enough water every day. You should be drinking at least half of your body weight in water. I drink a gallon of water every single day (well over the half my body weight). Sometimes more depending on my workouts-I sweat a lot!!!!!
The recommendation to drink at least half of your body weight in water daily (more than 14 gallons a day for most people) is dangerous misinformation. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/water-intoxication
The common recommendation of drinking half your body weight is how many ounces to drink - I weigh 133 lbs. so I would drink approximately 70 oz.2 -
You weigh less than 16.68 pounds? (A gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs)twinnermom441 wrote: »You also may not be drinking enough water every day. You should be drinking at least half of your body weight in water. I drink a gallon of water every single day (well over the half my body weight). Sometimes more depending on my workouts-I sweat a lot!!!!!
The recommendation to drink at least half of your body weight in water daily (more than 14 gallons a day for most people) is dangerous misinformation. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/water-intoxication
The common recommendation of drinking half your body weight is how many ounces to drink - I weigh 133 lbs. so I would drink approximately 70 oz.
Thanks for clarifying that one. I was having a hard time visualizing how I would look if I drank 74 pounds of water/day.
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From what i learned, not losing weight doesnt mean its not working. If your body is building muscle while losing fat, you can even gain weight. Instead of using the scale alone, you should find out your "measures" and see if there is any change on those.0
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From what i learned, not losing weight doesnt mean its not working. If your body is building muscle while losing fat, you can even gain weight. Instead of using the scale alone, you should find out your "measures" and see if there is any change on those.
OP says she's walking 5 miles a day, and unless she has mentioned it and I missed it, she isn't doing weight training. Combine that with eating in a deficit, she wouldn't be building muscle.5
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