Need an explanation

becca410berry

Okay so here's my story.

I am so frustrated. I do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day (making sure to get my heart rate up and sweat) and Pilates or other body weight exercises. I stay around 1500-1700 calories. I make sure to eat all the good stuff that's good for you, fruits, veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, etc., drink anywhere between 64 and 96 ounces of water a day. However I cannot seem to drop any weight.

I am a 145 pound, 5'6", 23 year old female. A week ago I was at 142 and today it was up 3 pounds. I'm telling myself that it's just water weight and to relax, but I can't help but obsess a little. I just hate to see no results when I know I'm putting in such hard work.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I took my body measurements today, my waist, thighs, hips, etc. I know the number on the scale doesn't determine your overall healthy but I'm still discouraged.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Sassie_Lassie

Are you weighing/measuring the food that you put on your plate? If not you could be underestimating the calories you're consuming.

How long have you been at this?

jlahorn

I am a 143 pound, 5'6", 42-year-old female. I do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day, usually 60 minutes. I also eat healthy, nutrient-dense foods.

I maintain at 1450 and have to drop to 1200 to lose weight. I am older than you and I have Hashimoto's, but it still might just be your (crappy and unfortunate) truth that you have to drop your calories in order to lose.

On the plus side, 145 is a healthy weight for our height and actually looks pretty good

diannethegeek

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.

becca410berry

I weight all my food in grams, so I'm hoping that's accurate.

I started in March at 152 pounds. Now I'm just kind of stuck.

Sassie_Lassie wrote: »

Are you weighing/measuring the food that you put on your plate? If not you could be underestimating the calories you're consuming.

How long have you been at this?

Spliner1969

Someone will post a flowchart soon enough that will eventually tell you that you're not eating what you think you are eating. Get a food scale, measure things in grams if possible, oz if not, you'll be surprised at how inaccurate measurements like cups or servings are. Look for entries in the database that are measured in grams or scan the barcode to make sure you have the correct entry. I stalled out mid-way through my journey until I purchased a decent scale. I was eating much more than I thought, and sometimes not taking into account things like oils (very high calories) that I was using to cook with.

becca410berry

I don't use oils, and I weigh everything in grams. That's what's so frustrating about it.

Sassie_Lassie

Spliner1969 wrote: »

Someone will post a flowchart soon enough that will eventually tell you that you're not eating what you think you are eating. Get a food scale, measure things in grams if possible, oz if not, you'll be surprised at how inaccurate measurements like cups or servings are. Look for entries in the database that are measured in grams or scan the barcode to make sure you have the correct entry. I stalled out mid-way through my journey until I purchased a decent scale. I was eating much more than I thought, and sometimes not taking into account things like oils (very high calories) that I was using to cook with.

I weight all my food in grams, so I'm hoping that's accurate.

skinnyforhi

becca410berry wrote: »

Okay so here's my story.

I am so frustrated. I do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day (making sure to get my heart rate up and sweat) and Pilates or other body weight exercises. I stay around 1500-1700 calories. I make sure to eat all the good stuff that's good for you, fruits, veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, etc., drink anywhere between 64 and 96 ounces of water a day. However I cannot seem to drop any weight.

I am a 145 pound, 5'6", 23 year old female. A week ago I was at 142 and today it was up 3 pounds. I'm telling myself that it's just water weight and to relax, but I can't help but obsess a little. I just hate to see no results when I know I'm putting in such hard work.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I took my body measurements today, my waist, thighs, hips, etc. I know the number on the scale doesn't determine your overall healthy but I'm still discouraged.

Thanks for letting me vent!

In addition to the other suggestions, I'd suggest HIIT exercises. Is your aerobic exercise a steady jog or cycle? I'd actually suggest decreasing cardio to maybe 3 times a week, but doing something with intervals (a spin class or walking/jogging with sprints) that really wears you out, and doing weights or body weight exercises or weight training the other days. 3 weekly 45 minute spin classes where I'm working HARD melts calories.

cmriverside

You're at a healthy weight. I would suggest you start a progressive resistance routine. The scale weight is not all that matters. Set other more attainable goals at this point. Are you doing mostly cardio right now?

becca410berry

I walk, run, cycle, Pilates, hiit, circuits, swimming, anything and everything. I love trying new things and if I do the same thing for too long I get so bored.

I try to add in some sort of body weight or light weights so I'm not doing strictly cardio.

skinnyforhi

Pardon- I see that you started in March. Have you said how long you have been stuck? If it's just 2-3 weeks, I would keep doing what you're doing for another 2 weeks and see if you lose anything.

becca410berry

Yeah, I've been feeling stuck for maybe a couple weeks.

I know I need to be patient and give my body the time it needs to adjust or what have you, but I feel as though I've been doing very well and I just feel discouraged when I see the scale creep back up.

MissusMoon

becca410berry wrote: »

Yeah, I've been feeling stuck for maybe a couple weeks.

I know I need to be patient and give my body the time it needs to adjust or what have you, but I feel as though I've been doing very well and I just feel discouraged when I see the scale creep back up.

Your weight loss is going to be super slow at this point because you're already in a health range. If you're trying lots of new exercises, those could cause you to retain water as well.