Feeling frustrated

simkins_mary

I have been working on a lifestyle change for about a month and a half now at first I was losing about a pound a week, then 2 weeks ago I had lost 4 pounds in one week, I havent lost a pound since! Nothing in 2 weeks! I was hoping to see at least a pound per week. I have reduced my calorie intake a lot and have been eating healthy foods, I have not got much excerzice as I would like but I do get some. What am I doing wrong?

aliem

You usually lose weight the fastest at the beginning of your change, because you tend to lose water weight. Are you running a calorie deficit? If you are new to eating healthful, I would recommend getting a scale to weigh out portion sizes until you are really good at estimating. Also, depending on what your exercise routine is, you may want to mix it up. Sometimes our body gets used to one routine, which lessens the results. Also, it is sometimes normal to hit a plateau! Just keep at it!

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.

lthames0810

Have patience. It's normal for weight loss to vary from one week to another. Just keep going.

jemhh

Weight loss is not linear. It is normal to have big loss weeks and small loss weeks and weeks in between.

Madwife2009

Happens to me all the time. I only seem to lose weight one week a month and then it's usually a significant amount, way higher than my target weekly loss. Last week I actually put on weight (about 5lbs, slightly annoying as I'd maintained my caloric deficit) but this coincided with my period starting so it was water weight; this week I lost 8lbs, so that got rid of the water weight and 3lbs of additional weight. Up until that point I hadn't lost anything on the scale for about three weeks. I don't expect to see another loss for 2-3 weeks now.

daniip_la

2 weeks ago, you lost 4lbs. You said you're expecting 1lbs/week loss. That sets you up for a few weeks without a loss on the scale, theoretically.

I find that anytime I have a big, unexpected loss, I stall for a few weeks. And then I have another big loss and stall for a few more weeks.