So confused

LittleChipin

I do my 1230 calorie a day limit for my 5'2" SW: 153lb frame, I started my journey september 5th and weighed myself 9/22 and weighed 147.6lbs then the next day I was 149.9 I did eat over on that Saturday but no way enough to gain over 2 pounds! I do weigh all my food with a digital scale (besides Saturday, didn't even log everything), and log it. So I got replies that it was water weight and sodium and it would fall off but I waited and weighed today at 148.4 after bathroom and naked (tmi I know but no waste build up, I know for sure, trust me, you don't wanna know). So I'm just not sure what's going on? I don't eat much exercise calories back because I try to stay healthy and away from heavy calorie foods and honestly I'm not hungry enough. I am using a weight trend app and ill attach it. What could inhibit my weight loss? My calories are so low that I should be losing consistently. I should also mention i workout about 5 times a week for 60 minutes, and MFP activity level is not very active due to me being in class during the day and being a nanny after. Helllpppp!

cee134

This first:

Alyssa_Is_LosingIt

Okay. Slow down. Breathe.

You started 9/5. It is now 9/26. It has been 3 weeks and you've lost 4.5 pounds. That is great!

You don't have a lot of weight to lose, so losing over a pound a week is going to be difficult due to the large deficit you would need to create.

Just keep doing what you're doing. Don't overthink it. Don't be so impatient. You're doing something right considering the weight that you've lost.

It isn't going to be linear. Some days you'll weigh more, some days you'll weigh less. That's normal.

As long as you're losing weigh over time, you're doing fine.

cathipa

The scale can change many times through out the course of the day. Avoid weighing daily. The 2 pound gain was probably water weight which is why it was lower today. Have a reasonable goal so you don't go over your limit. 1230 may be too strict. Why not change to 0.5-1 pound loss per week. Eat back only 1/2 of your exercise calories (or none at all). Weight loss isn't linear.

LittleChipin

cathipa wrote: »

The scale can change many times through out the course of the day. Avoid weighing daily. The 2 pound gain was probably water weight which is why it was lower today. Have a reasonable goal so you don't go over your limit. 1230 may be too strict. Why not change to 0.5-1 pound loss per week. Eat back only 1/2 of your exercise calories (or none at all). Weight loss isn't linear.

If I increase my calories then exercise calories would definitely not get eaten. Finishing 1230 is hard enough since it's a lot of eating for me, and MFP gave me that calorie goal

Vegplotter

I'm sorry to break it to you but 1230 calories, especially if you are also adding back exercise calories, isn't that low for someone of 5'2".

CoffeeNCardio

2 lbs is a TOTALLY normal fluctuation. Don't panic. 3-5 lbs is a normal fluctuation frankly. You're gonna hold water sometimes. Maybe you had a high salt intake day, which makes you hold water weight. And regardless of the reason, weight just fluctuates, on it's own, without you having to do anything wrong. Now if you were unable to lose the 2 lbs over a couple months, it would be a problem, but that's not what's happening here. Weight loss isn't linear, you'l sort of go up and down like little ripple waves on the surface of the water, but so long as you continue to do what you're doing, you'll keep losing, even if it's a little slower than you anticipated. Just make sure your logging is accurate and consistent. The rest works out on it's own.

Alyssa_Is_LosingIt

LittleChipin wrote: »

cathipa wrote: »

The scale can change many times through out the course of the day. Avoid weighing daily. The 2 pound gain was probably water weight which is why it was lower today. Have a reasonable goal so you don't go over your limit. 1230 may be too strict. Why not change to 0.5-1 pound loss per week. Eat back only 1/2 of your exercise calories (or none at all). Weight loss isn't linear.

If I increase my calories then exercise calories would definitely not get eaten. Finishing 1230 is hard enough since it's a lot of eating for me, and MFP gave me that calorie goal

That is not a lot of calories. You didn't become overweight eating 1230 calories - you had to have eaten more than that to become overweight, especially considering what a steep deficit this is for you to have lost nearly 5 lbs in 3 weeks at your height and weight.

I can eat around 1800 on an active day and it is still hard for me to stop when I'm supposed to. I would not make it on 1230 calories. At least not for long.

LittleChipin

Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »

LittleChipin wrote: »

cathipa wrote: »

The scale can change many times through out the course of the day. Avoid weighing daily. The 2 pound gain was probably water weight which is why it was lower today. Have a reasonable goal so you don't go over your limit. 1230 may be too strict. Why not change to 0.5-1 pound loss per week. Eat back only 1/2 of your exercise calories (or none at all). Weight loss isn't linear.

If I increase my calories then exercise calories would definitely not get eaten. Finishing 1230 is hard enough since it's a lot of eating for me, and MFP gave me that calorie goal

That is not a lot of calories. You didn't become overweight eating 1230 calories - you had to have eaten more than that to become overweight, especially considering what a steep deficit this is for you to have lost nearly 5 lbs in 3 weeks at your height and weight.

I can eat around 1800 on an active day and it is still hard for me to stop when I'm supposed to. I would not make it on 1230 calories. At least not for long.

I gained weight eating heavy calorie large meals. Now I'm eating waaaayyy healthier and more frequent which is why I'm never hungry. My body was used to one large fatty meal and I switched it, anymore than what I eat now wouldn't work for ME.

LittleChipin

Vegplotter wrote: »

I'm sorry to break it to you but 1230 calories, especially if you are also adding back exercise calories, isn't that low for someone of 5'2".

Even if MFP gave me that goal to lose 1lb a week?

French_Peasant

LittleChipin wrote: »

Vegplotter wrote: »

I'm sorry to break it to you but 1230 calories, especially if you are also adding back exercise calories, isn't that low for someone of 5'2".

Even if MFP gave me that goal to lose 1lb a week?

It's plenty low, no matter what size you are. Seems like a fairly passive-aggressive thing to do to tell someone 1200 calories isn't low enough.

My weight floats around all month and then I would lose several pounds in a "whoosh" over a 4-5 day period. Then it would float around again (but not as high as before) till I got another "whoosh." Different people lose weight differently, and you need to take a long-term perspective to learn how YOU function and respond to weight loss so you can incorporate it into a lifestyle change. I would just cheat and log my lowest weight, because it was too discouraging to log the higher weights going back up. That helped me lose 25+ lbs over the past year.

VintageFeline

2lbs water weight bounce is totally normal. Chill out. If you're weighing daily to track the trend you need to give it more than 3 weeks to actually see what that trends, particularly when female. Our hormones can make our bodies do all kinds of fancy shiz with water!

1230 is plenty low enough, indicated by your rapid losses this far.

bbaugh2014

The best advice I have been given on MFP is to step away from the scale. If you are weighing yourself daily you will get caught up in the fluctuations. Try weighing yourself every 3 days, first thing in the morning. Then you are getting a more accurate reading.

alyssa0061

Yesterday I ate two Jimmy John's pickles and I was up three pounds this morning.

LittleChipin

So 1230 calories is low enough for my height?? Also I don't have to eat exercise calories back right?

SueInAz

It usually takes more than a day or two to lose water retained by a day of eating a lot of sodium. Water retention can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations. I typically gain 3-4 pounds right around my time of the month and when I lose it again it goes away about a pound per day.

I once gained 18 pounds of water while in the hospital for 3 days having my appendix out and I ate almost nothing while I was in there. It took over a week to all drop back off again and once it did I was down 5 pounds from the day I checked in to the hospital.

kshama2001

LittleChipin wrote: »

So 1230 calories is low enough for my height?? Also I don't have to eat exercise calories back right?

MFP uses the NEAT method, and as such the system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

neohdiver

LittleChipin wrote: »

I do my 1230 calorie a day limit for my 5'2" SW: 153lb frame, I started my journey september 5th and weighed myself 9/22 and weighed 147.6lbs then the next day I was 149.9 I did eat over on that Saturday but no way enough to gain over 2 pounds! I do weigh all my food with a digital scale (besides Saturday, didn't even log everything), and log it. So I got replies that it was water weight and sodium and it would fall off but I waited and weighed today at 148.4 after bathroom and naked (tmi I know but no waste build up, I know for sure, trust me, you don't wanna know).

I am eating considerably fewer calories than you are on a similar body frame (medically supervised VLC diet to attempt to put diabetes into remission). My weight loss in approximately the same time frame (from 9/24 to 9/26) is negative 1.6 lbs. Taking the entire past week into account, it is a loss of negative 1.4 lbs. In other words, on a diet of approximately 65% of what you are eating, I "gained" weight.

Hint: the weight gain is not real. If you are eating at a deficit, you will lose weight over time. My weight fluctuates up to 5 lbs within any given day. My guess is that tomorrow morning I'll be down at least 3 lbs from this morning. That's not real loss either - just the bottom of the water retention/loss; waste retention/loss cycle - which, by the way, you can't necessarily judge by the quantity of output.

I like seeing the daily fluctuations, spotting the rhythms (which is why I'm pretty sure I will be down tomorrow), etc. That way I'm ready for maintenance (starting next Monday) - at which point I will use staying within a range as the guide to whether I'm eating not enough or too much.

The daily fluctuations appear to be driving you, on the other hand, to distraction. If you can't tolerate the scales telling you (falsely) that you gained weight, switch to weekly (or farther apart) weigh-ins.

neohdiver

jmbmilholland wrote: »

I would just cheat and log my lowest weight, because it was too discouraging to log the higher weights going back up.

That's not cheating - it is as real as logging everything, logging your highest weight in the week, or logging an average over time. They are all just different ways of showing the trend (as long you're eating at a deficit or maintenance - only if you stop eating at a deficit or maintenance does your lowest weight no longer show a trend).

All I ever log is the next low weight. Once I hit a new low, I typically bounce around it for a few days, then drop to another new low, etc. (and on, and on)

lauractemple85

Weight loss is rarely linear, here is my graph showing less than a month of logging. My weight goes up and down but the overall trend of the graph is going down, and thats whats important. In fact, I'm two pounds up from yesterday...just 24 hours ago. Our bodies are weird, we just have to roll with it LOL.

LittleChipin

kshama2001 wrote: »

LittleChipin wrote: »

So 1230 calories is low enough for my height?? Also I don't have to eat exercise calories back right?

MFP uses the NEAT method, and as such the system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

That was a very helpful article and made me laugh too lol thank you, I guess I should be eating half my exercise back after all or my body can't burn what it wants

kdz0444

Try taking measurements along with using a scale. I find that even if the scale has moved up I have lost inches. And those inches are what's really important because so much goes into weight. I focus on those inches and so far I have lost 4 inches off my waist in 2 weeks and 3-4 inches off my hips. Being short, I'm barely pushing 5', the 12 lbs I have lost make a huge difference. Use the mirror and pictures as a guide as well. I can feel the difference and see the difference and it isn't always reflected in the number on the scale.