Why isn't it working?!

Nickisa24

When I started losing weight, I was unemployed so had activity level set to sedentary and was given 1200cals a day. I lost a fairly steady 1-2lbs a week.
I've been back at work for just under 2 weeks doing 2 jobs... I work 7am-3pm as a restaurant manager/waitress. Day times are quiet so I don't have any staff on with me except the chef so just do it all myself so I'm on my feet walking FAST and light lifting for these 8 hours. Then I go to my 2nd job, cleaning myself and checking on my other cleaner at another site until around 6pm. I work out 3 times a week but don't log them. So I underestimated (I thought anyway) and changed my activity level to lightly active and as I'm close to goal, changed loss from 2lbs to 0.5lb a week. This gave me 1410cals. Just over 2 weeks into this new routine and I have put on 2lbs!! I've had 1-2 days where I've gone over by about 1-200 cals but I did that before and was still losing as I have days when I'm well under so it all balances out at the end of the week. What went wrong? I'm not sure I can go back to 1200 now that I'm working again. I don't think I'd have any energy

tcunbeliever

Keep where you are and give it a couple more weeks. The increase in activity will cause water retention in your muscles - up to 6 lbs - but it will come off once your body adapts to the new activity level, which typically takes about 3 weeks...try taking measurements instead, you will still see your losses there even when the scale goes up from water weight.

MommyMeggo

When starting a new routine your body needs time to adjust. Sounds like you went into an activity level overhaul from where you were. Give your body time and dont underfeed it.
Also take into account the time of month and hormonal shifts and sodium. Normal fluctuations. Calories of 1410 if logged accurately wont amount to 2lbs of FAT gain in two weeks with active days and 3 work outs.

Chef_Barbell

Are you weighing your food?

DisneyDude85

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

Are you weighing your food?

This. Going from 1000 cal deficit a day to 250 a day doesn't leave as much wiggle room. Make sure your logging is on point.

quiksylver296

Ben_there_done_that

Wow, nice flow chart. You can't beat pretty charts and graphs.

Indygirl_81

Also try making sure you are getting enough sleep, this makes a huge difference for me.

SezxyStef

good chance you are eating more than you think or you need time to adjust to this new routine.

MountainMomma58

You mentioned undereating some days and overeating others as balancing out. Your body will somewhat shut down if it thinks it is starving. What is "well under?" Your metabolism sounds like it needs to be more stable. Severely undereating will mess with it. Try to keep everything on a more even level every day.

ogtmama

My bet is water retention because of the increased activity...give it a couple more weeks and if you haven't gone back to normal, start weighing (if it's important enough given you are close to goal).

safully1

The flow chart was amazing. It is usually what I try to convey to friends that complain about the lack of loss when initially starting.

One thing that you need to concern yourself with is undereating (Mountain hit on this, too). If your body goes into starvation mode your BMR will drop significantly to where any caloric increases will net you pounds. I struggled with this concept for years.

roamingtiger

Stress can also cause weight gain.

jessiferrrb

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

You mentioned undereating some days and overeating others as balancing out. Your body will somewhat shut down if it thinks it is starving. What is "well under?" Your metabolism sounds like it needs to be more stable. Severely undereating will mess with it. Try to keep everything on a more even level every day.

safully1 wrote: »

The flow chart was amazing. It is usually what I try to convey to friends that complain about the lack of loss when initially starting.

One thing that you need to concern yourself with is undereating (Mountain hit on this, too). If your body goes into starvation mode your BMR will drop significantly to where any caloric increases will net you pounds. I struggled with this concept for years.

Starvation mode in this context is a myth.

Give it time, tighten up your logging and let your body adjust to your new routine. if in 6 weeks you still see no loss re-evaluate your calories and consider weighing your food for increased logging accuracy.

Nickisa24

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

You mentioned undereating some days and overeating others as balancing out. Your body will somewhat shut down if it thinks it is starving. What is "well under?" Your metabolism sounds like it needs to be more stable. Severely undereating will mess with it. Try to keep everything on a more even level every day.

By 'well under' I mean...for example last week I ate about 50-100 calories less than my target Monday-Thursday. Then I ate 200 calories over on Friday, 100 under on Saturday and 200 over on Sunday. So Monday-Thursday and Saturday, I 'banked about 450 cals and over ate 400 cals on Fridays and Sunday so it balanced itself out. Does 200 calories up/down make a difference to my metabolism?

MountainMomma58

It could, depending upon what you eat. The daily allotment of balanced calories is there to keep your body running as best as it can. If your 200 calories either way are all protein or all fat or all carbs, that may make a difference. I would try to balance out what you are eating so its somewhat consistent each day.

VintageFeline

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

It could, depending upon what you eat. The daily allotment of balanced calories is there to keep your body running as best as it can. If your 200 calories either way are all protein or all fat or all carbs, that may make a difference. I would try to balance out what you are eating so its somewhat consistent each day.

No no no no no. No.

There are plenty of people who calorie cycle, bank calories or do 5:2. Their metabolisms are just fine. The only time "starvation mode" is a thing is after an extended period of undereating, as in months on end under your BMR that will cause some adaptive thermogenesis. And even then it's not significant enough to cause weight loss to stop or even weight gain to happen. That's not how physics works.

I think your increase is just a combination of things, muscle repair water retention, stress causing water retention and adjusting to the new routine. Your deficit is also smaller now so losses will be even harder to see through natural fluctuations. It's not uncommon for these to just show once a month or so in a so called whoosh.

Digest the flow chart and don't worry until you're a good 6 weeks in with no losses.

ogtmama

Nickisa24 wrote: »

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

You mentioned undereating some days and overeating others as balancing out. Your body will somewhat shut down if it thinks it is starving. What is "well under?" Your metabolism sounds like it needs to be more stable. Severely undereating will mess with it. Try to keep everything on a more even level every day.

By 'well under' I mean...for example last week I ate about 50-100 calories less than my target Monday-Thursday. Then I ate 200 calories over on Friday, 100 under on Saturday and 200 over on Sunday. So Monday-Thursday and Saturday, I 'banked about 450 cals and over ate 400 cals on Fridays and Sunday so it balanced itself out. Does 200 calories up/down make a difference to my metabolism?

No.

endlessfall16

Nickisa24 wrote: »

Does 200 calories up/down make a difference to my metabolism?

Even 1000 or in my case a whole day worth of calories wouldn't make a difference. I stuffed myself at a buffet over 24 hours ago and nothing since, except a cup of coffee with a tsp of sugar this morning, and I'm feeling great! (My daily activity is light though ).

Think of your body as a phone battery. The rate of energy draining is based on usage, not so much about hours.

cwolfman13

Keep in mind that with a 250 calorie deficit, that's only 1/2 Lb per week...that can easily be masked by fluctuations in water and waste, etc...when I was set to 1/2 Lb per week, this didn't really materialize as a trend for about 6 - 8 weeks because it's so small...what I mean is that I was losing and gaining and losing and gaining, etc...but after about 6-8 weeks you could actually see that the overall trend was right about 1/2 Lb per week.

You also have to consider with only a 250 calorie deficit, you have very little margin for error in logging and other estimations.

cerise_noir

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

It could, depending upon what you eat. The daily allotment of balanced calories is there to keep your body running as best as it can. If your 200 calories either way are all protein or all fat or all carbs, that may make a difference. I would try to balance out what you are eating so its somewhat consistent each day.

No, absolutely not. Metabolisms run 24/7.

MountainMomma58

Yes metabolism runs all the time, slow or fast. Certain exercises raise your metabolism, and certain foods do too. Unless you know what combination of foods she is eating and what exercise she is doing, you can't be certain if her metabolism is slow or fast. Fast will burn more calories. There are obviously many things going on in her life. Not one answer.

VintageFeline

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

Yes metabolism runs all the time, slow or fast. Certain exercises raise your metabolism, and certain foods do too. Unless you know what combination of foods she is eating and what exercise she is doing, you can't be certain if her metabolism is slow or fast. Fast will burn more calories. There are obviously many things going on in her life. Not one answer.

Oh boy. No again. Slow and fast metabolisms aren't really a thing. Food doesn't make any significant difference to your calorie requirements and exercise doesn't increase the metabolism so much as require an extra use of energy eg. calories.

What you think you know isn't actually how any of this works.

OP, look at post counts, for the most part, those with high post counts are probably going to be the better bet to listen to.....

SusanMFindlay

I suspect the OP is retaining water from the sudden increase in activity. Give it a few more weeks.

MountainMomma58

Metabolism is a thing. Maybe not her problem, but it is a thing.

snickerscharlie

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

Metabolism is a thing. Maybe not her problem, but it is a thing.

Metabolism *is* a thing. A good thing. Because without it, we'd all be dead.

Different foods do not have a measurable effect on metabolic rates. What I mean is there simply aren't foods that will speed up what you may perceive as being a 'slow' metabolism. Despite what Dr. Oz and other quacks say.

Edited to add: And the supplements they promote don't either.

ogtmama

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

Metabolism is a thing. Maybe not her problem, but it is a thing.

If you mean metabolism as in the rate you burn fat at rest as determined by size, percentage of muscle etc. Then yes...metabolism is a thing.

If you mean metabolism that magical thing that some people are blessed with high ones and some of us are doomed to suffer and you can change it by working out in the am instead of pm and drinking Apple cider vinegar with hot peppers than no...it's not a thing.

Spliner1969

One of your jobs is as a manager/waitress; are you eating the food they serve? Most restaurant/diner food is swimming in oil/butter/sodium which ramps up the calories significantly. If you do eat any of the food prepared at work, you may want to peek into the preparation process and create recipes for the items rather than picking blindly from the database. Just a thought. Otherwise, your body may just be retaining water due to the new activity level, give it more time and double down on trying to log accurately.

CattOfTheGarage

Don't panic, 2 weeks is not a lot of time, you may be retaining water.

I put on 4lb of water yesterday. I'm not panicking about it, and neither should you. Make sure you're logging accurately, and chill out.

SusanMFindlay

ogtmama wrote: »

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

Metabolism is a thing. Maybe not her problem, but it is a thing.

If you mean metabolism as in the rate you burn fat at rest as determined by size, percentage of muscle etc. Then yes...metabolism is a thing.

If you mean metabolism that magical thing that some people are blessed with high ones and some of us are doomed to suffer and you can change it by working out in the am instead of pm and drinking Apple cider vinegar with hot peppers than no...it's not a thing.

Agreed. You can change your base calorie burn by increasing NEAT though (non-exercise activity - fidgeting, walking instead of driving, standing instead of sitting, that sort of thing)

I'll also add the caveat that "slow metabolism" and "fast metabolism" do exist for people with thyroid conditions.

ugofatcat

MountainMomma58 wrote: »

You mentioned undereating some days and overeating others as balancing out. Your body will somewhat shut down if it thinks it is starving. What is "well under?" Your metabolism sounds like it needs to be more stable. Severely undereating will mess with it. Try to keep everything on a more even level every day.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment is where the idea of starvation mode originated. You can read more about it here: http://www.madsciencemuseum.com/msm/pl/great_starvation_experiment

Here is the cliff notes version: In this study, young men lived in a lab where researchers controlled (to the gram) everything they ate. For the first 3 months, they fed them 3,200 calories a day. Then, they slashed this to 1,500 calories. They measured subjects weight, muscle mass, metabolism, organ function as well as the phychological impacts of hunger.

While subjects metabolism decreased, they also lost a significant amount of their weight, especially muscle. If you look at the pictures of the subjects, you can count their ribs. That is what starvation mode looks like.

At the end of the day, all calories are is a measure of energy. If, for example, your body needs 2,000 calories to survive and you eat less then that, you will not gain weight. Your body is not going to store energy if it needs that energy to survive. Put another way, you wouldn't put your paycheck in a savings account before paying your bills, you would pay your bills first, and if there is left over money after then you put it in a savings account.