I'm yo-yoing and don't know what I'm doing wrong?

jesseckman1

So I started by losing a little weight but then gained a little too... the app tells me I should be losing weight but I'm not... what am I doing wrong?

JeromeBarry1

Open your food diary and get some good advice.

tiptoethruthetulips

Very little to go on. What is your height, weight? How much is a little weight loss and a little weight gain? Over what period of time?

cerise_noir

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Open your food diary and get some good advice.

This.
and
This

tiptoethruthetulips wrote: »

Very little to go on. What is your height, weight? How much is a little weight loss and a little weight gain? Over what period of time?

terbusha

There are lots of factors that can affect this. If you're hitting your calorie goal (actually weighing and measuring food portions honestly), hitting workouts hard with intensity 5-6 days/week, and not losing an appropriate amount of weight, I would ask if you have a history of very low and extended calorie intake. Your metabolism may be down and you may need to SLOWLY bring your calorie intake up to an appropriate level with a reverse diet. If you think this may be the case, let me know and we can chat more about how to do this.

quiksylver296

Since you give very little information for anyone to give suggestions on, go through this chart, find where you are lacking and tighten that up.

jesseckman1

Well I'm 5'8 and I started at 205.8 and I'm 205.4 in over a month... I want to lose more than that... I take somewhere between 9,000 and 15,000 steps a day and I'm almost always under my calorie goal...

cross2bear

Uh oh - "almost always under your calorie goal? You may be wiping out any deficit you have created when you go over. Tight logging and tracking will be helpful, and perhaps it would be more useful for you to track calories over the week, rather than daily, so you get an idea of how much of an actual deficit you have (or dont). You have lost weight, but agreed - not much, so that tells me that your deficit is VERY small, which again, points to a tracking issue.

CorneliusPhoton

You need a weekly deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound. One bad day can wipe that out.

Spliner1969

The best thing you can do is be 100% honest and accurate in your logging, stay at your calorie goals, and weigh in once a week. Some weeks you won't lose due to water retention, some weeks you will lose double. But if you aren't losing weight and you are eating back calories given to you by logging steps then that's likely your problem. Only eat back half of them for a month or so and see what happens.

jesseckman1

So am I not supposed to use my excercise calories as extra calories to
Eat?

CorneliusPhoton

jesseckman1 wrote: »

So am I not supposed to use my excercise calories as extra calories to
Eat?

Since there are errors in calories eaten (likely underestimated) and calories burned (often overestimated), take the conservative route and eat back no more than half of your exercise calories to remain in a deficit.

T0M_K

jesseckman1 wrote: »

So am I not supposed to use my excercise calories as extra calories to
Eat?

only eat like 50% just to give yourself a cushion.

Spliner1969

CorneliusPhoton wrote: »

jesseckman1 wrote: »

So am I not supposed to use my excercise calories as extra calories to
Eat?

Since there are errors in calories eaten (likely underestimated) and calories burned (often overestimated), take the conservative route and eat back no more than half of your exercise calories to remain in a deficit.

Agreed. Start with half. If you find yourself still losing less than anticipated after 2-3 weeks then drop it even lower, say to 25%. If you find you're losing weight faster than anticipated after 2-3 weeks then increase the amount you eat back of those calories. Every app/device/website will give you different estimations of calories burned for the same exercise. You just have to find out how the one you're using might be estimating, and whether or not it's accurate (it likely isn't). For instance, I use an app called Endomondo paired with a Polar H7 heart rate strap. I also allow my iPhone to count steps and add those into MFP automatically. So when I exercise Endomondo enters those calories into MFP for me. I know, over a period of adjustment just like we've suggested, that it is between 70-80% accurate for me. So as long as I eat back no more than 70-80% of those exercise calories I won't gain weight (I am no longer dieting, I am maintaining).