Am I doing something wrong?

claraoswold

I've been maintaining a deficit and trying to eat better but I don't seem to be losing like I should. Add to that I got sick for some reason on Thursday/Friday. Stomach hurt like crazy. Maybe Wednesday, it was the day I had mcdonalds and then the days after.

I have been exercising. I just don't know what's going on.

mumblemagic

The above might help with the "why I'm not losing weight". Might want to go to the doc to get your stomach issues checked out.

kommodevaran

How long and how often have you weighed yourself? How much have you lost in that time? What was your starting weight? How tall are you? How many calories are you eating and how do you make sure you are eating that amount?

claraoswold

I'm 5'8", I started in early August weighing 235. I'm 223 and it's been about that for a while now. I weigh after each workout before I take a shower. My goal is about 1560 and I usually get around that. Sometimes a bit over, but usually I'm over on gym days and not by much (usually <100) so it shouldn't matter all that much.

mumblemagic

claraoswold wrote: »

I'm 5'8", I started in early August weighing 235. I'm 223 and it's been about that for a while now. I weigh after each workout before I take a shower. My goal is about 1560 and I usually get around that. Sometimes a bit over, but usually I'm over on gym days and not by much (usually <100) so it shouldn't matter all that much.

Are you *eating* 1560 calories, or are you getting 1560 calories net after you have eaten back exercise calories?

Also, are you logging accurately, by which I mean weighing all your food on a digital scale in grams, and using mls for liquids?

JoeCWV

Are you losing weight? If so there is no problem. If not then you are eating too much. Don't worry about how fast you are losing. You did not gain the weight over night, so don't expect to lose it over night.

dragon_girl26

claraoswold wrote: »

I'm 5'8", I started in early August weighing 235. I'm 223 and it's been about that for a while now. I weigh after each workout before I take a shower. My goal is about 1560 and I usually get around that. Sometimes a bit over, but usually I'm over on gym days and not by much (usually <100) so it shouldn't matter all that much.

You've dropped 12 lbs since early August...that's roughly 1 lb a week so far, give or take. Thats a pretty good rate of loss. How much are you expecting to lose? When you say it's been "awhile", how long exactly? If it's been a couple weeks, that's normal. Weight loss is not linear, so it isn't likely that you will see a drop every week like clockwork.

GottaBurnEmAll

Was this before or after you were attacked by The Raven? That could have really messed with your metabolism.

(I'm sorry, I could not resist the Doctor Who reference, given the OP's user name.)

OP, when you say that you aren't losing like you should, what do you mean?

Have you adjusted your calorie goals to reflect your new weight? You should redo them every 10-20 pounds or so.

It's pretty normal to have things fluctuate around a bit after going smoothly for a while.

Unknown

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claraoswold

Well the thing that's concerning is that most of that was within the first two weeks. Looking at my graph thingy I've lost two pounds in the last month, and even that hasn't been linear.

I don't use scales, and if you looked at my diary it's pretty obvious why. If I eat two eggs I eat two eggs. If I eat a slice of ham I eat a slice of ham. My lunch is a cup of applesauce or something, so I scan a barcode. If I still need a scale they're not difficult to get but I really don't see the point since I don't think it's THAT far off.

And yeah, it could be the whole being a suspended corpse thing

Oh, and it's gross 1560. I don't eat more than 1800 total almost ever. But that shouldn't matter that much. One thing that might concern me is that I might have my activity level a bit low. It's set to "low active" because that's what it was. On weekends it is sedentary but on weekdays my pedometer shows I walk about 8-9 thousand steps.

GottaBurnEmAll

Eh, it happens, but really... tighten up your logging. I see fried eggs, but no entries for the butter or oil they're fried in. That stuff counts.

When you get closer to goal weight, those grams and ounces on your ham slices and chicken breasts matter.

You're using entries that are in gram sizes, so you're just eyeballing and picking something? How do you know you have the right entry?

claraoswold

The ones that are in grams the packaging will list the size of say a slice in grams. I just take the number of slices and multiply by that.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

claraoswold wrote: »

Well the thing that's concerning is that most of that was within the first two weeks. Looking at my graph thingy I've lost two pounds in the last month, and even that hasn't been linear.

I don't use scales, and if you looked at my diary it's pretty obvious why. If I eat two eggs I eat two eggs. If I eat a slice of ham I eat a slice of ham. My lunch is a cup of applesauce or something, so I scan a barcode. If I still need a scale they're not difficult to get but I really don't see the point since I don't think it's THAT far off.

And yeah, it could be the whole being a suspended corpse thing

Oh, and it's gross 1560. I don't eat more than 1800 total almost ever. But that shouldn't matter that much. One thing that might concern me is that I might have my activity level a bit low. It's set to "low active" because that's what it was. On weekends it is sedentary but on weekdays my pedometer shows I walk about 8-9 thousand steps.

weight loss isnt linear and always weigh yourself first thing in the am after you use the bathroom(and before you eat) either in your underwear or naked. after you workout is not a good indicator of your weight,and water weight can mask any loss,weight loss fluctuates hr by hr,day by day. if you scan codes from food the packaging can be off by 20% or more,so you can be eating more than you think there.as for a piece of ham,if the package says 56g a slice it can be as much as 65g a slice every piece can be a different weight,sometimes less but rarely.a lot of the data on mfp for those scanned foods can be off so you need to cross reference it with the package in hand to see if its correct.I learned that the hard way(I gained some of my weight back not using the scale and using cups and measuring spoons and going by the package serving sizes). packaging can be way off and its allowed to be. if you dont weigh you dont know how much its off,same for eggs,a 50g egg can be 54g.

yirara

One thing: portion sizes tend to be pretty off, also in the UK. The bread I buy is usually quite a bit over per slice, ham is over quite a lot as well. Don't get me started on the deep freeze pizza I have sometimes. It's always heavier than what's mentioned on the packaging - and hence things have more calories. Just as an example:

I put 4 random slices of bread on the scale. According to the packaging they should be 44 grams at 108kcal per slice. They were 48, 52, 53, 49 though. That makes them 117-130kcal per slice. I eat 6 slices of bread per day. That's already 93kcal I did not account for.
I also just measured cheese. A slice should be 77kcal for 21 grams. The slices were all heavier as well, which would give me even more calories I did not account for.

Did you know that one table spoon of oil is about 15 grams. That's 135kcal. If you just estimate 10 grams you're off by 45kcal. If you don't count oil at all you're off by a lot.

itsbasschick

do you weigh all your food on a food scale? the poster above nailed it with the portion size thing. my husband's bread varies more than that - none of the slices is only 1 serving as per the label; they're all more than 1 serving, some quite a bit more. and using measuring cups and spoons for food isn't accurate, either.

and do you check each listing you choose in the MFP database for accuracy the first time you use it? there was a guy who chose the first listing he found for a particular potato salad - unfortunately it was 49 calories per serving while the potato salad actually has 450 grams per serving.

cerise_noir

Have you recalculated your calories since you've lost weight? I echo the food scale question. Do you use it for everything that isn't a beverage, stock/clear soup? Also, use the correct entries. Many entries in the database are so off they're laughable.

Scanning barcodes won't necessarily take you to an accurate entry. Don't use generic entries. Log the oil you cook your eggs in. In a carton, the eggs will weigh within a weight range and won't be the exact same weight every single time.

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Was this before or after you were attacked by The Raven? That could have really messed with your metabolism.

(I'm sorry, I could not resist the Doctor Who reference, given the OP's user name.)

OP, when you say that you aren't losing like you should, what do you mean?

Have you adjusted your calorie goals to reflect your new weight? You should redo them every 10-20 pounds or so.

It's pretty normal to have things fluctuate around a bit after going smoothly for a while.

SO much this.
@GottaBurnEmAll