MFP doesn't work.
MEBaraszu
Posts: 8 Member
I am not going a calorie over. Extremely diligent. Not losing a pound in over 3 weeks. Angry I wasted time on a free program.
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Replies
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It's science, if consistent and accurate you will lose weight. But weight loss is not linear, you will go weeks without losing.
What are your stats?
How many calories are you eating?
Do you exercise and if so when did you start and do you eat back those calories?
When did you last see a loss on the scale?
How long have you been logging and how much have you lost so far?
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On WW I lost 1.5 to 2 lbs per week. Never stayed the same or gained.
I am at 1200 calories per day
57 year old woman
180 lbs
Slightly active. Walk on treadmill 4x a week.1 -
I also do not eat back calories burned. I stay at 1200 even if I burn 196 on treadmill.0
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Almost 4 weeks logging.2
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Did you take a look at the chart? May help you!4
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For clarity, when you say "extremely diligent", what does that mean?
Are you weighing everything with a food scale, including packaged foods?
Are you using measuring cups and spoons only for liquids?
Are you tracking the amount of cooking oil you use?
And are you choosing the correct entries in the food database?17 -
Yes looked at chart up above.0
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Check out the chart. Love it. Thank you
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Do you weigh your food on scales?7
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You weigh your food? Try opening your food diary to the public.
MFP does work, but it's not necessarily the right way of tracking for everyone. My sister refuses to weigh food and based on my years of experience with portion sizes she's eating 2x more than she thinks she is. The container method works better for her because she is forced to control portions and she doesn't have to count calories because the containers basically do it for her.13 -
Use a bodyfat caliper or pictures (best)..sometimes the scale doesn't move but you're still making progress. Just a thought. Don't quit.5
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I can't see your diary, but:
- Do you use a food scale? Not measuring cups, but actually weigh your food down to the gram on a food scale. If not you could easily be underestimating how much you eat. Even single serve items can be off. I have protein bars that a single serving is 45 g, but the bars will often weigh 50 g or more. If I wasn't weighing them this adds a nice chunk of calories.
- Do you log everything that passes your lips?
- Are you sure the entries you are using from the database are actually 100% correct? There are lots of entries that are highly inaccurate and cause users to think they are consuming less than they actually are. For example, there is a chicken entry that I've seen people use that is only 1/3 of the calories it should be.
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On WW I lost 1.5 to 2 lbs per week. Never stayed the same or gained.
I am at 1200 calories per day
57 year old woman
180 lbs
Slightly active. Walk on treadmill 4x a week.
Then go back to Weight Watchers? There are a lot of great people here who'd like to help you. But if you aren't interested in tweaking the program to make it work for you, then I'm not sure what the point of posting here is.49 -
It's also important that you sleep enough, choose healthy foods that optimize your body's systems, and be scrupulous with what and how you are reporting to yourself what you're eating. Are you cataloging literally everything? Do you weigh it or measure it to be sure? If not, you can fool yourself pretty easily (I know I can) and those uncatalogued calories are still being added up by your body who is NOT fooled. Also, you might try intermittent fasting. Here's a link: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/09/21/intermittent-fasting-calorie-restriction.aspx I do this EVERY.DAY. I fast for 14-18 hours daily and do my eating in the 6-8 hours remaining. And I make pretty healthy choices, usually.
I have done WW and MFP. I far prefer MFP. You aren't pushed to substitute healthy fats with heavily processed replacements, you aren't encouraged to use artificial sweeteners to satisfy your sweet tooth, and you don't feel like you failed merely because of a food choice at a given meal or on a given day. I am a 60-year-old woman who is moderately active and I also walk four miles at a time, four-five days a week. I have lost 11 lbs. in a month.
You might also want to have a check up with your doctor (if all the above is in order) to make sure you have no underlying metabolic issues (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol/triglycerides).
Finally, we can just get stuck. Make sure you aren't going UNDER the recommended allowance very often. You will slow your calorie burn down. Push the water and ramp up the exercise a little. And try to be active throughout your day, not just when you exercise.
Keep us posted.7 -
I am not going a calorie over. Extremely diligent. Not losing a pound in over 3 weeks. Angry I wasted time on a free program.
1. It has only been 3 weeks.
2. It has only been 3 weeks
3. It has only been 3 weeks.
Patience, grasshopper. Oh, and a food scale.
No one can help you if you don't answer any questions or even open your diary...35 -
OP, thanks for the 'warning.' I don't guess I lost 35 pounds. Purely a figment of my imagination that I had to get a new wardrobe. Even my shoes were too big.
IF you follow the program, you WILL lose.
Sorry you wasted your time on a free program. Buy the premium program; maybe that will help.
SMH.
33 -
On WW I lost 1.5 to 2 lbs per week. Never stayed the same or gained.
I am at 1200 calories per day
57 year old woman
180 lbs
Slightly active. Walk on treadmill 4x a week.
so go back to weight watchers??? why are you here complaining about a free ap if you found something else that worked so great for you???20 -
Mfp does work. And it can work for everyone. But you still have to put in the work to lose the weight. And some weeks you will lose and some weeks you won't. If you are not using a food scale then that is the place to start. Most likely you are overestimating what you are eating. I started on mfp as a 47 year old weighing 195 pounds. Fifteen months later I am down 68-70 pounds. It does work. I weigh all of my food at home. I eat out pretty regularly and sometimes have to guess, but I try to be very consistent when I guess and I weigh everything I can. I started out just walking my dogs. I eat back most of my exercise calories. Mfp is designed for you to eat back exercise calories. If you have a 1200 calorie goal it is very important for your health to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. If you aren't willing to use MFP as it is intended to be used, then you really can't complain about it not working. If you are truly eating 1200 calories a day and not losing then you need to see a doctor because something else is going on.9
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it does work! I have a metabolic disorder and still lost weight.4
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Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »Weight watchers is notorious for very low calorie goals.. hard to even know what amount of calories they actually gave you really..
That being said, just because your body lost weight right away one time does not mean it's going to do the same this time. But you can't just throw your hands up in the air and go "screw this".. try every angle first, there is a lot of things to consider when it comes to the human body.
yep had a friend join a few months ago. she decided to weigh everything she was eating just to see the difference,.she was only eating 800-900 calories per day on WW and she was over 350lbs. of course she isnt my friend now but thats another story.3 -
I am not going a calorie over. Extremely diligent. Not losing a pound in over 3 weeks. Angry I wasted time on a free program.
you think 3 weeks is bad? try not losing anything for over 6 months(weighing everything,eating as healthy as U could,etc). then losing 1.2 lbs and then not losing again for a few more months.Im still going.11 -
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I am not going a calorie over. Extremely diligent. Not losing a pound in over 3 weeks. Angry I wasted time on a free program.
When you don't lose weight and you are not gaining, it basically means your on maintenance (even if the calculator suggested those numbers)...Have you tried reducing your calories by 200 and see how that goes (unless you already have a very low number. It's hard to give you an answer with just one line.
No. No no no no no. She's eating 1200 at 180lbs. She's also doing a bit of exercise. She should not be dropping calories at all (at least what she thinks she's eating. Without further clarification or diary opening, it's all supposition at this point).14 -
I genuinely like helping people with their problems on here, but I'm not in love with helping people who start out angry.
OP, either you want to use this program, or you don't. If you don't, and weight watchers suited you better, that's fine. WW works for a lot of people and all I or anyone else can really say is best of luck and we hope you meet your goals.
If you do want to carry on using myfitnesspal, there is a lot to learn on these forums, about how fast you can expect to lose, the reality of fluctuations and plateaus (which are inevitable when you are losing at a slower, more sustainable rate) and the advantages of losing weight more slowly, which make those annoyances worthwhile.
There is a huge amount to learn about accurate logging, how to handle exercise ("ignore it" is the wrong answer), sources of inaccuracy and how to be truly, really, completely honest with yourself about your habits and how you got into this situation, no excuses.
There's information about how to deal with binging, how to develop healthy attitudes to eating, how to manage treats and feasts and all-inclusive cruises. There's information not just about how to lose, but how to maintain that loss - which is the only thing that matters in the end. And over on the Success Stories sub forum there is story after story after story of how it did work, for a lot of people.
But at the end of the day, either you're here to listen and learn, or you're here to rant and quit. If it's the first, we would honestly love to help you. If it's the second, we all have better things to do with our time.34 -
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I am 57 also and weigh about the same. It is difficult to lose weight as you get older and I know how frustrated you are because I am too! On one hand I don"t want to be obsessed with my diet because I do have a life, but on the other hand I don't like being over weight. It's hard for me to lose weight even at 1200 calories per day. I've tried paleo, which I do feel really good on but I actually gained 2 pounds! Just know you're not alone I'm not going to quit though and I think you do have to be very patient. There is no way I can eat under 1200 calories a day...I would literally be in jail. 2
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MFP is a tool, you still have to be diligent in using it correctly.
A bad workman always blames his tools
It is not the tools we use that make us good, but rather how we employ them.43 -
bethgirl54 wrote: »I am 57 also and weigh about the same. It is difficult to lose weight as you get older and I know how frustrated you are because I am too! On one hand I don"t want to be obsessed with my diet because I do have a life, but on the other hand I don't like being over weight. It's hard for me to lose weight even at 1200 calories per day. I've tried paleo, which I do feel really good on but I actually gained 2 pounds! Just know you're not alone I'm not going to quit though and I think you do have to be very patient. There is no way I can eat under 1200 calories a day...I would literally be in jail.
weight loss is not linear some weeks you lose some you will gain for many reasons.if you are eating 1200 calories and not losing either you arent weighing everything(that low you have to be accurate),you are picking incorrect entries(or a combo of the 2) or there is a health issue at play making weight loss either slow or your BMR is lower than you think(which can happen,its rare but can happen)0 -
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