Help

youthpastord
youthpastord Posts: 5 Member
edited November 16 in Getting Started
Hello everyone, I've lost 13 pds doing this app within 7 weeks but now I feel like I'm at a stand still and the scales won't budge. I'm on 1200 calorie diet I started exercising to a new work out this week am I doing something wrong? Help

Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,128 Member
    If you've just started a new workout, give it a little time, you may be retaining water as a result which could be masking your weight loss.
  • RaeBeeBaby
    RaeBeeBaby Posts: 4,246 Member
    Tighten up your logging. Get a food scale if you don't already have one and weigh everything. You may be eating more than 1200 calories if you are measuring with cups and spoons and using general entries in the food database. Last time I had a long stall I started looking at every little bite I was putting in my mouth and realized I was consuming quite a few more calories than I thought.

    Don't get discouraged. Weight loss isn't linear - it goes up and down and stays the same, but if you stay on course you will get to your goal.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    You're retaining water from your new exercises. Be patient, the weight should start dropping off again soon.
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
    All above are good advice. Don't worry, you'll get past this, just keep it up. You may want to consider getting a food scale to check exactly your actual calories. 1200 isn't very much, but also over time you will run into plateaus where you stop losing weight and you need to adjust your calories, but that's only because your body is smaller and you need less. You just need to know that these things will happen and it's normal.

    Something to consider. I like to weigh myself every single day, in the morning before breakfast. This gives me a really good impression of exactly how my body fluctuates over the weeks (I actually graph it with excel, so a bit of a nerd but I don't care). Since my scale is digital it doesn't give me any wiggle room for judgment, it is what it is and I can't pretend it's more or less by a pound. So if I'm up a pound one day, but my trend is still good, then I'm not worried at all.
  • youthpastord
    youthpastord Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks everyone that was all really good advice and encouraged me a lot. I'm definitely gonna go buy a food scale and see if that will help out cause I'm only measuring by the spoon and cups so maybe I'm measuring wrong and I'm just gonna give my self time to adjust to my exercise. Over all I feel great gonna keep pushing to my goal!
  • andrewq6100
    andrewq6100 Posts: 415 Member
    Biggest part of weight loss is the ugly word PLATEAU we all hit it god knows I hit new ones constantly lol. Awesome job on that initial loss though it is always exciting! Sometimes the best thing to do is re-trace your steps and if you are still doing the same things no variance in those 7 weeks then either you may need to UP your calories and or change the training plan along with the macros to break the plateau. Your body just like with working out will reach a certain point where it no longer wants to loose any more weight due to feeling "underfed" or whatever people call it, and it will try to keep you at that maintenance weight, the trick is finding the niche and pushing through just gotta try and add and subtract different foods, increase water intake, and go for the gold!
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    The food scale will be your bff. It's hard to know where the issue (if there is one!) lies unless you are certain that your caloric intake is accurate.

    And losing almost 2 lbs per week up to this point is a really good rate of loss, but one that you can't reasonably expect to achieve *every* week, especially the closer you get to your ideal weight. :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,168 Member
    youthpastord wrote: »
    Thanks everyone that was all really good advice and encouraged me a lot. I'm definitely gonna go buy a food scale and see if that will help out cause I'm only measuring by the spoon and cups so maybe I'm measuring wrong and I'm just gonna give my self time to adjust to my exercise. Over all I feel great gonna keep pushing to my goal!

    Since you mentioned currently using cups, and are planning to get a scale, I'm going to offer some unrequested advice/tips, because the scale is not only more accurate, but also quicker and easier . . . but only when you know how to use it. You're going to be so glad you bought it!

    Be sure to get one that will measure negative weights.

    Here are the tips:
    • Assembling a salad in a bowl, a stew in a pan, sandwich on a plate? Put the bowl/pan/plate on the scale, zero, add an ingredient, note the weight, zero, add the next ingredient, note the weight . . . .
    • Using something from a carton or jar, or cutting a slice from a hunk of cheese? Put the container or chunk on the scale, zero, take out portion, note the negative value (it's the amount you took out).
    • Eating a whole apple, banana, unhulled strawberries, corn on the cob? Weigh the ready-to-eat food, eat the yummy parts, weigh the core/hulls/peel, subtract & note.
    • Chopping some ingredients on a cutting board to put in a pan/bowl? Chop items, put cutting board on scale, zero, scrape an ingredient into the pan, note the negative weight. If you have multiple chopped ingredients on the cutting board, scrape them into the pan one at a time, re-zeroing the scale with the cutting board on it before scraping the next one into the pan.
    • I like to keep a few clean plastic yogurt-tub lids around to weigh small items, like a handful of nuts or chopped hardboiled eggs or something. Drop the lid on the scale, zero, add item, note weight, eat or use - just a quick rinse of the lid under the faucet & you're done.
    No measuring spoons to scrape out, or wash, except when you need to measure liquids . . . and you can weigh some of them, too.
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  • Lin20281
    Lin20281 Posts: 355 Member
    Ann's suggestions are absolutely great. I do some of my steps just a little differently -- I.e., have a bowl into which I add chopped ingredients for a recipe and note the weight, then zero, but the end result is the same. The one thing I would suggest, is if you can find one, get a scale that will switch from pound/ounce to kilogram/gram. A LOT of foods have the portion size listed in grams (salad dressing for one) and it is so much easier to weigh when you can just set the salad bowl on the scale, zero, and add the dressing in grams right there. I found my scale on Amazon. But I'll bet there are ones at local stores, too. I just hate shopping!
  • youthpastord
    youthpastord Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks I love those tips as well do you all think lean cuisines are good to eat for meals sometimes? I don't know if some of the things I'm eating is what's making me not loose.
  • youthpastord
    youthpastord Posts: 5 Member
    Should I up my calories to 1500
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,168 Member
    youthpastord wrote: »
    Thanks I love those tips as well do you all think lean cuisines are good to eat for meals sometimes? I don't know if some of the things I'm eating is what's making me not loose.

    Personally, I find them a bit high in carbs and low in protein for the number of calories, which can make it harder for me to meet my daily protein goal (which I consider very important). But I think they're OK (not eeeevilllll ;) ) for occasional use.

    When I can, I batch-cook some freeze-able homemade food with a better macro ratio for my goals, and freeze it in 2-cup glass bowls with snap-on plastic lids. Depending on the type of food, that's 1-2 portions I can just thaw or cook in the microwave when I need something quick. I sometimes do this with suitable leftovers, too.

    For weight loss (for most people, absent some unusual metabolic situation), what you eat isn't important for weight loss per se (though it can affect satiation, therefore hunger & cravings). Calories are the key thing, for weight loss.

    But what you eat is important for not only satiation, but also - of course - nutrition and therefore health.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,168 Member
    youthpastord wrote: »
    Should I up my calories to 1500

    As a rough rule of thumb, it's considered conservative/healthier to avoid losing more than around 1% of your body weight per week. But you can ignore the first couple of weeks, if you had a big drop then (it's usually water weight), and just look at weeks after that first one.

    Also, it can be sensible to slow down even further than that if you're within 25 pounds or so of goal weight.

    If you're feeling weak or fatigued, or feel like you can't continue at your current calorie goal without derailing now and then, you should probably increase your calories a bit, even if you're not losing too fast on that calorie level.
  • V_Faery
    V_Faery Posts: 26 Member
    youthpastord wrote: »
    Thanks everyone that was all really good advice and encouraged me a lot. I'm definitely gonna go buy a food scale and see if that will help out cause I'm only measuring by the spoon and cups so maybe I'm measuring wrong and I'm just gonna give my self time to adjust to my exercise. Over all I feel great gonna keep pushing to my goal!

    Remember the scale can sometimes be your enemy, don't solely judge your progress by the scale since it fluctuates all the time. Instead, how do you feel? Are your clothes looser? Do you have more energy? Are you taking measurements- you may be loosing inches
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