1 month in, ready to give up. 3lb off, 2lb on.

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2

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  • FattieBabs
    FattieBabs Posts: 542 Member
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    I am eating lowish fat but good fats and a reasonable amount of carbs. Averaging 1600-1700 cals a day. Slow loss of 114 kg to 105-106 kg in 4 months which included 5 weeks off diet due to holidays etc. Minimal exercise due to dodgy hip....it can be done! I am the same height as the OP and also older.... my chart is similar to the one shown earlier in that it is not linear.... it can be frustrating so hang on in there!
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,072 Member
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    Wolfger wrote: »
    I'm no expert, but I'd say that if this is your first month of calorie counting and you've lost 1 pound the entire month, something is wrong. Either you have fed some bad info in to MFP regarding your weight and activity level, or you are misjudging your portions, or... something. Perhaps your body just has an abnormally slow metabolism and you need to adjust. Tweak something and try again. Maybe your bathroom scale is nuts. Maybe you need to tell MFP that you're sedentary. Those things affect your target calories per day. Are you getting enough sleep? Drinking enough water?

    OP didn't just lose 1lb, she has fluctuated between losing 3lb and 1lb, this doesn't indicate that anything is wrong, it's quite a normal fluctuation for a woman.

    Wolfger wrote: »
    On the other hand, you say you've never been as active as you are right now. That could also cause you to lose more slowly in the short term, as you are likely building muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat, and you could be slimming without the scale detecting it. Are you also using a tape measure to track progress? Granted, that's a bit trickier to measure accurately, but the scale is only a single datapoint and not the whole story. Oh, and if you log exercise into MFP, don't make the mistake of eating all those calories back (they automatically add your exercise calories to your daily goal).

    To the bolded bit - nope - highly unlikely that you would be building muscle eating in a 600-900 calorie deficit, OP has already stated that she is regularly under her calorie goal.
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
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    Thanks for all the advice. I have opened up my diary so feel free to have a look and offer any more advice. I genuinely feel I need to cut calories even more as I'm not convinced the Fitbit is accurate with the figures. I'm aiming for 1000 a day deficit and feel I am doing this but it's just not showing. In the past I have done slimming world and feel I've eaten lots more food and over a month I would have lost 1/2 stone. I don't want to go back to the SW trap as I know long term it doesn't work but at the same time I get annoyed at seeing friends lose massive amounts over shorter time and I barely lose a couple of lbs in a month. Grrrrr!
  • Lyrica7
    Lyrica7 Posts: 88 Member
    edited April 2017
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    I have had a thyroidectomy as well are you positive you are medicated correctly and have optimized free t3 levels? Also how's your vitamin D and ferritin levels? They tend to be deficient with hypothyroidism. Do you have any other medical issues and are on meds? Are you in perimenopause? I started at 40. Any other meds and health issues can stall weight loss for some people.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
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  • carolinelanewa
    carolinelanewa Posts: 44 Member
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    As my pt told me get off the scales. She would get hysterical texts about how my weight went up and down. And i too at times would cry. Use a tape measure. I actually weigh more now as I do weights but losing inches. Having said that im in my early fifties. Got girlie guns. Skinny legs. But the pooch is going down so slowly. 16 months. 4 pt sessions a week. 60km on the bike a week. Swimming. I was training for my first triathlon. Never lost a thing. So annoying. But I just keep on going. Nothing processed. Only fresh food. No sweeties. I cant be trusted so dont touch them. Protein is very important too for weight loss. I dont think of it as a diet but a life change.
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
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    This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
    edited April 2017
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    theledger5 wrote: »
    This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .

    I personally like using my sedentary TDEE as my baseline, then manually logging my daily exercises to determine how many extra calories I can eat on top of my baseline.

    So for example - my sedentary TDEE is 1700. I want a 300 calorie deficit, so I'm eating 1400 calories per day. On a lazy day with no exercise, I eat only 1400 calories. If I go for a half hour run, it might say I burned 300 calories. I don't totally trust that number, so I will only eat back 150 calories. So my total for the day will be 1550.

    Now - this works for me because I have a desk job. So my activity level is very low when I'm not purposefully working out. If you have a job where you're on your feet and walking around a lot, your baseline TDEE would be higher.

    Hope that helps.
  • ksz1104
    ksz1104 Posts: 260 Member
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    theledger5 wrote: »
    I do use happy scale to trend the loss. I love my exercise and it's really been the catalyst in changing my mood and helping with joint pain so I don't want to give it up. But I don't see the changes either in the mirror, clothes or on the scales. I am however stronger and fitter so I guess the changes are internal.

    I would definitely not consider giving up the exercise ever. and I don't know what workouts you do, or what youre eating, but its only been a month. Honestly most of your weight loss is going to be contributed to your change in diet than the exercise anyway. Don't worry about the scale. Maybe you havent yet lost enough weight to see results but if you keep working it will happen. Maybe with the amount of calories youre burning, you should stick to the recommended 1800 calories and see if that makes a difference. When I was doing bootcamp, I actually had to increase my calories a bit, and it was usually calories in the form of a recovery snack like a protein shake.
  • vjambois
    vjambois Posts: 39 Member
    edited April 2017
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    Looking at your diary, there are some easy switches you can do that might help. Ditch the breakfast cereal for something like eggs or oatmeal, swap out the mayo for plain greek yogurt, little things like that. Also, are you planning your calories out ahead of time or eating what you find and then logging them? If you can plan a little ahead of time, it's easier to figure out what the healthy swaps are. All those little things add up.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
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    You are A, over estimating calories burned. B, under estimating calories eaten. C, both A&B or D, you have a medical issue.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    vjambois wrote: »
    Looking at your diary, there are some easy switches you can do that might help. Ditch the breakfast cereal for something like eggs or oatmeal, swap out the mayo for plain greek yogurt, little things like that. Also, are you planning your calories out ahead of time or eating what you find and then logging them? If you can plan a little ahead of time, it's easier to figure out what the healthy swaps are. All those little things add up.

    as long as she is sticking to her goal calories, then switching our cereal for eggs/oatmeal etc is not needed - calories in/calories out - a calorie is a unit of energy

    now for satiation, potentially consider switching foods up - but its not required to lose weight
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
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    toxikon wrote: »
    theledger5 wrote: »
    This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .

    I personally like using my sedentary TDEE as my baseline, then manually logging my daily exercises to determine how many extra calories I can eat on top of my baseline.

    So for example - my sedentary TDEE is 1700. I want a 300 calorie deficit, so I'm eating 1400 calories per day. On a lazy day with no exercise, I eat only 1400 calories. If I go for a half hour run, it might say I burned 300 calories. I don't totally trust that number, so I will only eat back 150 calories. So my total for the day will be 1550.

    Now - this works for me because I have a desk job. So my activity level is very low when I'm not purposefully working out. If you have a job where you're on your feet and walking around a lot, your baseline TDEE would be higher.

    Hope that helps.

    Yes it does thank you. I generally try not to eat my calories back as I feel it defeats the object of trying to be in deficit. However I do have a desk job 4 days a week- despite this I still manage my 10k steps as I am pretty active before and after work. Weekends are non stop and I walk lots. Having said all this I think I will reduce my cals down to 1400 and see if this helps, I worry I can't maintain this level but for a couple of weeks I will try and see if I notice a change.

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