Not loosing weight - please help!!

leah9985

Hi there

I am currently eating at calorie deficit by which I am trying to consume around 1200 calories a day (sometimes a bit less) and also I am going to the gym around 4 times a week and doing a mix of cardio (30 mins) and weights (squatting with weights etc). However, I am not loosing weight at all, I may drop a pound of two one day but by the next day it's back on again!

I currently weigh 9 stone 2 lbs but I'm only 5ft2 so I'm trying to loose around a stone.

Why am I not loosing weight? Can anyone help?

Thanks

MegaMooseEsq

How are you measuring your calories? Do you use a food scale? How long have you been exercising and eating at a deficit? If you don't have a medical condition, you should lose weight with those stats - as a matter of fact, you probably should be eating more than 1200 to fuel those exercises (and if you aren't measuring accurately, that's probably what's happening). But it can take much longer when you don't have much to lose, so you may just need to be patient.

ETA: also, it is really common for weight to be up one day and down the next and up again the day after that. You need to look at your trends over time, not day to day changes.

livingleanlivingclean

How long have you been following this eating and training regime?

How are you determining your calorie intake?

Do you track your daily weight on a trending app? Weight won't always decrease, it's unlikely you'll get a neat, consistent drop. A trending app shows the general trend though, so you'd be able to see if you were trending downwards...

MegaMooseEsq

Second comment: your food diary is missing a lot of entries, and the ones you do have look like you are going by the packaging rather than weighing your portions. I would strongly suggest you focus on logging everything as accurately as possible (with a food scale!) for a week or two without worrying about your weight, and then looking at cutting back your total calories. My brain math says you're not all that much over a normal weight even for your height (I'm also 5'2") so losing that last stone is going to take time, patience, and careful logging. My first ten lbs fell right off, but I weighed 208 lbs at the time and had been logging my food for months!

rachelleahsmom

You weigh 128 and you are trying to lose 14 pounds? That's more than 10% of your weight. Being as small as you are, it's going to take patience and really accurate measuring. Good luck!

MegaMooseEsq

rachelleahsmom wrote: »

You weigh 128 and you are trying to lose 14 pounds? That's more than 10% of your weight. Being as small as you are, it's going to take patience and really accurate measuring. Good luck!

Oh man, I did not math that right at all. I shouldn't try and do that *kitten* in my head early in the day - I was over almost 20lbs.

TavistockToad

Set mfp to lose 0.5lb per week.

Weigh everything with food scales

leah9985

Thank you everyone for your feedback! I appreciate the time everyone takes to reply and give advice.

I have been logging for about 4 weeks now, but yes I have missed days where I haven't logged and also I am going by the calories on the packets.

Also, I'm not clean eating, would this make a difference? I more concerned about the weight loss at this point and not about becoming lean so am I ok to eat processed food at this stage?

One more thing - should I be weight training? Or is that going to stop be loosing weight but turning the fat I already have into muscle and preventing me loosing weight??

Thanks again in advance

MegaMooseEsq

Yeah, eat whatever you want - clean eating won't help you lose weight, only eating fewer calories will do that. Some highly processed foods can be very calorie dense and not very filling, but so long as you're keeping track of what you're eating and not going over your numbers, it's really fine. The important part is accurate logging, which is where weighing comes in. For example, I've been eating these packaged cheeses - the bag says one cheese is 25 g, but they've varied by 5 g on either side. This might sounds overly fussy, but with a small deficit it can really matter. If it sounds overwhelming, maybe start with just weighing the higher calorie items, or even just log an extra 10-20% on anything you don't weigh and see if that effects your loss going forward.

If you start weight training but leave your calories where you are, you are unlikely to see much effect on the scale, but could get some benefits in terms of fitness and tone. My understanding is that weight training doesn't burn many calories compared to cardio and that women gain muscle quite slowly so you don't have to worry about gaining weight, but weight training is still very good for you in general. You may put on some water weight at the beginning, but that can happen with any change in exercise.

RGv2

No, eating clean doesn't make a difference for the scale.

Yes, you should be weight training. Eating as little as you are and not eating back exercise cals (per your diary) you'll need that weight training to preserve muscle.

When you lose weight you lose water, fat, and muscle. With the deficit you're aiming for (eating around 1000 cals a day and working out) you're at even more risk of losing that muscle. You may get down to your goal weight, but may look the same because your BF% didn't change much due to the muscle loss. There's no way that you'd put on any muscle (maybe outside of some early noob gainz) eating at such a low calorie amount.

It sounds like you're may be more aesthetically interested in a recomp than losing more weight.

Redordeadhead

leah9985 wrote: »

One more thing - should I be weight training? Or is that going to stop be loosing weight but turning the fat I already have into muscle and preventing me loosing weight??

Thanks again in advance

Fat doesn't turn into muscle. They are two different things. Weight training will help to preserve the muscle mass you already have while eating at a deficit. Don't worry, it's difficult for women to build muscle and on 1200 calories a day very unlikely, so this won't make you gain muscle weight.

What may happen is that you retain some water when you start a new exercise regime, and that can show up as a couple of pounds in the scale. It will even out eventually.

As mentioned, a food scale and accurate logging are key to weight loss. Good luck!