Help, haven't lost in a week even though I've been eating 800 calories a day

Options
13»

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,711 Member
    Options
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I think the poster failed to notice that you were talking about ONE WEEK, which is why it's not impossible, but the point that if you were eating 800 cal and not losing over a period of time that your logging is almost certainly off (which is common) is certainly true. And, more significantly, neither an attack nor warranting the aggressive response it received.

    In a later comment she mentioned that she'd been eating less than 800cal before she bumped it up to that, so she's been under eating (or think she has) for longer than a week. But she's going by labels and guesstimates, so I think logging is definitely the issue.

    I under ate for a week and a half and lost 8 lb. I under ate for another week and stopped losing.

    Weight loss isn't linear. Some weeks we lose more, some we lose less, some we lose none. A weight loss rate ("X pounds a week") is an average per week over a longer period of time, not that amount every single week.

    Stress affects weight loss via water weight. Eating way too little is a stressor. I'm not saying eating too little is the full reason you're not losing weight, but it may be a factor in your fat loss being masked by water weight.
  • ladyreva78
    ladyreva78 Posts: 4,080 Member
    Options
    Have a snickers OP.

    Once you've had that, think about just what the *kitten* you are doing to your body.

    By eating this little, you are losing not just fat but also muscle (your heart is a muscle btw). Another reaction is stress which causes a higher level of cortisol which can cause massive water retention. Body weight is not a static number and can vary radically due to the very variable water weight and all that affects it.
  • amyepdx
    amyepdx Posts: 750 Member
    Options
    Even though MFP “gives” you 1200 to lose 2 lbs a week, that won’t actually happen because the calculator stops at 1200. At your height and weight, if you enter 1 lb a week, you’ll probably get close to 1200 also. If you subtract 500 calories (representing another lb per week), that will be the number to lose 2 lbs a week which will be far under 1200 and not possible at your weight.
    Change to 1/2 lb a week, use a weight trending app, start weighing your food and be patient and you’ll start losing.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Options
    The user I snapped at is still completely antagonistic and says it is outright impossible that I am doing what I say I am doing. There's no need for that. This forum doesn't need to be as toxic as most of the others on the internet.
    For logging in, I eat stuff with the calories on the box/jar/package sometimes, so I know that's right. The calories for cube steak are pretty generally known, and I eat that. For stuff like cornbread I do just try to guess from online logs cuz that's hard. But if I am not logging in correctly, it can't be off by more than a few hundred and that would put me at 1200. I should still be losing.
    However, at first I was only eating about 500-600 a day because I was dumb and didn't know what I was doing. Only this past week I went up to 800. Maybe my body got shocked or something.
    I don't have a problem going up to 1200 if that is best. I don't want to do the wrong thing. But I don't want to maintain either, I was really hoping to get down to 150 by the summer, which would be 18 lb in 6 months, which is 3 lb a month, which doesn't seem impossible. My fitness pal thinks that 1200 will lose me 2 lb a week.

    1200 is a DEFAULT minimum. It's not a guarantee of 2 pounds a week.

    Example - let's say your maintenance (before exercise) is 2000 calories (I don't really know what it is, because I don't have any of your stats).

    To lose 1 pound a week MFP would take 2,000 - 500 calories. Your goal would be 1500 calories.

    To lose 1.5 pounds a week MFP would take 2000 - 750 calories. Your goal would be 1250 calories.

    To lose 2 pounds a week MFP would take 2000 - 800 calories. Your goal would be 1200 calories. But 800 calories is not going to get you 2 pounds a week, it's just as low as MFP will go. 800 fewer calories would be (3500/800) 1 pound every 4.375 days.....or 2 pounds in 8.75 days.

    Maintenance estimate............

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • dbanks80
    dbanks80 Posts: 3,685 Member
    Options
    I think we're being punked!
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Options
    OP has deleted her account and has left the building. :neutral:
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    Options
    LBoggie77 wrote: »

    Ignore pretty much everything you ever read on livestrong. Especially this.
This discussion has been closed.