Not losing weight on low cal/low carb
WhitneySinghSpillers
Posts: 6 Member
I have a question about weight loss. Basically, I’ve cut out all bread and sugar from my diet, and have been eating about 1200 calories a day and around 50-60 carbs. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and I’m not losing any weight at all. I’m also still nursing my 18 month old 5-10 Times a day. I’m 5’2” and 215lbs! The highest I’ve ever been! I don’t know what the problem is! Just six months ago, I could cut carbs and lose like 10lbs of weight in the first two weeks! Why isn’t it doing anything now?
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Replies
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How are you measuring your calorie intake?4
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Private diary prevents people from potentially seeing what the problem might be.7
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Are you adding in the calories you burn while nursing? I doubt that's the problem with your weight loss, but I was always under the impression that 1200 calories while nursing is dangerous.
These would be my generic tips:
1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.
2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.
3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.
4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.
5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.
6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.
7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.
8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.
9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.12 -
You say you're eating about 1200 cal's per day so can I take it that you aren't sure? As diannethegeek says weighing and logging all food is essential. Guess work, doesn't work.WhitneySinghSpillers wrote: »I have a question about weight loss. Basically, I’ve cut out all bread and sugar from my diet, and have been eating about 1200 calories a day and around 50-60 carbs. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and I’m not losing any weight at all. I’m also still nursing my 18 month old 5-10 Times a day. I’m 5’2” and 215lbs! The highest I’ve ever been! I don’t know what the problem is! Just six months ago, I could cut carbs and lose like 10lbs of weight in the first two weeks! Why isn’t it doing anything now?6 -
Two weeks is a bit too early to get worried, but there are some common logging errors that can result in people eating more than they think they are. If you open your diary, we may be able to help you identify them.3
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You might be in a starvation style mode because of the nursing. Add more water and 300-500 calories? But sometimes it just takes time. I need a month for progress65
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curwhibbles wrote: »You might be in a starvation style mode because of the nursing. Add more water and 300-500 calories? But sometimes it just takes time. I need a month for progress
Absolutely not to the bolded.
As has been asked, OP - how have you been measuring your Caloric intake?
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curwhibbles wrote: »You might be in a starvation style mode because of the nursing. Add more water and 300-500 calories? But sometimes it just takes time. I need a month for progress
Definitely not in starvation mode as it is a myth and if her calories were too low her milk would dry up before anything else. I'm guessing there's a problem with not logging calories accurately. Low carb won't make you lose weight if you're taking in too many calories total.
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There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings0
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I said about 1200, because it’s the average amount that I’ve been eating, not because I don’t really know. I’m not using MFP to track, as it doesn’t track carbs easily. I’m using an Atkins app that tracks both. I range from 1200-1600 calories, depending on the day, since it’s advised not to go under 1800 when nursing anyway. Obviously, I am going below that, and I’m usually at the 1200 range, but occasionally I will go up to 1500/1600. I’ve not been eating ANY bread or SUGAR. I’ve also kept away from white potatoes, rice, and any other high carb food that doesn’t do much nutritionally.13
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I’m actually less than 1200 some days. Either way, according to the charts, I should be losing weight doing what I am, and I’m not.5
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I don't understand what you mean by that. I track on mfp and have no complaints.WhitneySinghSpillers wrote: »I said about 1200, because it’s the average amount that I’ve been eating, not because I don’t really know. I’m not using MFP to track, as it doesn’t track carbs easily. I’m using an Atkins app that tracks both. I range from 1200-1600 calories, depending on the day, since it’s advised not to go under 1800 when nursing anyway. Obviously, I am going below that, and I’m usually at the 1200 range, but occasionally I will go up to 1500/1600. I’ve not been eating ANY bread or SUGAR. I’ve also kept away from white potatoes, rice, and any other high carb food that doesn’t do much nutritionally.
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I mean that you have to go through the effort of clicking through a detailed screen to find the carb amounts, while the app I use displays the carbs and calories on the front screen and offers recipes. It’s just a preference. Does it even matter?7
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Ok, whatever....I gave y’all tons of details, but you won’t give any real advice...that’s fine. I give up.21
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Of course it doesn't, I didn't mean to be sharp. But
perhaps if you gave mfp a try it may surprise you....... 
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Eating no bread or sugar doesn't cause weight loss.22
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Love, you want advise, but nobody can give you any advise if we don't see how your logging is.3
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I’ve used it plenty, and it doesn’t do what I want it to. I’m sorry that that’s the case. I actually used it exclusively for years, but calories alone never worked unless I cut a lot of carbs, and it doesn’t easily show those, so I switched. But now, cutting carbs and calories together isn’t even working, and I do not have a solution.21
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Ok, so your preference is the atkins app, so we can't help by looking at your diary, but there is a bit of further information you can provide that might help us guide you through this hurdle. How are you ensuring accuracy in your logging? Do you weigh all solids on a digital scale and measure all liquids?6
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losing weight is not hard. it is simply eating less than you burn. move more, eat less. until you open your diary, one here can give any advice other than a very generic ' you are eating more than you THINK you are'.
ive lost 100+ pounds eating carbs, chocolate, and drinking beer and jack. its not WHAT you eat but HOW MUCH.11 -
OP, did you recently start exercising? And when you say you haven't lost anything, does that mean NO weight loss, or just lower than expected?3
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I'm going to also ask, how are you measuring your food intake? Digital food scale? Measuring cups? Eyeballing? Are you able to create recipes using the Atkins app? Are you counting all nibbles through the day? It all adds up really quickly. Even being a few grams off can make a big difference.3
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I too would double check your logging. Sometimes the fats I add are more than I expected. Weighing all food for a couple of days can sometimes reveal where calories are sneaking in.
Otherwise I would just wait it out. If you are eating 1200 kcal, you will lose weight. For me, weight loss is not linear. Some weeks I lost 4 lbs and the next I gained 1. 14 days is not much time. If you stay with a caloric deficit, you will lose.
Or give yourself a short diet break of a day or two where you eat 500-1000 or so more kcals. I find that when I slowed in weight loss, sometimes it picked up again once I had a couple days of eating more... I have no idea why. LOL
Good luck. Hang in there.3 -
Just adding that how you cook is SUPER important. I used to make an egg or two with of olive oil but now I use a fine olive oil mist. Just this one change has eliminated over 100 calories each morning. This exactly the sort of practice that can slip through an eyeballed low carb diet to stall weight loss.5
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I have lost only 4.5 kg in 1 month and I always underestimate my calories. A bite of this and that adds up and total calories can be high as compared to out bmr.1
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