5 weeks dieting and exercising, no weight lost. HELP!
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renee8865
Posts: 61 Member
I have been dieting (following my own clean meal plan) and exercising using Kayla Itsines BBG workout 3 days per week and jogging two additional days per week for 5 1/2 weeks now. My meal plan is just over 1,400 calories. I'm 5'6". I'm really discouraged because I've spent each week prepping meals, weighing out and measuring my food exactly, and exercising for 30-45 minutes 5 times a week only to see the scale...do nothing. I am 165 right now and would like to lose 30 pounds. It feels like it's impossible.
I can't figure if I'm eating too much, too little, or not the right balance of macro nutrients...it's all overwhelming and I'm constantly tempted to just give up since it's not working anyway. I was planning on eating 1,200 calories for a week to see if it makes a difference, but I'm afraid that's too few calories. But I don't want to go up to 1,600 either because even though I know it's still a deficit, I'm nervous that I'll gain weight. And the overall stress of not seeing any progress can't be helping either
.
Here is my normal meal plan:
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt: 70
banana (weighed): 25
mango (weighed): 25
1/2 TB almond butter: 45
1 tsp honey: 30
1 TB muesli: 60
1 hard-boiled egg: 70
= 325
Snack:
guacamole (avocado, salt, lime) weighed: 100 calories
1/2 yellow pepper: 25
7 almonds: 50
= 175
Lunch:
1/2 cup brown rice or quinoa: 107
8 oz cooked tofu: 172
1 c roasted vegetables, no oil: 50
150 grams sweet potato: 129
= 458
Snack:
10 baby carrots: 40
1/2 hummus single size serving: 80
= 120
Dinner:
300 grams spaghetti squash: 93
roasted tomatoes, zucchini, onion (no oil): 65
4 oz cooked chicken: 184
= 342
==1420 daily calories
Only beverages are LOTS of water (80+ oz) and hot tea (unsweetened)
So what gives?
I can't figure if I'm eating too much, too little, or not the right balance of macro nutrients...it's all overwhelming and I'm constantly tempted to just give up since it's not working anyway. I was planning on eating 1,200 calories for a week to see if it makes a difference, but I'm afraid that's too few calories. But I don't want to go up to 1,600 either because even though I know it's still a deficit, I'm nervous that I'll gain weight. And the overall stress of not seeing any progress can't be helping either
.Here is my normal meal plan:
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt: 70
banana (weighed): 25
mango (weighed): 25
1/2 TB almond butter: 45
1 tsp honey: 30
1 TB muesli: 60
1 hard-boiled egg: 70
= 325
Snack:
guacamole (avocado, salt, lime) weighed: 100 calories
1/2 yellow pepper: 25
7 almonds: 50
= 175
Lunch:
1/2 cup brown rice or quinoa: 107
8 oz cooked tofu: 172
1 c roasted vegetables, no oil: 50
150 grams sweet potato: 129
= 458
Snack:
10 baby carrots: 40
1/2 hummus single size serving: 80
= 120
Dinner:
300 grams spaghetti squash: 93
roasted tomatoes, zucchini, onion (no oil): 65
4 oz cooked chicken: 184
= 342
==1420 daily calories
Only beverages are LOTS of water (80+ oz) and hot tea (unsweetened)
So what gives?
8
Replies
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My weight loss calculation for calories is 1,146/day. It’s low, and will only get lower so that’s why workouts are imperative for me. Also, I calculate like so: fruits and veggies (with no oil or condiments) are free. I do count starchy veggies. I’ve still always lost weight doing this and it helps me consistently consume more fruits and veggies.
I can tell you that I gain weight at 1600 calories a day. Many of us need far fewer calories than we think.
I say lower your net intake!
Feel free to add me, I’m open diary.31 -
You seem to be weighing some things and not others, maybe try weighing everything.
Have you taken any measurements?
Would you mind opening your diary so we can see if there is anything that could be throwing you off?4 -
Everything has already been weighed or measured, I just got tired of writing it over and over. I portion all my foods at the beginning of the week. I don't know how to unlock my diary, I'll figure it out. But I don't log everything in my fitness, I write it all down and have tracked all the calories already and get too lazy at the end of the day to put everything online.
The things I measure instead of weigh (yogurt, vegetables, honey, liquids, etc) are all things that can't be tightly packed and I often measure slightly less than level with the top of the measuring cup or spoon. I feel any discrepancies would result in a few less daily calories, not more.2 -
Rach3116, how tall are you? I don't feel lowering my net intake is wise.6
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Have you had your thyroid checked by your doctor?3
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Also, Rach3116, although you count them as free, you would technically be eating more than 1,146 calories per day.5
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Melanie, no I haven't. But I plan on going in for a physical soon and I'll talk to my doctor about it. I've always had a hard time losing weight, but this time just seems even more ridiculously hard than usual.
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Your weight hasn't changed at all? It doesn't go up with your monthly cycle or ovulation? Sodium doesn't change it? Carbs, constipation? If you stand on the scale at different times of the day it doesn't change? You would expect your weight to bounce up and down throughout weight loss because of normal fluctuations. The fact that it hasn't changed at all would point to a scale problem rather than a routine problem. Your scale might have a memory and sometimes you have to trick them in order to show the new Weight after weight loss.18
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eat the way you did before your diet, exercise and drink plenty water for a couple days.11
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https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/201687-how-do-i-make-my-diary-visible-to-other-users-
Step by step on how to open diary.2 -
What's the OP's height, current weight, age? Activity level? If everything is being weighed to the gram, then I agree it makes no sense as long as 1400+ calories is actually a deficit for the OP. I assume it is. I get away with estimating a lot of stuff because I'm 6'2" tall and generally keep a a pretty heavy exercise schedule/regimen but my wife, who is 5'2" tall has some of the same issues. If she isn't accurate to the gram on most things, especially condiments like oil, butter, nuts/nut butters it'll throw her off and she won't lose anything that week. Sodium also slams her pretty hard, more so than it does me. I do see a couple of possible mistakes in the list above though.
For instance, brown rice, cooked (not dry) 1/2 cup is around 150 calories. Even then it depends on how it's "cooked". Did you add butter like most people do? 1 tbsp of sweet cream butter is 100 calories. You have it listed as 107 calories. To me that would assume it's steamed with no butter or oil, and you're measuring it cooked, and then it's still questionable that it's only 107 calories. Guacamole is made from Avacado. 100g of an avacado is 160 cals. I'm assuming you're talking about 50g or so of Guacamole with no other ingredients than the salt and lime (lime juice has calories)? Inconsistency really can throw you off. Not saying you're not trying, just that you might scrutinize your diary a bit more to see if you can spot mistakes. Too often than not I've seen people pick entries in the database over other entries because they had lower calories and they felt it was a better match. That's not always the case.
Anyway, food for thought, just some suggestions not accusations.21 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »What's the OP's height, current weight, age? Activity level? If everything is being weighed to the gram, then I agree it makes no sense as long as 1400+ calories is actually a deficit for the OP. I assume it is. I get away with estimating a lot of stuff because I'm 6'2" tall and generally keep a a pretty heavy exercise schedule/regimen but my wife, who is 5'2" tall has some of the same issues. If she isn't accurate to the gram on most things, especially condiments like oil, butter, nuts/nut butters it'll throw her off and she won't lose anything that week. Sodium also slams her pretty hard, more so than it does me. I do see a couple of possible mistakes in the list above though.
For instance, brown rice, cooked (not dry) 1/2 cup is around 150 calories. Even then it depends on how it's "cooked". Did you add butter like most people do? 1 tbsp of sweet cream butter is 100 calories. You have it listed as 107 calories. To me that would assume it's steamed with no butter or oil, and you're measuring it cooked, and then it's still questionable that it's only 107 calories. Guacamole is made from Avacado. 100g of an avacado is 160 cals. I'm assuming you're talking about 50g or so of Guacamole with no other ingredients than the salt and lime (lime juice has calories)? Inconsistency really can throw you off. Not saying you're not trying, just that you might scrutinize your diary a bit more to see if you can spot mistakes. Too often than not I've seen people pick entries in the database over other entries because they had lower calories and they felt it was a better match. That's not always the case.
Anyway, food for thought, just some suggestions not accusations.
^ OP you didn't state if you eat back your exercise calories or not and how much of those calories you do eat back if you don't.
[Edited by MFP moderator]1 -
My weight loss calculation for calories is 1,146/day. It’s low, and will only get lower so that’s why workouts are imperative for me. Also, I calculate like so: fruits and veggies (with no oil or condiments) are free. I do count starchy veggies. I’ve still always lost weight doing this and it helps me consistently consume more fruits and veggies.
I can tell you that I gain weight at 1600 calories a day. Many of us need far fewer calories than we think.
I say lower your net intake!
Feel free to add me, I’m open diary.
Oh geeze. So much Woo in this post. fruits and veggies have calories so the OP is right. You aren't actually eating 1,146calories/day. Also, someone else had a good question, how tall are you to gain at 1600 calories a day? I was going to check your diary out of curiosity but it's not open to the public.4 -
The one thing that stood out from your list was Sugar. Use the food tracker here to see how many grams of sugar you are consuming. There is no good sugar. Drive the sugar out of your diet and the pounds will come off.
Pls remember Carbs are just sugar so when looking at total sugar consumption you have to look at the Carbs and the added suger.
keep up the exercise and cut the sugar as much as possible and see if the next 30 days are a lot better than the last 45 for weight loss.
Any thing you eat that is packaged in a box has added sugar.
never touch fruit juices- your water and unsweetened tea are great
check all labels and if the sugar is higher than 5 grams per serving dont touch it again
if it has Carbs but has no Dietary Fiber listed than it is just sugar with a another name.
good luck and dont give up.
track other milestones such as inches and clothes fitting better dont depend on scale for your all your positive feedback.
with that much regular exercise you must feel better. Take your victories small and large and hold on tight to them.59 -
need2belean wrote: »^But OP you didn't state if you eat back your exercise calories or not and how much of those calories you do eat back if you don't.
I still didn't see her age listed. The reason I ask is that TDEE for a 21 year old female, 5'6" tall, 165 lbs doing 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise 5 days a week can be as high as 2113 calories per day. A 1lb deficit per week would put her at 1613 calories per day. However, the TDEE for the same female with the same stats who is 50 years old is about 1947 calories/day, and a 500 calorie per day deficit would be 1447 calories/day; closer to what she's attempting. Again, assuming her recipes/calories are accurate (some still don't seem that way) she should be losing weight if she is 50 years old, and possibly losing weight faster if she's much younger. Those calorie estimates are different depending on the calculators you use, I tend to use iifym.com.7 -
While the body converts simple carbs to sugar quite easily, it is inaccurate to say that carbs are sugar. Fiber is not sugar and will not be converted to sugar by your body.
My falafel mix does not have any added sugar, either.5 -
The one thing that stood out from your list was Sugar. Use the food tracker here to see how many grams of sugar you are consuming. There is no good sugar. Drive the sugar out of your diet and the pounds will come off.
Pls remember Carbs are just sugar so when looking at total sugar consumption you have to look at the Carbs and the added suger.
keep up the exercise and cut the sugar as much as possible and see if the next 30 days are a lot better than the last 45 for weight loss.
Any thing you eat that is packaged in a box has added sugar.
never touch fruit juices- your water and unsweetened tea are great
check all labels and if the sugar is higher than 5 grams per serving dont touch it again
if it has Carbs but has no Dietary Fiber listed than it is just sugar with a another name.
good luck and dont give up.
track other milestones such as inches and clothes fitting better dont depend on scale for your all your positive feedback.
with that much regular exercise you must feel better. Take your victories small and large and hold on tight to them.
Besides the fact that you can have carbs if you want as long as it fits in your calorie budget (fiber or no fiber), this person has a good point. Do you track other measurements besides weight? Have you taken progress photos and measurements? When I first started losing weight last year, if it wasn't for the progress photos I was taking weekly, I wouldn't have kept going.0 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »need2belean wrote: »^^She states her weight and height in the original post and mentions the guacamole is made from AVOcado (not avacado). But OP you didn't state if you eat back your exercise calories or not and how much of those calories you do eat back if you don't.
Apologies for the typo/spelling error. Beyond that I still didn't see her age listed. The reason I ask is that TDEE for a 21 year old female, 5'6" tall, 165 lbs doing 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise 5 days a week can be as high as 2113 calories per day. A 1lb deficit per week would put her at 1613 calories per day. However, the TDEE for the same female with the same stats who is 50 years old is about 1947 calories/day, and a 500 calorie per day deficit would be 1447 calories/day; closer to what she's attempting. Again, assuming her recipes/calories are accurate (some still don't seem that way) she should be losing weight if she is 50 years old, and possibly losing weight faster if she's much younger. Those calorie estimates are different depending on the calculators you use, I tend to use iifym.com.
Good point. I didn't see the age thing. And sorry for the avocado rant. spelling "avocado" and "losing weight" (loosing by some people) wrong has been driving me nuts in the forums as of late. It's just one of those days.1 -
need2belean wrote: »Good point. I didn't see the age thing. And sorry for the avocado rant. spelling "avocado" and "losing weight" (loosing by some people) wrong has been driving me nuts in the forums as of late. It's just one of those days.
Full disclosure; I typed the first post without my glasses on hah. Usually there's this neat little red line that happens when you screw up spelling lol. I was busy eating an orange with some of that dreaded sugar in it and neglected to put them on lol.
A suggestion to the OP as well, stop tracking sugar and track fiber/sodium instead unless you have some medical reason to track sugar. It's not the devil any more than anything else is in too much excess. Calories are really all that matters; unless of course there's a medical reason to stay away from carbs, sugar, or protein. See your doctor if you're sure that your calories are accurate, there might very well be something causing it. Only other thing I can think of is track sodium as well, it can mask weight loss in the form of water weight. Eventually though, even if you're carrying 2-3 lbs of extra water weight you should see weight go down if you're actually at a consistent deficit. Oh.. if your doctor tells you there's nothing wrong with you but carbs are the reason, go see a different doctor.
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diannethegeek wrote: »Your weight hasn't changed at all? It doesn't go up with your monthly cycle or ovulation? Sodium doesn't change it? Carbs, constipation? If you stand on the scale at different times of the day it doesn't change? You would expect your weight to bounce up and down throughout weight loss because of normal fluctuations. The fact that it hasn't changed at all would point to a scale problem rather than a routine problem. Your scale might have a memory and sometimes you have to trick them in order to show the new Weight after weight loss.
Well, I only weight at the same time each day, right when I wake up in the morning. I don't weigh throughout the day because I tend to get obsessive. It's finally gone down about 1.2, but it's been stuck there for a couple days now. I can definitely check out a newer scale, I've had this one for probably...7 years or longer.
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