Need help with calories.

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Vickybak79
Vickybak79 Posts: 8 Member
edited April 2018 in Getting Started
Hi I'm eating 1480 calories a day and burning 360 calories at the gym 3 times a week but not losing weight? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • andreaen
    andreaen Posts: 365 Member
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    Are you weighing your food?
    How are you measuring the calories in the gym?
    What is your activity like outside of the gym? (Job, playing with your son(I assume that's your son in the picture), etc)
    How long have you been doing this without results?
  • 1BlueAurora
    1BlueAurora Posts: 439 Member
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    You can re-set your calorie intake by switching your activity level if you'd like. Perhaps try eating 1350 calories a day for awhile and see what happens. I agree with everyone about getting a food scale. I thought it was a pain in the neck at first, but it was an eye opener. I thought I was eating a serving of something, but I was actually eating three! That's because for me eye-balling portions doesn't work. I used to pour a bowl of cereal and say to myself that it looked like about a cup. Nope. Once I started measuring food, I got used to eating a little less of my usual foods, and started filling up with more items that were filling. And I drink water before every meal. And throughout the day. Lotsa water.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Food scale. The attached thread has several videos showing why a food scale is such a powerful weight loss tool.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
  • Vickybak79
    Vickybak79 Posts: 8 Member
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    MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »
    If you're not using a food scale, get one. It will really help you be more precise in calculating your calories. How long have you been at 1480 and exercising, and how much weight do you have to lose?

    I will try the food scale, thanks. I have been doing this for a good few weeks now with using the gym.
  • Vickybak79
    Vickybak79 Posts: 8 Member
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    1BlueAurora wrote: »
    You can re-set your calorie intake by switching your activity level if you'd like. Perhaps try eating 1350 calories a day for awhile and see what happens. I agree with everyone about getting a food scale. I thought it was a pain in the neck at first, but it was an eye opener. I thought I was eating a serving of something, but I was actually eating three! That's because for me eye-balling portions doesn't work. I used to pour a bowl of cereal and say to myself that it looked like about a cup. Nope. Once I started measuring food, I got used to eating a little less of my usual foods, and started filling up with more items that were filling. And I drink water before every meal. And throughout the day. Lotsa water.

    I weigh everything but I will have a look at the food scale .. thanks.
  • Vickybak79
    Vickybak79 Posts: 8 Member
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    andreaen wrote: »
    Are you weighing your food?
    How are you measuring the calories in the gym?
    What is your activity like outside of the gym? (Job, playing with your son(I assume that's your son in the picture), etc)
    How long have you been doing this without results?

    I am a kitchen manager in a very busy kitchen so on my feet for 6 hours a day , I've been doing this for quite a while but got stuck at the same weight for 4 weeks . The machines tell me how many calories I have burned at the gym . I'm a obsessive food weigher although I have now started drinking more water so hopefully I will see a difference soon.
  • Vickybak79
    Vickybak79 Posts: 8 Member
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    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Food scale. The attached thread has several videos showing why a food scale is such a powerful weight loss tool.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    Thanks for this I will have a look
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    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.
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
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    bbell1985 wrote: »
    Vickybak79 wrote: »
    1BlueAurora wrote: »
    You can re-set your calorie intake by switching your activity level if you'd like. Perhaps try eating 1350 calories a day for awhile and see what happens. I agree with everyone about getting a food scale. I thought it was a pain in the neck at first, but it was an eye opener. I thought I was eating a serving of something, but I was actually eating three! That's because for me eye-balling portions doesn't work. I used to pour a bowl of cereal and say to myself that it looked like about a cup. Nope. Once I started measuring food, I got used to eating a little less of my usual foods, and started filling up with more items that were filling. And I drink water before every meal. And throughout the day. Lotsa water.

    I weigh everything but I will have a look at the food scale .. thanks.

    You say you weigh and then you said you will "look into" a food scale so I'm confused. I'm also drunk though so maybe it's me.

    Nope, I'm also confused!
  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 901 Member
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    Machines also way overestimate calories burned.
  • saf1luelinks
    saf1luelinks Posts: 1 Member
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    My suggestion is not to factor in calories lost at the gym at all as they are largely insignificant. To give a frame of reference, running for a mile is worth 100 calories. That means running on a high school gym track FOUR TIMES is only 100 calories. It's not worth factoring in workout calories at all unless you're doing something really significant.
  • Vickybak79
    Vickybak79 Posts: 8 Member
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    bbell1985 wrote: »
    Vickybak79 wrote: »
    1BlueAurora wrote: »
    You can re-set your calorie intake by switching your activity level if you'd like. Perhaps try eating 1350 calories a day for awhile and see what happens. I agree with everyone about getting a food scale. I thought it was a pain in the neck at first, but it was an eye opener. I thought I was eating a serving of something, but I was actually eating three! That's because for me eye-balling portions doesn't work. I used to pour a bowl of cereal and say to myself that it looked like about a cup. Nope. Once I started measuring food, I got used to eating a little less of my usual foods, and started filling up with more items that were filling. And I drink water before every meal. And throughout the day. Lotsa water.

    I weigh everything but I will have a look at the food scale .. thanks.

    You say you weigh and then you said you will "look into" a food scale so I'm confused. I'm also drunk though so maybe it's me.

    Sorry I mis read the food scale, to be honest i wasnt sure what you ment. I have scales and I use them daily weighing everything I eat and I also log food daily . I have gone down from 1700 cals to 1480 I tried lower but was very hungry.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,837 Member
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    saf1luelinks wrote: »
    My suggestion is not to factor in calories lost at the gym at all as they are largely insignificant. To give a frame of reference, running for a mile is worth 100 calories. That means running on a high school gym track FOUR TIMES is only 100 calories. It's not worth factoring in workout calories at all unless you're doing something really significant.

    If one uses MFP to calculate calorie goal and sets a target loss rate that's aggressive for their size, not eating back exercise calories can be a recipe for health risks. Also, calories burned running depends on the bodyweight of the runner. I ate every (carefully estimated) exercise calorie while successfully losing 50+ pounds, and still do in year 3 of maintenance.

    That said, machines can overestimate. My spin bike can estimate 600+ calories for a spin class that my heart rate monitor says is mid 200s.

    Not logging eating accurately seems to be the most common problem, though.

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