Why aren’t i losing weight!?
Replies
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So aim for accurately measured 2000 to 2100 during the week and a bit less on the weekend (if the weekend is less). Or go for a nice walk on the weekend and keep it similar.
Stick your spray oil on gram accurate scale. hit tare. Spray. Stick back on scale. You've used x grams. Each gram is so close to 9 Cal as makes no difference.
What does a spray mean? I have a heavy spray finger. You don't. Weight is weight.
i think this is where my issues lie as hearing eat 2000 calories a day is terrifying!!
yet if you look back through my diary some over eating days i eat nearly 4,000 and some days i eat nearer 1,000...
i think because i was sedentary for so long i got use to 1,200-1,300 ish being ok... i’m now struggling with what to eat for i’m doing now which has been a massive change really.
i was going on what i said on the packet ‘i kcal per spray’!!!2 -
So aim for accurately measured 2000 to 2100 during the week and a bit less on the weekend (if the weekend is less). Or go for a nice walk on the weekend and keep it similar.
Stick your spray oil on gram accurate scale. hit tare. Spray. Stick back on scale. You've used x grams. Each gram is so close to 9 Cal as makes no difference.
What does a spray mean? I have a heavy spray finger. You don't. Weight is weight.
i think this is where my issues lie as hearing eat 2000 calories a day is terrifying!!
yet if you look back through my diary some over eating days i eat nearly 4,000 and some days i eat nearer 1,000...
i think because i was sedentary for so long i got use to 1,200-1,300 ish being ok... i’m now struggling with what to eat for i’m doing now which has been a massive change really.
i was going on what i said on the packet ‘i kcal per spray’!!!
Yes. And your cereal packet says 1/3 cup or 50g. Go on. Check how much 1/3 of cup really weighs.9 -
So aim for accurately measured 2000 to 2100 during the week and a bit less on the weekend (if the weekend is less). Or go for a nice walk on the weekend and keep it similar.
Stick your spray oil on gram accurate scale. hit tare. Spray. Stick back on scale. You've used x grams. Each gram is so close to 9 Cal as makes no difference.
What does a spray mean? I have a heavy spray finger. You don't. Weight is weight.
i think this is where my issues lie as hearing eat 2000 calories a day is terrifying!!
yet if you look back through my diary some over eating days i eat nearly 4,000 and some days i eat nearer 1,000...
i think because i was sedentary for so long i got use to 1,200-1,300 ish being ok... i’m now struggling with what to eat for i’m doing now which has been a massive change really.
i was going on what i said on the packet ‘i kcal per spray’!!!
Yes. And your cereal packet says 1/3 cup or 50g. Go on. Check how much 1/3 of cup really weighs.
see pics below iv actually been giving myself the right amount in cereal but underestimating my milk by about 50ml.... now eating cereal at 2:13am lol
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Happy cereal times
Next project: digital, precision to 1g, scale with tare button and highest possible capacity (at least 2KG, higher if you can find and afford).
Super Expensive but detachable screen OXO is supposed to be the cat's meow.
Saving my pennies and frustratingly continuing to use my salter that dies on me whenever liquid falls on the display! And that I have to use empty containers to lift things up so that I can read the display!6 -
Don't forget the caveat. If you've done everything right and your trending weight is still not showing appropriate results after 4 to 6 weeks... you get to adjust your goals per your actual results now that you're confident that your logging is up to par.3
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Agree with getting a digital scale. Those spring ones can be wildly inaccurate!6
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Don't forget the caveat. If you've done everything right and your trending weight is still not showing appropriate results after 4 to 6 weeks... you get to adjust your goals per your actual results now that you're confident that your logging is up to par.
okay fresh start for tomorrow with a new 4-6 weeks, will weight daily, what’s your opinion on weekly weigh ins? should i just forget that and just keep going with daily for a while?
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Nony_Mouse wrote: »Agree with getting a digital scale. Those spring ones can be wildly inaccurate!
i’ll have a look at getting some0 -
Don't forget the caveat. If you've done everything right and your trending weight is still not showing appropriate results after 4 to 6 weeks... you get to adjust your goals per your actual results now that you're confident that your logging is up to par.
okay fresh start for tomorrow with a new 4-6 weeks, will weight daily, what’s your opinion on weekly weigh ins? should i just forget that and just keep going with daily for a while?
Depends on how much your brain hamsters gibber. Mine are perfectly happy looking at daily variations and in any case the only weight that I consider official is my trending weight per trendweight.com
I enter my weight in on fitbit.com which automagically pushes it to MFP and trendweight and weightgrapher for the heck of it.4 -
Don't forget the caveat. If you've done everything right and your trending weight is still not showing appropriate results after 4 to 6 weeks... you get to adjust your goals per your actual results now that you're confident that your logging is up to par.
okay fresh start for tomorrow with a new 4-6 weeks, will weight daily, what’s your opinion on weekly weigh ins? should i just forget that and just keep going with daily for a while?
Depends on how much your brain hamsters gibber. Mine are perfectly happy looking at daily variations and in any case the only weight that I consider official is my trending weight per trendweight.com
I enter my weight in on fitbit.com which automagically pushes it to MFP and trendweight and weightgrapher for the heck of it.
i’ll have a look in to it! i think it’s weekly
weigh ins that bother me!0 -
Im not sure if you said your age and stats but Im guessing we are somewhat similar.28 and I am 5ft6 and 200 lbs exactly. My 4 week data from fitbit gives me 3000 tdee average and Ive been eating 2400-2700 calories a day and losing 1 lb per week. I was getting about 18000 steps a day. Between 15000 and 20000 . I trusted my fitbit numbers and eat back every delicious 1 of them1
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Im not sure if you said your age and stats but Im guessing we are somewhat similar.28 and I am 5ft6 and 200 lbs exactly. My 4 week data from fitbit gives me 3000 tdee average and Ive been eating 2400-2700 calories a day and losing 1 lb per week. I was getting about 18000 steps a day. Between 15000 and 20000 . I trusted my fitbit numbers and eat back every delicious 1 of them
i am 31, 5 ft 8, size 8 feet, 250lbs.
i have reset my calorie goal to 2000 now, up from 1,400... taking a leap of faith!!!!
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It is great that you have a job that keeps you on your feet and moving around.
Regardless of your weight I bet you are a lot more healthy!
I would (in addition to checking that your eating is as you think it is, and pulling back on the take aways etc) get a little more informed about burning calories...
Mfp overestimates calories burned - and I imagine so do fitness trackers etc. (Certainly if you read threads on them I get this impression).
12000 -16,000 steps - done slowly, with a bit of lifting, bending etc - is good for you and your heart. But it is not going to burn a whole load of calories. If you did it all day super fast, out of breath all the time - then yes. But if you are just moving around, then no, Likewise most school 'runs' are actually school 'dawdles'.
I suspect that you have created a mental picture of 'i am burning shed loads all day' which in reality you are not and this is helping you to overeat for your goals.
Sorry - I doubt you wanted to hear this.
I walk a dog. Somedays I walk it fast, much is uphill - and burn calories at a reasonable amount. Other days it is slowish, chatting away, enjoying the view, still bending down lots (to throw sticks) - it can amount to the same steps, but is barely worth logging...
If you are new to exercise, it is really common to mentally think you are burning more than you really are... and for this to skew your results.
So (assuming there might be some truth in my suggestion all those steps are not being done with calorie burning gusto)
- Accept that your calorie burn from 5 hours on your feet as not so big
- and / or move faster to make those steps count.
Can you keep up with the fastest stable hand - for short bursts to begin with, and long stretches as your fitness grows. Or if you work solo can you time a task today (eg usual walking across the yard and back) and do it double speed tomorrow? And build more speed into those steps....
Good luck!
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Nony_Mouse wrote: »Agree with getting a digital scale. Those spring ones can be wildly inaccurate!
I had an analogue scale and was wondering why I wasn't losing. Started losing once I bought a digital one.1 -
gentlygently wrote: »It is great that you have a job that keeps you on your feet and moving around.
Regardless of your weight I bet you are a lot more healthy!
I would (in addition to checking that your eating is as you think it is, and pulling back on the take aways etc) get a little more informed about burning calories...
Mfp overestimates calories burned - and I imagine so do fitness trackers etc. (Certainly if you read threads on them I get this impression).
12000 -16,000 steps - done slowly, with a bit of lifting, bending etc - is good for you and your heart. But it is not going to burn a whole load of calories. If you did it all day super fast, out of breath all the time - then yes. But if you are just moving around, then no, Likewise most school 'runs' are actually school 'dawdles'.
I suspect that you have created a mental picture of 'i am burning shed loads all day' which in reality you are not and this is helping you to overeat for your goals.
Sorry - I doubt you wanted to hear this.
I walk a dog. Somedays I walk it fast, much is uphill - and burn calories at a reasonable amount. Other days it is slowish, chatting away, enjoying the view, still bending down lots (to throw sticks) - it can amount to the same steps, but is barely worth logging...
If you are new to exercise, it is really common to mentally think you are burning more than you really are... and for this to skew your results.
So (assuming there might be some truth in my suggestion all those steps are not being done with calorie burning gusto)
- Accept that your calorie burn from 5 hours on your feet as not so big
- and / or move faster to make those steps count.
Can you keep up with the fastest stable hand - for short bursts to begin with, and long stretches as your fitness grows. Or if you work solo can you time a task today (eg usual walking across the yard and back) and do it double speed tomorrow? And build more speed into those steps....
Good luck!
Thank you for this, i did the same job i’m doing now ten years ago and lost a lot of weight quickly, i didn’t even think about what i ate then at all so assumed it would just be easy this time. a lot of them over eating is frustration from not doing i think. (bad logic i know). i’m also finding it harder to lose weight than i did when i did no exercise at all which is again frustrating!
i already keep up with the fastest stable hand, i pretty much run the school run part i don’t have my child to make up time, we muck out 7-8 big horses boxes a day in an hour and a half so it does feel like hard work, i certainly ache at the end of each shift six months on!
but yes i do wonder if my fitbit is over estimating calories and something that’s always worried me which is why i never counted them each day and just allowed myself to go over a couple of days expecting things to level out because of doing a lot more than i use to. that method hasn’t worked!
i definitely need to stop the under and over eating and find a balance that fits with what calories i’m burning however much it is and balance the appetite i have from it which probably isn’t in equal relation to the calorie increase.
hopefully by increasing my calories a bit every day rather than not enough
and then far too much other days i’ll get there i think i’ll just have to start back
at my fitness pals calorie guide and if i don’t lose weight start cutting it down.
as you say it’s not what i want to hear this is the hardest i’ve ever found losing weight when i expected it to me easy! but i think that’s led to sloppiness with choices and tracking and going from strict to what the hell mind set not
balance expecting the exercise to outweigh it but don’t think it has as you say xx
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that said on the bright side i have lost 4 inches from my waist, 1.5 inches from each thigh, 1 inch from my calf and 1 inch from my upper arms, i can fasten an old coat i couldn’t before and have dropped a dress size. so at least that’s something. and would indicate i am actually burning a good few calories. x2
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One more thought - you say the fitbit is saying you regularly burn over 2,000 calories. Another member reviewed your diary for 30 days and said you averaged 1700 calories. If both numbers are accurate, that's (roughly) a 300 kcal deficit per day, which would translate to 2.5 pounds for the month (or just over half a pound per week). This could easily be "hidden" by water weight fluctuations thanks to sodium intake and TOM - particularly when you are only weighing once per week. I weigh daily, and my numbers can fluctuate up to 5 or 6 pounds from one day to the next depending on sodium intake.
It's hard not to keep changing things from one week to the next when you don't see the dramatic results you're hoping to see. Try to follow a set plan for 4 weeks as others have outlined above and see how it goes. Then you'll have a more accurate picture of how much you're eating and burning and where you need to make adjustments.
Good luck!
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I was going to go into something and thought better of it because you're already taking on board a lot of information. You're ending up where I would have had you anyway, so it's all good!
Definitely get a digital scale.3 -
Inches don't disappear because you're not getting results. I am starting to wonder if we just have a measuring our results problem.
Water retention makes weight fluctuate much faster than fluctuations caused by changes to your fat level.
If you are influenced by hormonal weight fluctuation, exercise weight fluctuations, sodium weight fluctuations due to suddenly eating take away (because if you're averaging well under 3K mg of sodium a day on an overall basis, on a day that you eat domino's you're certainly taking in much more sodium than usual), you are quite possibly driving yourself batty over a perfectly normal weight loss.
Please go back and plug in your weight numbers on a trending weight app (as previously discussed). Trendweight.com/weightgrapher.com/libra android/happy scale iphone are all known to work fairly well. Others may also exist.
How much are you actually losing?1 -
sugaraddict4321 wrote: »One more thought - you say the fitbit is saying you regularly burn over 2,000 calories. Another member reviewed your diary for 30 days and said you averaged 1700 calories. If both numbers are accurate, that's (roughly) a 300 kcal deficit per day, which would translate to 2.5 pounds for the month (or just over half a pound per week). This could easily be "hidden" by water weight fluctuations thanks to sodium intake and TOM - particularly when you are only weighing once per week. I weigh daily, and my numbers can fluctuate up to 5 or 6 pounds from one day to the next depending on sodium intake.
It's hard not to keep changing things from one week to the next when you don't see the dramatic results you're hoping to see. Try to follow a set plan for 4 weeks as others have outlined above and see how it goes. Then you'll have a more accurate picture of how much you're eating and burning and where you need to make adjustments.
Good luck!sugaraddict4321 wrote: »One more thought - you say the fitbit is saying you regularly burn over 2,000 calories. Another member reviewed your diary for 30 days and said you averaged 1700 calories. If both numbers are accurate, that's (roughly) a 300 kcal deficit per day, which would translate to 2.5 pounds for the month (or just over half a pound per week). This could easily be "hidden" by water weight fluctuations thanks to sodium intake and TOM - particularly when you are only weighing once per week. I weigh daily, and my numbers can fluctuate up to 5 or 6 pounds from one day to the next depending on sodium intake.
It's hard not to keep changing things from one week to the next when you don't see the dramatic results you're hoping to see. Try to follow a set plan for 4 weeks as others have outlined above and see how it goes. Then you'll have a more accurate picture of how much you're eating and burning and where you need to make adjustments.
Good luck!
thank you yes that’s a good way of looking at it. i think i definitely need a consistent and sensible 4-6 weeks x0 -
Inches don't disappear because you're not getting results. I am starting to wonder if we just have a measuring our results problem.
Water retention makes weight fluctuate much faster than fluctuations caused by changes to your fat level.
If you are influenced by hormonal weight fluctuation, exercise weight fluctuations, sodium weight fluctuations due to suddenly eating take away (because if you're averaging well under 3K mg of sodium a day on an overall basis, on a day that you eat domino's you're certainly taking in much more sodium than usual), you are quite possibly driving yourself batty over a perfectly normal weight loss.
Please go back and plug in your weight numbers on a trending weight app (as previously discussed). Trendweight.com/weightgrapher.com/libra android/happy scale iphone are all known to work fairly well. Others may also exist.
How much are you actually losing?
since janurary:
week one -4lbs
week two +4lbs
week theee -4lbs
week four -1lb
week five -1lb
week six -1lb
week seven -2lbs
week eight - maintain
week nine - maintain
week ten - +7lbs
week twelve -1lbs
week eleven - +1lbs
week twelve - +1lbs
week thirteen -6lbs
week fourteen +4lbs
week fifteen +1lbs
maybe i need to look back at what i did week 4-7!!0 -
sugaraddict4321 wrote: »One more thought - you say the fitbit is saying you regularly burn over 2,000 calories. Another member reviewed your diary for 30 days and said you averaged 1700 calories. If both numbers are accurate, that's (roughly) a 300 kcal deficit per day, which would translate to 2.5 pounds for the month (or just over half a pound per week). This could easily be "hidden" by water weight fluctuations thanks to sodium intake and TOM - particularly when you are only weighing once per week. I weigh daily, and my numbers can fluctuate up to 5 or 6 pounds from one day to the next depending on sodium intake.
It's hard not to keep changing things from one week to the next when you don't see the dramatic results you're hoping to see. Try to follow a set plan for 4 weeks as others have outlined above and see how it goes. Then you'll have a more accurate picture of how much you're eating and burning and where you need to make adjustments.
Good luck!
many thanks for this thought, very good point, my weekly weight loss records is posted above xx0 -
Inches don't disappear because you're not getting results. I am starting to wonder if we just have a measuring our results problem.
Water retention makes weight fluctuate much faster than fluctuations caused by changes to your fat level.
If you are influenced by hormonal weight fluctuation, exercise weight fluctuations, sodium weight fluctuations due to suddenly eating take away (because if you're averaging well under 3K mg of sodium a day on an overall basis, on a day that you eat domino's you're certainly taking in much more sodium than usual), you are quite possibly driving yourself batty over a perfectly normal weight loss.
Please go back and plug in your weight numbers on a trending weight app (as previously discussed). Trendweight.com/weightgrapher.com/libra android/happy scale iphone are all known to work fairly well. Others may also exist.
How much are you actually losing?
since janurary:
week one -4lbs
week two +4lbs
week theee -4lbs
week four -1lb
week five -1lb
week six -1lb
week seven -2lbs
week eight - maintain
week nine - maintain
week ten - +7lbs
week twelve -1lbs
week eleven - +1lbs
week twelve - +1lbs
week thirteen -6lbs
week fourteen +4lbs
week fifteen +1lbs
maybe i need to look back at what i did week 4-7!!
I would get the trendweight app and log daily if I were you, I actually think that will calm your anxiety over the weekly weigh ins and fluctuations. You are likely trending in the right direction but you can’t separate the signal from the noise.
Agree with all the above advice about starting fresh with reasonable goal rate of loss, accurate activity level, MFP recommendation for calorie target and trusting FitBit adjustments, maybe about 50% at first. Super agree with the advice about consistently using a food scale, and upgrading to a digital one.
With all this great advice just implement it, trust it, and then adjust after 6-8 weeks if the weight loss doesn’t occur.2 -
Inches don't disappear because you're not getting results. I am starting to wonder if we just have a measuring our results problem.
Water retention makes weight fluctuate much faster than fluctuations caused by changes to your fat level.
If you are influenced by hormonal weight fluctuation, exercise weight fluctuations, sodium weight fluctuations due to suddenly eating take away (because if you're averaging well under 3K mg of sodium a day on an overall basis, on a day that you eat domino's you're certainly taking in much more sodium than usual), you are quite possibly driving yourself batty over a perfectly normal weight loss.
Please go back and plug in your weight numbers on a trending weight app (as previously discussed). Trendweight.com/weightgrapher.com/libra android/happy scale iphone are all known to work fairly well. Others may also exist.
How much are you actually losing?
since janurary:
week one -4lbs
week two +4lbs
week theee -4lbs
week four -1lb
week five -1lb
week six -1lb
week seven -2lbs
week eight - maintain
week nine - maintain
week ten - +7lbs
week twelve -1lbs
week eleven - +1lbs
week twelve - +1lbs
week thirteen -6lbs
week fourteen +4lbs
week fifteen +1lbs
maybe i need to look back at what i did week 4-7!!
One interesting point I noticed which you may have not yet considered in the big picture: Your most noticeable gains happened in week 2, week 10 and week 14. The only thing missing would have been something similar in week 6, because each of those are on 4-week cycles (i.e., roughly a month apart). Guess what else happens in women in somewhere around 4 week cycles? And is known to cause significant weight fluctuations?
Just something worth taking into consideration as a data point when you're trying to make things add up.8 -
Somehow i never had an issue with weightloss due to not logging 100%.
Id say im about 85% and i lose every week. I never weigh a peace of toast if label say 100 calories. Or an apple , egg etc. I logg 72 cals for an egg every time.
I weigh coffee creamer, butter..stuff that comes out of a container. But if it's pre measured or pre weighted for you i don't even bother. So i say,my accuracy is around 85% overall.
But i have never had issues losing over it.3 -
Somehow i never had an issue with weightloss due to not logging 100%.
Id say im about 85% and i lose every week. I never weigh a peace of toast if label say 100 calories. Or an apple , egg etc. I logg 72 cals for an egg every time.
I weigh coffee creamer, butter..stuff that comes out of a container. But if it's pre measured or pre weighted for you i don't even bother. So i say,my accuracy is around 85% overall.
But i have never had issues losing over it.
have to say i have always done exactly the same and it’s never stopped me losing weight, i did it in the very beginning years ago but after a while you kind of get a good gage at things.
i think i need to work out how many calories to eat for the exercise i’m doing to still be in a deficit and lose but sustain it, once i’ve done that i’ll be fine at hitting that calorie deficit by the methods iv usually used. x
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thanks everyone for all your advice!!
my plan is to increase calories intake to 1800 a day and see how i get on with that. if this amount stops me over eating and still keeps me losing weight then that’s fine, while i could eat more this is still 400 calories a day more than i have been aiming for which is a snack or mini meal even that could be enough itself to stop me struggling.
if i know i doing well to have a 1,800 goal day ending at around 1,600/1,700 i should feel much better than aiming for 1,400, needing more so going to 1,700 but stressing iv gone over and ending up over eating from aiming too low. if i can trust i’ll still lose weight at the new goal i think i’ll be much happier.
i’ll consistently do this for 4-6 weeks and weigh daily to see long term trend rather than worrying about weekly results to avoid stress from fluctuations.
I am not going to go to the extreme of measuring every g on electronic scales although i can see the benefits of doing this, i think for now i am okay as i have been doing, i will probably need to do that later down the weight loss road when i have less to lose and have to be more careful.
i think for now my issue is allowing myself to eat 1,800 a day rather than trying to eat 1,300 because of a fluctuation, not being able to because of my activity and then causing another gain by over eating by giving up!!
so hopefully iv worked this out with all your help so thank you so much for those who took their time, actually listened to post and went beyond the ‘you’re over eating’ response to offer useful support. thank you!!! good luck on all your journeys!! Xxxx
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