not losing

lucyholdcroft7

Hi,

I started a diet about two and a half weeks ago. I weighed about 84 kilo and I’m six foot 2. I’ve been eating about 200/300 below my target which is 1980 and not adding exercise on either and been meticulously weighing everything. I drink as much water as I can and I also walk around 5/6 miles a day just by getting to and from work in which I’m a teacher so spend the entire day on my feet. I am so frustrated as I’m going on holiday by the end of August and want to weigh about 80kg as a maximum and at this rate I’ll still be 84. My husband is eating about 400 more than me and has dropped 3kgs in the last couple of weeks (we are the same height and he weighed 86) so now he weighs even less than me! I’m so clueless as to what I’m doing wrong. I’ve dieted before and lost weight fairly quickly and I wasn’t as strict as I am now.

diannethegeek

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.