Getting Frustrated

ebholmes27

I have used myfitnesspal in the past and am starting a new push to lose weight. I have been logging EVERYTHING in for exactly ten days. I am using the new Fitbit Charge 3 around the clock to track daily calories and exercise. I am consistently 500-800 calories under my calorie target which, is already set up to lose 1.5 lbs per week. Therefore, I am about 900-1200 calories under my daily goal for the past ten days. I do not drink alcohol at all and I am exercising with weights or cycling roughly about 5-6 times per week. This is all tracked in the fitbit and synced to myfitnesspal.

I have lost zero pounds in the last ten days. Weight is tracked through my Garmin scale synced to myfitnesspal.

Just a bit frustrated that I am not seeing any movement. Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.......

ebholmes27

Tracking below

jjpptt2

What is your
- height
- weight
- age
- gender
- daily calorie goal
- average daily intake

Are you weighing your foods, all of them, before you eat/log them?

Have you started/changed your exercise routine?

Muscleflex79

how are you measuring your intake? weighing all your food? and why are you eating so far under your target??

ebholmes27

height - 5'11"
Weight - 215 lbs (goal 180)
Age - 50
Gender - Male
Ave Daily Goal - 1830 (myfitnesspal goal to achieve 1.5 lb lose per day)
Ave Intake - Around 2200 (see graphs below for more detail)

I do not weigh my food. Calories are taken from MFP, bar code, or Cooking Light. I typically eat smallish portions and leave the table hungry. Foods consist of lean proteins, eggs, yogurt, veggies, white rice, salads for lunch & left overs. Snacks apples, bananas, or a handful of nuts / dried fruit (all logged) I cheat with a bowl of ice-cream if I am well under my goal.

I was a Expert / Elite class mountain biker 4 years ago and broke my leg. I dealt with 6 surgeries to repair it and stop infection over the last 3 year hence, the weight gain. I weighed 170 when tapering for races.

My exercise routine has amped up do to getting back. Typically only 6-7 hours per week, weights 4x per week, lots of Fitbit hiking and stairs (logged) and the rest on the bike. At 50, I doubt I am builing significant muscle weight and BMI has remained steady at 30 (eeekkk!)

MuscleFlex - so under my target because I am not losing. I do have plenty of energy for days and working out (not bonking at all)

ebholmes27

Thanks BTW! ~ Eric

Muscleflex79

ebholmes27 wrote: »

height - 5'11"
Weight - 215 lbs (goal 180)
Age - 50
Gender - Male
Ave Daily Goal - 1830 (myfitnesspal goal to achieve 1.5 lb lose per day)
Ave Intake - Around 2200 (see graphs below for more detail)

I do not weigh my food. Calories are taken from MFP, bar code, or Cooking Light. I typically eat smallish portions and leave the table hungry. Foods consist of lean proteins, eggs, yogurt, veggies, white rice, salads for lunch & left overs. Snacks apples, bananas, or a handful of nuts / dried fruit (all logged) I cheat with a bowl of ice-cream if I am well under my goal.

I was a Expert / Elite class mountain biker 4 years ago and broke my leg. I dealt with 6 surgeries to repair it and stop infection over the last 3 year hence, the weight gain. I weighed 170 when tapering for races.

My exercise routine has amped up do to getting back. Typically only 6-7 hours per week, weights 4x per week, lots of Fitbit hiking and stairs (logged) and the rest on the bike. At 50, I doubt I am builing significant muscle weight and BMI has remained steady at 30 (eeekkk!)

MuscleFlex - so under my target because I am not losing. I do have plenty of energy for days and working out (not bonking at all)

if you don't weigh your food you really have no idea how much you are eating - start there - it will be eye opening!

TavistockToad

you're eating more than you think if you're not weighing your food.

LivingtheLeanDream

Time to use a food scale...but also 10 days isn't enough time to measure progress either.

andyroo512

I always "cheat" with ice cream too. However, I've been getting the low-fat ice cream (Halotop or Aldi brand) and eating about 5 pints a week (they're only 240 calories per pint for vanilla). I lost about 20 lbs using a calorie deficit of 300-500 per day - including the ice cream.

Also, I would suggest you start meal prepping. Make one meal or snack and eat it consistently for the week. This will make the rest of your diet easier by building consistency. I don't weigh foods but I do calculate serving sizes to track an estimate of my calories and have become a bit of a math nerd in the process.

I also agree with the other posts that you're likely eating more than you think.

I added two pictures of what I do with strawberries and grapes. The strawberries are a pound (16 ounces) per container divided by 4 containers = 4 oz per serving. Same with grapes - buy several pounds (multiply by 16 to convert to ounces) and then divide by the number of containers. The picture shown is 10lbs of grapes divided by 20 containers = 8 ounces per container. This is time-consuming but it's great during a busy week to grab-n-go.

stacimarie1015

It could be you are eating more than you think due to not using a food scale. That slice of bread that is supposed to be 40 grams and 50 calories is likely 44 grams and 55 calories. One one item it may not mean much, but over the course of the day/week/etc. it adds up.

But if you ramped up your exercise at the same time you started weighing yourself, your muscles are likely retaining water as they adjust to the new activity. That can take weeks to even out, meaning water weight could be masking your actual weight results. Give it another 4-6 weeks - but do consider using a food scale. Weight of packaged food can be off by 10-20%!

garystrickland357

You are eating more than you think you are... I am too.
I have lost 72 pounds this year. I am within 8 pounds of goal weight so a few weeks ago I changed my MFP goal to lose .5 pounds per week. I log my food and calories. I use a food scale. I exercise and my Garmin syncs to MFP. In 18 days I haven't lost any weight. Why? Because I sneak a tortilla chip here, a candy corn there, I skip logging the lettuce and tomatoes on my sandwich because "they have almost no calories". As a consequence I am eating more than I should and more than my log is reporting. I know that's true because I haven't lost any weight in 18 days.So I'm tightening up on my logging and being more self aware of what I'm eating. It's simple - but not easy.

LivingtheLeanDream

garystrickland357 wrote: »

You are eating more than you think you are... I am too.
I have lost 72 pounds this year. I am within 8 pounds of goal weight so a few weeks ago I changed my MFP goal to lose .5 pounds per week. I log my food and calories. I use a food scale. I exercise and my Garmin syncs to MFP. In 18 days I haven't lost any weight. Why? Because I sneak a tortilla chip here, a candy corn there, I skip logging the lettuce and tomatoes on my sandwich because "they have almost no calories". As a consequence I am eating more than I should and more than my log is reporting. I know that's true because I haven't lost any weight in 18 days.So I'm tightening up on my logging and being more self aware of what I'm eating. It's simple - but not easy.

^^ aint that the truth!

It all comes down to how badly we want to shift those last pounds because its hard work. But stick with it and its absolutely achievable.

jjpptt2

ebholmes27 wrote: »

height - 5'11"
Weight - 215 lbs (goal 180)
Age - 50
Gender - Male
Ave Daily Goal - 1830 (myfitnesspal goal to achieve 1.5 lb lose per day)
Ave Intake - Around 2200 (see graphs below for more detail)

I do not weigh my food. Calories are taken from MFP, bar code, or Cooking Light. I typically eat smallish portions and leave the table hungry. Foods consist of lean proteins, eggs, yogurt, veggies, white rice, salads for lunch & left overs. Snacks apples, bananas, or a handful of nuts / dried fruit (all logged) I cheat with a bowl of ice-cream if I am well under my goal.

I was a Expert / Elite class mountain biker 4 years ago and broke my leg. I dealt with 6 surgeries to repair it and stop infection over the last 3 year hence, the weight gain. I weighed 170 when tapering for races.

My exercise routine has amped up do to getting back. Typically only 6-7 hours per week, weights 4x per week, lots of Fitbit hiking and stairs (logged) and the rest on the bike. At 50, I doubt I am builing significant muscle weight and BMI has remained steady at 30 (eeekkk!)

MuscleFlex - so under my target because I am not losing. I do have plenty of energy for days and working out (not bonking at all)

Looking at the bolded...

Do you think you're burning 400 cals each day every day in intentional exercise?

Not weighing your food makes the margin for error MUCH bigger than it would otherwise be. And it's fairly big to begin with.

jtechmart

I usually don’t start to see real results until week 3 when I’m just getting started again. And I use a Fitbit charge 2, the calories burned is just a reference to me. I know if it says I burned 3200 cals in a day, and I ate 1800 cals according to MTP logging, then I know I’ll get expected results because I’ve tested it before.

I don’t think of results in terms of Fitbit cals burned, cals consumed according to MFP, and the online blogs that say x cal deficit = 2 pounds per week. I just put together a program that makes sense, track everything with Fitbit and MTP, and measure my results after a few weeks. Then I know for real what the numbers mean because I’ve tested it.

AnnPT77

I agree with the "underestimating intake" probability.

You don't weigh your food, and it sounds like you believe the calories in the crowd-sourced MFP database without checking them against an authoritative source (can lead you wrong - and scanning the bar code is no more accurate than manual lookup, it's still crowd-sourced food data).

Moreover, Fitbit is a calorie estimating device (among other things), not an infallible oracle. It may overestimate the calories from certain types of exercise (weight training, intervals, etc.) - compare alternative estimates to see if you're getting a reasonable ballpark.

But also: If the amped up exercise routine is also fairly new, it would be reasonable to expect some water retention that could mask fat loss temporarily.

Oh, and: With 35 pounds to lose, 1.5 pounds a week would be a pretty aggressive weight loss rate, potentially risking subtle fatigue that drains calories from your daily life activity calorie burn, and from exercise intensity. Two pounds plus per week would seriously be a bad plan, especially as we get a little older and require a bit more recovery from physical stressors (not a slam; I'm older than you).

If you haven't, I'd suggest reading the "most helpful posts" section in the "Getting Started" and "General Health, Fitness and Diet" parts of the MFP forums for some great guidance on how best to make MFP work for you.

DistortedVisionUK

FitBit calorific expenditure from exercise is grossly inaccurately. I find that Polar HR monitors are much more accurate.

smantha32

ebholmes27 wrote: »

I have used myfitnesspal in the past and am starting a new push to lose weight. I have been logging EVERYTHING in for exactly ten days. I am using the new Fitbit Charge 3 around the clock to track daily calories and exercise. I am consistently 500-800 calories under my calorie target which, is already set up to lose 1.5 lbs per week. Therefore, I am about 900-1200 calories under my daily goal for the past ten days. I do not drink alcohol at all and I am exercising with weights or cycling roughly about 5-6 times per week. This is all tracked in the fitbit and synced to myfitnesspal.

I have lost zero pounds in the last ten days. Weight is tracked through my Garmin scale synced to myfitnesspal.

Just a bit frustrated that I am not seeing any movement. Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.......

A lot of people like syncing the fitbit into my fitnesspal. I disconnected mine. It was giving me too many calories.

Panini911

If you are not weighing your food you are VERY VERY VERY likely eating more than you think. we are humans (espeically those of us here to loose weight) are bad at eyeballing quantity and even using measuring spoons is not always accurate on high calorie items. GET A SCALE. use it for all the foods you can (which is most).

But also, 10 days is a drop in the bucket. weight loss is a marathon. baby steps. you didn't put on that weight in a month, you are not going to loose it in a month.

ebholmes27

Thanks for the comments. I bought a scale of Amazon today. I typically where my Garmin with heart rate strap for biking. The Fitbit definitely is not accurate at higher HR's and when you may be sweating.

kshama2001

While I also endorse using a food scale, I want to point out that if the exercise just started recently you are likely retaining water from that. My own scale went up 7 pounds when I started lifting weights again.