not progressing the way i want

healthyeating555

When i first joined mfp on april 14 i lost 14 or 15 lbs in a very short time. It is now aug 10 and my progress has not budged in quite some time. I started at 281 and i am now 268 . That 268 has been around for quite some time. At one point i got down to 264 but it never got past that. I stopped reporting my food diary for more than a month because it became too time consuming keeping track of each and every piece of food i put in my mouth. I also became frustrated that the scale wasnt moving which is why i gave up on reporting my food diary. I still watch the calories but watch them more in memory than actual documentation. I still try and burn my 500 calories per day depending on how much time i have during the day. I have to admit i had some cheat days between april 14 and now but not that many where it would make a negative impact on my goals. Maybe i should drink 2 gallons of water per day instead of periodic cup here cup there. I find water goes down alot easier when im sitting in a reclining position as opposed to standing . Any feedback would help but please dont flood me with hundreds of ideas as to what im doing wrong. The more advice you get the more it messes with your head

ninerbuff

Straight up................you quit being consistent. No consistency means non consistent results. If anything I insist on with a client, it's stay consistent.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

kellyskitties

That much water is a bad idea.

Logging would help you to see your patterns and what you could do better.

Start again, and when it isn't working ask for opinions and help. I don't have a clue what you were doing wrong - but if you are open minded you can find your answers here just for the asking.

I find when you ask a question you can get a variety of answers - just look through the ideas and try what sounds suited to you. If it goes against your nature too much it may not work for you.

Look for small tweaks - I'm sure you are not eating/exercising completely optimally - few do. There's always room for improvement. Look for areas you could improve and choose one to work on. Not perfect. Perfection is the formula for failure.

Friend me if you want.

MoreBean13

You need to log your food. Honestly and thoroughly.


Like, you NEED to log your food.


For serious.

Lyadeia

You'll never know what needs to be changed if you are not honestly and accurately logging your food.

brower47

Just like everyone else has said, you need to log your food. You also need to stop obsessing about progress. You will see lulls. Those first losses you experienced were not purely body tissue (fat/muscle) loss. A lot of it was water but if you continue to log and maintain your deficit, eventually that number on the scale won't be so dishonest any longer. If you maintained that 14 - 15 pound loss for four months, you could safely say by the end of it that what you lost was no longer water weight but true weight.

However, if you stop logging, you're going undo all the hard work you've put in. Estimating your day will find you vastly underestimating your intakes leading to longer and longer plateaus that aren't working towards your goals.

Remaining consistent will be the only way you lose. Inconsistency is a sure fire way toward frustration and abandoning what you've worked toward achieving.

maybeazure

Psychologists have known for decades that self-monitoring behavior will change behavior, even if no other strategies are employed. They aren't 100% sure why, but it has been proven in study after study.

I believe that the single most effective thing that you can do to lose weight is to write down everything that you eat and every time that you exercise. It is way too easy to start lying to yourself or just forgetting if you try to keep a mental tally. Yes it is a big pain in the neck, but it is effective, and when you start seeing the pounds come off you will see that it is worth it.

AllonsYtotheTardis

I stopped reporting my food diary for more than a month because it became too time consuming keeping track of each and every piece of food i put in my mouth.

^^^ This is the problem.

Ask yourself, then answer : "which is more difficult - tracking my eating, or staying the same size I am, which I'm clearly unhappy with?"

DavPul

first off, none of us is progressing the way we want. it's just the nature of the beast. second, most of us are actually trying, by, you know, actually logging food and stuff. if you're not logging food you're just hoping, wishing, or praying but damn sure not trying.

start trying. for realsies

healthyeating555

I agree

healthyeating555

I disagree with the water weight loss because some people have told me i look great and i lost weight even though i know it was minimal I did actually lose 12 to 14 lbs or else it would have found its way back to my tummy

healthyeating555

Its not that easy to track everything you eat because tracking some foods that are not user friendly with MFP is not a true reflection of what you actually ate during the day. It gives a general idea of what you consumed but its still an inaccurate account of documenting your food diary

DavPul

Yet infinitely better than nothing

brower47

I disagree with the water weight loss because some people have told me i look great and i lost weight even though i know it was minimal I did actually lose 12 to 14 lbs or else it would have found its way back to my tummy

Hit the quote button to make it more clear who you are replying to, not the reply button beneath the post.

On topic: 12 - 14 lbs of water is still going to make you look great because that's a large volume you've removed from your body.

12-14 lbs is 42,000 - 49,000 calories. Did you really eat at that sort of deficit in that short amount of time? I'm guessing the answer is no. Over a one month time period, that would be a deficit of 1400 - 1633 calories per day deficit. Yes, that initial weight loss was water weight (mostly). It happens to almost everyone, don't be troubled that it happened to you too. My initial post and recommendations stand.

Ed98043

There's a saying I've read on here... "Don't complain about the results you're not getting for the work you're not doing".

Congrats on losing 15 lbs and keeping it off! Now do what you did before and lose the next 15.

brower47

Its not that easy to track everything you eat because tracking some foods that are not user friendly with MFP is not a true reflection of what you actually ate during the day. It gives a general idea of what you consumed but its still an inaccurate account of documenting your food diary

So your alternative is to be completely inaccurate with personal guesstimates instead of slightly inaccurate with MFP numbers?

Do you want advice on how to improve or do you want something else?

chantels1

I know you are venting, and there are hundreds of answers to help, but I have a few questions. Do the scales really matter? Are you losing inches? How do your clothes fit? The scale is not an indicator of fat loss. It's a mental quick fix for us. But the truth and the real results come with a tape measure. you may be making changes the scale doesn't see. Another good thing to help is to take a photo, and in a month, or 3 months, or 6 months (you get to choose) take a look at the difference. All of these things help us see our accomplishments especially when the scale is not being friendly!

Otterluv

Consistency and trying to be as accurate as possible are really the only way. As has been said in here, you need to log your food, even if it does feel like you are guessing on some items.

Achrya

Its not that easy to track everything you eat because tracking some foods that are not user friendly with MFP is not a true reflection of what you actually ate during the day. It gives a general idea of what you consumed but its still an inaccurate account of documenting your food diary

Don't log then. Don't take any of the suggestions. Keep doing what you're doing and giving the excuses you're giving for not doing it the right way (as evidenced by the thousands of people who have list weight with MFP). Clearly what you're doing is working really well.

/mean

JanAlyssa825

It helps me to look for foods that ARE MyFitnessPal friendly as much as possible. Sure, that won't be every day, but on a normal day, I can look at the labels of what I'm eating and enter my food correctly. I very rarely come across a packaged food product that isn't in the MFP database. When I cook, I measure every last ingredient and put everything into the recipe builder on MFP to come up with an accurate calorie count. I measure portions and weigh everything - this has been a huge help. Get a digital food scale, and it will make it much easier to input accurate calorie counts.

And on the days that you go out to eat at a non-chain restaurant and cannot get nutritional info? Estimate, and use the high end of calories. It's better than nothing!!

Plateaus are natural, but you can break through 'em!

erookjr

You've answered your own question, actually! You have to be consistent more importantly. Your body was used to the things you were doing and the only you can do, is improve and increase your methods. You have to be consistent to get results. Yes, we have good memories, but trust me sometimes you'll forget if you don't log foods.