3 weeks and scale hasn’t changed
allysasmith105
Posts: 2 Member
Hi all,
I’ve been at this for 3 straight weeks, counting every calorie. I have also picked up running 3-4x a week. Also upped my water intake. However, the scale hasn’t moved at all.. literally haven’t lost an ounce.. maybe its muscle from running, retaining water? Idk, right now I’m feeling a little defeated. Any one else share the same experience?
I’ve been at this for 3 straight weeks, counting every calorie. I have also picked up running 3-4x a week. Also upped my water intake. However, the scale hasn’t moved at all.. literally haven’t lost an ounce.. maybe its muscle from running, retaining water? Idk, right now I’m feeling a little defeated. Any one else share the same experience?
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Replies
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Measure your success by the belt loop, not the scale. Keep it up!4
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allysasmith105 wrote: »Hi all,
I’ve been at this for 3 straight weeks, counting every calorie. I have also picked up running 3-4x a week. Also upped my water intake. However, the scale hasn’t moved at all.. literally haven’t lost an ounce.. maybe its muscle from running, retaining water? Idk, right now I’m feeling a little defeated. Any one else share the same experience?
Without knowing what your current stats are and how much you're trying to lose, it's hard to say if it's still early or if your losses are being masked by water weight/weight fluctuations. Or if your logging is off. Are you using a food scale?0 -
I’m in the same boat!! I’ve recently started (again), lost a ton the first week and now am pretty much stuck!! Frustrating!1
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Me too! I’ve been tracking and measuring and the scale hasn’t moved in 6 days while last week it was down every day or every other day. Every day I wake up and weigh myself thinking this will the day I’m down another pound and I’m not...😩 but it’s not going to stop me because I feel good.1
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And if your scale has literally given you the exact same weight daily for 3 weeks, you might want to change the batteries. Weight fluctuates all the time, whether you are dieting or not, so you should be seeing that.3
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caitlintripo3372 wrote: »Me too! I’ve been tracking and measuring and the scale hasn’t moved in 6 days while last week it was down every day or every other day. Every day I wake up and weigh myself thinking this will the day I’m down another pound and I’m not...😩 but it’s not going to stop me because I feel good.
Generally there is a high initial loss because a diet change often correlates with decreased salt and carbohydrates, both of which cause us to retain water. This is especially true for the trendy low-carb diets. Therefore, you lose a lot of water weight the first week. It does make you feel better, and fortunately, while the loss will slow down because it's more true fat loss, it's usually a good sign that you're heading in the right direction, at least.1 -
There’s a couple of factors here that are key to remember.
First, the scale doesn’t matter at all. It really doesn’t. How do I know that? Because if I could weigh what I do right now, AND have a six pack, then it wouldn’t matter right?
Second, the scale is a lier. This isn’t to say it’s “lying”, but it is to say it’s not telling you the whole story. If you’re in a calorie deficit, you’re losing fat not matter what the numbers say.
Third, as you said, you’ve upped your running in an attempt to see the scale change. That change is going to have an equal reaction. That reaction is going to make you retain water, because your muscles are gaining strength and endurance. The best way your muscles can get oxygen? H2O. It’s naturally going to happen.
I experienced something similar. For an entire month, the scale didn’t move. Fluctuate yes, but no actual curve. That’s when I took a deeper look; I had started strength training and my body was doing the same. So I started taking measurements. Sure enough, my arms were getting bigger, legs bigger, and chest and stomach shrinking. How? Because you’re burning fat, and gaining muscle, which sets off a cascade of other things.
My advice is to give it a couple more weeks. The reason: the whoosh effect. Body builders often talk about it, and it’s where out of no where, the scale will start changing. Rapidly. The weight literally seems to “whoosh” away. I was stagnant for 4 weeks. In one week lost 10 lbs.
Did I lose 10 lbs in a week? Absolutely not. But that weight was exactly what the plan had been. So in a way, everything I wanted was occurring, but it wasn’t till I started taking measurements that I saw anything.
So keep up the good work. Don’t get discouraged at all. Power through and I promise the results will come. The only downside: you’ll wish you could “whoosh” at all times. Lol5 -
And if your scale has literally given you the exact same weight daily for 3 weeks, you might want to change the batteries. Weight fluctuates all the time, whether you are dieting or not, so you should be seeing that.
QFT. In the past ~4 months there have been exactly 2 consecutive days my scale gave me the exact same reading. Down a bit, up a bit, down a bit...but dead-on the same for 3 weeks straight just isn't right.0 -
allysasmith105 wrote: »Hi all,
I’ve been at this for 3 straight weeks, counting every calorie. I have also picked up running 3-4x a week. Also upped my water intake. However, the scale hasn’t moved at all.. literally haven’t lost an ounce.. maybe its muscle from running, retaining water? Idk, right now I’m feeling a little defeated. Any one else share the same experience?
If the running is new, I'd wonder if you've accounted for the usual bump/stall on the scale people see when starting a new exercise routine? It's not uncommon and usually tapers off after 2-3 weeks.
Some of these have been covered already, but these would be my pretty generic suggestions. It's hard to be more specific with a closed diary and few details.
1. 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.
2. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one and weigh everything solid. Everything. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight or happy scale to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs. You might also be sure your scale is working and doesn't need new batteries or anything.
8. 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.2 -
how are you estimating calories burned when you run? do you have a heart rate monitor? when i compare my heart rate monitor's # of calories burned to the MFP ("____ minutes at ____ pace," etc) there are VAST differences.0
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Same problem! Just started 1200 cal/day diet with phentermine 10 days ago and the scale hasn’t moved. I do boot camp twice per week and treadmill/weights another day. Drinking 96+ oz of water daily. Maybe my 63 year old metabolism is slower than I thought? 😫1
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Same problem! Just started 1200 cal/day diet with phentermine 10 days ago and the scale hasn’t moved. I do boot camp twice per week and treadmill/weights another day. Drinking 96+ oz of water daily. Maybe my 63 year old metabolism is slower than I thought? 😫
No, it isn't your metabolism. Read back through this thread and the responses will tell you why you may not be seeing any changes yet.5 -
Hi, in 10 weeks i loosed 8kg. in last 1.5 week i not see any changes in my scale. I weight food, drink alot, record all food. Im on 1320 cal a day, should i cut few cal a day?
I need to mention that my work not allowing me to go to gym etc so i trying my best to loose weight with new eating habits, and im trying to walk how much i can.
Any suggestions? x0 -
annacarroll1984 wrote: »Hi, in 10 weeks i loosed 8kg. in last 1.5 week i not see any changes in my scale. I weight food, drink alot, record all food. Im on 1320 cal a day, should i cut few cal a day?
I need to mention that my work not allowing me to go to gym etc so i trying my best to loose weight with new eating habits, and im trying to walk how much i can.
Any suggestions? x
Again, I'll reiterate what I just said above your post - Read back through this thread and the responses will tell you why you may not be seeing any changes.
You also give no info on your stats - height, current weight, goal weight, age, gender (I assume female). You just may not have much to lose. Hard to tell with no real info.2 -
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167cm , weight 95kg, 34 y.o. and another 20kg to go....
i thought that im doing well but i will try to read all posts again and i may find "missing piece"
thank you0 -
great post, thank you0
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