Diet advice please!

ole232323

I’ve been eating veggies and very rarely lean meats. I’ve cut calories to 1500 a day and haven’t had many carbs either. I’ve been eating this way for 2 weeks and I’ve gained 3 pounds. I’m at a loss. I also walk about 7 miles a day. I guess my question is am I doing this all wrong?

Nony_Mouse

First, veggies contain carbs

Have you only just started the walking, or increased it? Increases in intensity or duration of exercise causes fluid retention as part of muscle repair, so it's not at all unusual to see a scale increase when starting or increasing exercise.

Second, hormonal fluctuations also cause fluid retention for many women (I gain about 2lbs of water weight with both ovulation and TOM, many women report even larger gains).

Third, how are you measuring your food intake? Are you using a digital scale to weigh everything, using measuring cups, or estimating portion sizes.

But, relax . It's early days yet, and unless your logging is massively off and you're not actually at a calorie deficit, you will be losing fat, you just may not be able to see it on the scale yet.

snowflake954

Are you using a digital food scale and weighing and measuring all your food and drink? Especially starting out it's important so you get a handle on how many calories you're consuming. If you've got that down then you just have to be patient and persistent. Your macros (carbs, protein, fat, sugar, etc) don't make a difference if you hit your calorie goal. HOWEVER, they can help you adhere to your deficit, give you energy, and generally help your success. So, take a good look at your calorie intake and what you're eating. Good luck.

janejellyroll

Are you tracking your calories? Eating at a deficit is way more important for weight loss than eating or avoiding certain foods.

quiksylver296

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

ole232323

Thank you everyone for the advice! I’m using a digital scale already. It’ll probably just take me a little while to see results

ChickenKillerPuppy

Also - if you really want to lose weight and keep it off, it's about changing habits that you can maintain over a long period of time. Don't do anything you wouldn't do for the rest of your life. Sometimes just eating the foods you really like but weighing them and eating less so you stay within your calories is easier than just switching to foods that you have been conditioned to think are "good." In other words, "diets" don't work, but changing your habits slowly in a way you can maintain can lead to long term weight loss.

NicbPNW

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

Also - if you really want to lose weight and keep it off, it's about changing habits that you can maintain over a long period of time. Don't do anything you wouldn't do for the rest of your life. Sometimes just eating the foods you really like but weighing them and eating less so you stay within your calories is easier than just switching to foods that you have been conditioned to think are "good." In other words, "diets" don't work, but changing your habits slowly in a way you can maintain can lead to long term weight loss.

This.