Worked hard all week and lost NOTHING!!

nicolewilliams421
nicolewilliams421 Posts: 11 Member
in Motivation and Support
I’m so frustrated and disappointed right now...I’m on 1200 cals a day and I’ve been dieting for 35 days. In the first 3 weeks I has amazing loss...15lbs! (I know In the beginning a lot of it is water weight, but still...I’ll take it!). I’ve had a great week..I’ve stayed under my calorie goal all week and I’ve had absolutely ZERO loss this week!! How is that possible!!? I’m feeling really discouraged right now...(back story: starting weight 202. Weight today after 35 days:15lbs...I don’t work out)

Replies

  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1
  • nicolewilliams421
    nicolewilliams421 Posts: 11 Member
    Oops typo ! I can’t figure out how to edit!! I meant to say weight today 186...lol, it’s 6am🤦‍♀️
  • nicolewilliams421
    nicolewilliams421 Posts: 11 Member
    This is all new to me...let me make sure I’m understanding the deficit correctly...Let’s say I’m eating 1200 cals In food and my Fitbit says I’ve burned 2000 cals I’m walking around...then my deficit is 800??? Is that right? And you need how much of a deficit to lose, 500??
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    nicolewilliams421 wrote: »
    This is all new to me...let me make sure I’m understanding the deficit correctly...Let’s say I’m eating 1200 cals In food and my Fitbit says I’ve burned 2000 cals I’m walking around...then my deficit is 800??? Is that right? And you need how much of a deficit to lose, 500??

    You can lose with a 1 calorie deficit but it would be impossible to be that precise and it would be at such a slow rate that it would be imperceptible.

    So the better answer is it takes targeting at least a 250 calorie deficit a day to routinely exceed the margin of error and produce results that can be seen on a bathroom scale - eventually. If you hit 250 pretty close it would produce a half a pound a week loss. 500 would be a pound, 800 would be just over 1.5 pounds.

  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,333 Member
    You're gonna crash and burn if you expect to lose weight on demand. Sometimes your body takes a break..losing weight isn't automatic. I know they preach CICO here..like It works like clockwork..but it doesn't. There are weeks you lose and.stretches when you don't..then you body adjusts and you start losing again. If you just stick with it as a new lifestyle..in time.. you'll get there. Hang in there and don't give up.
  • steverhnm
    steverhnm Posts: 6 Member
    edited June 2020
    To lose 1 pound = 3500 calories. While it is definitely simple math-it still matters what you eat, when you eat it. Don't get in a rut, try some occasional fasting 2 x a week-stop eating at 7pm and don't eat again until noon the next day 2x a week. You will also go up & down in water weight so be sure to weigh they same way, same time every time you weigh in. Some do it daily (I do) others do it more like 1x a week. I think Daily is a good motivator myself. Don't cut your calories too close or it's not sustainable. I think logging my food EVERY day is the only thing that keeps me honest with myself. Don't be hard on yourself, just resolute.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    You're gonna crash and burn if you expect to lose weight on demand. Sometimes your body takes a break..losing weight isn't automatic. I know they preach CICO here..like It works like clockwork..but it doesn't. There are weeks you lose and.stretches when you don't..then you body adjusts and you start losing again. If you just stick with it as a new lifestyle..in time.. you'll get there. Hang in there and don't give up.

    This is not accurate. When you create a calorie or energy deficit your body still needs that energy so it draws upon stored energy (hopefully mainly fat) to supply it.

    There are three main problems with measuring that loss at home:

    1) You typically lose a small fraction of a pound of fat per day. Most bathroom scales round up or down to values where this fraction can be lost in rounding.

    2) There is no way to accurately measure body composition at home so there is no way to see a small decline in fat percentage.

    3) Your weight will fluctuate because of water and waste weight. This can mask the fat loss for a long time.

    I have always lost weight around 3500 calories per pound. It does work like clockwork but there is no way to reliably measure the progress the moment it happens.

  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    maxfitz190 wrote: »
    If zero loss is truly zero then I see it as a win for not gaining.

    Ha, me too! Before I started working on my weight, I was on that slow upward trend that some adults see as "normal" weight gain as you age. In reality, it was me growing more sedentary and eating out more due to being on my own with a pretty decent disposable income.

    For OP, there are definitely going to be weeks you don't lose, even when you are doing everything right. I guess the more accurate way to say that would be "weeks that your losses don't show on the scale" because that weight on the scale is more than just fat. Especially for us women, hormones can cause significant fluctuations in water weight. When I weigh myself right before my period, it will show that I have gained weight for the month. Once I get through that week, though, I tend to drop a lot of weight over the course of 2-3 days that was built up from hormones. This is why looking at trends and not singular data points is so important.

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited June 2020
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    You're gonna crash and burn if you expect to lose weight on demand. Sometimes your body takes a break..losing weight isn't automatic. I know they preach CICO here..like It works like clockwork..but it doesn't. There are weeks you lose and.stretches when you don't..then you body adjusts and you start losing again. If you just stick with it as a new lifestyle..in time.. you'll get there. Hang in there and don't give up.

    I've never seen anyone here represent body weight responding "like clockwork" if one counts calories. The truth is that weight loss is created by a calorie deficit, but also that your actual body weight at a given time is influenced by multiple factors including stress, hydration, food in the system, hormones, recent activity, and things like medications. All of these can confound our efforts to monitor our body weight accurately and create weeks where it looks like no progress is being made.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    nicolewilliams421 wrote: »
    This is all new to me...let me make sure I’m understanding the deficit correctly...Let’s say I’m eating 1200 cals In food and my Fitbit says I’ve burned 2000 cals I’m walking around...then my deficit is 800??? Is that right? And you need how much of a deficit to lose, 500??

    Yes, 500 calories to lose about 1 Lb per week...but it's an average trend over time. Weight loss isn't linear. You're going to have weeks with bigger losses, smaller losses, no losses, and even gains. Your body weight is more than fat...your body is comprised of roughly 55-65% water and that will fluctuate...you will also have varying degrees of inherent waste in your system...these things make body weight fluctuate and can mask fat loss in the short term. Losing weight is about the long game and watching the overall trend over time.

    05432a42800e2f88bbe54ba4648e2e6e.jpg
  • RockingWithLJ
    RockingWithLJ Posts: 243 Member
    And please ignore everything in bold here. Exactly none of that is necessary (or even extra helpful). [/quote]

    Too much salt or sugar does matter.
    Nutrition timing is a thing.
    It's too much for OP if shes new but dont discredit science
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,881 Member
    I'm sure we'd all like to see some of that scientific proof, of the bolded statements. Satiety and water weight will no doubt be impacted, but as for a significant impact on CICO?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    RockingWithLJ wrote: »
    And please ignore everything in bold here. Exactly none of that is necessary (or even extra helpful).

    Too much salt or sugar does matter.
    Nutrition timing is a thing.
    It's too much for OP if shes new but dont discredit science[/quote]

    I don't think anyone is saying that someone should eat "too much" salt or sugar, but weight loss (what OP is asking about) is created by a calorie deficit. That deficit can be achieved while eating salt or sugar and it can be achieved with a huge variety of meal timing.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    RockingWithLJ wrote: »

    Too much salt or sugar does matter.
    Nutrition timing is a thing.
    It's too much for OP if shes new but dont discredit science

    What you eat matters for lots of reasons-but not for weight loss.

    Please provide some of this science that suggests that a 17 hour fast (specifically from 7PM to noon-regardless of life circumstances) two days a week is beneficial?

    I’ve read some of that heralded science that actually shows some women have hormonal issues with fasts longer than 16 hours.

    I’m not about OP being new. It’s that these things are unnecessary for weight loss, complicate things for absolutely no reason and may even cause problems.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,333 Member
    I disagree... simply.. because weight loss plateaus are very real..and great dieters get them all the time. . If CICO worked all the time.. there wouldn't ever be a weight stall.

    NovusDies wrote: »
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    You're gonna crash and burn if you expect to lose weight on demand. Sometimes your body takes a break..losing weight isn't automatic. I know they preach CICO here..like It works like clockwork..but it doesn't. There are weeks you lose and.stretches when you don't..then you body adjusts and you start losing again. If you just stick with it as a new lifestyle..in time.. you'll get there. Hang in there and don't give up.

    This is not accurate. When you create a calorie or energy deficit your body still needs that energy so it draws upon stored energy (hopefully mainly fat) to supply it.

    There are three main problems with measuring that loss at home:

    1) You typically lose a small fraction of a pound of fat per day. Most bathroom scales round up or down to values where this fraction can be lost in rounding.

    2) There is no way to accurately measure body composition at home so there is no way to see a small decline in fat percentage.

    3) Your weight will fluctuate because of water and waste weight. This can mask the fat loss for a long time.

    I have always lost weight around 3500 calories per pound. It does work like clockwork but there is no way to reliably measure the progress the moment it happens.

  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    edited June 2020
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    I disagree... simply.. because weight loss plateaus are very real..and great dieters get them all the time. . If CICO worked all the time.. there wouldn't ever be a weight stall.

    NovusDies wrote: »
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    You're gonna crash and burn if you expect to lose weight on demand. Sometimes your body takes a break..losing weight isn't automatic. I know they preach CICO here..like It works like clockwork..but it doesn't. There are weeks you lose and.stretches when you don't..then you body adjusts and you start losing again. If you just stick with it as a new lifestyle..in time.. you'll get there. Hang in there and don't give up.

    This is not accurate. When you create a calorie or energy deficit your body still needs that energy so it draws upon stored energy (hopefully mainly fat) to supply it.

    There are three main problems with measuring that loss at home:

    1) You typically lose a small fraction of a pound of fat per day. Most bathroom scales round up or down to values where this fraction can be lost in rounding.

    2) There is no way to accurately measure body composition at home so there is no way to see a small decline in fat percentage.

    3) Your weight will fluctuate because of water and waste weight. This can mask the fat loss for a long time.

    I have always lost weight around 3500 calories per pound. It does work like clockwork but there is no way to reliably measure the progress the moment it happens.

    Novus's point #3 explains part of what occurs often during plateaus. Additionally, even people who have been deficit eating for a long time can become complacent and eat up their deficit with little things. This becomes especially true the closer one gets to goal, as deficits become much thinner and mistakes will easily add up. Combined with fluctuations from water, food, and exercise, it can be a long, long time before results start to show again.

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