Why am I losing weight so slooowly?
russaliak2313
Posts: 34 Member
Hey, everyone!
I just joined this group and it's nice to meet you all!
So, just a bit of history - I'm 5'6 and about 5 years ago I was 121lbs. Then I moved to a different city, loads of things happened (including a lot of stress eating) and I gained about 22lbs. Then gradually I reached my rock bottom - last month the scales showed 154lbs... Over the years I'd tried to lose weight, but I have consistency issues, so it was always up-and-down.
I don't want necessarily to go back to the 121lbs, but 132lbs would be nice as well. So I started counting calories and macro nutrients and I'm trying to be active everyday - even if I don't work out, I take long walks. I've set my MFP goal to "lose 1kg/2.2lbs per week, but unfortunately it's not working.
Everyday I'm in a calorie deficit and my macros are on track, but this month, instead of losing at least 2kg/4.4lbs, I've only lost 1kg/2.2lbs, which for almost 3 weeks seems too little.
Counting every gram and millilitre of what you eat is very exhausting and when the scale is not your friend it can be super demotivating.
Has anyone experienced anything of this sort?
Thanks in advance!
I just joined this group and it's nice to meet you all!
So, just a bit of history - I'm 5'6 and about 5 years ago I was 121lbs. Then I moved to a different city, loads of things happened (including a lot of stress eating) and I gained about 22lbs. Then gradually I reached my rock bottom - last month the scales showed 154lbs... Over the years I'd tried to lose weight, but I have consistency issues, so it was always up-and-down.
I don't want necessarily to go back to the 121lbs, but 132lbs would be nice as well. So I started counting calories and macro nutrients and I'm trying to be active everyday - even if I don't work out, I take long walks. I've set my MFP goal to "lose 1kg/2.2lbs per week, but unfortunately it's not working.
Everyday I'm in a calorie deficit and my macros are on track, but this month, instead of losing at least 2kg/4.4lbs, I've only lost 1kg/2.2lbs, which for almost 3 weeks seems too little.
Counting every gram and millilitre of what you eat is very exhausting and when the scale is not your friend it can be super demotivating.
Has anyone experienced anything of this sort?
Thanks in advance!
7
Replies
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Hi there! I feel the same way every time.
Try to remember you gained the weight slowly over 5 years and it's going to take time to loose it. Plus everyone is different. Some weeks you'll loose quickly and others you'll stall or gain depending on your cycle.
It took me 2 years to loose nearly 40lbs the first time I started dieting. It was slow and I experimented with my diet. I reduced my carb and protein amounts until I found what my body responds to.
This is my second go at loosing nearly 40 lbs and I lost 10 lbs in 2 months. My body has decided to enter a stall so I'm going on maintenance for a week or two before starting again.
Send me a message if you're interested in a couple of books to read.4 -
It’s a journey. Everyone is different.
Track what you eat. Consider adding more exercise.
One thing I found helped was to change the MFP settings to not add calories for exercise. Initially, I had the setting to 1500 calories a day with exercise adjustment. When I turned the exercise calorie adjustment off, then I started losing.
Good luck!2 -
Thank you both! What you're saying absolutely makes sense!
@tgillies003, I'll definitely try that!
Have a good day! 0 -
And remember: the slower you lose, the better the chance you will keep it off for good.
1kg/week is considered a too rapid loss, try to aim for 0,5kg/week5 -
Also, you might want to try intermittent fasting. It helped me. Look it up online. There's a lot of info to read about it.2
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It is frustrating! I am one of those bingy types so for me I try to lose the 1-2 pounds per week and just get 'er done! Otherwise a bingy day or two appears to erase weeks of progress. And I know it's not a very popular belief. I find when I put myself in a deficit of 500 plus per day to maintenance and do not eat back the exercise cals that I tend to have a fairly good weekly rate of loss. Eating back the exercise cals works for some folks but for me it leads to a sort of spiral of work out more so I can eat more and then be hungrier etc... So, I just decide on what cal range I am going to use for a few weeks and stick to it. Watch out for the "adders" on your meals - like dressings and such. They can bump your cals up a lot if you are not careful. I am guessing that at about 5'6" you might have a maintenance cal at 1800 or 2000 depending on your age and activity. If you eat say 1300 to 1400 per day consistantly I bet the scale starts to move..
Best of luck and I just cannot do IF. I wish I could but my schedule doesn't permit plus I sort of like spreading out my cals throughout the day.2 -
Thank you all for sharing and giving me great ideas! I'll definitely try them out.
@SummerSkier, I usually eat back some of the exercise calories, and I try to stay between 1300-1500 cals per day, but maybe I should exercise more and also stop the calorie adjustment, as @tgillies003 suggested earlier.0 -
Well more exercise makes you stronger for sure but it also can make you hungrier. I have found thru the many years of ups and downs that it's not really the exercise that is the biggest key. It's the input. Sadly. Otherwise I would be a tuned machine....
It's a fine balance. Best of luck!4 -
i lost 6kg from eating 1300 to 1200 cals a day in 1.5 months and yes i know it's a lot but i don't exercise at all like not even a walk i'm sitting most of the time watching movies and all ... and btw i'm 5'5 so i'm shorter than u .. i don't see why i lose up to 0.4kg a day eating 1300 and u not bz correct me if i'm wrong the taller u r the more calories you burn ... 1 month and a half ago i was 68kg now i'm 61.9kg my goal is 58kg or 57kg the only down side of this is i can lose 0.2 kg today but then gain them the next day and then loss 0.4 then 0.2 more then gain 0.1 so it's not constant which make me unmotivated sometimes ... and for my muscle mass .. no i didn't lose muscle in fact the more i lose the more defined they look ... and i don't exercise or lift or walk nothing .... it's something in my genes that make it easy to gain but hard to lose muscle maybe that's why i lose weight faster than others... i say i have a fast metabolism but no matter how fast my metabolism was i ate really bad like really really bad .... so i used to eat like this a day
breakfast : 3 bowls of cereal + croissant + chocolat and milk ( with god know how many tbsp of sucer)
befour lunch : cookies and a small sandwich
lunch : 2 plates of what ever my mother cooked and a whole baguette
after lunch : more cereal + a 5 pieces of brownies
diner : pizza and fries and soda
no that's not all... night eating : at this point i will either eat the rest of the cereal in the box or make more food
that's probably what 4000 calories a day ... that is considered a good day ....when my parents are out of town i will eat 6 burgers yes 6 burgers and pizza beside the extarce more then 5000 calories
i'm surprised i didn't become morbidly obese with that food every day ... maybe that's why the weight melted off so quickly with only lowering calories and without exercising at all but whatever is in my genece it is in my favor i just didn't know how to use it0 -
Eat only until you're full; like when you've had half a plate of for example rice and veggies, then ask yourself if you can go a few more hours without eating. So basically eat in smaller portions and only eat again when you're ACTUALLY hungry. Most of the time your stomach makes you mistake hunger for thrist. I'm currently 71 kg(im 5 feet tall) and I started my weight loss 1 month ago by walking atleast 2-3 km everyday and eating much healtheir from eating junk every single day, I've lost 3-4 kg this month and I really do get discouraged sometimes but quitting won't make the process easier. Hope you get to your goal weight!1
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One of the things that worked well for me when it felt like the weight loss process was going oddly slow was reducing how many calories I was eating back after logging my exercise. If MFP said I burned 300 calories I would only allow myself to eat back 25% of that and only if the exercise was 100% intentional (not just walking my dog, etc).
Another thing I started doing was logging my weight every morning as soon as I woke up and on the 7th day I added up all the numbers, divided by 7 to see what my average weight was. My weight would sometimes fluctuate by several pounds even when I was in a strict deficit so it was nice to see this number.
Lastly, what was more important to me than my actual weight was my size. So I started to take measure my waist every few weeks to see if I was losing inches at least. Mind you at this point I had begun lifting weights so the scale had come to a screeching halt but I was getting a lot leaner.
Best of luck to you!3 -
I found I am much better off eating a set calorie allotment regardless of exercise (or overall accounting for exercise). Eating about the same amount each day is much better for me than having it swing wildly from one day to the next just because of a workout. I also tend to shoot for a "range" rather than a set amount. If I'm eating at the upper end of the range my losses will be slower, lower end, faster, but if I'm especially hungry one day/week, I can go ahead and eat a little more (upper end) rather than less.
I also find a slower rate much more maintainable (~.5-1 lb/week). While frustratingly slow sometimes, I find that it makes the upward swing (hello covid-19) much slower than when I was shooting for a faster loss rate.2 -
I feel your frustration. I have been slowly losing again since I turned the exercise adjustment off (I'm short, 5'3.5 and working down from 140 to 120s hopefully). But at 40 years old the losses are slower. I know extreme low carb works (less than 20 carbs a day) quickly for me- I just dont feel like doing it right now. Eating what I want allows me alcohol, treats and meals I like along the way. I would sometimes just like to take 20 lbs right off and then start from there with this maintenance eating but I'm trying this to see how it goes for a few months. If I'm not successful I'll cut back on the carbs (currently I eat 100-150/day) until I find where I can lose again.1
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I am a slow loser. I am fit and have been consistently healthy for decades. When I try to shave off pounds, it takes a whole lot for me to do that. Currently, I have been losing weight but while my body looks and feels good, the scale drops maybe 2 pounds and then it will gain overnight 2 pounds... And back and forth for weeks and even months. Yet, I have other big wins that I have to learn to value more than the scale, such as looser clothing, slimmer face, a more balanced lifestyle.3
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russaliak2313 wrote: »Hey, everyone!
I just joined this group and it's nice to meet you all!
So, just a bit of history - I'm 5'6 and about 5 years ago I was 121lbs. Then I moved to a different city, loads of things happened (including a lot of stress eating) and I gained about 22lbs. Then gradually I reached my rock bottom - last month the scales showed 154lbs... Over the years I'd tried to lose weight, but I have consistency issues, so it was always up-and-down.
I don't want necessarily to go back to the 121lbs, but 132lbs would be nice as well. So I started counting calories and macro nutrients and I'm trying to be active everyday - even if I don't work out, I take long walks. I've set my MFP goal to "lose 1kg/2.2lbs per week, but unfortunately it's not working.
Everyday I'm in a calorie deficit and my macros are on track, but this month, instead of losing at least 2kg/4.4lbs, I've only lost 1kg/2.2lbs, which for almost 3 weeks seems too little.
Counting every gram and millilitre of what you eat is very exhausting and when the scale is not your friend it can be super demotivating.
Has anyone experienced anything of this sort?
Thanks in advance!
Yes I’ve experienced exactly what you are experiencing. It’s very demotivating when the scale refuses to budge! I almost feel like my body just holds onto so much water which masks the weightloss! One thing that I’ve realised is too much intense exercise has backfired on me. I was doing too much and feeling exhausted and unable to stay in a calorie deficit some days because of my appetite (hello hunger!) and I have PCOS. Now I’ve changed my mindset and I’m going to focus on my diet and less on exercise. I will do 2/3 fullbody dumbbell workouts, long walks, yoga, Pilates and two kickboxing workouts. No more HIIT workouts (unless I’m in maintenance because I can recover faster). You need to focus on food.
Also you’ve made amazing progress by losing 2.2lbs in 3 weeks! That’s about 0.73lbs per week! Faster than half a pound a week. Celebrate the small losses and look at the bigger picture that atleast you’re losing rather than gaining.
By the way we both have similar goals! I’m 155lbs trying to get down to 132 lbs! Consistency is definitely an issue for me too but I’m pretty focused right now. What helps me is to set small monthly goals. That way I’m not getting overwhelmed and crashing by over exercising.2 -
We can only lose so much in a month's time. To lose 2 pounds a week you need to average 1000 calories daily for a deficit. You may not spend enough energy in a day to make that happen. If your take home pay was $2000 per month, would you be able to put $1000 in savings and still be able to pay all your bills, pay rent and food? Probably not.
Look online for a total daily energy expenditure calculator. That will give you a rough idea of how much energy you use in a day. Take away 500-750, and that is what you should eat daily to average 1-1.5 pounds loss rate per week. If the TDEE is under 2200, then 2 pounds per week is just not doable. Not in a safe, realistic fashion at least.
Personally I am 45 years old, 5'5" and now 142ish. Heading for about 130. My TDEE is about 1700 per day (not very active) and I eat around 1300-1400. Slow & steady.2
