NO weight loss, very frustrated.

gregsbabe12

I am 51, 5'6 and 274 pounds. I was in menopause suffering from pretty bad symptoms. Got Bioidentical hormone replacement 7 months ago and feel amazing. Decided it was time to get healthy, back to my old self ( or close to it lol) A month ago, I cut out all added sugar. Lowered calories to 1600 a day and do cardio 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day. Just bought a total gym so going to start that as well. Nothing, not a pound. According to the calculators, I need about 2350 cals to sustain my weight, so just with the deficit alone I should lose weight. NOTHING. I don't eat a lot of carbs, but haven't cut them all out. I used to weigh 140 like 10 years ago lol. Now it seems my body wants to just stay where I am, but I don't. I am sick of it. I drink lots of water and iced tea, decaf coffee. No soda, juice nothing. Take my vitamins, my collagen and probiotics. Any other ideas? Thanks!!

musicfan68

Do you weigh/measure your food? How do you know you are eating 1600 calories? It sounds like you are eating at maintenance. Also, if you just started your exercise, you could be retaining a few pounds of water weight that could mask some weight loss.

gregsbabe12

Yes I weigh my food and do my diary in fitness pal. At 274 pounds to maintain I need 2300 calories. I am eating at 1600 and sometimes a few hundred calories less. I should at the deficit be losing at least 1 pounds a week. I do my cardio for 30 minutes, which at my weight burns about 400 calories. I can see retaining some water, but geez, exact same weight for 4 weeks?

glassyo

What are you doing for cardio and how are you coming up with that calorie burn?

I'm not saying you're wrong. Just some ways of estimating can be out of whack.

gregsbabe12

I am doing 30 minutes of the gazelle, I used this pretty accurate calorie counter website and subtracted like 60 calories from what they estimated lol. I put in myfitnesspal, like 300 for the 30 minutes just in case.

AnnPT77

gregsbabe12 wrote: »

Yes I weigh my food and do my diary in fitness pal. At 274 pounds to maintain I need 2300 calories. I am eating at 1600 and sometimes a few hundred calories less. I should at the deficit be losing at least 1 pounds a week. I do my cardio for 30 minutes, which at my weight burns about 400 calories. I can see retaining some water, but geez, exact same weight for 4 weeks?

If there's absolutely literally no scale fluctuation, like not even a tenth of a pound, no matter what, I have questions about the bodyweight scale. Your weight should change just from different amounts of food in your digestive system on its way to become waste, when you most recently drank water (or lost some by urinating/sweating/exhaling). How often do you weigh yourself? I could see it if it's only once a week, but if daily, you should be seeing some ups and downs, at least. If it's electronic, have you changed the batteries? Weighed yourself, immediately weighed yourself again holding something heavy, then weighed yourself again without the heavy item?

Water retention is a weird thing. I know how mine behaves in menopause, but I have no idea what HRT does. Pre-menopausally, it varies individually, and some women only see a new low weight once a month, even though that's probably not the commonest pattern. And water retention happens for many, many reasons other than just hormones: Changes in eating patterns, new or increased-challenge exercise, healing, head cold/allergy, on and on and on. I don't think a month is an impossible length of time for water weight to mask fat loss on the scale, especially if the weigh-ins are infrequent.

(An aside: I'm really not stumping for frequent weighing. It's not suitable for everyone. One thing it does do is tend to make some kinds of patterns a little more obvious, a little more quickly . . . but it can obscure others, depending on how a person looks at the data.)

Logging is another potential, especially if you're somewhat new to doing it with MFP. That's not a dig at you in any way: It's a surprisingly subtle skill, and most folks who've been doing it for a lo .ng time have had some . . . surprise lessons? . . . along the way. (I've been logging for almost 7 years, loss and maintenance.) If you'd be willing to make your diary MFP-public (even temporarily), probably some of the MFP "old hands" could take a look and see if any possible issues pop out.

I get that this is really, really frustrating, sincerely. I think you've done the right thing, posting and asking questions. I'd really like to help, if I can: I think you can succeed. While you're sorting through possible causes, I'd very much encourage you to stick with your new routine, assuming it's not excessively difficult in and of itself. IME, successful long term weight management requires frustrating amounts of patience, persistence, and problem-solving at times . . . though there likely will be easier or more rewarding phases, too.

Hang in there: You can do this!

gregsbabe12

I have been using MFP for about 4 years now. I used to do Atkins awhile back. I weigh myself once a week on Fridays but I will start daily to see if there is a fluctuation. I am really hoping that my body just hasn't wanted to let go but will give in at some point lol. It hasn't gone up which is good. It is a new scale, so not sure what is happening there lol. I actually love my new routine, just giving up the sugar made me feel better. When I drink coffee or something I use stevia or liquids sucralose. NO candy, or any other added sugars. Haven't completely cut out carbs, as Atkins was WAY hard. lol I feel good exercising as well. Hopefully the weight training will help, although I know that is a different beast adding muscle weight.

AnnPT77

gregsbabe12 wrote: »

I have been using MFP for about 4 years now. I used to do Atkins awhile back. I weigh myself once a week on Fridays but I will start daily to see if there is a fluctuation. I am really hoping that my body just hasn't wanted to let go but will give in at some point lol. It hasn't gone up which is good. It is a new scale, so not sure what is happening there lol. I actually love my new routine, just giving up the sugar made me feel better. When I drink coffee or something I use stevia or liquids sucralose. NO candy, or any other added sugars. Haven't completely cut out carbs, as Atkins was WAY hard. lol I feel good exercising as well. Hopefully the weight training will help, although I know that is a different beast adding muscle weight.

Some scales will do a false consistency thing, though I'd expect a week to be long enough to get it to reset. Maybe try the weigh, then weigh with heavy thing, then re-weigh option, see if anything changes - if you haven't?

New strength training can be a major confounder, with water weight (needed for muscle repair). I only see a couple of pounds' increase when I resume strength training in Winter, but I hang onto that as long as I keep training regularly/progressively, then have a drop in Spring when I stop again. I've seen people here say they "gained" as much as 7 pounds when starting or re-starting strength training, just from water retention shifts. Some people drop the water retention between lifting sessions, it seems; others (like me) don't.

vishoemaker

I have also bought a total gym. Should be called total intimidation! Would love to set up a schedule with a virtual gym buddy.
Any interest?

Cluelessmama1979

After reading your post and all your follow up replies, my first thought was the scale. When the batteries on my scale get low it just shoots out similar numbers it's used before. So my daughter's weight won't change, mine won't change. I'll weigh myself then eat and weigh myself again, and the number stays the same. You said it's a new scale, but if it came battery included like most do, it could still be a old/bad battery.

So my *first* suggestion for you would be to simply change the battery on the scale.

And, as @AnnPT77 pointed out, the plateau or even temporary weight *gain* from new workouts can be alarming.

A couple of things, though...

First of all, the calculator I use puts your pre-exercise TDEE at 2249. And the hormone changes which come with menopause *can* affect your BMR which changes your TDEE. (Hormones are in large part responsible for the differences in BMR/TDEE between men and women, children and teens, teens and adults, etc... but calculators, while accounting for differences in testosterone vs estrogen... don't take these hormones into account in regards to age, because, well, that happens at different ages for everyone.

It could be off by as much as 200 calories, which might put your TDEE as low as 2049.

But you'd *still* be losing weight at 1600 per day. Especially with added exercise.

You mentioned drinking a lot of water. Most people who've been here for a long time weigh themselves before eating, but are you weighing yourself before drinking however many lbs of water? After using the restroom?

You also mentioned coffee and artificial sweeteners. These are considered essentially 0 calorie, because they are so low calorie that people who use a average amount don't take in enough calories from them to nean anything. But, for example, I drink enough "0 calorie" coke zero (5 cals per 20 oz bottle) that it throws off my tracking. I was drinking 10 per day... 50 calories per day... 350 calories per week. If I'm aiming for half a lb per week in loss, that's.. almost an entire day's deficit in just 0 calorie cola.

Not a huge difference if it's only one thing. But if I'm also doing that with coffee and sugar-free snacks and tons of "0 calorie" cooking spray, it adds up fast.

Again, this doesn't affect *most* people, but if you're genuinely logging everything and nothing makes sense, and you're logging a lot of 0 calorie items... that could be a factor.

In addition, water retention can be affected not only by exercise but by sodium intake, so I would suggest checking your sodium intake to see if that could be causing an issue.

When I plateau, I find it helpful to create a checklist of potential reasons. I'm not allowed to panic until I have eliminated all possible causes on the list. Or until it's been more than 3 months (my longest plateau in a deficit with fluctuations but no loss, lol).

gregsbabe12

Thank you for all of the advise! I will check my scale for sure to make sure. I weigh myself after I go to the bathroom and am naked first thing in the morning. I don't drink any diet drinks and have tea maybe once a day as with coffee. The rest is water. I have been on BHRT for about 7 months now, and just starting to feel like I did before I went though the hysterectomy nightmare. I will check my sodium intake as well. I barcode scan everything I can so that should help with tracking that. To be honest with as much as I have to lose, you would think all this would start happening when I am plateauing, not when I just start lo.

gregsbabe12

As far as the total gym, I get it today and hubby and I are setting it up this weekend. I know losing a lot of weight can create loose skin and I wanted to try to combat some of it with muscle.

musicfan68

If you are barcode scanning, you still need to make sure what MFP pulls up matches the package calories. They can also be different.

gregsbabe12

Yes I am, I am double checking everything. Did go an replace my batteries in my scale. Stepped on it and it said 273.4, then did it again to check and it said 277.3...... in a matter of 10 seconds I gained 4 pounds, lol i give up on that thing. And it was newer and expensive.

SuzanneC1l9zz

Is it sitting on a hard, level surface?

gregsbabe12

Yep!

pcrozier99

Calculators are a good guide but they are only a guide. You also have to use your own experience to make good decisions. If you are not losing weight after an extended period of time on your current calorie level, try reducing it by a small amount until you do see a difference. This is assuming that you are accurate with your current calorie counting. If you are truly in a sustainable calorie deficit, you will see weight loss.

Cluelessmama1979

gregsbabe12 wrote: »

Yes I am, I am double checking everything. Did go an replace my batteries in my scale. Stepped on it and it said 273.4, then did it again to check and it said 277.3...... in a matter of 10 seconds I gained 4 pounds, lol i give up on that thing. And it was newer and expensive.

Lmao oh no that's awful.

Well, ...at least you know it's likely a scale problem?

I hope you're able to get a different one soon! In the meantime I would just keep tracking/logging as normal.

Little things like a wonky scale can be really discouraging. Don't let bad assembly throw off all your progress ❤

kshama2001

gregsbabe12 wrote: »

Thank you for all of the advise! I will check my scale for sure to make sure. I weigh myself after I go to the bathroom and am naked first thing in the morning. I don't drink any diet drinks and have tea maybe once a day as with coffee. The rest is water. I have been on BHRT for about 7 months now, and just starting to feel like I did before I went though the hysterectomy nightmare. I will check my sodium intake as well. I barcode scan everything I can so that should help with tracking that. To be honest with as much as I have to lose, you would think all this would start happening when I am plateauing, not when I just start lo.

I'm 55, still no menopause, giant fibroids, and every GYN I see wants me to have a hysterectomy, although now they are saying at this point it would be a major, risky surgery with months of bed rest afterwards. My goal has always been to avoid that. I'm interested in hearing about your hysterectomy nightmare.

gregsbabe12

My nightmare was I had giant fibroid. My uterus was the size of a 5 month pregnancy, before the hysterectomyi tried bc pills, ablation, you name it. One week I started bleeding and didn't stop for 4 months. I started uncontrollable clot bleeding and was taken to the hospital. Had emergency hysterectomy and blood transfusion. Spent a week in the hospital. But have to say best thing I ever did. They left my ovaries but here I am 7 years later menopausal. Then I discovered BHRT and feel like I am in my 30s. Except for this weight. Husband stopped a bought me a new scale. 274 3 lol. Body doesn't want to let it go.