What am I doing wrong?

sarahcollinslmp

I'm feeling frustrated, been diligent and consistent in keeping a calorie deficit when you consider net calories. Hitting 10K or more steps a day, drinking more water than I was (but I can improve), getting relatively good sleep, within range of my macro goals, but I'm gaining weight? I saw a little loss after 1 week, 2 weeks in and I'm up 2lbs from where I started. And I restarted using Saxenda. Any insight on what I should look into or adjust? Is it just something to ignore and keep going with what I'm doing?

kshama2001

sarahcollinslmp wrote: »

I'm feeling frustrated, been diligent and consistent in keeping a calorie deficit when you consider net calories. Hitting 10K or more steps a day, drinking more water than I was (but I can improve), getting relatively good sleep, within range of my macro goals, but I'm gaining weight? I saw a little loss after 1 week, 2 weeks in and I'm up 2lbs from where I started. And I restarted using Saxenda. Any insight on what I should look into or adjust? Is it just something to ignore and keep going with what I'm doing?

The answer is surely somewhere in this flowchart - hang in there!



I want to pull out a few things:

1. If you have a menstrual cycle, compare yourself to the same point in the cycle as last month, rather than last week. Many of us retain when we ovulate, as well as premenstrually. Since you are just two weeks in, yes, give it more time.
2. You can also retain water from new exercise programs.
3. How are you measuring your food? The most accurate way is to use a food scale and weigh everything.

sarahcollinslmp

Thanks so much, the flow chart is helpful and these are good reminders. I am using a scale about 95% of the time.

kshama2001

sarahcollinslmp wrote: »

Thanks so much, the flow chart is helpful and these are good reminders. I am using a scale about 95% of the time.

If that 5% is for foods like mustard or parsley, no sweat, but if for calorie dense foods like butter, that could make a huge difference.

I stopped making peanut butter/banana smoothies after I got a food scale and saw just how small 2T of PB really is

AnnPT77

sarahcollinslmp wrote: »

I'm feeling frustrated, been diligent and consistent in keeping a calorie deficit when you consider net calories. Hitting 10K or more steps a day, drinking more water than I was (but I can improve), getting relatively good sleep, within range of my macro goals, but I'm gaining weight? I saw a little loss after 1 week, 2 weeks in and I'm up 2lbs from where I started. And I restarted using Saxenda. Any insight on what I should look into or adjust? Is it just something to ignore and keep going with what I'm doing?

I understand your frustration, speaking as a long-termer here, through loss and maintenance. That early stage can be really confusing! The flowchart is great, so I'm glad you're relating to it.

In addition to that, I'd comment that the things I bolded in your post are all good things for health, satiation, energy level, health and so forth . . . but the effects on weight loss of any of those are indirect (even though the indirect effect can be meaningful). The direct issue is calorie balance, pure and simple.

There are a couple of areas where the MFP Community might be able to help/advise, if you want help, in terms of the flowchart.

Since you reference "net calories", I assume you're eating back exercise calories. As the flowchart hints, there's some potential there to refine one's estimates, depending on methods used. If you'd like to, you could say a little more about what type of exercise you're doing, for how long, plus how you're estimating it and for how many calories; and ask the Community if the estimate or estimating method could be misleading in your scenario.

The other thing is on the eating side of things. If you'd like some of the old hands to take a look at your food diary and offer feedback, you can set it to be open to the Community (even if just temporarily) and say so here. This is not a diss: Food logging is a surprisingly subtle skill in some ways, and most of us who've been doing it for a while have had some major face-palm moments along the way, then needed to adjust. Probably all is well, but if you'd like to learn from others' oopsie moments, sharing your diary for a while would make that possible.

Neither of those are things you must do in order to succeed, they're just options you could consider. Most people here are sincerely trying to help.

Regardless, I'm cheering for you to be very successful with your goals: Hang in there, and keep going!

westrich20940

You are literally doing nothing wrong. You are doing good things --- the weight fluctuation you mentioned (losing a bit in the first week, and then 'gaining' 2lbs in the 2nd week is normal. You didn't gain 2lb of fat.

SO many things will affect the weight on a scale --- and my own weight can fluctuate like 5lbs even sometimes.


As long as you are being fairly accurate with what you are consuming, and burning -- properly fueling your body and the other things you mentioned (good sleep, walking, etc.) you'll be fine. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And slower is better bc it's going to lead to more consistent practices. You got this.

cwolfman13

I don't think you're doing anything wrong, your expectations are just not in-line with how losing weight really works. People expect that they are going to lose weight in a very linear fashion and that's just not how it is. Women in particular need to have a good 4-6 weeks and a cycle before any kind of super meaningful analysis can be done because hormonal fluctuations are going to really mess with your body's composition of water.

Also, when in doubt do the math. To actually gain 2 Lbs of fat you would have had to consume 7,000 calories in excess of your maintenance calories (not your diet calories), and even then the body's response to that wouldn't be that quick.