What's Taking So Long!

bigdog3000

I have been on this program almost a month and have lost only three pounds.
I have listed all my foods & exercise and have stayed within the limits for my height and weight. Do not understand why I am not losing more?

saggynaggy65

Slow and steady wins the race! 3 pounds in a month is a great amount of weight loss imo!

snowflake954

How much you lose a month can also depend on how much you have to lose. You don't give your stats, so it's hard to say, however, if you have 25 lbs or less to lose, it can take longer. Someone who is obese can sustain a much higher loss, because they have stores of fat to burn. Your loss may be wonderful for your situation. Keep going.

AnnPT77

Three pounds a month is good, unless you're currently so overweight that your bodyweight in itself is an acute health risk. If you have less than around 10-15 pounds to lose, it might even be faster than ideal.

Generally, I agree with those above, obviously.

This is what I want to add:

You say "I have listed all my foods & exercise and have stayed within the limits for my height and weight."

There are two possible issues there:

1. If by "limits for my height and weight" you mean the estimate from MFP, another so-called calorie calculator, or a fitness tracker . . . those are just estimates. They're basically the average for people similar to you, based on what the calculator/device knows about you.

Most people are close to average. (If you understand some basic statistics, I'm saying that the standard deviation is fairly small, or that it's a tall-ish, narrow-ish bell curve.) But some people are noticeably off average, either high side or low side in terms of calorie needs. A very rare few will be surprisingly far off. This is just the nature of statistical estimates. (MFP and my good brand/model fitness tracker - one that's accurate for others - are 25-30% off for me. This is quite rare, but believe me it can happen.)

This is why we suggest people use a calculator or tracker estimate as a starting point. After 4-6 weeks of careful logging (whole menstrual cycles for others to whom that applies), you can use your own results to adjust your calorie goal. (Use the assumption that 500 calories a day is around a pound a week, do the math.)

If you're losing around 0.5%-1% of current body weight per week, stick with that (bias toward the 0.5% unless severely overweight). This minimizes health risks from weight loss itself (there are some!), and makes the process more sustainable for most people.

From your profile picture, I'm guessing you're not a mere youth. (No dis, I'm 67, so not in the gazelle-like pink of girlish youth myself.) Fast loss can create even more risks for our demographic. I don't know about you, but I'm not as resilient to stress as I was at age 20 - overdoing anything is higher risk for health problems. In addition, as we age, we tend to absorb/metabolize certain nutrients less efficiently, so we may need more of them (protein is a key example, but it's also true for some important micronutrients). A steep calorie cut for fast loss makes it harder to get that good nutrition we need for best health.

On top of that, cutting calories too far can create fatigue (maybe subtle), and bleed calorie burn out of our day (at any age). Relatively slow loss has a lot going for it, truly.

In order to stay at a healthy weight long term - what most of us really want, I think - we're going to need to learn how to eat in a happy way at appropriate calories. It can be helpful to practice that during loss, and losing slowly may make doing so easier.

2. Where are your exercise calorie estimates coming from? This is a thing that it's possible to do with workable accuracy, but there are pitfalls. If you're using the MFP exercise database, some of those estimates are better than others. If you're using a heart rate based estimate, or a machine estimate, some of those are better than others.

If you tell us what exercise you're doing (duration, intensity, type), and what estimate you get for a typical exercise session, some of us who've been around the block with exercise estimates can give you some feedback.

There's an implied #3, too: Logging accuracy. I don't doubt that you're working hard at it, to be meticulous. But it can be a surprisingly subtle skill, with pitfalls. Most of us who've been logging for a while (I'm around 7 years, BTW), have had some face-palm moments along the way. However, if you do a reasonable job of logging consistently (not necessarily perfectly), and adjust calorie goal based on your personal results, some of that will come out OK. However, this is another thing folks could help with, if you want to open up your diary and say so here. That's just an offer, not a requirement.

Hang in there, you can get this nailed down. Wishing you success!

mrsmlbj1

Hi, first of all, hang in there. Everyone will tell you...you didn't put the weight on in a month, so it won't go off in a month. This is so true. I have already lost 80 pounds but it took 2 years. I still have at least 100# more to go. It is so hard.

I was watching what I ate and listing everything I ate. I was eating the wrong things. For snacks, I was eating some kind of bread with peanut butter (I needed proteins). I was always under my total calories for the day. My sister saw me eating a Hawaiian bun and asked if I ate that every day. Sure I did sometimes 2. Miss Nutrition Junkie told me that bread contained sugar...and so did some peanut butter brands. I use Skippy now because it has less sugar than other brands. When I looked back, my carbs were WAY OVER the limit. Not good. No wonder I was not losing weight very well.

So, be careful as to what you are eating. A bowl of home made chili is better for you than a small cheeseburger. Protein from meat and chili beans will keep you feeling full longer, will take longer to eat (use a small spoon) and protein will always help with keeping your hair and skin better.

Hope this helps. Just don't get discouraged.

Elphaba1313

mrsmlbj1 wrote: »

Hi, first of all, hang in there. Everyone will tell you...you didn't put the weight on in a month, so it won't go off in a month. This is so true. I have already lost 80 pounds but it took 2 years. I still have at least 100# more to go. It is so hard.

I was watching what I ate and listing everything I ate. I was eating the wrong things. For snacks, I was eating some kind of bread with peanut butter (I needed proteins). I was always under my total calories for the day. My sister saw me eating a Hawaiian bun and asked if I ate that every day. Sure I did sometimes 2. Miss Nutrition Junkie told me that bread contained sugar...and so did some peanut butter brands. I use Skippy now because it has less sugar than other brands. When I looked back, my carbs were WAY OVER the limit. Not good. No wonder I was not losing weight very well.

So, be careful as to what you are eating. A bowl of home made chili is better for you than a small cheeseburger. Protein from meat and chili beans will keep you feeling full longer, will take longer to eat (use a small spoon) and protein will always help with keeping your hair and skin better.

Hope this helps. Just don't get discouraged.

Just want to add that it's calories that count, not where they come from (ie carbs etc).

And 3 pounds in a month is not too bad at all!

BartBVanBockstaele

bigdog3000 wrote: »

I have been on this program almost a month and have lost only three pounds.
I have listed all my foods & exercise and have stayed within the limits for my height and weight. Do not understand why I am not losing more?

First off, 3 pounds in almost a month is respectable. As an example, I started at 127 kg in 2012 and am at 65 now, and I am not finished yet. That is an average of about 500 g a month, approximately a third of yours.
Second, it is all about energy. The more energy you ingest, the slower your weight loss. Forget the calculators, they are not clairvoyants. They give you a reasonable starting point, nothing more. People are not factory-made machines, they are biological machines with all the unpredictability this entails, so the numbers will be different for everybody. If you want to speed up your weight loss, you have to reduce your energy intake. Before you do that, make as sure as you reasonably can that you are taking into account absolutely all energy you take in. When you have that, you can start to look where and how to reduce further, taking into account what @AnnPT77 wrote.
Take heart, losing weight may be hard, but it is not difficult. All it takes, is KWP: some knowledge, some willpower and some patience. Once you have that in place, it will smooth sailing from there.
Success, you can do it. Everybody can, there are no exceptions.
For the rest, please consider consulting a doctor, a real one i.e. an MD. It could well be the best investment you will ever make.