Not losing weight

EliPonies

I have to lose weight to get gastric bypass surgery. The last three weeks I've been eating between 750 and 1480 calories, usually under 1200 though, I'm watching my carbs and fat, and I haven't lost a pound. The scale just hovers between 248 and 252, bouncing back and forth. I'm eating a calorie deficit so why am I not losing weight?

yirara

How are you tracking your food? Are you guessing or using a food scale? Are you logging every tiny bit of food or fluid that has calories, thus everything but water?

springlering62

did your doctor provide pre-op nutritional help? Dietician visits?

Are you listening to what you’ve been told?

Not judging, but for myself, when I was obese, I’d have done the exact opposite just because I was so damn contrary.

Make sure you are keeping your mind open to their advice, and following it. And start NOW building maintenance habits to keep the weight off post surgery.

AnnPT77

I understand that you want to lose weight fast, but eating under 1200 when seriously overweight - certainly if eating as little as 750! - may be counter-productive for short run results on the scale.

If you've truly consistently eaten below an accurate 1480 calories - no cheat days/meals or oopsies - and that is what MFP's told you to eat for weight loss, you are losing fat. But our bodies consist of more than body fat, right? A big chunk of our scale weight is water, since our bodies can be 60%+ water. Another chunk, up to several pounds for most of us, is waste in the digestive tract on the way to the exit. Those show up on the scale.

Three things:

• Eating too few calories - trying for aggressively fast weight loss - puts a major stress on the body. Simplistically, stress increases a stress hormone called cortisol, and cortisol can make our body hold onto extra water. The answer IS NOT to take diuretics, or use other means to trick the body into dropping water. Water fluctuations are part of how healthy bodies stay healthy, and they know what they're doing: We shouldn't mess with that. The answer is to reduce the stress, which is bad for us in other ways besides water retention.
  
• Fast fat loss of 2 pounds a week is only roughly 4.6 ounces of fat loss on average per day, barely over a quarter pound. By contrast, water/waste fluctuations are much larger day to day for most everyone. I've had fluctuations of up to 6 pounds from one day to the next! Those water/waste fluctuations have the potential to mask weight loss on the scale for up to several weeks.
  
• Your profile says you're female. If you are of an age/stage to have menstrual cycles, that is another relevant consideration. It's not the most common pattern, but a few women here have mentioned only seeing a new low weight once per cycle, at a particular point in their cycle, even when losing fat at a reasonable average pace (as looked at over multiple cycles). Hormonal water weight shifts can be that weird.

I can understand why you're feeling upset about this, truly. But remember what I said about stress hormones and water retention? Psychological stress also can increase water retention. I know it's difficult, but the better plan here is to:

1. Eat a reasonable number of calories for an appropriate rate of weight loss, not the maximum theoretically possible extreme weight loss. You'll want to be as healthy as possible going into your surgery, not just lighter, I'd bet.
2. Recheck your food logging practices, tightening that up as much as practical without obsessing so you have an accurate log. That means logging every bite, lick, taste, beverage, condiment, snack, dressing, oil used in cooking. That means not using other people's recipe entries like "ham sandwich" or "meat lasagna" because we have no idea how much cheese or mayo those people used, or whether they were even trying to be accurate. That means fully logging any so-called cheats or unintended moments of over-eating, because they're not shameful, they're just facts we need to be self-honest about. Ideally, that includes using a food scale when practical, because it's quicker and more accurate than cups/spoons, and eyeballing can be very inaccurate.
3. Learn about and understand how bodies can behave, and how your personal body does behave, when it comes to scale fluctuations. I highly, highly recommend reading this thread, especially the article linked in the first post:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations

You can succeed at this. Calm patience will help. Treating it like a fun, productive science fair experiments for grown-ups may help. For sure, it's not a character test or a test of personal worth as a human.

Best wishes for success: The results will be worth the patience and effort that it takes.

EliPonies

Thank you all for your responses. I don't have a food scale right now. I've been using measuring cups. I need to buy one anyway for after surgery.

I go to the dietitian next week.

I'm wanting to lose the weight fast, so I can get surgery as soon as possible because my insurance changes next year and I'm not sure if they will cover the surgery. If eating more will help I will try that for awhile. I've had a hysterectomy and don't have to worry about menstrual cycles.

tulips_and_tea

Definitely get a food scale ASAP! They aren't expensive and will help tremendously.

Of course, eating MORE won't help you lose weight. You need to be more accurate with your logging.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48717865#Comment_48717865

Were your ovaries removed, or just uterus? If only uterus, a person still has cycles until natural menopause, they're just not as externally obvious.

The PP is correct: Eating more won't normally cause faster fat loss. Strictly speaking, it makes fat loss slower. But eating an adequate minimum, thus getting better nutrition and reducing physical stress, may reduce systemic water retention in extreme cases, so scale weight may drop more predictably.

In addition, eating too little tends to break down at some point, often resulting in deprivation-triggered over-eating. Losing X amount of fat, steadily in a sustainably moderate way, can mean reaching a lower body weight in less calendar time than dramatically undereating, so triggering over-eating bouts, breaks in the action, or in some cases even giving up the effort because it's just too difficult to stick with for very long.

Like I said, I can understand why you want to lose weight fast. But trying to lose TOO fast tends to backfire. That's all I'm saying.

csplatt

Are you selecting generic MFP food entries like “chicken salad” and “lasagna” — or are you entering each individual ingredient (at the amt consumed) into your food log?

EliPonies

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48718782#Comment_48718782

Entering each individual ingredient.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48718039#Comment_48718039

Ovaries were removed. I had cancer so it all had to come out.

Bendie1968

I would also recommend upping your water intake. Our bodies need 3.7 litres just to exist. If you’re sticking to your plan and the scale isn’t budging- drink 4-5 litres a day. It sounds counterintuitive but if you don’t drink enough and become dehydrated- especially in heat; you will retain water. Conversely drinking water helps to flush your system.

yirara

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48722224#Comment_48722224

There's no need to drink this much water. The right amount of water is the amount where urine is pale yellow. All fluid in food counts as well for the purpose if good hydration. Sure, if TO is outside a lot in some hot weather they should drink more, but again the urine colour determines what is enough and what isn't. There's no need to flush the system, whatever that means. You don't flush out bodyfat.