What am I doing wrong?

RewindApril

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day today.

I'm very happy with my new eating habits and I don't think I EVER want to go back to the old me, but here's the thing: I started off on MFP and I lost around 15 pounds from the site alone, and I was really happy about that. But for the past few weeks, the scale hasn't moved! It actually even went up a pound. It's like my body wants to be stuck at 150 :noway:

It's really hard not to get discouraged. I tried to change up my exercising, like instead of walks I'd jump rope for about 30 minutes everyday. I also sprained my ankle pretty badly a couple of days ago, so I was unable to exercise this week. Then I thought maybe that if I upped my calories a bit, the scale would move. Instead of 1230, I started eating 1300. Still, I weighed myself this morning and no avail. Anyway, I really don't know what to do now...do any of you have advice? Thanks in advance! I still have a long way to go and I don't want my body to be stuck on this weight forever.

rhoward66

I think you should stick with what you're doing. Check how your clothing is fitting or track your measurements as other measures of success, not just weight. Consistent, long term healthy eating and exercise will eventually cause your weight to go down again. Keep it up!

bathori

Do you weigh your food?

Holton

Doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong! If you follow along on MFP long enough (been here since January) you will quickly learn that most of us plateau at some point or another it is extremely frustrating for each of us! I think the fact that you are mixing it up in your exercise as well as increasing your caloric intake are good things, but you just have to be patient. Try not to become too discouraged. It will start budging again, but unfortunately maybe not as quickly as you would like. Hang in there!

RewindApril

Yes, I do weigh my food. Do you guys think I should go back to 1230 or stay with 1300, or higher?

poshky

I know a lot of people don't like or think it's wrong to cut certain foods out of your diet, but I believe if you cut all breads, grains, and dairy out you will see a change. I would still allow yourself a cheat meal every now and then. Like pizza or ice cream! I read this site a lot and it seems to help. http://www.diseaseproof.com/ I hope this helps some. I struggle everyday as many people do. I have a husband that likes pizza and wings lol! Eating out is very tempting for me:(

amyfly

Hang in there! The # on the scale may not be changing if you are gaining muscle and losing fat since muscle weighs more thaan fat.

islandnutshel

I went to peek at your diet, but couldn't access. I am hoping that you are eating lots of fruits and veggies and being careful with the salts & diet sodas. They can keep water weight on you. For your young age, becareful not to be too strick with your calorie intake. Mix it up, confuse your body so that your calorie intake fluctuates, that way you won't get caught with the lower matabulism. I love to wear a pedometer, I gives me an idea about how active or not I have been that day. Good luck, I hope you focus on health and happiness not weight.

Jamiebee24

hey girl, i just took a look at your diary. This is my own personal advice, and what I would do if I were you. I would keep with the 1230 cals a day as MFP suggests. Start by leaving 1 or 2 extra bites on your plate. Do you eat your exercise cals when you exercise? From looking at the past week, you've been over in carbs every day. Try taking some carbs out of your diet and see if that helps!

cobygrey

I had this problem just a couple weeks ago.

First you should take a close look at what you are eating. Are REALLY being honest with your calorie intake? Exercise counts for only about 20% of your weight loss.

Be sure you haven't sent yourself in to survival mode. Are you eating enough to support the exercise you are doing? Maybe cut back a little on exercise , keep your calorie intake at 1230 for a week and see what happens.

futfurd

Just remember that our bodies are a litte lazy. They won't change on their own. We have to force change by making them work harder than they are used to. That shocks them into changing for self preservation. Don't just change exercise routines, vary intensity.

I also recommend eating small meals frequently. Eat your 1200 calories in 6 small meals. If you eat clean, you should never be hungry, and your metabolism won't go through the peaks and dips it does when you eat three big meals. You will be eating every 2 or 3 hours during the day. Most importantly if you never get hungry you stay anabolic, and your muscles will grow!

Megume

Sounds like you're doing everything right! Keep up the good work. Just try increasing your water intake. Sometimes, the smallest thing can make your body cling to water, it sucks!!

junebug523

Hi April,

If you come to the point where eating at 1230 still isn't making a difference, it won't hurt to try increasing your calories for a few weeks. And yes, it can take a few weeks for your body to realize it's not starving, and start letting go of the fat again.

When I started here, I had been eating at around 1200 most days for over a year, with hardly any weight loss. Didn't matter if I exercised or not. When I joined here, MFP had me set at around 1240. I did this for four weeks, and also ate back most of my exercise calories. I didn't lose an ounce.

I decided to take the risk I was afraid to take: to eat more food. Obviously eating at a low level wasn't working, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try eating more for three or four weeks. I moved my MFP settings up to losing .5 lbs per week instead of 1 lb, and then for the next three weeks I ate to that level, and also ate at least half of my exercise calories. I also didn't weigh myself for three weeks--I realized I was psyching myself out by weighing every day.

After three weeks I lost three lbs. Seems my body really did need more fuel before it was willing to release the weight!

In the five weeks since then, I've lost four more lbs. Three weeks ago I tried moving my food amount back to the 1240 range, plus eating my exercise calories. I had a feeling that my metabolism had kind of re-set itself, and wanted to see what would happen if I reduced things a bit. There have been several days where I have gone over--in some cases, way over. But I've still lost weight. At this point, I'm kind of in a zig-zagging pattern, which seems to work well. Some days I'm over, some days I'm a little under. Overall, though, I'm right about where I need to be.

You have received some very sound advice here so far. Whatever you try, just remember that there's no rule that says you MUST lose x number of pounds by x date. This is a journey. You are learning about your body, what fuels it, what makes it feel sluggish. If you do decide to increase your calories to see if it will help shake things up, I would advise trying it for three or four weeks before giving up on it. Your body might take time to get used to it. And it might be worth it to stop weighing yourself for a week or two.

Also, keep track of your measurements. As many people have said on MFP, the scale is only ONE way to track your progress. How many inches have you lost? How do your clothes fit? How do you look? Most importantly, how do you feel?

Keep on keeping on. You're doing a terrific job!

LotusF1ower

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day today.

I'm very happy with my new eating habits and I don't think I EVER want to go back to the old me, but here's the thing: I started off on MFP and I lost around 15 pounds from the site alone, and I was really happy about that. But for the past few weeks, the scale hasn't moved! It actually even went up a pound. It's like my body wants to be stuck at 150 :noway:

It's really hard not to get discouraged. I tried to change up my exercising, like instead of walks I'd jump rope for about 30 minutes everyday. I also sprained my ankle pretty badly a couple of days ago, so I was unable to exercise this week. Then I thought maybe that if I upped my calories a bit, the scale would move. Instead of 1230, I started eating 1300. Still, I weighed myself this morning and no avail. Anyway, I really don't know what to do now...do any of you have advice? Thanks in advance! I still have a long way to go and I don't want my body to be stuck on this weight forever.

Just consume less calories than you use up and the weight HAS to shift in the end. The trick is to not give up, people give up because nothing happens when if they had persevered they may have found they would have been okay.

Stick in another exercise day if you can. Train for a little longer when your ankle is okay. If you usually walk in your exercise, try running or swimming.

Personally, I am one of those that LOWER my calories if I hit a wall, for me that usually sorts it. However, lowering calories isn't popular here, nevertheless that is what I do.

The weight will come off if you continue, don't give up :flowerforyou:

acstein

I had 2 months where I didn't lose inches or weight. It was very frustrating. While I'm not one to say that all things work for everyone, but some things work for some. My all means, try all of the ideas posted above. What worked for me was changing what time of day I went to the gym. I am currently not working so that was simple for me to do, but I go around lunch, or in the afternoon, or in the morning. Sort of gauge it by what I feel like that day and whether or not I got on a roll in writing my papers for school. I also, upped the calories for a few days, dropped them for a few days, and do that every so often just so my body doesn't get used to something. I hope it all works out for you and stay motivated!!!

cparter

My first advice is for you to open up your food diary for review and feedback. From there we all can farely provide feedback and questions to see if we can figure out the shortfall.

keith0373

I have been going with the "do so much exrcise that your body has to eat something plan". It has been working for me to the tune of about 3.5 lbs a week. If you ahve the time for the exercise, give it a shot.

I don't do anything higher impact than walking uphill or elliptical. I do about 7500-9500 calories a week in exercise and eat reasonably (1500 to 2200 Calories a day). If i feel hungry I eat something. I keep tons of nuts, low fat chips, protein bars, and protein shake stuff and If i feel the need to eat, I do. If your body can take it, try it. I also split up my workouts into 2 -3 short ones a day to allow for some rest between each. It is time consuming, but I think it will be worth it in the end. I was tired of being The FAT GUY.

Most days I do 4- 5 miles elliptical in the am @125 calories per mile.

35 minutes of 15% incline walking at lunch and some light weight lifting and situps for a total of 50 minutes and about 550 calories.

In the evening we walk at home 3-5 miles @ 166 calories per mile. We live on a mountain and it is steep, so it is hard to calculate calories, so I use the hiking with <10 lbs to track it.

stevemcknight

Cardio alone along with eating a steady macro-nutrient percentage (protein/carb/fat) leads to plateaus. I didn't see what type of exercises you've been doing other than cardio, but if you're not building muscle, your metabolism will slow down as you lose weight. That's why it gets harder and harder to get that number down.

What changed my life is when I started P90X. Before that, I was doing cardio 4-5 times a week (often more) and while my number on the scale went down, I was losing muscle faster than I was losing fat. Now, I'm down to cardio 2 times a week and that's it. However, I lift 3 times and do yoga once and even with the reduced cardio, I'm more ripped than I ever was before.

The biggest thing is add weight training 3 times a week to your cardio, and fix your macro-nutrients. I'd be happy to help you adjust your numbers (the MFP %'s are not at all in line with anything I believe in.) Shoot me an email if you want any help on that

Good luck and keep plugging away!!! You'll get there - I've seen the promised land and it is GOOD!

Steve
knightfit.com

keith0373

Steve,

I do not think she is at that point yet. Based on her final goal, my guess is that she is at about 5'2 or 5'3 and 150lbs and cardio should be enough for the next 20- 30 lbs. That being said, a higher protein diet and adding some weights/P90x surely will speed things along.

ecgravatt

Its incredibly frustrating, I have maintained my body weight for a year now, which I guess is really good but when I stopped to think about how much I exercise and what my eating habits are like, its very depressing to think "why am I not smaller?"

So I'm in the same boat as you. I'm increasing and switching up my exercise routines, but I'm also going to try and keep my daily calorie intake around the 1300 mark, as that is what seems to work best for my body. Just stick with it, and looking at inches or the way clothes fit is a great indicator and motivator as well.

RewindApril

You guys are soo amazing! I'm definitely going to follow everyone's advice, and see which works best for me and what works best for my body. I'll try to higher my cardio, Keith, when my foot heals. And yeah, I'm 5'0. Again, thanks so much everyone for your advice, you have no idea how much you're helping me and I just want to give you all a huge hug. I'm going to try each thing that everyone suggested and just try to see what works and I'll be patient. I LOVE YOU GUYS! :flowerforyou: