Not losing weight

tihi18

I have a question MFP suggested 1200 calories for a 2 pound per week loss which is fine but I generally go over between 1500-1600 on some days. I run 5 days a week. I go way over on Sundays. I'm trying to find my way with the calories but is going over to maintenance on Sundays and 1500 on most other days enough to kill almost all weight loss? Its been nearly a month and I barely lost 3 pounds. I know my eating is not great but surely there is enough defitcit for a pound a week weight loss right? Yeah I know I'm not eating great food and I may skip meals but I'm pretty sure it comes down to calories in and calories out....

Articeluvsmemphis

3 pounds in a month is good & healthy. weight is finicky and determined by a lot of factors. measure yourself and see if you lose inches throughout this process. when you don't have much weight to lose some of those pounds are just vanity, you can lose them, but they're harder to get off and then keep them off.

i think calories in vs calories out is oversimplified, i'd weigh nothing if that were the case. lol

kristen6022

If you are struggling, I'd suggest setting your settings to 1lb a week, eating back your running calories (or at least 1/2 of them) and do this slower. More than likely, you don't have enough weight to lose to effectively lose 2lbs a week and your body is telling you somethings up.

If it were me, I'd set my settings to 1600 (I'm 5'11, 153, and I eat 1620/daily + exercise calories and I'm losing .05-1 a week with only 6 pounds left) and try to hit 1600 everday consistantly. In my experience, consistancy worked best for me. When I ate the same amount of calories daily, improved my diet a bit and worked out 3-4 days a week. It's just my theory, 5:2 works too for some people and that's not consistant at all.

And really 3lbs in a month is slow, but it's not bad. How much do you want to lose? How tall are you?

laserturkey

I think you'd be smart to set your goal to 1 pound a week so you can have a more sustainable routine. Also, are you eating your exercise calories back, or at least some of them? Going to maintenance calories doesn't erase weight loss because you still aren't over what you are burning in a day, so you're fine doing that from time to time. Actually, going way over once in awhile is fine as long as you are on target most of the time.

Mischievous_Rascal

How much/how intense is your exercise? I stalled big time by exercising more and keeping my calories too low to sustain my activity. This thread made all the difference to me - I was yo-yoing for two decades before I started using this advice! Now my metabolism works like it should!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974889-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

Best of luck!

tihi18

I'm only 5'3 and I weigh 167 so I have quite a bit to lose, it's just a bit frustrating. Perhaps my exercise is not intense enough? I run 2.5-3 miles per day at at 9:40 mile. I usually under report what the treadmill says I burn because I know they over estimate calories burned. I think perhaps I am not recording the number of calories consumed properly. Okay I think I will readjust my weight loss goal as suggested and watch my daily carloic intake a little more. Thanks guys for the tips/advice!

Mokey41

Kind of knowing what you eat and sort of knowing what you burn aren't going to work. Set your budget to one pound per week weight loss and stick to it. Make better food choices so you stay in budget without being hungry.

patronelisa

I found when I was just running I was not losing. I changed my running to intervals with running and I started dropping like crazy

tihi18

@ Mokey, I know exactly what I eat and what I burn. Perhaps you misunderstood. When I say I'm not recording calories correct I believe I need to get more brand specific when entering things like rice or bread. @ Patron When you say intervals you mean like a walk run on the treadmill or doing one day on one day off of running?