PLEASE HELP I AM STARTING TO FEEL DEFEATED

amygoldstein23

Hi All and thank you for even reading my post. 58 days ago I began my weight loss journey, 1370 cals a day. I also started going to Zumba, and according to my Nike Fuel band I am burning close to 800 cals a day at Zumba alone. I havent lost anything. My diet is good, low cal, low carb, i put everything into mfp. what am I doing wrong? My diary is open please help!

Greenrun99

Overestimating your calorie burn.. Unless your Zumba class is 2 hours long, cut that back.. way back.

psuLemon

If your goal is 1370 and you burn 800 calories, you should be eating 2170 calories total. Your body probably just needs more food.. Also, do you weigh your foods? I do agree with green that your band might be over estimating but I see a lot of days of only 600-800 calories which is a bit worrisome.

On a side note, i would add a lot more protein.

lucan07

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/

SezxyStef

Hi All and thank you for even reading my post. 58 days ago I began my weight loss journey, 1370 cals a day. I also started going to Zumba, and according to my Nike Fuel band I am burning close to 800 cals a day at Zumba alone. I havent lost anything. My diet is good, low cal, low carb, i put everything into mfp. what am I doing wrong? My diary is open please help!

I went back one week in your diary and this is what I see...

Quick add calories..
Not logging everything or you skip meals.
You don't use a kitchen scale
Your calories burned is high...I would have to do 4 hours of circut training to get those burns
Days under 1200 calories (unless you aren't logging)
Your goal is 1710 not 1370

So it's a classic over estimating burns and under estimating calories.

ETA: I have found days where nothing was logged.

MyJourney1960

i went through about a week's worth of your diary.

Two thoughts -
one, you are eating a LOT of prepared/take out/fast food and having a LOT of sodium. that may be impacting your weight loss - you may not be drinking enough, the numbers from the fast food web sites may be inaccurate etc.
two - you don't seem to be logging consistently. are you eating correctly (enough? not too much?)? are you weighing your foods?

Stage14

Hi All and thank you for even reading my post. 58 days ago I began my weight loss journey, 1370 cals a day. I also started going to Zumba, and according to my Nike Fuel band I am burning close to 800 cals a day at Zumba alone. I havent lost anything. My diet is good, low cal, low carb, i put everything into mfp. what am I doing wrong? My diary is open please help!

I went back one week in your diary and this is what I see...

Quick add calories..
Not logging everything or you skip meals.
You don't use a kitchen scale
Your calories burned is high...I would have to do 4 hours of circut training to get those burns
Days under 1200 calories (unless you aren't logging)
Your goal is 1710 not 1370

So it's a classic over estimating burns and under estimating calories.

This is everything I was about to post as well. You either aren't logging accurately or aren't eating consistently, you don't appear to weigh your food (though that's just an assumption), it looks like you're severely overestimating your burn (I don't burn that much RUNNING for that amount of time), and your calories are well over 1370 most days.

I am honestly not trying to sound judgmental or harsh, but the first thing you have to do is get honest and consistent about logging what you eat. I'm betting that will pretty much solve your issue right there.

elleloch

If you're doing Zumba and only eating 1370 calories... you need to be eating more food.

Hildy_J

Hey Amy,

It might be an idea to focus on your logging now - log consistently (you have quite a few gaps at the mo) and weigh every little thing you eat instead of using measuring cups/quick added calories.

Keep going, you'll get there!

Mr_Knight

I also started going to Zumba, and according to my Nike Fuel band I am burning close to 800 cals a day at Zumba alone.

That is almost certainly not happening, I'm sorry to say. Are you eating back all those reported exercise calories?

Hang in there, the MFP community will help you get this sorted.

Ninkyou

I am honestly not trying to sound judgmental or harsh, but the first thing you have to do is get honest and consistent about logging what you eat. I'm betting that will pretty much solve your issue right there.

Yes. Honesty and accuracy is the best policy. It's alot of hard work and diligence, but it will pay off in the end.

As for the Nike Fuelband, I've actually heard it's not very accurate. The way it calculates calorie burn is completely different from a normal HRM. I would highly suggest getting a HRM with a chest strap. I have a Polar FT4 and I love it.

Mr_Knight

An HRM will also be highly inaccurate for the OP.

herblackwings39

Suggestions:

Reach your calorie goal. It has a deficit for loss built in before you add in exercise.

Weigh your food and measure liquids. Estimating is killer.

Double check your entries. On Thursday you have listed 2 cups of chinese sesame chicken at 421 calories and only 165 mg of sodium. If it was a Chinese restaurant and not home cooked I'd be shocked if 2 cups is less than 700-800 calories with at least 1,000mg of sodium. Some entries are not correct and if they seem too good to be true a lot of times they are.

Avoid quick add calories when you can and enter the item yourself.

haroeva

It sounds like you have received a lot of great advice already. Please don't feel defeated. Reevaluate what you are eating and drinking as suggested by others. I also noticed that some days your sodium intake is very high almost double. This causes you to retain water and thus you don't lose weight. Also, if you are logging everything I noticed that you go too long between meals (on some days). This causes your body to go into starvation mode and also causes you to retain weight. Your body doesn't know when it will get food next so doesn't burn fat.

I started at 303 pounds and have lost 86 pounds in 2 years. I joined a program with Kaiser called Weight Management and they taught me how to eat more balanced meals. This program worked for me personally and I know for everyone there is a different program that works. I eat 6 times a day but smaller meals. I'm never hungry. I am still losing weight and I exercise 5 days a week. I drink a lot of water (nothing else). I prepare my own foods and don't eat fast food. I eat out occassionally and TRY to make healthy choices.

Good luck. Don't give up. It's worth it.

amygoldstein23

thanks all for your input. My quick ads for for 100 cal packs which with the diet I am following i am supposed to have 3 a day. The Zumba on mfp says 987 calories, which I also thought was insane, however when I wore my fuel band for just Zumba alone was showing 770-820 during a 6 day period of time. I did in fact go back to change my status on mfp from sedentary to active which increased my caloric intake. I will be sure to log a little bit more accurately, at least I am logging, and at least I am exercising. I am not making excuses, and certainly not lying to myself (thx for the support to the person who said I needed to be more honest).
RE: Zumba i went and also double checked 60 minutes of even low impact zumba at my weight and the min number on 3 different sites is 765 for 60 minutes.

Ninkyou

An HRM will also be highly inaccurate for the OP.

Highly inaccurate is an overstatement. Sure a HRM will be just an estimate, but it's much more accurate than the Nike. I've read reviews on it where it was nearly 2x more than a HRM. Just saying.

Mr_Knight

As a starting point, divide those numbers by four and use that.

EDIT: I strongly suggest not changing your settings to "Active". That category isn't defined by how hard it feels you're working, it's defined by how well your body burns calories. You'll have to get reasonably fit first.

KateJKrise

I think that you're overestimating how many calories you burn in Zumba. Cut that in half (or even less) and I bet you'll see more results.

kjg1965297

Why do you not eat dinner. You body requires calories to burn fat and if you only eat two meals a day your body metabolism reduces due to lack of fuel. If you eat 1370 of calories per day and are really burning 800 it could be unhealthy. Also you Zumba calories I feel are too high.

mapnerd2005

thanks all for your input. My quick ads for for 100 cal packs which with the diet I am following i am supposed to have 3 a day. The Zumba on mfp says 987 calories, which I also thought was insane, however when I wore my fuel band for just Zumba alone was showing 770-820 during a 6 day period of time. I did in fact go back to change my status on mfp from sedentary to active which increased my caloric intake. I will be sure to log a little bit more accurately, at least I am logging, and at least I am exercising. I am not making excuses, and certainly not lying to myself (thx for the support to the person who said I needed to be more honest).
RE: Zumba i went and also double checked 60 minutes of even low impact zumba at my weight and the min number on 3 different sites is 765 for 60 minutes.

Chances are you are NOT considered active. After months of data collection from my three high-tech weight-management tools (fitbit, smart scale, and HRM, all of which I use consistently), I am barely burning at "lightly active" daily rate and that's doing circuit training 6 days a week + walking 3-5 miles a day. I keep mine set to sedentary and just eat back whatever extra calories I burn through exercise.

EDT to correct typo.

tigersword

Why do you not eat dinner. You body requires calories to burn fat and if you only eat two meals a day your body metabolism reduces due to lack of fuel. If you eat 1370 of calories per day and are really burning 800 it could be unhealthy. Also you Zumba calories I feel are too high.

Completely false. Your metabolism does not change if you eat two meals a day instead of 3, that's an old myth. Calories matter, not how many meals you eat.