Why am I not losing Weight?!!!!

nm212

Monday I ate like a pig haha so a little hesitant to open my diary. I do log EVERYTHING though, so good or bad days...I'm sticking to that so far.

dlkingsbury

Going through the same thing... I've been tracking for a few weeks (very accurate, i have a food scale, etc.) and working out and have only seen a 2lb loss. I do think I see small changes in my stomach, butt and legs though (been doing a lot of cardio). I used to eat so badly and not really work out consistently at all, so I expected to see a much larger loss by now and that is frustrating, but I know if I keep working at this eventually I'm going to see the loss. I just have to keep working at it.

nm212

Hmm thanks Geeky. You're cute! LOL I'm gonna open my diary...

mitchiemo

You're not building muscle but if you've upped exercise recently, you could be retaining water for muscle repair. Make sure you're drinking lots of water. That's helped me.

Why do you say she's not building muscle? Muscles repair is muscle growth!

CamillaHerold

As much as your water intake and food choices, it might be your exercise. Again if you open your diary, we can see exactly what you are logging and be better able to offer help.
Regarding keeping the diary up each day, be sure you are committed to 100% honesty and logging everything. If you aren't committed to that, then the diary is worthless.
As far as exercise, you may not be working out hard enough, or you may be working out too hard. Let's say your 1200 is not putting you in starvation mode. Do you exercise enough to sweat hard? does your heart pound and can you maintain that for 20-30 minutes? If these are not happening, you may be overestimating the benefit you think you are going to get from your exercise. It takes work to burn 500 calories in an exercise session. A heart rate monitor would be a good investment, especially if you are new to regular exercise. But even if you are not new to exercise, you need to know when you are in the best fat burning zone for your age/weight. As a general rule, to burn fat calories efficiently, you need to be in that heart rate zone where you can breathe well enough to talk and keep going. If you are breathing so hard you can't talk and you are tiring quickly, you are probably way above the fat burning zone and its not going to contribute to weight loss.
So if you would log your water intake, food, and exercise, I am sure that you will get some good help from this site. Maybe some crap too, but just ignore it. : ) The answers are out there, just keep looking.

PS: just saw that your diary is open. Looks like you are exercising often and good variety, especially lately. Foodwise, you have a really good day on Oct 12 and then really bad between Oct 15-21 and the 24. By bad I mean high carbs 200+ and high sodium 2500+ , a bad combination. Both cause water retention. Sugar intake was bad here and there too. Several days recently there was no food data, so without that its hard to know whether its the food choices or not.
You said you are ready to cut back carbs and increase water intake, and if you do those things and decrease sodium, I think you will start losing. IMHO. Best wishes, and keep working and looking for solutions!

briandahawaiian

Your probably not eating enough eat some or all of your workout cals back

missomgitsica

Are you measuring or just weighing yourself? Just because the number on the scale stays the same doesn't mean your inches do.

sadalldo

I know exactly how you feel. I am at the same weight. It's frustrating that a person tries so hard and fails on the scale. I think I have been so obsessed with the scale that I am losing focus on the important things like my clothes fitting looser and a difference in my shape. I am starting to focus on macronutrients to make sure I am getting enough protein, carbs, and fat into my diet along with more fiber. Along with more water, I try to drink a gallon a day.

Warchortle

-You're incorrectly logging food

-You're not in a caloric deficit

-You're not eating the proper foods so that your body wants to burn fat (I'm not say there are fat burning foods, but you can't build a fire with no wood)

Bretto

I know for me, when I exercise between 7-10 hrs a week I had to increase my calories to 1600-1750 per day. When you eat healthy that is alot of food. I also really cut back on my carbs, so I was only eating about 100 carbs per day, but I bumped my protein up to 150 per day. I also added in a low carb, low sugar protein drink 10 min before bed. This way my metabolisn had something to work off of during the night. I drink around 100 oz of water per day. These few tricks helped me push through my plateau. Also eat every 2-3 hrs no skipping snacks or meals or it slows your metabolism down.

mitchiemo

-You're incorrectly logging food

-You're not in a caloric deficit

-You're not eating the proper foods so that your body wants to burn fat (I'm not say there are fat burning foods, but you can't build a fire with no wood)

She's said that she is logging her food, being honest about it and coming in at her 1200 calorie goal. What you just said is in effect calling her a liar - that's kind of rude, don't you think?

Sweetie - there are many things that prevent weight loss or cause weight gain - stress, not enough sleep, medication, not eating enough, not eating often enough, medical problems, menstrual cycle, water retention, fat being replaced with muscle tissue. When someone is not over weight it is also much much harder to lose weight. My advice keep doing what you are doing because it is a healthy lifestyle thing, throw out your scales and concentrate on the tape measure and what you look like in the mirror. Good luck!

Alta2000

First, you eat a lot of sodium. Second, do not eat all of your exercise calories because mfp overestimates them. Try to eat half to 3/4. Increase your protein % and decrease the carbs. Your body is also adjusting because you only recently went from eating under 1000 calories daily to your current level.

callistasky

When I first joined, I worked out for 2 months straight before I started to lose. People said something about my body realizing that this was not a fight or flight situation, but regular activity. Don't eat too little or else you get overly fatigued and hangry. Stick with it. Also, if you are having a hard time at 1200 calories, realize that in order to stay 120-130, you have to make a lifestyle change, or else a year or two down the road, you'll be back at 150. I started out much higher than you, but keep with it and you will notice a change soon.

SHHitsKaty

From the looks of your diary, you aren't eating the right foods and you aren't eating 1200 calories many days. Some days you aren't even meeting the 1200 calories, other days you are going super far past it. Try to reel in the eating and stay more consistent along with exercise and see what happens. It sucks but you gotta sacrifice some things if you want to get to a goal, then slowly reintroduce those things back into your diet in moderation.

For me, 1200 never worked, I felt like I was starving myself and I wasn't losing weight, upped it to 1500 and I started to lose weight. I work out 6-7 days a week for at least an hour every time, so I wasn't giving my body back what it needed at 1200. At 1500, I feel I am not starving and the weight started to melt off.

I suggest weight training as well. I didn't start really seeing some difference in the way my body looked (not just the scale) until I started picking up weights and putting them back down, repeat.

Bretto

After looking at your diary...It looks like you eat alot of packaged foods. Have you thought about changing to clean eating for most of your diet. It does take some planning, but I bet you would see amazing results.

I think your body is just craving to have you give it the right kinds of foods.

I would love to share some food ideas with you. Isent you a friend request.

3foldchord

-You're incorrectly logging food

-You're not in a caloric deficit

-You're not eating the proper foods so that your body wants to burn fat (I'm not say there are fat burning foods, but you can't build a fire with no wood)

She's said that she is logging her food, being honest about it and coming in at her 1200 calorie goal. What you just said is in effect calling her a liar - that's kind of rude, don't you think?

That is not necessarily calling her a liar. She may think she is logging correctly, but maybe is not weighing her foods properly or there could be other factors that make the logging not accurate. Or perhaps the caloric burn logged was not the actual correct burn, unbeknownst to her. All Of Which could affect the deficit/surplus balance.

ndj1979

Wow thanks One Throne. I will check it out. I do eat alot of carbs...been trying to cut back on that.

carbs do not make you fat...you do not need to eliminate them or cut them down..

unless of course you have some underlying medical condition ..

If you are not losing weight then you are more then likely under estimating how many calories you are actually consuming..

Do you log everything? Weight your food (yes I am going to be that guy)?

if you have only been doing this four weeks, then I would give your current program another four week and see how it goes..it takes your body 4-6 weeks to adjust to a new regimen..

ndj1979

You're not building muscle but if you've upped exercise recently, you could be retaining water for muscle repair. Make sure you're drinking lots of water. That's helped me.

Why do you say she's not building muscle? Muscles repair is muscle growth!

you can't build muscle in a calorie deficit...

and OP said she is sometimes only eating 1000 cals...., which will not leave enough emerge for building muscle...

ndj1979

After looking at your diary...It looks like you eat alot of packaged foods. Have you thought about changing to clean eating for most of your diet. It does take some planning, but I bet you would see amazing results.

I think your body is just craving to have you give it the right kinds of foods.

I would love to share some food ideas with you. Isent you a friend request.

calorie deficit leads to weight loss...not "clean" eating...

ndj1979

you said you are eating 1200 a day but I looked over your diary and it looks like for the last week you are netting around 1600..

Also, you need to be careful with what MFP says you are burning...they tend to over estimate..

I would say only eat back half of your exercise calories and see how that goes...

you are pretty high on sodium, so drinking a crap ton of water to help flush that out would not be a bad idea...