Why am I not losing Weight?!!!!

Jimaudit

because you didn't search the other 12,000 plus threads of the same name.

whisperwhitley

Is it possible your body is at the weight it wants to be? I've been around 125 pounds for three years and nothing I do really makes me lose weight. I work out, eat less..and maybe drop one or two pounds but that's it. My doctor told me my body is done losing weight and there's nothing I can do about it.

If you are still overweight then maybe you hit a plateau.

prat27

water water water!!! it goes right thru you but your body is hydrated and you start dropping water weight. Meanwhile follow your plan and the fat will burn in the meantime. Stick with the plan. It never ever fails if execute with honesty.

and yes if you are lifting you can be putting on muscle. If you feel thinner and feel better in your clothes but not dropping weight more than likely you are holding onto water and/or putting on muscle. But again stick with the plan and the fat will burn.

jonnythan

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...

I was merely pointing out the contradiction! Plus what you said is a myth.

what myth are you referring to?

You can build muscle on a calorie deficit its just much much harder. And mate, why are you all guns blazing at me tonight? Chill! I'm just trying to give the girl some support.

Welcome to MFP, a site dedicated to food and exercise logging.

I see you have showed up, posting of how difficult and unrealistic food logging are. You have furthermore decided to pick fights with people who are obviously far more experienced and successful than yourself.

So welcome to the site. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Phoenix_Warrior

You can retain the muscle you have on a deficit, if you eat and exercise correctly but build it? I'm highly skeptical. I've spent 4 months weight training and doing cardio and have yet to hit a plateau. To me, that's enough proof that even though I'm retaining muscle. I am not gaining it. To encourage the thought that weight loss stalled because of muscle gain is silly to me.

samammay

Is it possible your body is at the weight it wants to be? I've been around 125 pounds for three years and nothing I do really makes me lose weight. I work out, eat less..and maybe drop one or two pounds but that's it. My doctor told me my body is done losing weight and there's nothing I can do about it.

If you are still overweight then maybe you hit a plateau.

Off topic, but your doctor is an idiot. There is something you can do about it, its just really hard and probably not worth it.

Ang108

Well, I've been seriously doing this for a month now. I lost 2 lbs in the beginning and have not been able to lose since. I've been working out ALOT more though, so maybe I'm building more muscle? I still want to lose the weight though. I'm supposed to be 135 for my height and I'm 153 right now. ((

There is a small chance that as a beginner ( if I understand right ) you have build a tiny bit of muscle, but it would be minimal, but probably not, because building muscle while in caloric deficit is not possible and especially not for women.
I checked your food diary and at first glance it looks ok even though I find that fruit and vegetables are missing. What I wonder is however is; do you really eat what you log ? There are things like 1/2oz of chicken.....that would be a piece the size of your thumbnail.
The only thing I can say is that barring the possibility of an endocrine problem ( which afflicts about 3% of the overweight/obese population ) you will lose weight if you eat at a deficit. How you figure that deficit based on your activity, lifestyle and personal preferences is up to you. But if you are healthy you will lose in a deficit and if you don't lose you need to check what you eat, measure it or weight it and eat accordingly, because not losing means that you are ingesting more than 1200 calories.

nm212

Thanks ALL! Camilla Thank you! I haven't read through all the posts yet. Appreciate the support!

PikaKnight

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1122891-9-reasons-fat-loss-is-always-slower-than-you-d-like

LiminalAscendance

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...

I was merely pointing out the contradiction! Plus what you said is a myth.

what myth are you referring to?

You can build muscle on a calorie deficit its just much much harder. And mate, why are you all guns blazing at me tonight? Chill! I'm just trying to give the girl some support.

Welcome to MFP, a site dedicated to food and exercise logging.

I see you have showed up, posting of how difficult and unrealistic food logging are. You have furthermore decided to pick fights with people who are obviously far more experienced and successful than yourself.

So welcome to the site. I hope you enjoy your stay.

I see this often on this site, where someone's "success" is based on their weight loss results (but never losing it more quickly however!).

So is someone that loses 200 pounds more successful than someone who "only" loses 100 (when both are at goal)?

What about the people that never get that overweight in the first place? Are they the least "successful?"

424a57

Pounds per week
75+ lbs to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs range

Do you have a reference for this guideline?

bkyoun

You already have all the good advice you need in this thread, but there is also a lot of bad advice here, so let me sum up the good stuff:

1. You are NOT at a deficit if you are not losing.
2. You are likely overestimating the calories burned because MFP exaggerates them. Only eat back half your exercise calories.
3. Measure and log everything that goes in your mouth. You need to make sure you are accurately logging.
4. It doesn't matter what you eat (carbs, fat, unclean, etc) as long as you eat fewer calories than you burn. The number of calories is what matters, NOT what type of food or beverage makes up those calories.

If you do those things, I have no doubt that you will lose weight.

Best of luck to you!

Holly_Roman_Empire

-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.

Mmmm - I wouldn't say that the MFP food database is exactly accurate anyway because most of it is user input. Everybody is an individual and their body has different needs. What someone may advise, even in good spirit, may be completely wrong. Like all those people who think that cutting carbs is the way forward - maybe it worked for them but whose to say it will work for others. Plus, does she have a food intolerance that makes her digestive system function differently?. I think that becoming a logger of absolutely everything (unless you're a professional athlete) is a bit extreme, verging on OCD, and somewhat unrealistic. The point is that she is doing an important and healthy lifestyle thing.She should be getting support, positive comments, and encouragement, not someone being blunt and implying that she's not being honest.

:laugh:

jonnythan

Pounds per week
75+ lbs to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs range

Do you have a reference for this guideline?

It's a reasonable guideline. It really comes from two ideas:

1) If you have a lot of weight to lose, your BMR is high so your calorie intake will be relatively higher. Thus even at a high deficit your calorie intake will still be relatively high, making it easy to get enough fiber, fat, and vitamins in your diet.

2) The more fat mass you have, the easier it is for your body to generate calories from that fat, so it's safer to make more caloric demands on your body.

Dunsirn

Wow, that escalated quickly. Waiting for thread lockdown in T-minus 5... 4... 3... 2...

ijphatcher51485

I would like to add this. At the first of the year I lost 76 pounds in about 5 months. I did this purley by creating a calorie deficit, no workouts. Granted I was extremely overweight, but healthy aspects of weight loss aside, weight loss is purely one thing... creating a calorie deficit. As well, eating "too little" will not slow your weight loss down, unless you overconsume and can't stick to the "too few' calories. Deficit is deficit, and the larger the deficit the faster you lose, period.

That being said, I gained 60+ pounds back because I quit all manner of dieting and food logging... so you've got to pick a calorie deficit level that is resonable that you can stick to. Now i'm starting over again and have lost 11 pounds so far.

If you really are creating a deficit, then you will lose over time.

jonnythan

-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.

Mmmm - I wouldn't say that the MFP food database is exactly accurate anyway because most of it is user input. Everybody is an individual and their body has different needs. What someone may advise, even in good spirit, may be completely wrong. Like all those people who think that cutting carbs is the way forward - maybe it worked for them but whose to say it will work for others. Plus, does she have a food intolerance that makes her digestive system function differently?. I think that becoming a logger of absolutely everything (unless you're a professional athlete) is a bit extreme, verging on OCD, and somewhat unrealistic. The point is that she is doing an important and healthy lifestyle thing.She should be getting support, positive comments, and encouragement, not someone being blunt and implying that she's not being honest.

:laugh:

I know right? Like it's easy to log 90% of your food, but logging that piece of cake puts you right into "extreme, unrealistic OCD" territory.

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!

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...

I was merely pointing out the contradiction! Plus what you said is a myth.

what myth are you referring to?

You can build muscle on a calorie deficit its just much much harder. And mate, why are you all guns blazing at me tonight? Chill! I'm just trying to give the girl some support.

Welcome to MFP, a site dedicated to food and exercise logging.

I see you have showed up, posting of how difficult and unrealistic food logging are. You have furthermore decided to pick fights with people who are obviously far more experienced and successful than yourself.

So welcome to the site. I hope you enjoy your stay.

"You have furthermore decided to pick fights with people who are obviously far more experienced and successful than yourself." - eh?

I haven't picked a fight with anybody and please, quit the exaggerating (I said SOME people find it unrealistic to log food). And what evidence have you got to say that someone is more successful than an other? Well I give up because it seems to me that some people on MFP are far too critical and all bent on demoralising, which completely defeats the object of the site's purpose.

Holly_Roman_Empire

So - you picked out one sentence out of the many that I wrote and chose to take offence. Well I'm sorry that you took offence at me saying that those who log ABSOLUTELY everything, are athletes, professionals, and maybe a little obsessed, as being derogatory. That isn't what I was implying. If you don't want to consider yourself as an athlete or professional then fine. I like rock climbing, I'm obsessed with it and I don't mind admitting it. Logging everything isn't realistic for many people. I'll stress my point again - the girl needs support not blunt criticism.

Yay! I'm an athlete and a professional because I log everything all the time! I'm flattered!

Ang108

As a blanket answer to several statements made in various posts.
I am a few weeks shy of 66 years old, I have no thyroid, which makes me by definition super-hypo thyroid, I am only five feet tall, I no longer lift weight, I walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day as fast as ai can ( brisk pace in the MFP data base ), I do not own a heart rate monitor, I have no other devises that measure calories burnt, I own no home exercise equipment. This means to many people that I am obviously not serious about weight loss and that I am a poor candidate because of age, health and lack of exercise.
I do however own a food scale. I weigh everything and log everything even though I am not a professional athlete, am not OCD and have no obesessions whatsoever.........and I have lost 40 pounds since April. Is that a freakish out of the oradinary circumstance ? I think not, I eat at a deficit and make sure through correct logging that I stay in control of that deficit.....end of story.
In my FL there are quite a few people who do the same with the same kind of success......through calorie counting to maintain deficit and logging.....
My diary is open for anyone to check......