What am i doing wrong please help

sallysally

I have been trying too loose weight for years.... Is there something wrong with me? I use to have a binge eating disorder i gained weight and now i cant shift it... I just want to know am i missing something? Am i eating too much or am i doing something wrong?
I use heart monitor
I try to eat low carb
I exercise every day
I weigh my food
I enter all my food on MFP
I dont drink anything but water with the exception of one expresso in the morning no sugar
I try an eat organic - not that it matters with weight loss
Even though i only have a week and a bit entered into my diary ive been eating the same for a month ive lost nothing im getting so sad because i feel like anyone else working as hard as i am would at least see some results ... What am i doing wrong?

ossentia

Have you had your thyroid checked?

sallysally

Yes medically im fine

MamaG1313

how many calories do you consume and burn a day?

sallysally

I was aiming for 1200 but ive increased that to 1300. I burn about 250-300 when i work out

Capt_Apollo

so fitness is a table, and a table has four legs: rest, nutrition, cardio, and strength training. no one leg is more important than the other.

a lot of people tend to over look rest. i think it's probably the most important. you need to rest to be able to give your body a chance to recover. doing a full body work out every day and cardio every day is a great way to screw up your body.

muscles build and grow on rest days. if you don't give them a chance to rest, they'll be too fatigued to work properly. also, you body essentially goes "wow, this girl is working us out too hard. lets hold on to as much food as possible to use as fuel, just in case."

so if i were you, i'd try and do full body strength training three days a week. i like mon-wed-fri. this allows plenty of time between work outs to recover.

Two days a week you can do High Intensity Interval Training. However, a mistake people make with HIIT is doing it too long. i know people that'll do 30 minutes of it!! personally, what i'll do is a 30 second sprint, and a 1 minute jog, for about 8 rounds. you yeah, thats only about a twelve minute HIIT session, so i start it with an 8 minute warm up job, and then an 8-10 minute cool down jog. bam, thirty minute work out. you can do these work outs tuesday and thursday.

I also think that you should do some low intensity steady state cardio once a week. you can choose from a lot of things. you can go for a long run, or a long bike ride, or a swim, or for just a walk!! time and distance is up to you. i would do this on saturday.

then you can have sunday to relax. stretch. do some yoga. try and relax.

now as far as nutrition goes, that will require you to keep doing what your doing and logging your food and weight, and finding what works for you.

littleburgy

It may be easier to tell when you've logged more of your food over time. Logging your food really can make a difference -- I generally always have "watched what I ate" but really was consuming more calories than I realized. As a starting point, I think that will help you. You'll be able to analyze your diet better or get input and advice from others as well for identifying problematic areas in your diet.

Good luck :flowerforyou:

sallysally

Thanks everyone

fatfudgery

There are only two alternatives: either there is something wrong with you metabolically, or you're eating more calories than you think you are. You say there's nothing wrong with you medically, so that leaves the amount of food you eat as the culprit. Accurate logging in your food diary will help you a lot here. Do you weigh your food, or do you just guess at how much food you're logging? Are you leaving anything out of your food diary - small bits of food, a piece of gum, "just one bite" here or there, etc.? Do you have cheat meals at all? Also, what's your age, height and weight?

3dogsrunning

You don't log consistently. You have only been logging since about the 25th of October. then some random days earlier.

Log consistently would be my first suggestion.

sallysally

There are only two alternatives: either there is something wrong with you metabolically, or you're eating more calories than you think you are. You say there's nothing wrong with you medically, so that leaves the amount of food you eat as the culprit. Accurate logging in your food diary will help you a lot here. Do you weigh your food, or do you just guess at how much food you're logging? Are you leaving anything out of your food diary - small bits of food, a piece of gum, "just one bite" here or there, etc.? Do you have cheat meals at all? Also, what's your age, height and weight?

I weigh Everything the only thing i leave out of my diary is fish oil tablets i know its 30 cal but I've never thought to put that in my diary. I don't do cheat meals i find them too hard i wont know when to stop. I don't chew gum. Im thinking maybe my macros are wrong ... Maybe I'm eating too much fat or maybe my calories are wrong and i should do TDEE who knows but i wont give up despite how discouraged I'm feeling at the moment i just need to tweak something only thing is i don't know what that something is... I weigh 168lb or 76 kilos and I'm 5.3in or 162cm
Maybe there is something wrong with me metabolically and i dont know it - hope not

Thanks for your reply i appreciate it

davisbrenda9

I have always had problems loosing weight. I have tried every diet on earth with little or no weight loss. I've been to Weight Watchers, Atkins, you name it. I stumbled on a PBS special where I heard JJ Virgin talking about how certain foods can cause a person to hang on to weight because your body can be intolerant to these foods. I bought her book and tried the Virgin Diet and have lost 30 pounds so far and feel great! It is incredible and I am not craving foods or feel deprived. I don't know if this will work for you but have not been able to lose weight like this before. It totally works for me and I will continue to explore this concept.

spamantha57

Lots of good answers here that I was going to say myself. I have a difficult time losing weight too (pretty sure there's still something medically wrong with me but not sure what) but mostly it's hard when I don't exercise consistently. I didn't work out for about 3 weeks & gained 2lbs, even though I ate around 1300-1400cals/ day. Also - LOG EVERYTHING! Consistently, every day, all day. Those days you stop around dinner add up, the honey in your tea adds up, the milk in your cereal, the olive oil in your pasta, etc. Log everything & exercise & after 2 solid months of doing that religiously, if you still don't see ANY change (hey, a 2lb loss is still a 2lb loss) show your logs to a professional.

sallysally

I have always had problems loosing weight. I have tried every diet on earth with little or no weight loss. I've been to Weight Watchers, Atkins, you name it. I stumbled on a PBS special where I heard JJ Virgin talking about how certain foods can cause a person to hang on to weight because your body can be intolerant to these foods. I bought her book and tried the Virgin Diet and have lost 30 pounds so far and feel great! It is incredible and I am not craving foods or feel deprived. I don't know if this will work for you but have not been able to lose weight like this before. It totally works for me and I will continue to explore this concept.

Thank you i have never heard of this before i will look into it now... Its like your hitting your head against a wall... Like you ive tried every diet and come out worse than when i started. Im going to explore this too it may help it may not but its better than nothing thank you

sallysally

Thanks good advice:)

sallysally

Lots of good answers here that I was going to say myself. I have a difficult time losing weight too (pretty sure there's still something medically wrong with me but not sure what) but mostly it's hard when I don't exercise consistently. I didn't work out for about 3 weeks & gained 2lbs, even though I ate around 1300-1400cals/ day. Also - LOG EVERYTHING! Consistently, every day, all day. Those days you stop around dinner add up, the honey in your tea adds up, the milk in your cereal, the olive oil in your pasta, etc. Log everything & exercise & after 2 solid months of doing that religiously, if you still don't see ANY change (hey, a 2lb loss is still a 2lb loss) show your logs to a professional.

Thanks good advice

kimosabe1

I had the same problem for a long while on this site & a woman told me to try upping my calories. Sure enough, I added 300 additional calories and dropped 2 pounds the next week-good luck!

Traineight

I agree 100% with what capt apollo said and partially with what alk_509 said. alk_509 is correct in the most people don't count their calories accurately. However, it isn't ONLY about counting calories. That just helps you stay accountable as well as keep track of what you're eating. Perhaps to also watch your nutrient intake. You'd be amazed at how much sugar is in fruit. So watch how much fruit you're eating. But don't nix it.

What you said was very much something I've been saying for years. ALthough I attributed my lack of weight loss to not exercising enough.
BUT....at the beginning of this month I tried something more for my health than weight loss but I found amazing results (bonus!) without even really trying. I tweaked my already pretty healthy way of eating to really concentrated "way of eating."

I've followed a more Paleo style way of choosing my food. I thought it was going to be so strict and really tough like I was missing out on tons of good food. Nope! It's the healthiest food I can get my hands on sans dairy, refined sugar, grains and legumes (and alcohol but if you must, wine is the recommended choice if any). That's it! I'm not doing 100%, I'm about 99% but I started to lose little by little consistently. I'm now in a plateau but just by REALLY watching what I'm eating, having a healthy balance of veggies, fish, chicken and some red meat.

I'm not suggesting you go Paleo. My point is that it's amazing what choosing the TYPES of foods you're eating does for your body. A healthy balance. That along with exercise and sleep, all so vital.

My suggestion, don't nix carbs, watch which one's you're eating and reduce them, same with fat...you need some but the good fats, not the bad one's. Sleep. Relax (mind/body, reduce stress), eat well and balanced. Exercise. Try that.

PS: Doing HIIT and other exercises have "after-burn" where you're still burning calories even after you've finished. Just a thought....

fatfudgery

There are only two alternatives: either there is something wrong with you metabolically, or you're eating more calories than you think you are. You say there's nothing wrong with you medically, so that leaves the amount of food you eat as the culprit. Accurate logging in your food diary will help you a lot here. Do you weigh your food, or do you just guess at how much food you're logging? Are you leaving anything out of your food diary - small bits of food, a piece of gum, "just one bite" here or there, etc.? Do you have cheat meals at all? Also, what's your age, height and weight?

I weigh Everything the only thing i leave out of my diary is fish oil tablets i know its 30 cal but I've never thought to put that in my diary. I don't do cheat meals i find them too hard i wont know when to stop. I don't chew gum. Im thinking maybe my macros are wrong ... Maybe I'm eating too much fat or maybe my calories are wrong and i should do TDEE who knows but i wont give up despite how discouraged I'm feeling at the moment i just need to tweak something only thing is i don't know what that something is... I weigh 168lb or 76 kilos and I'm 5.3in or 162cm
Maybe there is something wrong with me metabolically and i dont know it - hope not

Thanks for your reply i appreciate it

OK, I'm getting 1700 calories for your TDEE. Aim for 1200 calories/day for four weeks or so and you should drop about a pound (.5Kg) per week. After the four weeks are up, reevaluate your weight and use that information to get a better estimate of your real TDEE. Now, it is crucial that you log your food as accurately as possible. Looking at your diary, it seems like you're weighing some things but not others. A cup of vegetable stir fry can vary a lot in terms of actual amount of food/calories (also, did you really use no oil for that stir fry?) Same goes for things like "half a banana." You should weigh your food to the gram to eliminate that possible uncertainty as a source of extra calories.

As far as your macros, eating too much fat, etc... Weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out; eat less calories than your body uses and you will lose weight. You could eat 1200 calories of candy a day and you would lose weight (which is not to say this is advisable, of course!) At the end of the day, you can't break the laws of thermodynamics.

sallysally

I agree 100% with what capt apollo said and partially with what alk_509 said. alk_509 is correct in the most people don't count their calories accurately. However, it isn't ONLY about counting calories. That just helps you stay accountable as well as keep track of what you're eating. Perhaps to also watch your nutrient intake. You'd be amazed at how much sugar is in fruit. So watch how much fruit you're eating. But don't nix it.

What you said was very much something I've been saying for years. ALthough I attributed my lack of weight loss to not exercising enough.
BUT....at the beginning of this month I tried something more for my health than weight loss but I found amazing results (bonus!) without even really trying. I tweaked my already pretty healthy way of eating to really concentrated "way of eating."

I've followed a more Paleo style way of choosing my food. I thought it was going to be so strict and really tough like I was missing out on tons of good food. Nope! It's the healthiest food I can get my hands on sans dairy, refined sugar, grains and legumes (and alcohol but if you must, wine is the recommended choice if any). That's it! I'm not doing 100%, I'm about 99% but I started to lose little by little consistently. I'm now in a plateau but just by REALLY watching what I'm eating, having a healthy balance of veggies, fish, chicken and some red meat.

I'm not suggesting you go Paleo. My point is that it's amazing what choosing the TYPES of foods you're eating does for your body. A healthy balance. That along with exercise and sleep, all so vital.

My suggestion, don't nix carbs, watch which one's you're eating and reduce them, same with fat...you need some but the good fats, not the bad one's. Sleep. Relax (mind/body, reduce stress), eat well and balanced. Exercise. Try that.

PS: Doing HIIT and other exercises have "after-burn" where you're still burning calories even after you've finished. Just a thought....

I thought i was doing this thats why im so down i thought i was doing all the right things and im trying to go paleo best i can. I only eat two fruit per day. I have cut dairy out but im thinking i might start eating it again. I do HIIT 3 x per week, yoga 1x per week and walk 7km 2x per week. i need to do some weight training i realise. i guess with everything i am doing i thought i would have just a bit more success thats all. Thanks for your reply. Actually thanks everyone for the replies im so greatful to you all for taking the time

sallysally

There are only two alternatives: either there is something wrong with you metabolically, or you're eating more calories than you think you are. You say there's nothing wrong with you medically, so that leaves the amount of food you eat as the culprit. Accurate logging in your food diary will help you a lot here. Do you weigh your food, or do you just guess at how much food you're logging? Are you leaving anything out of your food diary - small bits of food, a piece of gum, "just one bite" here or there, etc.? Do you have cheat meals at all? Also, what's your age, height and weight?

I weigh Everything the only thing i leave out of my diary is fish oil tablets i know its 30 cal but I've never thought to put that in my diary. I don't do cheat meals i find them too hard i wont know when to stop. I don't chew gum. Im thinking maybe my macros are wrong ... Maybe I'm eating too much fat or maybe my calories are wrong and i should do TDEE who knows but i wont give up despite how discouraged I'm feeling at the moment i just need to tweak something only thing is i don't know what that something is... I weigh 168lb or 76 kilos and I'm 5.3in or 162cm
Maybe there is something wrong with me metabolically and i dont know it - hope not

Thanks for your reply i appreciate it

OK, I'm getting 1700 calories for your TDEE. Aim for 1200 calories/day for four weeks or so and you should drop about a pound (.5Kg) per week. After the four weeks are up, reevaluate your weight and use that information to get a better estimate of your real TDEE. Now, it is crucial that you log your food as accurately as possible. Looking at your diary, it seems like you're weighing some things but not others. A cup of vegetable stir fry can vary a lot in terms of actual amount of food/calories (also, did you really use no oil for that stir fry?) Same goes for things like "half a banana." You should weigh your food to the gram to eliminate that possible uncertainty as a source of extra calories.

As far as your macros, eating too much fat, etc... Weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out; eat less calories than your body uses and you will lose weight. You could eat 1200 calories of candy a day and you would lose weight (which is not to say this is advisable, of course!) At the end of the day, you can't break the laws of thermodynamics.

Hi thanks for this ... So if i go back to 1200 per day do i eat back calories from exercise?

jackielou867

4 years ago I dieted on and off and went to a gym. I stayed the identical weight for 4 months. What I didn't really realise, until I stopped the exercise, was that I had toned up, and my pants were a little looser. Could this be the case. Also do you eat back exercise calories. Eating to little promotes weight gain not loss. Drastic diets mess with your metabolism.
At 1200 I eventually plateaud. I added 200 calories and was up and running.
Do you really log everything, and weigh everything. I weighed my cereal when I started MFP and was devastated to find my bowl of cereal was actually 3 portions, and I sometimes had a second bowl OMG! And that little piece of cheese I nibbled while making dinner was 100 calories.
A lot of portions seem incredibly small to a greedy person like me. But 9 months in I have got used to it, and I feel satisfied with regular portions, not the food mountains I used to eat.

sallysally

I am now really confused how many calories i should eat and do i or don't i eat the calories from exercise? The more i read the more confused i get. One thing i do know is i mustn't be logging my calories right because i agree weight loss equals less cals in to cals used. So i am going to work harder on this. So many people say 1200 not enough and the calculators ive been playing with this morning all give different answers. I think i have to go back to the drawing board rethink my body's needs
Thanks again everyone for your advice

paintlisapurple

so fitness is a table, and a table has four legs: rest, nutrition, cardio, and strength training. no one leg is more important than the other.

a lot of people tend to over look rest. i think it's probably the most important. you need to rest to be able to give your body a chance to recover. doing a full body work out every day and cardio every day is a great way to screw up your body.

muscles build and grow on rest days. if you don't give them a chance to rest, they'll be too fatigued to work properly. also, you body essentially goes "wow, this girl is working us out too hard. lets hold on to as much food as possible to use as fuel, just in case."

so if i were you, i'd try and do full body strength training three days a week. i like mon-wed-fri. this allows plenty of time between work outs to recover.

Two days a week you can do High Intensity Interval Training. However, a mistake people make with HIIT is doing it too long. i know people that'll do 30 minutes of it!! personally, what i'll do is a 30 second sprint, and a 1 minute jog, for about 8 rounds. you yeah, thats only about a twelve minute HIIT session, so i start it with an 8 minute warm up job, and then an 8-10 minute cool down jog. bam, thirty minute work out. you can do these work outs tuesday and thursday.

I also think that you should do some low intensity steady state cardio once a week. you can choose from a lot of things. you can go for a long run, or a long bike ride, or a swim, or for just a walk!! time and distance is up to you. i would do this on saturday.

then you can have sunday to relax. stretch. do some yoga. try and relax.

now as far as nutrition goes, that will require you to keep doing what your doing and logging your food and weight, and finding what works for you.

I agree with the captain. Rest is vitally important. My weight loss went on standby when I couldn't get proper rest and wasn't eating enough (not above my bmr). I stalled...in fact I actually gained 7 lbs. Granted, my father had just passed, and I had quit smoking so I wasn't myself at all. (Heck, I still find myself getting weepy or worse...*****y.) As soon as regular sleep returned and I restarted logging (to ensure adequate nutrition) the weight is now coming off again.
Good luck to you. Add me if you like.
:flowerforyou:

LOLOL They edited beeotchy!

fatfudgery

There are only two alternatives: either there is something wrong with you metabolically, or you're eating more calories than you think you are. You say there's nothing wrong with you medically, so that leaves the amount of food you eat as the culprit. Accurate logging in your food diary will help you a lot here. Do you weigh your food, or do you just guess at how much food you're logging? Are you leaving anything out of your food diary - small bits of food, a piece of gum, "just one bite" here or there, etc.? Do you have cheat meals at all? Also, what's your age, height and weight?

I weigh Everything the only thing i leave out of my diary is fish oil tablets i know its 30 cal but I've never thought to put that in my diary. I don't do cheat meals i find them too hard i wont know when to stop. I don't chew gum. Im thinking maybe my macros are wrong ... Maybe I'm eating too much fat or maybe my calories are wrong and i should do TDEE who knows but i wont give up despite how discouraged I'm feeling at the moment i just need to tweak something only thing is i don't know what that something is... I weigh 168lb or 76 kilos and I'm 5.3in or 162cm
Maybe there is something wrong with me metabolically and i dont know it - hope not

Thanks for your reply i appreciate it

OK, I'm getting 1700 calories for your TDEE. Aim for 1200 calories/day for four weeks or so and you should drop about a pound (.5Kg) per week. After the four weeks are up, reevaluate your weight and use that information to get a better estimate of your real TDEE. Now, it is crucial that you log your food as accurately as possible. Looking at your diary, it seems like you're weighing some things but not others. A cup of vegetable stir fry can vary a lot in terms of actual amount of food/calories (also, did you really use no oil for that stir fry?) Same goes for things like "half a banana." You should weigh your food to the gram to eliminate that possible uncertainty as a source of extra calories.

As far as your macros, eating too much fat, etc... Weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out; eat less calories than your body uses and you will lose weight. You could eat 1200 calories of candy a day and you would lose weight (which is not to say this is advisable, of course!) At the end of the day, you can't break the laws of thermodynamics.

Hi thanks for this ... So if i go back to 1200 per day do i eat back calories from exercise?

I think it depends on what you're doing for exercise... Those exercise calculators are notorious for overestimating calorie burns, especially from low intensity exercise. The rule I've found works for me is this: if an activity (a) is purposeful exercise — i.e., not incidental to my work, shopping or other activities; (b) makes me sweat, breath faster and raises my heart rate; and (c) lasts longer than 15-20 minutes, then I log it into MFP and eat those calories back. Otherwise, I ignore it.

The really important part here is to be consistent with your tracking and logging over a long period (4-6 weeks) and then use whatever happens to your body in that period to reassess where your true TDEE is at and adjust from there.

ranchmimi

At the risk of being shot down, I'll make another suggestion for you! I am much older than you (76) but I am 5'3: and right now weigh 201.8 I have been working this journey since Oct. 2011 and have now lost 35 pounds - slowly but lost! This summer I hit a total plateau even though I was still eating the same amount and no matter what I did nothing changed other than up or down 2 pounds. I tried the TDEE unsuccessfully and after 3 months asked the advice of a friend who owns a Curves business. I had been eating close to 1200 calories for almost 2 years eating about half my exercise calories back. Her suggestion was to increase my calories to 2000 until I gained 3 pounds - but the increase could only be from good for me food - not cake, ice cream, candy etc! I did it (took me about a week and a half) then back to the 1200 a day still eating half or more of my exercise calories back. In less than a week I had taken off my 3 pounds and I continue to lose slowly - as I was before- which may have something to do with my age! But I don't really care if it is slow as long as over the long haul I am losing! Since starting this plan I have lost almost 5 pounds from where I spent the summer. Apparently my metabolism just needed to be shaken up - and it was!

For what it is worth, you do need to be more dedicated to filling in your diary with everything you put into your mouth and all the exercise you do. Accuracy will get you results.

Good luck to you!