HELP MEEEEE

haleynewland
haleynewland Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay so my BMI Is overweight. I'm 5'2" and weigh 138 lbs. I would like to weigh 120 lbs. I have been running 1-2 mi per day and doing strength traning. Almost everyday Since December 20th. I'm vegetarian. Here is an example of my daily meals

Breakfast: Cereal with almond milk and a banana. Or a protein bar (8-12 grams of protein)
Snack 1: handful of almonds or protein bar ( if not eaten for breakfast)
lunch: yogurt with granola, baby carrots with small amount of light ranch, an apple
dinner: Usually pasta with tomato sauce and peas, soy corn dogs or chicken nuggets with a vegtable or stir fry with whole grain rice.

I don't understand why I'm not losing weight. I am really pushing myself at the gym and I've eaten almost little to no bread. I'm watching my portions and nothing is happening. My measurements aren't changing at all.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
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Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    Kind of sounds like you are starving yourself.... Can you open your food diary? Also, do you use a food scale to measure your calories?

    Plus, you have been here for only a few weeks and water retention can mask weight loss.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
    Measure your food with a digital food scale to figure out how many calories your taking in.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    Open your diary. Are you underestimating how much you are eating or overestimating your calorie burn from exercise? If you have a calorie deficit, you should be losing weight.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    All that explanation and not one mention of a calorie goal, calories burned, etc. Are you logging all your food? Weighing and measuring everything?

    Your ticker says 3 pounds lost. If that has been lost since December 20, it sounds like you're actually on track.
  • haleynewland
    haleynewland Posts: 6
    I eat cheese and I eat yogurt everyday. I usually do about 30 minutes of cardio and do sit ups/free weights etc everyday.
  • haleynewland
    haleynewland Posts: 6
    I actually started this account in April when I weighed a bit more. Since December 20th I have lost two pounds, but it can fluctuate everyday. Sometimes It's back to 140 one day and 138 the next. I have not been setting a calorie goal, but I have been watching my food and it's been under my alloted calories according to this site.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    I actually started this account in April when I weighed a bit more. Since December 20th I have lost two pounds, but it can fluctuate everyday. Sometimes It's back to 140 one day and 138 the next. I have not been setting a calorie goal, but I have been watching my food and it's been under my alloted calories according to this site.

    How many calories per day are you averaging for intake?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    I actually started this account in April when I weighed a bit more. Since December 20th I have lost two pounds, but it can fluctuate everyday. Sometimes It's back to 140 one day and 138 the next. I have not been setting a calorie goal, but I have been watching my food and it's been under my alloted calories according to this site.

    Can you open your diary and do you use a food scale? We really need to know those two things. But if you really under your goal, you shoudl change that and eat up to your goal. Most women I know are losing weight at 1700-2100 calories.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
    You are only a few pounds above a healthy bmi, so the cahnges will not happen quickly.

    Weight loss will happen from your intake, so dont rely on fitness or exercise to do it for you.

    The foods you eat are fine - but how much of them are you eating?
  • shutyourpieholeandsquat
    shutyourpieholeandsquat Posts: 1,394 Member
    I'd pass out if that's all I ate everyday lol, of course I have a lot to lose.

    ETA: But you're so close to your goal that it's going to be slower and harder to lose the weight.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Without knowing the actual calories you are eating in reality you will have no clue what is going on. Do you know if not you need to start accurate weighing and measuring
  • Yram29
    Yram29 Posts: 10
    Eat more :)
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    What about beverages? Those calories count too. In fact, if you're not losing weight, you know you're not counting calories properly, or you've set your calorie goal too high. And are there "cheat days" where you eat "normally"? Giving us a rundown of a "typical" day is not helpful. Daily, ACCURATE logging is the only way you're going to solve this mystery. And don't overestimate the calories burned through exercise. All too often it's wishful thinking on MFP's part—and when those mythical calories are "eaten back", guess what happens to your calorie deficit?
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    So you've lost 2 pounds in 16 days? That sounds about right to me.
  • haleynewland
    haleynewland Posts: 6
    I've been eating 1,500 calories or less per day, Probably about 12 grams of protein per day. If I'm not eating enough, should I try one of those protein shakes like lean shake from GNC?
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    Eat more :)

    Gosh if people would all just eat more, no one would be overweight. :huh:
  • OTTB3005
    OTTB3005 Posts: 6 Member
    Consider a modified vegetarian version of the Paleo diet. Sounds like you are taking in a lot of processed foods and refined grains and sugars. This will hinder anyone's progress. :wink:

    http://thepaleodiet.com/about-the-paleo-diet/
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    I've been eating 1,500 calories or less per day, Probably about 12 grams of protein per day. If I'm not eating enough, should I try one of those protein shakes like lean shake from GNC?

    Funny how people assume they're not losing weight because they're not eating enough. You're eating plenty, 1500 for a gal your height is probably a rather modest deficit. And since you are losing weight, albeit slowly, you can stick with that number. But I guarantee you if you INCREASE your calorie limit you will stop losing weight altogether, and you might even gain weight if you up it too much. You're not starving yourself, so get that idea out of your head.

    If 1500 isn't working fast enough for you, try stepping down to 1400 for a couple of weeks, and see what happens. Or, if you really, really, really think that you need to eat more (sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?) then by all means, try that. Then let us know how that works out. :huh:
  • haleynewland
    haleynewland Posts: 6
    What about beverages? Those calories count too. In fact, if you're not losing weight, you know you're not counting calories properly, or you've set your calorie goal too high. And are there "cheat days" where you eat "normally"? Giving us a rundown of a "typical" day is not helpful. Daily, ACCURATE logging is the only way you're going to solve this mystery. And don't overestimate the calories burned through exercise. All too often it's wishful thinking on MFP's part—and when those mythical calories are "eaten back", guess what happens to your calorie deficit?

    I Usually drink water during the day and 1 cup of coffee with a tablespoon of sugar in the morning. I will start logging EVERYTHING this week to determine exactly what I consume vs exercise.
  • OTTB3005
    OTTB3005 Posts: 6 Member
    Stop the sugars.

    Consider Stevia instead.
  • JanisMay67
    JanisMay67 Posts: 43
    You say too that you are exercising every day. It could be too that you are building muscle, which weighs more than fat. You don't have much to lose, so the weight will be slower coming off. It seems to me you are doing ok.

    I think you could comfortably come down to 1200 or 1300 calories for a week, and see if thats an improvement. Fill up with lots of veggies.

    Good luck. :)
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    I've been eating 1,500 calories or less per day, Probably about 12 grams of protein per day. If I'm not eating enough, should I try one of those protein shakes like lean shake from GNC?

    12 grams of protein?!?! My God that has to be the lowest protein intake I've ever seen by anybody. Someone of your weight should be consuming in the ballpark of 110g of protein a day. Also, it may be that you need to drop your calories below 1500 to lose weight. Depending on your activity level, 1500 may be maintenance for you.
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    You say too that you are exercising every day. It could be too that you are building muscle, which weighs more than fat. You don't have much to lose, so the weight will be slower coming off. It seems to me you are doing ok.

    I think you could comfortably come down to 1200 or 1300 calories for a week, and see if thats an improvement. Fill up with lots of veggies.

    Good luck. :)

    She is NOT building muscle.

    ETA: Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat, 1 pound is 1 pound.:laugh:

    OP~get a digital food scale and weigh EVERYTHING.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    You say too that you are exercising every day. It could be too that you are building muscle, which weighs more than fat. You don't have much to lose, so the weight will be slower coming off. It seems to me you are doing ok.

    I think you could comfortably come down to 1200 or 1300 calories for a week, and see if thats an improvement. Fill up with lots of veggies.

    Good luck. :)

    She is NOT building muscle.

    ETA: Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat, 1 pound is 1 pound.:laugh:

    OP~get a digital food scale and weigh EVERYTHING.

    I agree with you that she's not building muscle, but when measuring two substances and weighing them, it is common practice to measure equal volumes of each substance, in which case, a pint of muscle does in fact weigh more than a pint of fat...
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    I've been eating 1,500 calories or less per day, Probably about 12 grams of protein per day. If I'm not eating enough, should I try one of those protein shakes like lean shake from GNC?

    12 GRAMS OF PROTEIN?! Omigosh, are you feeling okay? I know you're a vegetarian, so meat is out of the question, but you have GOT to find more protein sources. And you are not building muscle (and likely doing a poor job retaining muscle) on that much protein.

    Btw, you're eating enough calories, if you are indeed accurately logging.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    Stop the sugars.

    Consider Stevia instead.

    More like, start LOGGING all the sugars.
  • sweetpea03b
    sweetpea03b Posts: 1,123 Member
    I'd say, eat more. Your intake sounds super low... and stick with a 250-300cal/day deficit. If you're working out everyday... you should definately be eating more. Also, you should probably go down to weight training every other day only to give your body enough recovery time. Do you drink coffee, tea, etc? Do you log all of that? Do you log dressings, etc? It may sound weird... but I hear it more often people saying "i'm only eating 1200 calories/day and I'm working out like a fiend and burning 500 cals/day, why am I not losing???" when they start eating more and working out less... they lose. Happened to me. Eating 1500-1600/day, doing NROLFW 3x/week maybe 1 day of 30min cardio and I'm losing consistently.

    Give it a try.
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
    I've been eating 1,500 calories or less per day,...

    Im not sure if this will help but I calculated a TDEE method based on your stats and it came to: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/


    Activity Level Daily Calories
    Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1738
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1991
    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2244
    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2498
    Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2751

    *************JUST AN ESTIMATE*******

    so to lose if you're sedentary -10% would put you @1560 or so....1500 should be okay losing. but TDEE you dont eat exercise cals back :ohwell:

    EDIT: to add Im 251lbs 5'6" I have MFP set to 1.5lbs/week thats 1570 a day. Becasue 2lbs/week would have me 1325cals on non-workout days and I couldnt do that. I like eat
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    I'd say, eat more. Your intake sounds super low... and stick with a 250-300cal/day deficit. If you're working out everyday... you should definately be eating more. Also, you should probably go down to weight training every other day only to give your body enough recovery time. Do you drink coffee, tea, etc? Do you log all of that? Do you log dressings, etc? It may sound weird... but I hear it more often people saying "i'm only eating 1200 calories/day and I'm working out like a fiend and burning 500 cals/day, why am I not losing???" when they start eating more and working out less... they lose. Happened to me. Eating 1500-1600/day, doing NROLFW 3x/week maybe 1 day of 30min cardio and I'm losing consistently.

    Give it a try.

    I'm sorry, but that just doesn't work. If you're eating at a certain caloric intake, and not losing weight, increasing your caloric intake and decreasing your activity will not cause weight loss...
  • haleynewland
    haleynewland Posts: 6
    Okay, eat no sugar, eat more protein, eat less, eat more, weigh all of my food, exercise more, log all of my food, eat no processed food. SO Confusing. I wish I could afford a nutritionist. lol.

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