It's just not working

BecciJoWilding

I am so frustrated. I have been trying to lose weight the healthy way by eating enough calories since December 9. On that day I weighed 139 and I have my net set to 1300 calories. I eat back my exercise calories. I gained some weight in the beginning which I heard was normal and then I started losing. On Friday I weighed 137, I felt great and felt for the first time I was happy while losing weight. I was out of town this weekend and came back gaining 2 pounds. I stuck to my calories but ate out a lot so I figured it was water weight from the sodium. Well I was home yesterday and this morning I was up another pound! I'm now 140.4. I almost just want to give up and stop eating back my calories. I weigh everything and document everything that goes in my mouth, even a piece of gum. Weighing and measuring everything is time consuming and I'm about to stop cause it's obviously not working. What am I doing wrong????

auddii

Your weight can fluctuate daily up to 5 pounds, and water weight may take a few days to drop off. Give it some time, and make sure you're measuring as accurately as possible (weigh food you make at home, etc).

FlaxMilk

Keep weighing and measuring, it's likely what will help you the most over time. How many exercise calories are you usually eating?

editorgrrl

As your ticker says, losing weight is a process. It takes a whole lot of trial & error to find what works for you.

One possibility to try: eat back half your exercise calories.

Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

FlaxMilk

Also, how tall are you? You look like you are at a perfect weight in your profile picture.

BecciJoWilding

I'm 5'3. I am at the high end of the healthy weight, my goal is 125 so I'm in the middle of my healthy range. I weigh and measure everything when I am at home and when I eat out, I always look at the website before going out and deciding what I am going to eat before getting to the restaurant. It's just frustrating because it's been over a month and I am now 1 pound heavier than I started. I also eat all my exercise calories back to net 1300. I am doing insanity so last month it was eating back about 350 calories. Yesterday I ate 700 exercise calories cause they had us doing a double workout with the fit test plus the workout for the day. I wear a hrm with a strap that tells me how many calories I burn

FlaxMilk

I understand completely. My guess is that it may have to do with exercise calories. What kind of exercise do you do, how many calories do you eat back?

Edit: Just saw your edit. I may get criticized for saying this, but I would try not eating back your calories, unless you are feeling hungry, weak, or tired. Eat a lot of protein though. It sounds like you are eating right around maintenance.

Greenrun99

If your ready to quit after a month.. its already over.

hotmamajenE

I think stressing yourself so much is not helping. Being able to vent on here to people should help you feel better. if you are exercising you are probably building muscle which weighs more than fat so that could be the reason the scale changes for you. I would rather go by how my clothes fit rather than the number on the scale. I feel the same way you do though, my 7 yr. old son looked at me strangely this am when I am measuring my cereal into a measuring cup to eat. don't give up and keep at it!

BecciJoWilding

If your ready to quit after a month.. its already over.

over a month and only seeing a pound gained on the scale, yes it's frustrating

iplayoutside19

A few things. Take before pictures. Take before measurements. Give it longer than a month, especially at your size, it may take six months before you get the body you want. Don't get hung up on your weight especially if you're going to be doing Insanity.

tattedlady75

How often do you eat out, the reason I ask is because that is the food that your basically estimating because you have no way to measure your portions. Also how much is your deficit, since you don't have much to lose I wouldn't try to do more than 1 lb a week. try figuring out what your BMR is and not eating below that. I also agree with eating back only half of your exercise calories. What works for one person doesn't always work for another, it's all trial and error you have to figure out what works best for you.

martyqueen52

If your ready to quit after a month.. its already over.

Great insightful post there guy.

1. Make sure you have your activity level, height, and current weight up to date in MFP.

2. Do not short sell yourself on calories. Pam, coffee creamer, condiments do have calories.

3. If you did the moronic approach of avoiding carbs for a long time, and started eating them again, glycogen will fill back up and cause temporarily weight gain. (it's ok, it's not fat)

4. Stop eating back exercise calories. If you want to lose 1lb a week. find your MAINTENANCE calories and subtract 500. If you would rather cut slowly take away about 200-300.

5. Sodium can, and WILL make you hold on to a lot of water weight. Don't go crazy avoiding it, but be mindful of it.

It's simple. As long as you DO NOT eat over the allotted calories you will lose weight. And do NOT weigh yourself daily. Weight changes daily from sodium, eating a lot at night, etc. I gain 10lbs. at night before I go to bed because I have my "Flex Bowl" with nothing but carbs and sweets. But in the AM I'm back to normal.


And remember, it's not a defined straight line science to building muscle/ losing weight. It takes time, and trial & error. Don't get frustrated and quit.

amwoidyla

Hi, so we have pretty much the same stats. I'm 5'4" and weighed in last night at 141, but my goal is 135.
In my case, breaking 138-140 is the absolute hardest. When I got below that, dropping a few more lbs was "easy."
I've been following Jamie Eason's LiveFit trainer, so I'm doing plenty of lifting, plus going to zumba, spin, yoga, etc, all while counting, weighing, and measuring my food. It's slow going when you're petite.

It's hard not to get discouraged, but seriously, stick with what you're doing. It will come off!

kristelpoole

How often do you eat out, the reason I ask is because that is the food that your basically estimating because you have no way to measure your portions. Also how much is your deficit, since you don't have much to lose I wouldn't try to do more than 1 lb a week. try figuring out what your BMR is and not eating below that. I also agree with eating back only half of your exercise calories. What works for one person doesn't always work for another, it's all trial and error you have to figure out what works best for you.

This.

You don't have much to lose, so don't hold yourself to the same standard as someone starting out with 100 pounds to lose. It's a lot harder when you're as close as you are.

Go to fitnessfrog.com and calculate your BMR, RMR and TDEE. That should give you a better idea of what your body needs to function and the amount of calories you should be eating.

Good luck. Don't give up, even though it's frustrating. And try to eat out less!

determined_erin

I lose weight by eating between 1200 - 1400 calories each day and not eating back my exercise calories. Also when you are at a lower weight, it's harder/slower to lose weight.

SailorKnightWing

Make sure you weigh all your foods. You may be eating more than you realize.

Your exercise calories may be overstated. This is common, as all estimates are just that: estimates. Try eating back half of your exercise calories instead of all of them.

Don't quit!

RedHotRunner

Yesterday I ate 700 exercise calories cause they had us doing a double workout with the fit test plus the workout for the day. I wear a hrm with a strap that tells me how many calories I burn

Here you go. It will take a day or so for your body to process the extra food. So you really didn't "gain" weight. It's just still in your stomach. Also, when you work out, your body retains water to repair the muscles and that can add up to a pound or two.

Drink lots of water and i'm sure those pounds will be gone in another day or so. It always takes me 2-3 days to "wash away" the weekend.

eganita

I also didn't really shed too many pounds doing Insanity, but I felt much stronger and had a lot more endurance. Have you been taking measurements or anything like that? Maybe you are losing inches/gaining muscle, and that's why you're not seeing much change on the scale. Good luck!

1113cw

If your ready to quit after a month.. its already over.

Well that's helpful..not! Not cool....

erickirb

weigh solids, measure liquids, don't trust HRM during non-steady state cardio (Insanity in Intervals, so your HRM will most likely over estimate calories burned, maybe only eat 75% of them back)

jennyval7

Sometimes my weight will fluctuate 10 lbs from morning to night! Especially when I am working out in the field in the summer time when I tend to consume a lot of sodium and drink a lot of water. Then it takes a few days to get back to normal. Could it be that you are building muscle while exercising? Don't give up! You can do whatever you set your mind to. Hey, if it were easy, we wouldn't need this site :flowerforyou:

erickirb

I lose weight by eating between 1200 - 1400 calories each day and not eating back my exercise calories. Also when you are at a lower weight, it's harder/slower to lose weight.

You will lose weight eating anything below maintenance, you just don't want too large of a deficit or you risk losing lean muscle, not just the fat you want to lose.

JenRun1

I think you are obsessing about it. In fact that is exactly where I was this time last year, obsessing. Put your scale way in a closet. It is only messing with your head. I now only weigh once a month, and it was the best decision I could ever make. Start measuring yourself too. I've seen inches drop and the weight go up, but lose a pants size, so the scale is not alwasy your friend. Hang in there, it will work, you just have to be patient and trust the process.

Lesa_Sass

I just reviewed your diary. I do not think your diet is all that great. There are days you consume 1500 calories and 500 of those calories are snacks and sweets. Since it apparently is not working for you. I would suggest trying 3 weeks of real food. No protein bars or drinks, no fast food, or at the very least, make your sub a salad instead of eating it with bread.

Add leaner meats and more fruits and veggies. Just see where that lands you.

BecciJoWilding

Thanks so much everyone. I will keep at it I will try to eat half my workout calories back and see what that does. I'm totally fine to lose it slowly, it's just so frustrating when I feel like the last month was wasted when I woke up this morning and the scale said I was 1 pound heavier than I was when I started. I'll continue to weigh and measure everything and try eating back half my workout calories. I usually don't eat out a lot, but lately I have been. We'll work on that too. Lots of sodium when you eat out. I know I couldn't have gained a pound of fat overnight cause my net calories was 1264 and total calories was 1964, not 3600 like it would need to be to gain a pound. Thanks for the encouraging words

mccindy72

I am so frustrated. I have been trying to lose weight the healthy way by eating enough calories since December 9. On that day I weighed 139 and I have my net set to 1300 calories. I eat back my exercise calories. I gained some weight in the beginning which I heard was normal and then I started losing. On Friday I weighed 137, I felt great and felt for the first time I was happy while losing weight. I was out of town this weekend and came back gaining 2 pounds. I stuck to my calories but ate out a lot so I figured it was water weight from the sodium. Well I was home yesterday and this morning I was up another pound! I'm now 140.4. I almost just want to give up and stop eating back my calories. I weigh everything and document everything that goes in my mouth, even a piece of gum. Weighing and measuring everything is time consuming and I'm about to stop cause it's obviously not working. What am I doing wrong????

It is mostly likely water weight, which doesn't just disappear in a day, sometimes it take a coule of days. It will continue to fluctuate, so don't weigh yourself every day if it will bother you. It's not possible to gain a pound of fat weight in a day unless you ate 3,500 calories over your goal calories.
Don't stress about a pound here and there, just stick to your calorie deficit and you'll get to where you want to be. The last few pounds are usually the hardest to take off.

EmmieBaby

Give it time. Took me 3 months to even start seeing results (and a year to lose the first 20lbs).

golden words: WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT LINEAR

LucyT4dieting

This is what I found out from logging on this site. If you look in the database for the same item, you can find it listed many times for different calories. If I choose the lower calorie entry, I'm not doing myself any favors, so I look until I find a higher calorie entry and enter that. I also found that it's very easy to overestimate the calories burned from exercise. MFP's database is very generous with their calculations, so if I work out for an hour, I might put down a half hour. Sometimes I manually change the calories they offer. Drinking all the water that's recommended also has helped a lot. Stay with it. You'll learn by trial and error what works for you.
Good luck!

MinnieInMaine

It's all water weight!

Not only did you have a high sodium meal a couple days ago, you had a really hard workout yesterday which will also make you gain/retain water. Anytime you start working out or increase the intensity of your workout, you will very likely see an uptake or stall on the scale. This is because a more intense workout will cause microtears in the muscles and those fibers will retain water in glycogen as a natural healing response. It's kind of like when you sprain your ankle and it swells only not as visible as it's spread out over a larger area.

I honestly don't think there's any need for you to cut your exercise calories back as suggested. It's been working so far, you just need to get over this slight hump from the water weight and I'm sure you'll see the weight drop back down.

Patience!!

healthygreek

I agree with the above posters who said-eat back only half of your exercise calories.
Also, drink lots of water-especially after eating out! Restaurants are notorious for adding way too much salt!
Even sticking to your calories, you will put on water weight after eating out!

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