just started and really struggling~someone please help

BrainOnAStick

I understand your frustration--especially after doing all of the right things. My recommendation is to keep up your hard work and see how it goes. You only have one data point: Week 1 weight to Week 2 weight. There are so many variables that go into losing weight. Give it time, tweak a little here and there, give it more time, tweak again, and so on...

Good luck!

retirehappy

My clothes arent fitting better either......which is why I am struggling so much. I could live with the numbers if I could start to fit back into my clothes

Read the posts listed in here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833026-important-posts-to-read

Make sure you are getting enough cals for the exercising and hit your macros, women in menopause need more protein, make sure you get enough to support your Lean Body Mass.

I am post menopausal and have not had to give up dark chocolate nor wine to loss weight. I lost over 40 lbs. during menopause and later gained most of that back because I lowered my protein and upped over all carbs. Been there, done that. Now that things are more balanced, I have lost half the weight since July 2013 and I don't deny myself any food, I just log it and make it fit within the macros.

All the best in your Journey :flowerforyou:

Hazel9999

Counting ounces? really? stop at once! thank goodness my scales don't tell me ounces...... If you are obsessive about dieting you will end up putting weight back on, just try and eat more sensibly and do more exercise it's boring I know but you need to recognise what you do that puts weight on and do less of it, for me its wine, cheese and Chinese food. So I try and have a week with no wine, half fat cheese and make my own quorn curry,

just4nessa

Having looked at the last few days of your diary, it seems like you're barely hitting 1200 calories and with your fitbit adjustments it's making it look as if you're over your goal. Something doesn't seem right with your fitbit settings, IMO. I would suggest you make sure your fitbit settings match your MFP settings for goal, activity level, etc. Also, verify that your stride length is set correctly for fitbit; mine came with a default setting way higher than my actual stride length which gave me very inaccurate activity reads. Finally, if you're logging your food and exercise on MFP, do not log those entries on fitbit; MFP will send the data to fitbit.

Once you're sure your settings are correct, aim to hit your daily goal, not below, and give it a few weeks. The less you have to lose, the harder it seems to be. I am the same height and age (not full-blown menopause, but perimenopausal for about a year now); I lost about a pound a week eating 1400 calories a day, plus my exercise calories. I didn't intentionally give up anything, including wine, chocolate and the occasional fast food hamburger.

linhao

I think you should stop worrying about the scales and take your measurements (hip/waist/neck) and you'll see a difference

Dnarules

calories in=8298 and 8317
calories out= 13367 and 14207
calorie deficit= 5069 and 5890

and with that I lost 2 ounces....

It can often take 3-4 weeks for the numbers to start piling up. The thing is, your scale is only going to be accurate to ~5%, which is +/- 3 pounds at your weight. Between that and natural fluctuations in water retention, its difficult to know exactly what is happening on a short time frame like 2 weeks.

What we do know is that if you maintain your 1200 cal/day intake, you will lose weight, guaranteed. You're on the right track, just need to stick with it.

This

If you've just started that fitness routine, it's very likely that you're retaining water. The body does that to help enable muscle repair when we start any new activity that breaks muscle down. As you are accurately logging your calories and your activity, you WILL see a weight loss if you continue at a deficit.

I'd warn against the temptation to eat more to weigh less. Many people will try to tell you that the body will go into "starvation mode" and hoard calories and prevent weight loss if you aren't eating enough. Try out this article:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/761810-the-starvation-mode-myth-again

Increasing your calories will only make it more unlikely for you to lose weight.

Keep up the good work and good luck!

I disagree. If you are doing this the MFP method you are supposed to eat your exercise calories and net the 1200. Her deficits are too high, in my opinion. On average, her fitbit is telling her that her TDEE is about 2000 a day (just from the quick look I took). If you subtract 500 from that, she could be eating 1500 calories, and this might be easier for her. This is what I did. Yes, it looks like I've lost 0 pounds from my ticker, but I have actually lost 53 pounds doing it this way. New year, new account.

Dnarules

My recommendation to try eating more...

If the OP was looking to put more weight on, the advice would be "try eating more".

Since the OP is looking to drop weight, the same advice cannot hold.

You can't know for sure that she'll lose weight at 1200 calories...

Yeah, we pretty much can.

Put another way - if she can't lose on 1200 calories/day, she for damn sure can't lose on more than 1200 calories/day.

Except that I see it all the time. People up their calories by about 200 to 300, and the weight starts to shift again. Her deficits are too high right now. This site means for you to eat the exercise calories back and net 1200. Yes, if she waits, she will probably start losing weight on 1200, but she doesn't have to eat that low if she is working out the way she is. I ate at 1600 to 1700 calories a day and lost weight. I am 48 years old and 5 ft 4in. But I am not in menopause.