Can't iunderstand why I am not losing !

Ok. So I am almost at my 50 day streak and really frusrated with only 3 lbs lost . I really dont understand . I stay within my calories up until this weekend I have been eating awesome I think , I do boot camp 4 days a week . Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong ?
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Replies

  • trying18
    trying18 Posts: 14 Member
    I am in need of help as well.
    2 weeks ago I decided i am going to work hard to loose weight. I calculated my TDEE and decided to eat 1500 daily. Also decided not to eat anything after 8 pM
    i work out 6 days a week- 2 yoga, 2 weights, 2 machines in the gym and 1 day of running 6 miles.On the day of weights I do 20 mts on a machine. At work I stand most of the day.

    1 week later I was down to 137.2 from 139.6 I was ecstatic that my work was having the effect i wanted

    end of 2nd week I am up to 140.
    what is going on.

    I diligently log everything. if I think i might have eaten more, i do extra physical activity. I am 54, 5'3"

    totally puzzled
    any explanation?
  • findingjanell,

    Have you taken pictures?

    Have you taken measurements?

    If you said no to either of those two, start now.

    Don't use the scale as the end-all be-all of your fitness journey.

    How have you been feeling lately (emotionally, physically - stronger, better?)

    Are you clothes fitting better?

    Are you hitting your numbers on MyFitnessPal at least 90% of the time?

    Just some questions and things to reflect on...remember the scale is a deviant and likes to lie to us a lot of the time.
  • I am in need of help as well.
    2 weeks ago I decided i am going to work hard to loose weight. I calculated my TDEE and decided to eat 1500 daily. Also decided not to eat anything after 8 pM
    i work out 6 days a week- 2 yoga, 2 weights, 2 machines in the gym and 1 day of running 6 miles.On the day of weights I do 20 mts on a machine. At work I stand most of the day.

    1 week later I was down to 137.2 from 139.6 I was ecstatic that my work was having the effect i wanted

    end of 2nd week I am up to 140.
    what is going on.

    I diligently log everything. if I think i might have eaten more, i do extra physical activity. I am 54, 5'3"

    totally puzzled
    any explanation?

    Body weight fluctuates.

    Water weight can cause us to show a 1-5lb increase or decrease on the scale. |

    Also refer to my questions to ask yourself up above.

    -bxd
  • arlenem1974
    arlenem1974 Posts: 437 Member
    I checked your diary and I don't see any exercise listed.
  • findingjanelle
    findingjanelle Posts: 12 Member
    bradXdale, actually I can say YES to some of those things :) Yes I have lost inches , I was at 8.25 inches lost at the end of Month One ! I guess some of my clothes feel somewhat loser and I have to be honest I hid my scale and haven;t weighed myself since Jan 31 st . So I guess in my " why am I not losing rant " I meant why aren;t my jeans much loser and my work pants to reflect my inches lost. I do feel better than I did and I did take some pics
  • HollyB1223
    HollyB1223 Posts: 41 Member
    I'm tracking this thread to listen in on advice.
    5'8", 190#
    Having a tough time increasing my metabolism to the point where I even feel hungry, find it hard to eat 1200 calories/day. Not losing weight.
  • JessyLovesJCS
    JessyLovesJCS Posts: 169 Member
    From what I've read around MFP...Some gaining can happen due to building muscle and retaining water. Perhaps not enough calories to fuel your body and metabolism with all the exercise?
  • findingjanelle
    findingjanelle Posts: 12 Member
    Today being Family Day in Canada my boot camp was closed but I usually 4 Boot Camp Classes Mon - Thursday , plus my daughters 7th birthday and valentines day was a tough weekend :(
  • RunMyOregonBunsOff
    RunMyOregonBunsOff Posts: 862 Member
    What kind of material are the pants you wear most of the time? If they have any stretch to them, they may have been a little tighter than you knew when you started out and may take longer to feel a difference. Also, if you are doing four boot camp workouts each week, how are your muscles feeling after? If your muscles are sore, they are retaining water most likely (soreness is from small tears in the muscle and extra water is retained to repair those tears).
  • Wisemomoffour
    Wisemomoffour Posts: 125 Member
    I follow Mcgrawhaha and I think she would wonder whether or not you're accurately logging your food. She lost over 100 pounds in 10 months by eating her calorie goal (1200) but eating whatever she wanted. She also would eat around 4000/day once every other week. I'm trying it now and have been consistently losing---sometimes I have to wait 2 weeks for the stupid scale to show the loss, but I'm losing. Good luck!
  • thatismesammyg
    thatismesammyg Posts: 71 Member
    Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.
  • findingjanelle
    findingjanelle Posts: 12 Member
    No It was my daughters Birthday :( Thought maybe a angel food cake trifflel would be better than a huge chocolate cake . and NO I dont usually eat triffles every day .
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    OP are you weighing your food or just eyeballing the sizes?
    Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.

    how is that (unless she has insulin issues) if she is eating the same amount of calories?
  • jmv7117
    jmv7117 Posts: 891 Member
    Ok. So I am almost at my 50 day streak and really frusrated with only 3 lbs lost . I really dont understand . I stay within my calories up until this weekend I have been eating awesome I think , I do boot camp 4 days a week . Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong ?
    I looked at your diary briefly. The past few days you have been over on your sodium which can cause water retention. Your sodium intake is likely a bit higher than logged if you aren't weighing your food. Reducing your sodium intake should help give you the results you want.
  • cavia
    cavia Posts: 457 Member
    You're underestimating how much you're eating or you're overestimating your exercise burns. 3lbs in 7 weeks (give or take) translates to approximately a 200cal/day deficit.

    You've logged 2oz of chicken for dinner. That's a third or a quarter of a whole breast. Are you really only eating such a small amount? Is the trifle a recipe you've entered or someone else's because the calories listed for the amount eaten seem awfully low for that kind of dessert.
  • TheKoreanVegan
    TheKoreanVegan Posts: 9 Member
    I had a similar problem when I started dieting. First 10 days, I lost 10 lbs. Then I didn't lose any weight (and, in fact, gained a few pounds) during the next three weeks, despite eating meticulously clean 90% of the time and working out 6 days a week. Starting on day 31, though, the lbs started melting off again (1-2 lbs per day). I've concluded that

    1. Water retention can really EFF with the scale--both up and down. What might appear to be progress might simply be your body flushing out excess water. What might appear to be a relapse might simply be your body retaining excess water in response to a tough workout session or two. Therefore, unless you are incredibly aware of your body and how it reacts to certain foods, exercises and even stress, the number on the scale can be extremely misleading and stressful.

    2. If you are trying to lose fat, cardio is King. Doing a 1-2 days of cardio--if you have substantial amounts of fat to lose--is probably not going to be enough. Sorry. I hate cardio too. I used to do 3 days of moderate to intense cardio for 30 minutes a week. When I wasn't seeing results, I incorporated 2 HIITs (high intensity interval training) on top of the 3 days I was already doing and began seeing results. If you are less interested in blasting fat and more interested in gaining muscle, then 1-2 days of cardio is probably enough, BUT, you will have to be content with a metric for your progress OTHER than the scale. Most ppl who are trying to gain muscle mass lose significantly fewer pounds than those aimed at fat loss, OR, you will have to live with the fact that it's just going to take a lot longer.

    3. If you're already 10-15 lbs away from your goal weight, your body has to work harder to burn the same number of calories. This is the most annoying thing ever in the world. This means more cardio or more HIITs (which is preferable to me). Don't eat less, as doing so will put your body in jeopardy of losing muscle mass (which is so precious!).

    4. I also realized that I was being pretty careless with my portion sizes and calories. Once I started weighing my portions (3 oz of chicken, 4 oz of shrimp, etc.) and measuring my ingredients (olive oil has a TON of calories), I was much better about keeping within my deficit. Did you know that just a small handful of cashews has over 100 calories???

    5. Take before and after pictures, even if you're hideously embarrassed. I did. Triple chin and all. I took a second picture on day 30 and though I felt like there was NO appreciable difference, the pictures don't lie. Triple chin was now a single chin, and my abs were definitely more defined. Helluva lot more encouraging than my stupid scale!

    That's what I've learned from my brief foray into eating clean and exercising. Hope this helps!
  • mulecanter
    mulecanter Posts: 1,792 Member
    Be an anal-retentive, high precision scientist with your food scale and your exercise logging and you will see results--the physics demand it.
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,566 Member
    You don't have a lot to lose according to your ticker - you might not be losing lbs (but you said you haven't weighed yourself so not sure?) but your measurements say the boot camp is working - also log your exercise you may need to eat some of your exercise cals back.

    Figure out what works for you but all in all if you have lost the inches you are doing well :drinker:
  • helpfit101
    helpfit101 Posts: 347 Member
    So you haven't weighed yourself ...............................

    And I saw you burn 1250 calories per day one day. I think that is unlikely. Might be true but I find it unlikely.
  • jessykab74
    jessykab74 Posts: 167 Member
    What kind of material are the pants you wear most of the time? If they have any stretch to them, they may have been a little tighter than you knew when you started out and may take longer to feel a difference. Also, if you are doing four boot camp workouts each week, how are your muscles feeling after? If your muscles are sore, they are retaining water most likely (soreness is from small tears in the muscle and extra water is retained to repair those tears).

    Wow really! So if your muscles hurt you are probably retaining water. I did not know this. This is really good to know. Thanks for sharing
  • kgladney427
    kgladney427 Posts: 4 Member
    I don't know if any one has mentioned this yet, but your carb intakes are WAY off. Your angelfood cake trifle says 0 carbs, so im assuming if that is wrong in the recipe other nutrients (cals, fat) may be off as well
  • thatismesammyg
    thatismesammyg Posts: 71 Member
    OP are you weighing your food or just eyeballing the sizes?
    Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.

    how is that (unless she has insulin issues) if she is eating the same amount of calories?

    Eating refined carbs causes your body to release insulin, which is basically telling your body to store fat. You don't have to have insulin "issues" for this to occur. She can so much more filing foods, which do not signal the body to store fat, like vegetables and she will undoubtedly will start to lose the weight she wants to lose.
  • ayan2007
    ayan2007 Posts: 4 Member
    such a logical explanation, thanks for sharing your experience.
  • ayan2007
    ayan2007 Posts: 4 Member
    very true. thanks for sharing
  • fleetzz
    fleetzz Posts: 962 Member
    You don't have much to lose--small errors in calorie recording will make it much harder to lose those pounds. Errors in recording calories burned are notorious.

    Get a food scale: 3/4 of a banana --> weigh it. It will give you a more accurate calorie count. Weigh everything.

    Careful with recording your calories burns: where are you getting those numbers. 1200 calories burned? Not many people do this (some do) but be realistic.

    Most common reason for not losing weight: under reporting calories eaten and over reporting calories burned.

    At this small amount of weight to lose, you should be focusing more on your measurements. Sodium and water intake will give you more fluctuation in your weight than you realize.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    OP are you weighing your food or just eyeballing the sizes?
    Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.

    how is that (unless she has insulin issues) if she is eating the same amount of calories?

    Eating refined carbs causes your body to release insulin, which is basically telling your body to store fat. You don't have to have insulin "issues" for this to occur. She can so much more filing foods, which do not signal the body to store fat, like vegetables and she will undoubtedly will start to lose the weight she wants to lose.

    What a ridiculously misleading explanation of how insulin works in the human body.

    Absent a medical condition, a 1500 calorie diet that is high in carbs (of any kind) and a 1500 calorie diet that is low in carbs will yield materially the same effect on weight. True, reaching certain macro levels will affect satiety and it's important to reach a minimum amount of protein and fat, but the difference in effect on weight between these two examples is negligible.

    TL;DR - Wrong. This is not how insulin works and lack of satiety != fat storage signal.

    ETA:

    OP, are you striving towards a reasonable deficit (or did you just tell MFP you wanted to lose 2 pounds/week and are struggling to stick to 1200 calories)? A reasonable deficit makes the effort much more tolerable and seems to increase adherence.

    Are you weighing or measuring everything you eat? Guesstimating portions is sketchy at best and materially detrimental at worst. Accurate logging is important.

    Are you using reasonable exercise estimates? If your 45 minutes of exercise yields 900 calories...(sorry, made up numbers, didn't check your diary)...then probably not.

    Consistent and accurate logging of both food and exercise at a reasonable calorie deficit *will* lead to favorable results. After you've done that for 4-6 weeks, reevaluate your progress to determine if you need to increase or decrease calories...(and for this reason, I highly recommend that you don't start at 1200 calories...because it's really difficult/a potentially bad idea to decrease from there).

    Invest in a food scale...and use the tools you have at your fingertips here. They work.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    OP are you weighing your food or just eyeballing the sizes?
    Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.

    how is that (unless she has insulin issues) if she is eating the same amount of calories?

    Eating refined carbs causes your body to release insulin, which is basically telling your body to store fat. You don't have to have insulin "issues" for this to occur. She can so much more filing foods, which do not signal the body to store fat, like vegetables and she will undoubtedly will start to lose the weight she wants to lose.

    How do you store fat on a deficit?

    Read this:

    http://www.weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319


    BTW: vegetables are carbs that trigger insulin response. Protein is also insulinogenic.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    You don't have much to lose--small errors in calorie recording will make it much harder to lose those pounds. Errors in recording calories burned are notorious.

    Get a food scale: 3/4 of a banana --> weigh it. It will give you a more accurate calorie count. Weigh everything.

    Careful with recording your calories burns: where are you getting those numbers. 1200 calories burned? Not many people do this (some do) but be realistic.

    Most common reason for not losing weight: under reporting calories eaten and over reporting calories burned.

    At this small amount of weight to lose, you should be focusing more on your measurements. Sodium and water intake will give you more fluctuation in your weight than you realize.

    Basically ^^this
  • findingjanelle
    findingjanelle Posts: 12 Member
    My one day of 1200 calories burns included 2 boot camp classes, it may be off but I do burn about 500 per class as it is intense circuit training,but I dont eat back my calories so its not like I was off by much !
  • fleetzz
    fleetzz Posts: 962 Member
    That is still lots of calories claimed--do you have a heart rate monitor to back you up? My sister is a ymca instructor and she rarely burns 600 calories in an hour, even though she tries!

    Even heart rate monitors are guestimates but they are better guestimates than most.
    My one day of 1200 calories burns included 2 boot camp classes, it may be off but I do burn about 500 per class as it is intense circuit training,but I dont eat back my calories so its not like I was off by much !