Can't iunderstand why I am not losing !

kgladney427

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

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

such a logical explanation, thanks for sharing your experience.

ayan2007

very true. thanks for sharing

fleetzz

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

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

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

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

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

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 !

Therealobi1

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

I defintely agree with this as I have got closer to a healthy weight I have to be a lot more careful with my logging. If not I do not see any scale movement at all.

SanteMulberry

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 checked your diary and you are eating a LOT of processed food--including a lot of empty calories in added sugar. You need to nourish your body well if it is going to perform as you wish. You are very low in fat and protein and high in starch as well as sugar. Read up on the hormones of weight loss--they have a much bigger impact than some here would have you believe. They influence the rate at which you burn calories. Are you working at building your muscle mass? That is what burns calories 24-7. It is why men have a much easier time losing body fat. Not only do male hormones (testosterone) favor muscle building but their greater muscle mass to start with burns more calories. It takes very few calories to maintain body fat and lots more to maintain muscle mass. That is why "eating more to weigh less" works. At your age, you are also starting to lose your progesterone supply (progesterone production peaks with ovulation and ovulation can be spotty after the mid-thirties.) Progesterone stands in opposition to estrogen. Most women in their thirties today have some measure of "estrogen dominance" for a lot of reasons but prominent among them is "xenoestrogens" in the environment and in our food and water. Plastics are one of the main sources of xenoestrogens and most processed food is packed in plastic packaging or plastic-lined cans. Xenoestrogens have a powerful estrogenic effect in the body. And it should be remembered that estrogen "loves" to build body fat and maintain it. It actually cuts the effectiveness of thyroid hormone at a cellular level just as progesterone enhances the effectiveness at a cellular level. As progesterone production wanes, that gives free reign to estrogen. Not fair, but that's the way it is. There are two things you can do to enhance fat-burning--eat a "clean diet" and lift weights. You should also get more of your calories from fat and especially protein and, eating at maintenance will aid muscle-building. It is difficult to increase your lean body mass at a calorie-deficit. You can rely on exercise (and especially resistance work) to create the deficit you are looking for to burn fat.

ETA: All the other advice on ensuring accuracy is important too. As is HIIT (which has been shown to burn more body fat than normal cardio). It should be remembered that cardio is "catabolic" (that is, it tends to destroy muscle), especially if done too often or for too long a period of time (look at professional long distance runners--do you notice a lot of muscle on them?). On the other hand, resistance work builds muscle (that is, it is "anabolic") and muscle burns calories every moment you are alive. (In fact, some studies have indicated that more fat is burned during the nightly fast than at other times.)

cheripugh1

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!

Thank you I hadn't asked but all of this has really helped me today so thank you very much for posting so much clear information!

meb74

Have you had your thyroid check. I know with me having hypothyroidism it takes longer to lose weight. Talk to your doctor about it. Also, I have heard that if you are diabetic and are on insulin, that can slow down weight loss.

Dixie2111

Are you eating your exercise calories because if you aren't you will stay the same, or even gain.

arabianhorselover

1200 calories isn't much for someone of your height. You should be feeling hungry on that. How much exercise do you get? If you open your diary, we can see what you are eating.

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.

SandraD1424

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?

How can you tell that your are not getting enough calories, besides not losing? I have been thinking about this all day.

trying18

I do measure and waist has not decreased. My clothes fit the same. I have always felt strong since i have been exercising for 20 yrs and actually love it. never need to motivate myself.