I feel like I'm doing this wrong.

F00LofaT00K

Here's your link to MFP 101!!: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1069275-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

All of the links included in that post are incredibly helpful and will probably answer most of the questions you will have.

Eat at LEAST your goal and alway eat back at least some of your exercise calories. Say MFP suggests you eat 1400 calories. They are already sticking you in a deficit so even if you exercise ZERO minutes a week, you will lose that 1lb a week or 2 or .5 or whatever you asked MFP to calculate for.

lforesta1

I understand your frustration!! I too have done everything right, and seen no results. But I do have a question for you. Are you noticing any inches lost? Do you have more energy?
Sometimes it takes your body a while to go into weight loss mode. I did Insanity for 3 weeks, and gained 4 lbs. that being said, I lost 1 inch around my neck, 2 inches in my calf's, and another inch in my ankle... i know.. weird and not exactly where I wanted to lose, but eventually, it should all work out.

Also, the calorie counter is good (don't get me wrong), but the kind of calories matter. For example, processed foods might have a low caloric count, but they aren't helping your body. I know this as I'm starting my weight loss battle once again, after 6 months of eating 900 calories/day, and gaining 25 lbs! it's all about the metabolism, and getting it revved up.

Keep at er, and re-evaluate the types of food, and when they are consumed. (you should be having 5 meals a day to get your metabolism going.)

miqisha

Each persons body is different, some lose easier than others. Two weeks may just not be enough for you. There are a lot of factors, are you eating enough calories, under 1200 is not good, but some people need to eat way more than 1200. Need to drink enough water to keep you hydrated, try to ensure you have a lot off green veggies in your diet. How intense is your workout or how frequent. You have to tweak it around to find that balance. May need to push harder in your workouts or workout more. Also, make sure you are watching your sodium intake

Good luck!!!!!

fast_eddie_72

Being too far under your calorie intake can have on opposite effect and be careful not to fall into the trap of basing you calorie burn on MFP estimates. I find MFP overestimates calorie burn on exercises which is why you will see people eating back 50% of their exercise calorie deficit. Good luck and keep at it - two weeks is not very long at all.

Agree with most of your post. However, eating too little does not prevent you from losing weight. Search "starvation mode myth" on here for a ton of information. Good one here:

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

WideAsleepMom

I have plans to buy a new scale for me. I wanted to get a digital one rather then the dial one we have. I'll also pick up a food scale too.

My goal is to get down 50lbs. I didn't realize that there were different amounts you should be aiming to loose per week based on what your overall goal is. So i will adjust that too.

I haven't noticed any inches. But I also haven't measured. I comfortably can say my pants still fit the same.

We as a family are working towards ditching processed foods. We're starting a dye free and gluten free lifestyle and I keep telling myself just because it's gluten free doesn't mean its good for you.

I'm trying to not get discouraged. Thank you for the links to SexyPants. LOL. I will defiantly get to reading more articles.

gillyspy1

Are you both eating better and exercising more? If you are not doing the latter then it can be tough to notice the difference because:
* your body's metabolism will slow down as you eat less requiring less calories and making your deficit smaller.
* seeing 1 pound difference on the scale requires a net deficit of 3500 calories. That's 500 calories a day for a 1 week. That's a tough deficit to maintain on diet alone.
* do you really know how many calories you are burning? when you are working out it is easier to measure your calories burned above your baseline. Exercise also tends to have a bonus of increasing your overall caloric needs. But if you don't exercise it is easy to fool yourself over what your baseline calories really are.

Are you continuing to drink alcohol and / or coffee, smoke, taking appetite suppressants?
* there are other things that can cause this but if you are engaging in any activities that reduce your appetite then you will tend drink less water as well.

If you are exercising then it should be easy to lose weight in the beginning. Many exercise routines will make certain short-term weight-loss promises and it's basically water weight that is cashing that cheque.

I drink 3L of water per day and that's doesn't count the water i get via soups, food, shakes, etc. I also don't count any water I drink as juice nor coffee in that 3L, although I stay away from juices entirely. If I stop drinking water I know I'm going to see a jump on the scale. That doesn't mean I'm gaining fat, but I'm gaining "weight". Also I'm going to be hungrier cuz my body knows that food and water are related.

Salt will certainly affect that as well. If you're buying much of your food pre-made then you're probably getting too much salt. If you're making your own food then don't bother adding any salt. It's easy to find enough salt just trying to get away from it. You can use MFP to track your salt but it's not a default. Be wary of custom entries that have not added the sodium values.

For the first few weeks of a routine that involves exercise just be happy if it's getting easier to walk each day as your body adjusts to the routine.

lamps1303

Should I be staying under my allowed calories before it's adjusted for the exercise i have logged for the day?
I've had the Net number go into the negative. Is that ok? What number do I want to have there?

Your NET calories should NEVER be a negative number. Sounds to me like you're not eating back any of your exercise calories and just sticking to the calorie goal MFP is giving you. I suggest you calculate your BMR and TDEE using an online calculator - many on MFP recommend http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/.

You haven't indicated how much you want to lose but take 5-20% off your TDEE (someone has posted a good guide as to how much to reduce depending on the amount to lose. Work off the idea 500calorie deficit = TDEE -20%). Input this value into MFP and don't log exercise (TDEE takes this into account). You can then work on eating that number of calories each day, and not worry about how much exercise calories to eat back. I find this method the easiest.

Also, as many have already said - 2 weeks is no time. be patient and good luck

*addition - just seen your post re wanting to lose 50lbs. Based on this I would go with TDEE -15-20%

NaughtyNibbling

Maybe you're eating more than you think.

crsawinton

Why does nobody ever question the scale itself? Did you buy one of the cheapy ones at Walmart? Some scales can have a +/- 3 pound accuracy on them!!!

I seen this on an amazon review:

A U.S. nickel weighs 5.0 grams, so use those to check the accuracy of your scale.

Edit to add:

I just ordered this digital scale, it's only $6 and runs on aaa batteries!

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Kitchen-Scale-instructions-Unconditional/dp/B00H8WIFZU/ref=cm_cd_ql_qh_dp_t