New and Already Failing. What's going wrong?

nicolemontagna22

im sorry, but your advice in this thread leaves a lot to be desired.

rather than an app that offers an "estimated weight" (tells you what you likely want to hear), you and the OP are perfectly capable of just weighing in once a week or once a month (will power)....same time of day, wearing nada. as i said before, the process is not linear...there will be ups and downs. this is not failure, its just fact.

another thing to do, OP is take your measurements. you may find that as you lose fat, the scale might not move quite as much, but the loss of fat can be seen more clearly through measurements.
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Well I can't really state how it works. If I could figure it out it be rich off inventing it an wouldn't need it myself lol. But it seems accurate. If I am 140 one day then I jump up a few pounds it calculates a new number then a new one the next day and it basically is spot on on my official weight in day. I should have willpower to not weigh in everyday but my OCD doesn't help.

Aaron_K123

im sorry, but your advice in this thread leaves a lot to be desired.

rather than an app that offers an "estimated weight" (tells you what you likely want to hear), you and the OP are perfectly capable of just weighing in once a week or once a month (will power)....same time of day, wearing nada. as i said before, the process is not linear...there will be ups and downs. this is not failure, its just fact.

another thing to do, OP is take your measurements. you may find that as you lose fat, the scale might not move quite as much, but the loss of fat can be seen more clearly through measurements.

Well I can't really state how it works. If I could figure it out it be rich off inventing it an wouldn't need it myself lol. But it seems accurate. If I am 140 one day then I jump up a few pounds it calculates a new number then a new one the next day and it basically is spot on on my official weight in day. I should have willpower to not weigh in everyday but my OCD doesn't help.

Sounds like all it does is calculates a moving average which you can just do yourself in excel or with a calculator if you so choose. But agreed that it isn't necessary.

Log your weight as frequently as you feel comfortable doing. If weighing yourself every day gives you anxiety attacks every time you see the scale go up a few pounds then you probably should weigh yourself less frequently. If, however, you can tell yourself that every time the scale goes up that its just a natural fluctuation and record it then over time you will see the downward trend establish itself. But it takes months not days.

FireOpalCO

I forgot to say I love your icon, big Doctor Who fan over here!

Looking through I'm seeing a lot of carbs and I have a feeling, very little fiber. I'm seeing almost no fresh fruits and veggies.

It's spring so a great time to go stock up on fruit. Let's replace those chips, B&J, and cookie dough with blueberries, strawberries, or even fresh pineapple slices. They are definitely on the sweet side, but still an improvement. I see a lot of convenience foods, so I assume you don't have the time or inclination to cook. Steamer bags of frozen veggies are a great way to round out a meal.

Frosted Cheerios are not actually a healthy option. Sure it looks good that it only lists 100 calories, but the protein and fiber content is so low (22g of carbs, only 2g of fiber, 2g of protein, 9g of sugar) you're eating two servings at a time! In comparison, Kashi Berry Fruitful Whole Wheat Biscuits have 170 calories but 6g of fiber, 6g of protein, and only 8g of sugar. It's still a sweet cereal but you will be more filled without needing to double the serving (which you've been doing). Keep to one serving and if you are still hungry, well that's why you bought blueberries.

I would definitely be concerned about how much sodium you're taking in and the fact that at least what I can see, you're not tracking fiber or water.

skullshank

if you have legitimate OCD, then yes, i can see how that would be a battle.

i guess what i dont understand (and makes it seem kinda "off" to me), is that this app has no idea what youre doing....how much water youre drinking, when the last time you evacuated your system was, etc. i have zero experience with this app, but it seems crazy to me to rely on some program to average out your weights over the course of a week if the result is going to be the same on weigh-in day. *shrug*

to me, that reads like a week-long voluntary obsession.

if you jump from 140 to 143 overnight, you have to understand that this is not weight "gained". doesnt it take 3,500 calories of SURPLUS to gain a lb? just doing the math....

3,500 x 3.....
carry the 4....remainder of 12.33333333333
solve for Y....


thats a SURPLUS of 10,500 in a 24hr period to "gain" 3 lbs.

ninerbuff

Take a deep breath...you aren't gaining fat you are retaining water and glycogen in your muscles from the new exercise...esp since you say they are very sore...

it will go away...in about 2-4 weeks....

My only suggestion is going to be this...don't eliminate foods unless you have to...just eat smaller portions...

Drink lots of water, don't give up, keep weighing solids and logging accurately and you are already half way there...

Good luck

THIS.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Aaron_K123

if you have legitimate OCD, then yes, i can see how that would be a battle.

i guess what i dont understand (and makes it seem kinda "off" to me), is that this app has no idea what youre doing....how much water youre drinking, when the last time you evacuated your system was, etc. i have zero experience with this app, but it seems crazy to me to rely on some program to average out your weights over the course of a week if the result is going to be the same on weigh-in day. *shrug*

to me, that reads like a week-long voluntary obsession.

if you jump from 140 to 143 overnight, you have to understand that this is not weight "gained". doesnt it take 3,500 calories of SURPLUS to gain a lb? just doing the math....

3,500 x 3.....
carry the 4....remainder of 12.33333333333
solve for Y....


thats a SURPLUS of 10,500 in a 24hr period to "gain" 3 lbs.

I bet all it does is just average all the weights you enter in and look for an average decrease in that value over time (ie a moving average). Its just a calculation, nothing fancy and all the info that would be needed would be regular weigh-ins on the scale. Not magical.

You could do the same thing by doing a linear fit to the data in excel with standard deviations for each point.

Aaron_K123

Here is the problem with scale weight. I don't suggest you actually do the following by the way as it would be unhealthy and dangrerous but if you did you would likely see this happen in your own body:


Step 1: Work out heavily with weights several days in a row and get yourself good and sore.
Step 2: Injest a lot of sodium and water
Step 3: Weigh yourself to get your "starting weight"
Step 4: Stop exercising entirely
Step 5: Cut sodium completely out of your diet and drink lots of water, 2 gallons a day if you can manage it
Step 6: After 3 days of this drop your liquid intake to next to nothing for an entire day
Step 7: Weigh yourself in the morning

Congratulations, over the period of 1 week you managed to lose 20 pounds! Of course nothing you did actually improved your health or helped you in any way but hey, the scale went down a lot.

That is the amount of water your body can vary depending on your activity, salt intake etc etc and how as a result the scale can mess with your head. You want to not just make the number on the scale go down you want to lose fat and those two numbers don't necessarily coincide over short time periods.

My point is that there is good things you can do for fat loss, like you are doing right now, that will make the scale go up temporarily....and there bad things you can do to make the scale go down quickly, like what I just gave an example of. This is why you should not consider the scale as the be-all end-all indicator of your progress and health.

verhunzt

Don't be so hard on yourself.
In the beginning we all crash sometimes, but I'd rather not see it as crashing since it's part of this journey.
When you look at people who have lost you just see the result - you're impressed and think that they must have been so diciplined and have worked out so much. But guess what? Chances are they have crashed some day or another.
The only difference is that they got back on track.
Try to just do this for, let's say 2 months. Try your best and don't worry about crashing too much.
After those 2 months living a healthy lifestyle will be easier and easier for you and you will be more and more successfull.

lawschoolsurvival

Thanks everyone for the replies and the advance. I really do appreciate it. I will take a deep breath and just relax. I'm going to be put away the scale for a bit and come back in 2 weeks and weight myself then. I'm glad to hear that sore muscles retain water, I can't say I've ever really exercised in my life. I've been going to hour long Zumba classes on MTW and doing Insanity on RFS. With my rest day being Sunday. I'm so sore because my body just not used to that much movement. I find that I like working out though and it's a good break from stress such a work and school.

Also, thank you guys for auditing my diary. That was helpful and insightful. I will fully admit that I'm not sure what to eat. I think I have a good handle on portions but I don't make good food choices. Generally, I'll just eat what's easier for time saving purposes. I'll be working on it though. And I'll read for message boards for better food choices. That's how I learned about smart balance and almond milk.

In addition I will try not to skip anymore lunches. I will admit it's a meal I skip the most frequently as I'm usually still in court and the day slips by without me noticing.

I will also work on making healthier replacements in the food I eat, regarding the chips, cookie dough, and the ice-cream. I can do without the ice-cream or the cookie dough, no doubt. The chips might be a bit harder. I'll just try harder. I swear the cheesecake won't be happening again lol. I graduated from law school that day (the day I started logging) and that was my celebratory dinner.

A lot of you mentioned the Redbull. I would say I will work on giving up the Redbull but I'd be lying. I will rely on it during Barprep and cutting it out now and just falling back on later would stress me out. I switched to the the sugar free version. I know it's not ideal but for now it one of the "foods" I mentioned in my original post that I've made peace with.

Again, thanks so much for all the advice and the tips. I'll keep working and keep learning how to make smart choices with what types of food I place in my body.


p.s. Glad to see all the Doctor Who fans

FireOpalCO

One thing that my husband harped on me about: I would be out and about, low blood sugar would hit, and I would feel woozy. So it was time to find me food, any food, and fast. So if it took a few minutes, I would go for what would recover me fastest: a soda, a cookie, etc. So now I carry Kashi bars in my purse. You might want to carry a well balanced bar or two (decent in fiber and protein, not super high in calories or sugars) and carry a water bottle.

OkamiLavande

Take a deep breath...you aren't gaining fat you are retaining water and glycogen in your muscles from the new exercise...esp since you say they are very sore...

it will go away...in about 2-4 weeks....

My only suggestion is going to be this...don't eliminate foods unless you have to...just eat smaller portions...

Drink lots of water, don't give up, keep weighing solids and logging accurately and you are already half way there...

Good luck

All I have to say is this. And more this. With a sprinkling of this.

nicolemontagna22

Yeah I wasn't diagnosed with OCD but I have check my door handle everytime I walk past it to "make sure" it's locked even though I know it is. The app is just that....a daily average. It is something i can basically do myself but its like the calorie calculator on here...i let MFP do it for me. (although with ocd naturally I checked it against the formula myself) i dont really obsess over my daily changes . basically I write my weight down on the calendar each day. I then compare all my Sundays then Mondays Tuesdays etc and make sure that for the most part it's coming down each week.

jmv7117

Congrats on your new journey! Six days is too short of a period to see much of a change. If you have any underlying health problems as I do, the scale won't budge for a couple of weeks. Keep in mind that weight loss is not linear so it is the general trend to look for not the individual numbers. At any rate, sore muscles means you are retaining water for muscle repair. Both sodium and sugar will also cause you to retain water. So you can be losing fat but the loss is masked by the effects of exercise, sodium and sugar. Just carry on with what you are doing and you should see a difference within a week or so.

With respect to food, while I recommend eating as healthy as possible, don't give up any food you like unless it is a trigger food for binging. I gave up absolutely nothing for the weight loss portion of my fitness journey. I did, however, add a few new foods. Life is too short not to enjoy. You will find a lot of diet styles in the forum, some more controversial than others. I'm on the clean eating spectrum while others are on the simply calories in verses calories out and anything in between. In my opinion, a total dietary switch is setting yourself up for failure so go slow at making any dietary changes. The only thing you need to lose weight is a calorie deficit.