not losing weight!!

laserxeyes

im aware of the concept of plateaus, but it seems ive hit one right at the beginning of my journey
ive lost weight before (50lbs, and then 10lbs one time), so im not clueless as to what to do, but for some reason the number on the scale isn't changing! weight has fluctuated, but it must be due to fluid changes

i always weigh myself in my underwear, after a pee, right after i wake up, before i drink any water, so it's consistent there

-ive been aiming for only one pound a week, which for me is net 1600 calories (current weight 201 lbs)
- i typically eat 1800 and dance/ride my bike/walk for 25-60 mins a day on average--it seems like a lot to consume but mfp tells me it's fine. my reason for not reducting my intake is that im trying to avoid gaining all the weight back, like i did the first time, by doing it more slowly
-more often than not, i graze throughout the day, have a cup caffeinated tea daily, occasionally make that lemon/cayenne pepper drink, etc. to keep metabolism, theoretically, going
-i have one cheat day a week, for which if i eat an excess of calories (i try not to), i make up for it by making my net calories lower the next day by both eating less and exercising more
-i dont eat foods that contain wheat or cane sugar (i eat other carbs, like veggies, fruits, beans, potatoes, the occasional wild rice)
-i try my best to get at least 6 hours of sleep a night, sometimes it's less, sometimes it's more
-i stay hydrated
-my measurements dont seem to be changing either. i have a couple of unreliable measurements from 6 months ago recorded on mfp. waist seems to be smaller from then, but dont know how i measured on that previous date. neck measurement is higher?? either way, clothes seem to be fitting me the same as they always have
-im only 17 and i dont have a history of thyroid problems...

weight hasnt gotten below 201 for two weeks (two weeks ago is when i started, i lost water weight in the first few days but that was it). now it just bounces between 201.2 and 202.4 does anyone know WHAT is going on??

thanks in advance

edit: i also checked back in my food diary from september/october, because i lost about 6 lbs in that time period. daily net calories were always between 1400 and 2100, so i was eating about the same amount??? what's more confusing is i was eating fairly unhealthy food then. im really lost

canadiancurvygirl

hey,
i get this sounds stupid but if you drink green tea before bed it may help(the drink is vile but try and get flavoured ones eg apple and pear flavour) because when you go to sleep you metabolism slows down drastically green tea helps the metabolism speed up or drink in the mornings to get the kick start needed
i know that this may sound useless but i hope it works for you

Koldnomore

Your diary is closed. Do you weigh your food? If you aren't losing it's because you aren't in a deficit. Either you are eating more than you think or you are overestimating your calories burned through exercise. No special tea required...

just4nessa

Your diary is closed. Do you weigh your food? If you aren't losing it's because you aren't in a deficit. Either you are eating more than you think or you are overestimating your calories burned through exercise. No special tea required...

^This^

laserxeyes

ive lost plenty of weight just using my eyes/the occasional measuring cup as a guide (after of course, training myself for a few months), while also only counting the calories in my head. i mastered that a while ago. however, since i am eating more fruits and vegetables i might be underestimating the calories there. "large apple - 130 calories" probably doesnt apply to all large apples (and i eat pretty damn big apples--you know, those costco ones), while packaged food is exact. at the same time, ive tended to try to overestimate the calories in the fruits/veg department. i dunno.

ill open my diary so you can see and maybe give me more tips, but just a warning, i actually barely log anything (ill add some data from the last few days so you can look though)

when i lost those few pounds in september/october i was actually using my food log almost daily (but i need to reemphasize ive lost lots of weight without a food log), so you can go back a few months and compare it to the current food diary data that ill add shortly. it's interesting that i was often OVER my limit, and also eating more processed foods, but somehow actually losing weight.

snazzyjazzy21

ill open my diary so you can see and maybe give me more tips, but just a warning, i actually barely log anything (ill add some data from the last few days so you can look though)

If you don't log, how do you know how much you're eating?

ETA: Two weeks isn't a plateau. Give it time.

laserxeyes

as ive said, i once got extremely good at measuring food with my eyes (but while still sometimes using measuring cups/spoons if i wasnt totally sure or it was something really calorie-dense), and doing the math in my head. i could even usually guess the calories in food prepared by others within 50 calories. the reason i know i was good at that is that i lost weight. when i did my food log it was more for reassurance, or to see if i could squeeze something else in.

and two weeks isnt huge, but it's really weird when ive literally just started. usually whenever i get back in track, i lose the two pounds of water weight or so that i have (which i did here), and then immediately start losing actual weight as well (which i did not here).

laserxeyes

something else: when i count calories lost from exercise, i do it based on heart rate and not what a machine estimates for me. so im precise with that too

skrlec70

are you logging everything , by your diary either your not logging or your skipping meals which will hinder weight loss

laserxeyes

as ive repeated about three times, i count calories in my head. when i do log, i log everything. when i dont log, i still count everything and do the correct math, and i STILL LOSE WEIGHT THAT WAY. just something isnt working this time around

Kst76

hey,
i get this sounds stupid but if you drink green tea before bed it may help(the drink is vile but try and get flavoured ones eg apple and pear flavour) because when you go to sleep you metabolism slows down drastically green tea helps the metabolism speed up or drink in the mornings to get the kick start needed
i know that this may sound useless but i hope it works for you

Thanks for the tip:)
Is flavored green tea calorie free?

FrankiesSaysRelax

If something isn't working this time around, maybe it's time to start using MFP as it's designed. Really, it takes 5 minutes to put all your food in. invest in a scale and start measuring everything. You can keep saying you're really good at eye balling, but clearly it isn't working, so why don't you try something that will for sure work?

Kst76

as ive repeated about three times, i count calories in my head. when i do log, i log everything. when i don't log, i still count everything and do the correct math, and i STILL LOSE WEIGHT THAT WAY. just something isn't working this time around

I'm not very good at scan and enter my foods either. I just had a baby and also have another child so I feel stressed for time right now. Especially when you have a screaming baby hanging from you while you trying to measure something on the scale. lol. However, I always overestimate my logs to be on the safe side. Lets say I eat a small apple. A small apple might have 60 calories. I log 85. I eat a homemade burrito that might have 200 - 220 calories. I log 300. I have been counting calories and been on every diet in the world sense I was 13, but I still have a hard to get my calories exactly right if I don't measure and weigh them. I think I got it done but I really don't. MFP is by far the best solution for anybodies weigh loss.

aldenxnedla

i'm not a dietitian or anything, so what i'm going to say is purely conjecture, based on my own experience and my fair amount of knowledge. my best guess would be that your "cheat day" could be throwing you off. even though you do work off the extra calories with exercise, it may not be enough. when someone first begins dieting, their body is in somewhat of a shock, so to speak, because of the drastic change in the amount of calories it's getting. so what happens is that your metabolism slows down to try and hold on to all the calories it possibly can, sometimes known as "starvation mode". when this happens, your body is much more apt to store calories as fat than to burn them, even when you're exercising. so when you get to your cheat day, your body is still in hyper-calorie-storing mode from dieting all the rest of the week, and therefore will store all those extra calories just as it would on the days you eat less. so even though you're exercising to make up for the calories consumed, your body has already converted those calories to fat, which could explain the fact that you're not gaining any weight but also not losing any.

i am the exact same way, believe me - i love sugar and dairy and unhealthy foods more than anything. i have tried to have a cheat day system as well, but just like you, i hit that "plateau", as it were, because my metabolism was not prepared for it. my guess is that once i have been dieting for a much longer period of time - a couple months or so - that my metabolism will be fast enough to handle something like this. but at the beginning, unfortunately, it may not be possible. the good news is that if you eliminate the cheat day, you'll eventually not crave unhealthy foods as much, because your body will adjust to the change. right now though, iit's just going to take some willpower. like i said i am totally on the same page as you in terms of wanting to have that loophole, so i'm more than willing to help - i could definitely use it too

aldenxnedla

Addendum: It's also possible that you are in fact losing fat, but not weight, especially if you're exercising. When the body physically exerts itself during exercise, it releases lactic acid, which "burns" the existing muscle tissue and over time replaces it with new, tougher, scar tissue. This is, more or less, what muscles are, and muscle tissue also weighs significantly more than fat. This may also explain why your measurements aren't changing, because newly formed muscle tissue is much more swollen than tissue that has hardened over time.

GertrudeHorse

hey,
i get this sounds stupid but if you drink green tea before bed it may help(the drink is vile but try and get flavoured ones eg apple and pear flavour) because when you go to sleep you metabolism slows down drastically green tea helps the metabolism speed up or drink in the mornings to get the kick start needed
i know that this may sound useless but i hope it works for you

"this may sound useless" ... Yes, it does. For a very good reason. The advice you have given is quite silly. Drinking a caffeinated beverage right before going to bed is not a good idea for most people. And in any event it won't change your metabolism...at least not to a meaningful extent. The best thing you can do for your metabolism is to increase your lean muscle mass.

just4nessa

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be harsh, but if you're not losing weight it's because you're not eating at a calorie deficit. Whether you track in your head or on MFP, use a scale or eyeball, exercise or don't; miscalculation of either your caloric intake or burn (or both) is the most likely explanation. Your diary is much too sporadic to determine if your logging is inaccurate but chances are that if your logging is sporadic, it's also inaccurate.

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/

GertrudeHorse

as ive repeated about three times, i count calories in my head. when i do log, i log everything. when i dont log, i still count everything and do the correct math, and i STILL LOSE WEIGHT THAT WAY. just something isnt working this time around

It has worked in the past when I assume you were heavier. This is because your margin of error wouldn't have made as much impact. As you get to a lower weight there isn't as much space to forgive errors. Counting in your head and measuring by eyeballing -- even using measuring cups -- will not be sufficient as you get closer to your goal. Weigh everything with a digital scale and wear a heart rate monitor to calculate exercise burns correctly.

_Zardoz_

You're not eating at a deficit. Just because you think you the amazing power to work out the calories of food just by looking at them doesn't mean that you do. The likely reason you lost weight before via this method is just blind luck. If you seriously want to lose weight you need to count calories properly and that involves weighing and measuring or continue what you're doing because your too arrogant to believe you may not be assessing the calories correctly. Your choice

eldamiano

im aware of the concept of plateaus, but it seems ive hit one right at the beginning of my journey
ive lost weight before (50lbs, and then 10lbs one time), so im not clueless as to what to do, but for some reason the number on the scale isn't changing! weight has fluctuated, but it must be due to fluid changes

The 'concept' of plateaus is just a made up one. One person eats enough calories to maintain his/her weight, as desired, and so maintains weight. Another person is trying to lose weight but is actually eating at the same level as the other person so maintains weight.

This is not a 'plateau'. It is just common sense. Our bodies dont just stop now and again when they feel like it. If you arent losing weight, you arent eating at a deficit.

strds

hey,
i get this sounds stupid but if you drink green tea before bed it may help(the drink is vile but try and get flavoured ones eg apple and pear flavour) because when you go to sleep you metabolism slows down drastically green tea helps the metabolism speed up or drink in the mornings to get the kick start needed
i know that this may sound useless but i hope it works for you

"this may sound useless" ... Yes, it does. For a very good reason. The advice you have given is quite silly. Drinking a caffeinated beverage right before going to bed is not a good idea for most people. And in any event it won't change your metabolism...at least not to a meaningful extent. The best thing you can do for your metabolism is to increase your lean muscle mass.

Green tea can have less caffeine than normal tea or coffee and you can get decaffeinated. I've been drinking green tea for over 8 years now, I always have green tea before anything else in the morning, and I usually have a cup at night time as well as through out the day. It is full of antioxidants and is known for its benefits towards weight loss. Of Course lean muscle mass is a necessity also.