Can someone tell me if i'm doing something wrong?

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  • Keepcalmanddontblink
    Keepcalmanddontblink Posts: 718 Member
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    I've been working out (kickboxing specifically) 3-4x per week and eating 1200 calories a day. The first 6 weeks or so i lost about 14 lbs, but recently....NOTHING! During the first 6 weeks i was also taking phentermine (dr. prescribed) but am not taking it as often now.
    Why am i not losing any more weight? I know i have at least 20-25 lbs to go and i'm so frustrated!! Thanks
    Jenn
    Invest in two things for accuracy in logging anything:

    1. Food scale. They have them for $18 at Walmart and its a nice, easy to use digital one, so no guess work.

    2. Heart Rate monitor with a chest strap.
    I got one on Amazon for $22 and its a Pyle Sports and the comparison I did with that and a Polar showed it to meet my personal needs. A lot of people favor Polar and its on my wish list for later on down the road, but the important thing is the chest strap. It will give you an accurate calorie burn. If you are using MFP, it could be over estimating your calorie burns.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    I am absolutely weighing my food, i can't see how you can do it wrong with a kitchen scale lol. I dont drink anything but water, or i scan the bar code on any packaging.

    these are some of the items in your log from the last week which are likely to be *most* inaccurate:
    - things and fractions of things (banana, waffles, taco shells, crackers, apple, cheese slices, mini cakes, bars, servings of fries, packages of jerky, packets of sugar, slices of pizza, chicken nuggets, tater tots, pieces of banana, links of sausage, california roll, muffins, flatbread)
    -tbsp of viscous things (bbq sauce, taco sauce, nut butters, philadelphia cream cheese, cookie butter)
    - cups and fractions of measuring cups (shredded cheese, dried fruit, oatmeal, beans, chicken salad, tortelini, pasta sauce, mashed potato)
    -"homemade entries" if they are from the database rather than a recipe you entered manually into the recipe builder (noodle soup, Marinated Roasted Pork Tenderloin)

    the first three should be weighed not recorded as things/cups/spoons
    the last one you should use your own recipe not chose generic or homemade from the database

    i didn't see any cooking fats (oils butter) or any alcohol did you use no cooking fats during the past week?
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    I've been working out (kickboxing specifically) 3-4x per week and eating 1200 calories a day. The first 6 weeks or so i lost about 14 lbs, but recently....NOTHING! During the first 6 weeks i was also taking phentermine (dr. prescribed) but am not taking it as often now.
    Why am i not losing any more weight? I know i have at least 20-25 lbs to go and i'm so frustrated!! Thanks
    Jenn

    Jen,

    I have not read the other replies, so here goes:

    Are you weighing all your solid food and measuring your liquids? Do you log everything you eat?

    Are you logging your exercise calories and do you eat them back? Where do you get your exercise calorie estimations from?

    How long have you been off the appetite suppressant?

    Do you have any thyroid problems? if not, have you had it checked?

    My guess is that the appetite suppressant acted as an amphetamine, getting your heart rate up enough to burn more calories than you would not taking them.

    My advice is to ditch the pills completely, set your goals to lose between .5 and 1 pound a week, weigh all food, log all food and exercise, eat only about half of the exercise calories back because most internet sources way overestimate, including MFP, and eat more than 1200 calories while staying within you calorie goal. The reason I say to eat more than 1200 while staying within a deficit is to properly fuel your body, not because eating more helps you lose weight. If you properly fuel your body you have more energy to do what you need to do.

    The best of luck to you. :smile:
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
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    Read this...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    I've been working out (kickboxing specifically) 3-4x per week and eating 1200 calories a day. The first 6 weeks or so i lost about 14 lbs, but recently....NOTHING! During the first 6 weeks i was also taking phentermine (dr. prescribed) but am not taking it as often now.
    Why am i not losing any more weight? I know i have at least 20-25 lbs to go and i'm so frustrated!! Thanks
    Jenn
    Invest in two things for accuracy in logging anything:

    1. Food scale. They have them for $18 at Walmart and its a nice, easy to use digital one, so no guess work.

    2. Heart Rate monitor with a chest strap.
    I got one on Amazon for $22 and its a Pyle Sports and the comparison I did with that and a Polar showed it to meet my personal needs. A lot of people favor Polar and its on my wish list for later on down the road, but the important thing is the chest strap. It will give you an accurate calorie burn. If you are using MFP, it could be over estimating your calorie burns.
    Unless you are doing steady state cardio, HRM are pretty much useless. If you eat the same amount of calories a day, monitor weight loss over a 6 + week time frame, you can come up with your TDEE or maintenance calories.
  • _Calypso_
    _Calypso_ Posts: 1,074 Member
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    There could be a few things....

    If you truly are eating at 1200 and working out that much - the science is there and you should be losing. So are you logging EVERYTHING that you eat? Do you weigh/measure your food? You may actually be eating more than you realize. Which brings me to......

    You could be eating enough to sustain. Basically burning and eating just enough to keep your body fuctioning properly. Your body will want to hold on to the fuel you give it to make sure you have enough energy for your next workout.

    Are you measuring yourself? You may not always lose weight but your measurements can go down.

    Water retention. Working out that much will cause your muscles to retain water to repair themselves. May sound odd but... drink more water. Your body weight divide by 2 is the amount of water (in oz) that you should consume a day. More if you live in a hotter climate and/or during and after workouts!!

    You may want to 1) start logging and measuring everything you eat and 2) up your calories a bit to make sure you have enough fuel for your workouts!
  • monicapatituccijones
    monicapatituccijones Posts: 68 Member
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    My suggestion: Accept that this will take some time, and failing to lose weight for a couple of weeks is a normal part of the process. As others have said, 1200 calories is probably too low. I'm mostly sedentary and I still eat about 1350. Kickboxing is a tough workout, and you need food to fuel it.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    You should read this:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

    and this:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    and watch this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
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    how many grams does 2 cups of cantaloupe weigh? what about 1/8 cup of sauce?
    what about the "Homemade - Broccoli-Quinoa Casserole, 3/4 cup cooked"

    Can someone tell me what this means? what is the difference in grams and cups? now i'm really confused about putting in my calories......thanks

    Cups are a volume measurement, and entirely dependent on the person doing the measuring. Your cup of cantaloupe will be different than my cup of cantaloupe...how small did you cut it? Did you pack it down? Etc...

    Grams are a weight measurement, and absolute (unless you have a wacky scale, but let's not go there yet.). My 100 grams will weigh the same as your 100 grams. This is why food scales are important. When you log the cantaloupe, select the entry in the database that offers a gram measurement. There is a dropdown box you can select to show you if grams are an option for that entry (once you find the entry, it should stay in your most recent...the first time logging something always takes the longest). If you weight out your melon to 150 grams, and it gives your a "100 gram" option, you just had 1.5 servings of 100 grams of melon.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    Can someone tell me what this means? what is the difference in grams and cups? now i'm really confused about putting in my calories......thanks

    cups are defined in the US, canada and australia, they are defined as volumes, the defintiaions are different in the US to australia and canada

    for water 1kg=1lt, but for most viscous fluids this is not the case
    measuring solids in a volume is just inaccurate for very many reasons, amongst which but not restricted to : pack density and grain size

    grams are a unit of mass

    for an example watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
    then try it out at home
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    ps if you're logging from a us label next to the serving size in cups there will be a mass or volume in g/oz/ml/fl.oz use this when logging, and weigh the packet as most labels show minimum content weight not actual
  • jgodman1011
    jgodman1011 Posts: 16
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    Are you weighing all your solid food and measuring your liquids? Do you log everything you eat? I am trying as much as possible to put everything into my food intake. I put in cheeses, mayo's, etc. i measure them with a measuring spoon or a measuring cup.

    Are you logging your exercise calories and do you eat them back? Where do you get your exercise calorie estimations from? The exercise calculations came from fitness pal, i didn't know of any other way to calculate them, but no i dont eat the extra calories back.

    How long have you been off the appetite suppressant? I was taking it 2x a day now i take it maybe 3x a week.

    Do you have any thyroid problems? if not, have you had it checked? i am on thyroid medication - my levels are typically low

    I do have a kitchen scale which i use for meats, etc....thanks again
    Jenn
  • KMasz
    KMasz Posts: 2,671 Member
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    how many grams does 2 cups of cantaloupe weigh? what about 1/8 cup of sauce?
    what about the "Homemade - Broccoli-Quinoa Casserole, 3/4 cup cooked"

    Can someone tell me what this means? what is the difference in grams and cups? now i'm really confused about putting in my calories......thanks

    Grams is a measurement of weight, Cups is a measurement of volume. if you have two cups of cantaloupe, it's obviously a guestimation and it's not an accurate measurement because the cantaloupe (even if you "filled" up two measuring cups of canteloupe) doesn't properly fit the measuring container. it's something that needs to be weighed to accurately log what you are eating.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

    this post is really helpful when learning how to log accurately; it's long but worth the read. hope that helps.
  • jgodman1011
    jgodman1011 Posts: 16
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    based on everyones suggestions, my next step is to check the weights in grams instead of cups, i'll use the kitchen scale more. I was doing alot on fitness pal based on the convenience, i'm thinking that even if my calorie intake is a bit off, i can't be consuming 500+ more calories than i think i am?
    Maybe i'll get a heart monitor like someone else suggested, i would just like to figure out if it is ME doing something wrong in calculations or my body is extra slow.
    I did the 1200 calories based on the fitness pal recommendations, i'll try to bump them up on workout days and see if that helps.

    I do thank everyone for your suggestions and comments, i think i may be a little more confused than ever, but will watch the videos and also read the links people provided.
    THanks
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
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    i'm thinking that even if my calorie intake is a bit off, i can't be consuming 500+ more calories than i think i am?

    yes. especially with generic entries in the food diary.

    that's why I listed those items from your diary and asked if you created the recipes. If not, then you have absolutely no idea how many calories were in the "1 slice of banana bread" or the "2/3 cup of quinoa casserole"
  • jgodman1011
    jgodman1011 Posts: 16
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    oh those ones i did the calculations on, those were my recipes - both the banana bread and the quinoa casserole......so those should be right?
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
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    My guess is that the appetite suppressant acted as an amphetamine, getting your heart rate up enough to burn more calories than you would not taking them.

    My advice is to ditch the pills completely, set your goals to lose between .5 and 1 pound a week, weigh all food, log all food and exercise, eat only about half of the exercise calories back because most internet sources way overestimate, including MFP, and eat more than 1200 calories while staying within you calorie goal. The reason I say to eat more than 1200 while staying within a deficit is to properly fuel your body, not because eating more helps you lose weight. If you properly fuel your body you have more energy to do what you need to do.

    The best of luck to you. :smile:

    This.
    It sounds like you're making this experience more miserable than it needs to be by not eating enough or giving yourself the time to lose in a healthy manner.
    25 lbs. is not a lot to have to lose (although it seems like a lot when you're starting out). At a healthy 1bl/week rate, you're in this for the long haul (25 weeks or more). Hang in there and you will make this happen. It just needs time and commitment. If you want the weight to stay off, you'll need to do this slowly and in a healthy manner.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    i'm thinking that even if my calorie intake is a bit off, i can't be consuming 500+ more calories than i think i am?

    sure you can: a study [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396160] of nutritionists and other adults whose only goal was accurately recording their calories (rather than reaching a given target) found that on average they under-estimated their consumption by between 223(nutritionists) and 429(everyone else) kcal/day.

    now they were trying to be as accurate as possible including weighing

    so if you weren't weighing then you could easily we well over, especially as you were targetting a given goal rather than accuracy
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
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    oh those ones i did the calculations on, those were my recipes - both the banana bread and the quinoa casserole......so those should be right?

    sure if you weighed (grams not cups) every ingredient you cooked with including the cooking oils and entered them into the log correctly and selected the appropriate database entry

    but they would be *more* accurate if you had weighed (grams) the final weight of all the food you cooked and weighed the serving you gave yourself

    (calories of all the ingredient sin the recipe)/(final weight of the cooked food)*(weight of the food you served yourself)=(calories of your serving)
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
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    oh those ones i did the calculations on, those were my recipes - both the banana bread and the quinoa casserole......so those should be right?

    sure if you weighed (grams not cups) every ingredient you cooked with including the cooking oils and enteres and entered them into the database correctly and seected the appropriate database entry

    but they would be *more* accurate if you had weighed (grams) the final weight of all the food you cooked and weighed the serving you gave yourself

    (calories of all the ingredient sin the recipe)/(final weight of the cooekd food)*(weight of the food you served yourself)=(calories of your serving)
    exactly.
    how many grams was 1 slice of the banana bread, for example.

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