I have GAINED weight!!

asciiqwerty

a study of people whose sole target was calorie tracking accuracy found that dietitians (who are well trained and informed) underestimated by an average of 223cal/day while the normalising sample of similar adults also targetting accuracy underestimated by 429 kcal/day (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396160)
as a non-professional, who weighs everything I can and is quite well infomred I assume that I am not as good as a dietitian and probably underestimate by ~300 cal/day - as my deficit target is 275 cal/day it would be very easy for me to wipe out my deficit


you are likely over-estimating your burn and/or underestimating your consumption and somewhere in the middle your deficit is being wiped out

Oh wow okay, that's interesting I'll bare that in mind, thanks

you won't know by how much until you try it:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

why not take the measuring cup challenge like in the youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY) and weigh the contents of your cups for a while

ninerbuff

You've been trying this for a month and tried many different approaches? Seems you're more impatient rather than letting a program run it's course.
Stick to calorie deficit (1% loss of your body weight a week) for a month. Then reassess.

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

establishingaplace

Agreed with others. Pick one calorie goal and stick to it for a month. If you have to estimate a meal when dining out, estimate a little high. If you're cooking at home, weigh all solids and measure all liquids. I prefer to use TDEE - 20%, as it means I eat the same cals per day more or less, and I don't have to think about how many exercise cals I should or should not be eating back.

If you are truly maintaining a calorie deficit and not losing, then you should talk to your doctor.

ajostraat

Just because your weight isn't changing doesn't mean your body isn't changing!

Pull out the dress-maker's measuring tape and take your measurements! You just may be replacing the fat with muscle. If you've just started, it's too soon to tell. As other's have said, give it time.

mistiblake08

According to the websites that calculate your daily caloric needs, I have to have no less than 1510 calories a day just to perform my daily duties including my fairly physical job. I couldn't do it on 1200 calories. I've tried and it just made me binge eat. My advice is for you to:
1) find out your stats before you go further. Eating under caloric needs will damage your body
2) set a reasonable goal. Weight loss can take years depending on how much you have to lose. I still have 48 lbs to go and it'll take me a year to do it.
3) buy a heart rate monitor so you know exactly how many calories you burned during exercise
4) measuring cup for all foods! You'd be surprised how much you'd overdo foods that you love. Example: I recently found out that I was eating 2 cups of potatoes whenever cooked. Keep anything like that to a cup or you'll have to burn more calories to make up for it.

Most importantly, I think you need to talk to someone about your body image issues. I'm at 168 currently. I would wear a bathing suit even at my heaviest (187). You have to love your body or you'll continue having issues.

mumblemagic

OK, the exercise discussion is a bit irrelevant in my opinion. Exercise is really good for you, so don't give it up. However, what you need to sort out is getting the correct weight and calorie goals, tracking food accurately, and sticking with it for a few weeks.

At 19, 5 ft 5 and 140 lbs your BMI is 23.2, which means you are in the healthy weight range. For this reason I suggest you aim for a weight loss rate of 0.5 lbs to 1 lbs per week, rather than the usual 1-2 lbs recommended for us chubbies

Online calculators suggest that your TDEE is about 1700 plus whatever you get from exercise. With a 0.5 lb per week that should put you at a NET goal of about 1450 - 1500. Pop your numbers into MFP and set your activity level to sedentary and see what it says.

Then on days you veg out and do no exercise, eat 1500 ish calories (or whatever it recommends, tracking accurately). On days when you exercise, use an exercise tracker to work out how much you burn (MFP tends to over-estimate. Endomondo is supposed to be fairly accurate so that's what I use, fitbits are also popular). Then eat back a portion of your calories.

Stick to your calorie goal for 3-4 weeks and see if you lose weight. If you do, well done! Stick with the plan. If you don't consider reducing your goal. Don't go too extreme as you'll find it harder to stick to.

Just to be clear exercise is good for your health but you don't need to exercise to lose weight It's easy to out-eat a good exercise plan. It's hard to out-lazy a good diet.

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P.S. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25. Personally I would like to have a bit of wiggle-room, so I would suggest aiming for a BMI no lower than 20, which equates to about 120 lbs for you. Don't go too skinny!

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Here are a few links you may find helpful:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/weight-loss-guide/Pages/weight-loss-guide.aspx

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/weight-loss-guide/Pages/calorie-counting.aspx

http://evidencemag.com/simple-weight-loss

http://www.gdalabel.org.uk/gda/gda_values.aspx

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


And if you feel like doing some running and aren't used to it:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/couch-to-5k-plan.aspx

psuLemon

Just because your weight isn't changing doesn't mean your body isn't changing!

Pull out the dress-maker's measuring tape and take your measurements! You just may be replacing the fat with muscle. If you've just started, it's too soon to tell. As other's have said, give it time.

You can't replace muscle with fat. That isn't how the body works. And it's virtually impossible to gain muscle while in a deficit, especially since the OP is lean and not doing compound progressive load lifting. I suspect it's because she isn't using a food scale and is eating more than she thinks and some water retention.

The best thing the OP can do is get a food scale, set a moderate deficit (no more than 1 lb per week) and concentrate on weight training. But based on the stats, her TDEE if exercising 5 days a week is around 2300 calories. This means she would lose around 1800 and putting macros around 40% carbs, 30% proteins and fats. But the biggest thing is trying a method for 4-6 weeks before changing plans.

ajostraat

Just because your weight isn't changing doesn't mean your body isn't changing!

Pull out the dress-maker's measuring tape and take your measurements! You just may be replacing the fat with muscle. If you've just started, it's too soon to tell. As other's have said, give it time.

You can't replace muscle with fat. That isn't how the body works. And it's virtually impossible to gain muscle while in a deficit, especially since the OP is lean and not doing compound progressive load lifting. I suspect it's because she isn't using a food scale and is eating more than she thinks and some water retention.

The best thing the OP can do is get a food scale, set a moderate deficit (no more than 1 lb per week) and concentrate on weight training. But based on the stats, her TDEE if exercising 5 days a week is around 2300 calories. This means she would lose around 1800 and putting macros around 40% carbs, 30% proteins and fats. But the biggest thing is trying a method for 4-6 weeks before changing plans.

Thank you for clarifying my statement regarding the replacement of fat & muscle, BUT one still needs to get out the dressmaker's tape and use other tools at your disposal for NSV's. Weight is not everything for the human body. It's just one measurement.