SO FRUSTRATED. ABOUT TO GIVE UP.

Holly_Roman_Empire

So OP, what kind of cardio are you doing? Is it running/walking and it's accounted for on the fitbit?

Ayla121

Im using the FitBit One. And what do you mean Im only eating 300 under my TDEE?

12by311

Don't give up! I know it can be frustrating.

I think you could probably tighten up your logging a little bit. I went back through your diary. The first day you started logging pretty consistently was April 28…and before that, you missed quite a few days.

Lifting makes me feel SO hungry and while trying to lose weight, I have to reign it in in a major way or I could eat (and many times "graze" ) without thought. You may be eating a bite here and there that you aren't paying attention to and that can add up.

Iwishyouwell

Don't give up!!! If you are calculating your calorie burn and intake correctly you are definitely not eating enough. That may seem confusing but when you don't eat enough your body goes into a protective mode where it is trying to prevent starvation so it actually slows down the burn rate much like a bear in hibernation. You don't want to have a negative net calories at the end of the day and you should probably have at least 1000 net.

Then there would be no such thing as people becoming emaciated and starving to death.

Even with some metabolic slow down, if she was eating at the deficit she claims she'd still be losing weight.

She's either seriously underestimating how many calories she's consuming, overestimating her calories burned, or both.

PikaKnight

Looking at your diary.....Way too many starchy carbs!!!! Get your carbs from vegetables and fruits. Stop the processed food, lower your sodium.

lol No. It's not processed foods or carbs that's the issue. It'd be the amount. :laugh:

FatFreeFrolicking

After looking at your diary, it appears you do not use a food scale. You need to weigh EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth.

You also have multiple days of no logging, you are over your calorie goal many days, you consume a lot of sodium, and a lot of alcohol/beer.

PikaKnight

Went back a bit and there were days were nothing was filled out. Did you just not eat those days?

And I notice days where you went over quite a bit. But I'm not sure if this was supposed to be refeed type days because some days were pretty low off your target with exercise.

To clarify, don't you eat your fitbit calories back from Fitbit? I know with Bodymedia, unless you go over the target burn, you don't. But it still works out because of the net amount. To add, it's always good to make sure you are choosing the correct activity levels. Don't go for a large deficit because you are trying to rush things.

But right now, it's looking like you are netting pretty low, which may cause the over days (if they aren't done on purpose for refeeding).

How long have you been stuck at the scale? Have you stop losing in measurements as well? How long for that too?


ETA: You have about 15lbs to go. You should be aiming for a 250 cal deficit, but according to you, you are at almost an 800 cal deficit. A large deficit can hurt you and probably causing you to overeat on the days you've been really over.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

wehave4

I don't have any advice to give but I wanted to say thank you for posting this thread. I am learning a lot. :bigsmile:

jkal1979

Before even trying to adjust your calorie goal or your exercise program you need to work on consistently logging your food. Make sure to use a food scale for all non liquids, don't use generic and homemade entries that are in the database and log everything.

I know sometimes it can be a little confusing trying to figure it all out when using a FitBit. I have found that for me going to the FitBit dashboard or phone app and seeing how many calories are left until I hit my TDEE keeps things in perspective and keeps me on track.

kmb1282

bump

AusEliza

Great information here. I was in the same position a few months ago. I just steadily increased the intensity of my workouts and I was back on track. I think I was being to relaxed with my regime.

lemurcat12

not for nothing- but you are not burning 2300 a day.

I would assume she means that's her TDEE - not 2300 just from exercise, which could be pretty accurate.

I assumed that too. That's what Fitbit tells me and based on math plus results it seems correct. It also means that 1500 calories is a fine deficit depending on what her goal is and how much she has to lose.

logicalloss

Its the food. It's ALWAYS the food. When you watch the biggest loser and those people step on the scale and go "But I worked out so hard..."
It's the food... (sadly they don't show that).
Now I will say it doesn't matter when you eat it or where you eat it... but

It's the food.

lemurcat12

Okay, having looked at the diary, it looks to me like what others are saying: (1) you go over sometimes (I haven't added up how much or how frequently, but enough to matter), and (2) there are lots of unlogged days. I don't know why the days are unlogged, but it seems likely you are eating more on them or food that's difficult to categorize and might not even know. This is apart from whether the logging is accurate, which I didn't look at.

Adding lifting could cause you to retain water, etc., but not enough to mask a loss for 2 months, I don't think. The timing here is probably a coincidence and no reason to stop exercise. You might be overestimating exercise calories a little, but the bigger issue is consistent logging.

You say you were losing 2/week consistently until 2 months ago--for how long and at what weight? It's normal to lose more easily right at first, even with nothing changing.

If you review your food entries then and over the last 2 months, do you see anything that has changed? Are you eating differently or stuff that might be more challenging to log, especially if you are using estimates?

Ideally, I'd say count up the amount logged over the last month and average it to get the real amount you are eating per day, but you can't do that, since you have lots of missing days, so maybe try to be really strict with your logging for a couple of weeks and then assess. The actual deficit seems like it should be fine if you meet your goal consistently.

isabellaverburg

If your doing the weight lifting for fat loss you might as well stop. Weight lifting for weight loss makes little sense. It will help you look better and either help you gain endurance, strength or both but a pound of muscle doesn't burn much more than a pound of fat. It takes a tremendous effort to gain a pound of muscle and even when you do it only burns an extra 5 or 6 calories then a pound of fat PER DAY (yes fat cells are cells and as such have to be maintained and need calories to function). You actually lose a ton more from the workout portion then you do from the fat burning effects of muscling up. If you want to lose weight go for high calorie torching exercise. For instance your going to lose a ton more from an hour long kettle bell exercise program then you would for an hour of lifting weights. Zumba, running, and ellipticals are also up there. You also might get a stall if you have a health problem. I'm a diabetic. It usually makes it hard for me to lose weight. I did everything I was supposed to yet never seemed to lose. Turned out it was mostly due to insulin resistance. What would happen is I'd have to many carbohydrates for my body to handle (which isn't hard since I can only handle half of what a healthy person can). My body would flood with fat storing hormone insulin and it would never release fat burning hormones until those carbs were finally stored and my blood sugar was normal. I found two ways to overcome it. Draconian limitation of carbs and fasting. Since, my body would often refuse to store sugar as fat despite being flooded with insulin and I could have high blood sugar all day. Eating more just added to it and I'd never get low enough for storage to kick in and fat burning to start. Finally I refused to eat and just had water and vitamins until my body began to use the sugar in my blood stream. When I reached a normal blood sugar level it was EASY to drop a pound or two a week. You could have a problem like this or a thyroid problem or any other such problem.

Zaxine

bump