Not losing

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wood385
wood385 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 26 years old, 5'4", 144lbs.
I weighed ~135 (which is a good weight for me that I have maintained for 5 years) for my wedding 8 months ago and gained ~15 lbs the 3 months after because I quit working out and continued eating like I was on vacation.
I have since reformed my eating and started working out. After 2 months there was no change so I increased my work outs to 6 days a week and am eating only 1200 calories a day for the last 3 weeks. Still no change.
Any ideas?
One person said workout harder, another says eat more...???

Replies

  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
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    I'd think about body recomp more than the number on the scale. Your BMI is normal.

    Eat at a deficit (TDEE -10-15%), lift weights, accurately measure and track your food.
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
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    6 days a week is plenty to work out, what types of exercises are you doing? If you're not strength training, add it in, the number on the scale may stay the same but your body will look more toned, since you'll lose fat and gain muscle.

    As others said already, are you counting accurately?
  • wood385
    wood385 Posts: 9 Member
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    I used to keep a food diary every day for over a year so I have a pretty good grasp on how many calories I eat but after I wasn't losing weight I started using myfitnesspal again to make sure. My estimations were right on. I have been recording everything for the last 8 days and I average ~1200 a day.
    I've been doing the PopSugar May Bikini Body Challenge for 3 weeks. It is a mix of cardio and strength training. My clothes are still fitting too tight and the scale hasn't budged. Only success is my legs/butt and arms look slightly more toned.
  • momofcolleen
    momofcolleen Posts: 1
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    Well there you go. If your legs/butt etc. look more toned to you, then you are replacing fat with muscle, which weighs more. Throw away the scale and keep doing what you are doing. Eventually the number on the scale will drop, but don't obsess over it...take the good results that you are actually seeing and use that as your motivation.
  • tycho_mx
    tycho_mx Posts: 426 Member
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    The answer is very simple to all the "I am not losing weight" threads:

    You're not consuming less calories than you're burning. We're not plants, autotrophic metabolism is impossible. That's the easy part. It's also the scientifically undeniable, hard truth.

    The hard part is determining why. The usual suspects are discipline and accuracy while logging.

    If you get frustrated enough, like I was, you start ratcheting up the diligence in logging by:

    a) Weighing all foods you consume. A "spoon" is not a measuring spoon unless it is truly sized. A bowl, a cup? Unlikely to be a true 254 ml. measure.
    b) Using reasonable, conservative calorie databases - lots of entries in MFP are wishful thinking.
    c) tracking exercise diligently.
    d) using non-inflated, conservative calorie expenditures for exercises
    e) Using more detailed estimators for your non-exercise metabolism. TDEE not working? You find out what is your actual lean body mass and estimate your basal metabolic rate using that. Still not working? You go to a physiologist and do an air-exchange test to determine your actual metabolic rate based on oxygen consumption.

    Basically, you start getting more and more granular in your analysis until you nail it to your satisfaction. Which means more details, more diligence, and more work.I had a hard time starting to lose weight because I didn't weigh my food accurately, logged inflated exercise, and (trickiest) took a long time to find out that my resting metabolism was lower than average.

    Of note: weight is only one parameter. For most people this is not really the goal (though they think it is). They want to "look good". Muscle looks good, but it's denser than fat. So they become healthier, shapelier, and happier - and weigh more. Nothing wrong with that - unless you're actually trying to lose total mass (e.g. athletes).
  • blb85
    blb85 Posts: 187 Member
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    I feel you!!! Although, I do think my issues come from when I do not log and I have unrealistic expectations for what I am actually eating/drinking. I started to record early February and lost about 6 lbs between Feb and March, but had a lot of life events going on in April and May that it got hard to record, so I stopped. I started to record again two weeks ago and was astonished at how much I actually I was eating calorie wise when I thought I wasn't being as bad... I had also put on 3 lbs as well... Its such a frustrating process knowing that I am way over my average/normal weight and wanting to enjoy life, yet struggling with fitting into clothes and being uncomfortable all around.... I wish there was some sort of magic thing to do to zap the fat away and start fresh!
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
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    Well there you go. If your legs/butt etc. look more toned to you, then you are replacing fat with muscle, which weighs more. Throw away the scale and keep doing what you are doing. Eventually the number on the scale will drop, but don't obsess over it...take the good results that you are actually seeing and use that as your motivation.
    nope, sorry.

    extremely hard(if not impossible) to build muscle and burn fat at the same time, i really wish this was on a banner at the top of every page
  • wood385
    wood385 Posts: 9 Member
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    I think what confuses me most is that I went from Zero (eating junk and not working out) to Eating clean/healthy food and working out 6 days a week and there is no change... that math doesn't make sense.
    I'm not giving up yet mainly because I feel healthier/fitter now and I am willing to ignore the scale if my clothes/appearance will reflect my efforts.
  • tycho_mx
    tycho_mx Posts: 426 Member
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    That's nice. You'll probably feel better and be healthier in the long run. Weight is only one factor. And for sure be patient - it is a gradual change.

    Bananas are yummy. Bananas are natural. Bananas also contain 100 calories each. Add some yummy, natural peanut butter and delicious organic, fair trade granola and your snack is 600 calories.

    Working out... I hope I don't get a lot of grief here but so it goes: it takes a fair amount of training and work to be able to burn 500 calories in a single session. Most people that start working out simply can't: they have to build up to that. Also: resistance training is not a very efficient calorie burner - it is, however, great for reshaping, toning and building muscle.

    My wife had a few frustrating "weight" issues a few years ago. I put that in quotation because it really wasn't: she wasn't happy with how some of her clothes fitted, started working out more (including some "weight management" inefficient work like yoga, but also walking and cycling much more) and eating less empty calories. She lost about 2 lb in a month, but also about 4 inches and was happy again with those clothes.
  • knt6742
    knt6742 Posts: 36
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    Well there you go. If your legs/butt etc. look more toned to you, then you are replacing fat with muscle, which weighs more. Throw away the scale and keep doing what you are doing. Eventually the number on the scale will drop, but don't obsess over it...take the good results that you are actually seeing and use that as your motivation.
    nope, sorry.

    extremely hard(if not impossible) to build muscle and burn fat at the same time, i really wish this was on a banner at the top of every page

    Agreed it makes me cringe anytime someone suggests it.

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