extremely slow weight loss??

MrsTaraDStringer

Hi there everyone,

I'm 23, I've had 2 children, I intake 1350kcal a day, and I exercise 3+ days a week! Yet since February I have only lost 9.5lbs!

HELP! Am I in taking too little calories? Or any other advice!?

fatcity66

I know how you feel. I have been doing everything I'm "supposed to", working out 6 days a week, and have only lost 2 lbs in a month. *sigh* Just trying to be patient and not get discouraged...I might try to increase my exercise duration, or start doing more strength training.

joehempel

Could be your diet, could be that you need to be more intense in your exercise, could be a lot of things.

What types of exercise are you doing and what does your diary look like as far as food goes?

9.5lbs is around 1/2 pound a week on average (I think) and that's not too shabby at all. Did this come off all at once in February or have you been consistently losing, just little by little?

amwbox

Could be your underestimating what your taking in. Are you weighing your food? Accounting for everything, including sauces, coffee creamer, etc etc?

A lot of people swear by eating more if they aren't losing weight, paradoxically enough. You can experiment with that. My personal experience however has been that when I eat less I lose more and when I eat more I lose less. Which seems logical enough to me.

_Zardoz_

.5 of a pound a week considering you have a relatively small amount to lose is a good loss. Just keep doing what your doing as it's working

LivingtheLeanDream

its likely you are actually eating more than you think.
Weigh/measure everything.
religiously log every morsel.

but 1/2lb a week is actually not bad at all, especially if you have less than 20lbs to lose.

So keep on keeping on and you'll get there

MrsTaraDStringer

I'll be the first to admit my diet isn't the best, I don't eat rabbit food. However it's not that bad either, I don't eat pasta or chocolate and rarely eat bread; I don't often eat fast food and we don't often eat out at restaurants.

The first 6lbs came off in the first month and the rest after.

I don't drink tea or coffee or fizzy drinks, I weigh everything, even any butter I have! I don't cook with salt or add sugar to anything.

If I go over my calories I don't go over 1400.. and exercise wise I do spinning (45mins to 1hour a time) and weight loss bootcamp (45mins hia impact aerobics) and walks (if an exercise walk 2hours at a medium pace) and cross trainer/eleptical trainer at home 30-45 mins a time)!

MrsTaraDStringer

And if I want a treat like cake or crisps etc ill have it instead of a meal so it's not on top of my proper food

lemonsnowdrop

I eat all of the things you mentioned not eating and have still consistently lost weight. Everyone is different, but eating those foods won't hurt your progress as long as you stay in a deficit. Do you eat back your exercise calories? You're either overestimating your burns or underestimating your intake.

MrsTaraDStringer

My burns may be a little overestimated as I go by mfp as I don't have a heart rate monitor but I weigh and log all my food, if I get stuff out I find the thing closest to it or if it has packaging I save it and scan it when. I get home

novembersuse

Don't be too discouraged. When I was sticking to 1200 calories for about 3-4 months, I dropped from a UK hefty size 16 to a size 12, and according to the scales I'd only lost 3lb. If you don't like measuring your progress by weight, try using a particular pair of jeans as a yard stick. Or take measurements to see where you're losing inches. You could be building muscle as you loose fat which is distorting your achievements...

joehempel

Try bumping calories up to 14-1500 for a month, see what happens

lemonsnowdrop

My burns may be a little overestimated as I go by mfp as I don't have a heart rate monitor but I weigh and log all my food, if I get stuff out I find the thing closest to it or if it has packaging I save it and scan it when. I get home

That's it, then. If you use MFPs burn estimates, you might want to try eating back half, since they tend to be inflated.

cwoyto123

If weight loss stalls, just do more cardio. Don't drop calories imo.

LivingtheLeanDream

Eat back half your exercise calories MFP over estimates grossly so eating half back will keep you right.
The body does sometimes stall as it gets used to our eating and exercise. Up your calories by 100 to see how that goes.
Any time when I was eating fairly low (like you are now) when I stalled I would up cals by 100 and found I got a loss again.
Mixing up things works too, a different workout. Try some strength training, I highly recommend that for losing inches

MrsTaraDStringer

Surely if I'm correctly logging in all my calories I'm intaking and not going over (or if I do then not by much) my calories; then no matter whether I burn 300 or 600 kcal, I should still be loosing weight consistently?

lemonsnowdrop

Surely if I'm correctly logging in all my calories I'm intaking and not going over (or if I do then not by much) my calories; then no matter whether I burn 300 or 600 kcal, I should still be loosing weight consistently?

If your deficit is 1350 and you eat back 600 calories for exercise when in reality you only burned 300, you only have a deficit of 200 calories (assuming your deficit was 500 calories in the first place). Overestimating burns and eating them all back means less weight loss. So in this scenario you should only eat 1650 calories instead of 1950. It's really difficult to tell with only using MFP's exercise method, so I would play it safe and use common sense (an hour of walking probably won't burn 1000 calories, etc, depending on the person).

aarnwine2013

Surely if I'm correctly logging in all my calories I'm intaking and not going over (or if I do then not by much) my calories; then no matter whether I burn 300 or 600 kcal, I should still be loosing weight consistently?

From my limited experience, it's a process. Some weeks are better than others. What I have learned is not to trust just the scale and keep at it.

I would up my workouts or add intensity. Keep eating and logging and see if that helps. Sometimes the scales take a little more time to reflect the progress we are making.

GiveMeCoffee

HAVE PATIENCE!

You are losing just not at the instant gratification speed most are hoping for. Your diary isn't open so can't see your logging.

MrsTaraDStringer

If your deficit is 1350 and you eat back 600 calories for exercise when in reality you only burned 300, you only have a deficit of 200 calories (assuming your deficit was 500 calories in the first place). Overestimating burns and eating them all back means less weight loss. So in this scenario you should only eat 1650 calories instead of 1950. It's really difficult to tell with only using MFP's exercise method, so I would play it safe and use common sense (an hour of walking probably won't burn 1000 calories, etc, depending on the person).
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I eat 1350 then I exercise I never put in my workouts until I've finished my food for the day so I'm not eating back any calories

MrsTaraDStringer

My diary is set as open so you should be able to see it.. admittedly I did have peanut butter on toast for lunch