If I am at a deficit, why am I not losing weight?

GypsieFlower94

I'm not trying to say it is impossible for me to lose weight at all, or that I'm perfect and not doing anything wrong etc.

I have had my cheat days, but even if I do I try to keep my week at the correct total, i.e I would eat less the next day or exercise it off, etc.

I try my best to weigh everything correctly, or scan things I can't, and I try avoid eating anything I can't properly track to make sure I am not eating more than I am supposed to.

I can guarantee, even if my entries are just estimates (scanning or picking from a list instead of weighing) I am never eating at any less than a 100 deficit on any given day, my goal is at about a 400-500 deficit.

I also exercise for at leats an hour 3 times a week besides the last 2 weeks just gone as I was sick, so I think I only went one or twice a week.

I haven't been to the doctor yet about whether it is a thyroid problem, he says I look fit so I shouldn't worry anyway, but that isn't the point. I want to lose weight for me.

Does anyone have any tips or opinions on what I may be doing wrong?

I don't care about criticism, I just want to get on the right track, so any help at all is greatly appreciated. I am getting very demotivated, and I don't want to give up, but I don't know why I am not losing anything.

mth481

Hi.

How long have you been at a plateau? Some people hit that plateau and need to change up their exercise regimen. Have you tried interval training (HIIT) when you exercise? It usually helps improve the metabolism.

Mr_Knight

I can guarantee, even if my entries are just estimates (scanning or picking from a list instead of weighing) I am never eating at any less than a 100 deficit on any given day...

Nope, sorry, you can't guarantee that at all.

JennyHollyHansen

In my opinion one should not try to exercise off the extra eating they have done. If you are eating bad you are eating a lot calories. Work out machines and MFP give generous amounts of calories burn counts but it is not relevant how the body works for women. Exercise builds he muscle and will change the shape of your body. What you eat will change the amount of fat on your body. Your muscles can not eat up all the fat created by eating bad food. If you can not lose weight doing what you are doing then change it up. Not losing weight is your body's way of telling you change your eating.

I have hypo thyroid. If your doctor will not give you the blood test then go to a clinic or change doctors. How you look means nothing about the state of your thyroid. Do you get yellow around your eyes or mouth? do you get panic attacks? those are obvious signs of hypo thyroid.

bevmcarthur

DO you eat every 2 or so hours do you eat veggies and good fats and drink lots of water?

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Dianawmom

have you thought about surviver mode...basically the body keeps any calories and turns it into fat because of not properly eating. you say you dont eat over a 100 deficit a week and make up for it on another day by eating less..maybe you shouldnt yo-yo eat, it is confusing your body eat a certain amount per day instead of making up for things. hope this helps you

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mereditheve

You can't actually be at a deficit if you aren't losing weight.

Either you aren't burning as many calories as you think you are (most likely) or your calorie estimates are off, or a combination of the two.

You mention "cheat days" ... which leads me to ask, are you logging those calories? Your body doesn't get a 24-hour free-for-all, you know. Cheat days are for the "I'll have a dessert and go over by 300 calories" ... not a "I'll eat everything I want to eat even if it triples my calorie intake" In my opinion, it is better to be consistent, especially when starting out.

Also, the amount of exercise you say you're doing would make me still consider you sedentary. If you are listing yourself as active, you may be overestimating your caloric needs.

daynerz

Could be your water? you maybe you've hit a plateau, incorporate longer excercise or another activity, slow and steady, always allow your body the opportunity to break a plateau

a_stronger_me13

If you aren't losing weight, you aren't in a deficit. Simple as that.

Reasons why you aren't in a deficit:
1) You are underestimating how much you eat. Solution: Weigh all solids, measure all liquids. OR
2) You just have your calorie goal set too high in general for how active you are. Solution: Knock 100-200 cals off your daily goal for a week or two and see what happens with the scale.
3) Both option 1) and 2)

mereditheve

As a follow up to my previous comment... I just saw that you have your food diary open so I took a look.

You're routinely at 200-600+ OVER your goal. This is why you aren't losing weight. Also, everyone is different, but skipping meals is not the best practice for weight loss... when you don't eat regularly, you become lethargic and your workouts will be suboptimal.

Since you are still very young, you should eat balanced meals and focus on nutrition first (this is good advice at any age, but it is so important when your body is still developing and building bone density, muscles, etc.) You are also at a good time in your life to push your workouts a little bit more than someone who is, say in their 60s. Exercise more, eat better.

HerkMeOff

DO you eat every 2 or so hours do you eat veggies and good fats and drink lots of water?

Why would she have to eat every two hours?

honkytonks85

First of all it can take time for the scales to go down, because your weight fluctuates by up to several kilograms (or pounds) throughout the day. Without having told us how long it has been it could possibly be that you're expecting too much too soon.

If you have not lost any weight and it has been a long time, then the reason is that you either have a medical condition (unlikely) or that your TDEE is lower than what MFP says it is. Remember MFP doesn't actually know your TDEE, it just takes an estimate based on your height/weight and activity level.

You might try working on building lean muscle mass rather than losing weight. The higher your body fat %, the lower your metabolism will be sadly.

CMB1979

If you are not losing weight, you are not at a deficit.
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/

spalunker

Your "cheat day" is the one where you had a Big Mac, Quarter Pounder With Cheese AND a 6pack of nuggets with fries and coke for dinner alone I assume? Aside from that issue, you don't have any water logged -only coke- and your carbs are the majority of your meals (unhealthy grains, not even good carbs from veggies). I don't mean to sound critical at all, sorry if it comes across that way. Try having your menu divided into 5%carbs, 70%fat, 25% protein to get into ketosis. Drink a quart of water, limit your processed foods (crumpets and boxed meals) and additives like sugar so you aren't wasting precious calories on something working against you. Once you lose what you need to, start upping your carbs a little. You have youth and it's metabolism on your side! You'll get there

jmkmomm

I am not an expert on weight loss at ll, in fact I have more plateaus than I care to speak of but maybe you aren't eating the right things. I looked at your diary and a meal from McDonalds consisting of french fries, Big Mac, 6 piece Chicken McNugget, and double cheeseburger isn't the healthiest meal especially since you don't eat much for your other meals. Also you don't record any water, how much are you drinking?

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myfitnesspale3

Your food diary seems ok/believable. Try setting your activity level lower and use the lower calculated TDEE to determine your weekly calorie goals.

I notice your carbs are not low. FYI I didn't make much progress losing weight until I lowered all carbs under 30g for a couple days, then kept it under 50g. It was easy but boring. No fruit bread rice cereal sugar potatoes milk - no hunger pangs. All the meat and and fats you want. Porks rinds and deli meat - no honey-ham etc.

milocamolly

How much water are you drinking? At first I wasn't losing weight while eating at a deficet but then I upped my water intake to 3 liters a day and almost instantly I seen a drop,

fatcity66

There is some great advice in this thread! As well as some advice that is way off base and not backed by evidence...

I know sometimes I don't see any weight loss for 10 days or even 2 weeks, and then I will lose 2-3 lbs over 2 days. Also, during that TOM I gain 2-3 lbs without fail, and then if comes off as soon as I get my period. Take these things into consideration, give yourself time, and then adjust your plan if you're still not seeing results.

Springfield1970

Because you are not at a deficit. Nothing to do with water, or what type of food you eat, or when you eat it, or what you are wearing while you are eating it.

You're eating too much, not logging accurately, or overestimating your maintenance calories, or your exercise burns.

What is your height, weight, age and average exercise routine weekly?

I can try and help you dial it in.

MyChocolateDiet

thyroidism

pcos

certain meds

things that make you not lose weight even when everything is perfect.

Aaron_K123

First question is how long have you been tracking your calories and hitting your deficit for? If it is less than 6 weeks you probably just haven't given it enough time.

Honestly I think people are too quick to jump to solutions before bothering to ascertain if there is actually a problem. I see lots of people posting on these forums about how they aren't losing weight when they have only been at it for like 2 or 3 weeks, a length of time where really it is impossible to tell through weight fluctuations associated with water retention whether you are losing fat or not.

initialdei

Here's a suggestion for one of your workout days.
Your cardio workouts must be high intensity in order to lose fat.

Try this:

8 Second sprints
12 Second moderate pace (rest)
Repeat 2 more times.
So, 8+12 = seconds
20 x 3 = 60 seconds (1min)

Now do that do for 20minutes straight.
It won't be easy and you will die.

Have fun..

MyChocolateDiet

Here's a suggestion for one of your workout days.
Your cardio workouts must be high intensity in order to lose fat.

Try this:

8 Second sprints
12 Second moderate pace (rest)
Repeat 2 more times.
So, 8+12 = seconds
20 x 3 = 60 seconds (1min)

Now do that do for 20minutes straight.
It won't be easy and you will die.

Have fun..

have fun dying?

Springfield1970

Here's a suggestion for one of your workout days.
Your cardio workouts must be high intensity in order to lose fat.

Try this:

8 Second sprints
12 Second moderate pace (rest)
Repeat 2 more times.
So, 8+12 = seconds
20 x 3 = 60 seconds (1min)

Now do that do for 20minutes straight.
It won't be easy and you will die.

Have fun..

have fun dying?

I wish MY first post was as funny as this one!

Myhaloslipped

I just looked at your diary for the past week. The majority of your diet seems to be comprised mostly of junk food, fast food and high calorie items with minimal nutritional value. As someone stated earlier, you are also consistently over your calories by 200-600. Treats are fine, but you can't have them all day every day and expect to lose and feel satisfied. Try incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet and focus on meeting your macros while staying under or meeting your calorie goal. I usually pre-plan my meals and play around with the macros and calories using the database until I adjust my daily goals to my liking. Good luck!

goldthistime

There are several key concepts you must understand to start to assess why this may be happening, and let's first start with the word deficit. Normally deficit means to people I'm eating less calories than my body is burning; however, there's no way to verify that because the calculations used to determine TDEE are incredibly error prone. Additionally BMR (the largest component) can change +- 25% according to caloric intake. This is one of the many ways the body can adjust caloric expenditure without having to touch fat stores. This leads to the next distinction that eating "at a deficit" does not equate to burning fat. On top of BMR the body can increase efficiency of both digestion and of expenditure to balance the equation. Thirdly, while we like to use deficit this last point drives home that our body is never actually at a deficit as the conservation of energy tells us the net caloric change is always zero. Of course the goal is to eat less, exercise more, lose more fat but these can be independent as shown.

The next thing that you need to understand is that small changes in caloric intake have no scientific evidence of causing long term weight change - both up and down. Studies on thermogenic substances that increase BMR by 100 or so calories a day have no evidence of weight loss. Studies in general that small deficits don't have any long term effects. And for observational evidence the average American eats 300 excess calories a day yet only gains .75 lbs per year. The end result is that 100 - 500 calorie "deficits" may very well not equate to long term fat losses.

So obviously the next question is, so what do I do? The only way to scientifically guarantee weight loss is to get your BMR measured while in caloric deficit and eat at or below that number. I'm not a fan of the "just exercise more club" because that puts more strain on your body creating more nutritional demand. Additionally evidence from examples like "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" show us that extreme exercise isn't required. I'm not saying don't exercise or don't push yourself and by all means you should take a hard look at the exercise you're doing, but don't feel you have to go to the gym for 12 hours a week. Now if you're watching TV and/or holding hand rails while doing a bunch of cardio you need to take a serious look at changing your workout. You should be incorporating plenty of weights into your workouts (i.e. Olympic lifts and full body routines).

References:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1208051

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/292/1/R77

http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/7/1/68

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad347.pdf

MFP wisdom says ALWAYS eat above your BMR. Eating below it is dangerous to you health. You disagree? Sorry, I did not read all your quoted sources before asking the question. Which one of these, if any, pertains to eating at or below you BMR?

joelann10

I just looked at your diary for the past week. The majority of your diet seems to be comprised mostly of junk food, fast food and high calorie items with minimal nutritional value. As someone stated earlier, you are also consistently over your calories by 200-600. Treats are fine, but you can't have them all day every day and expect to lose and feel satisfied. Try incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet and focus on meeting your macros while staying under or meeting your calorie goal. I usually pre-plan my meals and play around with the macros and calories using the database until I adjust my daily goals to my liking. Good luck!

This! ^

TrailRunner61

This is a bunch of random stuff, but here goes. Don't estimate anything. Move more. Eat healthier, fewer processed foods, if you eat that stuff now. One thing that works for me is to eat whatever I want on Friday night and the rest of the week I am very strict with my calories. They may, rarely, like this week, include an entire Hershey bar covered in almond butter, but I know how many calories I eat. I weigh my food, and don't measure it. There is actually a big difference, especially when you're trying to eat at a deficit. That would not work for everyone, but it works for me and I don't feel deprived. Eat protein with every meal. What do you do for exercise? Maybe you can increase the duration or intensity. I try to get in some sort of exercise EVERY single day. It doesn't have to be a full blown workout but I at least go for a walk, work in my garden/yard, play with grandkids, do some crazy cleaning, etc. It all adds up!

Edited to add: If you are only at a 100 calorie deficit, you will lose less than one pound per month, @3000 calories. It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound!