Not losing much weight

Juliebishop1974
Juliebishop1974 Posts: 2
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,

Just looking for some help and tips really.

Been using My Fitness Pal for three weeks and stuck to it religiously, the first week I put in to lose 1lb pr week and it gave me a calorie intake of 2380 - I lost five pound after a week passed. The second week I stayed on the same calories and stayed the same weight after weighing in. I was a bit fed up with no weight loss so I increased my weight loss goal to 2lb a week and my calories changed to 1800 pr day, ive weighed in this week and put on 1lb - help how can this be??? Im not exercising massively as im clearly not fit enough to yet but I am walking daily for about 45 mins each time. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks Julie x

Replies

  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    Probably just water retention. It takes time for your body to adjust. Some people don't see a change for the first 4-6weeks. Be patient.

    Are you drinking enough?
  • November_Fire
    November_Fire Posts: 165 Member
    An intake of 2380 sounds very high for someone who isn't exercising. I find MFP's calculators confusing to be honest - they always tell me to eat 1200 no matter what regime I'm doing (um, no!) and even on days where I over-eat the site tells me I'll be 48kg in a month. Or something.

    Anyway, I use a seperate TDEE calc, which gives me a figure of 1300 to stay alive, then my personal routines of muchos walking put it to about 1700 to maintain my weight - I was on 1450-1500 when I lost the weight. When I run, cycle, go on any additional walks or hikes and strength train, I add the additional calories on.

    I'm probably smaller than you so these aren't your figures, obviously, but you could do with taking another look at the numbers. Find out what your BMR is - basic metabolic rate - and on top of that goes your general activity level. Yours would be 'sedentary' if you're not exercising. That number is your maintenance number - eat 15% less than it.

    (you can set that number as a custom MFP goal.)

    Now you have your number, you need to stick at it. Weigh your food (don't just throw in 'a serving' of cereal, or 'some' cheese), and double check the labels against the amounts that pop up on screen. Add your recipes manually, don't just select some random person's pasta surprise. Butter on your toast, sugar in your tea, fruit, veg, low-cal yoghurt - log them. That way, you'll know you're sure at the end of the week, two weeks, that if you've lost too fast or too slow you can adjust the number. I lost too fast, as I considered my daily walking to be 'sedentary', and it wasn't really (I go quite fast, up hills, 5-6 miles a day.) So it will need tweaking, but the calculators are a good place to start.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    An intake of 2380 sounds very high for someone who isn't exercising. I find MFP's calculators confusing to be honest - they always tell me to eat 1200 no matter what regime I'm doing (um, no!) and even on days where I over-eat the site tells me I'll be 48kg in a month. Or something.

    Standard MFP method does not consider your exercise at all. You may state how many hours you wish to exercise but it's not taken into consideration to determine your daily intake. Your intake is determined by your non-exercise activity level (do you sit at a desk all day - sedentary, or are you a bike messenger - very active), and how many lbs per week you say you want to lose. You then add your exercise calories in manually which will increase your deficit, or earn you more calories to eat. If you input 2 lbs to lose per week but do not weigh enough to support the 1000 calorie per day deficit this requires, MFP gives you the minimum it'll give anyone - 1200 calories per day. If you weigh little, to see a different daily goal than 1200 calories you'd need to change your weekly weight loss goal or add exercise calories. I'm not recommending you change what you're doing since it's working. Just explaining the way the site you've chosen to use traditionally works
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    Hi everyone,

    Just looking for some help and tips really.

    Been using My Fitness Pal for three weeks and stuck to it religiously, the first week I put in to lose 1lb pr week and it gave me a calorie intake of 2380 - I lost five pound after a week passed. The second week I stayed on the same calories and stayed the same weight after weighing in. I was a bit fed up with no weight loss so I increased my weight loss goal to 2lb a week and my calories changed to 1800 pr day, ive weighed in this week and put on 1lb - help how can this be??? Im not exercising massively as im clearly not fit enough to yet but I am walking daily for about 45 mins each time. Any help would be really appreciated.

    Thanks Julie x

    Weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you will lose more (like 5 lbs a week when you were meant to lose 1), or less. Keep eating at a comfortable level. 2300 doesn't sound high to me at all. If you prefer to lose 1 lb per week go ahead and stick with that. You may wish to get a food scale to make sure you're accurately measuring your food intake, but really I'd say keep doing what you're doing and long term you will continue to see results

    Read these if you have not already:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1296011-calorie-counting-101

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