2 weeks in and not losing weight - disheartened

PK0993

Hi there,

I'm fairly new to all this - I'm 20, and currently at 140lb and wanting to get down to 126lb. For the past two weeks I've been eating around 1400-1500, thought I think quite a few of the days I don't eat back my exercise calories. This is because I feel that the gym machines and MFP overestimate - I just don't believe I've burned 300 calories from 1 hour of cardio and I have no idea how much strength training burns. I'd got it into my head that I'd rather eat less than more.

I work out about 5 times a week for about 1-1.5 hours each time (combination of cardio and strength training) and I've been watching my calorie intake. I walk everywhere. My diary has some information on full days, but I've been a bit lax with updating the past week. When doing social things, like going for a curry or drinks, I always make sure I leave the majority of my calories behind for it.

I don't know if I'm eating too much or too little. It's two weeks in but I'm feeling disheartened that the work I've put in just isn't paying off. I only am going to weigh myself every 2-3 weeks. I checked the TDEE counter and I should apparently be eating 1700 but that sounds like so much, too much for me so I'd just put on weight.

There is just so much conflicting information that I feel overwhelmed and don't know what to do. In the past, only eating 1200 has got me to lose weight and I know that's just unsustainable. I would really appreciate some pointers as I'm feeling pretty useless Thanks!

126siany

If you want to lose 14 pounds, hopefully you set your goal at losing .5lb per week.

If you aren't logging EVERYTHING, it's very difficult to give you advice on what to change other than to start logging everything, every day.

JoeCampbell85

The first step is religious adherence to logging. There is no way that you know what you are eating without it. Until you have 95-100% adherence to logging then you are really fighting an uphill battle. Start with logging accurately, with a scale, every time you put ANYTHING in your mouth (don't log pens if you are a chewer ) for 2-4 weeks. Then see how it's working.

Failing to log your nights out will almost always result in over consumption, especially if you were on a deep calorie deficit the days before and restricted your intake all day in an attempt to counteract it. You are gonna be hungry and that generally results in over consumption.

smarieallen85

Have you had experience losing weight before or is this the first time you've tried? Also, are there benefits to only weighing yourself that infrequently?

Maybe it's just taking awhile for your metabolism to pick up.

PK0993

Thank you for the quick responses!

I should say that on days I don't keep track on MFP I have a mental idea of how much I'm eating or write it down, but will definitely keep this up! By drinking a lot more water, I've not been overconsuming I don't think. If I go out for a drink, my maximum is two and if it's a takeaway (which is rare) then I leave about half the day's calories behind.

I'm mainly concerned about the TDEE thing and how many calories to eat. Somehow eating back exercise calories seems really scary - if I log exercise I always log it as less time just in case, but even so I'm just afraid to eat them back which is really silly!

Thank you again for your responses

PK0993

Have you had experience losing weight before or is this the first time you've tried? Also, are there benefits to only weighing yourself that infrequently?

Maybe it's just taking awhile for your metabolism to pick up.

The first time healthily - I did 1200 for a couple months before but it made me miserable. Other times I've lost weight have been during stressful periods, and that's taken me down to weights like 7 stone which is awful. Maybe I'm just being impatient. I feel a lot better in myself, my cardio/strength are definitely improving a little. It's just the number on the scale!

I live away from home and I don't have my own scale, whereas my parents do. I thought maybe weighing myself every 2-3 weeks when I visit would be better?

Booda101

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

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think


Get a digital scale and weigh everything. Log consistently. Have patience.

smarieallen85

Buy a scale and weigh every day or every 2 days in the morning. If you think about it you really should not have lost more than 2 pounds in these 2 weeks.

If you had been weighing yourself for the past 2 weeks you may have noticed a trend like you lost a pound the first week but maybe got your period (are you female?) the second and put it back...(In cases of menstruation and even ovulation you can hold on to 1-5 extra pounds). If you had seen it you would feel less disheartened.

SLLRunner

Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

zithura

I will have to agree PK0993. In fact I know so now. I do any where from 30 to 60 min on my elliptical machine. Today for the first time I wore a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) and saw the difference. I did 30 min on the elliptical and the machine read 472 calories burned where the HRM read 285. That is a huge difference.

I was very disheartened myself, I am at just over 2 weeks (16 days to be exact) and have lost a total of 1 lb. I set my calorie goals at 2 lbs per week weight loss and stick within 50 calories of allowance. With this new data I can see that I was only obtaining a .5 lb per week weight loss.

I believe the TDEE is correct I just feel the workout machines at the gym give higher readings to keep people happy and coming back.

Things I do:
- Enter everything. If it isn't in the database then I build it by known ingredients.
- Be consistent. Do your workouts at the same time every/other day, make it routine.
- Don't give up. I do my workouts at 5am and sometimes I just don't want to get out of bed.
- Weigh no more than once a week. It fluctuates so much day to day with a lot of variables.

SLLRunner

And please pay no attention to this logging nonsense. You can lose weight without logging. Just eat the good food and avoid the bad.

This is bull as well.

Nobody said you can't lose weight without logging, but you certainly can't lose weight unless you eat less than you burn and logging is an excellent way to get a handle on how many calories you are taking in and burning.

OP, go down to success stories and read how these people lost weight. It's ALWAYS calories in/calories out, and many people choose exercise as well.

Eating less than you burn, no matter what your medical history or condition, sometimes with adjustments for thyroid and/or hormonal problems, works every single time.

JoeCampbell85

And please pay no attention to this logging nonsense. You can lose weight without logging. Just eat the good food and avoid the bad.

This is bull as well.

Nobody said you can't lose weight without logging, but you certainly can't lose weight unless you eat less than you burn and logging is an excellent way to get a handle on how many calories you are taking in and burning.

OP, go down to success stories and read how these people lost weight. It's ALWAYS calories in/calories out, and many people choose exercise as well.

Eating less than you burn, no matter what your medical history or condition, sometimes with adjustments for thyroid and/or hormonal problems, works every single time.

SLL is right. It's calories in < calories out. Even in hormonal cases such as PCOS or thyroid, the degree of difference between calories in and calories out may need to change, but its still the sum.

You don't NEED to log. Your body doesn't check to see if you logged your MFP for the day before it starts its B-oxidation of fatty acids. Logging does greatly, greatly increase the likelihood of success.

melliebee

You have only been at it for two weeks? Don't expect miracles over night! It takes time for your body to start changing! You don't have loads of weight to lose, so it's not going to just fall off. Eat good, healthy food, pay attention to your daily calorie deficit, exercise and be active. Most of all, stay consistent and don't give up.

JoeCampbell85

Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

Really?

So say you take 100 people who need to lose weight. Divide them into two groups of 50. Both groups eat 2,000 calories a day.

The first group eats donuts and bagels and orange juice for breakfast, and pasta for lunch and dinner, washed down with Coke and complimented with nacho chips.

The second group has an egg and cheese or Greek Yogurt for breakfast, eats grilled chicken for lunch with avocado and lots of veggies for lunch, and fish with salad for dinner. No Coke. Snacks are almonds and cashews.

So you would have to be a complete idiot to think that the bagel/donut group is going to have the same results as the fish/chicken group after a couple of weeks, wouldn't you? It's called common sense.

GOOGLE "A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE!"

Google "Moon landing a hoax." Just cause you can google it doesn't mean it's true. A K-state professor made the twinkie diet famous by eating only candy and twinkies and loss a considerable amount of weight. Now it harmed is health but that's not the question. He still lost weight by eating at a calorie deficit.

thin4me59

How are your clothes feeling? Have you taken measurements? Perhaps you are adding muscle with your workouts and losing inches, but not weight. I was always told to go by how toned you are as muscle weighs more than fat. I am not sure but wanted to add something as I wasn't losing weight but my clothes are much looser.

cassique

Something I learned the hard way. Keeping a mental running record does not work when it comes to weight loss or money management. I know it is time consuming and tedious, especially in the beginning, but just being aware of calories before and while you are consuming them, and being able to look it over after you consumed them to make necessary changes works like magic.

No matter how on top of it you think you are, there is always something that will get missed, or skewed, or "double dipped". And unless you can review the data you will never know where those calories came from (or where your money went). I use the money analogy because I was always pretty good about logging calories every time I wanted to lose weight and always had success. That came easy to me, but it wasn't until the past year that I started keeping track of my finances in the same meticulous way. I always thought I had an income problem because I felt like I worked so hard and never had any money and I never "spent anything why am I always broke". Well it wasn't until I started tracking every penny as a spent it (on my cell phone so it is input as the transaction was happening), that I realized the .99 here and $2.00 there was my problem. Not the $300 electric bill. Once I started paying attention making smart choices came naturally with very little sacrifice. In fact, I felt like I was doing nothing differently except for logging my income and outflows, yet I was getting rich. Why? Because I plugged the holes I never knew existed.

The same is true with calories. When I input the information for the 1 M&M I stick in my mouth as it "melts in my mouth not in my hands" (showing my age there?) it makes it very easy for me to then put a limit on how many more M&Ms I decide to consume. Is it worth the calories for 1 more? Without logging it as I am eating it, it is so much easier to trick myself into thinking "just one more" doesn't make a difference.

Going out is difficult. And yes I am the annoying dining guest who is googling nutrition information on my phone as I wait for my food to come (I do my best to try and plan ahead before I go, but sometimes things just happen on a whim). But I have to be aware. Even if I know I am going to eat the whole thing no matter what, and that it is going to make me go over calories for the day, as long as I am fully aware that this is sending me over budget in my daily calories then I can make adjustments the next day--lower calories, more cardio, to make sure I end my week with a deficit. Weekly averages are my main goal. Yes, I have daily goals, but I refuse to deprive myself. Ordering in lunch at work is not worth the calories the same way that going out to eat with my family is, so those are the choices I can make when I am doing it with all of the necessary information.

As far as accurate measuring and weighing. This is very helpful but not always practical. The point is to get an accurate idea of what a portion size is, so weighing and measuring whenever you can will help you be a better judge of accurate portions when you can't do that. When I go out for a burger and fries in a city pub I've never been to before I have to eyeball it to make the best assessment I can. Weighing at the table is impossible, but getting an idea of the diameter by comparing it to say, my phone, or something that I know the measurements for helps. It will only be an estimate at best, but the goal is to try to be a better estimator, and without a context, making a reasonable estimate is impossible.

If you can't afford a food scale there are some rough guidelines that I know Weight Watchers uses. Things like a pair of dice is similar to an ounce of cheese, or a deck of cards is 4oz of meat. While this isn't ideal it is a good starting point. It is better to weigh solids then to measure, but if you can get an accurate idea of how much a cup of your favorite pasta weighs you will be in a better position to estimate servings. I've done pretty well with my estimating, but every once in a while I have to go back and double check to make sure I am still on target, so I will go back to weighing.

Just try obsessive logging for a few weeks. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how other things start to fall into place when that happens.