2nd week I haven't lost weight? Lifting and dieting question

Badsumbeech

Hi all,

Thank you for any responses in advance.

Last week I posted when I hadn't lost weight. The general concensus of all responses was that I was holding water weight because I started lifting weights 3 weeks ago. I've been on a 1900 calorie diet. I'm 18, 6ft, 191lbs wih a bmr of 1950. Been on the diet 29 days. I lost 1lb the first week, 1.4 second week, 1.7lbs the third week, stayed the same last week, and stayed the same this week. (Well +0.2)

Should I cut more calories? My sodium levels have been slightly high. Maybe I should drink more water? Also, my food diary is public.

Thanks everyone.

vismal

Are you 100% confident in that 1900 number? Are you weighing all your food on a scale or estimating portion sizes? Are you using things like cups or tablespoons to measure solid food (they are meant for liquid only)? Do you do cheat days or meals? Are you good at logging everything or do you often forget to track things? Do you eat out or have food you did not prepare/weigh yourself on a regular basis? Before you decrease calories, you need to ask yourself all those questions to determine if you need to eat less then what you are eating or if you are actually eating much more then you think. Most men your weight would lose at 1900 calories so I'd take a hard look at how accurate you are being.

Badsumbeech

I feel like I've been very discipline in regards to accuracy. I bought a digital weigh scale. No cheat days or meals which hurts me mentally. I feel like I want to deep fry some catfish for lunch now!! I do log everything. Maybe I'll back some calories off. I've been going to the gym pretty much 5 days a week working out hard, lifting, running, and taking protein after. That's what confuses me.

martinel2099

Definitely what Vismal said+++++

Be careful with eating back exercise calories, fitness pal is notorious for over-estimating calorie burn.

beastmode_kitty

Research IIFYM and get an accurate daily calorie intake as well as macros. Give that a shot for a few weeks and see what happens

MinnieInMaine

Your food diary is not public.

const1ar

ok. you just blew my mind with the measuring cups. Are you telling me that if packaging states a serving size of a solid food is 1 cup, that cannot be measured with regular measuring cups? Is a scale the only way to measure solid foods? As in going by oz? 8 oz to a cup?

BombshellPhoenix

ok. you just blew my mind with the measuring cups. Are you telling me that if packaging states a serving size of a solid food is 1 cup, that cannot be measured with regular measuring cups? Is a scale the only way to measure solid foods? As in going by oz? 8 oz to a cup?

To be accurate yes. Because I promise you I can chop some avacadoes so small I could probably fit a double serving into that measuring cup. Same with any other food. Only thing I ever use measuring cups for are liquids.

You'd be amazed at how many extra calories one can consume by not weighing.

vismal

ok. you just blew my mind with the measuring cups. Are you telling me that if packaging states a serving size of a solid food is 1 cup, that cannot be measured with regular measuring cups? Is a scale the only way to measure solid foods? As in going by oz? 8 oz to a cup?

Yes. Solid foods need to be weighed on a scale. On nutritional facts, even if it says something like 2 cups per serving, there will be a number in parenthesis. This is the serving size in grams. You cannot convert cups to ounces because that conversion is meant for cups to fluid ounces, not solid ounces. Use the number in grams provided in the nutritional info.

Here's an example. I used to eat 1 serving of peanut butter daily. It contains 200 calories and has a serving size of 2 tablespoon (31g). I used to put a spoon in the peanut butter and count each spoonful as 1 tablespoon. Once I started weighing my food, I found that my 2 tablespoons actually weighed about 45-46 grams. I was eating a 50% more then I was tracking. That's 700 calories a week, or about a whole 1lb of fat loss each month. And that was just from 1 food! There are plenty of other foods that once you start weighing, you'll be shocked at how much you've been overeating. Another example, I bought greek yogurt bites that state a serving is 9 bites (41g). When placed on the scale, 5-6 bites usually weigh the 41 grams listed. If you ate the 9 and didn't weigh, you'd be overeating by 33%or more.

MandyJuda

It could also be your macros ratio. I'm unsure of your diet.... but 1900 calories worth of carbohydrates vs 1900 calories of protein/fat/low carbs affect your body very differently.

Also - double check your BMR. 1900 Doesn't seem like enough calories (as long as they're the RIGHT calories) for someone of your size who is working out/lifting. Use this link from Bodybuilding.com: <http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm&gt;

I was in the same boat a few weeks ago and I couldn't figure out why I was ALWAYS hungry... then I realized I wasn't eating enough.

Chevy_Quest

Bump as there is a lot of good information here.

It totally changed my health and fitness life when I started:

1. Weighing my solid foods on a digital scale in grams (I had underestimated my peanut butter intake for example and I was "eyeballing" chicken etc.)

2. Started questioning inflated burns on MFP (The elliptical burns are notoriously high) and then did research on my own for VO2Mmax etc.

3. Only used my HRM for what is was meant to do: measure steady state cardio. I stopped taking the "average" when I circuit trained and did a much lower estimate of calories burned.

4. If I ate a restaurant and I couldn't weigh I would over estimate my calories and pre-plan my day.

vismal

Yeah, when I go out to eat and the restaurant doesn't give nutritional information, I usually try and recreate my meal in MFP then I up the calories and macros of the recreated meal by 10% just to be sure.

Badsumbeech

Thanks for the responses everyone. Really great information. My BMR is correct and I'm not overeating. Maybe I should focus on the nutritional value in my food. I've been eating chips quite often and white bread instead of wheat. But I've been under my calorie goal everyday eating normal and cutting portions. Am I correct with that? Most of my days I'm over on grams of fat and sodium.

BombshellPhoenix

Unless you have a medical condition, white bread and chips are delicious