Not losing weight after 2 months..HELLLLLP MEEEEE
marefoote
Posts: 2 Member
Hello. I have read many posts and wonderful replies, but I feel like I am an anomaly! I started logging my food VERY EXACTLY since the beginning of July (2 months ago). I also started training with a trainer at that time. At least three days a week I do strengthening and cardio, and a couple days I do only cardio. When I do cardio I do HIT (high-intensity) meaning I bike (at the gym) at a decent pace, sweating, and then do "sprints" to up my heart rate, let it drop down and do that again. I only do this for 20 mins but it is intense. The strength training days, for example, would be like 3 sets of 15 reps of each : Squats with 10 pound weights on bosu ball-like thing, chest press with weights on ball, lunges back and forth (12 each leg 3 times) and rows. I then go to the leg press machine and do 3 sets there. Yes, I am getting strong. I also stay within my calories which work out to be 1260 (I was on 1600 at first, lowered it to 1400 because I did not lose, and then lowered it again to 1260). I think I have lost 2% body fat if the device is correct at the gym. I KNOW I am gaining muscle which is more dense but I am not losing at all, and I don't want to be a 180-pound muscle. I should weigh about 150-160. I looked over my weeks and averaged out my days and the AVERAGE still stays at about 1260-1300 (NET calories). I do have a slow thyroid but take medication and it is normal on medication. I am at a loss as to what is the matter with me that I am not losing. Most days I eat well but even on the days I slack, and I do log it I still average out in that week to be at goal for the week. I put in to lose 1.5 pounds per. What the heck is the matter with me folks?
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Replies
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If after 2 months you are not losing weight, you are consuming too many calories.
1) Work out your BMR + TDEE, Then minus say 10, 15, or 20 % from your TDEE depending on your goals
2) Log everything
3) A lot of people purchase a food scale
4) Drink more water
5) Up your protein, and good fats, try to lower your carbs a bit - All not necessary as it is calories in v's calories out.
But if I wasn't losing after two months - I would do the same ^^^^0 -
Your diary is closed, if you don't want to open it please tell us how many grams of fat, protein and carbs you eat on average per day.
The focus on "net calories" can be deceiving if the calorie burns are overestimated.
In general 25 - 35 % protein is better for weight loss than 15%.
How many days off exercise do you have per week - exercise causes stress which can impair weight loss, you need some time to repair and recompose.0 -
Whilst this is a good idea MFP is the wrong place to do it. Take your bf% and use a tool that calculates from that rather than from weight.If after 2 months you are not losing weight, you are consuming too many calories.
1) Work out your BMR + TDEE, Then minus say 10, 15, or 20 % from your TDEE depending on your goals
The other thing to do is calculate your weekly training calorific burn and devide that across all seven days. That way you can have a sensible amount of food every day and a consistent level of nutrients throughout the week rather than the up and down calorific intake that MFP tends to make happen.2) Log everything
3) A lot of people purchase a food scale
Yep very good advice4) Drink more water
As long as you're drinking a sensible amount of water don't worry about it. People get very fussy about this5) Up your protein, and good fats, try to lower your carbs a bit - All not necessary as it is calories in v's calories out.
Ok this last bit is terrible advice.
Once you have your daily calorie intake you then need to calculate your macros. You want at least .7g of protien per lb of lean weight (4 calories/gram) and .35g of fat per lb of lean weigth (9 calories/gram). The rest of your calories are then used up with carbs.
The reason this is important is that whilst you want to lose weight you want to lose body fat whilst maintaining your lean muscle mass. Having enough protein and fat in your body throughout the day will help maintain your muscle. If you don't do this your training (which sounds like a decent start) will cause you to lose lots of muscle as well.
My only other advice is to start lifting heavy, look to do a powerlifting style program. (you won't get big and bulky, for that to happen you would have to eat like a horse, lift every day and probably take steroids, it will lean you out and give you well shaped hard muscles). It sounds like the intensity of your lifting isn't high enough and the weights aren't high enough.
For an example my wife (who trains with me) is 193lbs and roughly 40% body fat and her wokout looks like this
Deadlift 45kgs x8, 55kgs x6, 65kgs x5, 70kgs x5, 75kgs x5, 80kgs x3, 85kgs x3, 90kgs x2, 95kgs x1
Power Cleans 20kgs x10, 22.5kgs x10, 15kgs x10
Seated Row 30kgs x10, 32.5kgs x10, 35 kgs x10
Assisted Pullups (as nither of us can do real ones yet) 1 Drop set. (Set the machine to the hardest you can manage and rep until failure, set the machine on the next easiest weight and go again. Do this all the way down the weigths until the lowes seting)
HIIT training: Hand Cycle Active 20s, slow 10s 8 Reps, 2 Cycles.
This is jsut one of the days she lifts 4 times a week the other days are focused on eithes legs (Squats), shoulder (Pushpress), or Chest (Bench Press) and allt he other exercises change.
Each week the weight goes up and the reps reduce slightly and this help us build to bigger and bigger 1RM in each big lift.
The HIIT training is all picked to be the activity that uses the muscles not worked in the lifting session as HIIT training after lifting with that muscle group causes muscles damage.
The workout takes about an hour plus the HIIT training as much longer than that and it starts to do more damage than good.
It works for us0 -
the AVERAGE still stays at about 1260-1300 (NET calories)
Here's where the issue is probably coming in.
MFP, and most things, massively overestimate the amount of calories actually burned by exercise. How many calories are you eating non-net?0 -
are you using a food scale?0
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80% of weight loss happens in the kitchen.
as the other posters have said, get scales, weigh your food. Its likely you are eating far more than you think.
Only eat back around half of your exercise calories and be patient - once you start being more consistent with your intake you will start losing weight.
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80% of weight loss happens in the kitchen.
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With your diary closed, it's hard to tell but you're probably eating too much0
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I had a plateau for 6 weeks although I had been training hard (weights). The scale didn't budge. Funnily enough when I went on holiday for 8 days where I blissfully did absolutely nothing I had lost 2 pounds when I came back. I just lay around at the beach and ate without writing everything down. I drank 2 beers every evening, had chips in that week and some cake. Now the weight is continually coming off again. I think my body just needed a rest from exercising and counting. It is in some way, I think, psychological. I was all tense and so driven to lose.
Maybe you just need to relax.0 -
I think I have the same issue. I think if your thyroid is slow, weight loss is harder....PERIOD. I have had hell losing most of my adult life. I don't know the answers but I do know that some people really do lose at a slower rate than others. I had half of my thyroid removed several years ago and doctors refuse to put me on meds even though I show a lot of low thyroid symptoms. Weight loss is very hard...VERY HARD. I'm rambling, but I am struggling as well. You aren't alone.0
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I think I have the same issue. I think if your thyroid is slow, weight loss is harder....PERIOD. I have had hell losing most of my adult life. I don't know the answers but I do know that some people really do lose at a slower rate than others. I had half of my thyroid removed several years ago and doctors refuse to put me on meds even though I show a lot of low thyroid symptoms. Weight loss is very hard...VERY HARD. I'm rambling, but I am struggling as well. You aren't alone.
switch docs. I did. made all the difference.
to OP-
1) double check your logging. You must use a scale, sorry.
2) don't use MFP calorie estimates. Runkeeper, MapMyFitness, Polar, all do a much better job of estimating your calorie burn. Use MFP only if you have absolutely no other ways to estimate the calorie burn.
3) you said you have a personal trainer. Did you get a body composition analysis? It's possible you lost 2 or 4 lbs of fat and then gained 2 lbs of muscle with the trainer, leaving you with a small weight loss that's within the errors of water retention but represents improved body composition.
4) imagine the possible consequence if you had lived the same 2 months without a trainer and with no effort to change your diet or log your food....you are probably better off even if you didn't lose weight as you hoped.0 -
Do you use a heart rate monitor for your cardio? A few years ago I was in your shoes, and when I bought my HRM, I found out that MFP grossly overestimates calories burned when it comes to exercise. I manually enter my cardio, now, and it seems to be working.0
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1) double check your logging. You must use a scale, sorry.
^This2) don't use MFP calorie estimates. Runkeeper, MapMyFitness, Polar, all do a much better job of estimating your calorie burn. Use MFP only if you have absolutely no other ways to estimate the calorie burn.
Not so much this.
I have found that MapMyRun (same people as MapMyFitness) way overestimates my calorie burn, more than MFP by quite a bit -- a hundred to hundreds of cals depending on the length of my workout. You can use MFPs estimates for calories burned but only eat back half of them.0 -
I found scoobys workshop discussion of calories burned by exercise and during exercise really helpful. it would seem that for many people they combine the two and that appears to be what MFP does as well but really if you are going to eat back calories it would be that you only want to eat back the calories burned by the actual exercise itself and that honestly seems to be about half of what MFP allows. If you have a chance taking a look at Scoobys Workshop website it worth the time.
As for me... I weigh EVERYTHING, ever single thing. Dont ignore vegetables, condiments, little hard candys ie. tic tacs, altoids etc. coffee ... little bites of things all add up....
If I am not somewhere that I can weigh my food or if I space it I OVER ESTIMATE just in case. I personally do not eat back my exercise calories at all but I do cut myself a little more slack so to speak so if I go over by 50 or 75 I don't freak out. I would strongly suggest as the others have, a decent food scale.
I do roughly 80 - 90 minutes of Cardio at a decent pace at least 5 days a week .... with my heart rate in the target zone so a good heart rate monitor is invaluable.
good luck.... losing weight is math... calories in calories out... it is easy to forget to count everything but it is so important.0 -
Eating healthy and working out are about more than what the number on the scale says.
-Have you been taking measurements? How do you clothes fit?
-How well are you sleeping at nights?
-What do your energy levels look like?
-How many more reps can you do than when you started?
-How much longer can you go before you get out of breath?
-How does it feel to commit to something for 2 months and stick with it!
Keep your chin up, keep working at it, and count victories other than the scale. If you have been body recomping (trading fat for muscle) this will slow down and the weight will start coming off. But whatever you do, DON'T GIVE UP!!0 -
THANK YOU TO ALLLL of you! I read EVERY post and that is what I love about this site. You guys are awesome and I took in what everyone said. I am stronger and definitely healthier. I am not going to "worry" too much about the scale but I am going to really really reallllly rethink my diet, not just calories but the diet. I will check back in a month or so and probably tell you all I'm finally losing. Again, you are all awesome and I appreciate you very much.0
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Definitely make sure you are logging everything
Weigh your food
Drink plenty of water
Reduce bread, pasta and complex starchy carbs, or if you do eat them, make sure it's at the right time. I find I do not lose weight while eating these foods.
Use a heart rate monitor for exercise accuracy.
I don't like to over complicate things and I still have plenty to learn, but 1 week of tracking my food on the 1630 calories allocated (I'm usually a couple of hundred under) I've lost 7.3 pounds and that is with not a massive amount of exercise. (I'm building up to that) Weight loss is definitely mostly nutrition, you can be working your butt off at the gym and stay the same weight if you eat too much or you're not accurately measuring your food.0 -
Hey, I had this problem and tried so many things. Different things work for different people and I was lucky enough to find one that worked for me. I struggled with weight my whole life, and my self-esteem was at an all time low when my son's friends called me the fat mom. Kids can be so mean! I lost 18 pounds in one month without much exercise and it's been a life changer. I'm a little embarased to post my before and after photos here but if anyone actually cares to hear what I've been doing then I'd be happy to help in any way. and tell you about how things are going for me with the stuff I've tried. I wish someone would have helped me out when I was struggling to find a solution so if I can help you then it would make my day.0
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Hey, I had this problem and tried so many things. Different things work for different people and I was lucky enough to find one that worked for me. I struggled with weight my whole life, and my self-esteem was at an all time low when my son's friends called me the fat mom. Kids can be so mean! I lost 18 pounds in one month without much exercise and it's been a life changer. I'm a little embarased to post my before and after photos here but if anyone actually cares to hear what I've been doing then I'd be happy to help in any way. Just shoot me an email at hall.cynthia1970@gmail.com and I'll show you my before and after photos, and tell you about how things are going for me with the stuff I've tried. I wish someone would have helped me out when I was struggling to find a solution so if I can help you then it would make my day.
^ reads suspiciously like disguised spam.
I doubt sending emails to anonymous posters to find out 'the stuff they have tried' is ever a good idea.0 -
Smells like spam. "Contact me off-site so I can tell you my secret method to losing weight!"Hey, I had this problem and tried so many things. Different things work for different people and I was lucky enough to find one that worked for me. I struggled with weight my whole life, and my self-esteem was at an all time low when my son's friends called me the fat mom. Kids can be so mean! I lost 18 pounds in one month without much exercise and it's been a life changer. I'm a little embarased to post my before and after photos here but if anyone actually cares to hear what I've been doing then I'd be happy to help in any way. Just shoot me an email at [redacted] and I'll show you my before and after photos, and tell you about how things are going for me with the stuff I've tried. I wish someone would have helped me out when I was struggling to find a solution so if I can help you then it would make my day.
Includes personal contact info, which is also against the rules.
And unless you're super-obese, losing 18 lb in 1 month is neither healthy nor possible.0 -
"Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake.
However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity."
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/physical_activity/index.html
If you eat fewer calories than your body needs to run, you will lose weight.
Doesn't matter if you're overeating due to low thyroid, loving food, injury impairing your ability to exercise...
it's all the same problem: you are eating more calories than your body needs to run.
Many people do. Few are.I feel like I am an anomaly!
You are eating more calories than your body needs to run.I am at a loss as to what is the matter with me that I am not losing.
I put in to lose 1.5 pounds per. What the heck is the matter with me folks?
It's that simple.
Also, unless you have about 60 lb to lose, a goal of 1.5 per week isn't really reasonable or healthy.
So which is your goal weight: 160, 140, or 126?I also stay within my calories which work out to be 1260 (I was on 1600 at first, lowered it to 1400 because I did not lose, and then lowered it again to 1260).
Use a BMI chart http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf to find a healthy goal weight (green range) and eat 10x that weight in calories. This is the method my doctor & dietician use.
And if you're stuck at a plateau (for a month for women) drop 50 calories.
Ignore net calories, ignore exercise calories. (Again, this is what my doctor told me. He's an endocrinologist & in charge of the weight-loss program at the hospital, so I think he knows what he's talking about.)I don't want to be a 180-pound muscle. I should weigh about 150-160.
I looked over my weeks and averaged out my days and the AVERAGE still stays at about 1260-1300 (NET calories).
1 - most people underestimate what they eat
2 - most people, and machines, and MFP, overestimate calories burned
Stay under your 1600 cal goal every day. That's TOTAL calories, not net, not average.
Once in a while if you're really hungry at the end of the day have 1/3 to 1/2 of your exercise calories, but don't make a habit of it.
Helpful posts, mostly stickies:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it
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
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833026-important-posts-to-read0 -
Nutrition might be the key. Try alternating day of carbs, high carbs, low carbs, low carbs. Increase protein as well. Skooby website. Keep the body guessing. If you are doing the same thing then you might get the same results. I agree that you have to figure out what works, low carbs, low fat, carb cycling, and here's one...too many fruits. Friends of mine just lost 16 pounds on nutri system come to find out she was eating too many fruits. A few was ok.0
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