Frustrated!! Please Help

srebold2005

I just finished my first week and only lost 1 bloody pound!!!! I exercised 6/7 days and stayed under 1200 calories all but one day!!! Is this normal? What am I doing wrong?!?!? Any pointers??

DHalaby73

It takes time your doing great...It took me 2 yrs to get where I wanted to be...I weighed 160 when I started working out to 125...How's your eating habits?Because no matter how hard you workout if your not eating the right things your doing it for nothing...

sprinkies

yeah, take a look around and read some threads about exercise calories.

the weight isn't just going to fly off in a week. it takes 3500 calorie defecit to lose a pound... how many calories did you burn working out? did you measure the food you ate to get 1200 or did you just eyeball it? i always use a food scale and measuring cups. give it time.

classicshell

Don't get discouraged! I'm no doctor, but weight loss isn't a quick thing, just stay with it! You may not have had a lot of success this week, but keep going at it, and maybe next week you'll hit that 2+ pounds you're looking for. You should aim to lose 2lbs/weekly, as far as I know.

I get discouraged really easily when I don't lose what I wanted; but you can do it if you stay on it!

laursms44

you may not be eating enough which will put your body into starvation mode and you will lose weight slower than if you actually eat a healthy amount of food

purplespeckle

I just finished my first week and only lost 1 bloody pound!!!! I exercised 6/7 days and stayed under 1200 calories all but one day!!! Is this normal? What am I doing wrong?!?!? Any pointers??

The same thing happened to me too I think your body just has to get used to it or you may be "under eating" Also watch your sodium levels and try not eating late at night if you do Just keep up the work and you will see results

mnmorneau

Don't know if this will help but here is my two cents worth. You said you stayed under 1200 calories nearly each day. you should eatt 1200 or even a little over like 1210 but not under 1200. Reason, your body can think it is being starved and instead of loosing weight it will retain the weight because it thinks it is in starvation mode. That is typically if you eat less than 1200 calories so be careful of that. I try to stay at 1200 or 1250 but not under 1200 for several days. Also be sure you are drinking plenty of water. Next even if you loose 1 lb it is 1 lb less and if weight comes off slowly it is more likely to stay off than with drastic weight loss. I like everyone, wants to see several lbs at a time but sometimes that just doesn't happen, but that's ok. Slow is better than fast. Stick with it and you will lose the weight you want.

Chyna7403

i have found that doing cardio helps add back to your calories on here. so i've been walking jumping jacks, any kind of cardio i can find. i added sit ups and crunches and it didnt help so i've been sticking with the cardio.

rodegghero

well keep doing it! It is likely just your body adjusting...

mrsjsmitty

To few calories, especially for working out 6/7 days a week. Your body will go into save mode, when you do not get the calories your body needs it will store it as fat. 1200 calories for someone thats sitting around doing nothing is different. you should prob be at 1500 the days you have you workouts. Your workouts should also be more than 20 minutes, you will not burn fat at 20 mins.

reegordon

I agree with a lot of the comments. It's not just the calories, it's also the food you're putting in your body. Make sure you're staying under your carbs and protein as well. Also, try not to focus on the scale. Instead, focus on how you feel and how your clothes fit. I was at a stand still a few weeks ago and, when I stopped weighing myself everyday and focused on how many inches I was losing, I noticed the scale begin to move again. Best Wishes!

lukimakamai

I agree...something that helps me is not weighing myself every week. I weigh in every other Sunday morning. I figure if it ends up not beign the result I was hoping for I'm heading to church and that always puts me in a better mood. Also don't stress about it being one pound- that is one less pound than last week and you didn't gain any thing. I know it is frustrating to not get the result you feel you deserve because of the hard work you have put in, but it is a life style change you should be going for which means you have your whole life to get the number you want...something I have to remind myself of often!

rileysowner

Not being able to see your diary there limits on what anyone can tell you. If you never worked out before and went to as much as you say you did, you may be overtraining. That can cause various things to happen to your body including retaining water. If you are eating lots of frozen or canned stuff, they are all high in sodium which with cause you to retain water. As mentioned how are you measuring your food? Are you eating your exercise calories? What sort of exercise are you doing. All can effect what happens in your weight loss. Even when you measure your weight can make a difference (best time is in the morning when you get up before doing anything else).

Having said that, you lost a pound in a week. It is not like you lost nothing, and the general wisdom is no more than 2 pounds per week, so you are doing fairly well.

Finally, don't compare your weekly weight lose to say the contestants on the Biggest Loser because it seems a week there is not actually a week because the producers want the contestants to pull off big numbers every "week." Don't even compare to many MFP people as a person who have 100 or more pounds to take off will often lose more weight per week than someone who has less weight (like 20 or 40 pound) will.

srebold2005

How do I open my diary for people to view?

mimstero

Truly, make sure you are eating all of the calories given to you, including those that you earned while working out. I wasn't doing that, and now I am losing almost 2 pounds a week. Keep working hard and you will lose it.

stormieweather

Also, it takes 10 days+ for your body to catch up to your calorie deficit/efforts. I graph mine, and as much as my weight bobbles up and down, it stays very close to my cumulative deficit in the long run.

MstarsElizabeth

Ditto on others' comments. Make sure your NET calories each day does not dip below 1200. Remember this is a journey, not a sprint.

coachligia

Hi Dear, my name is Ligia and I work with fitness. The problem might be you are eating too little. When you don't eat the minimun amount of calories for your body to keep going, it usually goes on storage mode.

Also if your work-out involve strength training you are losing fat but gaining muscle mass, and this is good because by gaining muscle mass your metabolism is going to speed up, making your weight loss smoother.

If you give me your high, weight and age I can calculate the amount of calories you should be eating while exercising 6 days a week. A pound a week is not bad, think of it this as a long term journey, if you were to lose 0.8 a week for a year you would be almost 47 lbs down....I say that is darn good!

Hope this helps!
Ligia

srebold2005

Thank you everyone! To answer some questions:

I am doing a minimum of 1 hr exercise a day. MWF is core cardio then some extra ab crunches if I can
T/TH Pilates for 30 minutes then 30 minutes cardio.

My food intake has been measured and not eyeballed. I have stuck to mainly grilled chicken, low fat cottage cheese, and asparagus and apple for lunch. Dinner is around the same. I am avoiding all fast foods and processed foods.

I will keep my head up and push forward. I will try increasing my calories next week if I am still struggling. I may be putting my body into starvation mode like you all suggested. I didn't even know that was possible because I am eating!

Thank you for all your comments!!

PrincessNeali

To make your diary public, go to your settings and then look for food and nutrition. Scroll down to the bottom and change to public. Thats it!

PhoenixFire975

You def need to eat more than 1200 cals if you are exercising that much. Not eating enough will put you into starvation mode (which is real) and you could be holding onto fat. Also, it's not like the weight will dissappear magically, give it time, but I also recommend a higher cal intake!!!! I exercise everyday and my recommened cal intake (of an online calc not related to MFP) is about 1600. Sounds like you may have a deficit, so eat some more (of course, keep it healthy:)!