Confused with MFP 2lb a week weight loss

my2kin04

Ok..starting to get worried...MFP says i am suppose to lose 2lbs a week, however, i've lost a total of about 1 or 2 since i've joined about a month ago ..my last weight in which was 10 days ago was 1 of the lbs. I eat most of my calories and stay under by a little, work out 40 mins a day five days a week..hmmm ..i am not sure if MFP is working for me..this is too slow of a weight loss!! Any help would be great

mamagooskie

Do you eat your exercize calories? if not you could be not getting enough calories. eat more to lose more. I followed the program exactly how it is and eat my work out calories or most days at least 1/2 of them and I lost 10lbs a month for almost a year straight!!

my2kin04

Hi there, yes i do..thanks : )

TinaS88

What are you eating? You can stay under your goal but if it is all crap then it doesn't matter.. Also, how intense are your workouts? Is your heart rate up?

Sasha_Bear

Hmm..you may be able to get some better advice if you open your diary so people can see what it is your eating.

tlcAK

What's your sodium level too? I agree with mamagooskie too. I haven't really lost weight in a month either but I know I've had cheat days here and there and I haven't worked out enough. Plus my sodium intake has been insane lately...I'm changing that now.

thisismynewmindset

First, it is important to note that MFP does not say you are SUPPOSED to lose 2lbs per week, but that you can lose UP TO 2lbs a week. You seem to be losing weight at a healty and steady pace.

Second, everyone is different. You might get off to a slow start then all of a sudden you see the pounds coming off. DON'T LOSE FAITH - take it one day at a time and watch your sodium intake (although salt has no calories it does make you retain water!)

Good luck!

wwhite94

I just started the first of may and i have already lost 12lbs and the first 3 weeks i had it at 1lb a week and i was only working out 3 to 4 days a week.. May your not eating enough, but if you are maybe its time to get a heath check up or maybe your not logging your food with the correct calories( just a thought).

PlanetVelma

Are you logging all of your meals/snacks? Are you drinking enough water?

Healthy weightloss is losing 1 lb per week, but I do agree with prior posters if you're not eating enough your weight loss will stall out.

Ask your MFP friends to check out your diary and give you feedback, check out your MFP friends food diaries and see what they eat to give you ideas.

Since you are exercising 5 days a week, try measuring yourself for awhile and recording those results.

my2kin04

Hello again, i work out hardcore...the sweat is hitting the floor! Yeah. i think i do eat too much salt...in have been eatting lean cuisines for lunch everyday.
The strange thing is , last year i lost over 50lbs eatting just 1500 cals a day of whatever i wanted and that is working out on top of it. I lost a steady 2-3lbs a week..i am thinking maybe i am eatting too many calories...sigh, i knew it was too good to be true! haha!

dlafarga

What type of exercises are you doing? Are you consuming plenty of protein? It could be that you're toning your muscles and losing fat while building muscle. Muscle does weigh more than fat. Are your clothes feeling slightly looser?

Weight loss shouldn't be done too fast otherwise you're just setting yourself up for rebound. I've been there. 1 or 2 lbs a week is healthy, though.
You might wanna add another 20 min of exercise to make it an hour daily.
Try to keep your exercise cardio if you wanna see the scale move. Run, jog, run upstairs, dance, etc. Anything involving weights will cause your muscle building. They'll grow and you'll gain lbs.

hedleyrocks247

The closer you are to your goal weight, the harder it will become to lose weight. A 2 lbs a week goal is for someone who has 75 pounds or more to lose - if you have less then that then a 2 pound goal may not work for you. Weightloss is not meant to be a "fast" process - gaining weight didn't just happen over night therefore losing it won't either! From experiance I've learned that the faster you lose it, the faster it comes back on!!

Here are some forum topics posted by 2 extremely wise people!! They may help to shed a little light on setting your goal weights, and picking your weekly weight goal etc.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/181080-mfp-s-most-common-user-pitfall-to-avoid

Nikkiairforcewife

Perhaps you're gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. Muscle weighs more. If this is the case, you're building up a stronger "engine" to continue burning more fat. You may also be holding water right now. I know I can fluctuate a good five pounds from water weight alone. Watch your salt intake if that's the case.

Take a look at your diary and see if you're eating your 5 a day of fruits and vegetables.

Check your grains. Are they mostly refined? Do you get enough whole grains?

If it's nearing your TOM then that might be why you're not seeing the numbers change.

But if you're making healthier choices and pressing on, you'll start to see it! Keep on going!

genie98

I know a lot of people say eat your exercise cals but for me that doesnt work. I canot eat them back. You may want to try that. Plus MFP calculates the exercise calories high. Hope this helps.

beckusjane

You may have already seen this message. I put it as a blog on my page. I truly think this helps when people feel like they are stuck and not sure what to do to continue. I dont want you to give up. I KNOW you can do this:) I also know there is strength in numbers so feel free to message me anytime if you are having issues throughout the day. I can check in daily with you if you would like:)

Just so you know, this may turn into a novel:) And dont go strictly by any of this. What works for one person may not work for someone else. We did a "Get Fit, Get Healthy" challenge at my work for 8 weeks. I lost about 22 lbs. and 5% of my body fat. We had to do certain things to get points for the challenge. These are the things we needed to do:

*64 oz. of water each day. This does not include coffee, juices or kool-aid. Now you can have 64 oz. + juices but you must drink 64 oz. When you do drink juices, they have to be 100% juice. Easy enough right? Grape juice, apple juice, orange juice. Tomato juice too but the sodium is ridiculous in it. I'm sure if you want some of that it would be ok for a change. Just dont make it your only juice.

*7 hours or more of sleep. This can be hard if you have small children or just a hectic schedule. If you are able to lie down for a nap during the day, you can count that, but it is much better if you can get 7 hrs straight.

*Eat breakfast within 2 hrs of waking up. This is a hard one. Some people just cant stand eating first thing in the morning. I usually grab something quick like an apple or a banana.

*5 servings of fruits/veggies a day. Pretty straight forward. Again this is where your juices come in. You can use 4 oz. of fruit juice as a serving of fruit. For the record, jelly beans are not a fruit even if they are fruit flavored.

* 210 minutes of cardio a week. Now you can get this walking, biking, swimming, yardwork (raking and push mowing count) snow shoveling is a BIG one but obviously it will be a few months til we can do that again and I dont mind a bit!! Now it doesnt matter how you break this down as long as you do a minimum of 10 minutes for any time you are counting it. You can do more than 210 minutes of course if your schedule allows.

*Toning with free weights or stretch bands 3 times a week for 10 minutes a piece. You can definitely do more than 3 times. That is only the minimum. Sometimes I will use my free weight and incorporate them into my aerobic routines.

That's it. Those are the simple rules I am following and the weight is coming off. You dont want it to fall off all at once. If it does, then you're doing something drastic and the chances of sticking with it are slim. Working it off slowly is the best ticket. Making small changes makes it easier to become lifestyle changes not temporary fixes.

Also, I tend to stay away from white flour. You can eat breads, potatoes and pasta in moderate amounts but it is much better for you if you eat whole wheat breads and pastas or sweet potatoes. Dont get worried about the fact that there are about as many carbs in whole wheat pasta as there is in the regular. It's better for you~trust me!!

Another trick that helps? If you have time, measure out a serving of your snacks. Use ziplock baggies and have them ready to grab and go. I usually have pretzels, animal crackers stuff like that ready so that I dont have to think about it. If I just try to sit with a bag of pretzels, pretty soon Ive eaten half the bag but if I have a true serving size packaged, I know when to stop.

If the idea of this process is overwhelming, dont try to change everything at once. Maybe work on 5 fruits/veggies and once you have that figured out, then try 64 oz of water. Keep adding a step to it til you are on your way to healthier choices.

Good luck. Hope this helps:)

Becca

natijade

Hey, when I had MFP set to losing 2lb a week, I just stayed the same, as soon as I switched to losing 1lb a week, I suddenly started losing 2lb a week! I guess I hadn't been eating enough!

Also you could be gaining muscle mass, have you been measuring yourself as well, you may be losing inches
Don't give up, you'll get there! xx

my2kin04

Thnk you everyone for the help! It's really nice to see all of this support! I think i am going to finsh up this week with what i am doing; however, if by Friday i still see no weight loss, i am going to cut salt and calories back and see if that helps...Thanks again everyone! I am not going to quit either : )

my2kin04

Thanks : ) i appreciate it

Oishii

If you enter 2 lb a week weight loss and for you that would mean eating less than 1200 calories, mfp will still give you 1200 calories. It won't tell you that's what it has done, but if you try reducing your weight loss target and the calories stay the same, that is what has happened.

evesacks

My experience on this:

a) its easy to overestimate workout calories so check this
b) loosing 2lbs a week as you get closer to target weight is impossible
c) weight loss will be faster if the quality of what you are eating is good.

SereneRose

You may have already seen this message. I put it as a blog on my page. I truly think this helps when people feel like they are stuck and not sure what to do to continue. I dont want you to give up. I KNOW you can do this:) I also know there is strength in numbers so feel free to message me anytime if you are having issues throughout the day. I can check in daily with you if you would like:)

Just so you know, this may turn into a novel:) And dont go strictly by any of this. What works for one person may not work for someone else. We did a "Get Fit, Get Healthy" challenge at my work for 8 weeks. I lost about 22 lbs. and 5% of my body fat. We had to do certain things to get points for the challenge. These are the things we needed to do:

*64 oz. of water each day. This does not include coffee, juices or kool-aid. Now you can have 64 oz. + juices but you must drink 64 oz. When you do drink juices, they have to be 100% juice. Easy enough right? Grape juice, apple juice, orange juice. Tomato juice too but the sodium is ridiculous in it. I'm sure if you want some of that it would be ok for a change. Just dont make it your only juice.

*7 hours or more of sleep. This can be hard if you have small children or just a hectic schedule. If you are able to lie down for a nap during the day, you can count that, but it is much better if you can get 7 hrs straight.

*Eat breakfast within 2 hrs of waking up. This is a hard one. Some people just cant stand eating first thing in the morning. I usually grab something quick like an apple or a banana.

*5 servings of fruits/veggies a day. Pretty straight forward. Again this is where your juices come in. You can use 4 oz. of fruit juice as a serving of fruit. For the record, jelly beans are not a fruit even if they are fruit flavored.

* 210 minutes of cardio a week. Now you can get this walking, biking, swimming, yardwork (raking and push mowing count) snow shoveling is a BIG one but obviously it will be a few months til we can do that again and I dont mind a bit!! Now it doesnt matter how you break this down as long as you do a minimum of 10 minutes for any time you are counting it. You can do more than 210 minutes of course if your schedule allows.

*Toning with free weights or stretch bands 3 times a week for 10 minutes a piece. You can definitely do more than 3 times. That is only the minimum. Sometimes I will use my free weight and incorporate them into my aerobic routines.

That's it. Those are the simple rules I am following and the weight is coming off. You dont want it to fall off all at once. If it does, then you're doing something drastic and the chances of sticking with it are slim. Working it off slowly is the best ticket. Making small changes makes it easier to become lifestyle changes not temporary fixes.

Also, I tend to stay away from white flour. You can eat breads, potatoes and pasta in moderate amounts but it is much better for you if you eat whole wheat breads and pastas or sweet potatoes. Dont get worried about the fact that there are about as many carbs in whole wheat pasta as there is in the regular. It's better for you~trust me!!

Another trick that helps? If you have time, measure out a serving of your snacks. Use ziplock baggies and have them ready to grab and go. I usually have pretzels, animal crackers stuff like that ready so that I dont have to think about it. If I just try to sit with a bag of pretzels, pretty soon Ive eaten half the bag but if I have a true serving size packaged, I know when to stop.

If the idea of this process is overwhelming, dont try to change everything at once. Maybe work on 5 fruits/veggies and once you have that figured out, then try 64 oz of water. Keep adding a step to it til you are on your way to healthier choices.

Good luck. Hope this helps:)

Becca

Very informative, thank you

Nikkiairforcewife

You may have already seen this message. I put it as a blog on my page. I truly think this helps when people feel like they are stuck and not sure what to do to continue. I dont want you to give up. I KNOW you can do this:) I also know there is strength in numbers so feel free to message me anytime if you are having issues throughout the day. I can check in daily with you if you would like:)

Just so you know, this may turn into a novel:) And dont go strictly by any of this. What works for one person may not work for someone else. We did a "Get Fit, Get Healthy" challenge at my work for 8 weeks. I lost about 22 lbs. and 5% of my body fat. We had to do certain things to get points for the challenge. These are the things we needed to do:

*64 oz. of water each day. This does not include coffee, juices or kool-aid. Now you can have 64 oz. + juices but you must drink 64 oz. When you do drink juices, they have to be 100% juice. Easy enough right? Grape juice, apple juice, orange juice. Tomato juice too but the sodium is ridiculous in it. I'm sure if you want some of that it would be ok for a change. Just dont make it your only juice.

*7 hours or more of sleep. This can be hard if you have small children or just a hectic schedule. If you are able to lie down for a nap during the day, you can count that, but it is much better if you can get 7 hrs straight.

*Eat breakfast within 2 hrs of waking up. This is a hard one. Some people just cant stand eating first thing in the morning. I usually grab something quick like an apple or a banana.

*5 servings of fruits/veggies a day. Pretty straight forward. Again this is where your juices come in. You can use 4 oz. of fruit juice as a serving of fruit. For the record, jelly beans are not a fruit even if they are fruit flavored.

* 210 minutes of cardio a week. Now you can get this walking, biking, swimming, yardwork (raking and push mowing count) snow shoveling is a BIG one but obviously it will be a few months til we can do that again and I dont mind a bit!! Now it doesnt matter how you break this down as long as you do a minimum of 10 minutes for any time you are counting it. You can do more than 210 minutes of course if your schedule allows.

*Toning with free weights or stretch bands 3 times a week for 10 minutes a piece. You can definitely do more than 3 times. That is only the minimum. Sometimes I will use my free weight and incorporate them into my aerobic routines.

That's it. Those are the simple rules I am following and the weight is coming off. You dont want it to fall off all at once. If it does, then you're doing something drastic and the chances of sticking with it are slim. Working it off slowly is the best ticket. Making small changes makes it easier to become lifestyle changes not temporary fixes.

Also, I tend to stay away from white flour. You can eat breads, potatoes and pasta in moderate amounts but it is much better for you if you eat whole wheat breads and pastas or sweet potatoes. Dont get worried about the fact that there are about as many carbs in whole wheat pasta as there is in the regular. It's better for you~trust me!!

Another trick that helps? If you have time, measure out a serving of your snacks. Use ziplock baggies and have them ready to grab and go. I usually have pretzels, animal crackers stuff like that ready so that I dont have to think about it. If I just try to sit with a bag of pretzels, pretty soon Ive eaten half the bag but if I have a true serving size packaged, I know when to stop.

If the idea of this process is overwhelming, dont try to change everything at once. Maybe work on 5 fruits/veggies and once you have that figured out, then try 64 oz of water. Keep adding a step to it til you are on your way to healthier choices.

Good luck. Hope this helps:)

Becca

Great reply! Thanks for all the handy tips!

PlanetVelma

Thnk you everyone for the help! It's really nice to see all of this support! I think i am going to finsh up this week with what i am doing; however, if by Friday i still see no weight loss, i am going to cut salt and calories back and see if that helps...Thanks again everyone! I am not going to quit either : )

I would also get rid of the lean cuisines, I get all bloated from those darn microwave meals. They are nice and convenient when I don't have time to make a lunch, but I always feel BLAH afterwards. And when i make my own meal i get more food versus what you get in the lean cuisine. LOL