I could have sworn I was doing everything right... :(

jackevie829

I have been on MFP for a little over two weeks and I have been very strict sticking to my 1410 calorie goal that MFP has created for me. I have also been working out 5x a week for an hour... burning 700-800 calories. I thought that by limiting my calories and burning large amounts of calories would lead to weight loss... however, I haven't lost an ounce.

Help! I am in starvation mode? Should I only eat 1410 or should I be NETTING 1410? I am so confused... I thought weight loss was easier than this!

Please if you have any recommendations or ideas to help me it would be great.

soshotout

I went through the same thing when I started. But last week I dropped four pounds. Just keep doing what you are doing. Without being able to see your food diary, that's about the best advice I can give you.

Make sure you are drinking your water, too!

Pandorian

If you're going to use MFPs program the intent is for you to eat your exercise calories, or to net your daily calorie goal.

erickirb

I have been on MFP for a little over two weeks and I have been very strict sticking to my 1410 calorie goal that MFP has created for me. I have also been working out 5x a week for an hour... burning 700-800 calories. I thought that by limiting my calories and burning large amounts of calories would lead to weight loss... however, I haven't lost an ounce.

Help! I am in starvation mode? Should I only eat 1410 or should I be NETTING 1410? I am so confused... I thought weight loss was easier than this!

Please if you have any recommendations or ideas to help me it would be great.

You should be netting 1400, 1200 net is the minimum but to meet your goal it would be 1410. So you should aim to be between 1200 and 1410 Net.

chevy88grl

If you've been doing it for a couple weeks and it isn't working -- it is time to try something else. Weight loss isn't a one size fits all kind of thing. Our bodies are all very different and we have to adjust what we're doing to accommodate them. What works for me - may or may not work for you.

That being said, if you're burning 700-800 calories I would definitely try eating back my exercise calories so that you're NETTING 1410. Too few calories for too long will make your body hold onto fat and burn muscle for fuel. We don't want to do that. We want it to burn fat and build muscle.

I always tell people - this is your life. Don't be afraid to think or go outside of the "normal" to find what works for you!

Also, make sure you're drinking enough water AND taking at least 1-2 days off a week so your body can rest, repair and heal from working out.

haileyco

You need to NET at least 1200 calories a day. I say eat back some of your excercise calories. I try to NET the calorie goal set by MFP. You are probably in starvation mode. So keep up the awesome exercise and food tracking, just eat more.....I bet you never thought that would be the answer!!!

vmwelch1229

You are doing everything right. The other consideration you might want to think about is your creating muscle which weighs more than fat. That may be the reason why your weight has not changed.

LilChickPea

My suggestion would be to talk to a personal trainer or dietician if you can. However, sometimes eating more of the good calories, carbohydrates and fats is very helpful. Maybe try adding 200-300 more calories to your diet and see if it helps.

crazywheaten

You need to be netting the 1,410. Eating 1,410 and then burning off 700-800 calories leaves a huge deficit and your body will fight to hold on to everything to keep it going. I know it's hard to wrap your mind around... one would think it would be a good thing and you'd lose faster but you are shooting yourself in the foot going about it the way you are. Eat back your exercise calories always--it will help your body's metabolism run smoothly and you WILL see the pounds disappear!

WWhitaker

I agree with the other users. However, you also need to realize you didn't gain weight quickly, so don't expect to drop weight quickly either. You've been at this for 2 weeks, which is great, but your body is getting adjusted. It's taken me 2 months to lose 8 lbs. However I have it set up to lose 1 lb a week, so that's about right, but it took me a good 3 1/2 weeks until I saw the numbers drop at all. Keep at the hard work and it will pay off. If you're watching your calories and exercising and that's not something you were doing before, your weight is not resenting you, it will fall off. Good luck!

hgellings

I would suggest eating back your exercice calories... You want to net at least 1200 for sure so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. GL

jamontagne

MFP doesn't take into consideration your exercise when it calculates your calories - so you need to eat those back if you want to keep your metabolism up.
Basically eat your 1400cals/day to lose weight with no exercise (at about .5 lbs/wk probably). Eat your 1400cals/day plus any exercise calories in order to keep your metabolism pumping and you will see the weight drop.

my goal is 1200cals/day plus exercise calories. So I aim for roughly 1400 cals /day. And I make sure I do my 30 Day Shred everyday. By doing so I've noticed a major drop in weight - 3.5 lbs the first week! And the best part - I feel so full! I used to do the starvation thing - eat only 800-1000cals/day hoping i would lose weight - but I started to gain because my body was desperate for fuel so it stored it all!

Bottom line - eat your goal calories plus your exercise calories if you are going by the MFP plan. If you use another diet plan (i.e. weight watchers) they may tell you differently.

Peep_chic

I have been on MFP for a little over two weeks and I have been very strict sticking to my 1410 calorie goal that MFP has created for me. I have also been working out 5x a week for an hour... burning 700-800 calories. I thought that by limiting my calories and burning large amounts of calories would lead to weight loss... however, I haven't lost an ounce.

Help! I am in starvation mode? Should I only eat 1410 or should I be NETTING 1410? I am so confused... I thought weight loss was easier than this!

Please if you have any recommendations or ideas to help me it would be great.

You should be netting 1400, 1200 net is the minimum but to meet your goal it would be 1410. So you should aim to be between 1200 and 1410 Net.

Yep what he said.

peggy1209

what are you doing to burn 700-800 calories/day? I wear a bodybugg and use the calorei burn from that. My burns are much lower than the suggested burns by mfp. For me to burn 800 - i would have to workout at high intensity on the elliptical for a little over 2 hours, as an example.

Exercising at a moderate intensity is between 5-7/minute for me. High intensity (running) is 8-10/minute. Regular walking is 4-6/minute.

Hope this helps. I definitely eat back some of my calories - my daily target is 1200 - I usually eat about 1250-1350 each day.

Good luck.

anacsitham5

Always remember, all of us at MFP contribute our opinions. We all want to help. :happy: But most of us aren't professional trainers. So always do a little bit of research if you learn something you like from another MFP member. My tidbit of advice would be...

It would really depend on a number of factors.....how overweight you are (if at all), what you are eating and what your food diary looks like. You should be monitoring your calories, fat, sugar, carbs and sodium. They are all contributing factors to weight loss. If you are under on calories and fat, but your sugars are way over. You won't lose weight.

Remember that 1 pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. Are you losing inches? Did you measure when you started? You should be tracking the body fat and the inches for a true measurement of how you are doing. My scales does the body fat percentage and it is pretty dead on to the doctors office. When I started my weight loss I only watched my food intake for the first month or so....no exercise. Mainly because I knew if I started in doing everything at once, I would quit because I would be overwhelmed. It was nice to see the scales go down. After that I worked in the exercise because I was starting to feel good about how things were going. As you workout, you lose pounds of fat, but gain pounds in muscle. It's not always about the number on the scales. I am only losing about 2 ounces a week now, but my body fat is going down. That is my primary goal...to be at 16%. I am at 28% now but I started out at 37%.

Good luck! Don't give up because you will just have to start over again

jujubean1992

well, first off it's not going to fall off in ne day and second EAT YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES! it seriously bothers me when people say you shouldn't MFP already has a deficit for you so you need to eat those exercise calories back to lose weight!~!!!!!!!!!!

SueInAz

what are you doing to burn 700-800 calories/day? I wear a bodybugg and use the calorei burn from that. My burns are much lower than the suggested burns by mfp. For me to burn 800 - i would have to workout at high intensity on the elliptical for a little over 2 hours, as an example.

Exercising at a moderate intensity is between 5-7/minute for me. High intensity (running) is 8-10/minute. Regular walking is 4-6/minute.

Hope this helps. I definitely eat back some of my calories - my daily target is 1200 - I usually eat about 1250-1350 each day.

Good luck.

I was thinking along these lines, too. That's a lot of calories to be burning in one hour. 50 minutes on my stationary bike burns about 220 calories and I'm worn out when I'm done. Make sure you're really burning that many calories in an hour. If you're overestimating your exercise calories, and eating them all back as is being suggested, you're going to be eating more than you're burning.

tabbz82

OK, dumb question but what does netting mean? Does that mean you must have eaten 1200 calories after you have exercised? Say you eat 1200 cals and you burn 200 a day...so technically you should eat 1400? Am I getting this right? LOL

Hollycat

You are probably losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time...net result 0 pounds lost. This is a GOOD thing! Keep at it! All of a sudden, woosh! you'll be down a couple pounds! Hang in there!

Hollycat
:flowerforyou:

ImperfektAngel

How are you determining the calories burned?

erickirb

OK, dumb question but what does netting mean? Does that mean you must have eaten 1200 calories after you have exercised? Say you eat 1200 cals and you burn 200 a day...so technically you should eat 1400? Am I getting this right? LOL

Net means calories consumed minus calories burned from exercise. so if you eat 1400 and burn 200 your net is 1200 (1400-200)

sweebum

With 48 lbs to lose, you should NET the 1410 :yes: If you are in fact burning the calories you think (via HRM not a gym machine), you are not eating enough if you don't net the 1410

erickirb

You are probably losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time...net result 0 pounds lost. This is a GOOD thing! Keep at it! All of a sudden, woosh! you'll be down a couple pounds! Hang in there!

Hollycat
:flowerforyou:

No, No, No. She will not be gaining weight on a 700 Net calories diet. Muscle is hard to build, especially for a woman (lack of testosterone) on a caloric deficit diet. To build noticeable amount of muscle you would have to be in a caloric surplus.

ghoztt

Keep at it! My first 2 weeks my weight didn't budge an inch. I was working out 6 days a week, netting 1500 calories (meaning eating back what I exercised off) and logging everything as I should. After those 2 weeks I dropped 1 pound. Another week went by and I stayed at the same weight then the following week it just started falling of FAST. I'm talking daily 1/2 pound differences for almost the entire following week. The few days it crept up slightly then started falling right back off again. Don't worry about slight fluctuations along your journey because if you do everything right the trend will be downwards. Just remember that you didn't gain all of your weight in 2 or 3 weeks so don't expect it to come off that quickly. Some days you might slow, stall, even go up but keep working hard you will make it.

jackevie829

I am using a heart rate monitor.

graysmom2005

You are probably losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time...net result 0 pounds lost. This is a GOOD thing! Keep at it! All of a sudden, woosh! you'll be down a couple pounds! Hang in there!

Hollycat
:flowerforyou:

No, No, No. She will not be gaining weight on a 700 Net calories diet. Muscle is hard to build, especially for a woman (lack of testosterone) on a caloric deficit diet. To build noticeable amount of muscle you would have to be in a caloric surplus.

THANK YOU!! What he said. ;-)

tabbz82

OK, that is what I thought. Thank you!

tabbz82

OK, dumb question but what does netting mean? Does that mean you must have eaten 1200 calories after you have exercised? Say you eat 1200 cals and you burn 200 a day...so technically you should eat 1400? Am I getting this right? LOL

Net means calories consumed minus calories burned from exercise. so if you eat 1400 and burn 200 your net is 1200 (1400-200)

Ok, that is what I thought. Thank you!

JDMPWR

I have been on MFP for a little over two weeks and I have been very strict sticking to my 1410 calorie goal that MFP has created for me. I have also been working out 5x a week for an hour... burning 700-800 calories. I thought that by limiting my calories and burning large amounts of calories would lead to weight loss... however, I haven't lost an ounce.

Help! I am in starvation mode? Should I only eat 1410 or should I be NETTING 1410? I am so confused... I thought weight loss was easier than this!

Please if you have any recommendations or ideas to help me it would be great.

Overall intake is too high unless you are working out, if you are working out how are you monitoring your cals burned? Please do not go by what MFP or machines at the gym tell you, get a heart rate monitor like a Polar FT7, next sodium is too high, drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and lastly and MOST importantly drop down your carb into and raise your protein intake.

To do this click goals then click custom, then choice protein at 40, carbs at 40 and fat at 20.

This should help with a good start!

FemininGuns

You are doing everything right. The other consideration you might want to think about is your creating muscle which weighs more than fat. That may be the reason why your weight has not changed.

FYI - women can only build .5lbs of muscles per month with proper nutrition and serious training... Unless you are a freak of nature...