Why am I not losing weight?

clair3jane

Hi! I've come down from 60 kilos to 55 kilos, but it's been about a month since I lost any weight. I only started using myfitnesspal recently but there's been no big change, apart from the fact that I've been eating more. Okay, I know eating more= weighing more but I had to eat more because I was getting into starvation mode.

Can anyone please take a look at my diary and give me some advice? Thanks!

joanneeee

your diary isn't public

clair3jane

Oops! Now it is.

JennieD2

Hi, The lower your BMI becomes, the more difficult it will be to lose weight. You need to change your eating habits regularly so your metabolism doesn't adapt to a particular way of doing things. I've not seen your diary but you could try increasing the amount of vegetables and fruit and lowering other foods. This will still fill you up and prevent starvation mode but will decrease your overall calorie intake. Hope this helps. Kind Regards Jennie

AnaisInard

Perhaps it is your intake of macro nutrients. Try to eat less carbs and more protein.
Maybe your body was feeding on your muscles so your metabolic rate could have gone done.

iojoi

I have a similar problem every so often so I solved it by having two high fibre bowls of cereals a day (breakfast and supper) as well increasing my protein I also keep my sugar down to between 16 and 20 and that works well for me.

registers

In a healthy person, weight loss because they're not burning fat. The obvious question is "how is fat burned?" The key here is controlling insulin. What insulin does when it's increased is store glycogen in the muscle, once the muscles are full of glycogen it starts to store bodyfat. If you're not losing bodyfat, it's because you have found a balance that keeps your muscles full of glyocgen. The thing to do is, increase glucagon levels... gluacgon is the opposite of insulin, insulin is a storage hormone glucagon is a liberation hormone. What it does it's will take glycogen out of the muscle, and then start using fat for energy. This is fat burning. This is how to burn fat with diet, you can also burn fat with exercise.

What increases insulin? carbohydrates, it would help to lower them. This is your "supposed starvation mode" you can be on a low calorie diet and not lose any weight because your muscles are always full of glycogen. By lowering your calories, by default you lower carbohydrates as well. I believe this is why people lose weight when they reduce their calories.

When you exercise, this also depletes glyocgen from the muscle... which helps liberate fat from the body due to the increase of glucagon.

heather1945

You're logging a lot of 'quick add calories'. Perhaps if these foods were itemised e.g. showing their protein, carb etc. content, you could adjust your eating differently.

joanneeee

you've got a lot of quick add calories so it's hard to judge but it seems you're eating a lot of carbs and not much fibre. your fat(15) & protein(30) are low although perhaps you are getting more since there are quick add calories... try not using (a lot) of quick add calories so you can properly see what you're lacking?

robin52077

you've got a lot of quick add calories so it's hard to judge but it seems you're eating a lot of carbs and not much fibre. your fat(15) & protein(30) are low although perhaps you are getting more since there are quick add calories... try not using (a lot) of quick add calories so you can properly see what you're lacking?

this.

how can you get advice if nobody has any idea what you are ACTUALLY eating?

log everything as close as you can even if you don't have a label to go off (like a diner with no nutrition facts or something). Just use a generic in the database so at least meats will say they have proteins and breads will say carbs, etc, since right now it looks like you are WAY low on everything and those quick adds may have been junk food empty calories in which case you are malnourished.

registers

you've got a lot of quick add calories so it's hard to judge but it seems you're eating a lot of carbs and not much fibre. your fat(15) & protein(30) are low although perhaps you are getting more since there are quick add calories... try not using (a lot) of quick add calories so you can properly see what you're lacking?

this.

how can you get advice if nobody has any idea what you are ACTUALLY eating?

log everything as close as you can even if you don't have a label to go off (like a diner with no nutrition facts or something). Just use a generic in the database so at least meats will say they have proteins and breads will say carbs, etc, since right now it looks like you are WAY low on everything and those quick adds may have been junk food empty calories in which case you are malnourished.

According to some people on this website, she's eating "above starvation mode" so her metabolism is high, and she's in a caloric deficit. SO she's losing weight according to some people on this site.

Thanks for your post both of you, you make a strong point.

90210UK

It is impossible to advise according to your diary as the majority of it is quick added calories. You should inputting your foods from the database as it counts carbs, sodium and protein and therefore you can see if you are going over on any of them. Sodium intake is so important as it can hold onto excess water and carbs are a no-no if you are going over.

Try inputting your foods from the database and you will see if you are going wrong...

Sparrow_Feet

I think the point about Quick Add calories has been made very well by several users, and I agree 100%.

If your quick add calories are high in fats or sugars, your body will focus on burning these foods first, rather than burning any stored fats. Please, please....try and get away from adding Quick Add calories....the database on here is HUGE so in my opinion there's no need to use Quick Add. Also, if the food that you are eating isn't in the database, just create a food. You'll be helping yourself for the future if you eat the same think again, and helping others too.

Hope that helps.

elinsofie

What is your BMI? I guess 55 kg would be in the middle to lower end of the healthy BMI-zone for a girl of average height? Maybe your body has reached it's ideal weight already?

spennato

Are you exercising as well as dieting?

clair3jane

Hi! Yes! Thanks so much for all the replies everyone!

I live in South Korea so it's hard to avoid using quick add calories--most of the time I don't even know the names of what I'm eating, I just guess according to something similar that I recognise. Hmm... Maybe I'm underestimating the calories. I will try more though, I'll add in what the foods look like.

My BMI is 22.5. I'm 5'1 and I weigh 55 kilos. I want it to get to a BMI of about 21. I'm almost at the middle of the healthy weight range, but I think I could lose a couple more kilos.

I exercise every day. Either runnning or walking, and I do weight training 3 times a week.

JNick77

Hi! Yes! Thanks so much for all the replies everyone!

I live in South Korea so it's hard to avoid using quick add calories--most of the time I don't even know the names of what I'm eating, I just guess according to something similar that I recognise. Hmm... Maybe I'm underestimating the calories. I will try more though, I'll add in what the foods look like.

My BMI is 22.5. I'm 5'1 and I weigh 55 kilos. I want it to get to a BMI of about 21. I'm almost at the middle of the healthy weight range, but I think I could lose a couple more kilos.

I exercise every day. Either runnning or walking, and I do weight training 3 times a week.

It is possible that you're underestimating your calories if you're not sure about the food. Do you eat out a lot? It is definitely harder to stay on track if you eat out a lot because you don't always know exactly how the food is made, what's used to prep it, etc.

I looked at your log and there are days where it has you eating 1800 and 1600 calories? That seems like a bit much for somebody that is 5'1" at about 120'ish lbs and trying to lose weight. How is your diet profile setup, up-to-date with your recent weight loss? Aside from working out every day what's the rest of your day like? Inactive, fairly active, very active? I put your stats in my diet profile with a couple assumptions to see what it looked like. I put you in at 120lbs with a goal weight of 110 (just assuming) and it switched your daily calories to 1200/day.

clair3jane

Hi, no I don't eat out much but I do have to eat the cafeteria food (I'm a teacher). A lot of white rice. I hate it but it's all there is... my days are pretty tiring, I teach most of the day to little kids (lots of singing and dancing) so while they're not exactly workouts I do move around a lot.

Yeah, there are days I eat too much.. But I eat less during the week to make up for it. Also, I exercise a lot--pretty much every day. SO the days I'm eating up to 1600 calories, most likely they're days I'm burning up to 600 calories at the gym. I'm not kidding myself, there are definitely days (like last sunday) when I just eat too much.

Before I was on myfitnesspal I wasn't having so many slip-up days...

Maybe this is why I'm still 55 kilos... perhaps it's just the slip-up days keeping me at this weight... I mean, they're only once a week or every two weeks and I always go under the following day but... does that make a difference?

JNick77

Hi, no I don't eat out much but I do have to eat the cafeteria food (I'm a teacher). A lot of white rice. I hate it but it's all there is... my days are pretty tiring, I teach most of the day to little kids (lots of singing and dancing) so while they're not exactly workouts I do move around a lot.

Yeah, there are days I eat too much.. But I eat less during the week to make up for it. Also, I exercise a lot--pretty much every day. SO the days I'm eating up to 1600 calories, most likely they're days I'm burning up to 600 calories at the gym. I'm not kidding myself, there are definitely days (like last sunday) when I just eat too much.

Before I was on myfitnesspal I wasn't having so many slip-up days...

Maybe this is why I'm still 55 kilos... perhaps it's just the slip-up days keeping me at this weight... I mean, they're only once a week or every two weeks and I always go under the following day but... does that make a difference?

Too man cheat days can definitely be detrimental to your progress, but it happens to the best of us. I just finished off a bag of Reeses Pieces as I'm sitting here typing this. LOL

Do you replace the calories you burn at the gym?

christinathompson1

a lot of people think your body is going to go into starvation mode if you DON'T eat your exercise calories. which is true if your body doesn't get enough protein and GOOD fats..
i never eat my exercise anything...not calories, carbs, fat, sugar, or anything.
i used to eat my exercise calories but i wasn't losing a thing. make sure your getting plenty of raw foods..salad, fresh veggies, fruit, and cut out bad carbs aka- white bread, white pasta, and have whole grain, or multi wheat pasta.
drink LOTS of water as well and track your water too..
goodluck. also i would suggest making your diary public.

randisaucier

You're logging a lot of 'quick add calories'. Perhaps if these foods were itemised e.g. showing their protein, carb etc. content, you could adjust your eating differently.

I agree. It's hard to tell if you are consuming too much sodium or poor nutritional food choices.

registers

a lot of people think your body is going to go into starvation mode if you DON'T eat your exercise calories. which is true if your body doesn't get enough protein and GOOD fats..
i never eat my exercise anything...not calories, carbs, fat, sugar, or anything.
i used to eat my exercise calories but i wasn't losing a thing. make sure your getting plenty of raw foods..salad, fresh veggies, fruit, and cut out bad carbs aka- white bread, white pasta, and have whole grain, or multi wheat pasta.
drink LOTS of water as well and track your water too..
goodluck. also i would suggest making your diary public.

When i ws working out very intensely, I was eating 4000 calories, when I stopped working out, i went down to 3000 calories. I lost muscle mass, and my weight stopped going down. I was in starvation mode.

fteale

Looking at your diary, I would say you aren't losing because you are eating too much. To maintain at 55kg I had to eat no more than about 1500 cals a day, if that. In fact, that was on top of a lot of exercise. To lose weight you probably need to eat quite a bit less.

registers

Looking at your diary, I would say you aren't losing because you are eating too much. To maintain at 55kg I had to eat no more than about 1500 cals a day, if that. In fact, that was on top of a lot of exercise. To lose weight you probably need to eat quite a bit less.

OR exercise more.

fteale

Looking at your diary, I would say you aren't losing because you are eating too much. To maintain at 55kg I had to eat no more than about 1500 cals a day, if that. In fact, that was on top of a lot of exercise. To lose weight you probably need to eat quite a bit less.

OR exercise more.

Or that.

joanneeee

Hi, no I don't eat out much but I do have to eat the cafeteria food (I'm a teacher). A lot of white rice. I hate it but it's all there is... my days are pretty tiring, I teach most of the day to little kids (lots of singing and dancing) so while they're not exactly workouts I do move around a lot.

Yeah, there are days I eat too much.. But I eat less during the week to make up for it. Also, I exercise a lot--pretty much every day. SO the days I'm eating up to 1600 calories, most likely they're days I'm burning up to 600 calories at the gym. I'm not kidding myself, there are definitely days (like last sunday) when I just eat too much.

Before I was on myfitnesspal I wasn't having so many slip-up days...

Maybe this is why I'm still 55 kilos... perhaps it's just the slip-up days keeping me at this weight... I mean, they're only once a week or every two weeks and I always go under the following day but... does that make a difference?

Can't you bring your own food? Surely they don't force you to eat the cafeteria food?

clair3jane

One important thing I should have mentioned is that my period has stopped, which is why I got worried about being in starvation mode. Since it stopped about a month or two my calories dropped, it's almost certainly because of that. So this is frustrating! It sill hasn't come back.

Also no, I guess I don't have the eat the cafeteria food, but in Korea lunch at your job is more than about just the food... it's about the social aspect too and if I didn't eat the food my bosses would think 'oh, she's a dumb foreigner and she can't eat Korean food like everybody else, what a dweeb'. hahaha. Excuses excuses! I wish I could bring my own food, but I'd be stepping on toes if I did. Anyway, it's not all that bad... often there are fresh vegetables and fruit but then sometimes there are things like hot dogs.

I'm going home to Australia in 10 weeks so there's an end to this problem

clair3jane

Also I just want to thank everyone again, I'm surprised at how many people are commenting.. .thankyou so much!!