What Am I Doing Wrong?!? (Lengthy...sorry)

westbrja

Ok so I'm asking you all to take a peak at my journal and maybe offer some insight as to why you think the scale has been barely moving and often going up or standing still.

Let me say this, Im asking you to offer advice, but I'm not asking for people to pick apart every single "wrong choice". I don't see anything wrong with having things in moderation sometimes.

To give you a quick rundown about my journey thus far. I joined MFP in 2009. During that time I lost about 25 pounds and have been able to maintain it. I stopped logging onto MFP when I found out I was pregnant with my 3rd child. I only gained about 12 pounds during preganancy and lost it all plus sum immediately after delivery (sorry mamas, it's happened with all 3 of my children). Now a year after delivery I'm back on MFP and ready to begin a new lifestyle.

My problem has been that after my 5 pounds water loss the first week. I haven't seemed to lose hardly anymore and what I did lose I've gained back. I re-evaluated my calorie level at the beginning because the 1250 I was eating was too low and I wasn't losing anything. Around the third or forth week I got down to 199 and now I'm back at 202? Now, I am usually pretty good about logging and am honest about what I eat so I know I'm not eating way over my limit. If I do forget to log something, it is usually something small and would not make hardly any difference.

It's been harder for me to get to the gym lately since school is out and the kids are home all day. But in my mind even if I only exercise once or twice a week, that is once or twice more a week then I was doing before. If I go over my calories once in awhile, the 1600 calories that I am following most days is WAY under what I was eating before. I really don't know why I'm not losing much weight. I have recently tried to be better about drinking my water.

If I've left details out or I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism, but please no rude comments . Thanks in advance to everyone!

Jaylynn

fionarama

Hi, my main observation is your daily goal is quite high, my daily goal is 1200 and I normally do 40 mins cardio on that. For me that is still eating plenty.
Personally I find it really really hard to lose weight unless I can do cardio 4-5 times a week, you just have to be so spot on diet wise if you can't exercise alot. I know its hard, maybe a walk with the kids every day? Some kind of active family activity would be great for them and for you.

shellybsn

I didn't look at your food diary or anything, but just as a side note, maybe you should get your thyroid checked and stuff. Having kids can get it a little messed up sometimes. Might help!?

ladyhawk00

Your calorie goal is likely not too high. When you're a bit bigger (height and weight-wise) it takes more calories to move that around. The point is that you don't want to have too high of a deficit. (OP seems to understand this, was just pointing it out for anyone who does say cal goal is too high.)

That said, we can probably get a bit more specific if you let us know what your height and age is, what kind of exercise you're doing, describe your daily activity (and what your activity level setting is). Also, do you use an HRM?

With that info, we might be able to figure out better what a good deficit would be, and whether your settings are correct. If those things are right, then you're looking more at inaccuracies in your logging for food/exercise. :flowerforyou:

Also, may want to read these if you haven't seen them yet, just for general info:

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

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/283663-not-losing-weight-you-re-asking-the-wrong-questions

bioteacher01

My personal experience is that if I don't workout almost everyday, the scale doesn't move. Everyone is different, but you might want to give it a try!

grapevines

I agree that your calorie goal is not too high. I would take a look at how many sugars you are consuming. There are a lot of hidden sugars in many types of foods....one of those being yogurt. I was losing pretty well when I was really monitoring my sugar intake. Good luck!

HeatherrSue

Try to make sure you drink atleast 80 ounces of water a day...it makes a huge difference. Try to walk some if you're not used to working out. I try to walk a mile everynight after dinner with the family. I walk alot in the morning but always try to walk 20 minutes after dinner. The thing that really worked for me the past month was watching how much sugar I eat. Not just sugar but whats in fruits and stuff as well. I switched to sugar free coffee creamer and truvia sweetner instead of sugar. Just a suggestion but I lost almost 10 pounds last month. I hope it helps.

jenh1101

Have you tried switching up your workouts? I looked through your food journal and it seems to me like you're doing great there!

WifeMomDVM

This is a tough one - I've looked at your diary for the past week and I see some good choices, so honestly I'm not sure why the scale isn't moving for you. From a mathematical standpoint - it should.

I see a few teensy potential red flags in your post that MIGHT be your problem:

1) Exercise - you say you have a hard time exercising more than 1-2 times a week - well, honestly, you may have to find a way to make more time to squeeze a little more exercise in your day. It's your choice. We all have 24 hours in our day, many of us have jobs, families, kids, (insert excuse here) etc.... so you just have to make it a priority some how and find the time to get it done. You only need 15 minutes a day to do High Intensity Interval Training which is great for fat loss.

2) As you've said - you need to drink more water. Sure you'll have to pee alot at first, but your body will adjust. I try to drink at least 12-14 glasses a day. Other things in moderation are fine (alcohol) as a once in a while treat. Do you drink diet sodas? Although they are no calorie, the acidity of them can deplete you of minerals and mess up your thyroid and your metabolism. I'd kick the soda habit if you drink any at all.

3) Your macros look pretty good - I do see quite a bit of processed foods in your diary. Even the tyson chicken is not going to be as clean as plain, raw chicken.

4) Sodium isn't too terrible either, but try to aim for 1500 mg/day or less. I noticed you pick some things like generic homemade taco soup - sometimes the entries on MFP won't reflect the sodium content of the food you actually eat so just be aware and be careful there.

5) I don't see very many healthy fats in your diary (other than the walnuts). Do you like fish? This is a great way to get your Omega 3's and protein.

When I first joined MFP I followed this diet for 8 weeks to help me transition to cleaner eating habits. I've posted it if you want to give it a shot. I don't eat clean all the time (I like unhealthy stuff in moderation too), but it did give me a jump in the right direction.

6) You might want to track sugar too. No more than 10% of your calories from sugar. So if you eat 1600 cals a day, that would be 160 calories, divide by 4 (calories in one gram) and you would want to try to stay under 40 grams a day.

http://www.extremely-fit.com/fitness-tips/2011/01/8week-transition-diet/

I hope this helps you out. Good luck.

Edited to add: Make sure you use a scale and measuring cups/spoons. Don't eyeball what you eat - be accurate. Also, LOG everything. Those tiny snippets you forget to log actually DO add up.

kje2011

bump, read later

mywaytobeingfit

I checked out your diary.

One thing for sure is (I don't know if maybe you forgot to log on those days). For sure do not go under 1,200 calories. Our bodies will go into starvation mode. Your body will think you are on a deserted island and hold onto your food so you will survive. Then when you start eating again it will hold on to that too thinking you might get put on a deserted island again. It is not until you consistently eat well that your body knows it is safe to let go.

The other is water. Our body is mainly made up of water. Again... I don't know if you forgot to log. We need the minimum 8 glasses of water. Try drinking two glasses before each meal. On top of getting your water in you will feel more full when you go to eat your meal.

Depending on what you have set as your weight loss 1 pound loss each week or more. MFP takes 250 calories off your food intake for each 1/2 pound you want to lose without exercise. My MFP is set for 1 pound down each week. Setting my calorie intake at 1580 calories for my height and weight. I can have 500 calories remaining on food intake after exercise and now go down 2 pounds each week. Any more than that deficit 1,000 calories is not recommended. Slow and steady wins the race and it becomes a lifestyle change. You want to be realistic.

I don't know if that helps.

yalva1

I don't know the answer - I can only speak for what happens to me. Sometimes I think I am only going over once in awhile but it actually is more than that. When I go over now, I write it down even if it 3,000 calories so that I know when I did it. It is also harder for me to say....well.......it was awhile ago that I went over.......so then I check and I see that it was actually 6 days ago...not that far off. I also noticed that sometimes I was not counting all of my calories - even the Crystal light sweetner has calories!

I have also noticed that as I have gotten older...I am only losing 1 pound a week. I used to be able to lose like mad pounds in a week when I was younger...no more...I have had to adjust to this 1 pound per week thing.

I also had to get my thyroid checked and it was majorly off. Good thing and now I am on medication.
I count my house cleaning as activity so my house is even cleaner than it was before. If you can't get to the gym use the house as your gym. This is what I do in my apartment when I can't go.

Triceps on a stable and secure chair
biceps curls with 10 pound weights in my house
The Firm video tapes or Buns of Steel..it is an oldie but a goodie....the videotapes are really very good if you do them 2x per week. Not ideal but well something....
Yardwork
Mopping - stinks but well..that's life
Spot cleaning the rug - it is such a good workout for your arms - No...I don't do it all the time...but it is really hard...
stretching on the stairs and on the floor
lunges through the hallway
Wash car

i feel your pain and I really understand the struggle!!! I hope this helps you. We just have to stick with the healthy lifestyle thing...it will come off...slowly but either way...we can't go back to the bad habits we had...so we just have to deal with the slowness of how our body reacts to the change.

Best of luck.

hazelnutflav

loosing wt is a balance of NUTRITION & EXCERCISE it seems you got the nutrition part together so you may need to up the excercise if yr going once or twice a week how long are you there?

you have to really move that body more often if you want to see results.

westbrja

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions!

@ ladyhawk - I just turned 29 yesterday and I'm 5'5". I had my body fat calculated (with a handheld machine, but was told by the fitness coach it's pretty accurate) and it was 37.8%

To everyone else regarding exercising, if you look back a couple weeks and before on my journal, I was exercising regularly (3-4 times per week) and was still not losing hardly anything. I have some workout dvd's on the way so I can still workout at home. I tried Zumba for the Kinect but didn't really care for it.

My regular routine was 30-40 mins on the elliptical or treadmill and then some strength training (I logged it if you'd like to check it out). I recently started trying some interval training on the treadmill. I do a warm up then walk for one minute and jog for one minute. I do this for 20 minutes then cool-down.

I should add that I do zig-zag my calories and anytime you see race walking logged, I've used that to increase my calories for that day.

bonnymom

I looked at the last 2 weeks of your diary and there appears to be 3 days that your NET calorie intake was REALLY low. With your daily calorie goal of 1600 calories per day averages out to 11,200 calories per week. Your total weekly intake for last week (Sat-Fri) was 8868 and the week before was only 8777. You may want to try increasing your calorie intake on the days that you put in a huge calorie burn.

Another thought is to try to be more consistent in your calorie intake instead of the zig-zagging.

Increasing your water intake can make a huge difference too!

Did you reset your calorie goals after losing the 25lbs previously? You can try resetting your MFP calorie goal. Make sure that your activity level is accurate too.

Just a few suggestions. Good Luck!

gothicprophet

Saving this to review when I have time.

westbrja

@bonnymom - I did notice that when I used the MFP calorie calculator, I wasn't losing ANYTHING!!! They had me at 1250 and it was just too low, I was having blood sugar dips and was always hungry too.

I just changed my settings and added sugar. After a quick look back thru, all but one day since June 23rd, I went over on sugar. Somedays it was majorly over (80+) and other days it was slightly over.

When I lost the weight before I never really counted calories. I just watched what I ate and my portions and increased exercise.

realme56

Getting some exercise is better than none. Use playtime with the kids to do "exercise" lifting, swinging them, hide and seek. Walk with the kids, more house work. Go up and down the stairs on your porch or in the house. Be creative!

Your diary does not look too bad. I felt so stagnate through my 240s, took over a month. Now I lost 8# in 2 weeks and the 230s are flying by because I made sure to eat back my calories.

One more thing is to be sure to have the thyroid checked, it can go dormant after a pregnancy and cause weight gain, dry skin, cold, depression, irregular menses.

Hope you find your sweet spot of weight loss

Rilke

This may not solve your problem weight-wise, but health-wise you definitely need more fresh fruits and veggies.

westbrja

I usually don't like the after taste I get from artificial sweetners so I do still use brown sugar in my oatmeal and sugar in my coffee. Maybe I could try the Truvia as I hear it's not bad at all.

I have pop once in awhile, meaning maybe once or twice per week and I've switched to diet.

ladyhawk00

Happy belated Bday!

With that info, your BMR should be around 1629. Activity level should probably be sedentary, possibly lightly active. So that would put maintenance around 1950 for sedentary, 2200 for lightly active. I would go with sedentary, particularly if you aren't losing on 1600.

For what you have to lose, 1 lb per week would be appropriate. So a cal goal of around 1450-1500 should be about right. So at 1600 you'd be losing maybe 1/2 lb per week - IF all logging was accurate.

I would highly recommend getting an HRM if you can swing it. I wouldn't be surprised if you (and MFP) are overestimating your burns a bit. If you can't get one right now, try eating just 50% of your exercise cals.

I would try tweaking the numbers a bit first. If that doesn't work after a month or so, I'd head to the doc to get some testing done for thyroid or other metabolic issues. :flowerforyou:

westbrja

Happy belated Bday!

With that info, your BMR should be around 1629. Activity level should probably be sedentary, possibly lightly active. So that would put maintenance around 1950 for sedentary, 2200 for lightly active. I would go with sedentary, particularly if you aren't losing on 1600.

For what you have to lose, 1 lb per week would be appropriate. So a cal goal of around 1450-1500 should be about right. So at 1600 you'd be losing maybe 1/2 lb per week - IF all logging was accurate.

I would highly recommend getting an HRM if you can swing it. I wouldn't be surprised if you (and MFP) are overestimating your burns a bit. If you can't get one right now, try eating just 50% of your exercise cals.

I would try tweaking the numbers a bit first. If that doesn't work after a month or so, I'd head to the doc to get some testing done for thyroid or other metabolic issues. :flowerforyou:

Thank you so much! I'll decrease my cals a bit and see if that makes a difference. Also I will try to squeeze in some extra exercise. I will probably go and have my thyroid tested anyway because my mom is having problems with hers. She's scheduled for surgery to remove one side possibly both.

Thanks again to everyone!!

fionarama

a good sweetener is Splenda its just like sugar and its all natural, its actually made of sugar.

M_lifts

Hello
I think ladyhawk summed it up nicely, I find mfp over-estimates calorie burn and before I got my polar f6 I only ate back half of my exercise calories. I would also try and increase your water intake if you can to atleast 10 cups a day. It made a huge difference for me. In addition, can you add more fruit as snacks? Low in fat and filling too. One other thing I noticed, sometimes u skip dinner, maybe have 3 big meals and 3 smal snacks to balance it out to make sure u dont feel hungry?

on the exercise front- I really like jillian michaels 30 day shred, its only 20 mins long and u can fimd time to do that everyday. I do this when my daughter is in bed. What about regular trips to the park with the kids, playing ball etc, any exercise is good . Hope this helps

westbrja

Hello
I think ladyhawk summed it up nicely, I find mfp over-estimates calorie burn and before I got my polar f6 I only ate back half of my exercise calories. I would also try and increase your water intake if you can to atleast 10 cups a day. It made a huge difference for me. In addition, can you add more fruit as snacks? Low in fat and filling too. One other thing I noticed, sometimes u skip dinner, maybe have 3 big meals and 3 smal snacks to balance it out to make sure u dont feel hungry?

on the exercise front- I really like jillian michaels 30 day shred, its only 20 mins long and u can fimd time to do that everyday. I do this when my daughter is in bed. What about regular trips to the park with the kids, playing ball etc, any exercise is good . Hope this helps

I've heard a lot about the 30 day shred. Lots of people like it.

peachNpunkin

I don't really see a problem with what you are putting in.
I would look into changing your exercise routine every couple of weeks. I will shock your body and you should see some weight loss that way.
Increase your daily caloric intake by 100 a day. I don't think you are getting enough. When you don't get enough calories in you store fat and don't lose weight.
When you do work out, eat back at least half of what you burned. Once again, the whole getting enough calories in the day.
On the days that the little ones are home, put them in a stroller and go for a walk around the neighborhood. It will give you some good quality time with them and and will allow them to get a good breath of fresh air.

Good luck to you. I will pray for you.

elizamc

Bump