What am I doing wrong??

Household06

I'm eating my calories (most days), exercising, journaling and not seeing ANY progress? What am I doing wrong? Any tips or recommendations would be great.

I've been using MFP for almost a month and have only lost 2 lbs. I've lost more lbs on other programs and not sure what I'm doing wrong.

TIA!!

angel79202

If u want to open ur diary, I can take a look...

mamamudbug

I'm going through the same thing. Today is my 20th day. One pound down last Wednesday, one pound down today.

beccalup86

What type of exercising are you doing? My doctor told me Cardio is the most efficient for weight loss. I've been trying to do at least 20 mins of cardio a day and so far it's helped me speed up the process a little, as I was in your same position a couple of weeks ago.

akbuilt

What exercises are you doing? Try to do a combination of High Impact Interval Training for cardio every other day and steady rate elliptical for the other days. Also, do strength training. It burns calories even after you've stopped exercising. I have a couple of good beginner routines that I am happy to email you if you are interested. hope that helps!

srp2011

Hard to tell without seeing your food diary - weight loss is mostly related to food intake, so whatever is wrong is probably in there.

angel79202

Also need to watch both sodium and water..both have impacted me in the past

Lleldiranne

First off, 2 lbs in a month is not bad. What is your goal set at? (2 lbs in a month is 1/2 pound per week).

It would also be helpful to see your diary.

MFP doesn't always get your maintenance calories just right. (Neither does any other site). You might be too low or too high, especially if you under- or over- estimate your activity level. You may find yourself needing to adjust up or down a bit.

But don't give up! 2 lbs a month is still progress in the right direction. And even if it is slow, it's more likely something you can maintain, meaning the weight would be less likely to come back.

Household06

I jog/walk 5 times a week - burning between 400-700 calories each run. I drink about 120 oz of water/ day (and the # of bathroom trips can prove that) LOL!!

I'll open up my food diary.....if someone would be kind enough to tell me what I'm eating that is wrong!! Thanks so much!! I appreciate the comments.

minadeathclutch

maybe you're not working out intensely.

this worked for me.
do 15 second sprint. 45 second walk. repeat 10-15 times. next day do weight training. then back to sprints the next day etc etc

also.. watch your sodium intake..
try to eat as fresh as possible. don't eat anything from a can... cook all your food. fresh veggies, frozen veggies. salads. eggwhite omelettes. etc

minadeathclutch

i checked your diary out....
cut chocolate out.. not completely ofcourse.. but don't eat it everyday...
for example go 4-5 days without chocolate. then eat some on the weekends..
fat free stuff is also ..in most cases.. as bad as the full fat stuff lol so keep that in mind..
hmmm what else.. definately sodium and sugar.. watch those things closely.. i stay under 1500 mgs of sodium a day.. i try to be under 1000 but if i go over, i try really hard NOT to go over 1500.. if i do it's bad.. (for me anyway lol)

angel79202

I would watch your fat content..On a few days you were over on others a tad on the high side. My trainer told me to stick to the USDA which recommends no more than 35 grams of fat..try to aim for food in its natural form, whole grains, fruits, veggies...the more processed the food the harder for your body to process... Feel free to friend me for support, you can do this!

srp2011

OK, just looked at your diary and you are eating way too much processed foods, salt and simple sugars/carbs. You're doing ok with your calories, but the foods you are choosing are not as healthy as they could be, and you will have a hard time losing weight with them. Try integrating more fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins (chicken, turkey, fish - baked, broiled, grilled), and some whole grains. I'm not an advocate of high protein, very low carb diets, but increasing the amount of protein you eat and decreasing processed carbs can really help. Really cut back on the things like chips or ice cream, etc... You don't have to cut them out completely, but they should be treats, not staples. For example, if I went to Subway for lunch and had a bag of chips, that would be my treat for the day - the rest of the day would be very healthy, natural foods. The next day I might have a salad for lunch, and have a Skinny Cow ice cream for desert at dinner. Also, don't skip breakfast. I think the amount you are exercising is fine, increase the intensity if you want, but that's not where the problem is right now. Think of this as a lifestyle change, not a diet program - start nourishing your body with more foods that are healthy and give it the nutrients it needs, and those habits will stick with you and help you keep the weight off once you lose it - just watching calories won't usually work because it's far too easy to go back to eating bigger portions of the wrong foods.

Good luck!

servilia

I agree with srp. I went through a few days of your diary and saw chips, doritoes, ice cream and processed cheese or at least some combination of these, every day. These should ideally be occasional treats, not everyday foods.

I went to the rice-a-roni website and looked at the ingredients for the chicken flavoured rice product and just from the ingredients it seems really processed. I would replace this with brown/other non white rices which you could make from scratch. At least then you know what's in it.
I checked the Wish Bone website too and the Western dressing is one of their highest calorie dressings. Have you tried any of the vinaigrette ones or any of the other dressings? http://www.wish-bone.com/WB_Products_Info.pdf

Good luck!

bacyr21

So I just checked a couple days out of your diary and I would say you really are missing breakfast as well as eating a lot of processed foods. I see that you have a family, do you do family dinners planned out? In the past I have always struggled with eating a good breakfast but I have come to believe that a decent breakfast really helps out during the day. It can be as simple as toast with a little bit of peanut butter or an egg white omelet with cheese a fruit and some toast. It all depends on your day. Dinners are always hard for me, as I have to feed four growing chidren but I am working (in the last week), actually planning out meals. It isn't easy and the calories add up fast but sometimes you have all kinds of extra calories which I know look great but after awhile can do the opposite effect on your body. You will hold more fat in if your body feels like it isn't getting the fuel it needs. It starts to think that you are starving it so it holds on to the fat. A hard concept to get but it really is true, I have tested it out. If you eat less and less and get to say anorexia or eating way less than your body needs your body responds to that. Things begin to shut down inorder to save fat to keep you living. There is a fine balance but if you are exercising regularly and recording it you really shouldn't end days with over 600 calories. You are depriving your body and it will counter act by hanging on to the fat and unless you can do that for months without caving in you end up feeling starved and run down with no energy or you start to gain weight.

Household06

Thanks for the advice!! It's hard to not eat some processed foods with a family with 2 small boys and on a budget. I'm going to try to focus on eating more fresh veggies and fruits this next week and see what happens.

And, yes, ice-cream is my weak spot. I usually eat a 100 calorie snack size drumstick each night....it's only 100 calories and super tiny.