What do you do when the scale isn't moving?

crazylizz

I belong to a weight loss group. The group was started by our employer and the criteria for admission to the group was a BMI of at least 40 and a committment of one year to work with a trainer, a dietitian and attend exercise and support and cooking groups. We must attend 80% of the offerings to stay active in the group.

As you can gather most of us have 100+ lbs to lose.

I have been asked to facilitate one of the support groups and am honored. I did my first group yesterday and it went well. One concern we have all expressed though is the slowness or lack of weight loss. There is a core group of 12-15 that are truly making monumental changes, tracking food, journaling, working with the trainer 1 hour a week, doing 2-3 1 hour exercise groups a week and the most anyone has lost in 4 weeks is 12 lbs. Most have averaged 2-5 lbs, a few have lost nothing and some have gained 2-3 lbs.

What gives? How do you keep people motivated when they are doing what they should and still not losing. If it was one or two people I would say they are cheating but when 12-15 are in the same boat?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

SusanMcAvoy

Exercise, exercise, exercise! That's how my most successful friends are losing. I'm losing a little slower because I only exercise 4 days a week for 45 minutes but that's all I can do at this time. My metabolism is very slow due to medication and age. I wish your group the best of luck.

aippolito1

If they have 100+ lbs to lose, eating right & exercising should make it fairly easy to lose...so they probably are just not doing their part. Emphasize that EVERYONE must do their part, i.e.: eat healthier or eat less or both, and get to working out (even if it's an hour walk everyday) so that y'all can win!!

shmo1969

Has anyone addressed this with their trainer? If they just started an exercise program 4 wks ago and kept to their calories without cheating...I would say that they are gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat yet takes up less space in the body. The best thing to do is to also measure everybody and ask how they feel in their clothes. They may be losing inches, which is much more important right now than the number on the scale. Hope this helps!!

thirtyandthriving

Are they active or registered for MFP or any other logging website? Maybe they are not eating enough. everyone is so different it is hard to tell about a group of 12-15 people. It could be all different factors.

kikislove2

I am sorry to be the bad news bear on this topic, but it is more than likely that those 12-15 people are gaining or remaining stagnant not doing everything they should be doing, so either they need to revamp their calories to make sure they are getting enough, and not too much. If they are on this site, it will tell them how many they need to lose a certain amount of weight. They may not want to fully admit it, but the scale does not lie, and when you are very heavy, you drop weigh alot faster than if you are closer to your goal weight. If they have not lost a significant amount of weight so far, then their bodies should still be in burn mode if they are watching their calories properly and exercising. The body does not go into plateau mode until it is exhausted from letting a lot of weight go, used to the same routine, or it goes into starvation mode. Also, just know that about 2lbs a week is a good, steady amount of weight to lose. It may be more than that the first couple of weeks due to water weight, but it should even out. Good luck to you.

Colli78

I would highly recommend something called calorie cycling. It's what I do and I absolutely love it and I have yet to hit a plateau and I have been doing this since May and combined with some exercise, have lost 70 pounds so far. How calorie cycling works is that you figure out how many calories you need a day to lose weight. Let's say for this case it's 1500 a day. Multiple 1500 times 7 (for 7 days a week). You total would be 10500 calories needed for the week. So, your diet plan may look like this:

Monday: 1300 Calories
Tuesday: 1600 Calories
Wednesday: 1800 Calories
Thursday: 1250 Calories
Friday: 1400 Calories
Saturday: 1500 Calories
Sunday: 1650 Calories

So, what you are doing is basically keeping your metabolism guessing. You never enter starvation mode and the up and down of the caloric intake keeps your metabolism high. Plus, you don't feel deprived when you go out to eat or something because you can add or subtract calories as needed.

I hope this didn't confuse you too much.

H_Factor

um, losing 12 pounds in 4 weeks is pretty dang good. even a 4-5 pound loss over that period is decent. the weight will come off in spurts...but its hard to say why any particular person isn't losing more without knowing specifics about what each person is eating.

rodneyderrick

There isn't a problem with the rate of weight-loss in your group, when using calorie counting, exercise, and good old common sense to do it. People with a lot of weight to lose, fifty plus pounds, need to understand true weight-loss is a slow process. It takes time. It's important that you, and all the people trying to lose weight, stop with this fad diet mindset. People on the fad diet plan want to lose a whole bunch of weight in a short period of time. It's time to stop that kind of thinking. The outcome of trying to lose a bunch of weight all at once is a failure, every single time. Even if you drop fifty pounds, you'll regain sixty because you didn't learn anything. Losing twelve pounds in four weeks is alright in my book, because that's twenty-four in eight weeks. Think about that.

sister_bear

I would highly recommend something called calorie cycling. It's what I do and I absolutely love it and I have yet to hit a plateau and I have been doing this since May and combined with some exercise, have lost 70 pounds so far. How calorie cycling works is that you figure out how many calories you need a day to lose weight. Let's say for this case it's 1500 a day. Multiple 1500 times 7 (for 7 days a week). You total would be 10500 calories needed for the week. So, your diet plan may look like this:

Monday: 1300 Calories
Tuesday: 1600 Calories
Wednesday: 1800 Calories
Thursday: 1250 Calories
Friday: 1400 Calories
Saturday: 1500 Calories
Sunday: 1650 Calories

So, what you are doing is basically keeping your metabolism guessing. You never enter starvation mode and the up and down of the caloric intake keeps your metabolism high. Plus, you don't feel deprived when you go out to eat or something because you can add or subtract calories as needed.

I hope this didn't confuse you too much.

This. You can also look at zig-zagging. I've been shrinking despite the lack of scale cooperation so I haven't been worried, but when I feel totally stuck, I zig zag for a few days. I also try to vary my exercise on those zig zag days so I'm breaking my routine.

Not sure if anyone suggested this, but watching the tape measure can be more encouraging than the scale.

Other than that, just got to stay positive. We can't always see or quantify the changes we're making in our health and bodies. The psychological aspect of this is the hardest thing I've had to deal with. Sometimes I have to remind myself how I feel now, because I feel soooo much better than I did a year ago.

1goodymom67

Serously, I know what it is like for the scale not to move. I stay positive and keep doing what I do. I exercise, I watch what I eat. But with that said I have lost 30 lbs in 2-3 years (yes you read right). I have also seen pic of me from before I started my journey and wo I have made progress. Stay positive.

kikislove2

thanks a lot for this info!!