Le Help

rocketmouse

I have already opened this question up to my friends but I thought I would also bring it to the good people of the forum, all ye wise, wonderful, successful folk.

So: I am worried because the scale hasn't budged in at least a week, and possibly longer. ("But," you might say, "You've only been tracking your food for two weeks!" Hold, gentle stranger, I've only been tracking it on MFP for two weeks. I've been monitoring calories/increasing daily activity for about 6, but I only bought a scale on Monday.)

My diary is public so you can look all you want. Most days I eat anywhere between 1100-1500 calories, but I had a few days of heavy eating last week. I always drink my 8 glasses of water (sometimes more) and I don't watch my carbs, but I always come in under the MFP goal - right now I'm trying to increase protein (I realized my diet was super protein-lacking when I started tracking my food here). I have started feeling better (thanks, protein, probably!) but I don't know if I'm eating too much? Not enough?

My activity level: I don't do a lot of straight-up "exercise" but I lead a pedestrian lifestyle, so I spend usually at least an hour a day walking places, frequently uphill, and I live in a 3rd-floor-walk up, so there's that. I'd say I'm lightly active during the week and moderately active on the weekends. I'm 25/f/CW:110 kg

nonomkat

I had this problem a few weeks ago. It was very discouraging, which led me to stop being so strict with my calories, because what was the point anyway? Result: I lost almost 2kgs the next week. Since then I've increased my daily calorie goal and am losing steadily without as much effort.

My thoughts are that maybe you aren't eating enough. 1100 - 1500 is not very much especially with your activity level. Are you eating all your excercise calories? Have you calculated your BMR? It's possible you're not taking in enough calories to fuel your body to burn weight.

rocketmouse

I calculated my BMR once, long ago... I should probably do it again. But no, I've just been trying to eat a little less than MFP tells me to eat - although I do aim for net calories- I always eat back the calories I've burned during the day (not all of them, but enough to land me at 1100-1500 net calories - 1300-1400 net calories is my favorite place to be).

So UPDATE: I don't know how accurate these numbers are because I just used a BMR calculator and then the Harris-Benedict Equation but my BMR is 1902 and if I consider myself lightly active I should be eating about 2600 calories to "maintain." So maybe I should be trying to eat more calories every day instead of less. But I just don't know. I should have titled this topic better, maybe I would have got more opinions

rocketmouse

Haaaaaaaaaalp bump

Sidesteal

So UPDATE: I don't know how accurate these numbers are because I just used a BMR calculator and then the Harris-Benedict Equation but my BMR is 1902 and if I consider myself lightly active I should be eating about 2600 calories to "maintain." So maybe I should be trying to eat more calories every day instead of less. But I just don't know. I should have titled this topic better, maybe I would have got more opinions

I would recommend you also look up Katsch-McArdle and use that to compare the values. Assuming you get anything even close to the above, and assuming you are indeed eating 1100-1500 calories, I would urge you to increase your intake a bit. EDIT: You need to increase it regardless, but Katsch-McArdle will give you a second method to check BMR/TDEE.

That being said, I don't think 1 week of stalling is anything you should pay any attention to at this point. Weight loss isn't linear and is constantly masked by water weight, stomach/intestinal contents, and weighing inconsistencies.

So while I think you need to up your calories, I think it's (for now) independent of this problem.

Just my opinion.

rocketmouse

Thanks for the tip on the Katsh-Mcardle formula. I don't know what my lean muscle % is (or where to check it) but I will try to find out. I assure you that my food diary is utterly faithful (observe the 6 (six!) chocolates I ate today and a liégeois chocolat, urgh) and warts-and-all so my calorie intake, to the best of my knowledge, is accurately represented here. I don't generally eat so many sweets in one day and try to only buy fresh fruits and veg at the grocery, and whole, multi-grain bread fresh from the bakery.

maybe I'll try for 1600-1800 calories a day, maybe, in healthy whole grains, fruits, veggies, and dairy. And I'll try to calm down about wanting results faster, but... urgh, it's been almost a month.

vegansara

I've been at this for over 5 months now, and my wight loss has certainly not been linear. I went weeks and weeks without losing, and then would drop up to 7 pounds in one week. It is totally random (or at least complex enough that I can't understand). But over those 5 months I've lost 25 pounds- averaging 5 pounds a month, which is good and sustainable. Some weeks it is hard to keep trucking if the scale isn't moving or even if it - gasp! - moves in the wrong direction. But keep your head up and keep doing it, you will get the results you want.

And, it sounds like you need to up your calories .

rocketmouse

Okay, I think everyone is right! I need to calm down and maybe wait for the end of the month before I start freaking out and thinking I'm not seeing any results. It's just that you always hear about people with lots of weight to lose (ex. me with like 100 lbs to drop) who absolutely shed weight at the beginning - but everyone's different! From now on I'll be upping my calories to be closer to what MFP recommends rather than trying to stay around 1400 a day. I'd rather lose slower than not lose at all or go into starvation mode or something.