Not losing - check out my diary - HELP!!! :(

eacatterton

I have been battling my weight issue for 3.5 years since the birth of my son. Due to complications with my pregnancy I gained 60lbs, but only dropped down to 220 after giving birth. I am currently at 215 and have maintained that for several years. I have tried several workout DVD programs and try to eat right. I already do whole grain and wheat and stopped drinking sodas over a year ago with no change. As my new years challenge I have become a bit more strict on my food intake and workout at least 5 days a week. Even with this change I still have not had any weight loss or inches that I notice in the last few weeks. What am I doing wrong? It is becoming quite discouraging and i need to do something before I give up all together. My diary is open for anyone that would like to take a look and offer some advice. Thanks!!

ji225

Ive had similar issues - in fact hardly ever go over cals - eat less than half exercise clas back usually, and have not lost more then a pound in 5 months! I'd be interested what others have to say!

Jenny

castadiva

OK, the first thing is to say 'give it time'! You've been at this just under two weeks, I think - that's not very long for your body to adjust to new patterns and start shedding pounds. Be patient!

The diary looks OK-ish, but there's still quite a lot of processed foods, artificially-sweetened things and convenience items like Kraft dressing in there. I'm all for small indulgences - that's what keeps me on the straight and narrow the other 90% of the time - but maybe you could look at making small changes - a little milk instead of the creamer, a little less sweetener, a homemade oil-and-vinegar dressing instead of the sugary Kraft one.

You also seem to eat a lot of nuts and associated products. Nuts can be great, in small doses, but they are quite high in fats, on average. Maybe think about replacing some of these with other lean protein - eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, seafood...

I'd also lose the diet shakes. Many people here find them counterproductive. Hope that helps - it's just some ideas to try, really. You have to find the things that work for you, and that sometimes takes a little trial-and-error. Good luck!

twinmom430

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

czechsmate

I only went back a few days in your diary but did notice you were always over in sodium, and not enough water. You could be retaining fluids too. Just a thought.

jojoworks

Hi,

I quickly perused your food diary. A couple things popped out at me. First of all your sodium intake is pretty high. Most doctors now recommend to keep your sodium intake to around 1500 mg / day. MFP automatically sets your sodium "goal" to 2,500 mg, but really that should be the outer limit. I went in and changed my setting to 1500.

Another thing that popped out at me was that you seem to have too many calories left at the end of the day. You should be eating back at least some of your exercise calories. When you set your goals in MFP and it gave you 1200 per day that has a weight-loss calorie deficit built in. If you exercise on top of that you are creating too large of a deficit. Your body really needs a baseline of calories just to function properly. You're undernourished when you only eat a net calorie amount of 800 calories in a day.

I would also recommend that you try as much as possible to get rid of processed foods in your diet. All the additives and fake sweeteners and boxes of stuff just put too many empty calories into your body that are mostly void of nutritional value.

Many people on here will tell you that losing weight is as simple burning more calorie than you consume and that what you eat isn't that important. Well....apparently that's not working for you. My theory is: if I'm limiting the number of calories I consume in a day then I want those calories that I eat to be as nutritionally dense as possible. You should look at everything you're eating and decide: is it food? will it contribute to the nutritional needs of my body in a positive way?

One last thing to mention. As a group, people tend to underestimate the calories they're recording and over estimate their exercise. You may want to make sure you're being as accurate as possible.

Good luck and happy eating!
JoJo

danascot

The first thing I noticed is that you often go over your sodium intake. Pay closer attention to the sodium content of food and/or use less processed foods perhaps. Make sure you drink all your water too. I'm thinking you may need to up your exercise? Or try something different with your exercise.

czechsmate

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

lol...did not see this reply first...:blushing:

eacatterton

Well I understand how you could think only been at this for 2 weeks, that's just how long I have been dedicated and addicted to MFP. I have been trying to eat right and exercise for about 2 years. And yes, I do rely sometimes on the convenience items like the dressing, but. I try not to go overboard. The diet shakes are a new addition that I originally thought would help but after purchasing realized the high sugar content. I have had them a little over 2 weeks and have only had 2. I only grab one when I am in a hurry and feel like I am starving, just in the hope it will tide me over until I can find something better. As for the water intake, I most always get my 64oz if not more, I just forget to log them all. I feel like I am doing all the right things with no results. I have heard that maybe i need a better balance of strength training with my cardio. I am going to start trying to fit that in to my routine.

twinmom430

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

lol...did not see this reply first...:blushing:

hehe, great minds :laugh:

czechsmate

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

lol...did not see this reply first...:blushing:

hehe, great minds :laugh:

I know, that was weird....almost word for word

laurabarden

A few things i noticed in your diary was your water intake is less than 8 cups some days. also, some of the foods you eat have a lot of sodium in it. When you eat too much sodium, your body will retain water. If you dont drink enough to help flush out that sodium, your body will lose fat pounds but retain water weight. You are short raw veggies too.

Everyones body is different. If you were used to eating 2500 calories a day and now eat 1200 calories, your body may take a while to adjust to the changes. It may go into shock for a while. Dont worry, it will catch up!

I started my lifestyle change just after christmas and have gone from 208.4 to 202.8. Not huge changes, but slow and steady wins the race. I only eat back half the workout calories sometimes because i find it hard to eat them all back.

Add me as a friend and ill help you motivated!!

kit_katty

Personally, if I'm anywhere near my max sodium, I have up to 3lbs of water weight. I take about three days of lower sodium with lots of water to get rid of the excess weight. Just food for thought.

Ely82010

Check your diary with open eyes. Most of the time, your sodium, fat, and sugar numbers are in red. Time to regroup and see what are the food items that you need to eliminate or reduce. Good luck!

eacatterton

You're undernourished when you only eat a net calorie amount of 800 calories in a day.

I had to go back through my diary to check on this. I know I almost always eat back all of my exercise calories, most of the time at least within 100 calories, sometimes 50-100 over if I am really hungry that day. I am not sure where you got this from.

Also, I have been noticing the going over on my sodium, I need to find a way to fix this. Something to work on. Also, again I want to point out I drink my 64 oz of water a day, sometimes more, I just tend to forget putting that in the MFP counter. Thanks to everyone's input.

SyntonicGarden

I agree with the comments about the sodium being too high, the water not being enough, and the processed foods.

(By the way, I learned a great trick back in my WW days - If you have the dressing on the side and just dip the tip of the fork in before you put the salad on the fork, you eat less dressing without sacrificing the taste.)

Speaking from experience more than anything and since you mentioned PCOS, you way want to consider talking to your physician about the possible correlation between PCOS and a food allergy. Maybe talk about a food elimination diet. If I recall, PCOS is an autoimmune disorder. If you're allergic to something (wheat, dairy, some preservative), then your body is getting taxed even more so than normal, making it harder to function normally.

The other thing that I noticed is that the exercise diary could use a little bit of love. If you're like most of us, you're probably on a tight schedule, but the exercise is important, even if it's a 10 minute walk at lunch time.

beccyleigh

You look to be doing ok on the calories but are you being accurate with measurements & not just guestimating? In the early days I was going way over on my calories without knowing it cause I was not measuring anything just going by sight. 100g of pasta is not that much, I was guestimating about 3 times the amount as well as most other foods too. Measuring it out really opened my eyes.

Fat, Protein, Sodium & Sugar - all seem to be over most days, look at your diary, check out where the high reads are coming from & try to find alternatives or cut out the sweetners & creamers all together.

Also as your sodium is so high most days I would certainly increase whatever water consumption you have by another 3 glasses.

mogadad

1700 is like a maintenance level to me. I set mine at 1400 calories and seldom get that high. I follow cholesterol because I believe it shows me what is healthy and what is not . One thing is there seems to be an awful lot of sodium there, but I don't know what that means. Allowing my daily calories to fluctuate up and down somewhat seems to help me and exercise is the big kicker.

DrumlineGirl

Ok, this is my opinion - I'm no expert! Last year I tried to lose weight by doing cardio and tracking calories for a net of 1200. I lost it SO SLOWLY I could almost scream! But I wasn't paying attention to the quality of my food, just eating lots of carbs and little protein. After not working out for 7 months and having a health issue with digestion and got stuck on mostly carbs, I gained a lot of it back. Now I'm back trying to lose again, but doing it differently, and maybe this will help you!

I'm doing heavy weightlifting, eating a lot more protein (which is hard as a pesce vegetarian, but I'm working on it), less carbs, more fruits and veggies. I gotta tell you, I've been doing this for a month and I FEEL AWESOME! I've barely lost anything, but we all know muscle weighs more, and I just feel so much better. Not tired all the time like before, and I really think it's because of the lifting, protein and less carbs. Carbs only give you a quick fix of energy and don't sustain (which is why I would usually over eat, just keep snacking on crackers because I wasn't getting full).

Anyways, that's what I'm trying this time, not counting calories, but trying to eat good quality foods in the right proportions. DId you know you should strive for 1 oz of protein for every pound you weigh?

sheila569

Oh boy, I saw a few things. Sodium jumped out at me first. Those processed foods are a killer... do all that you can to avoid them. A few times you stayed slightly in your range with calories, but went over on your fat grams. For me they go hand in hand. Your doing great on your water, but with the amount of sodium your consuming you may as well drink a kiddy pool full of water to flush it.

Although not everyone would agree with this but... the calories that I burn in the morning at the gym, I try not to use at all. I get my tail up 6 days a week at 4am to be at the gym by 4:30. I simply refuse to eat away an hour and 15 minutes of hard work on the treadmill. Try not to think of them as "usable" calories... think of them as "I'm PMSing and if I don't have a piece of cheesecake today I'm going to murder someone" calories Emergency Calories.

My advice.... lower the sodium, calorie intake and fat intake and you'll see a difference. Oh, and thanks for accepting my friend request Sheila

hottottie11

Holy Sodium Batman