Weight Loss - Not Working? :(

CarolynB38

If you started 1st Jan then you are losing about 1lb a week (as you have lost 3lb total). That is a good rate to lose weight. You could try upping calories a little but the main thing is the processed stuff. If you could just incorporate a little fruit into your diet it would be healthier. If you do decide to increase your calories a little, make it fruit or raw veggies or something. Even dried fruit is better than no fruit. Perhaps there are better choices of pre-cooked/packaged foods available. It is hard living in dorms where food is concerned but fruit is something you don't have to cook. Just grab the occasional apple or handful of grapes. In an ideal world where you had access to a kitchen you would be able to completely change your diet to a healthy one but you are not in that situation so just do what you can. Little changes can make a big difference.

Carri1

I peeked at your diary too...and I saw lots of junk foods and you are over on Carbs alot. If you see it's in the red than you are over.
It's not WHEN you eat...it's WHAT you eat. It's sort of like putting hardly any gas in your car and trying to go on a trip. It can't do it.
Your body need nutrients and what you are eating will keep you alive but you need more. It's a learning process! good luck!

Mom0fTwo

i would also suggest getting a kitchen scale they are really small and it helps a lot with things like fruit and veg that are hard to measure got mine of ebay for $20 incl the shipping, BEST THING EVER!!! it really sucks that when you live in dorms that make you buy a meal plan, i remember when i was in school i considered dorms, they wanted 4k for dorm and 4k for food per year, i did the math and found that i could rent a 2 bed with my friend and spend 350/month and i was spending about 200/month on food all tolled came to 6600, i know this is about food but it would suck to have to pay for food twice also saving 1400/year is pretty awesome

TamsinEllis

I don't know much about this sort of stuff, but I would suggest tracking your sugar and sodium intake along with what you already track, since (like someone else has said) you eat a lot of pre-packaged food (something you can't help) which most likely is filled with sodium which can make you retain water weight, and also you said you eat fruit most days, but I also notice from looking through your diary you eat brownies and waffles, pancakes, dr pepper and starbucks, which you might find are making you very high over your suggested sugar intake, I'm not sure (since I don't study nutrition) but I think having too much sugar will hinder your weight-loss too. Oh and you eat a lot of pasta, I'm guessing because you're vegetarian it's one of the only options served, and you go over on your carbohydrates quite a bit too which - once again I am speculating - would hinder your weight-loss as well.

Edit: In case you don't know how to change what is shown in the food diary, click on Food tab, then settings and you should be able to see when to do from there

whiplash2411

My Goals Tab says that my AMR is 1940 calories per day. MFP recommends I eat 1330 calories per day to lose approximately 1.5lbs per week and I usually stick to that amount (mostly slightly lesser by like 50 calories or so, and once in a while, over by 50-100 calories). I also exercise daily and burn around 200-300 calories every day, so I add that to my calorie intake. So I guess I consume approximately 1500-1600 calories, while I burn 200-300 calories.

Okay MFP is dead wrong about that thing. I wrote a topic about it. the thing A calorie deficit should beat 15-20%. If it's greater than 20%, you will lose muscle mass, and from a hormonal perspective, it will slow down your thyroid slowing down your metabolism even more. So you have 2 things working against you when your calorie intake is to low.

If your AMR = 1950 calories.
and you're eating 1350 calories.

That's a 31% deficit, THIS IS HUGE, you're suffering from a slowed metabolic rate due to consuming too low calories, and possible loss of muscle mass.

To do a 20% deficit you should eat 1550 calories. This is where it works against you being a woman. Women are smaller, have less muscle mass and burn less calories. With this deficit you have reduced your calorie intake by 360 calories,. It should take you about 10 days to lose 1lbs of fat. YOU CAN do "LOW INTENSITY" cardio and burn about 250 calories, with out eating your exercise calories which will help speed it up. The reason I said low intensity cardio is because most of the calories come from fat, and it doesn't use much glycogen(sugar in the muscle). So you can workout everyday, and recover very easily. You don't need food to burn fat on low intensity exercise.

If you do high intensity exercise, it will burn up glycogen(sugar) and you will need to replace that with diet(eat more calories).

Okay, so you suggest increasing my calorie intake to 1500 calories and then doing low intensity cardio for about 250 calories? Would cycling at a moderate pace count as low intensity cardio? I will try to get a kitchen sink and I'll definitely replace some of my carbs and sugar intake with more natural foods like fruit and vegetables. Thank you!

mallory3411

Try keeping a supply of fruits and veggies in your dorm room. A lot of things will be okay at room temp for a short while if you don't have access to a fridge. Does your dorm room have a fridge? If so, stock it with fruits, veggies, yogurt etc based on your likes with being a vegetarian. That way you'll be less likely to eat out and over eat on the other things.

MFP has fruits and veggies in the food tracker to track their calories. Some are high in carbs and sugars so it's always a benefit to track those.

Good luck with it. If it's too much change too quickly try focusing on one thing per week to change and than add something else that you've changed the following week and so on.

Track your sodium intake like another poster had suggested... you can easily change that under setting under the food tab I believe. You tend to consume, based on your current entries in you diary, an awful lot of sodium. Try to drink a bit more water too.