Help...from the successful!! Please..so discouraged!

KDWS

I am so frustrated. this is the second week in a row I have lost NOTHING!! NO WEIGHT NO INCHES! and I was sick so I really was not eating much! I weigh myself everyday and I am fluctuating between 223 and 220. My "official" weigh in date is tomorrow and I am just so discouraged i don't even want to get on the scale! What am I doing wrong? I hope to lose60 pounds and at this rate I just don't see that happening. I record everything I eat...I drink hot tea and zero calorie iced tea all day so I do not record that...I do take prozac and I ddi have my period last week ( in addition to being sick UGH) Suggestions?

salesgoddess450

I have been at this for about three weeks now and I have only lost 3 pounds. Do not get discouraged. Are you excercising? I find that that is the most important thing for me because even if I do not lose weight or inches , I feel so much better physically and emothionaly when I excercise regularly!

cmriverside

Oh, my.

Relax! You don't have to get on the scale. You won't die if you don't. Just keep doing the right things and you will lose weight. Stop thinking it all has to happen at once.

Ease up on yourself. It's not a straight line and you won't always have losses every week. Your body has lots of reasons it holds onto water and weight. Just breathe.

msmimi

Are you eating enough? I have found that when I eat the suggested 1200 cals my weightloss slows to NOTHING! But when I eat 1300-1500 calories and even throw in one or two (not 2 in a row)1800-1900 calorie days I lose effortlessly. (kinda like zig zagging my calories) The body is smart. It fights starvation.

***Also I forgot to add are you drinking WATER? 8-10 cups of pure water a day?

DukeCanDoItNow

Relax,,,take it easy,,,you'll do fine,,,,let your body adjust to the changes and youll be a happy person later on for it,,,JD..

dlaplume2

I know this is not the answer you want to hear, but you need to be patient. It does work and it takes time. Being on medication that causes weight gain, having your period and being sick all puts stress on the body and it may not be ready to release the weight yet. I would give it a few more weeks and see if it starts moving. (I know easier said than done)

I would go in and double check your settings. Make sure you have the right activity lever, gender and weight loss set to 1 lb a week. I know you want to do two, but do one. (my first month I did 1 lb and I still lost 2 each week, which is not typical for me)

The other thing is, make sure you are eating a net of at least 1200 calories. (yes eat back those pesky exercise calories to hit 1200 if you have to.)

Best wishes
:flowerforyou:
You can add me as a friend if you like.

GettingFit4Me2011

Make changes a little bit at a time. It takes time to change eating habits. This is a life long thing. If you don't change habits, then weight WILL return. Stay focused!

keeponkickin

Hi,

I took a peek at your food diary and went back for several days, well over a week. Are you really logging in all your food? I see a lot that I can help you with. I will private message you and you can let me know. Hang in there. That scale will get moving.

momof3and3

Looking quickly at your diary, I went back from when you said you were sick, you are not eating enough. You tend to under eat, some days as little as 600-800 calories...

Not to get picky, but your food choices are also not the best...(and this is coming from the person who LOVES peanut butter and jelly). Spread your food out through the day, eat more healthy...like breakfast, instead of a protein bar, have eggs, oatmeal, greek yogurt, fruit, etc....have small snacks through the day too... a mixture of carbs and lean protein...apple with string cheese,apple with 1 tbl peanut butter, hard boiled egg with fruit, plain greek yougurt with fruit...etc...

Exercise....eat...
It will come off, don't get frustrated, you can do this!

kfox15

Yes, avoid the scale! If you weigh everyday you'll get tied up with all the normal fluctuations your body goes through (I did). Pick a weigh in day once a week or so and let that be it.
As for loosing, as long as you are being honest with yourself and logging every bite and staying under your caloire goal then you will lose. Have you tried adding some strength (not barbie weights) training? This might help add some lean mass and make you feel awesome, no matter what the scale says. Best of luck and stick with it, it's a long and slow journey but you can do it!

Oretexan

I started a the beginning of January and have only lost 5 pounds. I feel like you often. I am working so hard and doing everything I should do and I expect more! But, we need to remind ourselves that this is a marathon not a sprint. It is a lifestyle change. We are not just trying to lose weight but we are also getting healthier. I have found that just when I feel the most discouraged I finally see the scales budge! So maybe tomorrow will be a the day you see positive results. I hope so! I think this is just a lot harder now that we are no longer 20 years old...

trishoida

From personal experience (this is not medical advice) one of prozac's side effects was weight loss for me. I'm sure it differs in individuals. You may be retaining water from your period or being sick. You don't track your sodium intake so it may be your eating too much. You also are eating very few calories at least the last couple days. If your an active woman you should eat at least 1200. My trainer says to always eat an additional 200 calories for every 30 minutes of cardio you do a day. This may not work for everyone but it's helped me continue to lose weight.

melaniecheeks

If you've been ill your body has been concentrating on getting you better, so it's not unusual for it to hang on to what stores it has.

Is your diary accurate? Again, I know you've been ill so the past week may not be typical, but you could try to add a bit more fresh fruit and veg in there, and try not to skip meals.

Don't give up - it's a long journey!

dravenangel

How long have you been ill? Looking at your diary for the last three or so weeks it looks like you've only gone over 1200kcals twice. It means you're putting your body into starvation mode so it's keeping hold of what it does get. You should try to at least eat 1200kcals a day just to keep going.

I don't profess to be an expert but I've managed to lose 38lbs since 12 November by eating enough calories and exercising lightly (I have knee injuries that don't really allow me to do more) so I guess I must be doing something right.

Stick at MFP - it works! But do up your calorie intake!!

Jaffo

Please do not give up! Advice - "weighing in" every day creates an expectation that you will see a change every day, and this is not reasonable. I saw someone else say that you do NOT have to get on the scale every day, and this is certainly true! I weigh myself once a week, but that my not work for you - maybe every other or every third day? Second thing, and I saw someone else also mention this - are you exercising enough? We often think that all the walking at work counts as enough exercise, but it doesn't. I would advise that when you get home from work, or at some time each day, take a power walk; I would start with 20 - 30 minutes and work up to an hour. A power walk is where you strut right along, moving your arms in time with your legs, and do not stop or slow down unless forced by traffic or people in the way - do what you can to keep moving. You will run out of breath, do not worry. And, this is a great cardio exercise as well. In any case, keep working - the health benefits are amazing, once things start to happen!

EmilySG2011

I have the same problem. I have never had a large appetite which is part of the reason I started gaining weight. I have to force myself to eat enough. However, I think the exercise is the main key to any weight loss. That's the hardest part of it all. I lost 10 lbs. and have gained back about 8 of them because I burned out and took a 4 month break. I have the same problem with the scale though, lose a lb today gain a lb tomorrow. I have never seen such a slow process. I hear all of these wonderful weight loss stories and wonder how in the world can someone lose 50 or 100 lbs when I struggle to move 5. Im starting all over again and forcing myself to do some type of exercise everyday....no matter how much I hate it. I also have to make myself avoid the scales sometimes because it causes me to get discouraged. Especially those weeks of horror!! Stay with it, try not to get discouraged. Everyone is struggling with the same problems.

JeSuisPrest

You need to log in consistently everything you eat and drink and exercise. Hard to help you when we can't see what you're doing. Eat the minimum calories, it's better to go over than stay under. See my profile, I think it's open to all, for more tips.

its4me62

Me and a co-worker just rtarted this on weds of this and I lost 3lbs, but we brisk walk 3.5 pace for 30min everyday today I walked 1 1/2 mile this morning. keep your head,

Contrarian

If you make your focus a healthy lifestyle the weight loss will follow. Be patient.

bcampbell54

Is your diary correct? Looks pretty skimpy to me. You might be into some homeostatic slowdown.

bdette73

I am going through a plateau after losing 20 pounds. Think positive and stick with the MFP lifestyle. This is the only weight loss program that has worked for me and I don't even consider it a weight loss program so much as a new way of life. B

rharris86dc

Stop being discouraged!

And also stop thinking that weight loss is going to happen quickly. If you do it right, it's going to be a very slow process. And that's what you should want!

Just stick with eating better and exercising more, and you will see results. You just have to be patient.

Personally, it's been just about a year and I'm still not at my goal weight. I have been taking it one day at a time, and not obsessing over what the scale says.

Change takes times. As you go on, you can make adjustments to what you are doing, like finding the ideal calorie/exercise balance, and over time you will find what works for you.

You can do it! Just relax a little bit, and you will see it!

ConnieM20

Are you eating enough? I have found that when I eat the suggested 1200 cals my weightloss slows to NOTHING! But when I eat 1300-1500 calories and even throw in one or two (not 2 in a row)1800-1900 calorie days I lose effortlessly. (kinda like zig zagging my calories) The body is smart. It fights starvation.

***Also I forgot to add are you drinking WATER? 8-10 cups of pure water a day?

doctor oz also said to have one day a week with your calories over the limit like 1800ish. and it actually helps weight loss.

lindalou4850

Please do not get discouraged!! I have been at MFP for 1 yr. There were alot of weeks that I did not loose 1 lb. Then i woukld loose .. I looked at your food diary and I feel that you are not eating enough food. You need to eat 3 meals a day and 1-2 snacks. exercise and try to stay at 1200 calories a day. If you are under the 1200 calories for 2 many days in a row, you put your body into starvation mode... NOT GOOD. Just hang in there and you will see a change. feel free to add me as a friend.Good Luck

Qarol

If you make your focus a healthy lifestyle the weight loss will follow. Be patient.

Yes, that. Be patient. I have to remind myself constantly to just be patient.

misslissa121

If you are drinking canned beverages, they have high sodium, and as women we naturally retain water, especially around our periods. I would try to brew your own tea and put in as little sugar as you can. I drink flavored roiboos unsweetened in addition to many glasses of water a day. Also stay away from processed(boxed) foods as much as possible. These have very high sodium. I have only been at it two weeks, with my third weigh in on Monday. I have lost 9lbs total and 3 inches off my waist (mostly retained water). I have cut out all soda ( I was a almost 2-liter a day Dr. Pepper addict), which was a major issues of empty calories, sodium, and water retention for me. You have to make sure you are eating enough calories and make sure you are eating the right types of food. If not your body will slow down due to lack of nutrients and lack of an energy source. It is really hard those first few weeks to eat the proper amount of calories as you are trying to figure out just what all things contain. You didn't put all the weight on in one day, week or even a year, it isn't going to come off that way either.

GOOD LUCK and stick with it. I am just starting my journey, but this is for life, not for a few weeks of crash dieting just to fit into a pair of jeans. I have been there, done that, and it comes back plus some when we pick back up on the old habits. I am being as honest with myself on the trackers as possible (even logging that stolen bite of pizza), and this time I have support from my significant other and a good walking buddy.

KDWS

Thanks for all the advice...I had lost six pounds the first week and three the next week and was feeling great Like I was on a roll!! Then nothing for the lat two weeks...I am logging in everything I eat! Hello! 960 calories worth of chips! I logged it in! Hanful of goobers I logged it in! I wanted to start exercising but was dx with bronchitis Monday so on a zpac this week...no exercies...I am going to switch up my breakfast no more bars, exercies and eat more and see waht happens this week.
I have to say I am so impressed with this site everyone os so qucik to help in such a respectful encouraging way! I am really greatful and feel so much better after reading the posts so thank you all your postive hlep makes a positive difference...I was on another site before and everyone was always so quick to judge and snipe...this is so much nore supportive!

WinterBlue

I second eating more. I am still figuring it out too but I know that when i don't eat enough calories I tend to stall. I will share what I know with you; it's what I have collected based on my research and from the successful members on MFP.
go to this site http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ and calculate your BMR. if it gets deleted goggle fat2fitradio and under tools select their BMR calculator. BMR is the calories your body needs to perform it's basic function. So if you were to sleep all day 24 hours this will probably be your caloric burn...some people say this is the number you burn if you were comatose. Anyways You will get 2 numbers Katch-McArdle Forumla and Harris-Benedict Formula. Average these out and let that be the base on MFP versus the 1200 they give you. Several weight loss websites use 1200 for everyone's BMR but some people have a higher BMR than others. Your BMR should be the minimum amount of calories you should be eating. I believe in eating your exercise calories most days of the week. It's sort of like calorie cycling, where some days you eat less (but not below your BMR) and other days you eat your bmr+ exercise calories. See below for a demo calculation.

I found that calculator from a member on here Helloitsdan, you should PM him if you need help.

Subject A BMR=1300 (calories Subj. A should eat minimum with or without exercise)

Plus 700 calories with Subj A lifestyle in 24 hour period (job, cooking, cleaning, laundry, caring for kids etc)

Subj A daily expenditure thus far = 2000

At this point subject A COULD eat 1300 calories without exercise, create a 700 calorie deficit and lose approx 1.5lb a week. as long as the above lifestyle remains the same but as Subj A loses weight she will have to add some exercise because lighter body weight does not exert as much energy performing the same lifestyle activities as the heavier weight. Thus by adding exercise to her regimen as she becomes lighter she can continue to create the 700 calorie deficit to continue losing at 1.5lb per week.

Aim for a deficit of 500-1000 calories for 1-2lb of weight loss as 1 pound - 3500 calories. The more you have to lose the larger of a deficit you can safely create.
Now let's pull in exercise.

On Monday, Tuesday , Thursday, Friday and Saturday subject A burn 500 extra calories from intentional exercise (running, jogging, walking, etc)

You now have 2000 (energy expenditure from lifestyle activities) + 500 from exercise = 2500 total energy expenditure for the above days.

Now if Subj A is still eating 1300 calories she will create a calorie deficit of 1200; larger than the recommended 1000 calorie deficit. This is the controversial issue researchers say that if the deficit is greater than a 1000 your body starts utilizing body's muscle thus you lose tone; but also put your organs at risk for damage. It's controversial because some dieters disagree. Think about it this way, your kidneys, heart and just about every organ in our body have a muscle composition; thus for a prolonged period of inadequate caloric intake your body starts targeting these organs to obtain what it needs to function; but at the same breaking those organs down. the end result making those organs less efficient at performing their role. keep in mind this doesn't occur overnight. Use goggle scholar to pull up research articles.

What would be ideal? here it is

Monday Subj A eats 1300 BMR+500 exercise = 1800
Tuesday Subj A eats 1300 BMR+500 exercise = 1800 (she could even eat 1700)
Wednesday Subject A eats 1300 no exercise
Thursday Subj A eats 1300 BMR+500 exercise = 1800
Friday Subj A eats 1300 BMR+500 exercise = 1800 (She could even eat 1600-1700)
Saturday Subj A eats 1300 BMR+500 exercise = 1800
Sunday Subject A eats 1300 no exercise

Outcome: subject A continues to create a 700 calorie deficit and lose 1.5lb a week. she may even be able to safely create a 900-1000 calories deficit and lose 2 lbs a week.

Focus on balancing your nutrition

Set MFP for 40% carbs 30% fat 30% protein OR 50/25/25 if the previous becomes challenging. What I tend to do is on higher calorie intake days I follow 40/30/30 and on lower calories days i follow 50/25/25.

I hope this helps. if you decide to try the above method, give it a couple week to see a change. there are many factors that affect weight loss.

IvoryParchment

I have lost 22 lbs since the end of October. I weigh myself every day. But I DON'T do it to see if my diet is working. I KNOW my diet will work. I approach this as a scientist.

I have food scales at home and work and weigh everything that isn't pre-packaged. I know how many calories it takes to fill me up so I can't eat any more, and I enter that if I really don't know what I ate, like at restaurants. I have tons of my own recipes entered, with portion sizes.

I know how different the portions you buy are from the portion sizes in calorie counts. Everything is super-sized. For instance, I just had a tiny sweet potato that turned out to be 1.2 portions when I weighed it. Lord knows what a normal sized sweet potato would be. If I had just logged "one small sweet potato," I would have underestimated calories by 20%. If you do that consistently, it makes the difference between losing weight and being at a plateau.

I have an iPhone and enter everything as I eat as I eat it, and I use it to make decisions about how much I will eat. (Gotta love playing with the barcode scanner!) The internet data plan from my phone carrier is expensive, but it's a lot cheaper than the medical expenses I might encounter if I don't get the weight under control, such as medications, CPAP, surgery, time off work/nursing home care, etc.

I have a treadmill at home that calculates calories based on my weight, speed, and slope. People will talk about needing heart rate monitors, but the basic physics is that lifting your body weight up and moving it is work, and work requires more energy than sitting in a chair. (And moving 220 lbs. will use up more calories than moving my weight, so you're actually at an advantage there.)

I estimated my activity level as sedentary when I registered, and I listed my goal exercise as zero, so everything I do has the immediate reward of letting me eat more. I have never exercised so much in my life, cause there's an immediate payoff.

So I get on the scale more for entertainment value. It's fun to see the weight come down. It's fun to see the little graph on my iPhone app start approximating a straight line down after a while. (The mobile app graph is much better than the one on the website, btw.)

I make sure I get sufficient nutrients, especially protein, vitamin K, and calcium, the nutrients that can't be supplied by vitamin pills. If your body is missing even one nutrient, what can it do with the calories you consume other than make fat and wait for the missing nutrients? Your body's functions are all chemical reactions, and you can't make a reaction happen with even a single reagent missing. You just get a useless mixture of the other reagents.

I understand how much sodium and fluid affect weight. If I get up in the morning and make lots of urine, I know I'm well hydrated. If not, I know that day's weight is really an underestimate, and I don't get frustrated that it's higher the next day. I know that sharp upward spikes in my weight curve will be followed by sharp downward spikes when I eat less sodium, since only water weight comes and goes that fast.

I understand that I'm trying to lose fat, and exercise builds muscle. Muscle weighs a lot. Stiff, sore muscles after exercise are stiff because they're full of fluid, and they weight even more. That isn't important weight.

I understand that two weeks is no time at all in weight loss. You're not on a diet. You've just started eating differently, and weight loss will gradually result. Concentrate on eating better and managing portions. I know someone who just started MFP a couple months ago, and when he saw his doctor, he'd lost 7 lbs. (on target) but his blood pressure was already down 10 points and his sugar was down 100 points. He's over 300 lbs and has lost and gained more than 7 lbs before without that kind of results. But the difference is what he's doing every day, not what he's accomplished in the past. Your body benefits immediately from a healthier lifestyle, long before the pounds come off.

Now, I'm a fidgety person, and having done this a while, I can see that I am losing weight faster than the 1/2 lb/week predicted by MFP. Someone else may lose weight more slowly than the prediction. Your body is individual. If you are 100% sure of your precise calories and you really aren't losing weight, then you may have to reduce your goal a little. Not a lot -- even a small amount makes a big difference when you keep it up consistently day after day. But the calorie recommendations do include that "activity level" fudge factor, and your level of activity when sitting may be less than mine. (With all due respect, if I had to lift 220 lbs just to get out of a chair, I'd fidget a lot less, too. When you get your weight down, you're going to LOVE how much less gravity weighs you down!)

People will tell you all kinds of wisdom about eating your exercise calories and upping your food calories when you stop losing. But the biggest thing that probably causes people to fail is lack of understanding of exactly what calories and nutrients they are eating.

SexyCook

It varies...not sure what you workout plan looks like..but much success in weightloss goes to your eating...and that could be a factor. I know you said since you been sick you hadn't been eating much...That is one thing..but before that when you were..what types of meals, portions, timing, and intake of water...all the things benefits a healthier weightloss...Incorporated with a great routine of exercising... Don't get discourage...just go back and look over your diary...clean it up...balance it with your workouts and you will see results...I hope this helps...

Much success to you honey!

Lindy901

For me in the beginning I wasn't seeing the scale move. But I kept at it. I'm trying to make an eating change forever, not just to LOSE weight so I keep plugging. I've been doing this for 7 or 8 months now and I've lost 50. It's slow going but it's a forever change. I'm in a slump right now too. I've been the same or up for two weeks now but it's moving back down again slowly. Change your mindset and don't get too discouraged.