Why am I not shifting this weight as soon as I'd like?

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Soon2BeMrsThomson
Soon2BeMrsThomson Posts: 167
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Guys,

Hoping you can help me - been on my journey for about 8 months now and scales have only gone down 18lbs. Could you take a look at my food diary and see if you can see where I'm going wrong?

Please ignore Friday to last night - I had a terrible weekend, no excuses but it's forgotten now and I'm back on track today :-)

Thanks in advance

D x
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Replies

  • Soon2BeMrsThomson
    Soon2BeMrsThomson Posts: 167
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    Bump.......put this back to the top - I need help, sorry!!
  • AlynnP1005
    AlynnP1005 Posts: 195
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    Its tough. It took me a year to lose 30 lbs, and I have a substantial amount of weight to lose. What do you do for workouts? How often and at what intensity?
  • k43la
    k43la Posts: 18
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    I'm pretty new to this, but I'm going to say that just from the few days that I've seen..you're not eating heavy enough in the mornings and eating too heavy at night. From my understanding, breakfast and lunch should be fairly heavy meals, with dinner being enough to make you full, but not the bulk of your calories. I'm guilty of it too, but maybe we should both try to reverse it to see if it helps :)
  • Spooney45
    Spooney45 Posts: 76
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    Too be honest, from what I've seen you're very often over you suggested cal intake.....might have something to do with it.....
  • Guitarjon
    Guitarjon Posts: 204 Member
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    Not checked your diary yet but are you sticking to the calorie allowences? I have found the hardest part is accuratly weighing/measuring out food. Its too easy to guestimate and it may mean your not inputting calories enough.

    Are you drinking lots of water? Ideally to loose weight you need to be running to the toilet all day lol. That tells me that I'm drinking enough lol.

    Also another thing to think about. What are your target weight loss calories a week? Have you set it to loose 1 or 2 pounds? Any less. If you havn't got much to shift then its hard loosing 2 pounds a week. So maybe you need to change you settings, this will give you a different calorie goal.

    Keep going, every little helps remember. At least your going the right way and not going up the scale!
  • basschick
    basschick Posts: 3,502 Member
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    I notice you don't track sodium or water intake. Be sure to watch your sodium and get at least 8 glasses of water a day. If I go over my sodium and/or don't get enough water I retain water weight like crazy. Other than that, stay the course. Slow weight loss is best if you want to keep it off. Congratulations on the 18 lbs. you've lost.
  • SamHughes15
    SamHughes15 Posts: 149 Member
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    You diary doesn't look THAT bad. Only thing as just a suggestion is try eating larger meals for breakfast and make them smaller throughout the day.

    This is only done on me personally, i find that if i have say a 500-600 cal breakfast, i snack alot less throughout the day.
    and i have a bit more of an energetic work out if i have a nice big breakfast.
  • deja_blu
    deja_blu Posts: 359 Member
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    WAYYY too many carbs! You have to leave that bread alone, sweetheart. We do need carbs for energy but when we have too much, we store what is not used. How much water do you drink in a day, honestly? If you aren't drinking enough to flush out that sodium, you'll retain water weight. That is easy enough to get rid of. Increaseyour water intake or even take a few water pills. That's probably about 7 lbs right there.

    If you must have bread (which I love, LOL), go for 100% whole wheat and eat one serving a day. Add more fiber to your day as well to keep you regular and you won't hold on to so much waste. And be patient. I know it sucks and your doing great but try these few things and see if that doesn't help.

    Good luck and remember, you're awesome!

    5499814.png
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
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    First off, you're not doing that bad - be happy with your results:drinker:

    OK, here are my observations.
    You are failing to eat to goal most days.
    And some of your food choices are poor. Me too - :smile:
    Anyway, this one's a no brainer. Eat to goal every single day.
    And eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies.
    Do both cardio and resistance exercise.
    Log in those exercises to your MFP exercise diary.
    AND EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES!
    Remember, this is not a race, and you can reach your goals if you stick to a good plan as recommended on this site.
    Let's see your results in another 6 months.
    I predict another 25 lbs!
  • wendyd18
    wendyd18 Posts: 32
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    I would say your not always eating enough! and not good to skip breakfast. Im no expert though, just my opinion
  • pbl1966
    pbl1966 Posts: 207 Member
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    Took a peek at your diary and you may want to track your sodium intake and adjust your water on days when you are high. Are you using a heart rate monitor to calculate your exercise calorie to make sure you are recording what you are actually burning? Good luck.:flowerforyou:
  • thin1dayplease
    thin1dayplease Posts: 291 Member
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    Personally, if I was not losing weight fast enough I would try and make sure that I eat breakfast and also maybe set my calorie targets at less for a few weeks to try and kick start some weight loss - but you should only do this for a few weeks to stop your metabolism slowing down.

    Also - what I try to do is never eat anything that is more than 7% fat! You can see this on the nutrition labels on the packet. in the per 100g section if it says 8.5g of fat per 100g you cannot eat it.... for example if it said 3.2g of fat per 100g its a green light!

    Hope this helps!
  • slayerdan
    slayerdan Posts: 193
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    How much do you weigh now? 19 pounds in 8 months isnt bad. And you point to a bad weekend......its fine if you dont want us to focus on a bad weekend, but you need to. A "bad weekend" can put 2-5 pounds back on you in less than 48 hours. Focus. Have realistic expectations based on your weight. Continued success.
  • Bentley2718
    Bentley2718 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    I looked back over a couple of weeks of your logs. You seem to be either under your calorie goal by a few hundred calories, or way over. Without doing the math, it looks like you're averaging more calories than you're supposed to be, meaning you have a smaller than intended caloric deficit, which will result in a smaller than predicted weight loss. Try to consistently eat the number of calories you're allotted, rather than being way over or way under. Consistent exercise will also help, but CICO is the biggest thing.
  • kspoon5
    kspoon5 Posts: 239 Member
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    I am fairly new to this site but dieted more than I like to say LoL - Know more than I like to apply .... anyways - It looks like you need to add some protein in the mornings and lighten up on your dinners. It also seems like your calorie intake goal for the day is a bit much - what is your weekly goal set at and are you doing any exercising at all ? You need to eat at least 2 snacks and make sure they have a little protein in them like an apple and low fat cheese stick or rice cakes and almond butter. Maybe that will help - you can add me if you would like ......
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    You are failing to eat to goal most days.
    And some of your food choices are poor. Me too - :smile:
    Anyway, this one's a no brainer. Eat to goal every single day.
    And eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies.
    Do both cardio and resistance exercise.
    Log in those exercises to your MFP exercise diary.
    AND EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES!
    Remember, this is not a race, and you can reach your goals if you stick to a good plan as recommended on this site.
    Let's see how this is in another 6 months.

    One of the only good responses in this thread!

    No, you do not have to eat a big breakfast, carbs are NOT stored in a deficit, you can eat bread, and water does not make you lose more fat -.-

    Pick healthy choices and keep your intake steady. Some days you are really under then you eat over for multiple days. Have to keep it consistent. Holy broscience batman.
  • niknak2308
    niknak2308 Posts: 315 Member
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    Your food seems pretty good to me, but I can't see much exercise being logged. If you're not logging it, then do and reassess what's going wrong. If you're not doing that much, then now is probably time to start (or increase) what you're doing. Often the first bit of weight will come off fairly easy as your body adapts to less food, but it will soon get used to that and you'll need to get your metabolism up and burning those cals via exercise. :smile:
  • thin1dayplease
    thin1dayplease Posts: 291 Member
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    Also - what I try to do is never eat anything that is more than 7% fat! You can see this on the nutrition labels on the packet. in the per 100g section if it says 8.5g of fat per 100g you cannot eat it.... for example if it said 3.2g of fat per 100g its a green light!

    Hope this helps!
  • Bentley2718
    Bentley2718 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    How much do you weigh now? 19 pounds in 8 months isnt bad. And you point to a bad weekend......its fine if you dont want us to focus on a bad weekend, but you need to. A "bad weekend" can put 2-5 pounds back on you in less than 48 hours. Focus. Have realistic expectations based on your weight. Continued success.

    For you to gain 2 pounds of fat (as opposed to 2 pounds of water), you would have to be roughly 7000 calories over maintenance. Personally, I would have a VERY difficult time over-eating by that much, and I don't think I'm unique in that. If you haven't overeaten by that much, the extra weight is probably just water retention from an increase in salt and carbohydrates.
  • janalayn
    janalayn Posts: 510 Member
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    Spread your food out over the day and stay within your calorie goals ... track your water consumption ... exercise.... Unfortunately it is easier to put it on than take it off. Have patience and don't give up.

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