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

Soon2BeMrsThomson

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

Soon2BeMrsThomson

Bump.......put this back to the top - I need help, sorry!!

AlynnP1005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

MaximalLife

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 -
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

I would say your not always eating enough! and not good to skip breakfast. Im no expert though, just my opinion

pbl1966

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

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

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

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

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

You are failing to eat to goal most days.
And some of your food choices are poor. Me too -
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

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.

thin1dayplease

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

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

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.

sixfeetunder2012

Although you aren't recording very often on MFP, you do seem to be consuming quite a high caloric intake for someone trying to lose weight. I don't know your measurements but 1800-2000 calories a day won't be too far from your maintenance levels, and this is only assuming that you are recording accurately. I only mention this because it is VERY easy to go wrong, even after many months of using sites like MFP.

I would recommend re-establishing what your caloric goal should be so that you can lose a solid 1lb per week. You only need a 500 calories deficit which is very manageable providing you keep a steady supply of protein and keep your 'naughty' days down to a minimum (once per month for example) You CAN lose the weight, but you must have consistent discipline. Good luck.

Bentley2718

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!

That rule would cut out a lot of healthy foods, for example avocados and raw nuts. You probably shouldn't average more than about 30% of calories from fat, but that is an AVERAGE over low and high fat foods.

Aries03

Bump

kirstyg1980

I think you swing from not eating enough some days to eating too much on the others, consistency is the key

Eat as healthy as you can bulk food out with veggies, try cooking foods from scratch, saves on calories and especially sodium

Drink lots of water

MissGatekeeper

Do you use an HRM to calculate your exercise calories, or MFP guesswork? It seems like it's always exactly 500?

SergeantSunshine_reused

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!

That rule would cut out a lot of healthy foods, for example avocados and raw nuts. You probably shouldn't average more than about 30% of calories from fat, but that is an AVERAGE over low and high fat foods.

Yes! Fat does not make you fat. It is essential

mortenhb

Hello!

It looks like you only eat three meals a day, but I don't know if that's true. I suggest you eat at least four times a day. For example a small meal every three hours, this way your metabolism is working all day.

Combine cardiovascular and strength training.

"For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%"

iKristine

Here's the facts.

Choice of foods go a long way. But education on the matter goes just as far.

Do you know what your TDEE is? Have you done a metabolic test at a university? Are you engaging in physical activity since you've gained weight?

Those need to be answered before anyone can claim to give you advice.

The most important is to know what your limits are. There are a couple ways you could do this, such as figuring your BMR x activity multiplier (ex: 1.2 not active) to get your TDEE. But I would suggest if your serious about the weight to either invest in a BodyBugg that tracks your expense daily, so that you can then make a defecit for that day accordingly. OR you could go to a local university human performance lab (open to the public) and pay to have a metobolic cart done. Which they are reasonable (20$ roughly). This will tell you EXACTLY what you burn in a day. With this info your prepared to set realistic goals and know what you can eat to get there.

It's science my friend. When you have the tools you can do the math.

GuruOnAMountain

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.

Yeah, agree with this.

Some days you have 350 calories spare but then the next day you can go 600 calories over. Just try to work to your recommended calorie intake every day. Try not to go too far under or too far over and you should see a steadier weight loss.

If it helps, maybe try to plan your meals in advance. I tend to find, especially if I'm going to be out and about, that I can go over my calories by being caught short and suddenly getting hungry and ending up grabbing something that's not so healthy. If you know that you're going to be working late or something or know that you get hungry round about 5pm or something, then plan for it in advance. Put it in your diary to check out how many calories it'll use up and then take it with you to work or whatever. I know that I've been caught out many times grabbing what seems to be a healthier option when out and about and then being shocked by the amount of calories in it, so planning in advance sometimes helps me.

katharos3

You've been given some great advice already, so I just wanted to add that on the days where you eat fruits and veggies, you make better choices overall. On the days where you eat almost none, you tend to go over on your calories.