Scale hasn't moved in two weeks...why?

Natihilator

*cross-posted*

MFP set me at 1380 calories a day for a 2 pound loss, i bumped that up to 1700 to incorporate my exercise calories evenly throughout the week because I find it hard to eat an extra 700-800 calories in one day and make good food choices. I eat whole foods for the most part, lots of veggies. Weight is currently about 245, starting weight was 251.5 on January 12.

My food diary is open, please have a look and give thoughts, thanks

escloflowneCHANGED

I will probably get killed by others for this but my experience in the past month when I started working out and eating right is this. At first I lost no weight because I was eating back my calories and eating over 2400 calories a day because I would work out like an animal, didn't lose weight, so I decided to set my calories to 1600 per day and only work out a maximum of 400 calories giving me a net of 1200. I find if I go crazy and burn 1000 calories doing exercise it stalls me even if I eat them back.

So with that strategy I have lost 3-4 lbs per week steady.

Natihilator

Interesting, I am taking classes so I don't see myself walking out of the class once my heart rate monitor tells me I've burned a certain amount of calories, but glad that worked for you, thanks for sharing your strategy.

escloflowneCHANGED

Yeah I stopped going to classes and just alternate between the treadmill and elliptical.

alpha_andy

Bathroom scales are generally inanimate objects.

eeeekie

How closely do you monitor your sodium intake?

I looked at your diary only a few days back and you had a few high sodium/very low water days.

Natihilator

How closely do you monitor your sodium intake?

I looked at your diary only a few days back and you had a few high sodium/very low water days.

Not too closely, I admit, but I do try to consciously consume less salt. I don't always track my water on MFP but I drink at leat 60-70oz every day.

Kevww1982

Cut back on the salts! That will make you retain more water.

Natihilator

Bathroom scales are generally inanimate objects.

Har. Har.

chickybuns

Do you think you may be overestimating your calorie burn? To me your dairy looks pretty good, even though some days you might have too big of a deficit, but I don't think this should hurt you just beginning. You also may be retaining water from your muscles due to all the exercise. My advice is to keep doing it, and the weight should come off. If it doesn't, check with your doctor, maybe there is some reason.

LBachynsky

I will probably get killed by others for this but my experience in the past month when I started working out and eating right is this. At first I lost no weight because I was eating back my calories and eating over 2400 calories a day because I would work out like an animal, didn't lose weight, so I decided to set my calories to 1600 per day and only work out a maximum of 400 calories giving me a net of 1200. I find if I go crazy and burn 1000 calories doing exercise it stalls me even if I eat them back.

So with that strategy I have lost 3-4 lbs per week steady.

I had a similar experience that goes against all the MFP rules, but it worked for me when I found I wasn't losing.

Natihilator

Do you think you may be overestimating your calorie burn? To me your dairy looks pretty good, even though some days you might have too big of a deficit, but I don't think this should hurt you just beginning. You also may be retaining water from your muscles due to all the exercise. My advice is to keep doing it, and the weight should come off. If it doesn't, check with your doctor, maybe there is some reason.

I really don't know. I do use the Polar FT4 HRM for my calorie burns so it's the most accurate thing I can go by. Yesterday I burned over 1000 calories which isn't typical for me, and I don't usually workout for 90 minutes so that's why it's so high for that day

_Kitten_Kate

Cut back on the salts! That will make you retain more water.

But that's just water wt. Not FAT. Right?
So, if she eats the same of similar amounts of salt everyday.. it's kinda a wash as to how much water wt there is...
It fat we want to loose. Women will ALWAYS have more water wt than men. It just how it is...

carrie_eggo

You've lost 6.5 pounds. Congratulations! IMO, you are doing FINE. Really! That's a little over a pound a week, which is a healthy and sustainable rate of loss. Keep up the good work. Slow and steady wins the race. :flowerforyou:

mom2my5sons

sometimes there just isn't a reason.........frustrating as that is! I stayed at the same weight (up a little, down a little) for over 6 weeks. I followed the calorie recommendations, got some exercise in-nothing happening. When it did move, I lost over 4 lbs in one week-not doing anything differently. I don't know WHY this happened, but it taught me to stick with it even when the scale wouldn't show results. Maybe you can switch things up a little, spike calories, cut back sodium.......see what works, but hang in there! Best!!!

engineman312

You've lost 6.5 pounds. Congratulations! IMO, you are doing FINE. Really! That's a little over a pound a week, which is a healthy and sustainable rate of loss. Keep up the good work. Slow and steady wins the race. :flowerforyou:

this.


hey, my scale hasn't budged in months. but my pants are getting looser. much looser.

cynthia3010

I am experiencing the same thing, I work out and burn 561 calories a work out session and then my weight just stays the same, I feel the inches leaving but scale is not moving and it's VERY, VERY UPSETTING. I have thought the same thing give up the exercise and see what happens. It's hard to eat 1761 calores a day when you're trying to eat right.

DixiedoesMFP

Quit weighing yourself. Seriously. I am down a whopping total of five to six pounds depending on the day I weigh, but I am down two pants sizes. The scale will just frustrate you. Keep doing what you're doing. Congratulations!

ericabrothers

you may just be replacing fat with muscle right now? try getting measurement and track that also. I can go a couple of weeks with no loss and then suddenly 2-4lbs is gone. just keep at it. you will get results.

rileamoyer

You've lost 6.5 pounds. Congratulations! IMO, you are doing FINE. Really! That's a little over a pound a week, which is a healthy and sustainable rate of loss. Keep up the good work. Slow and steady wins the race. :flowerforyou:

this.


hey, my scale hasn't budged in months. but my pants are getting looser. much looser.

Slow and steady. Your body is changing even if the scale isn't. Be sure to include measurements every couple of weeks besides a weekly weigh in. That will help too.

ashreynolds09

What they said:

Quit weighing yourself. Seriously. I am down a whopping total of five to six pounds depending on the day I weigh, but I am down two pants sizes. The scale will just frustrate you. Keep doing what you're doing. Congratulations!

kaetra

Stalls happen to everyone, no matter how right you're doing things. I stalled for 3 weeks, then out of the clear blue sky lost 3 pounds.

Losses come at steady paces and a non-steady paces. It's all about the long-term trending when it comes to scale numbers. Just keep doing your best and the trends will come out on your side eventually.

NoAdditives

You've lost 6.5 pounds. Congratulations! IMO, you are doing FINE. Really! That's a little over a pound a week, which is a healthy and sustainable rate of loss. Keep up the good work. Slow and steady wins the race. :flowerforyou:

this.


hey, my scale hasn't budged in months. but my pants are getting looser. much looser.

Yep. Your loss is great so far and really, it's not about the number on the scale. It's about healthy changes all over your body. The scale is just one way to measure that, don't use it exclusively. Take measurements from all over your body, pay attention to how your clothes are fitting, even look at your face. (I just lost a noticeable amount of weight from having a baby and breastfeeding and my face is A LOT thinner.) Fat will come off of places that can't really be measured like your face, hands, and feet.

busyPK

I honestly think your diary looks pretty good. Do you drink over 8 glasses of water daily? I would drink as much water as possible as well as change up your exercises. Do you do strength training, or just cardio. I would alternate between the two. I like your idea of not eating all your exercise calories back and instead spreading them out over the week. I am doing that starting yesterday and I have found a group on here (eat for the body you want) that is helping me get the read calorie intake daily since I'm at a stall right now.

eve7166

This is my two cents..and i know a lot of ppl on here do not believe in what i will say but it works for me ...i stopped logging workouts on here and stopped eating back calories and it has worked for me... i read ALOT about it before i did it..it makes no sence to eat them back..maybe you can eat back just a few..like bring your diet to 1500...the point of working out is to add defenciency not keep it the same... also just a tip your body will get use to the excersices so maybe switch it up a little and add some weights before you do your cardio (not sure what you do)... GL!

atjays

I was kind of hoping to see a miracle solution here, I'm having the same problem . I've been working out/dieting for the last few months, took a break thru the holidays but didn't gain anything back and have been hitting things extra hard this month to try to lose 10 lbs in 6 weeks before spring break vacay. I'm starting to realize how cruel the scale is. I've been stuck on the same weight for the better part of two weeks. I've been working out 6 days a week, alternating weight lifting days with cardio days. I know my measurements are improving, I am pretty sure I can fit into my size smaller jeans now, but I really want that # on the scale to go down!

Is it really that typical to hold a steady weight with high exercise/weight lifting? I find it hard to believe my body is producing muscle tissue at a faster rate than I'm losing fat...

heybales

I really don't know. I do use the Polar FT4 HRM for my calorie burns so it's the most accurate thing I can go by. Yesterday I burned over 1000 calories which isn't typical for me, and I don't usually workout for 90 minutes so that's why it's so high for that day

That's going to be pretty decent, though.... for women there is a decent chance of getting the estimate off by upwards of 30% even on the pretty accurate Polar.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study

What can improve accuracy is testing for true max HR, and not using the formula method the Polar defaults to.

Women's MHR is really a very wide bell curve, excellent chance you are not in the middle where the standard formula 220 or 226 minus age works, which is what the Polar does.

If so inclined, here is process for that. Oh, this also can give good estimate of VO2max, which is another setting on some Polars that allows you to nail it even better.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/466973-i-want-to-test-for-my-max-heart-rate-vo2-max

The other problem is, if your true BMR is actually lower than estimated BMR (which the watches use as a basis for the calorie estimate) because of constantly feeding it less than it could use, then the estimate will be off too.

So not your example, but for instance if you ate 1200 constantly and not hungry, meaning your metabolism has indeed slowed down, but your healthy estimated BMR is 1600, then the watch is beginning the formula for your calorie burn 400 too high.

ckmama

I will probably get killed by others for this but my experience in the past month when I started working out and eating right is this. At first I lost no weight because I was eating back my calories and eating over 2400 calories a day because I would work out like an animal, didn't lose weight, so I decided to set my calories to 1600 per day and only work out a maximum of 400 calories giving me a net of 1200. I find if I go crazy and burn 1000 calories doing exercise it stalls me even if I eat them back.

So with that strategy I have lost 3-4 lbs per week steady.

I had a similar experience that goes against all the MFP rules, but it worked for me when I found I wasn't losing.

I also was more successful without eating all of my calories burned back...they can be inaccurate, even with my heart rate monitor. So I never ever ate the maximum it said I burned. I set my calorie target around 1700-1800 then ate about 100-200 in exercise if I was hungry.

Natihilator

Thanks everyone. It's a bit harder to know that slow and steady wins the race when you find yourself in a stall this early on in the game. I have taken measurements twice since starting and between the two times saw either no change, or very little (an inch or less) and paired with no movement on the scale, it felt like a slap in the face.

I do weights and do cardio, I pretty much do something different every day of the week that I workout (stationary bike, treadmill, real biking outdoors, hiking, walking outdoors, Zumba, a lifting class, weight machines) so there is no way my body is used to the same thing. Honestly I've read a lot both on MFP and other resources, and I feel like I'm doing it right so asking advice is sort of a last resort, to see if there is something that I've overlooked, but I know that ultimately my body isn't a robot and won't do everything I tell it to, when I want it to.

rileysowner

I was kind of hoping to see a miracle solution here, I'm having the same problem . I've been working out/dieting for the last few months, took a break thru the holidays but didn't gain anything back and have been hitting things extra hard this month to try to lose 10 lbs in 6 weeks before spring break vacay. I'm starting to realize how cruel the scale is. I've been stuck on the same weight for the better part of two weeks. I've been working out 6 days a week, alternating weight lifting days with cardio days. I know my measurements are improving, I am pretty sure I can fit into my size smaller jeans now, but I really want that # on the scale to go down!

Is it really that typical to hold a steady weight with high exercise/weight lifting? I find it hard to believe my body is producing muscle tissue at a faster rate than I'm losing fat...

Why so hung up on the number on the scale. If you measurements are going down, but your weight isn't, it means you are losing fat and maintaining muscle. Eventually the scale will come down. It would only be if your measurements were not changing that I would suggest you worry. As another person on MFP has said, "Unless you are writing the number on your forehead, no one knows what the scale says." All people see if how you are getting smaller. If my weight did not change at all, but my measurements kept dropping, I would be quite happen.

margaretmillen

Maybe you should try measuring yourself every few weeks or once a month in addition to the scale. I know sometimes I lose no weight for a couple of weeks then I measure again and find that I have lost as much as a inch around my waist. Muscle weighs more than fat, and not only is muscle healthier than fat, but it also helps you start to burn more calories even while doing nothing in the long run. Measuring can be discouraging for some people, but I find it helps me especially when the scale doesn't seam to be changing. Keep up the good work and try not to get discouraged!