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

heather1945

Too much salt!!! Cut back on that, drink more and you will see a difference...

buckobuckobucko

I am sort of stuck at my weight right now but I am down from size 42 blue jeans to size 38 and from 2XL Shirts to XL. Love not having to shop in "Big and Tall" any more.

ANewLucia

I took a look at your diary and sodium is high...not sure what your workouts consist of, but I hope you are doing some lifting as well as cardio....you build muscle you will burn more fat.

I think your cals are a bit low on some days especially when you are working out...if you are doing 1700 daily you need at least 200 more on your workout days.

My personal experience - I am a huge proponent of eating more to weight less. My macronutrient ratios are 40/30/30, I eat 1800 daily non-workout days and at least 2000 workout days (been avg about 2200), no less than 30 gr of fiber and I drink a protien shake after each workout. I do some cardio, but I focus on lifting heavy. I been lifting heavy for a while and doing cardio and when I ate 1500-1600 I couldn't loose anything I kept bouncing up and down 3lbs and it drove me crazy and I looked fattier. I read New rules of Lifting Weights for Women and bumped up my calories...it has been 8 wks and I have lost 6lbs. I am not hungry, I don't carb binge anymore (it was out of control I tell ya), lifting heavier than ever, feel stronger, lost an inch off my waist, loosing serious fat AND it is so wonderful TO EAT!

Natihilator

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.

Yeah, the accuracy of the HRM concerns me a bit. I don't even know if it was worth buying in the first place,

jadedone

I am shooting for 1500 calories on no exercise days and 1700-1800 on exercise days. I do not have an HRM, so even though MFP things I burning four billion calories, I am skeptical. Even though I might log a walk or whatever, if it wasn't intense, I don't really think of it as a real calorie burn and ignore any calories it counts.

Keep at it, and keep measuring!

You'll get there! You are due for a nice surprise on the scale shortly!

minnesota_deere

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.

highly agreed, stop eating so much food!! as of today 21 pounds in 38 days.

dtucker4403

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 have had the best results if I don't eat back my exercise calories. But I don't do exercise classes. I work out on an eliptical and generally burn around 400 calories/ 40 minutes each day. I have had pretty good luck with this.

healthyJenn0915

I didn't loose anything nearly all of the month f Janurary even though I was sticiking with not eating back my workout calories and then all of a sudden I dropped a few without doing anything different. Just stick with what you are doing. It will come off eventually!

CallmeSbo

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

If you are a woman and using a Polar, im afraid its not giving you the correct number of calories burned. There was a topic about this last week some time. Please search for it, if you can. If i remember correct, it paid Solar is of by about 25 or 30%. If i were you, i would not eat all my calories back esp if im not hungry. You still pretty heavy, you can get away with a somewhat large deficeit. Im currently 30kg overweight, my deficeit is +-800 per day. When i started, it was plus minus 1000.Its gonna get less the more i lose. I have not hit a plateau yet.

darrenkitchens

you have probably heard this before, but the scale is not the final authority. as many other posters have mentioned, you could be gaining muscle, offsetting fat loss. Are you monitoring your body fat %? there are some inexpensive scales out there with Bioelectrical impedance analysis. while they may not be accurate, they are usually fairly consistent, i.e. they are always off by the same amount so you can at least see trends. the trick to using them is to always measure at the same time every day. best is first thing in the morning after your bathroom visit, before you have eaten or drank anything,
if you don't mind spending the cash, you can have a DEXA Scanning. about $50 a pop but it is the most accurate around.
before doing that though, I would get a tape measure and start tracking measurement of: neck, chest, abs, waist, upper arms, thighs etc... since muscle is denser than fat, this method will not be as skewed as just #lbs +/-.

if you find that you are indeed not loosing fat at the rate you want, you may want to make sure the information you are getting on your food. since MFP data is user submitted there can be some inaccurate info. double check it if you have any doubts. Also, be sure you are completely tracking your food intake. I have seen people that were getting several hundred extra calories a day from, what they considered, inconsequential sources. a bite of this and a bite of that can add up.

There is also some debate about what is called "starvation mode". i.e. making to drastic of changes to you diet can cause your body to slow the metabolism, therefore making it harder to loose fat. many experts advocate the "cheat meal" once a week. the idea is that it 1. keeps your body out of starvation mode and 2. helps to reduce cravings throughout the week. I have had success with this method, but it is important that you diligently stick to your diet the rest of the week.

it seems more the rule than the exception that people with a lot of weight to loose (30+ lbs) will loose fairly quickly at first then slow down. this may support the "starvation mode" theory, but more importantly, it becomes a source of discouragement, causing people to give up. it is important to remember that in weight loss, and almost any other endeavor, you will hit plateaus. these are not the end of the race, they are only another small hurdle to jump.
good luck.

SeaChele77

My first guess is very high sodium intake and not enough water intake! Try to stay under 1500 on sodium and drink at LEAST 10 glasses of water a day.
I also suggest not eating all exercise calories back; at least 1/2, but not all!

The scale will move. You just have to find YOUR combonation. Everyone is different and different techniques work for different people. Don't get discouraged, you can do it!!

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

If you are a woman and using a Polar, im afraid its not giving you the correct number of calories burned. There was a topic about this last week some time. Please search for it, if you can. If i remember correct, it paid Solar is of by about 25 or 30%. If i were you, i would not eat all my calories back esp if im not hungry. You still pretty heavy, you can get away with a somewhat large deficeit. Im currently 30kg overweight, my deficeit is +-800 per day. When i started, it was plus minus 1000.Its gonna get less the more i lose. I have not hit a plateau yet.

I set my goal at 1700, which is 500 calories above what I would eat to lose 2 lbs a week, and 200 calories less than my BMR, but I usually eat around 1500 so that allows for a 25-30% margin of error with the burns that my HRM is giving me. I really don't think that I should be eating less than 1500 a day on average to lose weight at my size, if I go below that then I tend to get really hungry and lack energy and I'm not doing this to "diet" short-term as they say.

That's disappointing about the Polar, I'm considering returning it now...

Natihilator

you have probably heard this before, but the scale is not the final authority. as many other posters have mentioned, you could be gaining muscle, offsetting fat loss. Are you monitoring your body fat %? there are some inexpensive scales out there with Bioelectrical impedance analysis. while they may not be accurate, they are usually fairly consistent, i.e. they are always off by the same amount so you can at least see trends. the trick to using them is to always measure at the same time every day. best is first thing in the morning after your bathroom visit, before you have eaten or drank anything,
if you don't mind spending the cash, you can have a DEXA Scanning. about $50 a pop but it is the most accurate around.
before doing that though, I would get a tape measure and start tracking measurement of: neck, chest, abs, waist, upper arms, thighs etc... since muscle is denser than fat, this method will not be as skewed as just #lbs +/-.

if you find that you are indeed not loosing fat at the rate you want, you may want to make sure the information you are getting on your food. since MFP data is user submitted there can be some inaccurate info. double check it if you have any doubts. Also, be sure you are completely tracking your food intake. I have seen people that were getting several hundred extra calories a day from, what they considered, inconsequential sources. a bite of this and a bite of that can add up.

There is also some debate about what is called "starvation mode". i.e. making to drastic of changes to you diet can cause your body to slow the metabolism, therefore making it harder to loose fat. many experts advocate the "cheat meal" once a week. the idea is that it 1. keeps your body out of starvation mode and 2. helps to reduce cravings throughout the week. I have had success with this method, but it is important that you diligently stick to your diet the rest of the week.

it seems more the rule than the exception that people with a lot of weight to loose (30+ lbs) will loose fairly quickly at first then slow down. this may support the "starvation mode" theory, but more importantly, it becomes a source of discouragement, causing people to give up. it is important to remember that in weight loss, and almost any other endeavor, you will hit plateaus. these are not the end of the race, they are only another small hurdle to jump.
good luck.

Thanks. I am pretty good with tracking everything I eat, but if I am at 1250 calories and my goal is 1700 and I have a few almonds, I might not track them because I know I won't go over. I believe starvation mode is a real thing but I don't believe that I can get there in a few days or weeks, or even that easily at my current weight; this is based on my own research of starvation mode. Unfortunately I can't afford any body scanning or new scales to figure out my BF%, but I am looking into getting a free consult with a PT at my gym

SammyPacks

It can be these...

1. You're hitting a plateau

2. Watch your sodium...

olong

You need to lighten up on yourself. You only began not even ten days ago! We all want to see results immediately and we use the scale as the measure of success or failure, but know that the scale is not the only tool to determine improvement. Did you take inital measurements when you began? After 2-4 weeks, take measurements again -- I would lay money that your measurements have changed even if the scale hasn't. Relax, trust that this will work. Don't worry. The scale WILL move. Your body is refusing to believe you're committed. Keep at it and your body will respond.

CallmeSbo

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

If you are a woman and using a Polar, im afraid its not giving you the correct number of calories burned. There was a topic about this last week some time. Please search for it, if you can. If i remember correct, it paid Solar is of by about 25 or 30%. If i were you, i would not eat all my calories back esp if im not hungry. You still pretty heavy, you can get away with a somewhat large deficeit. Im currently 30kg overweight, my deficeit is +-800 per day. When i started, it was plus minus 1000.Its gonna get less the more i lose. I have not hit a plateau yet.

I set my goal at 1700, which is 500 calories above what I would eat to lose 2 lbs a week, and 200 calories less than my BMR, but I usually eat around 1500 so that allows for a 25-30% margin of error with the burns that my HRM is giving me. I really don't think that I should be eating less than 1500 a day on average to lose weight at my size, if I go below that then I tend to get really hungry and lack energy and I'm not doing this to "diet" short-term as they say.

That's disappointing about the Polar, I'm considering returning it now...

oh yeah absolutely. I am not in support of extremely low calories either. Just make sure you doing everything right. Weigh your food with a scale not hands or head. Lol.What kind of work outs do you do? Maybe you should just be patient. If you started less than 10days ago like one poster pointed out, then its still early days. Good luck!

Natihilator

oh yeah absolutely. I am not in support of extremely low calories either. Just make sure you doing everything right. Weigh your food with a scale not hands or head. Lol.What kind of work outs do you do? Maybe you should just be patient. If you started less than 10days ago like one poster pointed out, then its still early days. Good luck!

I have been doing this for a month and 3 days so not sure where they got 10 days. I do have a food scale, use mostly for weighing fruit, meat and cheese and nuts, not so much veggies.

For workouts 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)

Thanks!

heybales

That's disappointing about the Polar, I'm considering returning it now...

No, no, no.

You'll need it when you start doing intervals and staggered runs for your marathon training. It's as accurate as you'll get.