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

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.