Confused? Am I eating too much or too little?

Boosier3

I have been losing .5 to maybe a pound some weeks. I started walking two weeks ago for a brisk pace, for 45 minutes, five days a week and it shows my exercise calories as my fitbit syncs. I thought for sure I would have noticed a nice weight loss last week, but nothing. I actually showed a gain. Would anyone mind to look at my food diary and give me their thoughts on whether I should be eating more, even with the little bit of exercise calories I get? I would appreciate any input you may have. Thank you!

greeneyedaries

Your food diary looks great. Looks like to much sodium in your diet. 1500gr. or less a day is what we need to be getting. It may be you are retaining water from the high sodium intake. Good luck.

foremant86

You consistently have a large amount of calories left at the end of everyday, that's not good.

When you create too large of a deficit your body won't let go of weight because it's not sure it's going to have enough calories to keep you alive and all of your organs working properly so it holds onto everything you give it.

Boosier3

I do eat all of my alloted daily calories, but just haven't been eating all my exercise calories as I wasn't sure if the Fitbit was giving me more than I should really be having. It gave me 708 calories one day, just for walking 45 minutes. Seemed kind of high to me. Should I start at eating half of them first, then go from there?

shovav91

You consistently have a large amount of calories left at the end of everyday, that's not good.

When you create too large of a deficit your body won't let go of weight because it's not sure it's going to have enough calories to keep you alive and all of your organs working properly so it holds onto everything you give it.

This. When you exercise, you create a larger deficit which you then have to compensate for, especially with such a low caloric allowance.

aubsgg

Looks like you are undereating. I was losing 1/2 to 1 lb a week. Stalled for 2 weeks, added 200-300 calories a day. Lost 2.5 lbs last week.

TheCats_Meow

It took about 2-3 weeks for the scale to start moving again for me after I started the C25K program which is an interval walk/jog program.

Once that 2-3 weeks was over, though, I consistently lost at least 1 lb a week.

You also may want to consider eating more; your calorie goal, to me, is the minimum. Now that you're exercising, you should play around with that number and see which works best for you. Try bumping up the daily target by 100 cals for a week or two and see if that has any impact.

Good luck!

Boosier3

I wilncrease my daily intake than. I did notice today after I walked that I had that 2:30 slump/tiredness, and I haven't had that since I started with MFP. Made me wonder if I wasn't eating enough. Thanks for the advice. Always appreciated!

fitniknik

Eat more!

Redbird99ky

I would say that you are eating too little. I saw one day where you had a 700 net calorie day. I was a non-believer in the (not enough) category, and that's what brought me to MFP. My wife suggested that I start logging to see what my calorie intake was. I was pretty sure that I would gain weight if I started taking in more calories, but yet I always felt hungry at the end of the day. Once I bumped my calorie intake up to over 1200 net calories, I started losing weight ... AND I was eating more ... AND I wasn't hungry all the time.

Good job on the water, but keep your sodium in check. Sunday you were good, but some days you were WAY over. A high sodium intake PLUS lots of water will stall any weight loss QUICKLY. I hope this helps.

HonkyTonks

One week isn't long enough to tell anything. Weight fluctuates.

Be patient.

kschmi24

I hate hearing the "eat more" thing but I think it is true. My scale wouldn't budge for awhile- was consuming about 1,250 calories in food, but only netting between 700 and 1000 due to exercise. I am eating a bit more and trying to NET at least 1200 per day and finally the scale moved a little again. Plus, the 8 cups of water per day. I know it can be hard to eat more throughout the day but If you snack on something between 100 and 200 calories every few hours in addition to larger meals it tends to be a little easier. I feel like I'm eating all day sometimes, but better than going hungry.

DrumlineGirl

Add more protein!!