Having A Hard Time Losing Any Weight

Mustangsally33

I know there are lots of posts like this one , but if anyone can give me some advice or point me in a Differant Direction , I would really appreciate it .........

I joined the gym on January 23rd after a very lazy couple of years and Two Babies, I had tried everything to loose my "baby weight " at home but decided that not only did I want to loose weight I wanted to get healthy and look good too. I have been going to the gym 4-5 days a week for an hour at a time and I have been on MFP for about a month now. I have lost TWO lbs !! I am eating my 1200-1300 Calories a day , I am not sure if its what I am eating but I am staying within my calories everyday. I measure what I eat and even make differant things for myself. I don't understand why I went from Nothing to Working out and have hardly any change.

My Gym Routine Consists of
10 Minute Warm up on Treadmill
15 Minutes of Straight Running on the Treadmill
5 Minute Walk Cool Down
10 Minute Rowing Machine
20 Strength Training - Alternating Lower Body / Upper Body
10 Bike Machine Cool Down
Stretch

And I do this 4 Times a Week because that is what I have time for , I can now Run almost 2.5 K from not being able to run for 2 minutes at a time 6 weeks ago .............I am a failry Muscular Person and had thought maybe I was just toning at first but its been almost 2 months I have hoped to be down at least 8 lbs by now .......

Can anyone help ?

KPainter70

You're not eating enough.

Jillian52

bump

Mustangsally33

I thought that too , BUT I am not Hungry , Shouldn't I be starving if I am not eating enough ? I feel satisfied........

gastankerdriver

That is a tough one. If you want add me as a friend and I will look at your diet. It most likely is diet related. Excercising doesn't usually add weight. Muscle is heavier, but if you excercise enough to add a pound of muscle, you will most likely burn off a pound of calories at least. I always lose weight on my gym days unless I eat wrong.

HauteP1nk

'Abs are made in the kitchen'...

Food. Eat better choices, and ensure you are eating enough calories.

rileysowner

Without seeing your food diary it is pretty difficult to make any comments. Are you eating your exercise calories? If not, you may what to try that for 3 weeks and see what happens.

I took a quick look at what I can see of your profile. Based on your ticker you have 25 pounds left to lose. There are two things that may be playing in here.

First, your calorie deficit may be too aggressive for how much you have left to lose. Here are some helpful guideline:

Here is a chart that suggests what your weekly weight loss goal should be depending on how much you have to lose.
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.


1 lb a week is 500 calories less per day. So .5 would be 250 less, 2lbs would be 1000 less, etc.

Second, unless a person is morbidly obese eating below your BMR for a long period of time is not a good idea. I am guessing that 1200 calories is below your BMR, although I could be wrong. Under the TOOLS section there is a tool to calculate BMR.

Based on both of these things, you likely need to eat more, perhaps a lot more. If your goal is more than 1 pound a week, you should probably reduce it to between .5 and 1 pound per week at the very least. If that does not get your calories up to your BMR, I would suggest simply setting your goal manually to your BMR and give it several weeks to see what happens.

Karikim

I can sympathize with you. I have been reliqiously counting calories, running and going to the gym. I keep my carbs at 40%, protein 30% and fat 30%. I eat no processed food, no bread, or pasta or sweets and drink water. At first I had my calories at 1200 until I read that maybe I wasn't eating enough so I try for more now - I set MFP to 1600 but don't always get there..... I am 5'3" and weigh 140 lb. I have not lost one ounce !! So I would be interested in the responses you get.

FionaAnne22

That's quite an intensive workout to be eating 1300 calories...is that 1300 net? Personally, I would make sure I was eating at least most of my exercise calories back, to be getting 1300 net

Good luck

cramernh

Hard to give you suggestions if I cant see your diary to be honest.

o_delaisse

You would know if you were starving. Trust me, for someone who has been very close to starving herself, the non-moving scale is not the first indicator. Starving is agony, it truly is. You wouldn't be starving and not know it other than what the scales say.

What it could be is, as people say, perhaps you aren't eating enough - you might be slowing down your metabolism. I'm working on increasing my calories, and as I do, my weight loss has increased.

I think a lot of people think if you're hungry, you're doing it right, but I don't think that's true.

I hope this helps

rlv2680

bump

Mustangsally33

The Tools Section says for 175 Lbs and 5 Foot 7 , I am at 1536 for my BMR, So is that what I should be eating every day before my Workouts or less than that ?

rileysowner

The Tools Section says for 175 Lbs and 5 Foot 7 , I am at 1536 for my BMR, So is that what I should be eating every day before my Workouts or less than that ?

Yes. That is the number of calories your body would need to sustain itself doing nothing, say if you were in a coma or lying in bed completely immobile. Once you start moving you burn more than that. The general multiplier for someone who is truly sedentary is 1.2 x BMR, but if you have small children I can't imagine you are truly sedentary. I guess it is possible, but not very likely. Thus netting your BMR would give you a deficit of slightly over 300 calories or a little over half a pound a week weight loss if you are truly sedentary. If you are lightly active or moderately active you will burn more and that deficit would be bigger.

Blessedmommy_2x

How many calories are you typically burning during your workouts? For example: If you are burning 500 cals... then you are only "netting" about 700 cals a day - quite a low amount. Some people eat their exercise cals back, some don't but when you are eating that low of a amount of calories you "may" need to eat yours back.

I hit a short plateau a few weeks back because MFP decreased my cal intake to the 1200s. I lost barely anything that week. The next week I increased my intake and then I was losing weight again.

michiemcgee

I am having the same issue as the poster. My calories are not allowing me to lose at 1200-1400 calories. I do kickboxing for 3 hours per week and strength training an additional 3 hours a week. I am eating a low fat diet. I have in the past eated following the zone diet which was successful, but I'm really sick of not having an occasional piece of thealy bread or brown rice.


Any help?

Rboch

I am having the same issue as the poster. My calories are not allowing me to lose at 1200-1400 calories. I do kickboxing for 3 hours per week and strength training an additional 3 hours a week. I am eating a low fat diet. I have in the past eated following the zone diet which was successful, but I'm really sick of not having an occasional piece of thealy bread or brown rice.


Any help?

You need to up your calorie intake. Your body needs more fuel for your workouts. And carbs aren't necessarily a bad thing; healthy/complex carbs like whole wheat breads, brown rice, oatmeal, etc. are important (in moderation of course) and will help keep you energized during workouts as well as help your body to recover afterwards

Rboch

Plus if you are strength/weight training 3 times a week, depending on how hard your workouts are, you should be building muscle (which weighs more than fat) so it might take some time before the scale reflects what you're hoping for. Try taking your body measurements and record them every few weeks. I'm doing the P90X workout program, I'm on week 6 and haven't lost much weight but I have lost inches on most parts of my body. Try to focus on measurements, shape more than the scale for now (I know its hard but if you notice improvement in other areas it is much more motivating than a scale stuck at your current weight)

rileysowner

I am having the same issue as the poster. My calories are not allowing me to lose at 1200-1400 calories. I do kickboxing for 3 hours per week and strength training an additional 3 hours a week. I am eating a low fat diet. I have in the past eated following the zone diet which was successful, but I'm really sick of not having an occasional piece of thealy bread or brown rice.


Any help?

Knowing very little about what you do, except what I can glean from your ticker, you are likely being too aggressive in your weight loss goal. See the post above about how many pounds a week a person should seek to lose based on how much they have to lose. You should not have your weight loss goal higher than half a pound a week, or you will be fighting your body the whole way. As stated above, your calorie goal should not be lower than your BMR either unless you are morbidly obese, and since you are only seeking to lose 12.5 pounds, you probably don't fit in that category.

I used to do the Zone, but fell off it because of obsessing over whether stuff fit in the 40-30-30 breakdown. I put the weight back on. When I sought to lose the weight again, I started looking carefully at the Zone, Atkins, and other diets. The one thing they all had in common was they established a calorie deficit. So instead of doing one of them, I started counting calories. That is all I did. In retrospect I made a lot of mistakes, but over time learned and corrected them.

The biggest mistake I see people making is wanting to lose weight too fast. Slower is better, especially if you only have a little to lose.

The second mistake is not eating in keeping with your activity level. Many people put themselves in here as sedentary because their work is sedentary. The problem is some of them are very active at home outside of their job. They clean, care for and play with their children, go out dancing or whatever. Those activities add up quite quickly to take a person from sedentary to lightly active. Add to that the fact that unlike other weight loss sites, MFP does not include intended exercise calories in their calorie calculations, something many people don't realize, and you have a bunch of people who are not eating enough. Not a big deal if one is morbidly obese, but a very big deal when a person is not.

mommymeg2

The Tools Section says for 175 Lbs and 5 Foot 7 , I am at 1536 for my BMR, So is that what I should be eating every day before my Workouts or less than that ?

Yes. That is the number of calories your body would need to sustain itself doing nothing, say if you were in a coma or lying in bed completely immobile. Once you start moving you burn more than that. The general multiplier for someone who is truly sedentary is 1.2 x BMR, but if you have small children I can't imagine you are truly sedentary. I guess it is possible, but not very likely. Thus netting your BMR would give you a deficit of slightly over 300 calories or a little over half a pound a week weight loss if you are truly sedentary. If you are lightly active or moderately active you will burn more and that deficit would be bigger.

What should you multiply by if you are one step above sedentary? "Lightly Active" or whatever they call it!

rileysowner

From another site: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

Harris Benedict Formula
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

Or just use the goal tool here. This will give something close to what you need to maintain weight. Just note to use this sort of thing is to do something completely different than MFP's approach.