i'm not losing anything!!

kis5294

I've been dieting and exercising (at least 4 days a week) for a couple of weeks now and I cannot seem to lose anything! I'm stuck eating college food, but I have been choosing the lower calorie meals. I have, however, noticed that there is a lot of sodium in everythinggggg is that the problem? Or it is my exercising?

mudar146

Are you drinking lots of water to balance our the sodium your consuming?
And are you taking your measurments? You may be losing inches and that wont show on the scale!!

Good Luck to you!!

sandown12

Hi Im no expert but I struggle to lose on calorie counting Im losing slowly but its getting the whole thing right
Calories too little or too many you wont lose
Protein carbs sat fat
water exercise
Im just doinf 1200-1300 cals a day dont eat exercise calories some weeks I lose 0.5lbs others 3lbs?

How many cals are you eating a day?

AmberJslimsAWAY

Take pictures... nuff said.

nfcaringi

I can fully relate... I have been stuck at 178 (supposedly 8 lbs over my high end BMI ) and can't shed a blessed pound.. I work out 6 days a week (3 days playing tennis for an hour or so) and 3 days doing an hour of cardio and then 45 minutes of combined core and weight training... The hard part for me is that I will be 70 next year and between the reduced need for regeneration of cells and the muscle mass it seems impossilbe to lose weight... God bless and good luck:happy:

beautifuldisaster37

Your exersizing! your building muscle which weighs more than fat. So all the fat your losing from exersize and dieting is being countered by the muscle and your equalizing on the scale. My advice would be to judge your success by the way your feeling and how your clothes are fitting looser. forget your scale for now, sometimes it can be your biggest enemy while dieting. It is just a number. Your in college too. Don't forget to keep track of your recreational beverage calories too lol

jsapninz

I've been dieting and exercising (at least 4 days a week) for a couple of weeks now and I cannot seem to lose anything! I'm stuck eating college food, but I have been choosing the lower calorie meals. I have, however, noticed that there is a lot of sodium in everythinggggg is that the problem? Or it is my exercising?

If you have been doing this for two weeks or so and you had everything set properly you should notice at least a pound or two by now, I doubt it is water retention. Yeah you are probably building some muscle, but you should still be able to lose weight at the same time.

Are you losing inches?
How diligent are you at logging?
What is your caloric defecit?
What's your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE = BMR x activity level)?
Are you eating back all your calories?

It is simple mathmatics: if you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight.
Somethings isn't set right, don't worry, we will get it figured out!

ryanpaulsullivan

I agree with taking measurements. If you are doing a lot of cardio, or any weight lifting, it's entirely possible that you could be building muscle, which will balance out the fat you've been losing in terms of weight. Monitor your progress using the mirror, not the scale.

Carissaisip

Drink loads of water. I bet you it's all muscles, not fat.

melinda200208

I have been working out for about a month and a half four days a week and have lost 4 pounds total. You need to stay away from the college food. There is always healthier options, if you have a fridge you can make quick healthy on the go lunches and snacks. You will want to plan that ahead and stick with your plan. Yes, you will want to drink lots of water. And, you may not lose much weight. All depending on your height, how much overweight you are, ect. You could be toning your body and losing inches but not weight. Don't rely on the scale so heavily. Maybe give yourself another monthy (without weighing yourself) and then weigh yourself. Healthy eating will help a lot. And always remember, even if you arent losing weight at least you are working out and giving your heart excersize. Stick with it. You can do it!!

kis5294

I drink between 6-8 cups of water a day. I haven't been taking measurements but when I look in the mirror I don't really notice a difference. I have been eating the exercise calories, maybe I should just stop that? Maybe I am just building muscle and not noticing? I'll see what I look like in another week or so. Thanks for all your help!

jennifer52484

Could be that your retaining excess water from too much sodium. stay away from sugar too. Sugar makes me happy but it also makes my scale read larger numbers which then makes me unhappy... so. we all know the answer there.

Coco_Puff

Are you eating enough? If you starve your body, it will hold on to everything it gets!

sedosher

I have been stuck at my current weight for weeks, which seems like FOREVER! I have tried to shake things up with diet changes and different exercises but ultimately I think my issue is I need to give it more time. I have no patience so time is my enemy.

Also take measurements, I have lost 1.5 inches in my waist alone...of course I also would like to see the scale moving.

TheFitHooker

I seen this link on a group I'm a member of on Facebook. Might help! http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1638

TourThePast

I have been choosing the lower calorie meals. I have, however, noticed that there is a lot of sodium in everythinggggg is that the problem? Or it is my exercising?

Exercising might make you a pound or two heavier for a few days due to the muscles being swollen. Sodium might mean you retain more water on one occasion, but if you eat sodium high foods every day you don't keep retaining more and more water every day until you weigh 300lb!

Exercising and eating high sodium meals will not stop you losing weight for four weeks.

What will stop you from losing weight is eating an amount that is exactly the same as the amount of energy that you expend. As you're already exercising four times a week, the answer is simply to eat fewer calories than you are now.

Look at the amounts you're eating, and see whether you can make any changes to what you're eating.

Emagali74

If you opened up your diary people could help you more.

Without knowing your intake and what you burn my guess is youre not eating enough....

But yeah high sodium will keep the weight on....

mrstaggs

I was ~190 coming into college. Now, I'm a sophomore, and I weighed 218. That's too much weight. SOO, I looked up a bunch of stuff, and I know these are hard to follow in college, but these are the things I make sure I do every day.
1. Get up 15 min. earlier and go to bed 30 min. earlier than usual.
2. Before you start getting ready or eating or anything, drink an ICE COLD glass of water
3. Eat breakfast
4. Eat 30g of protein every morning or less for girls (I drink whey protein)
5. No alcohol (worst part IMO)
6. Exercise an hour a day and track everything you do.

I've lost 7.2 lbs in a week and a half. I know that sounds dangerous, but I always eat when I'm hungry, and I never feel sick.

Also, make sure you do push ups, sit ups, or some kind of weight training. It takes more energy to maintain muscle which means your metabolism will have to work harder as you develop more lean muscle.

jsapninz

I drink between 6-8 cups of water a day. I haven't been taking measurements but when I look in the mirror I don't really notice a difference. I have been eating the exercise calories, maybe I should just stop that? Maybe I am just building muscle and not noticing? I'll see what I look like in another week or so. Thanks for all your help!

I am really bad at judging weight loss too without seeing numbers. How do your jeans fit? They don't lie. Are they getting baggy at the waist or butt?

You should always make sure you are eating at least your BMR, but you have to be careful when you are eating back your calories because alot of times calculators will overstimate your burn. If you TDEE is set properly you shouldn't need to eat them back at all, technically.

If you are building muscle and not noticing then you will be "smaller" overall, so do the jeans test.

You are not going to lose any weight if your caloric defecit isn't correct. Do you know what yours is?

jsapninz

If you opened up your diary people could help you more.

Without knowing your intake and what you burn my guess is youre not eating enough....

But yeah high sodium will keep the weight on....

Eating more will NOT help you lose weight.

TourThePast

I agree with taking measurements. If you are doing a lot of cardio, or any weight lifting, it's entirely possible that you could be building muscle, which will balance out the fat you've been losing in terms of weight. Monitor your progress using the mirror, not the scale.

Nobody who has been "dieting" for four weeks will have built sufficient muscle to cancel out fat loss.

Eating at a deficit, gaining a couple of pounds at the most is possible as a woman beginner to weight training, but that takes literally months.

jsapninz

I have been stuck at my current weight for weeks, which seems like FOREVER! I have tried to shake things up with diet changes and different exercises but ultimately I think my issue is I need to give it more time. I have no patience so time is my enemy.

Also take measurements, I have lost 1.5 inches in my waist alone...of course I also would like to see the scale moving.

You are eating too much if you really aren't losing lbs in "weeks." It's not about patience at that point, it's that something isn't working.
Drop your daily caloric intake by like 250 cals. Re assess in a week or two and drop again if necessary.

Ebwash89

Dont rely soley on the scale. Trust me! If its staying the same and not going up thats good. From personal experience I was stuck at a certain weight for a long time and got frustrated. Meanwhile people were telling me I look smaller. I didnt believe them because the scale wasnt moving but the next time I went shopping I discovered that I dropped a whole size but not a pound on the scale. Stay Strong! Inches are more important than the numbers

MCB268

I'm having the same problem. It's frustrating.

heybales

I've been dieting and exercising (at least 4 days a week) for a couple of weeks now and I cannot seem to lose anything! I'm stuck eating college food, but I have been choosing the lower calorie meals. I have, however, noticed that there is a lot of sodium in everythinggggg is that the problem? Or it is my exercising?

Ignore the advice to eat less until you do some math, you could just make it worse.

You are probably easily eating under what you expend all day on all activity TDEE, if your metabolism is running full steam.
You mention in profile already yo-yo dieting - that means your body has probably gotten good at slowing your metabolism down really fast when it see a big change.

So do yourself a favor and do it better for long term this time.

MFP - Tools - BMR calc

Is your daily net that you are doing below that figure?
Are you hungry at all eating at that level, if it is below?
That means your metabolism has lowered already, it is no longer as high as the estimated healthy BMR could be.

So, do you feel like eating even less, or exercising even more, and making it suppress even more after a short lag time?
Then what?

So, go back to Settings - Diet/Fitness Profile, and if you selected sedentary (probably incorrect, probably burn much more than that from daily activity), then select 1 lb a week goal.

Check if the new net daily goal is slightly above your BMR now. If not, raise activity level 1 notch and check again.

Keep eating back accurate estimates of exercise calories - very smart there. Because if exercise gets the resources first, BMR will just have to lower again.
Don't have accurate like HRM? Then knock 20% off any estimates and manually change them before logging.

SimplyShanRunning

ummm its only been a few weeks right

jsong11

I agree with jannspizziri. I've "dieted" in the past without diligently counting my calories in and calories burned and sort of guess-timating how many calories my meals were. "A few beers" adds up to a lot more calories than I ever estimated. I didn't lose anything those times because i was way under-estimating what I was eating.

The other thing is that if it's only been a couple of weeks, there are other factors that could explain the lack of weight loss. For example, some women retain water during ovulation and also the start of their cycle.

and while any exercise and activity is a great start, there are other nuances to consider like making sure your heart rate gets up high enough to the point where you are starting to burn fat.

I'd say keep at it...keep diligently logging everything and following the guidelines from mfp, and try measuring your success with measuring tape instead of the scale.

Also...make sure you're sleeping a healthy amount. Giving your body the rest and recovery it requires is important for weight loss, and your health in general.

kobiemom

If you ask ten people, you 'll get ten different reasons and it's possible that none of them will relate to you. Read the responses, of course, but you'll have to try some different strategies. Make sure you make one change at a time and give it time to work (or not) before you move on. You'll figure it out. I'm probably older than your mother, but I've been having the same problem. I recently lowered the carbs slightly but kept the calories the same. I lost a pound in five days after not losing anything for over a month.

You'll get there. Keep trying. Don't give up.

tinalatina

Sounds like your stuck in a plateau. Try Calorie Cycling! I swear by it! I was stuck at 140 over a month and dropped 3 pounds the first week I did calorie Cycling.

atx7

Your exersizing! your building muscle which weighs more than fat. So all the fat your losing from exersize and dieting is being countered by the muscle and your equalizing on the scale.

Where do people come up with this stuff?

SimplyShanRunning

Your exersizing! your building muscle which weighs more than fat. So all the fat your losing from exersize and dieting is being countered by the muscle and your equalizing on the scale.

Where do people come up with this stuff?

OMG!!!! :explode:



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