What am I doing wrong?

mkorbel

I am getting so frustrated - I have been very disciplined for the past month now (making very healthy food choices, staying right around 1200 calories (some days less, but never ridiculously low), and getting in (on average) 1-1/2 hours of exercise (cardio, etc) four days a week, including meeting with a trainer twice a week...this is a total change from before when I was getting ZERO exercise and eating horribly....and I have lost, over the entire month....ONE pound. How is this possible? I am getting so discouraged.

nebulinda

A couple things could be going on. First, everyone's body is different and weight loss happens differently for everyone. Your body could just be slow to lose weight for whatever reason. Just remember that even if you aren't losing weight as quickly as you would like, you are getting much healthier. It's also likely that you are underestimating your calories consumed and/or overestimating your calories burned. MFP apparently overestimates the calories burnt for the exercises you input, so try eating back only half of your exercise calories. Also, measure out your food so you know exactly how much you are eating.

It would also be helpful if you told us how much you are trying to lose per week, your BMR, and your TDEE. It's possible that 1200 calories is too few for you and you might have more success if you raised your calorie goal.

rivetdoll

I would love to know the answer too, but I can tell you that you'll get a lot of responses with many ideas, but no one will really know for sure. Everyone is different.

I've got trainers, a nutritionist, I've had medical thyroid testing done, I stay between 1000-1200 net calories per day and do 5 hours a week of bootcamp plus about 2 hours of dedicated cardio outside of that. In 2 months I've lost only 3 pounds (but also 6 inches). Doing it the healthy way has been the most painful and slowest method I've ever tried to lose weight when you're watching the scale. You have to find other ways to stay motivated, either with measurements or body fat percentages to help show something is working.

Hang in there, you probably aren't doing anything wrong at all

lewandt

I see these posts over and over of people who ask for help and are not losing weight but when you check they do not have their food & exercise diary's public.

How the heck is anyone suppose to know without seeing it??

Without seeing, my guess is you are not really within your calorie range. Are you measuring everything? Counting everything? Over estimating calorie burn with your workouts?

There is just too many variables to try to guess.

Toddrific

It's been my impression that if you aren't losing weight, and you are accurately accounting for what you eat and do, then you should increase what you are eating.

The key is to be accurate in accounting for calories in/calories out.

rileysowner

According to your ticker you are looking to lose under 30 pounds. Assuming that is your entire weight loss need to get to a healthy weight you probably need a smaller deficit. No idea what your deficit is, but I am guess you, like many, chose 2 pound per week. That is probably too high.

Good guidelines are found here in 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.

Notice, your weight loss goal per week should likely be no more than 1 pound a week. Also, eating for a long period of time below your BMR is generally not recommended unless you are morbidly obese.

My suggestion would be set your calories at least at your BMR, and try that for a month.

bunnzye2

I hate it so that I have to be negative in my reply, but I've been asking that question for almost a year. I have lost 14 pounds in a year from following the rules instead of doing radical diets like i did in the past. twice I increased my calories and ate my exercise calories, and both times I put my weight back on. Weighed myself today and I have gained 3 pounds. I will continue to use MFP to keep up with my diet, but I guarantee you I will be going on one of my trusted diets at least twice a month so I can lose this weight.

DataBased

One observation is that you aren't "friends"' with anybody here. The buddy system may not be as important to you, but for me... I'd' be lost without my MFP family. We watch one another's food diaries and make really great constructive observations of what each of us is doing. We bounce ideas off each other and keep each other honest and accountable to ourselves.

What does MFP tell you to maintain as a calorie deficit? Are you eating back your exercise calories?

DataBased

I hate it so that I have to be negative in my reply, but I've been asking that question for almost a year. I have lost 14 pounds in a year from following the rules instead of doing radical diets like i did in the past. twice I increased my calories and ate my exercise calories, and both times I put my weight back on. Weighed myself today and I have gained 3 pounds. I will continue to use MFP to keep up with my diet, but I guarantee you I will be going on one of my trusted diets at least twice a month so I can lose this weight.

I feel for you - my husband has been on a "radical diet cycle" for decades. One of them had him taking in 500 calories a day. He totally messed up his metabolism.

Bunnzye2 -- you may have a damaged metabolism slowing you down. There''s a whole scientific study about this kind of thing... I have been reading up on it because I am afraid for my husband. He's starting to increase his calorie intake slowly, and his weight is coming off. Last week, he cut lunch two days of the week (he claims he got too busy, but he's going to put himself in an early grave if he keeps letting work be more important than his health). Last week he GAINED three pounds and couldn't figure out why.

I know why. He isn't eating enough calories, and his damaged metabolism is slowing down to survive the calorie deficit he's putting himself into. Anyway - please, for the sake of your loved ones, at least do some research on how some of these fad diets can damage your metabolism, and learn what you can do to fix a damaged metabolism if that is what happened to you.

Hope you find a lifelong solution instead of reverting back to radical diets... :flowerforyou: