1 week later and nothing

danarochelle

Hey everyone!

Ok, usually I'm one on here cheering fellow members on and encouraging them to keep going in dire straits but now I'm in need of the encouragement.

I vamped up my eating habits and exercise even more about a week ago and I haven't seen the scale budge. I've been at a 5 lb loss for a month and I'm getting frustrated. I eat roughly between 1000-1300 calories per day with 300-500 calories burned on exercise. I've experienced in the past that this has gotten me results but for some reason, it's not doing anything this time around. I'm scared to up my calories becaus that's back- fired before. Ugh!

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

jenners22

I'm scared to up my calories becaus that's back- fired before. Ugh!

It may be because you are not eating enough calories...our bodies are picking and if it thinks we are starving it, it is going to keep every extra calorie and store it. What is your recommended caloric intake (without the exercise calories)?

danarochelle

Well, MFP recommends 1200 but that's what i've been doing for over a month (plus exercising) and my scale won't move a pinch, so I'm trying other things but nothing is working so I'm at a loss now. I've incorporated weights with aerobics into my weekly cardio on/off routine also.

oEmmao

you are not eating enough, you need to eat the MINIMUM of 1200 cals

:drinker:

33KIKI

When exercising try different classes and different levels on the machines at the gym. Our bodies will adapt and not progress if we do the same routine over and over. Try something new and see if that helps.

LadyAshe

Hi,
I'm pretty new to this site and how it works....so bear with me!!
But what struck me about your post is that you may be under-eating (or over-exercising for the amount you eat). You need at LEAST 1200 calories a day to just be able to sustain yourself!! So if you eat 1200-1300 calories a day, perfect. But then you might burn 300-500 calories on a great workout. Or lets say you only ate 1000 calories and no exercise....either way, you are sending a message to your body that you are starving. So your body will do anything possible to hold onto what it has. Not to mention it will feed off your healthy muscles and store fat!! This could be the reason that the scale isn't budging.
My advice is, eat 1200-1500 calories a day plus exercise and replace those calories with a healthy snack or protein shake.
Good Luck!!!

danarochelle

I will keep doing the treadmill/elliptical trading off days with the BL Boot Camp DVD and up my calories a little and see where that gets me!

Thanks everyone for the advice! Hope it works!

mangavelta

Change up the execising routine and the food that you are eating. Also, don't eat too few calories or your body will go into starvation mode and you won't show a loss. Everyone goes thru time that the scale doesn't budge. That is why it is important to measure yourself. Sometimes with the scale says no loss, the tape measure shows a loss.
Don't give up!!

twilight1542

Your net calories (calories eaten - exercise) should be no less than 1200. Based on what you said your net is anywhere between 500-1000 cals per day. You'l definitely end up in starvation mode with #'s like that. I am on 1200 cals per day and eat 50-100% of my exercise calories & have been consistently losing since June.

I know fellow MFPers have said in the past that they had more success losing weight doing 1300-1400 cals per day + exercise. You might try doing that for a few weeks & see what happens. If you use a heart rate monitor for exercise calories you can fairly safely eat all the exercise calories. If you use MFP or other online estimates you might be better off with 50-75%.....But you should definately be eating more.

Also watch out for sodium intake & water as too much sodium or too little water can really hinder loss..

jowily

LadyAshe - for a newbie it sounds like you nailed it right on. As the other posts said, 1200 eaten calories, minus 300-500 worked out - nets 700-900 calories and the body will go "whoa - I'm not given up any of my fat stores as I need them to keep my brain, heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, etc...working"

dawnemery

Just a thought... you said you have recently added weights to your work-out routine? Yo are probably adding muscle weight, while losing body fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat... the numbers could wash each other out.

plumppeach28

I've been there before!! It SUCKS!! What I've done to make sure that doesn't happen, is excersice different EVERY time I do work out.. That way your constantly tricking your body and moving and stretching. It really does make a huge difference.

SHBoss1673

dr, post your numbers, and make your food log public. That will help us.

by numbers I mean, height, weight, activity level, how much you exercise and at what intensity per week, what types of exercise, your carbs/fat/protein levels, body fat % if you have it.

danarochelle

:laugh: How do I make my food log public? I will do that as soon as someone tells me how.

danarochelle

Ok, here's the link. Not finished with today, but hopefully you can see the past couple days.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/drcupp

SHBoss1673

so without your numbers (I'd be better able to tell if you gave your height, weight, activity level) I can say with a relative amount of confidence, that you're probably in some level of starvation. It's common for this to happen and people not even know it, because the body adapts to it, and stops sending out hunger messages, so you may not even know it. This slows down your metabolism, making the estimates that MFP gives you not right. Which means, what should work on here, won't.

The only way to remedy this is to eat more, I would say this (and you probably won't like it). Forget dieting for two months, find what your maintenance calories should be, and over 2 weeks ramp your calories up to that amount and stay there (gotta do this slowly, maybe 100 cals a day, if you do it all at once, you'll feel bloated, full, and gross usually). You'll probably gain a few pounds doing this, that's ok, it's expected, and normal.

Once you feel confident that your body has adapted to the calories it SHOULD be eating to stay the same weight (it takes a month or so) then you can start with a deficit again, but NOT a huge deficit, one that you can handle (remember, your body will now WANT those calorie, and trust me, it'll let you know that). I can't tell you what that deficit should be because I don't have the numbers (the first line I wrote). But when I do, I can give you what I think would be a good starting deficit.

Obviously this is all just my opinion, but I've been doing this for a long time, have been very successful with it, and done more than my share of research, and know this stuff works. So if you're interested in pursuing this further, you can email me and we can go into more detail, and I can explain the mechanics of it in a little more depth.

Best luck to you!

-Banks

mangavelta

You need to eat all your calories. Your body is in starvation mode. Try more real fruits and veg. and less prepared food. I know that sounds hard, but plan the meals ahead of time, when you aren't hungry and you will be more likely to be able to pick more whole foods and less prepared foods. Good luck and keep on keeping on!