Not losing ANY weight!
LoudLH
Posts: 2 Member
After completing my masters program at the beginning of August I finally had the time to get back into the gym and change my eating habits. I have since drastically reduced my caloric intake as well increasing (read doing) exercise. I believe I am eating better foods now but still see no results. It's frustrating to put all this effort into changing my lifestyle, not just dieting, and get absolutely no results - not pounds, inches or energy.
Any suggestions as to things I could do - bearing in mind that I have 3 kids and work full time :happy:
Any suggestions as to things I could do - bearing in mind that I have 3 kids and work full time :happy:
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Replies
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I would give it some more time. Depending on what your eating/exercise habits were before, your body may still be trying to adjust. I would not give up.0
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Just glanced at a few days in your diary and noticed a couple of fast food stops... is this the norm? You're doing really well with your calorie goals, and I did also notice lots of healthy snacks and meals like almonds and salads but really, fast food is TERRIBLE if you're trying to lose weight! Once a week should be an absolute max, but if you can I would stop altogether.
Also, are you logging every last morsel? And measuring to make sure it's accurate? You would be very surprised at how many calories can sneak into your day when you're not looking!
Maybe try a new approach, because I was where you are 3 months ago. I was trying the low cal thing, 1200-1400 cals with exercise and not getting anywhere, feeling SUPER discouraged. Then out of desperation I went low-carb, which I had always been very skeptical about. Well I wish I had jumped on the bandwagon when it was first popular like 10 years ago because I started losing weight immediately (5 lbs in the first week!) And the motivation I felt from that was enough to keep me going and I'm still losing!
If you've been something for 3 weeks and don't see ANY results, I think it may be time to consider other options.0 -
Don't worry about the fast food. I do at least once a week and it hasn't hurt me. Your protein is way too low. Eat more protein. You should be 75+ per day and I see some days you are half that. If not enough calories for protein then lose carbs to add the protein.
Only two macros are needed by your body: Protein and fats. Carbs are and always will be the one that is optional.
If you do not get enough protein and fats you lose muscle. That in turn lowers your BMR. Then you get to eat less food which sucks.
Also, for exercise do you cardio or strength? If you cardio stop. Do strength. If you only have elliptical or treadmill up the incline and resistance and make sure you are working your legs hard. Again, muscle is good. The more muscle the higher your BMR.0 -
Don't worry about the fast food. I do at least once a week and it hasn't hurt me. Your protein is way too low. Eat more protein. You should be 75+ per day and I see some days you are half that. If not enough calories for protein then lose carbs to add the protein.
Only two macros are needed by your body: Protein and fats. Carbs are and always will be the one that is optional.
If you do not get enough protein and fats you lose muscle. That in turn lowers your BMR. Then you get to eat less food which sucks.
Also, for exercise do you cardio or strength? If you cardio stop. Do strength. If you only have elliptical or treadmill up the incline and resistance and make sure you are working your legs hard. Again, muscle is good. The more muscle the higher your BMR.
Yes, Yes, Yes!0 -
I would also give it some more time. I don't know what you set your weight loss amount for but with only 14 pounds to lose, if it's not set at 1 pound or even 1/2 pound loss a week I would suggest that. I know a lot of people set it at 2 pounds a week and then aren't eating enough which stalls their weight loss. Your diary looks a lot like mine and I've had great success using MFP. I still eat fast food and sweets are my vice!0
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Are you weighing your food or just guestimating? If you aren't weighing then start there. Also the fast food and pizza has to go regardless of calorie count. Even when it is within the calories it just doesn't digest the same as real food.0
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Follow this 3 basic guides for building muscle and loosing fat:
1. Eat 1 gram of protein daily per pound of desired weight. eat carbohydrates and about 20% of your calories should be from fat.
2. DO number while maintaining a daily 500 caloric deficit, in other words eat 500 calories less than your daily nutritional needs.
3. Work out with weights 3 times a week and do all cardio you want.
Secondary guides
Eat 4-6 times a day
Meal timing body does not know what time it is0 -
I hate when I see people give advice about stopping cardio?? lol A perfect balance of strength and cardio is FINE!0
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This post is Potentially helpful to you, however, it's worded as though it's the absolute truth for everyone and it's just not that simple! Keep in mind different things work/don't work for different people. They may be able to eat fast food and lose but not everyone can. And I don't know about stopping cardio, but definitely what they say about strength training raising your BMR is true. What the other post said about whole foods is good advice tooDon't worry about the fast food. I do at least once a week and it hasn't hurt me. Your protein is way too low. Eat more protein. You should be 75+ per day and I see some days you are half that. If not enough calories for protein then lose carbs to add the protein.
Only two macros are needed by your body: Protein and fats. Carbs are and always will be the one that is optional.
If you do not get enough protein and fats you lose muscle. That in turn lowers your BMR. Then you get to eat less food which sucks.
Also, for exercise do you cardio or strength? If you cardio stop. Do strength. If you only have elliptical or treadmill up the incline and resistance and make sure you are working your legs hard. Again, muscle is good. The more muscle the higher your BMR.
Yes, Yes, Yes!0 -
I was in the same boat for a few months! Better diet, more exercise, and zero weight loss/body changes.
How hard do you push yourself during your workouts? I don't know your habits, but I remember that I used to go to the gym for an hour, do 30-min of light elliptical plus a few sets on a weight machine, and call it a day. I started really losing weight when I realized that just putting in 40-60min of exercise/day isn't enough. You need to make your workouts count! As a personal trainer friend explained to me: even if you can only exercise for 30min every day, you should work so hard during those 30min that by the time you finish you feel like you ran a marathon. If your clothes aren't completely soaked in sweat 10-min into your workout, kick it up a notch.
I also fully agree with other posters... up your protein intake and definitely add strength training to your routine... or interval training. I personally prefer interval training, plyometrics, etc. If you exercise at home and don't have a lot of time, check out the workouts on this website: http://www.bodyrock.tv. Great workouts (I know a fitness model who swears by them), and all of the routines are around 12-min long, so they are totally doable with your busy schedule
If you're still in the same place a month from now, consider booking a session with a personal trainer (or, if you have a very active friend, ask them for a favour). Explain that you aren't seeing the results that you'd like to see, and that you'd like to know how your workouts can be improved.
The most important thing is to not give up! You will start to see results if you put the work in! It took me a few months of eating healthy and exercising to get started, but now I'm losing about 1.5lb/week. Good luck!!!0 -
It's not about having fast food or sweets here and there. There is so much that goes into the equation when it comes to weight loss. I would also recommend that you take a before picture and measure your body. If I hadn't had that I would have given up a long time ago. Your body will look different before you lose a significant amount of weight on the scale.
Most importantly, give it some time because it will take time. Judging by your picture, you don't have much to lose. When your close to your healthy weight, weight loss is much slower than someone with a lot to lose. When I was heavier, I was able to play fast and loose with the calories because it was easy for me to create a deficit, and my body wasn't affected too adversely with a larger deficit. As I get closer to my goal weight, I really, really have to watch it. A cookie here, a sip of soda there, and I'm at maintenance. If I create too large of a deficit, I'm tapping into my muscle mass. So before you go increasing your calories (because that advice will be coming down the pike shortly), invest in a scale and weigh your food. Also do some reading regarding BMR, TDEE, RMR, what it means, and what it means for you.
Eat enough protein to maintain your muscle mass. Do some strength training to let your body know you need those muscles. Muscle is active, fat is not. Your body will get rid of what is taking up energy first. Less muscle means more fat, which means a lower BMR, which means you can't eat as much you thought, and that means stalled weight loss, or no weight loss.
Oh, and weight loss is not predictable! Every Friday afternoon at 4:00 the scale isn't going to match up to your MFP weekly weight loss goal. But if you're diligent and you work hard you will get there.0 -
I took a quick peek at your diary, and it looks like you eat a lot of processed foods. Try avoiding anything that comes in a box or a bag. I was at a stand still until I was able to get all the processed foods out of my diet, too. Once I started eating primarily whole foods and eliminated bread, cereal, pasta, crackers and other pre-made foods, I began to make some real progress.0
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Going to try some of the things you all have mentioned. I"m putting my diary back to private now so that I don't get bogged down with too much advice. Again, thanks for all the info.0
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Try eating more fresh, whole foods and tons of protein. Even if I stayed within my calorie goal, I would gain weight if I had pizza or burger king.
You could gain from bloating due to sodium intake. You aren't going to gain actual tissue eating at a deficit regardless of food source.0 -
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WIthout seeing your food diary or knowing how much you're working out, it's hard to say. When I first started on here a few weeks ago I had 20 lbs to lose and honestly it felt like it's taken a HUGE effort to lose 6 lbs. BUT- when I think of the fact that if I hadn't used the tools here and extensively educated myself through the message boards, I would still have 20 to lose instead of 14. Remember also you have less fat to lose so it will take longer to lose (expecting .5 lbs/week is reasonable).
One other important thing that I learned the hard way: People tend to underestimate how much they're actually eating so weigh, plan and measure very carefully. I found out that when I was whining about not losing that I had actually been underestimating my cal intake by sometimes 600-800 cals per day!!!!!!!!!!! That's HUGE when you're trying to keep your DCI somewhere between BMR and TDEE!
Best to you!!! Don't get discouraged- dig in and learn. Knowledge is power!
jill0 -
always trust what sidesteal says! he absolutely knows everything!0 -
Can't help if you food diary is not open. Sorry.0
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I'll stop after this link but this is really a good piece of research with commentary. It specifically deals with comparing a fast food meal to a whole meal.
I'm not advocating people eat fast food willy-nilly. There's plenty of reasons to limit your consumption -- I'm just posting this so people don't read some of the stuff in this thread and develop an irrational fear that under equal macro conditions, fast food will somehow make them fat:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/hormonal-responses-to-a-fast-food-meal-compared-with-nutritionally-comparable-meals-of-different-composition-research-review.html0 -
Are you drinking lots water?? Water seems to be the key for me, 8 glasses of water a day at least.0
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Don't worry about the fast food. I do at least once a week and it hasn't hurt me. Your protein is way too low. Eat more protein. You should be 75+ per day and I see some days you are half that. If not enough calories for protein then lose carbs to add the protein.
Only two macros are needed by your body: Protein and fats. Carbs are and always will be the one that is optional.
If you do not get enough protein and fats you lose muscle. That in turn lowers your BMR. Then you get to eat less food which sucks.
Also, for exercise do you cardio or strength? If you cardio stop. Do strength. If you only have elliptical or treadmill up the incline and resistance and make sure you are working your legs hard. Again, muscle is good. The more muscle the higher your BMR.
Why would you tell her to stop doing cardio? What if she likes it?0 -
Are you SURE though? Your diary is not open, ,so there's no way to tell if you're keeping good records. Be sure you're tracking everything you eat (portion sizes accurate) and try tracking sodium if you aren't already.I believe I am eating better foods now
I used to 'believe' I was eating good before I started tracking everything here too....
Keep in mind that for a lot of people, the MFP 'calories burned' tend to be higher than reality too...so you might want to estimate a little lower.0 -
How hard do you push yourself during your workouts? I don't know your habits, but I remember that I used to go to the gym for an hour, do 30-min of light elliptical plus a few sets on a weight machine, and call it a day. I started really losing weight when I realized that just putting in 40-60min of exercise/day isn't enough. You need to make your workouts count! As a personal trainer friend explained to me: even if you can only exercise for 30min every day, you should work so hard during those 30min that by the time you finish you feel like you ran a marathon. If your clothes aren't completely soaked in sweat 10-min into your workout, kick it up a notch.
I disagree with this statement:
If your clothes aren't completely soaked in sweat 10-min into your workout, kick it up a notch.
I could run 3 hours and never get sweat.
I always thought that more you were sweating, the better it was until I asked my gym trainer.
He told me that it doesn't make a difference at all...it's not how much you are sweating that will let you know how your work-out is efficient...it's more about the pulse rate, feel the pain in your muscles when you are lifting, etc.
Sweat is not an indicator.
There is many theories regarding cardio/lifting...my trainer believes that if your pulse stays around 70% of your maximum heart rate (don't know if it's the proper therminology...in french, it's called frequence cardiaque maximale), then you are more proper to burn fat. When you go above 70%, your more inclined to burn carbohydrate and its coponents. For me, beeing at 70% of my maximum heart rate was about 135 heartbeat per minute...which, for me, equals to walking at a moderate to brisk pace.
It was working well for me since I did cardio (70% of my MHR) for an hour, then 30 minutes of lifting weights, 3 times a week and lost 50 lbs in about 7-8 months...wihtout sweating! 0 -
Yes, add strength training but DO NOT stop doing cardio! It is SO good for your heart and overall health!
Sorry, but telling someone to stop doing cardio is just bad advice....0 -
I noticed you said you drastically cut calories and are exercising. How large of a deficit from calorie restriction and exercise are you creating below your predicted TDEE?0
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.I popped in to read the topic as I don't seem to be losing much weight either... but just wanted to thank whoever posted the "you are not different" link.... read it.. and apparently.... the truth hurts.. but there it is. Made me realize even though I'm eating way better (fresh veg and lean proteins and much less processed stuff)...and AM eating smaller amounts, I AM still guess-timating portions and just putting in the "time" exercising.. not really giving it my all... sigh.. reality bites.. but time to suck it up and actually put the work into doing this (I mean for me, not for the original poster lol). so just wanted to say thanks for sharing the link..0
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You’re going to be able to lose weight once you make small, yet significant changes to your diet. I’ve never believed in “eating whatever you want as long as it’s in the allowed calorie limit”. I think that if you’re going to lose weight, you’re going to have to watch what you eat. Now before you start to think that I’m suggesting you starve yourself, let me explain. An effective weight loss program (http://www.dukandiet.com/Dukan-Coaching/How-It-Works) is balanced and nutritious; one which is low in carbs and high in proteins. Your aim should be to eliminate starchy carbs (found in white bread/rice/pasta and potatoes etc) from your diet and eat instead the RIGHT kind of carbs, found in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Try to get in SOME sort of exercise at least 4 times a week and you will soon see the weight melt right off you.0
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