Why won't the scale budge?

yannuzzi

I looked at your diary as well. I believe it's a comibination of everything stated here. The lack of exercise, not being true in your diary (liquid calories and all) and what you're eating. Instead of focusing on getting your sweet fix each day replace those useless calories with fruit and veggies, fiber and other things that will fill you up longer. Keep in mind the more sweets/carbs you eat, the more you'll crave sweets and carbs.

120weeks

I just wanted to throw something out there. You are allowed to customize your caloric goal. Let's say you do customize it to 1700 and do NOT eat back any exertional calories from working at the barn, you "may" lose 1 pound a week since you "should" have a 500 calorie deficit each day (3500 calorie deficit in one week). But that may not show up in exactly 7 days (weigh-in day). Patience is so important. You need to be consistent. Perhaps you need to not weigh yourself for a month. It will be hard but it might help you.

LuckyTerrier

After looking at your diary, I think you really can get down to 1400 calories on your inactive days by focusing on eating healthy calories that will fill you up. Whole fruits and veggies along with nonfat yogurts and other healthy snacks will help you feel more full while eating fewer calories.

Anna800

I'm not particularly worried about sugar as I am not diabetic, and it gets counted into my carbs anyway.

You don't have to be a diabetic to worry about sugar. Consuming lots of sugar = weight gain, or in your case the scale not moving.

MFP sets a sugar limit so if you could see yours in your diary, you would see when you're going over and need to stop with the treats.

Koldnomore

A food scale should be a really high priority - It's amazing how far off you can be just estimating - being off by a couple of ounces on meat is usually ok but things like cheese can be killer. Also don't trust the packages! I have been caught many times by packages that say 1 serving = 1 'bun' (or whatever) = x grams but then weighing the thing you see that it weighs WAY more.

Sodium will kick your azz also...According to the USDA:

No one should consume more than 2,300 milligrams of salt per day. Those who are age 51 and older and those who are African American (almost half of the U.S. population) or have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams per day.

As far as I am concerned I will go based on Canadian guidelines..funny our guidelines are so much lower and yes we measure it the same way. Mines set to 1250. I've been struggling with it the last couple days but overall I manage.

You already know about the 'quick add', don't forget your oil/butter when you cook things, and your water..I didn't see any so I don't know how much you have. Enough water will help with the high sodium.

Don't worry about exercise - you can not workout a bad diet. I don't do any right now and I still lose 1-3 lbs a week. Does not matter even when you can work out if your diet is not under control you will still not lose weight - this is a good time to focus on it . Then when you can work out you will have one piece of the puzzle humming along well already.

When I look at your diary I honestly see a lot of pre-packed, processed food. Possibly work towards eating a little cleaner. Cooking things more and also you may want to customize your goals a little - it looks like you are still on MFP defaults. Many people have success tweaking those a little - eating more protein, less carbs for instance.

I wouldn't recommend you drop your calorie allowance - I think you are already too low for your height/age/weight. You may want to consider reading some of the information in the newbie thread and calculating things on your own instead of going with the generic one size fits all numbers given by MFP.

Best of Luck!

beachlover317

I think since you are mostly sedentary right now without formal exercise, it would be best to take the lowest TDEE number for you. It's a calculation, a guess even, of what you burn in a day. That number is approximately 2264 for you. So, 1700 + unaccounted for liquids (let's say 200 per day) + if you are not measuring you food accurately with a food scale (are you measuring your TBSP of PB and Jam?)+ a few days of overeating = no weight loss.

You need to decrease your cals and be honest with yourself. You need to track everything. I started off with a 100 pounds to lose. You can do it

Thank you! I have never been able to figure out how to calculate my TDEE and BMR, even though I understand what they mean. So, by cracking down on myself and being more honest, even if I stay at 1700, I should start seeing the scale move again?

And yes, TBSP, tsp, cups are all measured. I don't own a food scale so have to guess on things like chicken breasts, but I always overguestimate those and hope to buy a food scale soon.

Here's a link that will help you figure out your BMR & TDEE:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

I would also recommend that you check out this site and really work with your numbers for awhile. I did this about 2 months ago, upped my calories, and continued to lose weight. We started at about the same place. It sounds like you have a physically demanding job and lowering your calories, while it might make you lose weight faster at first, will make you feel like the crap in your barns!

Eating the correct number of cals a day for YOU, will be crucial in you being able to maintain this lifestyle change and not gain all your weight back later. Measuring is also important. Measure your food religiously and then measure yourself. Sometimes we lose inches and those scales just won't budge.

Good luck and I hope this site will help you get a handle on what you need to do to stay healthy. There is also an 'In Place of a Road Map' group on MFP that has people answering questions and a facebook page by the same name "In Place of A Road Map".

mfp_1

I agree with others that say get a food scale.