Seriously frustrated!!!

mamasmaltz3

You need to give more detailed information. Like how many calories a day you are eating, your weight, maybe open your diary so people can see it? If you are truly eating responsibly and exercising reasonably you should be losing weight. A trip to the doc may be in order. They could check your thyroid levels and other blood work to make sure there is not a physical problem. If you were steadily losing weight and now you are not, you may be experiencing a plateau. However, if you have never experienced steady weight loss since the beginning I would go to the doc and ask for some tests to be done. If you have the mobile app for MFP I would show them your food and exercise diary so they can see what you have been doing. Keep you head up and don't give up!

Can I just say I HATE telling people my weight - which is part of this? Yeah, you know my butt is big, you really need my lbs? So anyway....for the sake of actually losing weight, here we go.

Calories: 1420 per MFP and 1 lb weight loss a week
Current Weight: 198
Starting Weight (Before MFP tracking): 212


As for bloodwork/thyroid - I get all that checked every year because my family has a history of crap, and I'm all good in the hood. I'm actually in excellent health blood wise! Let me tell you! On paper I'm awesome!!

I do however have PCOS - which for women can be kinda crappy and make you insulin resistant.

So there ya go. Phew, full disclosure.

Aww, sorry for touching a nerve. I hate to tell people my weight too. I only do on here at times because it is somewhat anonymous. I asked that because someone who is 250 lbs is going to lose weight at a different rate than someone who is 160lbs. Which, based on your picture I would have put you at btw. Back in August I was at 1420 for my calories and the months of June, July and August had slowed to a crawl for me. I was hungry a lot and working out a lot. Even eating back most of my calories still had me hungry. So, I decide to up my calories to 1610, days that I work out I am eating 2000 calories or more. The weight has been falling off. I am shocked at what a difference eating more has done. This is what worked for me. Since August I have been losing about 1.5 lbs a week, give or take. So glad to hear your blood work numbers are good! That can be a bear to try to work through. You are doing a good job. It does sound like you do workout a lot so your body may just need more fuel.

3bambi3

Your diet looks pretty good. However eating a whole container of Ben & Jerrys last Sunday can make your weight maintain for a week. I see a lot ice cream through the month of October. I'm not saying you can't eat ice cream, but it needs to be low cal low sugar like a blue bunny popsicle or weight watcher ice cream sandwich, not full fat out of a tub.

I'd permanent scrap McDonalds and American cheese out of your diet. Are you weighing the grapes? Grapes have a lot of calories and sugar, wanted to make sure you're accurately reporting it.

Do you wear a heart rate monitor when you exercise? Wanted to know how accurate the number you record is.

I strenuously disagree with this. It doesn't matter if you ate a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's. At all. And it certainly won't set your weight loss back by a week. If it fits into your macros and you want to eat it, eat it.

As far as what you're eating, I noticed you don't eat your exercise calories. I'm not going to say it's good or bad, but I will say this: MFP calculates your calorie goal based on sedentary activity, which is why, when you enter exercise, it gives you more calories to eat. Without eating your exercise calories, you are netting under 1000 some days, which really isn't enough for your body to run properly.

Also, you do stronglifts. So do I. It makes me retain water because my muscles are inconstant need of repair. Have you taken a break at all from lifting? Last time I took a week break from lifting to let my body recover, I lost 4lbs. I kept on with my cardio though.

Are you measuring and taking pictures? If not, you should. I got really frustrated not seeing the scale move, then I looked at my photos and, even though I weigh the same and have almost the same measurements, I can see a difference in my body.

Good luck!

darwinforyou

I'd permanent scrap McDonalds and American cheese out of your diet. Are you weighing the grapes? Grapes have a lot of calories and sugar, wanted to make sure you're accurately reporting it.

grapes measured and accounted for. plus they have such great vitamin and anti-oxidant counts....aside from just sugar. Especialy black.

Sigh I also greatly regret my ben and jerry's....even though I worked out so much that day and even with that had a crap load of calories left.

mcdonalds - haven't had that in weeks, oh wait, I did have that one cheat day.

AmberJo1984

If you are wholly dependent on the numbers on the scale, you will always be frustrated because we don't lose weight consistently, it comes and goes in chunks.

That is really great advice; and some I need to pay closer attention to. Unfortunately, I'm obsessed with the scale, as well. I need to start paying attention to everything and not just the numbers.

tracypk

Are you measuring what you eat? Do you know that what you are eating is accurate? Do you also know what you are burning while exercising is accurate? That is where I would start. I have done some research and the number one reason people fail at losing weight is because they are not accurately counting cals in and cals out. The best way to do this is to get a food scale, use measuring cups/spoons, and get a heartrate monitor. Otherwise you won't really know for sure what you're doing is creating a deficit. Good luck you can do this!

Yes, I do measure what I eat - I count or else divide the food so I know exactly what the portion size will be. Also for the calories burned - I tend to undercount, and also leave a deficit in my calories for the day to account for anything that may be incorrect. I'm not a half-assed worker-outer, I get sweaty and push myself and make sure that I'm no wussing out or doing the bare minimum.

As for the heart rate monitor - if money grew on trees I'd buy one in a heartbeat....hahaha....heartbeat. yeah.

Then my best advice is stick with it. As others have said maybe the scale is not your friend right now and other measurements will assist you in seeing your progress. One piece of advice I got was patience. You have to stick with it and it will pay off.

tabbethaclouse

i am right there with you i am 14 lbs down and i weight and measure all my food i havent eaten over 1300 calories and was doing good with weight loss i am buring at least 600 calories a day and then my scale says i gained 6 lbs FRUSTRATING i know its a long long process but i have been doing weight watchers and switched back to my fitness pal (basically the same as weight watchers just dont have to pay 30$ a month) i know im not eating half the calories i was eating with WW and i am not seeing any results. i guess its time to just keep on going idk!!

AmyFett

I don't let it get to me that badly. I KNOW I don't lose weight fast. I hit my 105th day on mfp yesterday, and I'm down about 15 lbs since starting. I get frustrated sometimes, but as long as the scale doesn't go UP, I'm okay with that. If it goes down, great. I REALLY cannot wait to get out of the 200's and I was determined to do it by Halloween and that's not happening. Everyone is different.

jjryan9606

Try cutting out all carbs for 2 weeks. That has jump started me in the past.

Bull2707

Everyone needs to start somewhere!

gatorginger

Have you tried upping your calories by a 100 more a day to see how that helps. It's possible you are not eating enough. I had thought I was at my maintenance level eating 1500 calories a day and I was this way for a couple of months then all of a sudden I started losing again so I had to up my calories to 1700 because I don't need to lose more, so obviously I was at a platau for about 2 months so your either at a platau or your not eating enough.

darwinforyou

You need to give more detailed information. Like how many calories a day you are eating, your weight, maybe open your diary so people can see it? If you are truly eating responsibly and exercising reasonably you should be losing weight. A trip to the doc may be in order. They could check your thyroid levels and other blood work to make sure there is not a physical problem. If you were steadily losing weight and now you are not, you may be experiencing a plateau. However, if you have never experienced steady weight loss since the beginning I would go to the doc and ask for some tests to be done. If you have the mobile app for MFP I would show them your food and exercise diary so they can see what you have been doing. Keep you head up and don't give up!

Can I just say I HATE telling people my weight - which is part of this? Yeah, you know my butt is big, you really need my lbs? So anyway....for the sake of actually losing weight, here we go.

Calories: 1420 per MFP and 1 lb weight loss a week
Current Weight: 198
Starting Weight (Before MFP tracking): 212


As for bloodwork/thyroid - I get all that checked every year because my family has a history of crap, and I'm all good in the hood. I'm actually in excellent health blood wise! Let me tell you! On paper I'm awesome!!

I do however have PCOS - which for women can be kinda crappy and make you insulin resistant.

So there ya go. Phew, full disclosure.

Aww, sorry for touching a nerve. I hate to tell people my weight too. I only do on here at times because it is somewhat anonymous. I asked that because someone who is 250 lbs is going to lose weight at a different rate than someone who is 160lbs. Which, based on your picture I would have put you at btw. Back in August I was at 1420 for my calories and the months of June, July and August had slowed to a crawl for me. I was hungry a lot and working out a lot. Even eating back most of my calories still had me hungry. So, I decide to up my calories to 1610, days that I work out I am eating 2000 calories or more. The weight has been falling off. I am shocked at what a difference eating more has done. This is what worked for me. Since August I have been losing about 1.5 lbs a week, give or take. So glad to hear your blood work numbers are good! That can be a bear to try to work through. You are doing a good job. It does sound like you do workout a lot so your body may just need more fuel.

Dude no neves - we're all good! I just live around 120 lb people who think they need to lose weight. I'm two of them pretty much, so, I hate letting on. Now if we mammals had asexual reproduction - I would totally be at my goal weight by now! I'd be split in two!

Alright so I'm a dork.

Totally awesome that you upped your calories and you're losing even faster!!! I've been reading up on that - what did you start at? I was originally at 1200 and then I was hungry all the time, so I went to the 1420 -

PetulantOne

You need to give more detailed information. Like how many calories a day you are eating, your weight, maybe open your diary so people can see it? If you are truly eating responsibly and exercising reasonably you should be losing weight. A trip to the doc may be in order. They could check your thyroid levels and other blood work to make sure there is not a physical problem. If you were steadily losing weight and now you are not, you may be experiencing a plateau. However, if you have never experienced steady weight loss since the beginning I would go to the doc and ask for some tests to be done. If you have the mobile app for MFP I would show them your food and exercise diary so they can see what you have been doing. Keep you head up and don't give up!

Can I just say I HATE telling people my weight - which is part of this? Yeah, you know my butt is big, you really need my lbs? So anyway....for the sake of actually losing weight, here we go.

Calories: 1420 per MFP and 1 lb weight loss a week
Current Weight: 198
Starting Weight (Before MFP tracking): 212


As for bloodwork/thyroid - I get all that checked every year because my family has a history of crap, and I'm all good in the hood. I'm actually in excellent health blood wise! Let me tell you! On paper I'm awesome!!

I do however have PCOS - which for women can be kinda crappy and make you insulin resistant.

So there ya go. Phew, full disclosure.

Aww, sorry for touching a nerve. I hate to tell people my weight too. I only do on here at times because it is somewhat anonymous. I asked that because someone who is 250 lbs is going to lose weight at a different rate than someone who is 160lbs. Which, based on your picture I would have put you at btw. Back in August I was at 1420 for my calories and the months of June, July and August had slowed to a crawl for me. I was hungry a lot and working out a lot. Even eating back most of my calories still had me hungry. So, I decide to up my calories to 1610, days that I work out I am eating 2000 calories or more. The weight has been falling off. I am shocked at what a difference eating more has done. This is what worked for me. Since August I have been losing about 1.5 lbs a week, give or take. So glad to hear your blood work numbers are good! That can be a bear to try to work through. You are doing a good job. It does sound like you do workout a lot so your body may just need more fuel.

Dude no neves - we're all good! I just live around 120 lb people who think they need to lose weight. I'm two of them pretty much, so, I hate letting on. Now if we mammals had asexual reproduction - I would totally be at my goal weight by now! I'd be split in two!

Alright so I'm a dork.

Totally awesome that you upped your calories and you're losing even faster!!! I've been reading up on that - what did you start at? I was originally at 1200 and then I was hungry all the time, so I went to the 1420 -

I also agree that you probably aren't eating enough. Do you eat your exercise calories back? I'm 5' 3 152lbs as of today. I've lost 20 pounds in about 3 1/2 months, and I've never eaten 1400 or less. I started at 2,000 a day, dropped to about 1,800 and now I'm around 1650 most days. If you have sedentary as your setting and aren't easting exercise calories back, you may be slowing things down. I don't know how PCOS factors into that though. Maybe ask your DR what they think.

recee96

You need to give more detailed information. Like how many calories a day you are eating, your weight, maybe open your diary so people can see it? If you are truly eating responsibly and exercising reasonably you should be losing weight. A trip to the doc may be in order. They could check your thyroid levels and other blood work to make sure there is not a physical problem. If you were steadily losing weight and now you are not, you may be experiencing a plateau. However, if you have never experienced steady weight loss since the beginning I would go to the doc and ask for some tests to be done. If you have the mobile app for MFP I would show them your food and exercise diary so they can see what you have been doing. Keep you head up and don't give up!

Can I just say I HATE telling people my weight - which is part of this? Yeah, you know my butt is big, you really need my lbs? So anyway....for the sake of actually losing weight, here we go.

Calories: 1420 per MFP and 1 lb weight loss a week
Current Weight: 198
Starting Weight (Before MFP tracking): 212


As for bloodwork/thyroid - I get all that checked every year because my family has a history of crap, and I'm all good in the hood. I'm actually in excellent health blood wise! Let me tell you! On paper I'm awesome!!

I do however have PCOS - which for women can be kinda crappy and make you insulin resistant.

So there ya go. Phew, full disclosure.

I understand your frustration. It seems like in the beginning when I joined MFP, I kept gaining and losing the same 5 pounds! But I had to do like others...shock my body.

So instead of doing zumba 2-3x, I changed it to a spinning class (extreme cycling). I also started incorporating some running. First I started on the treadmill, and then I took it outside. Finally, I upped my calories. I'm not sure how tall you are...but I set my calories to my bmr rate. That has seemed to work for me. Now, I will say...that sometimes I eat under my bmr...and other times I will go over (if I've worked out that day). I sometimes eat back some of my exercise calories, and sometimes I don't.

The point is to keep tricking your body. And one last thing...I really had to pay attention to my refined carb intake. I used to eat 100 calorie snack bags, which tends to add up. Now I have replaced it with more protein filled snacks plus fruit and veggies. Feel free to friend me and/or look at my diary. Keep going though...you're making a change!

littlewitch1973

I have stalled for months in the past. It takes time, but the body needs an adjustment.

A lot of people have given good advice here. Take what you want, and leave the rest.

The one thing that stood out for me in your post is about PCOS, and insulin resistence.

You probably know this already, but avoid simple carbs - white bread, rice, pasta... Staches even effect me in my weight loss!! I have had to change up my eating quite a bit to drop weight... alternating back and forth from no carb to low carb, to high carb, and back again. I also take a 2 week workout break every 3 months (when the stalls hit really bad!) and it seems to help my body "reset" and I drop weight again once I start working out again... and also during that "down time".

My diary is open - you can see what I eat - yes, its all accurately measured and calculated. There are some nights I dont log my dinners, but those are usually meats, veggies, and salads, or a starch.

Find what works for you - change it up as you need to. Your body is comfortable with what you are doing, and knows what to expect - if you surprise it, it will take a week or so, but results should come.

Also, measure yourself. Sometimes, I gain 3 pounds to lose 6 inches... weird, but it happens...

Good luck!

darwinforyou

Thanks all - I tried running cause I used to and I really like it, but my knees don't. I've thought of doing the spinning, it's just that my friends do zumba, and I have to say that it's pretty motivating to have friends there and I don't want to give up my weights either. It's sad when you have to schedule in additions cause you work out so much....crazy!

I have to say the response to this is pretty amazing - I've really enjoyed MFP and it's so much more supportive than I could have asked for. So yay - you all rock the casbah.

fit4lifeUcan2

When I hit a wall my RD suggested I cut my calories by 10% and it worked for me. For over a month I didn't lose or gain. Was just stuck. After I reduced my calorie intake by 10% and created a deficit I lost weight again taking off 3 lbs right away then back to my 1 pound per week average. I don't eat back my calories burned from exercise either. Never have.

Espressocycle

Well, there's fat/muscle thing, water retention, constipation, and good ol' plateaus. Zig zagging has been known to kick start things. Although I confess that after a long plateau, I gave up, gained 8 lbs in two months and then returned and lost 12. So that worked, but I don't suggest it.

mmtiernan

I can't do refined carbs either - and ice cream (unfortunately), falls into that category due to all of the sugar! :grumble: I am an ice cream a-holic, but I've begun to use it as a monthly 'reward' and even then, only a small amount!

In all seriousness, when I give in to the refined carbs, it sets me back every time, so I've just learned to say, "No!".

Don't give up your weight training - keeping that muscle keeps your metabolism humming along and the strength and bone density you gain becomes so very important as you age, so keep up the good work!!

Have you thought about trying HIIT workouts just to give yourself a change up? Look up Zuzana Light on YouTube - she posts weekly HIIT routines that last only 15 - 20 minutes, but they will kick your butt!

Throw out your scale!! Have you taken your measurements? Much better guage for your progress and the pictures help a lot, too! Weight fluctuates by the second, I swear. It goes up and down daily depending on water retention, etc. - the scale just is not your friend (fortunately, you have friends here on MFP!)

Hang in there! Your exercise is great, keep you diet as 'clean' as possible and think about changing your cardio workouts up a bit - you'll see results again soon!

honeydee08

Don't get frustrated because you probably are losing inches an don't know it. I had did boot camp for two months and loss alot of inches and no scale weight.The trainer had to make me realize after measurements that inches will get you some results and I can say he was correct because my clothes are loose. Keep u the good work u will and shall see results

lenniebus

So understand the frustration--especially when others seem to lose tons of weight so easily--but I do believe if you are doing all the right things, which you are, your body will work with you (eventually)...it might not be on our timeline, but it will happen. It seems like I will go weeks with no change on the scale, and then one week it's like I catch up...hang in there.