Please Help Me - I Don't Know What I'm Doing Wrong

CATindeeHAT

So you're saying, you want to hang out, get drunk, and talk theoretical physics?

Lol I would love to! However, first I would like to respectfully disagree with a statement you made on this forum:

Yes lyle mcdonald is educated, but he's frowned apron now. He's inconsistent with what he says. his rapid fat loss plan is BS.

I'm not suggesting that Lyle McDonald is right (that's an entirely different subject), but your reasoning for why he's wrong is horribly flawed.

From what I understand (and correct me if I'm wrong), your argument is that McDonald is 'inconsistent' with what he says, and therefore he is an unreliable source.

The difference between a good scientist and a bad scientist is not whether or not they reach the 'right' conclusion, but rather if they have the ability to shift their paradigm in the midst of learning new information.

It is those scientists who stubbornly stand by their argument in the midst of an overwhelming amount of contradictory evidence, in fear that they may be labeled a 'fool' for changing their mind, that are truly misleading and unreliable (for example the scientists behind the USDA food pyramid that still argue to this day that white grains are 'healthy').

The 'hallmark' of an individual who has the ability to think critically is their ability to change his or her mind under the right circumstances.

No one on the planet knows the uttermost 'objective truth' and if you judge one's worth based on their knowledge of this truth then you are farther from discovering it then they are. We learn, we try and interpret what we've learned, and then apply what we've learned to new information, changing our beliefs if necessary.

Lyle McDonald is not (or should not) be frowned upon for changing his mind. If anything, it suggests that he may be more reliable depending on the circumstances.

wackyfunster

Wow, this thread turned into a trainwreck. Nice to see there are no end of people who have nothing better to do than chime in with BS.

Seriously, just follow the post I put up for 12 weeks and reevaluate then. You'll probably already be at your goal at that point.

The "eating under BMR" thing is crap... listen to your body, and keep your volume low when on extreme calorie restriction. Extreme fatigue is a sign that you either need to reduce volume, increase interval between workouts, and/or increase caloric intake. The BMR numbers that people take as gospel are very rough approximations. Heck, even with a VO2 max calibrated heart rate monitor, women show an error of 12% and a standard deviation of 13% in calorie burn from predicted rate of burn, which means that a "normal" woman can have a CALIBRATED HRM underestimate calorie expenditure by 50%. Do you really think that some magical formula is more accurate? If you are using a formula that doesn't take into account your body fat percentage, you are absolutely getting an inaccurate number (one of my wife's friends had her BMR estimate change by >500 calories when changing to a BF% based formula... she was "eating at her BMR" and not losing weight, surprise surprise).

The best way to determine what your actual caloric requirements are is to TRACK YOUR WEIGHT DAILY and monitor it over time, like the OP did. Keep your weight loss within a healthy range (how much is "healthy" will depend on your body composition), and don't fixate on inaccurate approximations... use REAL data to make your decisions.

surscheler

Try reducing carbs to 20-40 grams a day

MyCornerOnline

This is the first time I have ever dieted in my life, so I am still "listening" to my body.

My entire life I've only eaten 500 to 600 calories a day, but now I'm getting close to 1,000 a day.
I don't notice eating more or less to affect my weight, although everyone recommends eating more.

However, what I have noticed is that when I change up the time of day I eat my food, it makes a difference. Sometimes I eat a bigger lunch, sometimes a bigger dinner, etc. My body seems to start to expect that much at that time of day, then I switch it all up again. I keep saying I am "confusing" my body.

Also, I notice that when I eat more meat/protein, I seem to loose. I've never eaten much protein in my life, so for some reason I haven't figured out yet, the protein seems to help me. This is totally crazy to me to eat a 4 or 5 oz steak and then see a weight loss the next morning.

So what I am suggesting is to look at things that are not on your chart, such as what types of foods you are eating and what time of day you are eating more or less calories.

Do you exercise the same time every day? Switch to different times.

To me, from my observation, change seems to work -- not eating the same all the time.

wackyfunster

I saw your plan, it looks good. I don't know why you'd cut out cardio. I feel cardio is always optional. Calories look good too. I'd like to add, if you get no results for a month with this program, reduce your calories by 10%. I would still recommend calorie cycling. To prevent dieter's edema(stall outs). 1,700 one day 1,100 the other. This will average 1,400 calories a day.

Cut it for a month to avoid overtraining while adapting to new weight routine, and to ensure thyroid function is healthy (extended caloric restriction+excess cardio tends to mess with women's T3 levels). After 1 month it should be fine.

Mdin1029

I agree with those who said chill but also maybe ask your doctor.

mccbabe1

I am at the 5'5" 140 range and trying to get back down to 130lbs-ish. It almost seems like I have to starve myself to loose weight. 1000-1200 calories a day just isn't enough!!! I don't have any advise for you as I am currently going through the same issues, but your not alone.... I know the feeling.

bump!!! u are not eating enough so your body is trippin.. eat more.. what do u weigh?? all things depend.. but basically unless you had gastric bypass or some other surgery for wt loss then you should Never go below 1200.. unless u really wanna jack your metabolism up for good.. i did 1200 cals for my first mo on mfp and i was shaky way hungry and was working out like a psycho just to eat more.. i lost some wt but then after a mo i upped it to 1380 and lost some/faster! and upped again (where its at now) 1480 and im loosing more and faster and i look freakin ton diff.. my profile pic i just posted.. in my baggy red shirt (bagging up was tight like a cami tight) and my jeans were painted on just 3 mo ago at end of july and now there like MC Hammer pants.. LOL take em off w/out unbottoning them..28#'s down 3mo and a grip of inches.. idk my body fat % tho

robin52077

1. Your BMR is not 1200, it is about 1448. Check it here. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
2. Adding your exercise calories to that does not give you your TDEE. You first have to multiply it by the activity factor. Even completely sedentary people get a 1.2, but most people are more like 1.5. So that makes your TDEE 2172 (all numbers are estimates, every human is slightly different and we cannot be put on a chart precisely).
3. A healthy deficit is 20% of TDEE. So you should be aiming for 1737 a day, which can be rounded to 1700, since it's all estimates anyway.

This is your starting point. Eat 1700 a day and lift weights, for a FULL MONTH.
Do NOT step on a scale during that month.
After a full month, judge your progress by what you see in the mirror, how you feel, and how your clothes fit, not by any numbers on a box on the floor, or any numbers some dude at the gym told you while poking you with plastic things...numbers mean nothing.
IF you do not notice ANY positive changes after that whole month, tweak your calorie intake SLIGHTLY by going down to 1600 or so, and try that for at least 3 weeks before making a decision if it has helped or not.

My personal opinion? You ate way too little for way too long, you screwed your metabolism over, and it is going to take some work to fix it. Eating 1200 or less a day again is not going to do you any long term favors. Fix your furnace so it burns properly.

Not sure if you saw this amongst all the other stuff, but this is the best advice I have seen. Good luck to you!

Edited: I quoted the wrong post. hehe... fixed now.

WOW. I must of completely skipped over this one.

I agree, this is excellent advice. Thank you.

Wow, thank you for acknowledging my post finally.
Yes, it IS the best advice here, mostly because I pointed out that you calculated your BMR and TDEE all wrong.

So next time, before you post something like THIS:

If I didn't specifically thank you, or say I was going to take your advice, it's because I felt as if it was bad advice.

So let me go ahead and revise your 'warning':

CAUTION: If you make assumptions about what I'm 'secretly' wanting to hear and cherry-pick my words apart without me actually saying those specific things I will not only call you a troll, but I will also tell you to get your head out of your rear-end and stop twisting people's words for your own pathetic pleasure.

Please try to at least find and read the post I was telling you you were ignoring and/or missing. I posted it twice and it was lost between all the bickering in here. 4 or 5 people quoted it and said it was the best advice here. Yet you still missed it.

I am glad that, even though you now think I am a total B**ch, you know the truth about your BMR and TDEE and how to calculate them properly. I hope it helps you.

Sapphire_Elf

bumping to read later!!

goldenbuni

I might suggest you see a doctor. It could be a thyroid issue. As far as your journaling goes, wow! Commendable and it sure seems you are doing all the right things!

gjulie

oh dear Im 5 ft 2 and 145lbs and I think Im fine! I try to stick to 1500 cals a day some days I do and some days I dont!I workout 5 mornings a week and always take weekends off I eat very little prepackage food steer clear as much as I can from too much fat and sugar,I am fitter tan I was when my first son was born 20 years ago!I know I will never be 125lbs and I dont intend killing myself to try either!
my point is life is to be lived,healthy and happy,dont be too worried about the scales it could be a dangerous obsession!Be greatfull that you have your healt its the greatest thing any of us can have!

gabriellejayde

Everyone is an expert...

I'm sure you must be very frustrated, both with your weight loss (or lack thereof) and with some of the responses of people who aren't hearing you. Your food journal is awesome. Robin52077 did give you some sound advice.

As people have said, and it sounds like you're planning on doing, see a doctor- besides getting your thyroid checked, have your blood checked for vitamin deficiencies (especially vitamin D) and start taking a B complex supplement as well. I was deficient in both and I believe they are helping me lose weight. I'm reading a book about vitamin D right now and it also says that being deficient can keep weight on you. I don't know if it's true, but even if it's not- it's just a vitamin.

Good luck. Let us know how you do.

TheRealDag

WOW.

First of all, I did not gain 5 pounds of fat, so we can just stop above at your first assumption. Being that I am FEMALE, water retention plays an ENORMOUS role in my overall weight.

Second, I would bet close to anything that my data is EXTREMELY close to being accurate based upon the level of effort I put forth every day to weigh out EVERY SINGLE OUNCE that goes into my mouth. On top of that, I use 2 SEPARATE heart rate monitors (alternating between each workout) and each read off nearly the EXACT SAME calorie expenditure range during my workouts.

So to answer your question, in this case I'd have to say that your analytical quality is really low.

I'm sorry to see such an ungrateful reply to my attempt to as best I can offer my opinion about what I honestly suspected might be the problem. The whole point of the exercise was to show that your data didn't seem reliable, and I notice that you arrived at the same conclusion yourself shortly after (whether or not my effort had anything to do with it).

> First of all, I did not gain 5 pounds of fat

That wasn't even the point. As I treid to explain (in my two posts, the first of which showed in detailed the basic calculation done based on the August data), the point was to *sanity check* your data.

I simply compared two months, doing the same simple calculation to see what BMR your data implied, to see if the results were consistent. If they were not, that would offer a strong indication that your data is flawed for whatever reason. Or my calculation is flawed, of course, but despite what you may think the above is *irrelevant* when looking for consistency rather than absolute levels.

We need only assume that the same proportion of the change in body mass came from fat in the two months (which of course is not certain, but I cannot magically pretend to know any more than the data you gave us) it does not make any difference: The result was that as you, according to your data, significantly increased both caloric intake and exercise, your BMR fell to barely over 40% of what it had supposedly been before. In other words, your data implies your basal metabolism was about 2.5 times higher when you ate less and exercised less.

I did in fact point out that your erratic intake (if the data is to be trusted!) of carbs may cause water retention to add a lot of noise in here. In the circumstances, I find it rather disingenious to say that it was water weight and my analysis is poor...

What a waste of cyberspace...