HELP - Dieting, exercising, and ONE lb lost in 6 weeks

Cara75

I am 212lbs, 5'7, BF% about 37%. TRYING to eat 1600-1800 cals a day. I am working out while using a HRM to calculate cals and heart rate. Burn 500 - 1000 cals each work out 5ish times a week. Past few weeks i have noticed that my heart rate doesnt get quite as high as when i started, and i also catch my wind so much faster... so yes, i am getting into shape, i am stronger and feel better ... BUT, i have lost 1 lb in SIX WEEKS. And i am no where closer to fitting into my summer clothes for my Mexico trip in April =(

i know that being health and active is the most important, and i have decided to make this a life change. But i am starting to get discouraged and frusterated!! i really truely working hard, making good food choices, i would just REALLY like to see some results!

i have researched, googled, asked anyone who would listen... i need help!!!

*logs are open*

cathrynfay

Are you measuring food accurately? Using a digital food scale can help calorie counting be more accurate.

Cara75

i do measure, tho i do not weight, i eye it out... i do have a scale... i will def pull it out and leave it on the counter and start weighing my protein!

TrishaCooper423

I was stuck for weeks last year. I would gain and then go back to what i was before. Make sure you are getting enough water, about 100 oz a day is what i go for. Also, up your veggies! Cut your calories down to about 1300 and see if that helps. Just keep working at it. Fruit and Vegetables will help you get their faster. Along with weighing your food. Keep exercising and take measurements! The scale is not always going to give you the most accurate number on how you feel!

jesz124

You need to measure and weigh everything you eat/drink. Guessing isn't good enough, it's far too easy to get it wrong.

Goosiesnougs

I would not cut my cals to 1300. Your exercising a lot! Maybe 1600 and keep up with the exercising. Use the digital scale and measure yourself. You may be losing inches. Best of luck

cwalker733

I agree ....lots o water it will help you flush. You will do it good luck.

meeper123

Take your measurments i may not have lost a lot of pounds but inches for sure get a food scale it will suprize you

cmeiron

i do measure, tho i do not weight, i eye it out...

I'm willing to bet this is the trouble right here...weigh everything, and get a sense of how much you are ACTUALLY consuming. My guess is that you'll be surprised.
ETA: oh, and no, don't cut your calorie goal

concordancia

Do NOT cut your calories right now: make sure you are being accurate before you make any adjustments!

How are you calculating calories burned?

Mostly, be patient: it will come.

_funrungirl

I took a quick look at the last week of your food diary and there are some days where you don't consume even one veggie and other days you consume a lot. You also seem to eat a lot of processed food. When it comes to, really anything in life, consistency is the key.

Try cutting down on your processed food, especially margarine and salad dressing, and make sure you eat 6-8 servings of veggies a day.

meeper123

Oh also i noticed protien powder real slowed my losses once i started getting my protien from food not powder i noticed a pretty big change

republicofsmurf

Do you switch up your workout regularly? As your body gets used to a given exercise it will need less energy to perform it.

Ed98043

Looking through your food diary I just see a whole lot of inconsistency. Days with under 1,000 calories, lots of blank days (were those high calorie days and that's why you didn't log?) and most recently some pretty high calorie days. I'm the same height and approximate weight as you and I'm doing pretty well staying at around 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day.

Secondly, you really have to get your numbers right. Measure! Also when you're totaling the calories and the exercise burn, check and double check the numbers - both the food calories and exercise calories as shown on MFP are highly suspect because they're user-generated most of the time and the people entering the info aren't exactly disinterested third parties.

Lesa_Sass

Holy not eating enough BAT MAN! OMG dear, you have to eat some of those exercise calories back. So now you have seen that not eating enough does not work for weight loss, add some more food to your diet. You had negative 300 calories yesterday? You are going to run out of energy and give up sooner rather than later.

Stop eating anything diet and throw away that hydroxy crap. Start eating more, real, foods. Incorporate more nuts and olive oil into your diet.

Seriously honey, you need to eat back those exercise cals, especially on 1000 calorie burn days.

Itza85

I'm no expert, and I can tell you by my own experience. You need to cut calories from dinner. I know how it is, since I would usually eat pretty late at night and was use to eating FAST FOOD at 9pm. Even when you workout try not to eat your earned calories and just stick to the usual. watch your carbs as well. Add a bit more veggies and fruits to your diet. I usually have a fruit salad as dinner or I switch it up to a homemade chicken veggie soup, something that of course does not have a lot of calories and that is light at night. This has worked for me, almost a month and have lost 5lbs. Hope it helps Good luck!!

hayleysuel

If you are 212lbs, you should be drinking at least 106oz of water a day (weight divided in half = oz of water per day). Water is sooo important. It's crazy, but the less water you drink, the more water you retain (bloating).

Another thing I would suggest would be to cut your carbs. if your diet is full of carbs, it can be very hard to lose weight. Try keeping your carbs around 60-80 grams for a week and see if you see a difference. If nothing changes after that, try cutting your carbs to 20-60 and see if that helps too.

Other than that, stay positive & keep going!

AmyRhubarb

Honestly - I'd back off on the exercise a bit. And don't log cleaning or food prep - unless you're stripping wallpaper or the like, that sort of thing is just daily life.

Can't really tell what sort of exercise you are doing, other than Workout A and Workout B - what do they consist of? As, just came across bicycling and Insanity....what else? High calorie burns sound good, but can be detrimental in the long run - that's a lot of refueling you need to do to make up for the huge burn. Plus it puts more stress on the body, can cause issues with stress hormones and all kinds of sciency stuff that I've read up on, but am not good at explaining.

I would keep eating well, cut back on the exercise, or at least only log actual exercise so you aren't eating back calories that you shouldn't. Make sure you are taking rest days! Very important! :bigsmile: I often have my best scale losses when I take several days or even a week off from exercise, and just eat well, still to goal. The body rests and repairs the muscles, and the weight somehow magically seems to come off during that time (really it's because of less water retention from hard workouts and that sort of thing!).

And take measurements, as well - the scale doesn't always like to cooperate but the measuring tape doesn't lie.

diannethegeek

Taking a look at your diary and your numbers are all over the place! You have enormous exercise burns some days and tiny ones other days. Your food diary goes from way under goal to way over goal. It's okay to switch up your routine and cycle your calories if that's what you want to do, but it makes it harder to know if what you're doing is working or not. I'd recommend finding a routine and sticking to it for a while.

Some other tips:

Make sure your profile is set up accurately. Are you set to sedentary, active, lightly active? If you're set at active then you likely don't need to eat back your exercise calories and you might be double-dipping.

Make sure your calorie burns are accurate. Are you using a heart rate monitor or MFP's estimates? Some people find MFP overestimates the number of calories they burn.

It looks like you may have been way undereating in the past. How long were you doing Insanity on less than 1200 calories? Your metabolism may be a little slower than normal if you underfed your body for too long.

It also looks like you may be overtraining. Personally, I'd consider dropping any other exercise on your Insanity days.

FitBlackChick

I was stuck for weeks last year. I would gain and then go back to what i was before. Make sure you are getting enough water, about 100 oz a day is what i go for. Also, up your veggies! Cut your calories down to about 1300 and see if that helps. Just keep working at it. Fruit and Vegetables will help you get their faster. Along with weighing your food. Keep exercising and take measurements! The scale is not always going to give you the most accurate number on how you feel!

I wouldn't recommend cutting down your calories to 1300 calories while exercising so much; you could destroy your metabolism and slow down your weight loss even more. On the contrary, with so much exercise you may not be eating enough. Do you know your BMR and TDEE? I IMPLORE you to figure those out so you can know how much you should be eating. Here is a resource for that:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
Also, invest in a kitchen scale. You need to be as accurate as possible when calories counting. But most importantly, be patient You WILL get there

Cara75

WOW... i asked for help and you all totally came thro!! lol

1) i have been making an effort to cosistantly do my food logs... as with all of us, life gets crazy and i wouldnt get it done. Theses arent high cal days, just days i didnt input.

2) i was following the 1200 cal diet... but after not losing and reading up i upped it to about 1650cal per day. I do have some problems consistantly eating enough, so i have added almonds, peanut butter ... whatnot.. noticed on my NONE workout days this was making me go over, specially the fat... so nuts only on workout days.

3) I use a heart rate monitor when ever i work out so i have a better idea of what im burning...

4) I was doing Insanity for a few weeks... but i was bored stupid and just getting thro a workout was making me crazy... bored but EXAUSTED. And i kept reading that higher muscles helps burn ur fat... build muscle. SOOO, i figured id change it up... just started a workout from womens health (man is doin the guy version and seeing CRAZY reults) ...
WORKOUT A
1A - Alt DB chest press on ball weighted - 12 ea side
1B - Swiss Ball jackKnife - 10
1C - Unsupporeded one-arm DB row - weighted - 15 ea arm
- REST 2 MIN
= THREE SETS
2A - Squat Thrusts - 10 -15
2B - Single -leg Dumbbell deadlift 12/leg
2C Jump Lunges - weighted 20 reps
- REST 2 MIN
= THREE SETS

OK then goes on to 3A-3C and 4A - 4C
You get the picture

FitBlackChick

WOW... i asked for help and you all totally came thro!! lol

1) i have been making an effort to cosistantly do my food logs... as with all of us, life gets crazy and i wouldnt get it done. Theses arent high cal days, just days i didnt input.

2) i was following the 1200 cal diet... but after not losing and reading up i upped it to about 1650cal per day. I do have some problems consistantly eating enough, so i have added almonds, peanut butter ... whatnot.. noticed on my NONE workout days this was making me go over, specially the fat... so nuts only on workout days.

3) I use a heart rate monitor when ever i work out so i have a better idea of what im burning...

4) I was doing Insanity for a few weeks... but i was bored stupid and just getting thro a workout was making me crazy... bored but EXAUSTED. And i kept reading that higher muscles helps burn ur fat... build muscle. SOOO, i figured id change it up... just started a workout from womens health (man is doin the guy version and seeing CRAZY reults) ...
WORKOUT A
1A - Alt DB chest press on ball weighted - 12 ea side
1B - Swiss Ball jackKnife - 10
1C - Unsupporeded one-arm DB row - weighted - 15 ea arm
- REST 2 MIN
= THREE SETS
2A - Squat Thrusts - 10 -15
2B - Single -leg Dumbbell deadlift 12/leg
2C Jump Lunges - weighted 20 reps
- REST 2 MIN
= THREE SETS

OK then goes on to 3A-3C and 4A - 4C
You get the picture

With so much exercise, I really think you ought to be eating more. You should consider eating back at least some of your workout calories. Remember, our bodies need a certain number of calories just to do the basics: breathing, blinking, sleeping etc. You need to give your body the fuel it needs to do the extras, including exercise. Don' be afraid of food (something I'm battling myself tbh). I know the idea of eating more is scary especially since typically it is believed that when you want to lose weight, you should eat as little as possible. But exercising gives us the leisure of being able to eat more
Over training might also be a factor here. You might want to incorporate some real rest days into your routine (i.e days when you don't workout at all, or at most go for a leisurely stroll).
What ever the case, weight loss is trial and error. Stick with it and you WILL find what works for you

concordancia

Unless you are eating the same thing every day it is really easy to over eat when we aren't logging.

hilldiggity

i do measure, tho i do not weight, i eye it out... i do have a scale... i will def pull it out and leave it on the counter and start weighing my protein!

Weigh more than your protein. Weigh *everything*.

Cara75

ok i figured out my TDEE - 2654, BMR 1713

So with the workouts, its Monday do workout A, off tue, Wed Workout B, OFF Thur, Fri Workout A, Sat Free day Do what you want for cardio, or do nothing at all... Sunday STRICT REST! Only issue i have is Monday is usually Derby training... easy 1500 cal burn alone.

- also, comment about poss droppin the protein powder... That would be tough for me. Some of my days are INSANE, i know that is no excuse as you all have the same issue... but i have a very difficult time getting it all in. ... maybe a better quality protien powder? Any suggestions?

Cptrob

start weighing all your food and see if that helps. If that doesn't then cut your calories a bit...

Cptrob

also nothing wrong with protein powder. It's a food source... not really a supplement, it's FOOD.

bumblebums

People keep mentioning water, and they are probably right. Have a look here:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

When you change a lot of your habits at once, your metabolism may not react how you expect. Your body will retain water, especially if your sodium intake is high already, and it might opt to metabolize your muscle instead of fat tissue. The first problem will resolve itself with time, but the second will result in weight loss of poor quality.

So in addition to seconding (thirding? whatever) the advice about making sure you are tracking food accurately, let me add these:

1. Weight training is a very effective way to reduce your body's SIZE while maintaining muscle mass.
2. Eat plenty of protein.
3. Figure out how your weight fluctuates over the course of your menstrual cycle and weigh yourself at the same time to compare. Six weeks should have been enough to see small changes, but for some women it can take longer to see any significant results.

concordancia

also nothing wrong with protein powder. It's a food source... not really a supplement, it's FOOD.

What is the dividing line between the two?

Cara75

I really want to thank everyone!! You all pointed out some things i will work on!!

1. reducing my salad dressing, this i already knew... but was despertly trying to ignore... i read a tip somewhere to dip ur fork in it instead of smothering.. ill try that

2) i already drink absurds about of water, but i will make sure this doesnt slip

3) LOG LOG LOG... ive been really working on this but i saw a comment about lil veggies in my logs even tho i feel like a bloody rabbit some day with the amount of veggies i eat.... and i noticed where i didnt log some =/ ... so yes work harder on my logging

4) im a freak about measuring, yet i dont weigh... even tho i have a perfect scale in my kitchen drawer... well it has a new hom on my counter. I will weigh everything!!!

QUESTIONS... now we know my BMR 1713 and my TDEE 2654 ... what does that mean?? Eating over 1800 cals a day!? that will be very tough for me to swollow!

also... do i weigh my meat cooked or raw!?

Cptrob

also nothing wrong with protein powder. It's a food source... not really a supplement, it's FOOD.

What is the dividing line between the two?

i get a bit tired of eating so much chicken, lean turkey etc.. so some meals that meal is a protein shake. I'm not sure of the dividing line...

also.. the above post about water!! yes yes and yes... i went to disneyland on monday and my sodium increase SPIKED! oh baby, i was paying for it the next day.. super bloated, even felt like my pressure was off.. horrible feeling... But i've been flushing it out with loads of water ever since..

Water is your bestfriend