2 Months of nothinggg..getting frustrated!

beez89

Okay... so for two months ive been eating 1500 calories. Netting 1900 or so with my Insanity workouts. I was told by my doctor I should not be eating less then 1500 calories and should eat my exercise calories back. so ive been following her orders. I have been buckling down on losing my weight I gained from pregnancy. My daughter is almost 2 now and i just want to get back to my normal slim self... so its been 2 months now and Ive lost....ready?..... absolutely nothingggg. the same 3-4 pounds falls off then comes back then falls off then comes back.... Im starting to feel like giving up using my fitness pal and just wing eating instead of constantly stressing if im eating to much or little. But im afraid of that back firing on me... I just dont get how two months of following what the doctor said and working my butt off nothinggg is happening.. Am i broken or has this happened to anyone else?

LoraF83

Are you logging your food correctly? Do you weight and measure everything?

Lt_Starbuck

wait what kind of workouts are you talking about?

Are you dividing yourself equally between stretch/flex, cardio and strength or just going balls to the wall with cardio??

MissAnjy

I'm with yah girl. I've been at this for 6 months (including doing p90x) and I've gained 8lbs....while eating 1800 calories a day and working out 6 days a week......doing grueling workouts.

I'm broken too.

Keeta83

Have you taken your measurements? Last year when I was doing some of Jillians videos I didn't really lose any weight but I sure did drop a bunch of inches!!

sarahg148

Play around with your calories. You're doctor COULD be wrong for what works best for you. Try still eating the 1500 cal/day. Still workout and get in your burn, but instead of eating back all of the calories, try eating half and see what happens. Then try NOT eating them back, see what happens. Also, are you using a HRM to see what you are actually burning? You could be overestimating how much you actually burn and UNDERestimating how much you are actually eating.

beez89

Are you logging your food correctly? Do you weight and measure everything?

I am very careful with what I log
even 1 peanut m&m and its on there lol!

Yes and yes...and unfortunately nothing is moving along like it should.

workoutchick

I know how you feel i've lost any weigh. But my clothes have been fitting better. I just want the number to go on the scale. sick of seeing the same number (150) and i'm 5 foot tall ugh. I feeel like giving up I don't want to start over again. I guess I got to be patient.

JenRun1

Have you taken your measurements? Last year when I was doing some of Jillians videos I didn't really lose any weight but I sure did drop a bunch of inches!!

Agreed, take measurements. Any of those high intensity muscle building videos can mess with your head a bit as far as the scale goes. If you are losing inches and clothing fits differently you are doing it right. I did the 30 day shred last year, didn't lose anything but went from a size 8 to a size 6.

beez89

wait what kind of workouts are you talking about?

Are you dividing yourself equally between stretch/flex, cardio and strength or just going balls to the wall with cardio??

All of January I was doing Jillian Michaels burn fat boost metabolism workout dvd. and now Im doing Insanity which i think is a pretty standard cardio and strength and it even mixes some simple yoga moves into it.

vcancel

I agree but give it time when you make an eating change... say two weeks. Try 2 weeks eating 1/2. If that doesn't work, 2 weeks eating all calories back, etc.

Just remember, there is more to this than the scale. How do you feel? Are your clothes fitting better? Maybe the weights are too heavy and you need to use lighter ones. Just don't stop. You are worth the time and effort to see what works for you.

BflSaberfan

Are you noticing any difference in your body at all?? How much do you have to lose?

akjmart2002

You could just wing it. The results may or may not be the same as you are getting right now.

Try that for a month and see how you feel - this is a long term journey, not some race with a countdown.

However, the fact is that producing a consistent weight loss via a caloric deficit does work and has worked for millions of people. If you are consistent and do your best not to over or under estimate things, this process will work for you. If you really feel like you are as honest as possible about your intake and output, then you may consider having your metabolic requirements clinically checked. I felt like my weight loss was stalling out and had my BMR checked, only to find that it was 300 calories lower than any of the equations used by MyFitnessPal - therefore, I was essentially overeating by 300 calories per day. Once I accounted for that discrepancy, my loss picked back up.

The energy in / energy out equation is valid, and you are not broken. There is merely some variable for which you haven't adequately controlled.

kevin3344

Easy one. Calorie intake too high. So what if doc says eat back your exercise cals? You're not losing so it's not working. Try 1,650, or 1,750...play with the numbers until they start to go down. As previously mentioned, eat back some of your exercise cals but not all. Watch sodium and drink water. Be consistent. The scale will start to move over time.

jriehl08

have you taken measurements? I gained almost a 1/2 lb last week but dropped 2.5 inches total doing 30 DS and HASfit cardio insanity 15 min workout.

swishandflick

I only started losing after not eating back all my calories.

Even then if you don't have a ton to lose then unfortunately it just may take you a while. I started with 6 pounds to lose and only lost 2 since January and that's after working out 4 times a week. But when I started seeing results they came fast. The two pounds were gone in the last two weeks (after I stopped eating em all back).

People on the forums really encourage eating lots and lots but you have to decide what's right for you.

beez89

I'm with yah girl. I've been at this for 6 months (including doing p90x) and I've gained 8lbs....while eating 1800 calories a day and working out 6 days a week......doing grueling workouts.

I'm broken too.

Im so glad im not the only one! It makes me so angry those workouts arent easy lol so u work ur butt off and then still look like day 1. Its soooo discouraging! Im also doing it 6 days a week. :frown: So it makes noo sense to me.

target50k

Do not always go by the scale...take your measurements. Also we tend to under estimate our calorie consumption...there could be a difference of 5-10%. So check that out as well. "DON'T CHANGE YOUR GOAL, CHANGE YOUR ACTIONS". Keep trying..your will reach your goal soon and your patience and effort will definitely pay off. Good luck :-)

beez89

Have you taken your measurements? Last year when I was doing some of Jillians videos I didn't really lose any weight but I sure did drop a bunch of inches!!

Yes

youlighter

There are a lot of good questions here and some pretty really good advice (measure). Weight Looks different on everyone (http://sosmash.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/average-woman-weights-154-pounds.jpeg?w=580&h=365) <--150lbs comparison. I personally do not eat back all the calories I burn. I eat about 25-50% of them back. Where are you calories coming from? Can we view your Diary? DO YOU DRINK A LOT of WATER?

Now that we have that out of the way - Would quitting get you to your goal? Life happens and we do not always know what path to travel but history shows that if we quit...we wont get anywhere. Thomas Edison once said " I have never failed, I have only found 10,000 things that didn't work". You just have to find your IT zone and once you have IT...IT's on!

bahhumbug2

I'm so with you on this! I've been gaining/losing the same 4 lbs for about 2 months; but have been very consistently working out. (Not so much being good on the food tracking, since the devil on my shoulder - or in my stomach - said why bother if it's not going to show on the scale???) I was starting to get uber-discouraged! Up until now, I had to just take my pants in to have them refitted, but noticed that they are hanging so strangely I broke down and whent out shopping last friday.
I had to go down another size to find anything that fit!!!!! So, damn the scale - sooner or later it will catch up to us. In the meantime, I feel better and look better and am making much smarter food choices.

ChangingAmanda

That does sound frustrating. Have you calculated your BMR and TDEE? There's a great link with resources: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

I second the suggestion on using a heart rate monitor especially since you're doing circuit training type workouts. MFP calculations on calorie burn is nearly double what my HRM says.

beez89

Play around with your calories. You're doctor COULD be wrong for what works best for you. Try still eating the 1500 cal/day. Still workout and get in your burn, but instead of eating back all of the calories, try eating half and see what happens. Then try NOT eating them back, see what happens. Also, are you using a HRM to see what you are actually burning? You could be overestimating how much you actually burn and UNDERestimating how much you are actually eating.

Thats kinddddd of what i was thinking. Honestly eating 1900 calories is a pain in the butt. I just worry about not listening to her because I also have Hypoglycemia which is low blood sugar and not eating right causes me to crash and then I end up going over on calories anyways because of the giant glass of orange juice. I am using a heart rate monitor I use it to calculate calories and since Insanity can be intense I like to make sure I stay safe.

ChangingAmanda

Another thought, have you had your thyroid levels checked?

phildawson75

Its going to be under estimating food calories which is the most likely reason for not losing. You don't need to exercise at all to lose weight, its all about calories in.

If you take exercise out of the equation for a couple of weeks, and eat what you think is your TDEE is. If you are gaining weight then your TDEE is either too high for your activity level or you're simply under reporting calories eaten.

Once you have this figure where you are neither gaining or losing then take 20% away from it as your goal. As long as you log exactly what you eat then you'll lose weight as your body needs to get the energy from stored fat if you're using more than you're eating.

dmw45

I once did Nutrisystem for 2 mos and didn't lose any weight at all. Don't ask me how but that's what happened. Then I gave up. Because I was hungry. This time around I got a BodyMedia Fit which is a monitor you wear on your arm that is supposed to accurately measure how many calories you are really burning. I've had it for a month and I've been eating 1,000 calories a day less than what I'm burning with some success. Maybe it would work for you too. I got one from Amazon cheaper than on the company's website. I'm mostly just trying not to give up this time!

ldrosophila

Try this little experiment. Weight just once a week and a day or two before you weigh rest. No exercise or strength training. There is supposed to be some inflammation and water retention as muscles are being repaired. I notice on the weeks that I do diet alone my weight loss is much more than the weeks I combine exercise.

If MFP isnt working for you then there isn't anything wrong with looking elsewhere. Talk to your doctor about your frustration too. Make sure you are up to date on all your lab work.

Lt_Starbuck

wait what kind of workouts are you talking about?

Are you dividing yourself equally between stretch/flex, cardio and strength or just going balls to the wall with cardio??

All of January I was doing Jillian Michaels burn fat boost metabolism workout dvd. and now Im doing Insanity which i think is a pretty standard cardio and strength and it even mixes some simple yoga moves into it.

This is pretty cool but I would watch to see how you are doing when you get good at it. Exercise only changes our bodies if we aren't efficient at it. Does that make sense? If you can now handle your workouts physically, then your body has no need to change so you can do them, right?

So if you work on some cardio that you are bad at (with the intention of becoming a lady boss at it) and combine that with one or two days of lifting weights (which you will always be adapting to and changing for - hello Jessica Biel arms) (not strength training, I mean - picking up weights, heavy ones lol -while you are eating at a deficit (so you dont add more muscle mass)) and make sure you are taking one or two full-on active rest days (you can do yoga or pilates or go for a walk, but dont go for big burn or heavy weights).

This balancing out between Weights (Push/Pull - using your body as a machine) and High Intensity Cardio (JM/Insanity, choose your poison!) and two rest days for stretching, flexibility, foam roller, meal planning, workout planning, motivation maintenance!!! - this should definitely get you progressing again.

Also- monitor your food! Dont be eatin a bunch of fried mozzarella sticks and then be like Oh Noes why is there another 2 pounds there? Know what I mean?

:bigsmile:

nursedebra2000

Your doctor is telling you the right way to lose weight and keep it off. The problem is not how much you are eating if you are calculating everything correctly, it may be what you are eating! Processed foods and pre-pakaged items are loaded with sodium and preservatives. If you are not drinking enough water, you will retain massive amounts of fluid, which is weight. If you have hypoglycemia, you need to ensure you eat enough....hang in there and plan your meals in advance to include a protein, carb, and green veggie. Trust me.....I have competed in Bodybuilding and gotten down to 7% bodyfat eating almost 2000 calories a day! I have gained and lost and I have even lost eating 1500 calories a day with no exercise and a sedentary job. You can do it and if you have to take a break from logging in your food, do it! Do not let stress get to you!

tempest501

What about your measurements?

I can't speak for everyone but my weight loss is really slowing down now but my bodyfat is still dropping and my measurements are going in the right direction.

You sound dedicated and trust me when I say this, I totally understand what you are going through but remember in a years time from now you will be transformed it just takes time.

I try my best not to fuss about what the scales say ( I do lapse and worry sometimes though lol).

I noticed when I have been doing insanity my weight can fluctuate as well but I just put this down to water weight and muscles repairing etc.

Do you do any strength training? This really helps more muscle = burn more calories and don't worry about getting bulky as a girl it is not easy to bulk up takes a lot of time it will just help you more toned etc.

nklunk

What kind of foods are you eating???