Maintaining calorie goal but still not loosing?!!!

Julia_Schmitt
Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
in Health and Weight Loss
people i am a bit frustrated...yes i do have a cheat day here and there, but overall i keep my calorie goals (including exercise 3-5 times a week) and i still dont see any progress...it is frustrating.
WHY IS THAT???
can anybody help? Obviously i am doing something wrong but i am not sure what it is.
Has anybody similiar experiences???

Thanks for all comments :)
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Replies

  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    If you would allow us to see your diary, we could give more informed opinions.
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
    How often do you have cheat days exactly?
    And what exercise are you doing, how many minutes, etc?
    How long have you not been losing for?
  • sunlover89
    sunlover89 Posts: 436 Member
    I have had a similar experience.

    Not eating enough NET calories put me in a 3 week plateau. It is extremely vital that you consume at least 1200 calories a day - I was doing this and exercising 600 off, so my weight loss/fat loss stalled. Only when I started consuming 1400 net calories a did the fat start coming off again. e.g. If I burnt 600 calories, I'd eat 2000 calories. Eating more was a scary prospect, but it really did work.
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    What are your macros? BTW...your really pretty!
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    how do i do that?
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    thank you Minni :)

    what are ''macros'' ? Sorry, i am not an english native speaker so i might not be familiar with some of the terms :)

    How do i let ppl see my diary?

    I work out 3-5 times a week. I usually do 1 hour of intense cardio and then weights (full body, but i like ot avoid my arms and back ,lol). On days that i dont do weights, i do cardio instead. On an average i burn 600- 1.000 calories each time i work out. I DO eat those calories back, no worries,lol.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
    thank you Minni :)

    what are ''macros'' ? Sorry, i am not an english native speaker so i might not be familiar with some of the terms :)

    How do i let ppl see my diary?

    I work out 3-5 times a week. I usually do 1 hour of intense cardio and then weights (full body, but i like ot avoid my arms and back ,lol). On days that i dont do weights, i do cardio instead. On an average i burn 600- 1.000 calories each time i work out. I DO eat those calories back, no worries,lol.

    ** sorry, replied to wrong post ***
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    i cann ot say for sure how many cheat days i have.
    Its more around my period, i definetely eat over my calorie goal and here i tend to avoid logging my calories because i would be ashamed i guess...maybe thats one thing i gotta change! Logging it no matter what....

    I am allowed to eat 1.200 calories a day, on cheat days i would say i eat 2.000 calories a day. Those days are approx. twice a week.
  • The1iceQueen
    The1iceQueen Posts: 119
    Sometimes people see inches go away before they see the scale move. It is frustrating to see the scale not move, but keep up the hard work, it will pay off. You may have to do some adjustments with your calories a bit if you're seeing no results at all in inches or weight.
  • plantman1980
    plantman1980 Posts: 2
    there are tons of factors that could be involved here:

    Your two cheat days could be wiping out your calorie loss during the week so you maintain your weight.

    You do a lot of exercise so you will be gaining a lot of muscle weight which will hide your weight loss

    What food are you eating? you may be eating the right calories but eating fatty, sugary foods that aid in weight gain.

    Also take a measurement of your body, you may find your losing inches whist gaining muscle.
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    thanks a lot for all the comments.

    to answer how i claculated my calories:

    I did put in that i workout 5 times a week, burning off approx. 5.000 calories, trying to lose 1.5 pounds a week. That gave me the result of 1.200 calories a day.

    I do see changes in how my legs and *kitten* are shaping. I think i need to really start measuring my body parts. I thought this was not important, but i guess i was wrong.

    Any other suggestions or experiences?
    I just firgured out how to let ppl see my diary.

    Thanks for all comments, im pretty new to this and am grateful for any sincere criticism!
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    there are tons of factors that could be involved here:

    Your two cheat days could be wiping out your calorie loss during the week so you maintain your weight.

    You do a lot of exercise so you will be gaining a lot of muscle weight which will hide your weight loss

    What food are you eating? you may be eating the right calories but eating fatty, sugary foods that aid in weight gain.

    Also take a measurement of your body, you may find your losing inches whist gaining muscle.

    yeah my cheat dasy might be the problem. I guess im going over board with them when i have them.
    I dont eat lots of fatty food, no meat at all. I do have a craving for chocolate bars and something sweet everytime after a meal. I admit that ! :)
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    how do i do that?

    home <-- settings <-- diary settings <-- public



    There is a significant chance that your are just putting on water weight. So if you eat 1200 calories 5 days a week and 2000 calories 2 days a week, that is 10,000 calories over the week or around 1428 calories a day. That may not be enough for you. With only 20 lbs to lose, you should only be aiming for 1 lb per week. If you want to post your height and weight we can run some numbers.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    there are tons of factors that could be involved here:

    Your two cheat days could be wiping out your calorie loss during the week so you maintain your weight.

    You do a lot of exercise so you will be gaining a lot of muscle weight which will hide your weight loss

    What food are you eating? you may be eating the right calories but eating fatty, sugary foods that aid in weight gain.

    Also take a measurement of your body, you may find your losing inches whist gaining muscle.

    Her average intake is a little over 1400 calories, so I doubt her cheat days are hurting her as long as she is logging everything correctly. And there is NO way that she is gaining muscle. It takes a progressive weight training program and a calorie surplus to gain new lean body mass and at best a woman can gain 1/2 lb per new muscle a week. And on top of that, you can not offset fat loss with muscle gain. One is a catabolic state and the other is an anabolic state. With muscle growth, you have new fat.
  • plantman1980
    plantman1980 Posts: 2
    Also your doing 1hr of intense workout up to 5x per week, you will definitely gain muscle weight, and you will find that your body needs more calories than you think.
    I had to increase my calorie intake by 400 to start losing weight again as i was at the gym 4x per week.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    Also your doing 1hr of intense workout up to 5x per week, you will definitely gain muscle weight, and you will find that your body needs more calories than you think.
    I had to increase my calorie intake by 400 to start losing weight again as i was at the gym 4x per week.

    Again, there is NO chance of gaining muscle. Especially since she does a lot of cardio which burns a ton of calories, which means her TDEE is probably well over 2000 calories. Your second sentence is correct but it's probably due to the fact, that you regulated your hormones and your body released the water weight that it stores to protect the body.
  • CarmenSRT
    CarmenSRT Posts: 843 Member
    The My Fitness Pal figures for how many calories your given exercise burns are significantly overestimated. If you are eating all of them back based on those figures you may well be wiping out a calorie deficit.

    Early on I thought the figures for calories burned were too high, so I only ate back about half of my exercise calories. In December I bought a BodyBuggSP - a calorie monitor. It uses sweat and temperature and a couple of other factors to calculate how many calories the wearer burns. As I had suspected, the My Fitness Pal exercise calories burned were much too high. In reality I was only burning about half as many as they said.

    I'd suggest:
    1) Do NOT estimate amounts of food eaten. Weigh everything.
    2) Log everything, including your cheat days. Even "little tastes" add up.
    3) Eat back half of your exercise calories, not all of them.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
    Its most likely your routine.
    Resistance training is a must and if you arent pushing for new PRs every week then you probably arent working hard enough.
    If you just do cardio then youve probably adjusted to the routine and you wont challenge your body to adapt.
    Lift heavy and see the results.
    The fat will come down.
  • Unknown
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  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    how do i do that?

    home <-- settings <-- diary settings <-- public



    There is a significant chance that your are just putting on water weight. So if you eat 1200 calories 5 days a week and 2000 calories 2 days a week, that is 10,000 calories over the week or around 1428 calories a day. That may not be enough for you. With only 20 lbs to lose, you should only be aiming for 1 lb per week. If you want to post your height and weight we can run some numbers.

    thanks for all your thoughts.
    Its crazy that you mention water weight. I always had water storage, but lately i feel even more ''watery''. My stomach and legs (what i work out most) look sloppy and watery, although i do so much to it! Why is that ? What am i doing wrong? Can you explain to me please?

    I am 5'2 and weigh 160 pounds (today).
    I do have a thyroid underfunction, ive started treating it about 6 months ago. I hope that the treatement will help the weight loss too.
    Oh, and i DO have a calorie and heart rate reader/watch, so the calories burnt off with each exercise are definetely correct. ( i am not using MFP to find out how many calories i burnt because i noticed it is NOT exact)
  • Erika44095
    Erika44095 Posts: 9 Member
    If you haven't already started doing it, I highly recommend starting to take your measurements on a regular basis. If you have strength training as part of your workout program (even a bootcamp class or anything that will help build muscle) the scale may stop moving like you want it to because you are gaining muscle while losing fat so it's wash. But measurements will help you see that you are still getting smaller even though the scale isn't moving.
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    If you haven't already started doing it, I highly recommend starting to take your measurements on a regular basis. If you have strength training as part of your workout program (even a bootcamp class or anything that will help build muscle) the scale may stop moving like you want it to because you are gaining muscle while losing fat so it's wash. But measurements will help you see that you are still getting smaller even though the scale isn't moving.

    that makes a lot of sense.
    Thank you.
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    Why are you not working your arms and back? Is there a medical or physical reason?

    no, i just hate doing it....i guess cuz its my weak spot.
    But my husband pushed me to do it, and i do it now about 2-3 times a week.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
    Its not about how much you burn.
    Its about how good the routine is.
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    You feel bloated and watery because your having too many carbs.

    Drop the carbs, sugars and salty foods and youll do great. Sending you a PM with more info.

    Zara x
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    Its not about how much you burn.
    Its about how good the routine is.

    what is a ''good'' routine?
    what would you suggest for a exercise routine for 5 days a week?
  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    There is a lot of disagreement between people on the best way to both lose weight and gain muscle mostly on what calorie deficits help or hurt those goals. Most people seem to be leaning towards the balance point of not being too aggressive and trying to lose a lb or more a week and still be building muscle. Maybe you should try adjusting your weight loss goal down to 1 lb per week instead of 1.5 and see if that makes a difference.

    It's also possible that either your calorie counting methods or your metabolism rate or both are not as accurate as you think so the math is just not reflecting reality. People have different metabolisms and accurately counting calories outside of a lab is never exact.
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    There is a lot of disagreement between people on the best way to both lose weight and gain muscle mostly on what calorie deficits help or hurt those goals. Most people seem to be leaning towards the balance point of not being too aggressive and trying to lose a lb or more a week and still be building muscle. Maybe you should try adjusting your weight loss goal down to 1 lb per week instead of 1.5 and see if that makes a difference.

    It's also possible that either your calorie counting methods or your metabolism rate or both are not as accurate as you think so the math is just not reflecting reality. People have different metabolisms and accurately counting calories outside of a lab is never exact.

    makes sense too.
    How do i accurately find out my metabolism rate? i already have a calorie watch
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
    i cann ot say for sure how many cheat days i have.
    Its more around my period, i definetely eat over my calorie goal and here i tend to avoid logging my calories because i would be ashamed i guess...maybe thats one thing i gotta change! Logging it no matter what....

    I am allowed to eat 1.200 calories a day, on cheat days i would say i eat 2.000 calories a day. Those days are approx. twice a week.

    You MUST log even if you go over or have cheat days because that's probably where your problem lies. You can have cheat days whilst still controlling what you eat and this is done by logging the food. Then when you review you can see if you are really going a little too crazy on cheat days and need to reign it in a little. You don't have to stop cheat days but you should monitor and control them to an extent in order to change your lifestyle and see if this is really working.
    And you say around your period but that could be 7 whole days out of the month, which is a lot to significantly go over your calories for the day.
  • Julia_Schmitt
    Julia_Schmitt Posts: 21
    i cann ot say for sure how many cheat days i have.
    Its more around my period, i definetely eat over my calorie goal and here i tend to avoid logging my calories because i would be ashamed i guess...maybe thats one thing i gotta change! Logging it no matter what....

    I am allowed to eat 1.200 calories a day, on cheat days i would say i eat 2.000 calories a day. Those days are approx. twice a week.

    You MUST log even if you go over or have cheat days because that's probably where your problem lies. You can have cheat days whilst still controlling what you eat and this is done by logging the food. Then when you review you can see if you are really going a little too crazy on cheat days and need to reign it in a little. You don't have to stop cheat days but you should monitor and control them to an extent in order to change your lifestyle and see if this is really working.
    And you say around your period but that could be 7 whole days out of the month, which is a lot to significantly go over your calories for the day.

    you are absolutely right,..
    i have to do that.
    an yes , 7 days are a lot of days....:(

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