Can't lose the weight

LjD1067

I start mfp about 1 month ago. Ya for me! I have been doing everything right so far, eating within my calorie range, exercising 45-60 minutes each day with water zumba or liesure lap swim. I have weighed myself every friday this past month and i have only lost 3 pounds. Why! This is what is so frustrating. In all honesty if someone tells me it is muscle weight i am going to scream because my clothes don't feel any different. I still feel stuffed into them. Sorry for being a downer i just want to know what i am doing wrong or what i need to change to start to see the weight come off! Help anyone!

AmyRhubarb

Slow and steady is good, but I agree that it's frustrating. We want to see results right away, but it's going to take time.

It would be easier to give advice if you could make your diary public so we can see how much you're eating and what types of foods.

Other than that, make sure you are tracking accurately, measuring and weighing food whenever possible. And hang in there!

LjD1067

I think i just got it changed to where you can see my diary.

SGSmallman

I start mfp about 1 month ago. Ya for me! I have been doing everything right so far, eating within my calorie range, exercising 45-60 minutes each day with water zumba or liesure lap swim. I have weighed myself every friday this past month and i have only lost 3 pounds. Why! This is what is so frustrating. In all honesty if someone tells me it is muscle weight i am going to scream because my clothes don't feel any different. I still feel stuffed into them. Sorry for being a downer i just want to know what i am doing wrong or what i need to change to start to see the weight come off! Help anyone!

Ditch the scales or if you have to hold onto them do it once a month.

The amount of training you're doing you are probably building lean mass as you lose fat and as we all know muscle weighs more than fat.

Get your body fat% and lean mass measured including your measurements (hip, waist, neck etc).
It could be a number of things though as our weight can fluctuate by up to 5lbs a day depending on the meal we've eaten or our sodium intake/ water weight.

The sower you lose weight the better! it's a life style change you're not doing this as a temporary change, you can't lose the weight and go back to old habits or run the risk of yo yo dieting.

Be happy and confident that what you're doing is right and if after a few more weeks you're not losing and everything is staying the same then speak to a nutritionist/ your doctor.

Good Luck

LjD1067

It was already on the listing for exercise and because of my current weight i am only guessing that is how. Not sure thought. It is just on the drop down to select.

ATT949

I start mfp about 1 month ago. Ya for me! I have been doing everything right so far, eating within my calorie range, exercising 45-60 minutes each day with water zumba or liesure lap swim. I have weighed myself every friday this past month and i have only lost 3 pounds. Why! This is what is so frustrating. In all honesty if someone tells me it is muscle weight i am going to scream because my clothes don't feel any different. I still feel stuffed into them. Sorry for being a downer i just want to know what i am doing wrong or what i need to change to start to see the weight come off! Help anyone!

If you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you take in (for a prolonged period of time).

If you're "doing everything right so far, eating within my calorie range, exercising 45-60 minutes each day with water zumba or liesure lap swim. I have weighed myself every friday this past month and i have only lost 3 pounds." what that means is that your calorie deficit was large enough so that you lost about a pound a week.

That's it. It really is simple but we (our species and especially we Americans) want to make it more mysterious and more complex. Part of it is because there are a couple of multibillion dollar industries doing things to make it more complex but, when you really get down to it, if you eat less and exercise more, you will lose weight.

Check out this thread:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/948694-i-found-this-interesting-actual-calorie-counts

My little contribution:
"Thank you for posting that link.

It's nice for folks to see how calories are MEASURED and will understand that there's little connection between MEASURING calories in a calorimeter vs using a formula or an exercise machine ESTIMATE calories.

The pages of MFP are littered with folks who are "stuck on a plateau", sure that they're "eating no more than XX calories" and they want to know how they can stop their body from "hanging on to calories". Perhaps, with information provided by clips like this, folks will accept that they're not special snowflakes who have discovered perpetual motions and will accept that to lose wright [sic] they need to eat less and exercise more."

Losing weight is simple but it's not easy for a lot of people.

Schmoozy07

So I consume 1200 calories I need to burn 1300? What would I survive on and how many hours a day would you have to work out to burn that many? I fit in about an hour a day and there really isn't more time than that. Just asking because that is what I have always beleived burn more calories but now that I am actually tracking what I am eating and exercising it's a different story, Thanks!

cindyjoesousa

A pound a week is normal..the more slowly you take it off, the longer it stays off..provided you have a maintenance plan once you get to your goal..be patient..the weight didn't pile on overnight..it won't come off overnight either..make sure you have your settings right and keep doing what you're doing..

paintlisapurple

You lost 3 pounds in a month!!!!! Be patient. Keep moving and eating right. Its the best thing that you can do for yourself. Too much of a loss too quickly could be dangerous. Be happy!

Francl27

What setting are you on? Lose 1 lb a month? Are you eating back your exercise calories? Do you know exactly how many calories you are burning? Are you actually measuring your food? All these things can make a big difference. It's very easy to misdjudge 500 calories if you don't cook a lot from scratch, for example.