no progress - could it be such a simple thing as water?

fionarama

so I've been very careful and I've done 30 Day shred. Eating pretty low calorie wise as I have a small frame and always need to if I want to lose weight.
I eat under during the week a bit (stick to about 1000 calories net) so I can have 2 glasses of wine on Friday and Sat night and have a cheat meal on Friday night I figure that should even things out.
Have lost such a minimal bit of weight though and my own knowledge of what normally works for me and what doesn't isn't helping. I've done this before why isn't it working?
I know my maintenance is only 1600 calories so I guess there's not a lot of room for mistakes so I am very careful.
So I sent a photo to my husband and he mentioned salt, he feels I have a problem with fluid retention. Its true I look very soft. I don't even have salt in the house though its def not my salt intake.
Could it be water? Could it really be that if I drink loads of water (I admit I'm pretty slack in that department all my fluid intake is tea or coffee) will I start losing.
Going to focus on that this week but wondered if anyone else had any comments. My diary is open too if anyone wants to look. As long as they don't start ranting to me to up my calories because eating more will not help me lose weight.
I think I need to exercise more too do some cardio as well as the gym but thats a tough one right now as I can't get to a gym atm
Must say I haven't made NO progress, am much fitter and have def built some muscle (which might attribute to the no weight loss) but it is a tad frustrating..

yarwell

could it be water ? I doubt it very much. The definition of dehydration is loss of body weight, so if you haven't lost weight you aren't dehydrated. Brits get 70% of their hydration from beverages and the water in food also contributes. There are many days where I don't drink any water other than water present in other things - tea, coffee, wine, beer, pepsi max etc.

If you were to drink a lot you would pee a lot and lose sodium, probably leading to light headedness etc.

Wise men say that you can't gain muscle on a calorie deficit, if they're right and you put on muscle (as opposed to exposing it by losing fat) then maybe you aren't at a deficit.

Not sure how much exercise you're doing, some days you eat over maintenance.

pluckabee

It could be your muscles holding water but it also could be that your weekend wine and cheat meal are slowing your progress. First thing I would do is take away the wine and see if that makes a difference.

welloiledmachine

Hey there. Water is your friend. You should get at least a half gallon a day. I would set your daily calorie consumption to 1200 if you are trying to lose weight. Lifting weights is a must and don't overdo the cardio. 30 minutes to 45 max a day and you really don't need to on weight lifting days. Your macros look great, but you might want to add sodium and sugar to it so you can keep track of those too. I had to cut out alcohol all together in order to make the numbers drop. I don't think one glass of wine would hurt, but it has to fit into your calories for the day. A cheat meal once a week is a must and you should consume more calories on that day, but not a whole lot. That's all I've got to share that might help, but you do have to stick with it for at least 3 weeks. A few days or a week isn't enough. It takes our bodies time to adjust. Good luck.

Disclaimer.....that's what works for me so you might have to tweak it a bit.