No weight loss the first week. Now what?

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Tiff4378
Tiff4378 Posts: 45 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! In the past, I'd start a diet and lose at least 5 pounds the first week alone. Now that I'm older it's becoming a lot harder to lose weight and I'm feeling discouraged. Although the weight loss is nice my overall goal is just to be healthier and make better food and exercise decisions. I'm a 34 year old female. I'm 5'3" and weigh 152 lbs. My calorie intake last week was 1,000 calories per day and 20 minutes per day on the Elliptical. Yes I plan to increase my cardio time it's just that coming from the couch to the Elliptical I knew in order to keep exercising I had to start with a set of minutes I could accomplish first. Not losing a single pound has discouraged me. Any advice on what I should be doing differently or is it possible to just not lose in the beginning? I'm not used to not losing the first week.

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  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    My calorie intake last week was 1,000 calories per day and 20 minutes per day on the Elliptical.

    Chances are you aren't eating enough. Enter your data into MFP, set it for 1 lb./week loss, enter any calorie burning activity you do, then eat what it tells you to. You can't blame the program if you don't follow it! generally, no one should only be eating so little as 1,000 calories a day, especially when burning a lot of calories via cardio exercises.
  • unlocke
    unlocke Posts: 149
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    Eat.
  • Tiff4378
    Tiff4378 Posts: 45 Member
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    I have it in my head that eating is a bad thing. I've convinced myself that less calories has to be the key to weight loss. Which is true but obviously not eating enough doesn't help either. I'll focus on adding more calories into my daily diet. Thank you.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Just keep at it. I didn't lose anything for more than 3 weeks after I started exercising, but then it started coming off very regularly.
  • shanice_22
    shanice_22 Posts: 202 Member
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    I have it in my head that eating is a bad thing. I've convinced myself that less calories has to be the key to weight loss. Which is true but obviously not eating enough doesn't help either. I'll focus on adding more calories into my daily diet. Thank you.

    Less calories is the key to losing weight, but you need to remember that you're doing 20 mins exercise each day - that's burning extra calories so you need to eat more to compensate. Ideally, you should eat no less than 1200 per day.

    If you set your activity level to sedentary then any exercise you log is extra calories as that's not accounted for in your daily calorie allowance, so it's fine to eat those back, but eating them back is more down to personal preference.
  • Kikilicious84
    Kikilicious84 Posts: 312
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    My calorie intake last week was 1,000 calories per day and 20 minutes per day on the Elliptical.

    Chances are you aren't eating enough. Enter your data into MFP, set it for 1 lb./week loss, enter any calorie burning activity you do, then eat what it tells you to. You can't blame the program if you don't follow it! generally, no one should only be eating so little as 1,000 calories a day, especially when burning a lot of calories via cardio exercises.

    This will give you long term results. Also...try and look at this as a way of life and not a diet. You should start seeing results soon. Good luck!

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