Help What am I doing wrong

Open your diary. Maybe we can give you ideas if we can actually see what you are doing.

Opening your diary might help i was in the same situation as you for a month or so, but i saw i was taking in too much sodium, foods might of been low in calorie but i was eating too many processed foods, so i changed that up and i have been losing since then, and i also agree some of the foods on here are incorrect, sometimes since i have the mobile app, i will use the bar scanner and it scans the correct nutrional information onto my diary. And i almost forgot i was actually losing inches when i wasnt losing pounds, my cothes were feeling different but i wasnt happy with the scale, and since i had a lot to lose i wanted to see those numbers decrease, they finally are.

I have the same problem! I eat right, staying at or below my calories, plus I exercise and I don't eat the extra calories I supposedly get from exercising!

Don't give up! You're probably swapping fat for muscle. Can we take a peek at your diary?

I had the same problem for quite some time. My advice would be to go to some health clinic that has a bod pod. It measures the amount of body fat you have, and they run resting metabolic testing and give you the exact caloric intake your body needs while not doing anything. I found out that I wasn't losing any weight because I (shockingly!) had a fast metabolism not a slow one so the 800-1200 cal diet was in fact the reason I did not lose weight. Turns out I need to consume at least 1820 calories/day if not working out and more if so to lose the weight. My guess is your not eating correctly and need a plan specific to your body. Good luck!

Do something different than the elliptical to really challenge your body. I recommend Zumba or Turbo Jam DVDs if you can.

Our bodies have an amazing ability to get too accustomed to the routine workouts we do. That can lead to a plateau. You need to mix up your workout (varied intensity, time, activity). I would recommend trying HIIT (high intensity interval training). Also, you should think about weight training.

If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for women over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I am a living breathing example of that. I went from obese to now under 12% BF and I've maintained for one year and built muscle the whole time. You don't BUILD muscle in starvation mode, so I proved everyone wrong.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale though: water retention, digestion, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations

Only you can decide calories, base it on how you feel and what the scale trend is doing, not what anyone here tells you to do. You can always gradually notch your calories up or down by 100 and see how you do. It takes some experimentation to find what works for YOU. What worked for the next person may not work for you just because it did for them. For the most part, if you have fat reserves eating more to lose weight is just plain silly, think about it.


"The Reverse Taper Diet " :

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit
you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is
when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to
as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in
men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

Oddly enough, it seems as though some obese people have an unbelievable amount of fat available as a fuel, but a lower ability to burn that fat, whereas as they get leaner, they have less and less fat available as a fuel, but a greater and greater ability to burn the fat they do have. So at extreme levels of leanness, it is the fat availability that limits a persons ability to lose fat.

I was experiancing the same thing. In my opinion, I have found the amount of calories this website shows being burned during exercising to not be 100% accurate. Also, many times the food that enter is not correct either. I was meeting the goals according to MFP but most likely not in "real life". What I did was low ball my exercise (ie manually enter 100 calories burned for each mile I run instead of the 187 MFP says) and make sure I have a wrapper for all of the foods I have been eating so I can get the nutritional info right from the package. I found a ton of inaccurate info on this site. Hopfully this helps.... Good luck!

^^ this totally agree!

Don't give up...especially since you're *feeling* better!

Instead of only looking at the scale, take measurements and photos to compare with as you progress. I can be the exact same weight but have a completely different figure depending on what I've been eating, what exercise I've been doing etc. There have also been times when I seem not to have lost a thing for weeks then all of a sudden drop a load of lbs in one go.

Make sure you drink enough water, vary your exercise and eat as much unprocessed food as possible to watch the sodium intake. Also make sure the values you're putting in for calroies in and out is correct (use the food packagaing/weigh food/wear a HRM when working out). It makes a big difference!

Just keep going and you'll get there! x

My first thought is that you are gaining muscle.

But also, to touch on what a previous poster said, the calories burned listed on MFP are not always accurate. I would use machines that estimate what you are burning on them and invest in a pedometer that monitors speed, time and how many calories burned. If you have a smart phone, you can even get pedometer apps on your phone that will do this. Just make sure you get one that is rated well and has been proven to be accurate.

I use Pedometer GPS+ on my iPhone and it’s quite accurate. Last night it took me exactly 60 minutes to walk exactly 3.5 miles and the pedometer app recorded my average speed as 3.5 mph. It also calculates how many calories you burn per minute and adjusts for speed.

I use my pedometer amount of calories burned rather than MFP’s. They are often different numbers. Sometimes the pedometer is better, sometimes MFP is better. But better or not, I want the accurate number.

First, open up your diary so we can see what you are eating. That way we can help and suggest other items to eat. Track everything you eat. Also, change up your exercise. Depending on your weightloss goals will determine the exercise you should do. Lots of cardio is always a good start. Your current exercise and food seems to just maintain your weight. You have to change it so that you loose weight.