WTF? Barely losing weight

I have been losing weight for a long time now, and I just went through a stretch where I went three weeks where I was under my calorie goal every single day. A couple of times, I ate more than my basic goal, but I hit the exercise bike to make up for it so my net available calories was always positive. Three weeks with no apparent progress. Then, over the course of two days... with no change in behavior... lost about 4 pounds. I've lost more than 60 pounds so far, but my weight loss has been exactly like you describe is happening to you the whole way. Periods where I was doing the right thing but not seeing any results. This was eventually followed by progress that was more than expected.

Like ubermensch13 said... Patience is absolutely necessary. If you are doing the right things, you will get the results. You just have to keep going even when your body doesn't seem to be responding, because it will eventually respond. When I've looked over the whole time period (months and months) I'm losing the weight right on schedule. If I look at short time periods of a few weeks, there seems to be little relationship to my eating and what my scale says.

There are a couple of things I've found helpful. One is to keep firmly in mind that my body records everything I eat, so I make sure to put everything into myfitnesspal. If I don't, I'm just cheating myself. Now, especially around the holidays, I eat things I don't know exactly what is in it or how many calories it has. I try to overestimate the food slightly, so that if I'm off, I'm off in the right direction.

The other thing is that exercise, although not necessary absolutely necessary, helps me have the calories available to be able to eat to the point I'm not hungry.

Your diary is closed so can't be sure. Make sure you are watching the sodium in foods and that you are drinking water. You lost 8 pounds by hardly eating anything. Your body is trying to retain your weight continue to eat your calories and try to eat healthy. Good luck.

This is not a race. 1.5lbs is a lot. Make judgements when you haven't made progress for over a month.

Also 1.5lbs IS PROGRESS.

Chill. Its all good.

Also, a beef stew at 193 cals must have been very very healthy and a tiny portion...

Oh my gosh you are going to have people looking at your diary, even if you were at the correct weight (my advice is only open it to your friends)

Will post again soon ok??? but go with my advice cos you will get slated (sadly)

When you get the flu and lose 8lbs, it's mostly due to umm bulk and water weight due to not being able to eat. You'd be surprised how much that 'stuff' weighs. If you have lost weight since then, you have probably put back on weight to make up for the empty stomach, colon, etc. and lost fat after having the flu. Don't worry about it. You're doing fine. Just make sure you eat enough calories, especially if you're exercising.

Also just looked at your diary.

McDonalds...?

Pizza Hut....??

Yep, we were out and my son wanted to eat, so I grabbed a grilled chicken wrap as well.

They don't have anything listed for our pizza place, so I figured PIzza Hut would be a good comparison.

How old is your son? I never take my kids to Mcdonalds, they've never been. I usually get them a jacket potato with tuna to share when we're out.

I'd take measurements if I were you so you can see the loss clearly. I've found that inch loss has been more regular for me than weight loss.

When I first started losing weight, after my 2nd baby was 7 weeks old, I started gymming 5 times a week and eating probably 1200 calories a day, plus looking after a newborn and a just turned 2 year old. After the first month my personal trainer took my measurements and weight. I'd only lost 2lbs, but i'd lost significant inches.

That was 17 months ago and I am 55lbs down now, and lots and lots of inches down!

Please don't stress too much about what you weigh and don't let it derail your efforts!

Oh my gosh you are going to have people looking at your diary, even if you were at the correct weight (my advice is only open it to your friends)

Will post again soon ok??? but go with my advice cos you will get slated (sadly)

If someone is asking for advice then "slating" their food diary can be helpful. I certainly opened mine up when I first started on MFP for criticisms.

Yes, mine is open. I'd rather someone were honest and told me if i were regularly eating something that could hinder my weight loss.

Oh my gosh you are going to have people looking at your diary, even if you were at the correct weight (my advice is only open it to your friends)

Will post again soon ok??? but go with my advice cos you will get slated (sadly)

If someone is asking for advice then "slating" their food diary can be helpful. I certainly opened mine up when I first started on MFP for criticisms.

Then maybe you can be a little more `tactful`


This is a new person asking for help and advice....sometimes it can be helpful to be kind with `words of wisdom and advice1 just saying.


I dont want to get into a war of words, I am only suggesting that support is sometimes needed for people that are just starting out. We were all new here once!

My weight started at just under 200 and I would *estimate* that I was eating around 2000-3000 calories - lots of carbs, white bread, pasta, etc. Basically I would eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

A few weeks ago I had the flu and lost about 8 pounds. I used that as a new jumping point for reducing my calories. In the last week of November and first few days of December I was eating about 1400-1500 calories - with one or two days being under 1200 calories. The first week of December we got sick and my appetite was gone for about 5 days so I ended up losing those 8 pounds.

For the past 2 weeks I've been eating - on average - 1200 calories. I've had a 2 or so days that I've been over by 50-100 calories, and a handful of days where I've been under. The problem is ... in those 2 weeks, I've BARELY lost 1.5 pounds. I'm not eating high fat foods (breakfast usually consists of yogurt and granola, lunch is a salad with chicken breast, and dinner is usually meat and veggies. Snack might be organic salted popcorn or a half cup of frozen yogurt.

MFP set the 1200 calorie goal based on the fact that I'd like to lose 2 pounds a week, have a desk job and generally don't exercise but I do try to get in 20-30 minutes of something a few times a week.

What is going on? How can I fix this. Motivation is a HUGE problem for me ... if I'm hungry and not losing any weight I won't stick with it. I SHOULD be losing quite a bit of weight since I went from eating anything and everything to eating very little. My calorie deficit is anywhere from 500 calories to 1000 calories a day!

A few things strike me
1. You may be underestimating how much you were eating before, you are unlikely to get to 200 pounds eating 2000 calories a day, nor does eating anything and everything usually equate to that little. If you were previousl gaining some of the food you have cut out takes you from overeating to maintainin, the remainder takes you from maintaining to losing
2. You didn't drink much before so may have been dehydrated. The 8 pounds you lost was partly more water weight and possibly muscle, you can't shed that much fat that fast unless you are exercising like a Biggest Loser
3. You should not be hungry nor eating "very little" on 1200 to 1500 calories, if you are you are eating the wrong foods. Fill yourself up on modest portions of protein, fibrous and watery foods with a little healthy fats (avocado, olives, block creamed or dessicated coconut, nuts, seeds, cocoa)
4. Nine servings of low sugar fruits and non starchy vegetables is a HUGE amount of food yet few calories. Moderate your portion sizes of meat and fish to something supplying 25 to 30g protein if you are not already, weigh or measure your salads because just one serving of raw leaves is a MASSIVE plateful, so you may well only be eating two of your nine servings
5. Granola is not a low fat or low calorie food by the UK definition, it's actually calorie dense and many brands contain loads of added sugar and fat - more calories from them than from the oats! - are you measuring your bowl or guessing? Try reducing the portion and/ or filling up on berries and other low sugar fruits and/ or switching to a sugar free wholegrain cereal
6. Maximum of 10% of daily calories should come from fatty/ sugary/ processed foods: probably granola or frozen yoghurt not both. Consider snacking on fruit, veg, nuts and seeds
7. Don't forget oily fish and make sure you get your three servings of reduced fat dairy each day - both of these are critical for health and supply nutrients which help with weight management
8. Don't see enough mineral rich foods (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, cocoa powder, dark green veggies)
9. Consistently losing two pounds of fat a week may be a little ambitious if you are sedentary, unfortunately you don't generally burn many calories in 20 to 30 minutes, and you likely are not even hitting the minimum 10,000 steps each day with that.