Doing everything "right" so why no results?

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I have logged my food for 11 straight days, not missing one thing, measuring everything and drinking my water. I am a lifetime Weight watchers member but WW stopped working for me a while back, so I am actually tracking on their site AND this one. I eat fruit with every meal and get all my servings of vegetables and am always in the black with my numbers on this site. Only once have I gone over the 1200 calories allotted and that was not by much and I'm usually wit in 200 calories of the goal number. I walk for an hour 3 days a week and do aerobic classes (Zumba) for an hour 2 days a week. I eat some extra calories on the days I exercise but not all of them. I have lost only 1 lb. I am extremely frustrated. Any suggestions?
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  • purpleipod
    purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
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    So basically you're only netting 1000 calories a day?

    Edit: That's the way you made it sound but I looked over your diary and you seem to be netting more than that. You've got 14 pounds to lose, it's going to come off slowly. I don't think 1 pound in 11 days is that poor given the amount of weight you have to lose.
  • Royalsbatwench
    Royalsbatwench Posts: 117 Member
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    You're eating too few calories.
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
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    11 days is not very long, though I know it seems an eternity when starting out. It takes time for our bodies to adjust and show losses. You are still 1 pound lighter than you were before and you will soon be another pound lighter. And then another. And so on and so forth. Patience and endurance.
  • foleyshirley
    foleyshirley Posts: 1,043 Member
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  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Also read this article (just posted the link in another thread, but it applies here as well):

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
  • beccarockslife
    beccarockslife Posts: 816 Member
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    start tracking your sodium too. Looking at what you eat I'm guessing it'll be high and that will effect your loss.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    I have logged my food for 11 straight days, not missing one thing, measuring everything and drinking my water. I am a lifetime Weight watchers member but WW stopped working for me a while back, so I am actually tracking on their site AND this one. I eat fruit with every meal and get all my servings of vegetables and am always in the black with my numbers on this site. Only once have I gone over the 1200 calories allotted and that was not by much and I'm usually wit in 200 calories of the goal number. I walk for an hour 3 days a week and do aerobic classes (Zumba) for an hour 2 days a week. I eat some extra calories on the days I exercise but not all of them. I have lost only 1 lb. I am extremely frustrated. Any suggestions?

    With 14lbs to lose, 1lb loss in 11 days isn't too far off.

    I wouldn't call that "no results". I would adjust your expectations.
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
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    I have logged my food for 11 straight days, not missing one thing, measuring everything and drinking my water. I am a lifetime Weight watchers member but WW stopped working for me a while back, so I am actually tracking on their site AND this one. I eat fruit with every meal and get all my servings of vegetables and am always in the black with my numbers on this site. Only once have I gone over the 1200 calories allotted and that was not by much and I'm usually wit in 200 calories of the goal number. I walk for an hour 3 days a week and do aerobic classes (Zumba) for an hour 2 days a week. I eat some extra calories on the days I exercise but not all of them. I have lost only 1 lb. I am extremely frustrated. Any suggestions?

    With 14lbs to lose, 1lb loss in 11 days isn't too far off.

    I wouldn't call that "no results". I would adjust your expectations.

    yep
  • petitenpudgie66
    petitenpudgie66 Posts: 5 Member
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    I ate way more than my allotted calories today; will go back to being more on track tomorrow. I am in this for the long haul and know results don't happen in a day or a week. I will try eating all my calories and all my exercise calories this week and see if that give me any progress. Thanks.
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
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    When you get this close to your goal weight, you have to eat at a much smaller deficit. I've been shooting for a 5-10% deficit since my last plateau.

    Also, you have your carbs set way too high for the percentage of weight you'd like to lose. I recommend increasing fats a bit and decreasing carbs. Also, shoot for at least 30% of daily calories as protein. You body will utilize the protein to protect your lean body mass.

    Try to keep your carbs limited to fruits and vegetables, including beans. Eliminate bread, sugar, cereal and other grain based foods as much as possible.

    See if that doesn't make a difference for you.
  • shlevon
    shlevon Posts: 30 Member
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    I have logged my food for 11 straight days, not missing one thing, measuring everything and drinking my water. I am a lifetime Weight watchers member but WW stopped working for me a while back, so I am actually tracking on their site AND this one. I eat fruit with every meal and get all my servings of vegetables and am always in the black with my numbers on this site. Only once have I gone over the 1200 calories allotted and that was not by much and I'm usually wit in 200 calories of the goal number. I walk for an hour 3 days a week and do aerobic classes (Zumba) for an hour 2 days a week. I eat some extra calories on the days I exercise but not all of them. I have lost only 1 lb. I am extremely frustrated. Any suggestions?

    I'm looking at your totals for the day...

    1,608 kcals, 211 grams of carbohydrate, 61 grams of fat, 59 grams of protein. You're also not weight training. Imo, your results are fairly typical with this sort of approach, which is relatively high carb, relatively low fat, and relatively low protein. I.e. you will be able to maintain a reasonably healthy weight, but may not be able to get quite as lean as you want.

    My personal opinion on something that would almost certainly create a pretty strong effect would be to keep the calories about the same, but to restructure your diet so you get similar levels of protein and carbohydrate. This, of course, is not the only plausible approach that would work, but it is a good one. They don't have to be exact, of course, but a split that's something like 40/40/20 carbs/protein/fat or even 40/30/30 carbs/protein/fat would probably work pretty well. Note that you can set up these ratios in mfp pretty easily under custom settings.

    Since both carbs and protein are ~4kcals per gram, using your totals above, this would mean ~135 grams of carbs, ~135 grams of protein, and ~60 grams of fat per day (just an example, these numbers don't need to be exact). The downside to this suggestion is that it might require fundamentally changing the pattern for how you're eating. I.e. you're going to have to eat significantly more protein per meal, and a bit less in carbs. The practical way to do this will probably require changing your food sources, i.e. you will be eating a lot more lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and non-sugary/refined things.

    In addition to the above, I'd have you lift weights ~2-3 times weekly, focusing on progressive, compound type movements (squats variations, bench variations, pullup/pulldown variations, overhead press variations, row variations, deadlift variations). This would mean increases in working weights over time in the context of good form.

    This combination, a relatively even split of protein/carbs and adding in a bit of resistance training, would almost certainly have a pretty strong impact on your body composition, in my humble opinion. I will reiterate this is not the only way to accomplish this, but it is, in both my experience and opinion, a good one.
  • Hinxx
    Hinxx Posts: 93 Member
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    I also read your diary and I saw that you consume a lot of sugar, especially in your snacks. Sugar is one of the worst enemies for the body. Try to get if from natural sources like fruit. Also, read the dark chocolate labels because, more often than not, they contain a lot of sugar. Carbs also covert into sugar, so watch out for that too.Try lowering your carb intake and try eating more fresh foods, if possible. Hope that helps! Good luck! :)
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    I ate way more than my allotted calories today; will go back to being more on track tomorrow. I am in this for the long haul and know results don't happen in a day or a week. I will try eating all my calories and all my exercise calories this week and see if that give me any progress. Thanks.

    Go back over your own diary and count portions and look at your macro splits, sorry but you are fooling yourself that you are doing everything right. I don't see all this fruit and veg, you should be having seven to nine full servings a day in the full rainbow of colours skewed towards veggies, I don't think you are even making five. There is an absolute ton of processed/ refined/ sugary/ junk food, that should be maximum 10% of daily calories.You are also missing out on dairy products, oily fish, protein, healthy fats, mineral and fibre rich foods.

    For example on Wednesday you had less than a fifth of the recommended fat and about half the recommended protein, yet you hit your carbs and every meal or snack was laced with sugar. FIVE different chocolate flavoured things in a single day plus fruit, sweetened yoghurt, sweetened cereal. Not sure if you normally have a massive sugar habit or that is because you are undereating and need the energy, but try to make your meals real wholefoods that look exactly like they come off the animal or plant and savoury only.
  • bronnyd
    bronnyd Posts: 278 Member
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    I have logged my food for 11 straight days, not missing one thing, measuring everything and drinking my water. I am a lifetime Weight watchers member but WW stopped working for me a while back, so I am actually tracking on their site AND this one. I eat fruit with every meal and get all my servings of vegetables and am always in the black with my numbers on this site. Only once have I gone over the 1200 calories allotted and that was not by much and I'm usually wit in 200 calories of the goal number. I walk for an hour 3 days a week and do aerobic classes (Zumba) for an hour 2 days a week. I eat some extra calories on the days I exercise but not all of them. I have lost only 1 lb. I am extremely frustrated. Any suggestions?

    With 14lbs to lose, 1lb loss in 11 days isn't too far off.

    I wouldn't call that "no results". I would adjust your expectations.

    yep

    double yep.
  • anifani4
    anifani4 Posts: 457 Member
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    I ate way more than my allotted calories today; will go back to being more on track tomorrow. I am in this for the long haul and know results don't happen in a day or a week. I will try eating all my calories and all my exercise calories this week and see if that give me any progress. Thanks.

    Go back over your own diary and count portions and look at your macro splits, sorry but you are fooling yourself that you are doing everything right. I don't see all this fruit and veg, you should be having seven to nine full servings a day in the full rainbow of colours skewed towards veggies, I don't think you are even making five. There is an absolute ton of processed/ refined/ sugary/ junk food, that should be maximum 10% of daily calories.You are also missing out on dairy products, oily fish, protein, healthy fats, mineral and fibre rich foods.

    For example on Wednesday you had less than a fifth of the recommended fat and about half the recommended protein, yet you hit your carbs and every meal or snack was laced with sugar. FIVE different chocolate flavoured things in a single day plus fruit, sweetened yoghurt, sweetened cereal. Not sure if you normally have a massive sugar habit or that is because you are undereating and need the energy, but try to make your meals real wholefoods that look exactly like they come off the animal or plant and savoury only.


    I looked at your diary and would say this ^^^^^^^ also. And be patient with yourself as you find your way.
  • cruzcrzyMarie
    cruzcrzyMarie Posts: 251 Member
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    You may want to consider also tracking sugar and sodium. I do, and it is very helpful.



    Marie
  • srcardinal10
    srcardinal10 Posts: 387 Member
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    My suggestion would be to add different/more cardio activities, more frequently, and some weight lifting 3 times a week.
  • stonel94
    stonel94 Posts: 550 Member
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    You need to eat more, if your amount is 1200 you need to eat all 1200 and eat back exercise. Check your BMR and your TDEE you should eat NET above your BMR (unless you are literally sitting and not moving all day long) and about 20% under your TDEE you've hit your plataue and usually the best thing to do is counterintuitive and eat more calories so you rev up your metabolism more.
    Also maybe try adding more or different exercise and strength if you don't have that
  • LisaDunn01
    LisaDunn01 Posts: 173 Member
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    In addition to the advice of "eat more" calories, I'd also "eat less" bad carbohydrates such as breads, pastas, grains, etc. Eat more whole foods such as proteins, good fats, fruits and vegetables. Try to get your daily carbohydrate total down under 100, and make those carbs come from fruits and veggies.
  • ramsfan84
    ramsfan84 Posts: 68 Member
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    bump