Could these pics be the reason I'm not losing??

justinegrey · February 2013

Hi there!

I lost 10 pounds easily within 4 weeks of starting MFP.... and I lost 4% body fat as well. I set myself to 1400 calories a day (net) and usually burn an average of 3500 calories a week in exercise. I feel like i'm kicking butt.

But I'm in a competition at my work for body fat% and after my first weigh-in 2 weeks ago (which showed the above results) to now, the scale hasn't really budged and what's worse is my body fat % has gone up 1%... we use the same scale each weigh-in.

I haven't really changed my eating habits in the past 2 weeks, except maybe a bit more carbs than I did at first. But I try to choose carbs from legumes and fruit, not grains or starches. You can see my dairy... you will notice I do eat out several times per week, especially on weekends and during lunch at work, but 99% of the time I try to choose the healthy options. Plus, I always record a bit more calories than I think just to be safe (i.e. choose the highest calorie option for an item, or choose 1.5-2 of an item instead of 1 so I don't lowball).

I know it's only been 2 weeks since things seemed to have stalled, but since I got off to such a good start, I thought surely I'd see something positive these last 2 weeks. Then I had a look at my weekly report for net calories. It looks like I'm netting between 900-1100 calories a day. Could this be why I'm stalling out? Or do you think it's more likely that I am eating more calories at restaurants than I'm counting?? Thanks in advance!! Justine

justinegrey · February 2013

Sorry I'm not sure why but the images from dropbox won't show. Here's the link to the folder that has my weekly report: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5kc1psdmy189u7g/fYdQQJ1oSe

now_or_never13 · February 2013

Why are you netting so little? You need so much more than you are eating.

While overestimating calories is better than underestimating them, you are causing yourself to be eating much less than you already are.

I would imagine your sodium is quite high... I would add that to your tracker.

With the increase of body fat it shows you are losing muscle. You need to consume more calories than you are to reduce the amount of muscle you are losing.

justinegrey · February 2013

Why are you netting so little? You need so much more than you are eating.

While overestimating calories is better than underestimating them, you are causing yourself to be eating much less than you already are.

I would imagine your sodium is quite high... I would add that to your tracker.

With the increase of body fat it shows you are losing muscle. You need to consume more calories than you are to reduce the amount of muscle you are losing.

Thanks for your response. I feel like I'm eating so much because I try to eat most of my exercise calories back. So for example yesterday I did 2 workouts that showed 900+ calories burned with my HRM. So I ate about 2300 calories for the day which is a ton. But I guess if I'm always a bit under each day, it adds up to a major deficit come the end of the week.

I think you're right about sodium, I just put it in my tracker to stay under... good call, thank you. Can you explain a bit more about the muscle loss based on my increase of fat? I don't quite understand...

To give you an idea of my thought process, I did my TDEE (without exercise so I could eat back my exercise calories in MFP) and it was 1900. So I did a 25% loss which was about 1400 and would mean about a 1 pound per week loss. Then I exercise 3500 calories off per week, but since i eat them back, I still figured only 1 pound per week. I thought this was the correct way to do it?

thanks again for your help

sigsby · February 2013

I would try changing up your workout. I was stuck at 20 pounds lost. I swapped the stationary bike for the rowing machine and added squats between sets during strength training. Dropped two pounds over the weekend.

sheyennelilly · February 2013

Are you getting your body fat % from a scale that supposedly measures it? If so, that is a bad idea. Body fat scales are notoriously lousy for getting an accurate read. You need to use a caliper, and have someone do it who knows what they're doing.

justinegrey · February 2013

I would try changing up your workout. I was stuck at 20 pounds lost. I swapped the stationary bike for the rowing machine and added squats between sets during strength training. Dropped two pounds over the weekend.

Awesome and interesting! I have just added HIRT to my routine 3x per week (as of yesterday) so I'm hoping this will help me get to the next step. I didn't realize you could stall so quickly after starting. thanks for your reply!

justinegrey · February 2013

Are you getting your body fat % from a scale that supposedly measures it? If so, that is a bad idea. Body fat scales are notoriously lousy for getting an accurate read. You need to use a caliper, and have someone do it who knows what they're doing.

Yes, it's an Omron bathroom scale. The thing is because it's a work comp, we all have to use the same scale and must submit the results every 2 weeks. But I'm definitely going to try the caliper so I can start tracking this stat just for myself and properly. thank you!

now_or_never13 · February 2013

Thanks for your response. I feel like I'm eating so much because I try to eat most of my exercise calories back. So for example yesterday I did 2 workouts that showed 900+ calories burned with my HRM. So I ate about 2300 calories for the day which is a ton. But I guess if I'm always a bit under each day, it adds up to a major deficit come the end of the week.

If you feel like you are eating a lot try to eat foods that have a lot of calories for a small amount of food. Things like nuts, nut butters, etc. Add oils when you cook as an option as well.

I think you're right about sodium, I just put it in my tracker to stay under... good call, thank you. Can you explain a bit more about the muscle loss based on my increase of fat? I don't quite understand...

You normally measure two percentages when losing weight, gaining muscle mass, etc. Body fat % and lean body mass (includes everything from your organs to your muscles). An increase in lean body mass will usually cause the scale to go up and measurements to decrease as with gaining muscle you will weight more but be smaller. If your body fat % is increasing but your weight is not, you will be losing muscle. Eating at a deficit (on a diet, trying to lose weight, whichever way you wanna look at it) will cause you to lose some muscle. You can lower the amount of muscle you lose by increasing protein, lifting HEAVY weights and having a smaller deficit. A deficit as large as yours seems to be will cause muscle loss.

To give you an idea of my thought process, I did my TDEE (without exercise so I could eat back my exercise calories in MFP) and it was 1900. So I did a 25% loss which was about 1400 and would mean about a 1 pound per week loss. Then I exercise 3500 calories off per week, but since i eat them back, I still figured only 1 pound per week. I thought this was the correct way to do it?

thanks again for your help

Normally with TDEE you don't eat your exercise calories back as you factor in exercise when you calculate that TDEE. I haven't actually seen someone do TDEE without adding exercise in.

You should try to find out what your BMR is and ensure you NET that each day.

I am 5' 5", 199lbs, female and have a BMR of around 1500. I NET 1500 calories a day and still lose 1-2lbs per week.

ndj1979 · February 2013

did you calculate your TDEE or are you on MFP custom settings?

what is your height, weight, and age?

Think someone mentioned this but you should build a work out program around bench press, squats, deadlifts, over head press, pull-ups/chinups, etc. Three day a week total body workout is good for beginners with about two days cardio and two rest days. Once you hit some goals you can back off the cardio and maybe go to an upper/lower split or something like that...

shovav91 · February 2013

You are most definitely not eating enough, especially for the amount you exert yourself. On days I try to net about 1800 just to maintain, and I have a small frame which means you probably need about that to lose (Remember: every body is different. There is no magic formula).
That being said, a net of 1000 calories a day is less than a small child needs. Here is an interesting article about the effects of undereating:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421552-undereating-stomach-fat/

I hope this helps!

CoraGregoryCPA · February 2013

I'm always the one who says "Try eating only half of your exercise calories back". Just see what happens. Maybe you are eating a little too much since you lost the weight. If you lost 10 pounds, then you would need less calories per day.

But I see a lot of other people saying you are eating too little. That never works for me.

justinegrey · February 2013

did you calculate your TDEE or are you on MFP custom settings?

what is your height, weight, and age?

Think someone mentioned this but you should build a work out program around bench press, squats, deadlifts, over head press, pull-ups/chinups, etc. Three day a week total body workout is good for beginners with about two days cardio and two rest days. Once you hit some goals you can back off the cardio and maybe go to an upper/lower split or something like that...

I used a TDEE calculator (IIFYM) but did not include exercise in it because a) it varies each day (i.e. some days I will exercise off 800 calories and other days just a couple hundred) and b) I like being able to eat back calories from exercise and track through MFP. It makes me want to work out haha.

I am 5'4, 160ish pounds, 27 years old.

Yes, I absolutely agree you with, I just saw a personal trainer on the weekend who is giving me a HIRT 3x a week program, including deadlifts, bench press, etc. When you say rest days, do you think active rest is okay (i.e. yoga, jogging, walking etc.) or literally do nothing those 2 days? Thanks again for your help

3dogsrunning · February 2013

Couple of thoughts -

you say you are eating more carbs - how much more? Could be a water retention issue.

What are your workouts?

As someone else pointed out those scales are notoriously inaccurate unfortunately.

justinegrey · February 2013

You are most definitely not eating enough, especially for the amount you exert yourself. On days I try to net about 1800 just to maintain, and I have a small frame which means you probably need about that to lose (Remember: every body is different. There is no magic formula).
That being said, a net of 1000 calories a day is less than a small child needs. Here is an interesting article about the effects of undereating:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421552-undereating-stomach-fat/

I hope this helps!

Wow, that article is very interesting, thank you. I knew I didn't want to net less than 1300 a day which is why I set myself up to 1300 but didn't realize until looking at the weekly report how much I was actually netting... which is bad bad bad. thanks for your input.

justinegrey · February 2013

I'm always the one who says "Try eating only half of your exercise calories back". Just see what happens. Maybe you are eating a little too much since you lost the weight. If you lost 10 pounds, then you would need less calories per day.

But I see a lot of other people saying you are eating too little. That never works for me.

This is what scares me... logging more calories than I'm burning and it's actually eating more than I should that's the problem! I'll have to experiment with both ways to know for sure. thank you

ndj1979 · February 2013

did you calculate your TDEE or are you on MFP custom settings?

what is your height, weight, and age?

Think someone mentioned this but you should build a work out program around bench press, squats, deadlifts, over head press, pull-ups/chinups, etc. Three day a week total body workout is good for beginners with about two days cardio and two rest days. Once you hit some goals you can back off the cardio and maybe go to an upper/lower split or something like that...

I used a TDEE calculator (IIFYM) but did not include exercise in it because a) it varies each day (i.e. some days I will exercise off 800 calories and other days just a couple hundred) and b) I like being able to eat back calories from exercise and track through MFP. It makes me want to work out haha.

I am 5'4, 160ish pounds, 27 years old.

Yes, I absolutely agree you with, I just saw a personal trainer on the weekend who is giving me a HIRT 3x a week program, including deadlifts, bench press, etc. When you say rest days, do you think active rest is okay (i.e. yoga, jogging, walking etc.) or literally do nothing those 2 days? Thanks again for your help

rest is the hardest part of my program. I just changed from a 5 to 6 day a week routine to a upper/lower split four days a week with rest on wens and light HIIT on saturday...I really like lifting weights..crazy I know..

Active rest is OK ..if you are going to Jog I would keep it to less then a mile. My wens rest day is five minutes walking on treadmill maybe 1-2 minutes slow jogging..stretch...and then 15 minutes abs and that is it...

If you are using TDEE and eating exercise calories back this is probably your problem. If you recalculate your TDEE with moderately active = 3-5 days exercise you get 2364 cals a day for maintenance...so if you take off 25% you get a daily intake of 1773 calories per day which is a daily deficit of 591. I think if you combine this method with your new three day a week regimen, two days cardio, and two days rest you will see some nice gains...

Maybe Mon Wens Fri weights...Tues/Thurs cardio...Sat/Sun active rest....Try this and new cal intake for four to six weeks and see how it goes...just my opinion...

and body weight scales are pretty inaccurate for body fat %...you can get calipers at GNC for like 20.00...

justinegrey · February 2013

Couple of thoughts -

you say you are eating more carbs - how much more? Could be a water retention issue.

What are your workouts?

As someone else pointed out those scales are notoriously inaccurate unfortunately.

In the last 90 days, the highest was 250, the lowest was 80, in the past 2 weeks around the 150 mark. but looking at the carb report, it does seem like I've had 150 almost every day for 9 days. before that it varied every day up or down.

Workouts --> varies but highest intensity ones are long hilly walks (keeping HR above 130 throughout), jogging, 30 day shred and very recently, the HIRT workouts with a personal trainer. The lowest intensity are things like shovelling snow, walking, dancing etc but I usually low-ball those calories and don't count things like cleaning etc.

ndj1979 · February 2013

You are most definitely not eating enough, especially for the amount you exert yourself. On days I try to net about 1800 just to maintain, and I have a small frame which means you probably need about that to lose (Remember: every body is different. There is no magic formula).
That being said, a net of 1000 calories a day is less than a small child needs. Here is an interesting article about the effects of undereating:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421552-undereating-stomach-fat/

I hope this helps!

Wow, that article is very interesting, thank you. I knew I didn't want to net less than 1300 a day which is why I set myself up to 1300 but didn't realize until looking at the weekly report how much I was actually netting... which is bad bad bad. thanks for your input.

OK what this article is talking about would take at the minimum 72 hours of not eating a thing to happen and when they refer to starving children with bloated bellies those are people who are only eating once a week if they are lucky.

You will not go into starvation mode eating 1700 calories a day or 2000 calories a day..you would have to not eat for 72 hours for anything close to starvation mode to start happening.

I do I/ Leangains and fast 18 hours a day and I have none of these issues..of course I also eat 2000 calories a day too...

3dogsrunning · February 2013

I had a look back through your diary - I don't think it was a low carb/high carb issue.

Honestly I don't think the issue is eating too little. Some of your days might net low I don't think you are too low on the whole.

I still wonder what your workouts are and if it may be over estimated (even with a HRM it can happen). Or if its just a matter of the natural progression of dieting. Weight loss is simply not linear. Some weeks we are up some we are down. Sometimes we stay he same for more than a week or two.

I suggest following the person above who has figured your TDEE and created a deficit from that.

justinegrey · February 2013

Thanks for your response. I feel like I'm eating so much because I try to eat most of my exercise calories back. So for example yesterday I did 2 workouts that showed 900+ calories burned with my HRM. So I ate about 2300 calories for the day which is a ton. But I guess if I'm always a bit under each day, it adds up to a major deficit come the end of the week.

If you feel like you are eating a lot try to eat foods that have a lot of calories for a small amount of food. Things like nuts, nut butters, etc. Add oils when you cook as an option as well.

I think you're right about sodium, I just put it in my tracker to stay under... good call, thank you. Can you explain a bit more about the muscle loss based on my increase of fat? I don't quite understand...

You normally measure two percentages when losing weight, gaining muscle mass, etc. Body fat % and lean body mass (includes everything from your organs to your muscles). An increase in lean body mass will usually cause the scale to go up and measurements to decrease as with gaining muscle you will weight more but be smaller. If your body fat % is increasing but your weight is not, you will be losing muscle. Eating at a deficit (on a diet, trying to lose weight, whichever way you wanna look at it) will cause you to lose some muscle. You can lower the amount of muscle you lose by increasing protein, lifting HEAVY weights and having a smaller deficit. A deficit as large as yours seems to be will cause muscle loss.

To give you an idea of my thought process, I did my TDEE (without exercise so I could eat back my exercise calories in MFP) and it was 1900. So I did a 25% loss which was about 1400 and would mean about a 1 pound per week loss. Then I exercise 3500 calories off per week, but since i eat them back, I still figured only 1 pound per week. I thought this was the correct way to do it?

thanks again for your help

Normally with TDEE you don't eat your exercise calories back as you factor in exercise when you calculate that TDEE. I haven't actually seen someone do TDEE without adding exercise in.

You should try to find out what your BMR is and ensure you NET that each day.

I am 5' 5", 199lbs, female and have a BMR of around 1500. I NET 1500 calories a day and still lose 1-2lbs per week.

Thanks for your response!! I am actually at a BMR of around 1500 according to 2 calculators! WOAH. I thought I did this before and it was 1100 but must have done it wrong. WOW

Could these pics be the reason I'm not losing??

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