Not losing weight

It's quite common to hit a plateau where you don't lose anything for a little while. You can try increasing your activity or adjusting your calories per day and see if that gives you a "jolt". It could be because you have lost some weight and increased your activity that your needs have changed.

Thanks km! I'm headed there now and hopefully that will give me the information I need. What does TDEE stand for?

TDEE - total daily energy expenditure ..... this is all your daily activity including exercise

Another one - BMR - basal metabolic rate ... this would be like you didn't get out of bed all day

I'm stuck too. I have always walked and done Zumba and 3 months ago I added Strenght Training and have not lost a lb not 1 lb I can tell my clothes fit better but it's very discouraging not losing weight and counting calories sometimes I think yes maybe i'm not eating enough but I'm not sure. I did have to go on Blood Pressure medicine after losing 25 lbs and walking 20 miles a week my BP went up. So, How crazy is that I'm in the best shape physically I think I've been in a while. I'm 52 and need to lose that last 15 lbs. HELP!

You are very likely retaining water. This happens to me every time I start working out after not. It can be discouraging - it is like clockwork with me that when I am JUST focusing on my diet, the pounds come right off and when I start working out, I "plateau" - the thing is, I am losing inches and I have to tell myself the pounds don't matter, it is water weight.

I would recommend eating back 2/3 of your exercise calories. This a) give you some wiggle room for some inaccuracy in the number of calories burned and b) accounts for your NET calorie burn. Your body burns some calories even if you are sitting on the couch; for me, it works out to about 75 calories burned an hour just doing nothing. So if I work out for an hour and burn 500 calories, I only burned 425 calories more than I would have if I just sat on the couch. That's why eating back EVERY calorie can sometimes slow down your weight loss, especially if you are working out a lot and eating back all those calories.

That link I attached is the post I put up yesterday and got so much info from it - hardest thing to wrap your head around is allowing yourself to eat and not feel guilty - there is a true science and logic when you undereat how your body stops the metabolism entirely to keep your body alive and working - it knows when it is not getting enough nutrition and is smart enough to essentially say ok, you gave me 1300 calories, I need AT LEAST that to keep your heart pumping and your brain working so I will stop other systems to do that - i.e. metabolism - I really encourage you all to read that post, print it like I did, go and calculate your military BF and then the TDEE - then less out anywhere from 10-30% off that # and THAT is calorie per day - you have to eat to make that metabolism move and burn and psychologically we all fear the higher calorie - don't - a friend on that post said to me seriously, eat and the weight loss will come.................

I switched to all plant based so no meat, no dairy and no oil as there is no nutritional value in any of that and it is loaded with fat and impacts health in so many ways - so I KNOW logically I am eating so amazing - and I need to say to myself it's ok, you are hungry for a snack, have the Wasa crispbread and organic peanut butter on it or have the fruit - it's that pychological bump in my mind that says too many calories but reality is, it is not too many, much of my stall for 2 weeks when you see my diary I was always UNDER 1200 - NOT GOOD!

Another friend of mine decided BRAVELY to do her actual TDEE at 2250 a day - WOW! - for 6-8 weeks to jump start the body and then she will less out a % ...................she noted it is a little scary but the logic behind it holds - and hey, if you go over a 100 no sweat - just eat well, small portions but at a higher calorie - hope this helps some of you as it really helped me yesterday and the amount of detail in the replies was exactly what I needed to read!

Jessica, I've definitely thought that I haven't given it enough time. I'm just impatient sometimes, but you're right. I will try for the next 2 weeks to eat back about half of my exercise calories and see if that works. I just hate to eat them all because then I feel like I'm exercising just to eat more.

Good luck! I think the 1200 that MFP tells you is ridiculous - I used to eat almost twice that each day, cut down to just 1200 and didn't see much change. Now I am eating 1800 and exercising a fair bit and I can really tell the weight is dropping *yay for me* so I would really suggest to try eat more. I'm 5"7 and about 145lb

New to exercise will usually result in water retention for a couple or so weeks. Normal.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition