What am I doing wrong?!
nehalsd
Posts: 7 Member
I am so frustrated, I haven't lost a pound in 3 weeks!
I am 28 & 144lbs and 5ft5. I've been on MFP for 8 weeks on 1200 'clean' calories a day and I exercise 4 times a week (1 strength, 1 stretch -ashtanga yoga, 2 intense cardio -spinning & running).
My goal is 120 pounds - It might seem small, but I have a small frame.
My food is healthy low GI foods, that I cook and prepare myself - (check my page and food if you want to).
It is soo frustrating, I have no idea why I have plateaux. There is no way I can cut out carbs.
Please help me, any suggestions on what I am doing wrong?
N.
I am 28 & 144lbs and 5ft5. I've been on MFP for 8 weeks on 1200 'clean' calories a day and I exercise 4 times a week (1 strength, 1 stretch -ashtanga yoga, 2 intense cardio -spinning & running).
My goal is 120 pounds - It might seem small, but I have a small frame.
My food is healthy low GI foods, that I cook and prepare myself - (check my page and food if you want to).
It is soo frustrating, I have no idea why I have plateaux. There is no way I can cut out carbs.
Please help me, any suggestions on what I am doing wrong?
N.
0
Replies
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Open your food diary.0
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Eat more - your body has no fuel for functioning, never mind for all the exercise you want it to do.....0
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I second that, make your food diary public and keep it public. Even if you don't eat clean for a meal or a day it's a great way to stay accountable and may make you reconsider a food choice because you know we'll be watching
A plateau is normal and part of most people's weight loss journey. Have you recently dropped more than a pound? Sometimes it takes a while for the body to readjust. Just keep doing the deal because you WILL lose weight.
When I hit a plateau if it goes more than four weeks I try to change it up. If you do zumba and weight lift a lot, try doing HIIT (high intensity training) exercises like run for five minutes walk for two do this for thirty minutes. Or go for a walk and do it briskly for 45 minutes.
Always make sure you are drinking half your body weight in ounces for water. More on hot days, more if you sweat during exercise, and eat complex carbs so that you stay hydrated.
Try to do one day of all protein and green veggies with minimal fat and sodium. I do this and it helps me. Just a little trick I've learned over the years.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that if you have a calorie deficit you will lose weight. So don't give up if your body stalls.0 -
So I reached my all time high of around 155 pounds - I then quickly dropped to 144 in the first two weeks of mfp, and I haven't budged since.
Eat more to lose weight? I just got used to eating so little! How many calories should I be consuming a day then?
I drink around 2 litres of water a day - I don't think I can consume more than that.I second that, make your food diary public and keep it public. Even if you don't eat clean for a meal or a day it's a great way to stay accountable and may make you reconsider a food choice because you know we'll be watching
A plateau is normal and part of most people's weight loss journey. Have you recently dropped more than a pound? Sometimes it takes a while for the body to readjust. Just keep doing the deal because you WILL lose weight.
When I hit a plateau if it goes more than four weeks I try to change it up. If you do zumba and weight lift a lot, try doing HIIT (high intensity training) exercises like run for five minutes walk for two do this for thirty minutes. Or go for a walk and do it briskly for 45 minutes.
Always make sure you are drinking half your body weight in ounces for water. More on hot days, more if you sweat during exercise, and eat complex carbs so that you stay hydrated.
Try to do one day of all protein and green veggies with minimal fat and sodium. I do this and it helps me. Just a little trick I've learned over the years.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that if you have a calorie deficit you will lose weight. So don't give up if your body stalls.0 -
A couple of thoughts:
1. Three weeks without losing a pound is frustrating, and I won't belittle that. BUT it's actually not that long. Seriously. I know it stinks, but hang in there. You could be surprised to see a "sudden" change in another two weeks. It has happened to me like that; I'm sticking to my meal and exercise plan with perfect consistency for months, but during some periods there's no weight change at all, and other periods it looks like I'm losing a dangerous-looking 3 or 4 pounds a week.
2. Oftentimes, the scale is simply not your friend. Your body is made up of different compounds that have different densities / weights. What happens a lot during extended plateaux is that your body composition is shifting from low-density (high volume) compounds (like fat!) to high-density compounds (lean muscle mass, denser bones). It sounds to me VERY MUCH as if a lot of your exercise (strength training and yoga especially) is going to be adding density to your muscles and bones: this is a good thing! Your scale could show no change at all for a while while you're actually whittling down your flesh substantially.
3. So track your measurements too!0 -
So I reached my all time high of around 155 pounds - I then quickly dropped to 144 in the first two weeks of mfp, and I haven't budged since.
Eat more to lose weight? I just got used to eating so little! How many calories should I be consuming a day then?
I drink around 2 litres of water a day - I don't think I can consume more than that.
Is 1200 the amount MFP set for you? Are you eating back your exercise calories? MFP calculates your needs assuming no exercise, i.e. you would lose weight without exercise. When you do exercise, you need extra fuel. Also, set your goal to lose 1 pound per week if it is not already. If you said 2 pounds per week, that deficit will be too large.0 -
1200 seems rather low, up it another 100 or so and see how that works.0
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Girl, I took a look at your diary and you're hardly netting any calories! One day you didn't even eat 1000 calories, and burned another 400! That's only a net of 600 calories! That's very low, and you need to calculate the correct amount of calories you need to eat (which you'll find is at least a little more than you're consuming now, at any rate)0
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Why does it seem like whenever someone has this type of post that there are always people whose answer is "eat more!"?
How about eating less?
Eating less or exercising MORE at still 1200 calorie intake will force your body to start using the resources it has, and then once it does ramp back to 1200. At the OP's exercise level, 1200 is perfectly safe and all that is needed.
Eat more is such an easy answer to believe, because it's the one that is easiest, fun, and what we want to hear.
Maybe I'd go with Eat More Protein but keep calories the same. But that's the only type of "eat more" you should be doing.
P.s. Please no one say anything about a body going into "starvation mode," you're watching too many infomercials. It's a simple calculation: calories in minus calories out. If there is a deficit you will lose weight. If you have a deficit and are not losing, you are miscalculating one number or the other, or both. On Naked and Afraid, Discovery's survival show the participants went 21 days with only a snake and a turtle to eat. The girl who wasn't fat to begin with lost 23 pounds. Her body did not, "miraculously stop using its stored resources" until she ate more.0 -
Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.0
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Just switch it up a little. Your body is used to what you are doing now and you need to change something (different exercises maybe?)0
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Just switch it up a little. Your body is used to what you are doing now and you need to change something (different exercises maybe?)
I agree.0 -
Girl, I took a look at your diary and you're hardly netting any calories! One day you didn't even eat 1000 calories, and burned another 400! That's only a net of 600 calories! That's very low, and you need to calculate the correct amount of calories you need to eat (which you'll find is at least a little more than you're consuming now, at any rate)
THIS^^^0 -
Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.
The reason I disagree with you is not because I'm not a cat person, your profile picture is that of an obese cat, or because you said she's "eating so little and exercising so hard" as though we were living on another planet where that was a bad thing. It's because 1200 calories is sufficient, she's not starving (obviously or she'd be losing weight) and whatever negative effects there are from heightened levels of cortisol are outweighed by the benefits of being in great shape.0 -
Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.
The reason I disagree with you is not because I'm not a cat person, your profile picture is that of an obese cat, or because you said she's "eating so little and exercising so hard" as though we were living on another planet where that was a bad thing. It's because 1200 calories is sufficient, she's not starving (obviously or she'd be losing weight) and whatever negative effects there are from heightened levels of cortisol are outweighed by the benefits of being in great shape.
*eyeroll* You can be in great shape and eat more than a bird and lose weight.0 -
Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.
The reason I disagree with you is not because I'm not a cat person, your profile picture is that of an obese cat, or because you said she's "eating so little and exercising so hard" as though we were living on another planet where that was a bad thing. It's because 1200 calories is sufficient, she's not starving (obviously or she'd be losing weight) and whatever negative effects there are from heightened levels of cortisol are outweighed by the benefits of being in great shape.
*eyeroll* You can be in great shape and eat more than a bird and lose weight.
I'm not sure what your point is. If it's just a statement unrelated to this conversation I absolutely agree with you. One can be in great shape, eat more than a bird, and lose weight.
But that wasn't the issue. We were talking about what she should do to kick start her weight loss again. I only pointed out that people tend to say, "eat more" when these types of threads materialize out of the World Wide Web ether. I firmly believe eating more is not the best advice.
FIN0 -
I echo alot of what others have said. Start tracking measurements, possibly switch up types of exercises/intensity levels, possibly eat a little more or try and increase your protein consumption (if you are working out quite hard). I started MFP at 144 (5'6") and am currently 125. I lost the weight fairly quickly (started at 1200 calories) but at this point wish I would have slowed the weight loss down a bit. I'm happy with the quick results but finding a good maintenance zone has been trickier than expected. Basically, slow and steady with the weighloss, make some small changes and see if things get get moving again:) Good luck!0
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Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.
The reason I disagree with you is not because I'm not a cat person, your profile picture is that of an obese cat, or because you said she's "eating so little and exercising so hard" as though we were living on another planet where that was a bad thing. It's because 1200 calories is sufficient, she's not starving (obviously or she'd be losing weight) and whatever negative effects there are from heightened levels of cortisol are outweighed by the benefits of being in great shape.
*eyeroll* You can be in great shape and eat more than a bird and lose weight.
I'm not sure what your point is. If it's just a statement unrelated to this conversation I absolutely agree with you. One can be in great shape, eat more than a bird, and lose weight.
But that wasn't the issue. We were talking about what she should do to kick start her weight loss again. I only pointed out that people tend to say, "eat more" when these types of threads materialize out of the World Wide Web ether. I firmly believe eating more is not necessarily the best advice.
1200 is the minimum you should eat, recommended by this site and by health professionals, unless in some cases for very obese people when recommended by doctors for health reasons (which the OP is clearly not), so why would you recommend someone to eat less than that?
In fact, to use this site properly, you eat the recommended calories PLUS exercise calories, because this is a NEAT based method, not a TDEE method. Since the OP is apparently not eating that amount, again, why would you recommend she eat less? It is common for people to come here and not set up the tool properly and under-eat because of it. This is most likely one of those cases.0 -
Just always remember muscle weighs more than fat. So you may still be toning down but not losing lbs. Maybe change your exercising. stay away from any strength training and do more fat burning exercises. Also remember if you do starve your body the fat is the last to go. It will eat at your muscle before fat.0
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I agree that I overhear "starvation mode" but SERIOUSLY, you're citing "Naked and Afraid" as a case study? Test that girl's muscle mass (if the reality show is actually "real") after she dropped 21 lbs with next to nothing to eat. Test her cardiac health. Get back with me then. Rapid weight loss through HUGE calorie deficits often results in cardiac stress, muscle loss, effects on hair/skin/nails/teeth, and then if/when you gain the weight back, you're putting even more added stress on all your systems.
Eat more to lose more may sound crazy, but eat more to maintain overall health and to fuel your body for the fitness levels you want to achieve DOES make sense.
ETA: You lost 11 lbs in your first two weeks? I guess some of that could be water weight, but if you are expecting to lose another 11 at that rate, you ARE going to be frustrated and chasing something unhealthy.0 -
Because she is a young woman who is 5'5 and she is not extremely overweight. She shouldn't be eating so little and exercising so hard. By doing that, she is creating too much cortisol and upsetting other hormonal balances. She needs to be taking a smaller calorie deficit and giving it time.
The reason I disagree with you is not because I'm not a cat person, your profile picture is that of an obese cat, or because you said she's "eating so little and exercising so hard" as though we were living on another planet where that was a bad thing. It's because 1200 calories is sufficient, she's not starving (obviously or she'd be losing weight) and whatever negative effects there are from heightened levels of cortisol are outweighed by the benefits of being in great shape.
*eyeroll* You can be in great shape and eat more than a bird and lose weight.
I'm not sure what your point is. If it's just a statement unrelated to this conversation I absolutely agree with you. One can be in great shape, eat more than a bird, and lose weight.
But that wasn't the issue. We were talking about what she should do to kick start her weight loss again. I only pointed out that people tend to say, "eat more" when these types of threads materialize out of the World Wide Web ether. I firmly believe eating more is not necessarily the best advice.
1200 is the minimum you should eat, recommended by this site and by health professionals, unless in some cases for very obese people when recommended by doctors for health reasons (which the OP is clearly not), so why would you recommend someone to eat less than that?
In fact, to use this site properly, you eat the recommended calories PLUS exercise calories, because this is a NEAT based method, not a TDEE method. Since the OP is apparently not eating that amount, again, why would you recommend she eat less? It is common for people to come here and not set up the tool properly and under-eat because of it. This is most likely one of those cases.
Okay. I don't want to be misinterpreted. I do not advise anyone to eat 17 calories a day for life. One, it is very hard to find foods that are easily portioned out to exactly 17 calories--it must be hard because if it were easy everyone would do it. But the main reason I don't advise it is because, like you said, it would not be healthy.
Let's clear some things up:
1: Your comments are necessarily based on the premise that the OP is accurately keeping track of each calorie she takes in while simultaneously not overestimating the calories she burns. This would be great if the ALL THE EVIDENCE points to this being a false premise. Again, and since you like to tell me what doctors and scientists "know" to be right, there exists a simple scientifically accepted truth: fewer calories in than calories out = weight loss. She is not losing weight. Therefore, I say eat fewer calories or workout more not because I advocate only eating 17 calories, but because of the simpler, more believable assumption that her food and exercise diaries are incomplete.
2: Fasting for a day will not hurt her. Even if she were to not eat anything for two days, she'd live and be fine (presuming there are not some other factors, but let's assume she is reasonably healthy and human). A short fast may kick start her weight loss and so long as the average over a week of calories consumed is 1200/day, she'd be peachy. Recap: starve yourself, just not for a month and you should be fine.0 -
Why does it seem like whenever someone has this type of post that there are always people whose answer is "eat more!"?
How about eating less?
Eating less or exercising MORE at still 1200 calorie intake will force your body to start using the resources it has, and then once it does ramp back to 1200. At the OP's exercise level, 1200 is perfectly safe and all that is needed.
Eat more is such an easy answer to believe, because it's the one that is easiest, fun, and what we want to hear.
Maybe I'd go with Eat More Protein but keep calories the same. But that's the only type of "eat more" you should be doing.
P.s. Please no one say anything about a body going into "starvation mode," you're watching too many infomercials. It's a simple calculation: calories in minus calories out. If there is a deficit you will lose weight. If you have a deficit and are not losing, you are miscalculating one number or the other, or both. On Naked and Afraid, Discovery's survival show the participants went 21 days with only a snake and a turtle to eat. The girl who wasn't fat to begin with lost 23 pounds. Her body did not, "miraculously stop using its stored resources" until she ate more.
People say "eat more" even if they haven't seen said diary
That's all you see on this site now "eat more" - well that and "starvation mode", "lift heavy" and "your body will store fat if you don't eat enough"
Damn well does my head in.0 -
When you don't eat and starve your body it doesn't eat fat first it will eat muscle which is what you want/need to stay healthy and in shape? Not sure what why you would recommend fasting. It would be like throwing all the workouts you've been doing out the drain and if she does lose weight she wont have a toned body she would have saggy skin.....0
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A couple of thoughts:
1. Three weeks without losing a pound is frustrating, and I won't belittle that. BUT it's actually not that long. Seriously. I know it stinks, but hang in there. You could be surprised to see a "sudden" change in another two weeks. It has happened to me like that; I'm sticking to my meal and exercise plan with perfect consistency for months, but during some periods there's no weight change at all, and other periods it looks like I'm losing a dangerous-looking 3 or 4 pounds a week.
2. Oftentimes, the scale is simply not your friend. Your body is made up of different compounds that have different densities / weights. What happens a lot during extended plateaux is that your body composition is shifting from low-density (high volume) compounds (like fat!) to high-density compounds (lean muscle mass, denser bones). It sounds to me VERY MUCH as if a lot of your exercise (strength training and yoga especially) is going to be adding density to your muscles and bones: this is a good thing! Your scale could show no change at all for a while while you're actually whittling down your flesh substantially.
3. So track your measurements too!
Excellent post!0 -
When you don't eat and starve your body it doesn't eat fat first it will eat muscle which is what you want/need to stay healthy and in shape? Not sure what why you would recommend fasting. It would be like throwing all the workouts you've been doing out the drain and if she does lose weight she wont have a toned body she would have saggy skin.....
Unbelievable. This is fat-think at it's best. "I don't want to skip three meals in a row because even though I need to lose 20-400 pounds, my body might burn some muscle." Truly the type of rationalization that has gotten the best of all us at one point or another, which is why were are here. But now that we are here (though where else could we be but where we are), let's rise above the urge to think like fat people and join the throngs of the healthy and the thin.0 -
If maintaining a reasonable caloric deficit, maintaining as much lean muscle mass as possible, and making it to my goal is "thinking like a fat person" then I don't want to "think like a thin person".0
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The other issue with forcing your calories down and down and down is a practical one-- are you going to be able to sustain that forever? Or are you going to overcompensate the minute you can eat at a "normal" level again? It's a lifestyle, not a diet.0
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Again and for the last time, because this thread is worn thin.
I suggested an average of 1200 calories/day on AVERAGE. One day of limiting calories below that number is not the beginning of a downward spiral that inexorably leads to Dante's 9th circle from which there will be no return.0 -
So funny that the rants against eating more, fueling your body and preserving muscle mas while losing fat comes from people who lost 8 and 13 lbs....:bigsmile:0
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So funny that the rants against eating more, fueling your body and preserving muscle mas while losing fat comes from people who lost 8 and 13 lbs....:bigsmile:
*chuckle* but don't always assume someone's tag is accurate. I'm at 50lbs from my start but I started using MFP only 27lbs ago -- though, admittedly my own idea of how to lose weight has changed only slightly since using MFP.0
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