QUESTION

Well geez! I AM being honest! I mean I said I didn't eat smart today! I haven't been doing the best at that, but I DO exercise at least 4 days a week. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't being honest! I mean if I was lying that wouldn't help me now would it?!! As I said, I've been struggling for several months! Eating healthy, lots of fruit, veggies. I drank a ton of water today. There are several people on these threads that are making the effort and don't understand what is going on or what else they should try. I am no different.

I can see I have upset you and for that I'm truly sorry. I sincerely apologize.

I may not have expressed myself well and please understand that kind tones of voices (which was where I was coming from) can be misunderstood online. So please, read what I'm about to say picturing me with a smile on my face, hearing a kind tone of voice, and as someone who truly only wants the best for you as a fellow journey-er and wants to help okay? And if you don't want to do that - toss this post in the trash and maybe I'll help someone else in the process. That's totally okay.

Okay - I absolutely understand and believe that you are genuine in your concern and that you are confused which is why you're asking. I get that.

What I'm trying to say is that because weight-loss is fundamentally a numbers game, then somewhere, somehow you are not being "honest" with yourself about either how much you are eating, or even how much you should eat - something like that. Somewhere, something is breaking down because you can't gain weight by "doing everything right".

I need you to understand I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm asking you to look closer and see where you might be tripping yourself up. For example:

-Did you enter your TDEE into MFP so that you know exactly how much you're supposed to eat each day?
-Are you logging all your calories faithfully?
-Are you eating only those calories or are you eating more?
-Are you *really* working out four days a week or does it come more to 2-3? (I have this problem! I convince myself I workout more than I do (smile)) - not saying you do this, but if you do it could affect things.
-Are you bingeing one day then telling yourself you'll "make up for it tomorrow"

These are just some examples of being very, very honest with ourselves. It is NOT easy! And it's kind of scary. But when we sit down and face where we are sabatoging ourselves and then resolve it, it's extremely freeing and exciting! Hopefully this helps. Until we have more specifics about your caloric intake/output though it'll be difficult for *us* to diagnose the exact problem. Do you mind sharing that with us?

I'll give a quick example of something that stumped me, if that might illustrate what can go on. I swore I was eating more in the spring when I was losing weight better. Well, I was. But I am an avid gardener and spent HOURS gardening each day in the spring. I only logged like 30 minutes, because I didn't feel like considering the entire burn my gardening would have.

Well, that was great for the spring, but come later in the year and there is a difference between working in the yard for hours and really doing it for 30 minutes, lol. It actually changes my weekly calories enough to matter quite a bit!

I have gained 10lbs in the last year. I actually did better with my weight when I ate worse! Since I have been eating better, I've gained! Someone asked for my stats. I am 39, 5'11, and weigh 168(on a good day).

Indeed, that must seem very confusing to you. Let's see if we can't untangle the mystery together!

Okay, based on the stats you just gave us (including your workouts 4x/week) your BMR is 1528.

We use this number to calculate the number of calories you'd need to eat each day just to maintain your weight.

This number is: 2,368 calories.

From here, we can figure out what's really going on.

To lose 1 lb a week, you'd need to eat 1,868 cals a day.
To lose 1.5 lbs a week, 1,618 calories a day.
To lose 2 lbs a week, 1,368.21 a day.

To gain weight, you'd need to be eating more than 2,368.

So this enables you to go back and look at your diary and figure out what's wrong.

Either you weren't aware of how much you were supposed to eat a day and have been accidentally eating more than 2,368 calories/day or you were aware but aren't logging everything honestly and thus overeating.

Either way, the good news is that you can adjust and fix this! Pick how much you'd like to lose a week from the list above, plug that number into MFP, then go for it! Log each calorie, stick to the numbers, and watch that scale go down!

Does this help at all?

Here's a number that helps you see what's up, too:

10 lbs in one year = 95.89 calories a day.

That's all it takes to gain 10 lbs in one year! And that's all it takes to lose it, too, fortunately

So the 1618 number.....I eat that whether I exercise or not? I honestly don't think ice been overestimating by that big of a margin but....

You would eat that NET, not gross. That means that is how many calories you would have consumed even after subtracting your exercise calories from your total.

So if you at 1618 calories, then burned 300 calories in exercise, you'd need to eat an additional 300 calories to get back to 1618 net calories.

I agree. Four pounds of weight could be anything...water weight, sodium, muscle gain, etc. I doubt 4 pounds of food was ingested in a few hours and showed up on the scale. I don't think bullying people about scale weight fluctuations is beneficial to anyone. My trainer said using the scale to track progress is like looking at a large photo of a landscape through a pin prick. Inches and the way you clothes fit; those are the things that need tracked consistently.

So the 1618 number.....I eat that whether I exercise or not? I honestly don't think ice been overestimating by that big of a margin but....

Right. If you want to lose weight even faster, don't report your exercise and eat the 1618. That would put you at an additional 300 cal deficit for the day.

So sorry for the confusion! I already factored your exercising 4x a week into the equation so you would NOT eat it back in. I concur with the person above - manually enter 1,618 into MFP and eat as close to that as you can. Here's how I do it personally: I log all my food in for the day and just before bed, I enter in my exercise just for kicks, just to see it and prove that I did it. But I don't eat the calories it tells me I "get" now that I exercised. I just leave it alone. The math has already been done, so all you need to know is eat 1,618 a day and exercise 4x a week, simple as that.

Oh! And when you hit the next 10-lb loss, recalculate your TDEE - you'll need less calories a day the smaller you get. That gets a little tough but thankfully if you do it in 10-lb increments it's not a big adjustment all at once.

If you are still confused let us know.

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It's a common misconception that calorie "math" is something exact. Every time you see someone writing number to tenth or hundredth precision you can pretty much round off. Nor is TDEE a constant, so any calculations of calories needed over a period of time are usually off.

If you see 1416 translate to 1350-1500.... Etc.

Do you use a heart rate monitor?
I don,t. But hear they help with accuracy of exercise calories. Everywhere I read here says that MFP gives highly exaggerated calorie burns. Maybe log 1/2-2/3 of your workout and not the whole thing for a more accurate calorie burn?

If you don't use an HRM that would be the first place to start in the exercise side of it. It changed my perspective immediately. Do you workout with weights? The HRM spikes so fast when you workout with heavier weights. I'm sorry I can't help you on the food side because it is a mystery to me. If I stick to around 1700 cals then the weight comes off consistently for me. My workouts are about 10 calories a minute.

HRM are next to useless with respect to weight lifting, only use them for steady state workouts.

Only weigh yourself every Sunday morning. At most.