Why am I not losing any more weight?

KaylDD
KaylDD Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I first started getting a grasp on counting calories about a year ago. I lost 18 lbs in 8 weeks without doing any exercise, going from 170 lbs to 152. I'm 5'5" and was 18 years old. Over a couple months of being off my diet, I gained 8 lbs back and was 160 lbs.

I decided recently to start counting calories again and this time incorporate exercise as well. I was thrilled when I found this site and I lost 5 lbs in 1 week, putting me at 155 lbs. My ultimate goal, however, is to be somewhere between 125-130 lbs. Since that first week when I lost 5 lbs, I've lost nothing! It's been 2 weeks since then. I've been keeping just under my calorie goal each day and working out every day, doing Jillian Michaels DVD's and jogging.

My endurance has increased a lot and I generally feel better but the scale won't budge. According to the site I should be losing about 2 lbs a week, so I should have lost 4 lbs over these last 2 weeks but I haven't :(

So why haven't I lost any more weight? Some mornings I wake up and the scale says 152 but then other days it says 155 again so I think that's just water weight. I'm getting very discouraged. This seemed to happen last time I went on a diet too. I can't get past 152 lbs.

Replies

  • AvonBell
    AvonBell Posts: 107 Member
    You're gonna have to cut calories. You might be overestimating your burns.
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  • D8vidFitness
    D8vidFitness Posts: 104
    you should be happy if you can lose 5lb in a month

    2lb every week doesn't seem possible for someone at your current weight unless you're doing intense training

    In terms of physique, have you seen changes or results? As long as your physique is progressing, weight becomes irreverent.

    Trying doing HIIT workouts
  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
    It has only been two weeks. Continue what you are doing and reasses in another month.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Unless you are just curious how much daily fluctuations can be, stop weighing daily, it's not helping your mental state.

    Only valid weigh-in day to minimize totally healthy water fluctuations you can't and shouldn't try to stop.

    Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, and not sore from last workout.

    Anything else is meaningless as a data point unless looking at over a month at a time to see general direction.

    As a woman, your BMR, basic metabolism, will change through the month.

    If you just started some of that exercise routine, some of the body's responses to it is to increase blood volume, and store more glucose for that endurance - both involve extra water weight, healthy good water weight.

    If actually sore from a workout, water is held in muscle to aid with repair.

    Meet your goal, 50 calories over is better than 100 below. Are you willing to miss your goal weight by the same % you miss your daily eating goal?

    25 lbs to go probably won't support 2 lb weekly reasonably, unless you enjoy fighting your body and not winning, pick the recommended 1 lb weekly and actually go for fat loss, not just weight loss no matter what it may be.

    When you lost that 18 lbs in 8 weeks - was it just fat? Or a decent amount of muscle mass because you did no resistance training, didn't eat enough protein, and took a steep deficit?

    Keep attempting that, and sadly you'll be setting yourself up for a lifetime of yo-yo dieting, as you lose more muscle mass each time, making your metabolism lower than it needs to be, and making maintenance harder, making it easier to gain again, and making it harder to lose again.

    If you pick the 1 lb weekly loss goal, indeed eat back about 50% of the estimated calorie burn to benefit from your workouts. Your daily goal already has that 1 lb loss in it, don't make it unreasonable again by making it bigger. Besides, you don't want to waste your effort working out right, why else do it?
  • vwbug86
    vwbug86 Posts: 283 Member
    As others have said I would cut your goal to 1 lbs a week weight lose. Also are you weighing your food? Even prepackaged food weighs more than the package says.

    This is a great post http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think?hl=eating+more&page=9#posts-17898743


    You might also be retaining water if you just started working out. You also may have had a slight newbie muscle gain.
  • RawCarrots
    RawCarrots Posts: 204 Member
    It is very common for the scale to stay the same when you start new exercise, give it more time:smile:

    At your current height and weight a deficit of 1000 a day is quite a lot, I'd aim at 500 (1lb loss a week) or you soon may find yourself fed up an starving. If you are logging exercise manually in MFP calories are often overestimated, so I won't eat all back, only some. But most of all - give it more time
  • Mitzigan94
    Mitzigan94 Posts: 393 Member
    eating at maintenance sedentary -10% tdee for 1 mth, helped me get over my weight loss plateau, you should try it for 2 days or 1 wk. ;) hope that helps.

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