Having a hard time losing anymore weight. Need advice!

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kaylo008
kaylo008 Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey my name is Kayla. Im 5'3. A year ago I had my second child. When I gave birth I weighed 241 lbs. Ive gotten myself down to 181lbs. But Ive been dieting and exercising for over two weeks now and i havent lost inches or any weight. Im thinking maybe Ive hit a plateau.? Any tips to break out of this would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to give up but im starting to feel a little discouraged since im working my butt off everyday with exercise.
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  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    If you're not losing, then you're not eating at a deficit. You're underestimating your food or overestimating your burn. Log everything you eat accurately & honestly. Find reliable database entries. (There's a lot of incorrect data in there.) Weigh your food. Log your exercise, and eat back your exercise calories. If you're not losing, eat back half your exercise calories.

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-Sexypants
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
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    Use a food scale to measure everything, calculate your calorie goals (if you don't know TDEE do a search for it), exercise, and try not to overestimate.

    2 weeks isn't a plateau.. you just need to refocus and see if something happens.. maybe switch your macro's around.
  • deeforever
    deeforever Posts: 8 Member
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    I'm having a similar problem and it's frustrating. I've done my research at the Scooby site and found that I should be eating 1718 to lose. My personal setting is 1500 and most days I eat just under that. Some days honestly I struggle to get past 1200. I exercise at least twice sometimes three days a week and burn on average 700 calories per week. My water intake is average 4 glasses [I know that's low. It's hard to eliminate because of my job, so I drink before work and then after…which keeps me up at night :-( ]

    Please, I need help! I've logged my food faithfully for 26 days and no real loss since then. I log truthfully too.
  • lmr9
    lmr9 Posts: 628 Member
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    First of all, congratulations on losing 60 lbs in a year! That's awesome!!!

    I don't think 2 weeks is long enough to consider yourself on a plateau. I find with my own body and weight loss that it take a couple of weeks to get things going. How many calories are you currently eating every day? Are you logging everything you eat? Also, be sure you aren't over-estimating how many calories you burn during exercise.

    Just keep logging and keep exercising - it'll happen!
  • nvolkert90
    nvolkert90 Posts: 7
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    Had the same problem, I have trying to lose two pounds for over two weeks and I changed my calorie and my exercise. For some reason It just was not coming off. A friend stated that I may need to just cleans my body she stated to try Magnesium Citrate. So last night I did. I have drop three pounds I am passed my problem. Sometime it just a good cleansing we all need.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    Kayla and Dee,

    It sounds like neither of you are eating at a calorie deficit. This happens often from underestimating calories eaten and overestimating calories burned.

    Echoing advice above: log every single thing you eat, but make sure that your calorie input is accurate. Read food packages, look calorie info up on the internet, do whatever you can to ensure accuracy. Weigh all your solid food and measure your liquids. If you exercise and use gym machine or MFP calorie burned estimations, eat about only half of your exercise calories back because they are way over estimated.

    Remember- if you use MFP to estimate your calories, your calorie deficit is already built in. You don't have to eat less than that amount.

    If you figure out the TDEE method, you don't eat your exercise calories back.

    Losing weight via a lifestyle change takes some trial and error. Hang in there.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    Hey my name is Kayla. Im 5'3. A year ago I had my second child. When I gave birth I weighed 241 lbs. Ive gotten myself down to 181lbs. But Ive been dieting and exercising for over two weeks now and i havent lost inches or any weight. Im thinking maybe Ive hit a plateau.? Any tips to break out of this would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to give up but im starting to feel a little discouraged since im working my butt off everyday with exercise.

    2 weeks is not a plateau. When I was losing weight, I'd weigh and measure once every 4 weeks.

    You should work out your tdee and subtract 20% from that, and use that as your calories. Since I can't see your diary, I can't offer any advice on that. What sort of things do you eat? And what exercise are you doing?

    You've already lost weight, so obviously you can do it!

    I was 220 after my 2nd child (I'm 5'6) and I got down to 154. I made sure I ate a lot of protein, and I was eating 1500 calories a day. I was also working out 5 or 6 times a week, doing a variety of things, and a mix of cardio and strength training. I'm currently pregnant now with my third.
  • kaylo008
    kaylo008 Posts: 10
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    Well for awhile my calories were set at 1200 a day but i wouldnt eat back the calories i burned so i thought maybe i wasnt eating enough. But now the app upped my calories to 1400 so ive been trying to hit 1400 after exercise and everything. My husband said it might just take a little bit longer for the weight to start coming off again. Im going to keep going. Im almost certain im not doing anything wrong. Unless maybe underestimating the calories. I dont have alot of protein in my diet. Will eating protein help?
  • a_stronger_me13
    a_stronger_me13 Posts: 812 Member
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    Had the same problem, I have trying to lose two pounds for over two weeks and I changed my calorie and my exercise. For some reason It just was not coming off. A friend stated that I may need to just cleans my body she stated to try Magnesium Citrate. So last night I did. I have drop three pounds I am passed my problem. Sometime it just a good cleansing we all need.

    No. Just no. You dropped water weight.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    Are you at the end of your weight loss goal? Or do you still have significantly more to lose? I ask because the less you have to lose the harder it is and the more precise you have to be in your logging.

    I have found that I don't lose weight evenly. Meaning I'll consistently lose for awhile and then I won't lose for awhile and then I'll start losing again. It's like I'm binge losing :happy: if that makes any sense.
  • kaylo008
    kaylo008 Posts: 10
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    Im not that close to my ideal goal. Right now i want to be back dowm to my pre-children weight which was 150. Im 181 right now. My ideal is 130
  • kaylo008
    kaylo008 Posts: 10
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    Thank you so much everyone for yalls advice! Im happy to hear that 2 weeks is not considered a plateau! Im going to keep pushing! I have a new balance elliptical i use from time to time (the pulse and calories are not accurate on it). I lost alot of weight just doing the elliptical so i started changing things up around august and starting doing 30 minutes elliptical and 30 minutes pilates. Currently im doing The Biggest Loser Cardio Max dvd. I feel like i get a better workout from that then the elliptical. My side will hurt so bad and ill be hyperventalatng by the end.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    I dont have alot of protein in my diet. Will eating protein help?
    I use MFP's protein & fiber goals as minimums & ignore the rest. But everybody's different, and if you ask 100 MFPers you'll get 100 different opinions. I find that eating more protein makes me less hungry.
  • MaggieLoo79
    MaggieLoo79 Posts: 288 Member
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    I don't always lose weight the way the numbers say I should either. Is it that TOM? Are you retaining water? Have you eaten a lot of salt? Are you stressed out?
  • kaylo008
    kaylo008 Posts: 10
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    Its is that TOM today but for the past two weeks no. I dont use salt anymore. Im a SAHM with two small children, its hard not being stressed :)
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    Well for awhile my calories were set at 1200 a day but i wouldnt eat back the calories i burned so i thought maybe i wasnt eating enough. But now the app upped my calories to 1400 so ive been trying to hit 1400 after exercise and everything. My husband said it might just take a little bit longer for the weight to start coming off again. Im going to keep going. Im almost certain im not doing anything wrong. Unless maybe underestimating the calories. I dont have alot of protein in my diet. Will eating protein help?

    If you are not losing weight, you don't increase calories because you are already eating too much.

    If you are underestimating calories, you can kill your deficit with that.

    A healthy balance of protein, fats, and carbs is good for you, but it doesn't have anything to do with weight loss per se. Weight loss comes from eating at a calorie deficit. in other words, you can eat nothing but cookies, but if you eat them at a calorie deficit you will lose weight (but you might feel pretty horrible in the process).
  • beerey05
    beerey05 Posts: 80 Member
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    Is been almost a month for me at 1200 cal and working out a lot! Scales are moving very slowly. I track everything and just looked into my eating charts here on mfp and realized while I'm trying to stay around my calories I'm regularly going over my carbs and fats...so now that I know that I will eliminate and see how my body changes. Two weeks isn't enough time, keep going, track everything, and change things accordingly, you'll find what works and the pounds will fall off. I have to tell myself it takes time, and the scales may not always move but I'm getting faster, stronger and healthier! It will happen!
  • judykat7
    judykat7 Posts: 576 Member
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    I start a new fitness challenge every month in addition to my standard walking and elliptical use. I rarely lose any pounds the first two weeks of a new program since my body is being used differently than it is accustomed to I suppose. Hang in there. Also I don't know what is a plateau, but I often now have weeks/months that I don't lose a pound and then I will drop another one or two. That started after losing the first 40. Trying to convince my body that ideal is a bit lower has been tough!
  • MaggieLoo79
    MaggieLoo79 Posts: 288 Member
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    I dont have alot of protein in my diet. Will eating protein help?
    I use MFP's protein & fiber goals as minimums & ignore the rest. But everybody's different, and if you ask 100 MFPers you'll get 100 different opinions. I find that eating more protein makes me less hungry.

    Me too.
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
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    Thank you so much everyone for yalls advice! Im happy to hear that 2 weeks is not considered a plateau! Im going to keep pushing! I have a new balance elliptical i use from time to time (the pulse and calories are not accurate on it). I lost alot of weight just doing the elliptical so i started changing things up around august and starting doing 30 minutes elliptical and 30 minutes pilates. Currently im doing The Biggest Loser Cardio Max dvd. I feel like i get a better workout from that then the elliptical. My side will hurt so bad and ill be hyperventalatng by the end.

    It also helps alot of if you open your diary. People can give you much more advice, if they can see what you are logging. I don't know if anyone has mentioned, but you'll also be even happier with your results if you add resistance training.

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