Member for 47 days= no weight loss. HELP please!

Hi there.
I have been tracking on my fitness pal for 47 days now I went down a bit ( a couple pounds) and then back up so no weight loss.
I have been eating 1200 calories and eating back exercise. Didn't seem to work now I'm at 1300 and not eating back exercise.
I have a fairly sedentary job. And try to work out with jillian micheals DVDs 6 x a week for 30 minutes.
I need some suggestions / help. My diary is open.
I'm 5'8 200 lb female, 29 years old.
Do I need more cals / less cals?
Thanks all!!! :)

Replies

  • ebayaddict0127
    ebayaddict0127 Posts: 523 Member
    Your diary isn't open
  • Goldensun2014
    Goldensun2014 Posts: 51 Member
    Sorry about that it's open now :)
  • akshngrl
    akshngrl Posts: 27 Member
    Taking a quick look at your diary, I would strongly suggest you eat more protein. Your entries show you are regularly eating too little protein. Cutting down on carbohydrates and eating plenty of protein may do the trick for you. Try it for a week or two.
  • cassylee
    cassylee Posts: 107 Member
    I agree you have not enough lean protein in your diet like chicken, Beef or fish. I would add those and get rid of some of the fruit. Not all but fruit has Frutose sugar which is in soft drinks and Juices. Our bodies can only tolerate a small amount of Frutose and then the rest turns gets stored in our body.

    The questions you have to ask yourself are
    - do you add your drinks onto your Diary? Certain drinks can be high in Calories so you may only be eating 1200 or 1300 but drinking the same amount of calories in soft drinks and juice.

    - are you over calculating your exercise calories? A lot of exercise machines will be generous with the amount of calories that you burned when you may not have burned that much

    - do you nibble unconciously? Some times I graze with out realising I am eating and I dont put the calories down.

    Here is another link that may help as well -
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1

    I recently started the Australian version of the Biggest Loser with Michelle Bridges. I eat 300 cal for Breakfast, lunch and tea. Then 100 calories for morning tea, afternoon tea and Dessert. In this plan, I am having small balanced meals during the day. Yes it has only been 2 weeks but I feel much better and it is far easier to manage than any other plan I have ever been on.
  • Goldensun2014
    Goldensun2014 Posts: 51 Member
    Thanks all for the advice. I will try and cut down on carbs and fruit and have more protein. I hope that will do it.
    Thanks for all the suggestions :)
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    I want scientific evidence to sport cutting down on fruit. I eat like four different fruits a day. I suspect that something is wrong with your measuring and that are eating more calories than you think.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    I want scientific evidence to sport cutting down on fruit. I eat like four different fruits a day. I suspect that something is wrong with your measuring and that are eating more calories than you think.

    Agreed. If you are maintaining your weight for 47 days, it means you are eating at maintenance, not at a deficit. Either your measurements on calorie intake are inaccurate or you are over estimating your calorie burn. Do you weigh and measure everything or do you do a lot of guesstimating? (More accurate to weigh food out on a scale than to measure in cups, for example.)

    ETA: I went back quite a bit in your diary and I only saw one day where the protein was maybe a little low. I wouldn't worry too much about the protein intake. That's probably not the reason you are having trouble. Your diary looks pretty good, actually. I just wonder if the measurements are off. :flowerforyou:
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I want scientific evidence to sport cutting down on fruit. I eat like four different fruits a day. I suspect that something is wrong with your measuring and that are eating more calories than you think.
    I would agree with this. The types of foods you eat have nil to do with losing weight, but they do have a whole to do with energy. Personally, I feel more energetic when I eat an ounce of almonds rather than a slide of cake or a cookie or two. When I have energy, I put more "ump" into my workouts and life in general.

    OP, If you are not losing weight you are eating more than you think, which generally occurs with food and/or exercise calorie miscalculations.

    Looking at your diary, I see a lot of entries depicting measurements of food. Do you weigh your food? Do you log everything your eat, including calorie drinks and condiments?

    I suggest you weigh your food. The scale renders different potions than cups and teaspoons too. Also, a lot of the fruits and vegetables entered into the MFP database say, for example, 1/4 cup, 28 grams, nuts is a serving. Not true. 28 grams of almonds is actually less than a quarter of a cup. 1 medium apple is not sufficient-you need to find an accurate entry for an apple in ounces or grams and then weight the apple. Weighing food is the only way to be accurate.
  • Did you adjust your proportions/nutrient settings? The recommendations look way outta whack, to me. I started at 184 pounds (this 2nd time around) and said I have a sedentary lifestyle. So, we're not starting off from too different of a place. Our recommendations are similar in some regards, but very different for fat and protein.

    I'm looking at the MFP recommendations for your goals for tomorrow, since it doesn't have any extra allowance for exercises done. It says you should be getting 1300 calories, 146g carbs, 14g fat, 146g protein, 2000mg sodium, and 45g sugar.

    Compare that to mine, which is 1200 calories, 40g fat, 2300mg sodium, 150g carbs, 45g sugar, and 60g protein.

    After looking at about 2 weeks of your food diary, I would recommend going back to the original MFP settings and not adjusting the percentages. A few people have suggested adding more protein to your diet. On some days, yes, you may be a little low, but it just looks like you're extremely low because of your recommended goals. And, due to the recommended goals, it looks like you're frequently 30g+ over on fat. But, if you were to go back to the original settings, you'd only be slightly over on most days.

    So, maybe add a little extra protein (nothing significant) and reduce your fat intake a little bit would be my recommendations.

    Also, how much water do you drink each day? A great guideline is to take your weight in pounds, divide by 2, and drink that many ounces of water. So, if you're 200 pounds, you should be drinking about 100oz of water each day.
  • acogg
    acogg Posts: 1,870 Member
    Protein is number one for me. When I started getting in enough protein (100 grams per day), the calories I wanted from empty carbs dropped. I have more energy and will power is not as necessary. I feel better fueled. I have found that sugar/carb calories help a short boost, but protein is longer lasting. If there was one piece of advice that I would give credit to for my success, it would be the day that someone suggested more protein. I wish I could send flowers to that person.:flowerforyou: But I can't because I was feeling just like you. Now I am just trying to help you just like that person was trying to help me.:heart:
  • Goldensun2014
    Goldensun2014 Posts: 51 Member
    Thanks all for the help. I agree it's got to be my measuring of foods. I try to always measure but I will admit I guess estimate. I thought it wouldn't make a big difference but I guess it shows it has.
    I'm going change back my macros to the setting mfp set for me. And try that.
    I don't have any Beverages that have calories. And I try to drink 6-8 h20 daily. Sometimes it's low.
    I'll give the weigh and measuring a try and see if that will help.
    Can anyone recommend a good weigh scale to use?
  • beachgod
    beachgod Posts: 567 Member
    I use the cheapest food scale at Target and have dropped some lbs. Five bucks. I'll get something better one day but this is to show you don't have to spend a fortune to start with. Weighing your food will make a big difference. I was amazed at how much a serving of peas is and how little a serving of pasta is.

    http://www.target.com/p/taylor-mechanical-food-scale-white/-/A-13560443?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=|13560443&CPNG=Kitchen&kpid=13560443&LID=PA&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=13560443&gclid=CPz1tbHjvLwCFU9p7AodKnsAsQ
  • Mandylynne1979
    Mandylynne1979 Posts: 59 Member
    I notice that nearly every day you are over on fats and that could be keeping the weight on...
  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
    You might want to consider intermittent fasting to get things going, such as the 5:2 Fast Diet? Just google it. It costs nothing but it works very well.

    I agree with the other posters, I assume you eat more than you think. Weighing is great to get a grip on estimates.

    Best of luck
    Stef.
  • AMNimlos
    AMNimlos Posts: 34 Member
    Trying eating more calories. I know it sounds counterintuitive but I know a lot of people (including myself) on MFP who have lost more weight when they aim for 1500-1600 calories.
  • thesupremeforce
    thesupremeforce Posts: 1,206 Member
    I notice that nearly every day you are over on fats and that could be keeping the weight on...

    No.
  • LisaUlrey
    LisaUlrey Posts: 136 Member
    My best advise is to measure everything. Invest in a kitchen scale and tons of measuring cups (I have like 5 sets). Make it a habit of doing this for everything. You are either eating too much or calculating your exercise wrong. I use the TDEE method for counting calories and it really takes the stress out of trying to figure out what you burn. Check out http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • LisaUlrey
    LisaUlrey Posts: 136 Member
    Try to stay within your macros and make better food choices. More lean protein and less carbs will take you a long way. You can still have cake and cookies, just make sure that you are getting the good stuff that you need too.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    Thanks all for the help. I agree it's got to be my measuring of foods. I try to always measure but I will admit I guess estimate. I thought it wouldn't make a big difference but I guess it shows it has.
    I'm going change back my macros to the setting mfp set for me. And try that.
    I don't have any Beverages that have calories. And I try to drink 6-8 h20 daily. Sometimes it's low.
    I'll give the weigh and measuring a try and see if that will help.
    Can anyone recommend a good weigh scale to use?
    Yep, estimating portions and overestimating exercise calories are the biggest cause of stalling.

    Any scale will do. I bought a cheapo $5 scale over 10 years ago and it's still useful. (Although if I buy another scale, I'd love one that is more precise than 2 gram increments.)
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
    Thanks all for the help. I agree it's got to be my measuring of foods. I try to always measure but I will admit I guess estimate. I thought it wouldn't make a big difference but I guess it shows it has.
    I'm going change back my macros to the setting mfp set for me. And try that.
    I don't have any Beverages that have calories. And I try to drink 6-8 h20 daily. Sometimes it's low.
    I'll give the weigh and measuring a try and see if that will help.
    Can anyone recommend a good weigh scale to use?

    A digital one with a tare function. Analog scales are difficult to read and zero out accurately. The tare function is useful because I just put a plate on the scale, zero it out, add an ingredient, zero it out, add the next ingredient .. etc.

    Its what helped me figure out that I was putting 30g of olive oil on my salad instead of the 15g I thought I was(among other things)
  • themedalist
    themedalist Posts: 3,218 Member
    Check out this 3 minute video (I promise it's worth it) and then get a digital food scale. Possibly the best $20 I've EVER spent.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Thanks all for the help. I agree it's got to be my measuring of foods. I try to always measure but I will admit I guess estimate. I thought it wouldn't make a big difference but I guess it shows it has.
    I'm going change back my macros to the setting mfp set for me. And try that.
    I don't have any Beverages that have calories. And I try to drink 6-8 h20 daily. Sometimes it's low.
    I'll give the weigh and measuring a try and see if that will help.
    Can anyone recommend a good weigh scale to use?

    I addition to weighing your food (which can be a big eye opener - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think) I would look at the accuracy of the database entries you are using. For example, you have quite a few entries with no, or incorrect macros. Use the recipe builder if you are having home made food and not someone else's entry.

    Also, not that it will stop weight loss - but your protein looks low - I would up that.
  • tjsoccermom
    tjsoccermom Posts: 500 Member
    I didn't look at your diary, but you're fairly tall for a woman, I think you're eating too few calories a day (if you are being accurate). Are you using the TDEE method? Check out these posts for more information. Best of luck!
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    I started out with MFP's settings and did better when I used the TDEE method.
  • callyart
    callyart Posts: 209
    Are you measuring/weighing your food? You might be eating more than you realise and not notice.
  • This content has been removed.