Can't iunderstand why I am not losing !

findingjanell,

Have you taken pictures?

Have you taken measurements?

If you said no to either of those two, start now.

Don't use the scale as the end-all be-all of your fitness journey.

How have you been feeling lately (emotionally, physically - stronger, better?)

Are you clothes fitting better?

Are you hitting your numbers on MyFitnessPal at least 90% of the time?

Just some questions and things to reflect on...remember the scale is a deviant and likes to lie to us a lot of the time.

I checked your diary and I don't see any exercise listed.

I'm tracking this thread to listen in on advice.
5'8", 190#
Having a tough time increasing my metabolism to the point where I even feel hungry, find it hard to eat 1200 calories/day. Not losing weight.

I follow Mcgrawhaha and I think she would wonder whether or not you're accurately logging your food. She lost over 100 pounds in 10 months by eating her calorie goal (1200) but eating whatever she wanted. She also would eat around 4000/day once every other week. I'm trying it now and have been consistently losing---sometimes I have to wait 2 weeks for the stupid scale to show the loss, but I'm losing. Good luck!

Ok. So I am almost at my 50 day streak and really frusrated with only 3 lbs lost . I really dont understand . I stay within my calories up until this weekend I have been eating awesome I think , I do boot camp 4 days a week . Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong ?

I looked at your diary briefly. The past few days you have been over on your sodium which can cause water retention. Your sodium intake is likely a bit higher than logged if you aren't weighing your food. Reducing your sodium intake should help give you the results you want.

I had a similar problem when I started dieting. First 10 days, I lost 10 lbs. Then I didn't lose any weight (and, in fact, gained a few pounds) during the next three weeks, despite eating meticulously clean 90% of the time and working out 6 days a week. Starting on day 31, though, the lbs started melting off again (1-2 lbs per day). I've concluded that

1. Water retention can really EFF with the scale--both up and down. What might appear to be progress might simply be your body flushing out excess water. What might appear to be a relapse might simply be your body retaining excess water in response to a tough workout session or two. Therefore, unless you are incredibly aware of your body and how it reacts to certain foods, exercises and even stress, the number on the scale can be extremely misleading and stressful.

2. If you are trying to lose fat, cardio is King. Doing a 1-2 days of cardio--if you have substantial amounts of fat to lose--is probably not going to be enough. Sorry. I hate cardio too. I used to do 3 days of moderate to intense cardio for 30 minutes a week. When I wasn't seeing results, I incorporated 2 HIITs (high intensity interval training) on top of the 3 days I was already doing and began seeing results. If you are less interested in blasting fat and more interested in gaining muscle, then 1-2 days of cardio is probably enough, BUT, you will have to be content with a metric for your progress OTHER than the scale. Most ppl who are trying to gain muscle mass lose significantly fewer pounds than those aimed at fat loss, OR, you will have to live with the fact that it's just going to take a lot longer.

3. If you're already 10-15 lbs away from your goal weight, your body has to work harder to burn the same number of calories. This is the most annoying thing ever in the world. This means more cardio or more HIITs (which is preferable to me). Don't eat less, as doing so will put your body in jeopardy of losing muscle mass (which is so precious!).

4. I also realized that I was being pretty careless with my portion sizes and calories. Once I started weighing my portions (3 oz of chicken, 4 oz of shrimp, etc.) and measuring my ingredients (olive oil has a TON of calories), I was much better about keeping within my deficit. Did you know that just a small handful of cashews has over 100 calories???

5. Take before and after pictures, even if you're hideously embarrassed. I did. Triple chin and all. I took a second picture on day 30 and though I felt like there was NO appreciable difference, the pictures don't lie. Triple chin was now a single chin, and my abs were definitely more defined. Helluva lot more encouraging than my stupid scale!

That's what I've learned from my brief foray into eating clean and exercising. Hope this helps!

You don't have a lot to lose according to your ticker - you might not be losing lbs (but you said you haven't weighed yourself so not sure?) but your measurements say the boot camp is working - also log your exercise you may need to eat some of your exercise cals back.

Figure out what works for you but all in all if you have lost the inches you are doing well :drinker:

What kind of material are the pants you wear most of the time? If they have any stretch to them, they may have been a little tighter than you knew when you started out and may take longer to feel a difference. Also, if you are doing four boot camp workouts each week, how are your muscles feeling after? If your muscles are sore, they are retaining water most likely (soreness is from small tears in the muscle and extra water is retained to repair those tears).

Wow really! So if your muscles hurt you are probably retaining water. I did not know this. This is really good to know. Thanks for sharing

OP are you weighing your food or just eyeballing the sizes?

Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.

how is that (unless she has insulin issues) if she is eating the same amount of calories?

Eating refined carbs causes your body to release insulin, which is basically telling your body to store fat. You don't have to have insulin "issues" for this to occur. She can so much more filing foods, which do not signal the body to store fat, like vegetables and she will undoubtedly will start to lose the weight she wants to lose.

very true. thanks for sharing

OP are you weighing your food or just eyeballing the sizes?

Do you always eat so much sugar? I noticed that with the trifle only calories is listed, but I know that has to have a ton of empty carbs and you're eating it often. Try to eat more veggies, six servings (1/2 cup or 1 cup if leafy greens) is ideal. When you start filling yourself with more vegetables and less sugar the scale will show a loss.

how is that (unless she has insulin issues) if she is eating the same amount of calories?

Eating refined carbs causes your body to release insulin, which is basically telling your body to store fat. You don't have to have insulin "issues" for this to occur. She can so much more filing foods, which do not signal the body to store fat, like vegetables and she will undoubtedly will start to lose the weight she wants to lose.

What a ridiculously misleading explanation of how insulin works in the human body.

Absent a medical condition, a 1500 calorie diet that is high in carbs (of any kind) and a 1500 calorie diet that is low in carbs will yield materially the same effect on weight. True, reaching certain macro levels will affect satiety and it's important to reach a minimum amount of protein and fat, but the difference in effect on weight between these two examples is negligible.

TL;DR - Wrong. This is not how insulin works and lack of satiety != fat storage signal.

ETA:

OP, are you striving towards a reasonable deficit (or did you just tell MFP you wanted to lose 2 pounds/week and are struggling to stick to 1200 calories)? A reasonable deficit makes the effort much more tolerable and seems to increase adherence.

Are you weighing or measuring everything you eat? Guesstimating portions is sketchy at best and materially detrimental at worst. Accurate logging is important.

Are you using reasonable exercise estimates? If your 45 minutes of exercise yields 900 calories...(sorry, made up numbers, didn't check your diary)...then probably not.

Consistent and accurate logging of both food and exercise at a reasonable calorie deficit *will* lead to favorable results. After you've done that for 4-6 weeks, reevaluate your progress to determine if you need to increase or decrease calories...(and for this reason, I highly recommend that you don't start at 1200 calories...because it's really difficult/a potentially bad idea to decrease from there).

Invest in a food scale...and use the tools you have at your fingertips here. They work.

You don't have much to lose--small errors in calorie recording will make it much harder to lose those pounds. Errors in recording calories burned are notorious.

Get a food scale: 3/4 of a banana --> weigh it. It will give you a more accurate calorie count. Weigh everything.

Careful with recording your calories burns: where are you getting those numbers. 1200 calories burned? Not many people do this (some do) but be realistic.

Most common reason for not losing weight: under reporting calories eaten and over reporting calories burned.

At this small amount of weight to lose, you should be focusing more on your measurements. Sodium and water intake will give you more fluctuation in your weight than you realize.

Basically ^^this

That is still lots of calories claimed--do you have a heart rate monitor to back you up? My sister is a ymca instructor and she rarely burns 600 calories in an hour, even though she tries!

Even heart rate monitors are guestimates but they are better guestimates than most.

My one day of 1200 calories burns included 2 boot camp classes, it may be off but I do burn about 500 per class as it is intense circuit training,but I dont eat back my calories so its not like I was off by much !