Stalled :(

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I seriously don't know what's going on. I've been sticking to my calories and working my butt off at the gym - I have started running for the first time EVER. I can see and feel my stomach, legs, back and bum going down, and my face is the slimmest it's been in ages, but the scale INSISTS I'm still at 74kg! This has been going on for nearly two weeks...

Any idea what could be causing this? I know I don't weigh all my food, but regardless of that, I am still eating a TON less than I did before, and working out hard 3-4 times a week (compared to 0 before) - so surely I should be dropping the pounds? My scale is a digital Salter.

I'm determined to stay on track, I wonder if I'm just going through a weird bloaty phase? As long as I keep up the gym and eat healthy, I have to EVENTUALLY lose weight right? Do you think it could be because I dropped the first 5 pounds in like 10 days?

My diary is open - I know I had a blowout last Fri and Sat, but I was still under 8400 for the week, with exercise on top...

Any help/advice/words of encouragement much appreciated :(

x

Replies

  • chanceyb33
    chanceyb33 Posts: 9 Member
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    Try ditching the scale for a couple weeks. I had to do that. I get too fixated on the number and discouraged when it doesn't move fast enough! Keep doing what you are doing. Stay positive even if scale isn't moving you are building muscle which weighs more than fat :) you are doing Great!
  • piratesluver
    piratesluver Posts: 105 Member
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    ^Agreed. Who cares about the scale? Go for measurements. They mean more any how.
  • elw90
    elw90 Posts: 41 Member
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    I think you should first , before you do anything else, get REALLY accurate with logging. It is a massive pain and can sometimes be obsessive but I bet you're obsessive anyway so you might as well know exactly what is going on.
    Just do it for a couple of days- promise yourself you will log absolutely everything including milk in your tea/coffee if you drink it, all tiny snacks and bites, and if you don't know exactly- no guessing you just can't eat it. even weigh your vegetables and if you don't have one get a digital food scale.
    just experiment for a couple of days- it doesn't mean you have to do this ALL the time but you have already admitted you are not accurately measuring so why not see for yourself. I am absolutely shocked by how my calories build up when I 100% accurately log and if you don't log accurately you can so easily be going over by 400-500 calories a day at least and this would put you into weight maintaining/extremely slow losing rather than the 1-2lbs a week you are expecting from the calories you perceive you are eating.
  • keeptehpeace
    keeptehpeace Posts: 189 Member
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    I think you should first , before you do anything else, get REALLY accurate with logging. It is a massive pain and can sometimes be obsessive but I bet you're obsessive anyway so you might as well know exactly what is going on.
    Just do it for a couple of days- promise yourself you will log absolutely everything including milk in your tea/coffee if you drink it, all tiny snacks and bites, and if you don't know exactly- no guessing you just can't eat it. even weigh your vegetables and if you don't have one get a digital food scale.
    just experiment for a couple of days- it doesn't mean you have to do this ALL the time but you have already admitted you are not accurately measuring so why not see for yourself. I am absolutely shocked by how my calories build up when I 100% accurately log and if you don't log accurately you can so easily be going over by 400-500 calories a day at least and this would put you into weight maintaining/extremely slow losing rather than the 1-2lbs a week you are expecting from the calories you perceive you are eating.

    absolutely this, by the sounds of it you havent stalled you're just eating too much because you're not weighing/logging accurately enough, my food scale is my baby because i have no idea about portion sizes
  • erikaevans93
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    I am going through the SAME thing right now. I think it could be a combination of a few things but I read some article explaining how your muscles retain water if you are exercising a lot. I don't know everything so I would just look that up if you can.
  • austinsneeze
    austinsneeze Posts: 222 Member
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    Try fasting for a day :) That usually helps my plateaus
  • courtney1189
    courtney1189 Posts: 17 Member
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    I am actually in the same boat myself! I dropped from 220 to 140, and once I hit that, my weight loss completely stalled. It became so difficult to lose a pound that I pretty much stopped trying and gained back 12 of the pounds I'd lost. I recently joined MFP again and was able to get back down to 140, but again, the weight loss stalled (for months). At the time, I was eating 1200 - 1300 calories a day and not working out. A little over a month ago, I decided that the gym would be the only way I was going to lose the rest of the weight - because cutting calories wasn't working anymore. I've also tried upping my calories (that doesn't work for me). I now go to the gym 4x a week and burn around 400 calories each time. I do not eat back all of my calories, so I'm eating around 1300 - 1500 calories daily. I actually GAINED a pound after my first two weeks of exercising. Now I've leveled out again and weigh 139.4 (on a good day) haha! So, 1/2 pound in one month.... I can physically see myself getting smaller, but the scale doesn't show it. After a ton of research, I believe that my body is replacing fat with lean muscle mass and just balancing itself out. But being so close to my goal (130), I'm fine with the weight loss taking a little longer.

    I know it's so difficult to ignore the scale when it's how we reward our hard work. But I guarantee your efforts are not being wasted. Just keep it up and you WILL see results!
  • Katielou112
    Katielou112 Posts: 55 Member
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    Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated. I weighed myself on Monday morning and I was down one pound - I took a three day break from exercising, but am still going to work out four times a week. The way I see it, whatever the scale says, I am eating about half the portions and calories I was before, if I am going from zero working out to four times a week, I HAVE to get smaller, regardless of the no. on the scale.

    I went on a night out last Sat and just looking at the pictures I can tell I have gone down A LOT. People were texting me out of the blue to tell me how slim I was looking, so I'm just going to plough on and hope the scale catches up eventually.
  • piratesluver
    piratesluver Posts: 105 Member
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    That's fantastic!

    I had something weird happen to me on Monday... My friend from highschool (and the 3 years following) called and said he was in town and wanted to hang out! Via facebook pictures, I noticed we had both gained 20+ lbs since last seeing each other 4 years ago. Well, oddly enough, we both lost it in the past few months so we were both the EXACT same size we were when we last saw each other. That may not be progress, but at least its not a regression!
  • crystal075
    crystal075 Posts: 33 Member
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    Hey ladies. I have the same problem right now, but its the time of the month for me. I lost 5 pounds by week three of starting mfp recently and then I gained 3 pounds and still have not lost it since last week. Ive been feeling disappointed, but hopefully its only water weight.
  • dixiewhiskey
    dixiewhiskey Posts: 3,333 Member
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    Hey ladies. I have the same problem right now, but its the time of the month for me. I lost 5 pounds by week three of starting mfp recently and then I gained 3 pounds and still have not lost it since last week. Ive been feeling disappointed, but hopefully its only water weight.

    Yeah that's the same problem I'm having right now too.. and measurements only went down .5" on waist, belly button. I took pics though and I'm definitely less bloated than I was last week. Crossing my fingers for all of us going through stalls or limited progress right now
  • I can't see your diary, so I don't know what your workout routine is like, and this is only my experience, but honestly, when I added lifting to my workout routine, the scale starting moving massively after less than a week!