Working out but scale not moving.

Ok so ive been on this weight loss journey for almost 2 years now and have only lost 37lbs. January 1st I joined our local curves and I workout there 4-5 times a week plus I also do the zumba classes they offer and jillian. I have a bodymedia so I know at each workout im getting at least 45 mins in when I do workout. My diet isn't awful but isn't the best either. I have a hard time keeping my sodium down. MFP has me at 1500 calories a day and my weight isn't moving. I believe my TDEE is 2682 and my BMR is 1643. Am I not eating enough? Any feedback would be awesome :) Also I do drink half my bodyweight in water.

Replies

  • karmasays
    karmasays Posts: 82 Member
    I would really try and get your sodium levels down, high sodium is not good for the ol' heart. Deli meats are horrible for sodium, try cooking up a bunch of chicken or turkey breast on the weekend and shredding it into portion sizes for the week for lunches. Also, try to stay away from frozen meals and similar pre-made items as they are also fairly high in sodium.

    My other suggestion would be to start weighing all non-liquid items on a digital food scale as opposed to measuring cups (you may actually be overeating without realizing it).

    Just dont give up!
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    Since it has been 2 months since you started at the gym, it's probably not water retention. It is very common for people to underestimate how much they eat and to overestimate how many calories exercise burns. These posts are useful:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    Do you track your calories?
  • norcalskater
    norcalskater Posts: 194 Member
    An accurate caloric deficit everyday will lose more weight than exercising will.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    Since it has been 2 months since you started at the gym, it's probably not water retention. It is very common for people to underestimate how much they eat and to overestimate how many calories exercise burns. These posts are useful:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf


    I totally get what your saying. My bodymedia figures out how much I burned. I don't manually enter in my exercise.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    Do you track your calories?


    Yes I Do. My diary is open.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Do you weigh your food on a food scale?

    If not, you are probably eating more than you think.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    Weight loss comes from having a calorie deficit. If you're not losing weight, then you're not in a deficit. This is the first place I'd look, which is how many calories you're actually consuming using a food scale.
  • AnAbsoluteDiva
    AnAbsoluteDiva Posts: 166 Member
    You're eating more than you know.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    Do you weigh your food on a food scale?

    If not, you are probably eating more than you think.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    Weight loss comes from having a calorie deficit. If you're not losing weight, then you're not in a deficit. This is the first place I'd look, which is how many calories you're actually consuming using a food scale.

    Yes I do have a food scale. Most of the stuff I eat already has the calorie information on it. Like the protein shake I drink, or the yogurt and salad I eat. I do weigh my salad dressings and measure out milk when I do drink it. I try to only eat stuff that I can accurately log correctly.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    You're eating more than you know.


    Can you elaborate?
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
    What does Bodymedia give you as an average cal burn over the last 28 days? That will give you a good idea of your TDEE. You can find out by clicking on Specific Days, and picking last 28 days. And go back one day, as today is incomplete, meaning pick March 4.

    My current average is 2964, with 2:07 mod activity, and 0:08 vigorous. I'm 5'9' and ~190lbs.
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    You should get a tape measure and measure yourself. Don't just rely on the scale.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    What does Bodymedia give you as an average cal burn over the last 28 days? That will give you a good idea of your TDEE. You can find out by clicking on Specific Days, and picking last 28 days. And go back one day, as today is incomplete, meaning pick March 4.

    My current average is 2964, with 2:07 mod activity, and 0:08 vigorous. I'm 5'9' and ~190lbs.

    How do I figure that out exactly lol
  • MelRC117
    MelRC117 Posts: 911 Member
    Just looking at some of your entries...well alot actually through January.... looking at some days, assuming foods were measured perfectly and calories burned were spot on, yes you could eat more on some of those days.

    However, there are some things that dont' seem to be as accurate as you can get them. For example, a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Just how much butter and sour cream did you put on? A baked potato alone could almost be 220 depending on how big your potato was or that could be the calories just from the sour cream and butter. Also, with there was an entry for .75 meal for generic china buffet. I don't even know what that means. Is anyone's diary perfect? No, and mine is most definitely not and we all do the best we can. However you're asking for help and that just seemed odd that you weigh your food and eat prepackaged alot, but then there were entries like that. You also went some time in January where you didn't have diary entries for multiple days in a row or times where you most likely didn't add every thing you ate. There was also a day where you were over by over 1000 calories, some others that were hundreds of calories over. Yes, there were also several days you were under, but as you average your calories over the course of a week or a month, it's not as big of a deficit to lose the weight you thought you would have.

    It seems you are on a much more diligent track in the past couple weeks and not going over your calorie allowance. Have you lost anything since January to now? If everything was accurate I don't see how you wouldn't have lost something since then. I would say keep on keeping on. Log foods honestly and as accurately as you can.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    Just looking at some of your entries...well alot actually through January.... looking at some days, assuming foods were measured perfectly and calories burned were spot on, yes you could eat more on some of those days.

    However, there are some things that dont' seem to be as accurate as you can get them. For example, a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Just how much butter and sour cream did you put on? A baked potato alone could almost be 220 depending on how big your potato was or that could be the calories just from the sour cream and butter. Also, with there was an entry for .75 meal for generic china buffet. I don't even know what that means. Is anyone's diary perfect? No, and mine is most definitely not and we all do the best we can. However you're asking for help and that just seemed odd that you weigh your food and eat prepackaged alot, but then there were entries like that. You also went some time in January where you didn't have diary entries for multiple days in a row or times where you most likely didn't add every thing you ate. There was also a day where you were over by over 1000 calories, some others that were hundreds of calories over. Yes, there were also several days you were under, but as you average your calories over the course of a week or a month, it's not as big of a deficit to lose the weight you thought you would have.

    It seems you are on a much more diligent track in the past couple weeks and not going over your calorie allowance. Have you lost anything since January to now? If everything was accurate I don't see how you wouldn't have lost something since then. I would say keep on keeping on. Log foods honestly and as accurately as you can.


    Yea the baked potato was really small. I went off the package and even weighed the potato to see how many grams it was. I didn't use butter. Only light sour cream. Sometimes I don't catch it and just add it. The Chinese thing is very hard to count since my husband loves going to the buffet and I only get 1 small plate and honestly have no idea how many calories are in it. I try to make the best choices when we go there but its hard. I am super bad at eating a lot of prepackaged foods. Its hard I also have pcos and and im insulin resistant so yea these past couple weeks ive been trying to be super accurate. Ive lost nothing but haven't gained anything either. I also appreciate your feedback and how kind you were. People on here can be downright rude. Im not perfect and losing weight it not easy.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    I would be really cautious about trusting the calorie counts on restaurant food. Their calorie counts are based on the ideal recipe, but you have no way of knowing how closely the person making your food is following that recipe. They're not in the kitchen measuring mayo out by the tablespoon or weighing the meat they're giving you -- they're eyeballing it, which could be adding hundreds of calories every time you eat out. That could be enough to derail your weight loss.
  • MelRC117
    MelRC117 Posts: 911 Member
    Just looking at some of your entries...well alot actually through January.... looking at some days, assuming foods were measured perfectly and calories burned were spot on, yes you could eat more on some of those days.

    However, there are some things that dont' seem to be as accurate as you can get them. For example, a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Just how much butter and sour cream did you put on? A baked potato alone could almost be 220 depending on how big your potato was or that could be the calories just from the sour cream and butter. Also, with there was an entry for .75 meal for generic china buffet. I don't even know what that means. Is anyone's diary perfect? No, and mine is most definitely not and we all do the best we can. However you're asking for help and that just seemed odd that you weigh your food and eat prepackaged alot, but then there were entries like that. You also went some time in January where you didn't have diary entries for multiple days in a row or times where you most likely didn't add every thing you ate. There was also a day where you were over by over 1000 calories, some others that were hundreds of calories over. Yes, there were also several days you were under, but as you average your calories over the course of a week or a month, it's not as big of a deficit to lose the weight you thought you would have.

    It seems you are on a much more diligent track in the past couple weeks and not going over your calorie allowance. Have you lost anything since January to now? If everything was accurate I don't see how you wouldn't have lost something since then. I would say keep on keeping on. Log foods honestly and as accurately as you can.


    Yea the baked potato was really small. I went off the package and even weighed the potato to see how many grams it was. I didn't use butter. Only light sour cream. Sometimes I don't catch it and just add it. The Chinese thing is very hard to count since my husband loves going to the buffet and I only get 1 small plate and honestly have no idea how many calories are in it. I try to make the best choices when we go there but its hard. I am super bad at eating a lot of prepackaged foods. Its hard I also have pcos and and im insulin resistant so yea these past couple weeks ive been trying to be super accurate. Ive lost nothing but haven't gained anything either. I also appreciate your feedback and how kind you were. People on here can be downright rude. Im not perfect and losing weight it not easy.

    You may want to see if your Dr has a dietician that could help you out, especially if you can show him or her your diary and that you are really counting each calorie the best you can. I eat low carb, and I don't have PCOS, however it seems some women that have PCOS that eat low carb have better success losing weight than just low calorie. I don't want it to seem I'm pushing low carb, and all I have is anecdotal evidence, but if you are monitoring how much you're eating and working out and not seeing the weight go down, you may have to take a look at WHAT you are eating due to medical issues. There may even be some groups on MFP for women with PCOS and/or people with insulin resistance to see if they have any advice first hand.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    Just looking at some of your entries...well alot actually through January.... looking at some days, assuming foods were measured perfectly and calories burned were spot on, yes you could eat more on some of those days.

    However, there are some things that dont' seem to be as accurate as you can get them. For example, a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Just how much butter and sour cream did you put on? A baked potato alone could almost be 220 depending on how big your potato was or that could be the calories just from the sour cream and butter. Also, with there was an entry for .75 meal for generic china buffet. I don't even know what that means. Is anyone's diary perfect? No, and mine is most definitely not and we all do the best we can. However you're asking for help and that just seemed odd that you weigh your food and eat prepackaged alot, but then there were entries like that. You also went some time in January where you didn't have diary entries for multiple days in a row or times where you most likely didn't add every thing you ate. There was also a day where you were over by over 1000 calories, some others that were hundreds of calories over. Yes, there were also several days you were under, but as you average your calories over the course of a week or a month, it's not as big of a deficit to lose the weight you thought you would have.

    It seems you are on a much more diligent track in the past couple weeks and not going over your calorie allowance. Have you lost anything since January to now? If everything was accurate I don't see how you wouldn't have lost something since then. I would say keep on keeping on. Log foods honestly and as accurately as you can.


    Yea the baked potato was really small. I went off the package and even weighed the potato to see how many grams it was. I didn't use butter. Only light sour cream. Sometimes I don't catch it and just add it. The Chinese thing is very hard to count since my husband loves going to the buffet and I only get 1 small plate and honestly have no idea how many calories are in it. I try to make the best choices when we go there but its hard. I am super bad at eating a lot of prepackaged foods. Its hard I also have pcos and and im insulin resistant so yea these past couple weeks ive been trying to be super accurate. Ive lost nothing but haven't gained anything either. I also appreciate your feedback and how kind you were. People on here can be downright rude. Im not perfect and losing weight it not easy.

    You may want to see if your Dr has a dietician that could help you out, especially if you can show him or her your diary and that you are really counting each calorie the best you can. I eat low carb, and I don't have PCOS, however it seems some women that have PCOS that eat low carb have better success losing weight than just low calorie. I don't want it to seem I'm pushing low carb, and all I have is anecdotal evidence, but if you are monitoring how much you're eating and working out and not seeing the weight go down, you may have to take a look at WHAT you are eating due to medical issues. There may even be some groups on MFP for women with PCOS and/or people with insulin resistance to see if they have any advice first hand.

    How many carbs a day are you eating?
  • There are several things that you can do , Sometimes if you have been at 1500 calories awhile it might not hurt to up that intake one day by 500 calories to see if that takes you out of the stale mate stage. I know that you said that you are not eating all that bad but not all that great. I would suggest looking at what it is that you have been eating you might find that you are eating something that your body doesn't like or is resistant to. I love avocados and sometimes even though that is good I find I can have to much. It sounds like you are loosing your weight "Slow and Steady" which is great. It's relatively normal for the scale not to move sometimes after you have been dieting and exercising awhile. . Are you working out very hard? If you think you could change your diet then look and see what you could be doing differently. I would drink more water as well especially if you are retaining water. Hope this helps! :) Keep up the good work!
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    Your diary isn't available anymore.

    Are you still losing inches? If not, how long have you stopped losing the scale number and inches?
  • xilka
    xilka Posts: 308 Member
    I'd say you're definitely not eating enough at 1500.
    Especially if you think your TDEE is 2600.
    Up to 2000. That's still a higher-than-recommended deficit, if your TDEE is accurate.
    I'd be eating 2300 at the very least.
  • MelRC117
    MelRC117 Posts: 911 Member
    [/quote]

    You may want to see if your Dr has a dietician that could help you out, especially if you can show him or her your diary and that you are really counting each calorie the best you can. I eat low carb, and I don't have PCOS, however it seems some women that have PCOS that eat low carb have better success losing weight than just low calorie. I don't want it to seem I'm pushing low carb, and all I have is anecdotal evidence, but if you are monitoring how much you're eating and working out and not seeing the weight go down, you may have to take a look at WHAT you are eating due to medical issues. There may even be some groups on MFP for women with PCOS and/or people with insulin resistance to see if they have any advice first hand.
    [/quote]

    How many carbs a day are you eating?
    [/quote]

    I calculate NET carbs (which is total carbs minus fiber and sugar alcohols) and I try to stick to 20-25g. I have to say I loosely follow Atkins and have ALOT of weight to lose so I'm currently in Induction. Low carbers may try to stick to a ratio of 70% fat, 25% protein, 5% carbs. As you go on you increase that to 10/15% carbs and eating 75+g of carbs a day. For PCOS it may be a higher percentage...possibly more like 20% of calories from carbs. Doing a quick google search, it looks like you may have moderate success even with sticking to just below the "normal" range. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/812199
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
    What does Bodymedia give you as an average cal burn over the last 28 days? That will give you a good idea of your TDEE. You can find out by clicking on Specific Days, and picking last 28 days. And go back one day, as today is incomplete, meaning pick March 4.

    My current average is 2964, with 2:07 mod activity, and 0:08 vigorous. I'm 5'9' and ~190lbs.

    How do I figure that out exactly lol

    Sign into the website, go to the activity manager, up at the top you will see where it says today's date on the left, then Today, and then Specific Date. Click on Specific Days, and pick "Last 28 days", and then OK. It will pull up all the data for you. Click on the arrow on the left of each category for more detailed info on it.
  • faith2337
    faith2337 Posts: 13
    Your diary isn't available anymore.

    Are you still losing inches? If not, how long have you stopped losing the scale number and inches?

    When I started my weight loss I was following weight watchers. that is how I lost the 37 that I have. I never did measure myself. I started working out with curves and they measured me when I first started. The first month of working out I lost 1 inch total. I haven't gone in for this months weigh in yet as I was waiting for my "curse" to be over with lol. I did however have my friend measure my thigh and it was still the same. I will post on here after I get my 2nd month measurements. Thank you everyone for your help and im gonna keep pushing till I see a change :)