Why am I not losing any weight?
oreogirl168
Posts: 8 Member
I know this is a common question, but I was hoping maybe somebody can help me with this. I'm 20 years old, 5'5" and 150 lbs. I was 150 in mid February when I started this change in lifestyle and I am still 150. I cut out dairy, gluten, wheat, added sugar. I drink herbalife shakes for breakfast and eat super healthy throughout the day, about 1500 calories. I workout twice a day; an hour of cardio and sometimes also weight training in the morning and different intervals like running stairs at an arena and Insanity workouts in the evenings. I store a lot of fat in my lower half and I know that is the last place it leaves so I really need to start losing weight so that I can wear shorts in the summer. It's super discouraging because I feel like I work so hard and get nowhere and my friends will ditch soda and drop like 10 lbs. Does anyone know of anything that might help me or what my problem could be?
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Replies
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I've looked back a few days in your diary and you haven't logged anything. How do you know you are eating within your calorie goal?
Why did you cut out dairy, gluten, wheat and added suagr? This is totally unnecessary unless you have a medical condition diagnosed by a physician. Similarly, herbalife shakes are unnecessary.
Eat nutritious food. Weigh and log everything.0 -
How long have you been at this? When beginning an exercise regimen, your body may start to temporarily retain water to repair muscles. Also as the other person mentioned, you should track and weigh your food, esp at since you don't have much to lose.0
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i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss0
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it's been about a month and a half.0
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i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss
If you are going to use calorie counting you need to weigh and log EVERYTHING,
We tend to overestimate big time.
Get back into logging your food and your results will come.0 -
i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss
They can be, IF you are sensitive to them. You probably aren't so you can probably go back to eating those things.0 -
To me it seems you are not eating enough! With such a massive physical activity 1500kcal just can't be enough.. I might be wrong but read this, it's approximate but helpful http://www.healthylivingheavylifting.com/how-to-calculate-macros-for-cutting/0
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Then be assured you are underestimating your calories. Mental counting is just not the same. Something can look like half a cup but measure at 1 cup (happened to me with breakfast cereal), also by not logging everything you are prone to forget quite a bit of things. If you are really serious about weight loss invest in a food scale (some of them are not expensive) and start tracking every bite.
You will read a lot about certain foods doing certain things to weight loss, but it all boils down to calories in the end. It works for some people because when the eliminate some of their main foods they end up eating less simply due to the lack of variety. Don't torture yourself. The only way these foods could affect your weight is if you have some medical condition, and even then it's usually the other way around (more trips to the bathroom, pain to the point where you don't want to eat, and dehydration)
You can give them up if that makes you happier but at least stick with counting calories correctly.0 -
Track calories and don't be afraid to change it up.....I constantly change my diet from calorie restricted for a few days followed by a cheat day followed by a few days of IF (intermittent fasting). This goes for exercise as well.....fight the temptation to overdo cardio.....do a few days of intense cardio followed by a few days of heavy weight lifting, etc. Keeping your body guessing is the key to weight loss and your sanity.0
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And therein lies the problem--we often forget something we ate or estimate incorrectly. Logging is the most effective tool for accountability.i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss
My guess is your are eating more than you think you are.
Buy yourself a food scale for 20 bucks or less. Weigh all food you eat, and log every single thing. Log your exercise calories too and eat approximately 50 percent back, unless you wear a heart rate monitor that is properly calibrated and you are sure that your calories are accurate.
Losing weight is not about WHAT you eat, it's about HOW MUCH you eat. People who eat super healthy have been known to gain weight too.0 -
I have been having the same issue. I lost 6 lbs the first week, then the next 3 nothing even after cutting calories to 1200 (plus more when I exercise so a lot of times 1800) and working out 5 days a week. I tend to over estimate food and under exercise (like if it seems too much I will cut the time). Everyone keeps telling me its muscle. My clothes do fit looser but its extremely discouraging.0
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I also have a food scale and do weigh. Or get out the measuring spoons. Its annoying that I haven't lost more.0
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And therein lies the problem--we often forget something we ate or estimate incorrectly. Logging is the most effective tool for accountability.i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss
My guess is your are eating more than you think you are.
Buy yourself a food scale for 20 bucks or less. Weigh all food you eat, and log every single thing. Log your exercise calories too and eat approximately 50 percent back, unless you wear a heart rate monitor that is properly calibrated and you are sure that your calories are accurate.
Losing weight is not about WHAT you eat, it's about HOW MUCH you eat. People who eat super healthy have been known to gain weight too.
This!0 -
Make sure you are giving your body rest. And if you put your body into ketosis- from very low carbs- or just too restricted in general, your body will go into starvation mode and hold on to as much of your fat as possible. If you are consistent it will happen. Just make sure you are listening to your body along the way- Your body needs time to catch up to all of the healthy changes. It also takes time for the bad food/chemicals to leave your body.0
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You are taking in more calories than you think you are. Get a scale with a tare feature (reasonably priced at Target). Eyeballing, estimating, is inaccurate. If you weigh, and log, then you will KNOW if your caloric intake is appropriate for your goals.
Forget the trendy diet restrictions unless medically required. Usually based on a book or product someone wants to sell. Study basic nutrition and go from there.
Sweat every day, not necessary to do crazy fitness efforts. At least not necessary for weight loss. Improving your fitness is a different animal.
Often over zealous calorie burns leads to greater hunger, it can be a pitfall...0 -
i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss
If you're not accurate 100% with your tracking how can you expect to? It only takes a few errors to be at maintenance cals.0 -
i've been keeping it mentally cause it becomes a hassle to add everything in the app. But i do need to do that. And I just read a few articles about how those types of foods could be affecting weight loss
There's your problem. Track your food. Do it accurately and consistently.0 -
^Track your food do some weight train more frequent too I would say!0
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You workout a ton! Are you eating back those calories, or at least some of them? If not, 1500 is not enough for that amount of activity. But you should probably weigh, measure, and track everything you put in your mouth or you could be eating way more than you think. Based on your activity level and height/weight/age stats, your should have a TDEE of around 2345. With a 20% reduction you need to eat like 1850 calories a day to lose about a pound a week.0
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I know this is a common question, but I was hoping maybe somebody can help me with this. I'm 20 years old, 5'5" and 150 lbs. I was 150 in mid February when I started this change in lifestyle and I am still 150. I cut out dairy, gluten, wheat, added sugar. I drink herbalife shakes for breakfast and eat super healthy throughout the day, about 1500 calories. I workout twice a day; an hour of cardio and sometimes also weight training in the morning and different intervals like running stairs at an arena and Insanity workouts in the evenings. I store a lot of fat in my lower half and I know that is the last place it leaves so I really need to start losing weight so that I can wear shorts in the summer. It's super discouraging because I feel like I work so hard and get nowhere and my friends will ditch soda and drop like 10 lbs. Does anyone know of anything that might help me or what my problem could be?
Please don't listen to everyone else saying that you're overestimating your calories. That's the simplest answer to give and it's usually wrong, most of these people have not taken the time to look through your diary, I have.
I went through every day in your journal for the past 2 months and from the few food entries i found in there i have come to one definitive conclusion:February 15 2014: Totals = 855 (*You've earned 616 extra calories from exercise today)
February 16 2014: Totals = 1,666 (*You've earned 616 extra calories from exercise today)
March 19 2014: Totals = 1,164 (*You've earned 612 extra calories from exercise today)
March 20 2014: Totals = 817 (*You've earned 408 extra calories from exercise today)
March 25 2014: Totals 1,248 (*You've earned 566 extra calories from exercise today)
you are eating way too little calories. you're starving yourself and slowing down your metabolism. there is a very real response your body goes through when exposed to extreme calorie deficits for a prolonged amount of time called "adaptive thermogenesis," your metabolism begins to slow down.
the main problem is that you are not eating back your exercise calories. you should always eat back your exercise calories, and avoid staying below 1200 calories. Dont think that by eating them back that you're exercising for nothing, your diet will do most of the work and exercise will help keep your metabolism revved up -- but not if you're not providing your body with enough energy in the form of food.
On 2-14-14 you ate 855 calories then burned off 616 cal., that means you left your body with 239 calories worth of energy to work with (855-616=239). Even on your highest intake day 2-16-14 you ate 1,666 calories then burned off 616, which then left your body with 1050 worth of energy to work with (1,666-616=1050), that 1050 is still pretty low compared to the minimum 1200 your body needs to function well. The pattern seems to continue on all days, you eat very little, then you burn off even more with exercise and dont eat those calories back.
I've experienced weight loss plateaus when i held deficits below 1000 for too long and, In my experience, i've found that one way that always helps reset my metabolism is to spend 3 days eating enough calories to be at or just below your maintenance calories, or TDEE.. which for your height, weight, and age should be near 1800 calories. It should help sort-of reset your metabolism. I dont like to exercise on those 3 days cause it will complicate calorie counts and the focus is to try and reset your metabolism, so I dont exercise on those 3 days. After those 3 days of eating just below 1800, start cutting calories and exercising again, but to a healthy deficit -- dont go below 1200 calories, and always eat back your exercise calories.
just eat more, and dont listen to the people saying you're overestimating... you're already starving yourself, you dont need any more of that..0 -
The OP says she hasn't been tracking and she's been at this for a month and a half. You can't make a "definitive conclusion" based on five random days where she has admitted she has been haphazardly tracking.
OP, don't buy into the "starvation mode" fear mongering. What the above poster failed to tell you is that your body doesn't even begin to go into starvation mode until after 72 hours of fasting and even then the slowdown isn't as dramatic as they want you the believe. Adaptive thermogenesis does exist obviously but it is nowhere near significant enough to halt weight loss. You cant defy physics. Even if you WERE undereating (not recommended), you would continue to lose as long as your calories in is less than your calories out.0 -
Adaptive thermogenesis does exist obviously but it is nowhere near significant enough to halt weight loss. You cant defy physics. Even if you WERE undereating (not recommended), you would continue to lose as long as your calories in is less than your calories out.
ETA: addressed Adaptive Thermogenesis BS.
alot of factors affect weight loss it's not all about calories in vs calories out. your logic is flawed.
besides, you will never find a study that's going to have people on a 200 calorie diet a day and measure how much their metabolism reduces by. Normal studies show something like a 50% decrease in calories results in a 10% drop in metabolic resting rate
ok... some of the days in the OP's diary had her at 200 calories net for the day... from her 1800 TDEE that is approximately a 90% decrease in calories... i would have to assume, in general, that metabolic rate tends to drop more with more excessive caloric deficits0 -
I think two things you can learn from the responses...
1) you need a food scale and you need to properly log your calories and exercise
2) join a gym, preferably a fitness gym with a trainer that can help you train better
As I tell others, I've lost over 60 lbs doing nothing more special than portion control and exercise, and the exercise is really just for fun. The real weight loss comes from understanding what your body needs in terms of nutrition and energy and balancing those needs with portion control to create a calorie deficit. You can do this. You sound like you just might need a little help from someone closer to home.0 -
Drinking milkshakes and doing cardio exercise does not equal weight loss. Calorie deficit = weight loss.0
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How could someone gain weight from starving? I thought starving was the opposite of trying to lose weight, but I could be wrong. "Starvation mode" as it's tossed around here is crap.0
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I am in the same boat as you iv just posted a question to figure out what's going g on with my body I'm similar weight as you and was doing exactly the same eating clean low calories exercising lots and did not loose a single pound for 6 weeks!! Iv just had 2 weeks of not counting calorie and not much exercise and 3lbs has just dropped of very confusing I'm not sure if its delayed weight loss from all the hard work or if in fact I wasn't eating enough calories so my body was holding onto the weight not sure now if I should carry on as I am or go intense again! I would say have a week off and see if you lose weight like I have I have got more energy again now and ready to up the exercise x0
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I read almost all of the comments on here trying to help this young lady. I'm no expert so let me just say that up front. I can tell you that I have struggled with this also. 1. You do need to make sure your servings are acurate and log them (it not only will confirm that you are on track but it alows others to better help you. 2. You don't need to join a gym or have a personal trainer in order to lose weight (but they can help to push you hard and that leads to results). 3. Try something - eat real food for two days - eat all the calories that you are supposed to (1500) and eat back your exercise calories (even go a little over if you still feel hungry. When I do this I get results (I'm not talking bing either - have a cookie). 4. Make sure you are drinking 8+ glasses of water because your body needs the water in order to help you lose weight. 5. I do agree that you might want to take a day off (or what I do is drop a session from my day).
I am sure that you can figure this out - remember that your body needs fuel in order to burn fat, make muscle and just do its normal daily thing - don't starve yourself and listen to your body. I started out doing the shakes and the bars and only eatting dinner as a real meal but I will be honest that now I do real food and I am not hunry as often and I have more energy. Good luck!0 -
Adaptive thermogenesis does exist obviously but it is nowhere near significant enough to halt weight loss. You cant defy physics. Even if you WERE undereating (not recommended), you would continue to lose as long as your calories in is less than your calories out.
ETA: addressed Adaptive Thermogenesis BS.
alot of factors affect weight loss it's not all about calories in vs calories out. your logic is flawed.
besides, you will never find a study that's going to have people on a 200 calorie diet a day and measure how much their metabolism reduces by. Normal studies show something like a 50% decrease in calories results in a 10% drop in metabolic resting rate
ok... some of the days in the OP's diary had her at 200 calories net for the day... from her 1800 TDEE that is approximately a 90% decrease in calories... i would have to assume, in general, that metabolic rate tends to drop more with more excessive caloric deficits
This is assuming she had logged all of the calories she had eaten during that day. More often than not the culprit is inconsistency. gtfo with your starvation mode trash. dyel?
OP:
After looking at your diary more closely I'm still sticking with the culprit being your lack of accuracy. You don't track calories or weigh food etc. How do you come up with 4.8 oz, etc? Couple that with the fact you only actually logged entries like twice out of the past 30 days... . Most people aren't experienced enough to eyeball and get away with it.
Even if this wasn't the issue, it would at east rule it out...0 -
The whole point of the body storing fat during periods of over consumption is to carry one over during periods of under consumption. Therefore, it would seem to me that when you put yourself at a significant calorie deficit, the body would start to use these stores to maintain itself. It may be that it also slows down a bit in an attempt to make the fat stores last as long as possible, but clearly its going to be taking stored fat and burning it. It has no other choice. This idea that people think the body “holds on” to these calories, and therefore you stop losing weight, just doesn’t make sense to me. If this happened, your brain and organs would just cease to function. You would die. People with excess body fat do not die from starvation due to a few weeks of calorie deficits.
Ever seen a fat bear in the wild in spring?0 -
I know this is a common question, but I was hoping maybe somebody can help me with this. I'm 20 years old, 5'5" and 150 lbs. I was 150 in mid February when I started this change in lifestyle and I am still 150. I cut out dairy, gluten, wheat, added sugar. I drink herbalife shakes for breakfast and eat super healthy throughout the day, about 1500 calories. I workout twice a day; an hour of cardio and sometimes also weight training in the morning and different intervals like running stairs at an arena and Insanity workouts in the evenings. I store a lot of fat in my lower half and I know that is the last place it leaves so I really need to start losing weight so that I can wear shorts in the summer. It's super discouraging because I feel like I work so hard and get nowhere and my friends will ditch soda and drop like 10 lbs. Does anyone know of anything that might help me or what my problem could be?
You are most likely eating more than you think.
I would highly recommend getting a food scale, and weigh/measure everything.
Do that for a couple months and then see where you are at.
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