Not losing-Passing a month

ladylp756
ladylp756 Posts: 4
edited February 17 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,
I have been logging my food for over a month, and I have doing Beach Body, Les Mill Combat dvds. My concern is that I am not losing weight. I have been snacking, but not a lot and not everyday. This never have been a problem for me in the past, because I have done weight watchers and have had snacks, but stayed in my points and used my extra points as well. What could be the problem? I am toning up but know lost in inches. I am over 45 years of age.

Replies

  • ChelleBalady
    ChelleBalady Posts: 204
    Open your food diary this will help others help you answer your question. :-)
  • ladylp756
    ladylp756 Posts: 4
    Open
  • _Calypso_
    _Calypso_ Posts: 1,074 Member
    There is nothing wrong with snacking IF you log what you ate. Many people grab a handful or two of chips which could easily be 2 servings but they only log one. Doing this through out the day can lead to a few hundred calories more. Are you weighing your food or guesstimating? Log every thing that you eat and weigh everything you eat.

    Secondly, do you wear a heart rate monitor. You seem to have some pretty big burns. MFP usually overestimates calories burned. therefore if you are snacking and not logging and overestimating your exercise you could easily be in maintenance mode.

    THird - as we get older our metabolism does slow down so it take longer with more effort to lose weight!



    But lastly.... if you are losing inches and you feel better - THAT is what should matter. Keep logging, keep working out, be patient.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    The first thing to look at is always to make sure your numbers are accurate.

    Are you logging everything you eat? Including snacks, condiments, veggies, etc?

    Are you using a food scale? Food scales are the most accurate way to determine your portion sizes and there can be a large difference between food scales and measuring cups. The little inconsistencies can add up to hundreds of extra calories that you're eating but not logging.

    Are your exercise burns accurate? MFP and gym machines have a tendency to overestimate some exercises. If you're eating back your exercise calories then you might want to aim for just 50-75% of the added calories to be on the safe side.
  • lisajsund
    lisajsund Posts: 366 Member
    Great job on losing inches! I think that's where I want to see the most difference in my journey.
    It's a great think to know you are losing FAT, which is where the inches come off.

    Only question - have you ever had a body composition test done to know what your estimated body fat is? I think that is a way better indication of health in place of only the number on the scale.

    Based on my current number, if I lose enough weight to get to 165 without losing any lean tissue, I'd be at 18% BF. Not sure I'll make it quite that low. But, even at 170 (~21% BF), I'm nearly 20 lbs overweight according the BMI scale, which is stupid.
    More lean tissue means you can eat more to maintain and you burn more calories at rest.

    And, I'm in a weight training class for another 8 weeks, which means I may put on addition lean tissue, as long as I continue to keep my protein up, which is at least 140 g per day.
  • ladylp756
    ladylp756 Posts: 4
    I am not losing inches, although I do feel good. I log everything. I wondering if my calories are accurate MFP seems too low.
    I do wear a heart rate monitor when working out and it is pretty much accurate, off maybe by 10 more than MFP numbers.
    Age, yep, I do believe it is part of the problem and hormonal changes.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    Great job on losing inches! I think that's where I want to see the most difference in my journey.
    It's a great think to know you are losing FAT, which is where the inches come off.

    Only question - have you ever had a body composition test done to know what your estimated body fat is? I think that is a way better indication of health in place of only the number on the scale.

    Based on my current number, if I lose enough weight to get to 165 without losing any lean tissue, I'd be at 18% BF. Not sure I'll make it quite that low. But, even at 170 (~21% BF), I'm nearly 20 lbs overweight according the BMI scale, which is stupid.
    More lean tissue means you can eat more to maintain and you burn more calories at rest.

    And, I'm in a weight training class for another 8 weeks, which means I may put on addition lean tissue, as long as I continue to keep my protein up, which is at least 140 g per day.

    Hate to break it to you but you wont put on muscle eating at a deficet...and unless you are getting a dexa scan I suspect the BF% is inaccurate. How tall are you? weighing 170lbs with 21% BF for a woman is quite something.

    To add muscle you need to be at a surplus of TDEE calories and lifting heavy weights using a progressive load lifting program.

    To the OP you don't weight your food per your diary, there are days where hardly anything is logged, you use quick add calories

    I suspect you are eating more than you think....
  • ladylp756
    ladylp756 Posts: 4
    I don't log on the weekends. I really eat about the same . I don't do quick add and I eat small portions. from what I do add I make adjustments to the numbers. Tdee says I should be eating 1771 to maintain and 1417 to lose. Maybe I am eating too much.
  • lisajsund
    lisajsund Posts: 366 Member
    Great job on losing inches! I think that's where I want to see the most difference in my journey.
    It's a great think to know you are losing FAT, which is where the inches come off.

    Only question - have you ever had a body composition test done to know what your estimated body fat is? I think that is a way better indication of health in place of only the number on the scale.

    Based on my current number, if I lose enough weight to get to 165 without losing any lean tissue, I'd be at 18% BF. Not sure I'll make it quite that low. But, even at 170 (~21% BF), I'm nearly 20 lbs overweight according the BMI scale, which is stupid.
    More lean tissue means you can eat more to maintain and you burn more calories at rest.

    And, I'm in a weight training class for another 8 weeks, which means I may put on addition lean tissue, as long as I continue to keep my protein up, which is at least 140 g per day.

    Hate to break it to you but you wont put on muscle eating at a deficet...and unless you are getting a dexa scan I suspect the BF% is inaccurate. How tall are you? weighing 170lbs with 21% BF for a woman is quite something.

    To add muscle you need to be at a surplus of TDEE calories and lifting heavy weights using a progressive load lifting program.

    To the OP you don't weight your food per your diary, there are days where hardly anything is logged, you use quick add calories

    I suspect you are eating more than you think....

    Body composition has nothing to do with height, as you are aware, which is why BMI is stupid.

    I am 5'5", and three different people have done body fat testing on me using the 3 and 7 point caliper test. I know it's not entirely accurate, but I would believe they are generally correct as they are pretty close to one another. I currently have 134-135 lbs of lean tissue. If I were to follow the BMI, I would have to lose lean tissue to make it to my "healthy" range of 111-149 lbs. With my current lean tissue, if I made it to 149, I'd be somewhere around 10% BF. Unhealthy for sure, for a woman of child bearing age.
  • krennie8
    krennie8 Posts: 301 Member
    do you weigh your food? I don't think weighing things like lettuce is necessary, but weighing chicken, oils, potatoes, chips, etc is a good idea. If you're not, try doing that.

    The only time I don't worry about weighing snacks is when I know I'm the only one eating the bag of chips. Then I know if the bag is 10 oz, and a serving is 1 oz, I need to make sure I've logged 10 servings of chips by the time I finish it. So a guess of 2 servings here, 1 there is fine as long as you're logging a total of 10 and not 6.

    If you're measuring correctly and still not losing I'd get your thyroid checked.
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