Lifestyle changes and no weight loss!

sag52088
sag52088 Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All,
This is my first post here and I'm doing so because I'm frustrated and hoping to gain some insight or advice.

I have never had issues with my weight until this year. I don't come from a family with obesity issues and both parents are thin. The beginning of this year was very stressful for me and I became victim to "eating my feelings." The weight I am trying to lose (roughly 15lbs) was gained in the last 3-4 months. I contribute it to many nights of late night binge snacking and a HORRIBLE diet. I found myself eating only comfort foods and mainly carbs, fast food, or eating out and drinking.

I understand that the quickest way to weight loss is a combination of diet and exercise. Between my work and school schedule I find it hard to find real time to set aside for working out. I do some working out at home when I can and have made lifestyle changes like parking farther away and walking or taking stairs, etc. to be more active in general. I also work a job where I'm on my feet and moving constantly.

I've made huge dietary changes as well. I am not eating within 3 hours of bed time, I am now eating a balanced breakfast each morning, preparing food at home, only having a couple drinks on the weekend(vodka and soda) and have been using My Fitness Pal to track calories and macros. I'm not on a no carb diet but certainly low carb.

To date, in two full weeks I have lost zero weight. Prior to my weight gain I did not work out or "diet" and I was at a healthy and happy weight. Because my pounds were gained from simply very poor choices, I believed that once I made lifestyle changes and started using the app to get back on track with nutrition I would start to see improvement. Not seeing even one pound come off is upsetting and I'm looking for some advice.

Thanks in advance.

Replies

  • 0somuchbetter0
    0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
    Two weeks isn't a very long time to see changes in your weight. Also, you're probably eating more calories than you think you are. If you open your diary people can see what you're eating and give you advice. What are your stats? It doesn't matter what or when you eat, really...the important thing to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn.

    BTW, we're neighbors. I live right off Rockville Pike just south of the Beltway and work in downtown Bethesda. :)
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    First, two weeks isn't enough time to determine whether or not a program is working. Our bodies have a tendency to hold onto extra water when we start a new routine, which can mask any fat loss that's happening.

    Would you be comfortable opening your diary?

    Are you accurately tracking your food? Including veggies, cooking oils, condiments, etc? Are you using a food scale, measuring cups, or estimating portion sizes? Are you eating back any exercise calories and if so how are you estimating your burns?
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Two weeks isn't quite long enough to tell. Due to the fact that you didn't workout before, you're probably holding on to a little water weight at the moment. When you start exercising or increase the intensity of workouts, your muscles retain water and glycogen as part of the natural healing process. Basically anytime you're sore, you should expect to see a stall or even a slight gain on the scale. Once your body gets used to the new activity, this will decrease.

    And as the PP pointed out, it could have to do with some tweaking needed in your food logging/choices.
  • aarnwine2013
    aarnwine2013 Posts: 317 Member
    You may not be eating as few calories as you think to put you at a defict. Do you track your food? If you don't, you should. It was a real eye opener for me when I started tracking my food.

    I was eating a good deal more than what I should have been. Once I started logging and being honest about my food and drink consumption, the weight started to drop.

    Also, two weeks is a short amount of time. The body will need time to adjust.
  • sag52088
    sag52088 Posts: 3
    I really appreciate the feedback. I made my food diary public (I didn't know that was an option until now) and I have done my best to accurately record everything. There are days that I have missed, usually weekends, but it's not like I have gone hog wild those days. There are days I go over my calories allotment but it's usually not by any large number.

    I think the reason I'm getting bent out of shape is that what I am doing currently is a very drastic change from the last several months. I may go over my approximate 1500 a day budget here and there by a little but it's still so much less than before I got myself on track. I was literally never eating breakfast, eating huge lunches at work made up of fries and fried food, eating high carb dinners and heavily snacking on cookies or chocolate at night. If I had to guess I was probably consuming around 3000-3500 calories a day and none of that was comprised of healthy food. Going from that to what I am doing now I did expect it would be a drastic enough change to at least see a couple pounds come off in the first couple weeks. Again, I'm not expecting it to fall off as I am not on a regimented work out schedule and there are many days where I don't get any set aside working out time in.

    I will keep at what I am doing for another couple weeks to see if my body does adjust and I start to see changes!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    I would really encourage you to get into the habit of logging your food accurately. Of the past 11 days in your diary you have 2 days unlogged, 5 days at less than 1100 calories (I'm hoping those are just partially logged days and that you're not routinely eating less than 1200 calories), and 2 days above 2000 calories. You only seem to come in around your calorie level twice in 11 days. It's really easy to eat more than you realize if you're not logging it and it's hard to determine what could be going wrong if you're only logging partial days.

    Additionally, your sodium is high from all the restaurant food. You can absolutely lose while eating out, but you may have to put up with the fact that sodium is going to cause your body to retain extra water, which can cause weight fluctuations along the way.

    Best of luck as you move forward in this journey.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    So....how many calories are you eating per day, because that is really all that matters for weight loss. If you don't know then I think I found your problem.

    Also as other posters have mentioned, two weeks is insufficient time to gauge progress.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Always good to make some healthier changes...

    But 1,000 calories of broccoli is still 1,000 calories. It is a numbers game.

    Calorie deficits make fat loss. Not simply switching foods out.
  • karmasays
    karmasays Posts: 82 Member
    Start weighing your solid food on a digital food scale and only use cups to measure liquids. Sometimes, you're eating more then you think because food weight and volume have a different # of calories (i.e. peanubutter).
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Looked over your diary for the past week, and found many partial days of tracking. Changing some habits is good, but weight loss is about calories in vs. calories out. Consistently weighing and logging every thing you eat, is the key. Tracking some meals or days, but not all: you're not eating at a deficit overall.

    On the bright side, seems like you're no longer gaining weight as you had been at your approx. 3000-3500 per day.
  • sag52088
    sag52088 Posts: 3
    Thanks everyone. To answer a question, I am eating around 1500 calories per day as suggested by My Fitness Pal to lose two pounds per week. It is true that I don't accurately record things every single day. Usually I'll see what I have left for the day on my way home from work and then I'll eat dinner but forget to log. I'm definitely not eating anything less than 1200 per day.

    It seems that maybe although I have certainly been trying very hard, I may not be trying hard enough or I may be overestimating my changes. This is probably something I could have realized on my own but sometimes it helps for others to put it into perspective.
  • amreadarrens
    amreadarrens Posts: 43 Member
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