In 5 weeks you'll lose 10lbs... why is it not working?
Replies
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Awesome posts! Thank you for taking the time to put that all together Mirey.
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Good post.
Here's an interesting new study for people who are afraid to lose weight quickly.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/07/us-diet-weightloss-idUSTRE6464BQ20100507
Note that that study only included obese women. It cannot be applied to everyone who would like to lose weight.1 -
I am over my calories most of the time and still losing weight. My diet clinic doctor said that I am still losing weight because the quality of the food I eat is good.(Lots of fruit and vegetables, nuts, not much processed food.)1
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A good sensible post ... thank you for sharing
jx0 -
Good post.
Here's an interesting new study for people who are afraid to lose weight quickly.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/07/us-diet-weightloss-idUSTRE6464BQ20100507
Note that that study only included obese women. It cannot be applied to everyone who would like to lose weight.
I noticed that too. If a woman is obese, she is likely to be starting out with a fairly high tdee... Which means she can accomplish a bit of a bigger deficit. But it says nothing in terms of psychology, support systems they had in place, or what their quality of life was like before, during, and after.
The study is small (260ish people), and very subjective.
It didn't sell me on anything.
But thank you for sharing.
Eta... I read it again... All it really seemed to conclude was that the ones who lost faster, lost more over the 18 month period... But it says nothing about how they fared over the long run. It also didn't state if all the women had the same amount of weight to lose.1 -
<< this is me, pleasantly surprised.
Oh, and did you address that men need more calories? I know a guy, he and his girl decided that 1500 was the proper amount for them both to eat, and they also exercised heavily, and he burned up insane muscle mass.
This is very true! I would recommend, really, that the first step when joining here is to see what your calories are set to at maintenance first. Then, once you are armed with that knowledge, set your calorie numbers accordingly.
Don't just pick 1200 as your guideline. For some it is more appropriate than others, and for men, it is rarely appropriate.
And for interest sake...
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/daily-caloric-expenditure-calculator.aspx
A sedentary 30 year old female, at 5'6" weighing 170 pounds - has an estimated maintenance level of 1875 cals per day
a man for the same age, height and weight... estimated maintenance level of 2116 cals per day.
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This was an awesome post!! Thanks so much for taking the time to post this! I also would like to know when you eat under your calorie goal, you get this message that if you keep eating like this, you will weigh ...so much in 5 weeks.........well guess what i've been told that for a year and I still haven't got to that weight that they told me I'd be at.......lol
Once again thanks so much for the post!!!
That message is probably more often wrong than it is right. We all know that life does not exist in a vaccuum. And as women, that 5 weeks invariably spans a cycle too - where we retain water. Weight is a combination of factors too - water retention, dehydration, time of the month, whether you've recently used the washroom... all of those combined can EASILY make up multiple pounds.
I tend to weigh daily... but I try not to worry too much about that daily value and rather watch the overall trend.
I have seen my weight spike by up to 8 pounds over a few days, and then drop back to normal. So to watch your weight on the order of a 5 week rolling time scale seems somewhat counter intuitive.
That statement is more like a carrot that they use to dangle in front of you - prompting you to keep going. And rather than focus on that "promise" I'd encourage you to focus on trends... are you trending downward, upward, or relatively stagnant.
If you are stagnant, then you need to change up one of the variables a bit. Maybe swap out an old exercise and in a new one. Add a little bit more exercise to your day. Take one of the regular items on your menu and swap it for something that is a little more healthy for you... that sort of thing.0 -
Bump for later.0
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I am over my calories most of the time and still losing weight. My diet clinic doctor said that I am still losing weight because the quality of the food I eat is good.(Lots of fruit and vegetables, nuts, not much processed food.)
You lose weight because you are consuming less calories than you are burning.
If you estimate that you burn 2000 cals a day, and decide to eat 1750... to lose 0.5 pounds a week... and then end up eating 1900... you are still at a 100 cal deficit and would still lose weight.
But come now... we all know that there is no way we can be accurate to the calorie. We ESTIMATE our daily burn, we estimate our food calories, we estimate our exercise calories. And unless you are bang on with your estimates, it's way easy for you to be up or down a couple hundred calories here and there.
Maybe you're moving a bit more than normal, or you had a crazy active day, but didn't really log it. Maybe IN REALITY you tend toward burning 2300 cals a day instead of 2000.
It's not an exact science... which is why worrying about being 5 cals over is such a waste of brain power.
Oh... and for the record... if you're eating a pile of veggies and estimate 1/2 cup of cucumber instead of 1 cup of cucumber... the impact is about 15 calories. If you estimate 1/2 a cup of ice cream, instead of 1 cup of ice cream... the impact is about 170 calories.
So - be smart about what and how you estimate. (And still eat the ice cream - just be honest with yourself... a bowlful is typically NOT a single serving.:laugh:)1 -
bump0
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Great information! Thanks for posting! :drinker:0
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Now this is a great post. It should become one of those threads that are posted often to get people started and cut all the BS.1
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Excellent I have set my profile as lightly active, I am a nurse and spend 5 days per week running around at work.
I am 5'3 and 200 pounds/93kg. My calories are automatically set at 1750 per day.
Now my iPhone 5s is synced up to track and add my steps.
Should I be setting my profile at sedentary and allow it to add the calories from my steps added each day plus exercise that I do? I carry my phone in my pocket at all times to track my steps.
I am determined to succeed and don't want to over eat.
I don't have "official" experience with this, but will share what I do...
I have a pedometer on my phone, but obviously do not have it on my person at all times.
When I get ready for work in the morning, it's usually on my counter as I race from kitchen to living room, upstairs, downstairs, back to kitchen, back upstairs, etc. I'm not carrying my phone for any of that, so all those steps are not recorded. The same happens at night. But it does track a huge number of my steps... and on a "normal" day, I record about 6000 steps.
So on days when I am exceeding 12000 recorded steps, I will add an entry for some time spent walking.
I'd recommend (but this is just my opinion) carrying it with you and noting what your steps are on a "normal" day... note what they are on an active day, and then adjust your calories accordingly. If it means you drop your activity level setting in MFP to allow the step sync... do that. Basically, I'd figure out what you need to do so that an average day's worth of steps nets you where you would have been before you introduced the new tracking into your life. (Hope that makes sense?)
Good luck!0 -
#1--very hot profile picture--my congratulations
#2--bump for future inspiration (the information, not the profile picture.)0 -
#1--very hot profile picture--my congratulations
#2--bump for future inspiration (the information, not the profile picture.)
:blushing: thank you, I am completely hooked on him, and it's my fav pic of all :blushing:0 -
Great post!! And you are so right about adjust, adjust, adjust. I'm slowly figuring out what works for me through trial and error 1
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Great post!! Keeping for future reference.0
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taken from my blog (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MireyGal76/view/in-5-weeks-you-ll-lose-10lbs-why-s-it-not-working-668182) - reposting in the threads (based on feedback received)
********************
When someone signs up for MFP, they are gung ho about losing weight, and want to shed those pounds FAST!
They look at the calculator, enter their stats and are asked...
What is your lifestyle like... Sedentary? Lightly active?
This is such a subjective question!
Some people are fooling themselves... and think they're very active, when in reality, they work at a desk job, and go home and watch tv for most of the night. But... Sedentary seems bad... And they're not that bad... So they set themselves as very active - fooling themselves into thinking they're able to consume more calories.
Some other people are underestimating themselves, and think they're sedentary, when in reality, they walk to/from work, at lunch, around the office, then get home and chase kids and pets, not sitting down until they fall into bed at the end of the night exhausted. They're burning way more calories than they realize, but they hate themselves, so they pick sedentary. Determined to punish themselves into fitness.
The daily calories expended by the first and the second are dramatically different! And what they pick, can cause pretty significant results....
And then you have...
How many pounds do you want to lose per week?
How many pounds do I want to lose?
I WANNA LOSE EM ALL!!!
How many pounds CAN I LOSE? I can lose up to 2 pounds per week?
This is where the inevitable road to dissatisfaction and potential rage quit begins.
Stick with me...
According to a random website* (hehe) the average height and weight of a woman in america is 5'4" and 168 pounds. (I KNOW - GENERALIZE MUCH?)
According to another random website** (hehe), if they're sedentary, their daily calorie expenditure is 1838.
If that woman joined MFP and decided to lose 2lb a week... She'd be told to eat 1200 cals a day. If she religiously followed that plan, she wouldn't lose 2lb a week. If she's lucky, she'd barely scratch 1 pound a week.
Why?
Minimum calorie expenditure is 1200 cals a day. It's not safe for your to go below this value.
If your goal causes you to dip below that daily rate, then MFP lets you set it, but will reset your min calories to 1200.
There is no way that the average woman can lose at that rate, given the above calculations.
In fact... in order to possibly lose 2lb per week, you'd need to be burning (at maintenance) 2200 cals per day.
My settings currently have me at 2000 cals per day. I am 6'1" and 168 pounds.
I have many tiny friends who won't reach that calorie burn in a day.
Unless you are quite overweight...
TO EXPECT YOURSELF TO BE ABLE TO BURN 2 LBS A WEEK IS CRAZY
It is frustrating.
It is unsustainable.
And it is damaging to your goals.
Calorie counting is a simple concept, but it's fraught with variables...
- are you properly estimating your activity levels?
- are you properly estimating your exercise burns?
- are you correctly weighing, measuring, and logging your food?
If you find that you aren't making progress... start to look at those variables...
If you over estimate your activity levels, overestimate your burns, and under estimate your food... you won't succeed in your goals. All you will do is succeed at frustrating yourself.
What I recommend?
Unless you are obese (and have the help of a doctor), I strongly recommend focusing on the following:
- 0.5 lb to 1lb a week MAXIMUM loss.
- learn to weigh and measure your food. EVERYTHING.
(I suffer slow calorie drain by snacking. I KILL MY CALORIES BY SNACKS... 100 cals here, 200 cals there.. until I have nothing left for supper and then give up and go over )
- If you don't know how active you are... then go sedentary and log all exercise. LOG IT ALL. (But be honest with yourself in terms of burns... sitting on the couch folding laundry - not the same kind of housework as scrubbing floors)
And be patient with yourself. Give it time and adjust. Adjust.
A D J U S T.
You didn't gain the weight in a week, you won't lose it in as much.
Take your time.
You can do this!
**********************
By all means, I welcome correction by those who know more than me...
* http://www.livestrong.com/article/357769-weight-height-for-the-average-american-woman/
** http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/daily-caloric-expenditure-calculator.aspx
Whoa this is a lot to take in. But I'd like to disagree.... losing 2 lbs a week on 1200 calories is entirely possible, especially with 30-60 mins of cardio a day to rev your metabolism up and get it burning. I've lost over 70 lbs in the past, guess thats my credibility.0 -
Excellent post!!0
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You're awesome0
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taken from my blog (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MireyGal76/view/in-5-weeks-you-ll-lose-10lbs-why-s-it-not-working-668182) - reposting in the threads (based on feedback received)
********************
When someone signs up for MFP, they are gung ho about losing weight, and want to shed those pounds FAST!
They look at the calculator, enter their stats and are asked...
What is your lifestyle like... Sedentary? Lightly active?
This is such a subjective question!
Some people are fooling themselves... and think they're very active, when in reality, they work at a desk job, and go home and watch tv for most of the night. But... Sedentary seems bad... And they're not that bad... So they set themselves as very active - fooling themselves into thinking they're able to consume more calories.
Some other people are underestimating themselves, and think they're sedentary, when in reality, they walk to/from work, at lunch, around the office, then get home and chase kids and pets, not sitting down until they fall into bed at the end of the night exhausted. They're burning way more calories than they realize, but they hate themselves, so they pick sedentary. Determined to punish themselves into fitness.
The daily calories expended by the first and the second are dramatically different! And what they pick, can cause pretty significant results....
And then you have...
How many pounds do you want to lose per week?
How many pounds do I want to lose?
I WANNA LOSE EM ALL!!!
How many pounds CAN I LOSE? I can lose up to 2 pounds per week?
This is where the inevitable road to dissatisfaction and potential rage quit begins.
Stick with me...
According to a random website* (hehe) the average height and weight of a woman in america is 5'4" and 168 pounds. (I KNOW - GENERALIZE MUCH?)
According to another random website** (hehe), if they're sedentary, their daily calorie expenditure is 1838.
If that woman joined MFP and decided to lose 2lb a week... She'd be told to eat 1200 cals a day. If she religiously followed that plan, she wouldn't lose 2lb a week. If she's lucky, she'd barely scratch 1 pound a week.
Why?
Minimum calorie expenditure is 1200 cals a day. It's not safe for your to go below this value.
If your goal causes you to dip below that daily rate, then MFP lets you set it, but will reset your min calories to 1200.
There is no way that the average woman can lose at that rate, given the above calculations.
In fact... in order to possibly lose 2lb per week, you'd need to be burning (at maintenance) 2200 cals per day.
My settings currently have me at 2000 cals per day. I am 6'1" and 168 pounds.
I have many tiny friends who won't reach that calorie burn in a day.
Unless you are quite overweight...
TO EXPECT YOURSELF TO BE ABLE TO BURN 2 LBS A WEEK IS CRAZY
It is frustrating.
It is unsustainable.
And it is damaging to your goals.
Calorie counting is a simple concept, but it's fraught with variables...
- are you properly estimating your activity levels?
- are you properly estimating your exercise burns?
- are you correctly weighing, measuring, and logging your food?
If you find that you aren't making progress... start to look at those variables...
If you over estimate your activity levels, overestimate your burns, and under estimate your food... you won't succeed in your goals. All you will do is succeed at frustrating yourself.
What I recommend?
Unless you are obese (and have the help of a doctor), I strongly recommend focusing on the following:
- 0.5 lb to 1lb a week MAXIMUM loss.
- learn to weigh and measure your food. EVERYTHING.
(I suffer slow calorie drain by snacking. I KILL MY CALORIES BY SNACKS... 100 cals here, 200 cals there.. until I have nothing left for supper and then give up and go over )
- If you don't know how active you are... then go sedentary and log all exercise. LOG IT ALL. (But be honest with yourself in terms of burns... sitting on the couch folding laundry - not the same kind of housework as scrubbing floors)
And be patient with yourself. Give it time and adjust. Adjust.
A D J U S T.
You didn't gain the weight in a week, you won't lose it in as much.
Take your time.
You can do this!
**********************
By all means, I welcome correction by those who know more than me...
* http://www.livestrong.com/article/357769-weight-height-for-the-average-american-woman/
** http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/daily-caloric-expenditure-calculator.aspx
Whoa this is a lot to take in. But I'd like to disagree.... losing 2 lbs a week on 1200 calories is entirely possible, especially with 30-60 mins of cardio a day to rev your metabolism up and get it burning. I've lost over 70 lbs in the past, guess thats my credibility.
Yes, that's because you had 70 pounds to lose. You've missed the point of the post.0 -
Whoa this is a lot to take in. But I'd like to disagree.... losing 2 lbs a week on 1200 calories is entirely possible, especially with 30-60 mins of cardio a day to rev your metabolism up and get it burning. I've lost over 70 lbs in the past, guess thats my credibility.
Ahh... I think maybe you are misunderstanding me...
If you normally burn 1400 calories, and are now consuming 1200 calories, you won't lose 2 pounds in a week. It's not possible.
If you add in 30-60 mins of cardio per day, you are burning probably close to 1800-2000 calories. If you still only eat 1200 calories, you are at a deficit of 600-800 calories for the day.
If you do that every day, then YES you would be losing at a faster weight - especially at the outset when you have a lot more weight to lose.
I don't advocate aiming to lose more than 2 pounds (if you can support that kind of deficit), and rather I recommend taking a lower rate of loss and eating more.
Yes it slows down the progress... but it also allows:
- your body to adapt to the lost fat
- you to preserve lean muscle mass a bit better
- your mind to adjust to the ever changing you. (Dropping mental fat is a huge effort too)
- you to develop a sustainable lifestyle pattern... because you don't want to be living at an 800/day calorie deficit for the rest of your life.
My whole point is that if you want to change your lifestyle, then I advocate a slower more deliberate process, than "doing what you need to do to shed all this weight, and then once it's gone, try and figure out what to do next".
Congratulations on your weight loss! You have shown a level of dedication and commitment that is highly admirable! :flowerforyou:2 -
taken from my blog (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MireyGal76/view/in-5-weeks-you-ll-lose-10lbs-why-s-it-not-working-668182) - reposting in the threads (based on feedback received)
********************
When someone signs up for MFP, they are gung ho about losing weight, and want to shed those pounds FAST!
They look at the calculator, enter their stats and are asked...
What is your lifestyle like... Sedentary? Lightly active?
This is such a subjective question!
Some people are fooling themselves... and think they're very active, when in reality, they work at a desk job, and go home and watch tv for most of the night. But... Sedentary seems bad... And they're not that bad... So they set themselves as very active - fooling themselves into thinking they're able to consume more calories.
Some other people are underestimating themselves, and think they're sedentary, when in reality, they walk to/from work, at lunch, around the office, then get home and chase kids and pets, not sitting down until they fall into bed at the end of the night exhausted. They're burning way more calories than they realize, but they hate themselves, so they pick sedentary. Determined to punish themselves into fitness.
The daily calories expended by the first and the second are dramatically different! And what they pick, can cause pretty significant results....
And then you have...
How many pounds do you want to lose per week?
How many pounds do I want to lose?
I WANNA LOSE EM ALL!!!
How many pounds CAN I LOSE? I can lose up to 2 pounds per week?
This is where the inevitable road to dissatisfaction and potential rage quit begins.
Stick with me...
According to a random website* (hehe) the average height and weight of a woman in america is 5'4" and 168 pounds. (I KNOW - GENERALIZE MUCH?)
According to another random website** (hehe), if they're sedentary, their daily calorie expenditure is 1838.
If that woman joined MFP and decided to lose 2lb a week... She'd be told to eat 1200 cals a day. If she religiously followed that plan, she wouldn't lose 2lb a week. If she's lucky, she'd barely scratch 1 pound a week.
Why?
Minimum calorie expenditure is 1200 cals a day. It's not safe for your to go below this value.
If your goal causes you to dip below that daily rate, then MFP lets you set it, but will reset your min calories to 1200.
There is no way that the average woman can lose at that rate, given the above calculations.
In fact... in order to possibly lose 2lb per week, you'd need to be burning (at maintenance) 2200 cals per day.
My settings currently have me at 2000 cals per day. I am 6'1" and 168 pounds.
I have many tiny friends who won't reach that calorie burn in a day.
Unless you are quite overweight...
TO EXPECT YOURSELF TO BE ABLE TO BURN 2 LBS A WEEK IS CRAZY
It is frustrating.
It is unsustainable.
And it is damaging to your goals.
Calorie counting is a simple concept, but it's fraught with variables...
- are you properly estimating your activity levels?
- are you properly estimating your exercise burns?
- are you correctly weighing, measuring, and logging your food?
If you find that you aren't making progress... start to look at those variables...
If you over estimate your activity levels, overestimate your burns, and under estimate your food... you won't succeed in your goals. All you will do is succeed at frustrating yourself.
What I recommend?
Unless you are obese (and have the help of a doctor), I strongly recommend focusing on the following:
- 0.5 lb to 1lb a week MAXIMUM loss.
- learn to weigh and measure your food. EVERYTHING.
(I suffer slow calorie drain by snacking. I KILL MY CALORIES BY SNACKS... 100 cals here, 200 cals there.. until I have nothing left for supper and then give up and go over )
- If you don't know how active you are... then go sedentary and log all exercise. LOG IT ALL. (But be honest with yourself in terms of burns... sitting on the couch folding laundry - not the same kind of housework as scrubbing floors)
And be patient with yourself. Give it time and adjust. Adjust.
A D J U S T.
You didn't gain the weight in a week, you won't lose it in as much.
Take your time.
You can do this!
**********************
By all means, I welcome correction by those who know more than me...
* http://www.livestrong.com/article/357769-weight-height-for-the-average-american-woman/
** http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/daily-caloric-expenditure-calculator.aspx
Whoa this is a lot to take in. But I'd like to disagree.... losing 2 lbs a week on 1200 calories is entirely possible, especially with 30-60 mins of cardio a day to rev your metabolism up and get it burning. I've lost over 70 lbs in the past, guess thats my credibility.
I agree with you. In fact , I just did it. Went from 187 to 181 as of today in 2 and a half weeks. Need to cut down for the beach! But I think the point of the post is not to stress about losing fast and enjoy your life . I am a firm believer in cutting calories a title more drastically when you want to kick start the weight loss and it can be done without negative effects. I have more energy now than ever. I love going long periods without food. No after lunch crash! Lol. But not everyone is comfortable with that approach and don't necessarily want to sacrifice and that's ok too.1 -
Excellent I have set my profile as lightly active, I am a nurse and spend 5 days per week running around at work.
I am 5'3 and 200 pounds/93kg. My calories are automatically set at 1750 per day.
Now my iPhone 5s is synced up to track and add my steps.
Should I be setting my profile at sedentary and allow it to add the calories from my steps added each day plus exercise that I do? I carry my phone in my pocket at all times to track my steps.
I am determined to succeed and don't want to over eat.
I don't have "official" experience with this, but will share what I do...
I have a pedometer on my phone, but obviously do not have it on my person at all times.
When I get ready for work in the morning, it's usually on my counter as I race from kitchen to living room, upstairs, downstairs, back to kitchen, back upstairs, etc. I'm not carrying my phone for any of that, so all those steps are not recorded. The same happens at night. But it does track a huge number of my steps... and on a "normal" day, I record about 6000 steps.
So on days when I am exceeding 12000 recorded steps, I will add an entry for some time spent walking.
I'd recommend (but this is just my opinion) carrying it with you and noting what your steps are on a "normal" day... note what they are on an active day, and then adjust your calories accordingly. If it means you drop your activity level setting in MFP to allow the step sync... do that. Basically, I'd figure out what you need to do so that an average day's worth of steps nets you where you would have been before you introduced the new tracking into your life. (Hope that makes sense?)
Good luck!
Lovely, thanks this is what I have done now. Off to work in a min, so I'll see what the steps say.0 -
Thank you so much for sharing this post it is just what I needed to see :happy: as a yo-yo dieter all my adult life (you think I would of got the hang of it by now) the last 5 weeks I have either stayed the same or put on weight and in the past I would just give up as I am not seeing the results I feel I deserve with all the effort I put in! You explained it perfectly everything makes sense most of us are to hung up on seeing those numbers move quicker on the scale and being miserable most of the time!
I wish I could have seen this 20 years ago and can you come and live with me?
Life is for living :flowerforyou:
Thank you0 -
I love this, and I needed to see it. As a short girl with not THAT many pounds to lose (I tell myself), my BMR isn't far over 1200! So I have to accept that I just can't lose two pounds a week consistently, unless I'm burning at least 500 calories a day through exercise. Thanks for the post!0
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thank you for this and your time doing it..after years of experience (lol) I totally have to agree ..:laugh: 0
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Bumpity bump bump...cause I love this post :P
Great info OP!0 -
Thank you maybe I need to adjust. Anyone feel free to have a look.mim not sure how to set my macros or exactly to log my workouts on my pilates power gym so I ordered a hrm to go with my fitbit0
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Great info!0
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