2 weeks in and not losing weight - disheartened

If you want to lose 14 pounds, hopefully you set your goal at losing .5lb per week.

If you aren't logging EVERYTHING, it's very difficult to give you advice on what to change other than to start logging everything, every day.

Have you had experience losing weight before or is this the first time you've tried? Also, are there benefits to only weighing yourself that infrequently?

Maybe it's just taking awhile for your metabolism to pick up.

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Buy a scale and weigh every day or every 2 days in the morning. If you think about it you really should not have lost more than 2 pounds in these 2 weeks.

If you had been weighing yourself for the past 2 weeks you may have noticed a trend like you lost a pound the first week but maybe got your period (are you female?) the second and put it back...(In cases of menstruation and even ovulation you can hold on to 1-5 extra pounds). If you had seen it you would feel less disheartened.

I will have to agree PK0993. In fact I know so now. I do any where from 30 to 60 min on my elliptical machine. Today for the first time I wore a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) and saw the difference. I did 30 min on the elliptical and the machine read 472 calories burned where the HRM read 285. That is a huge difference.

I was very disheartened myself, I am at just over 2 weeks (16 days to be exact) and have lost a total of 1 lb. I set my calorie goals at 2 lbs per week weight loss and stick within 50 calories of allowance. With this new data I can see that I was only obtaining a .5 lb per week weight loss.

I believe the TDEE is correct I just feel the workout machines at the gym give higher readings to keep people happy and coming back.

Things I do:
- Enter everything. If it isn't in the database then I build it by known ingredients.
- Be consistent. Do your workouts at the same time every/other day, make it routine.
- Don't give up. I do my workouts at 5am and sometimes I just don't want to get out of bed.
- Weigh no more than once a week. It fluctuates so much day to day with a lot of variables.

And please pay no attention to this logging nonsense. You can lose weight without logging. Just eat the good food and avoid the bad.

This is bull as well.

Nobody said you can't lose weight without logging, but you certainly can't lose weight unless you eat less than you burn and logging is an excellent way to get a handle on how many calories you are taking in and burning.

OP, go down to success stories and read how these people lost weight. It's ALWAYS calories in/calories out, and many people choose exercise as well.

Eating less than you burn, no matter what your medical history or condition, sometimes with adjustments for thyroid and/or hormonal problems, works every single time.

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Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

Really?

So say you take 100 people who need to lose weight. Divide them into two groups of 50. Both groups eat 2,000 calories a day.

The first group eats donuts and bagels and orange juice for breakfast, and pasta for lunch and dinner, washed down with Coke and complimented with nacho chips.

The second group has an egg and cheese or Greek Yogurt for breakfast, eats grilled chicken for lunch with avocado and lots of veggies for lunch, and fish with salad for dinner. No Coke. Snacks are almonds and cashews.

So you would have to be a complete idiot to think that the bagel/donut group is going to have the same results as the fish/chicken group after a couple of weeks, wouldn't you? It's called common sense.

GOOGLE "A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE!"

Google "Moon landing a hoax." Just cause you can google it doesn't mean it's true. A K-state professor made the twinkie diet famous by eating only candy and twinkies and loss a considerable amount of weight. Now it harmed is health but that's not the question. He still lost weight by eating at a calorie deficit.

Something I learned the hard way. Keeping a mental running record does not work when it comes to weight loss or money management. I know it is time consuming and tedious, especially in the beginning, but just being aware of calories before and while you are consuming them, and being able to look it over after you consumed them to make necessary changes works like magic.

No matter how on top of it you think you are, there is always something that will get missed, or skewed, or "double dipped". And unless you can review the data you will never know where those calories came from (or where your money went). I use the money analogy because I was always pretty good about logging calories every time I wanted to lose weight and always had success. That came easy to me, but it wasn't until the past year that I started keeping track of my finances in the same meticulous way. I always thought I had an income problem because I felt like I worked so hard and never had any money and I never "spent anything why am I always broke". Well it wasn't until I started tracking every penny as a spent it (on my cell phone so it is input as the transaction was happening), that I realized the .99 here and $2.00 there was my problem. Not the $300 electric bill. Once I started paying attention making smart choices came naturally with very little sacrifice. In fact, I felt like I was doing nothing differently except for logging my income and outflows, yet I was getting rich. Why? Because I plugged the holes I never knew existed.

The same is true with calories. When I input the information for the 1 M&M I stick in my mouth as it "melts in my mouth not in my hands" (showing my age there?) it makes it very easy for me to then put a limit on how many more M&Ms I decide to consume. Is it worth the calories for 1 more? Without logging it as I am eating it, it is so much easier to trick myself into thinking "just one more" doesn't make a difference.

Going out is difficult. And yes I am the annoying dining guest who is googling nutrition information on my phone as I wait for my food to come (I do my best to try and plan ahead before I go, but sometimes things just happen on a whim). But I have to be aware. Even if I know I am going to eat the whole thing no matter what, and that it is going to make me go over calories for the day, as long as I am fully aware that this is sending me over budget in my daily calories then I can make adjustments the next day--lower calories, more cardio, to make sure I end my week with a deficit. Weekly averages are my main goal. Yes, I have daily goals, but I refuse to deprive myself. Ordering in lunch at work is not worth the calories the same way that going out to eat with my family is, so those are the choices I can make when I am doing it with all of the necessary information.

As far as accurate measuring and weighing. This is very helpful but not always practical. The point is to get an accurate idea of what a portion size is, so weighing and measuring whenever you can will help you be a better judge of accurate portions when you can't do that. When I go out for a burger and fries in a city pub I've never been to before I have to eyeball it to make the best assessment I can. Weighing at the table is impossible, but getting an idea of the diameter by comparing it to say, my phone, or something that I know the measurements for helps. It will only be an estimate at best, but the goal is to try to be a better estimator, and without a context, making a reasonable estimate is impossible.

If you can't afford a food scale there are some rough guidelines that I know Weight Watchers uses. Things like a pair of dice is similar to an ounce of cheese, or a deck of cards is 4oz of meat. While this isn't ideal it is a good starting point. It is better to weigh solids then to measure, but if you can get an accurate idea of how much a cup of your favorite pasta weighs you will be in a better position to estimate servings. I've done pretty well with my estimating, but every once in a while I have to go back and double check to make sure I am still on target, so I will go back to weighing.

Just try obsessive logging for a few weeks. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how other things start to fall into place when that happens.

Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

Really?

So say you take 100 people who need to lose weight. Divide them into two groups of 50. Both groups eat 2,000 calories a day.

The first group eats donuts and bagels and orange juice for breakfast, and pasta for lunch and dinner, washed down with Coke and complimented with nacho chips.

The second group has an egg and cheese or Greek Yogurt for breakfast, eats grilled chicken for lunch with avocado and lots of veggies for lunch, and fish with salad for dinner. No Coke. Snacks are almonds and cashews.

So you would have to be a complete idiot to think that the bagel/donut group is going to have the same results as the fish/chicken group after a couple of weeks, wouldn't you? It's called common sense.

GOOGLE "A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE!"

Google "Moon landing a hoax." Just cause you can google it doesn't mean it's true. A K-state professor made the twinkie diet famous by eating only candy and twinkies and loss a considerable amount of weight. Now it harmed is health but that's not the question. He still lost weight by eating at a calorie deficit.

Dude, you are living in the stone ages. I lost 20 pounds in four months doing what I recommend.

I just got onto this site today, and it is a shame that is advocating such BS as calorie counting.

And who the hell has the time and patience to count calories? And what happens if you reach your calorie limit for the day, and you are very hungry?

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that eating two 200-calorie sugar-laded, carb-laden donuts is not the same as eating 400 calories of grilled fish.

Acutally, I'm living in 2014. I lost 16 lbs in less than 2 months. My rate of fat loss is greater than your rate of fat loss so I must be right, right? :laugh: You are very confused with the difference between health and weight loss. You can eat literally nothing and lose weight. You won't be healthy, but it's possible. You keep on preaching the crazy talk though.

Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

Really?

So say you take 100 people who need to lose weight. Divide them into two groups of 50. Both groups eat 2,000 calories a day.

The first group eats donuts and bagels and orange juice for breakfast, and pasta for lunch and dinner, washed down with Coke and complimented with nacho chips.

The second group has an egg and cheese or Greek Yogurt for breakfast, eats grilled chicken for lunch with avocado and lots of veggies for lunch, and fish with salad for dinner. No Coke. Snacks are almonds and cashews.

So you would have to be a complete idiot to think that the bagel/donut group is going to have the same results as the fish/chicken group after a couple of weeks, wouldn't you? It's called common sense.

GOOGLE "A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE!"

Google "Moon landing a hoax." Just cause you can google it doesn't mean it's true. A K-state professor made the twinkie diet famous by eating only candy and twinkies and loss a considerable amount of weight. Now it harmed is health but that's not the question. He still lost weight by eating at a calorie deficit.

Dude, you are living in the stone ages. I lost 20 pounds in four months doing what I recommend.

I just got onto this site today, and it is a shame that is advocating such BS as calorie counting.

And who the hell has the time and patience to count calories? And what happens if you reach your calorie limit for the day, and you are very hungry?

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that eating two 200-calorie sugar-laded, carb-laden donuts is not the same as eating 400 calories of grilled fish.

From a health perspective they are not the same. From a strictly weightloss calorie perspective the person eating a larger calorie deficit will lose more weight.

Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

Really?

So say you take 100 people who need to lose weight. Divide them into two groups of 50. Both groups eat 2,000 calories a day.

The first group eats donuts and bagels and orange juice for breakfast, and pasta for lunch and dinner, washed down with Coke and complimented with nacho chips.

The second group has an egg and cheese or Greek Yogurt for breakfast, eats grilled chicken for lunch with avocado and lots of veggies for lunch, and fish with salad for dinner. No Coke. Snacks are almonds and cashews.

So you would have to be a complete idiot to think that the bagel/donut group is going to have the same results as the fish/chicken group after a couple of weeks, wouldn't you? It's called common sense.

GOOGLE "A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE!"

The problem with the 100 people scenario is that you will not be able to eat that food and stay under your calorie goal. If I eat Nachos, I can only have a couple of bits and I have eaten 200 calories, but if I start eating the Nachos, I will eat more. If you want to be healthy, and not be hungry all the time, the best way to stay under your calorie goal is to eat the way he is suggesting. If you eat the way he is suggesting, you won't go over your calorie goal, even if you don't count calories. If you NEED to splurge, like many of us do, you must log every calorie in order to prevent yourself from going over your goal. If I am hungry in the afternoon, and can stuff myself on cucumbers and tomatoes and have it be under 100 calories, if I eat nuts or chips, I will easily go over 500 calories. That is where the food makes the difference.

Stop counting calories. Google "A calorie is not a calorie." If you are eating garbage, you will not lose weight, even if you are restricting calories.

Avoid most "no-fat" and "low fat" foods. Fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs and sugar make you fat. You and most American have been misinformed by our government.

Burn the USDA's "My Plate." The USDA is the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Nutrition. It represents grain growers, not you.

So don't eat any refined carbs - breads, pasta, breakfast cereals (pay no attention to the "heart healthy" and "good source of vitamins" labels), and rice.

Don't eat any sugar - including all fruit juices and fruit yogurt. Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy. Repeat - Yoplait yogurt is unhealthy.

Have an egg and cheese for breakfast (and a slice of bacon won't kill you), or plain Greek yogurt (the 2% tastes better than the 0%) and add berries (but not too many). The rest of the day eat fish, poultry, red meat, avocados and all vegetables (except corn and potatoes). Eat nuts (not peanuts) and sunflower seeds instead of chips, pretzels and all that other garbage for snacks.

Avoid alcohol.

You can eat fast food, but throw out the bun and don't order French fries.

The weight will melt off you whether you exercise or not. However, exercise is great for your mind, body and sprit.

Get a scale. Weigh yourself everyday.

Once you hit your ideal weight, eat whatever you want, but keep weighing yourself. If you gain a few pounds, go back to what I told you to do and get back to that ideal weight.

Try it for two weeks and see what happens. It can't hurt you.

Good luck.

This is bull. Weight loss is calories in/calories out.

Really?

So say you take 100 people who need to lose weight. Divide them into two groups of 50. Both groups eat 2,000 calories a day.

The first group eats donuts and bagels and orange juice for breakfast, and pasta for lunch and dinner, washed down with Coke and complimented with nacho chips.

The second group has an egg and cheese or Greek Yogurt for breakfast, eats grilled chicken for lunch with avocado and lots of veggies for lunch, and fish with salad for dinner. No Coke. Snacks are almonds and cashews.

So you would have to be a complete idiot to think that the bagel/donut group is going to have the same results as the fish/chicken group after a couple of weeks, wouldn't you? It's called common sense.

GOOGLE "A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE!"

Google "Moon landing a hoax." Just cause you can google it doesn't mean it's true. A K-state professor made the twinkie diet famous by eating only candy and twinkies and loss a considerable amount of weight. Now it harmed is health but that's not the question. He still lost weight by eating at a calorie deficit.

Dude, you are living in the stone ages. I lost 20 pounds in four months doing what I recommend.

I just got onto this site today, and it is a shame that is advocating such BS as calorie counting.

And who the hell has the time and patience to count calories? And what happens if you reach your calorie limit for the day, and you are very hungry?

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that eating two 200-calorie sugar-laded, carb-laden donuts is not the same as eating 400 calories of grilled fish.

Dude!

You lost weight because you ate less calories than you burned. Period. Good for you for doing it without consciously counting your calories.

However, to think that 400 calories of anything will lead to weight loss as opposed to 200 calories of anything else is silly. Unless, of course, you are a special snowflake to whom calories in/calories out does not apply. Yes, that could be it after all.

Let me put it this way - I exercise for 3-4 hours a week (half of it weightlifting) and I lose weight at 2000 calories a day doing that. I'm 28 years old and I weigh 133. You gotta fuel. I stalled at around 160 for a bit 'cause I was eating too little.
Take measurements too though, that's a better indicator of fat loss.

Edit - as the poster above me says, you've not a lot to lose, so it's a slow burn. Very slow.