The weight should be coming off but it's not?

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skiesofsunshine
skiesofsunshine Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm doing everything I should be to lose weight, but it's not coming off and I just feel like screaming. I'm female, 21, 5 foot 1 and 157 pounds. I went from drinking and eating garbage and eating over 2,000 calories a day and hardly exercising. For almost a month now I've been eating only 1100 calories a day, doing 45 minutes of cardio a day and cutting out all potato chips, ice cream, mayo, dressings, cookies, soda, ect. I've been eating fruits,veggies, and droning a ton of water and I lost only one pound. I'm so upset because I've been doing everything I'm supposed to be doing.


Something else I'd like to mention is that my stomach is so bloated all the time and I always look like I'm four months pregnant. One time I took a water pill and I was holding 8 extra pounds of water on me! I just don't get it. I think maybe I need to drink more water. 2 months ago I got off of Paxil that I was on for 8 months and I'm scared that it messed up my metabolism so bad that I'll never be able to lose weight. I'm feeling like I want to give up already because before this year, I would have been losing weight from doing this good. Now, nothing is happening. What can I do and what am I doing wrong? :(
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Replies

  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
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    Do you use a food scale? If not, you are eating more than you think you are.
  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
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    1100 calories is too low but you are probably eating more than you realize.
    Get a digital food scale and weigh EVERYTHING solid that you eat!
    Measure by cups and spoons all liquids.
    Log it all on MFP everyday.
    You will lose.
    Be sure to eat back some exercise calories.
    Drink lots of water but don't take diuretics unless prescibed by your doctor!!!
  • MissTomGettingThin
    MissTomGettingThin Posts: 776 Member
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    1100 calories is too low but you are probably eating more than you realize.
    Get a digital food scale and weigh EVERYTHING solid that you eat!
    Measure by cups and spoons all liquids.
    Log it all on MFP everyday.
    You will lose.
    Be sure to eat back some exercise calories.
    Drink lots of water but don't take diuretics unless prescibed by your doctor!!!

    This
  • simplydelish2
    simplydelish2 Posts: 726 Member
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    In addition, if you want help - open your diary.
  • dlb777
    dlb777 Posts: 13
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    I get the stomach bloat, too. It is extremely frustrating and I have not found an answer yet.
  • funchords
    funchords Posts: 413 Member
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    Go here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator and verify your BMR. If it is around 1600, you should be losing about a pound a week on the rough average. You will have plateaus and days that your body gains due to retention. And then there's muscle.

    Are you seeing any other changes, on your face, hips, or waist? Are you feeling any better? Maybe your body is responding to the exercise and you're trading fat for muscle.

    Make sure that you're measuring your food portions and including condiments like butter, mayo, salad dressing, and etc.. Also make sure that some of your more frequent foods being counted correctly -- maybe the database has some wrong values.

    Also eat your food in three or four meals and avoid snacking or grazing between them. Eating little snacks throughout the day leaves no time for your body to burn body fat for energy, even if you're on a calorie deficit.
  • slg426
    slg426 Posts: 2
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    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/red-room/undereating_b_4123345.html

    Don't undereat! Also definitely make sure you drink enough water. I bloat an awful lot too, but the more water I drink the less I bloat. I also read that excess sodium is a big contributor to belly bloat!
  • stephe1987
    stephe1987 Posts: 406 Member
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    Make sure you weigh/measure your food/drinks. Log everything. Some people come from certain diets that count fruits and veggies as "free foods" but those calories add up. Also, 1100 is too low. The minimum should be 1200. Be sure to get as accurate as possible when measuring food, and underestimate your exercise burn to avoid overeating when you eat back your exercise calories (MFP and gym machines usually overestimate how much was burned).
  • missrobeena
    missrobeena Posts: 11 Member
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    For myself, I found that I got bloated from too much sodium. I used to LOVE salt: processed meats, Chinese food, frozen entrees, etc.. I loved it all. But I also held on to a lot of water weight and constantly felt bloated.

    Now I try to stick to about half of what MFP recommends for sodium and I drink a TON of water (it helps that it's hot as balls right now. Yay summer!) and it's not much of an issue.

    Sometimes if I'm not careful and I have a really salty meal, the scale will say that I've gained anywhere from 1-3 lbs, but with lots of water, it's gone by the next day.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    First, see your doctor. Get some advice there. :)
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    Okay, so you're TDEE is approximately 2,110 calories. My suggestion would be to start back to about 2,010 calories and possibly practice some carb-cycling. Note that you do not eat-back your exercise calories with this method.

    - 2010 calorie nutrition plan:
    Intense exercise days (a walk is not intense, hard strength training, HIIT cardio, etc)
    Fat: 63gm's
    CHO: 221gm's
    Pro: 141gm's

    Non-exercise days or light exercise days (long walk, low intensity cycling, light Yoga)
    Fat: 116gm's
    CHO: 100gm's
    Pro: 141gm's

    Make sure you're measuring your food with a scale, measuring spoons, cups, etc. Know exactly how much of everything you're eating. Watch your sodium intake, could be part of your bloat. If you want to be more aggressive with your nutrition, trying going Keto for TWO weeks, and then go back to carb-cycling. Your two weeks of Keto would look like...

    Fat: 145gm's
    CHO: 35gm's
    Pro: 141gm's

    The purpose is to help improve your insulin sensitivity and get your body use to using fat for fuel. Just my two-cents... Best of luck.

    Edit: If your metabolism truly is messed up, then the last thing you want to do is an extreme calorie deficit. 1100 calories is 50% of your TDEE, not good. You want to try and lose weight on as many calories as possible for long-term success.
  • Missfit35
    Missfit35 Posts: 75
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    Quite possible that your body may take some time to reset itself. Don't give up NEVER give up. Continue to diet, maybe weighing your food would be a good idea portion is key in this game. Once your body resets itself the weight will begin to fall, patience is a virtue. Good Luck
  • misselleknits
    misselleknits Posts: 37 Member
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    It took me 12 weeks to lose my first pound. Seriously! I had to fiddle with everything on here, MFP says I should be eating about 1400 calories a day just to lose 0.5lbs a week, but doing all the TDEE calculations had me eating more, so once I tried that and stopped eating my exercise calories I started losing.

    The only reason I didn't give up was because I started seeing muscle definition instead of just flabby bits, so I figured something was working
  • skiesofsunshine
    skiesofsunshine Posts: 8 Member
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    I definitely know that I'm not eating more than I realize because I'm marking literally everything and I have measuring cups that I use when I eat things like dry cereal, nuts, ect, and most days I have to force myself to eat just to get up to my 1100 minimum. I'm never hungry and not losing weight just makes me want to eat less. The frustration is really getting to me. This is the most serious I've been about losing weight. The first two weeks out of this past four my calorie count was at 1100 but I still was changing my diet, but these past two my diet has become so much healthier. I'm really worried but people keep telling me that it just takes time and that me stressing out so bad can make it a lot harder.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    I definitely know that I'm not eating more than I realize because I'm marking literally everything and I have measuring cups that I use when I eat things like dry cereal, nuts, ect, and most days I have to force myself to eat just to get up to my 1100 minimum. I'm never hungry and not losing weight just makes me want to eat less. The frustration is really getting to me. This is the most serious I've been about losing weight. The first two weeks out of this past four my calorie count was at 1100 but I still was changing my diet, but these past two my diet has become so much healthier. I'm really worried but people keep telling me that it just takes time and that me stressing out so bad can make it a lot harder.

    Don't stress, and this probably won't help that, but:

    They said food scale. You said measuring cup. See the difference?

    Read these:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1296011-calorie-counting-101

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
  • skiesofsunshine
    skiesofsunshine Posts: 8 Member
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    These are very helpful posts and I'm going to see what I can do. I think my mother might have a food scale at her house, maybe she'll let me use it. Thanks! :)
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    If you're new to exercise it's possible you are losing fat from the diet but the scale isn't showing it due to water retention from the exercise. Either wait it out or just walk for a week and see what happens.

    Also, if your diet excludes all the foods you love, your patience level will be worse. Eat some food you like. Try to make this a long term thing.

    Good luck!
  • davidpoolman5
    davidpoolman5 Posts: 18
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    you have to write down everything you eat and count your macros . You have to have good post workout meals . protien shakes. creatine helps too. Only one cheat day evey 30 days. Have refeed days to even out your macros
  • queenbea77
    queenbea77 Posts: 404 Member
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    1100 calories is too low but you are probably eating more than you realize.
    Get a digital food scale and weigh EVERYTHING solid that you eat!
    Measure by cups and spoons all liquids.
    Log it all on MFP everyday.
    You will lose.
    Be sure to eat back some exercise calories.
    Drink lots of water but don't take diuretics unless prescibed by your doctor!!!

    This

    This
  • Jim_Barteck
    Jim_Barteck Posts: 274 Member
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    Forget about the scale. Has your body changed? Do you own a tape measure?

    Often times, you'll be able to measure the changes in your body more quickly than you'll see movement on the scale. Why? Because your body measurements are actually less affected by water retention than the scale is (which is to say, they are still affected, but not as much).

    Get out your tape measure. Take the following measurements: neck, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, upper thigh, calves, upper arm and forearm. Write those measurements down. Re-measure each month. *That* will give you a more accurate picture of what's happening with your body than your scale. Although you won't have a point of comparison, I'd be willing to bet that if you had your previous measurements, you'd probably show more progress than that 1 pound the scale is showing.

    And the other suggestions you've been getting here are good as well with regard to sodium intake, making sure your calorie counts are accurate, etc.

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