What am I doing wrong!?!?!?!?

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If you weight 150 pounds and are wearing size 5 & 6 pants and when your size small and extra small tops are sometimes large for you, might this not suggest that possibly your 150 pounds might be muscle? (I weigh 150 pounds but my clothes size are 10 and 12 ) You might not have any more fat to lose. Your picture looks great.

My clothes size is 5-6 in jeans, sometimes a size 4. Tops I wear a small or extra small. Or sometimes for most brands even an extra small is too big for me.

This is a recent profile picture by the way.

Like I said, I think you look great. Don't focus on the number on the scale.

So I am trying to lose the last fifteen pounds. I workout and stay active everyday, eat healthy, stay within my calorie deficit. So what am I doing wrong here? The number won't go down no matter how hard I try!

What you're doing wrong is not having patience.

I notice by your ticker that you have lost 3 pounds, and you say you are trying to lost the last 15 pounds. How long have you been on your diet (how long did it take you to lose that 3 pounds)?

At first glance, I think you need patience. Weight loss is not linear and it does not all come off at once.

Also, since you have so little to lose, your goals should be set for .5 pounds per week. You should weigh your food and ensure that you are using correct entires. If you are using MFP to estimate your calorie burns, don't eat all those exercise calories back because they are greatly overestimated.

Other than that, patience is a virtue.

ETA: Yep, those calorie burns are very overestimated, which tells me you are using MFP, gym machine, or other internet/phone app sources. Also, don't count housecleaning duties or walks to and from the store (or just those short walks where you don't really get up a sweat). Put weight lifting down as 1 calorie only, and count cardio calorie burns only.

You're probably not doing anything wrong. You've hit a plateau and it's normal. Decrease your carbs and kick up your cardio for a few days to a week. Hang in there and try not to be discouraged.

Plateau is just another word for eating too much.

Decreasing carbs is a temporary fix and will decrease water weight but not fat. If you look at her diary, she is already excessively exercising.

I give up. Maybe I'm on ignore. :laugh:

You're probably not doing anything wrong. You've hit a plateau and it's normal. Decrease your carbs and kick up your cardio for a few days to a week. Hang in there and try not to be discouraged.

Plateau is just another word for eating too much.

Decreasing carbs is a temporary fix and will decrease water weight but not fat. If you look at her diary, she is already excessively exercising.

Why do you call a plateau that? I'm honestly curious because I've never heard that definition before. People will tell me when dieting that its normal to hit a plateau and just keep doing what you're doing.

Because, in general people use plateau to describe any time they are not losing weight for any period of time. Setting any medical conditions aside, the reason we've stopped losing weight is because we have stopped eating at a calorie deficit. This happens when we overestimate calorie burns and underestimate food intake, or when we simply become a little lax and stop logging food.

I've been there too.

Also, weight loss is not linear. Some weeks we gain, some weeks we lose, success is all about the downward movement (or upward if you're trying to gain weight, or the straight line if you're trying to maintain).

You're probably not doing anything wrong. You've hit a plateau and it's normal. Decrease your carbs and kick up your cardio for a few days to a week. Hang in there and try not to be discouraged.

Plateau is just another word for eating too much.

Decreasing carbs is a temporary fix and will decrease water weight but not fat. If you look at her diary, she is already excessively exercising.

I don't know about that. I hit 2 plataues during my weight loss journey before. Stood still for a month. I never decreased calories. I just switched them up day to day instead of eating the same everyday, but my deficit remained the same...and after a month of doing that I started losing again. On the same deficit. And no I didn't exercise more because back then I was too out of shape to survive it. And yes I weigh everything. Even my coffee granules to make sure they are 10grams.

But hey. I'm a special snowflake

ETA: Or maybe I just had water retention for a month...

Well, none of us get to be special snowflakes. :bigsmile: Weight loss is not linear, water retention is normal, and weight naturally fluctuates.

A calorie deficit causes weight loss, a surplus causes weight gain, and no deficit or surplus causes maintenance. It's science.

so, long story short, OP, you're not logging accurately/correctly. Because of that, you're not eating the correct amount to allow weight loss.

You're not gaining muscle.
You're not replacing fat with muscle.
You're not a special snowflake.

You're just not measuring your calories in and matching the calories out.

Get a digital food scale, use the generic (non-user created) entries in the diary.

Or just eat a little less, I guess.

Do you realise that you are ignoring the most important two points, that have been repeatedly made? Can't figure out if you're just skim-reading the thread or deliberately ignoring them!

What?

YGBFSM

Do you use this? If not, it's a big part of your problem.


Do you use this? If not, it's another part of your problem.

You could try getting an on-body fitness tracker (like fitbit or bodymedia) to get a better idea what your actual calorie burn is.

Beyond that, I agree with everyone else that you need to log everything accurately.

OP, you are gorgeous. I'd give up a finger to look like you! I think that if you lost fifteen pounds, you might start looking sick, but that's for you to judge, of course!

The only ways to lose, as you know, are to eat less, exercise more or both.

Good luck!!

Do you realise that you are ignoring the most important two points, that have been repeatedly made? Can't figure out if you're just skim-reading the thread or deliberately ignoring them!

What?

YGBFSM

Do you use this? If not, it's a big part of your problem.


Do you use this? If not, it's another part of your problem.

I know what the scale is. I don't use one, but I know what it is.

What the heck is the belt-looking thing?

Since I last lost weight was senior year of high school. And I'm nineteen how. Calorie intake is usually around 1300 to 1400 and with my workouts I typically burn around 1200 or 1400.

Are you eating back your exercise calories to make sure you net at minimum 1200+ calories?

If you are eating 1300-1400 and buring 1200-1400 your body is only effectively getting 0-100 net calories per day, so you would need to add MORE calories.