cant seem to lose weight/unsure if eating enough

kelsierose094
kelsierose094 Posts: 232 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all! Im a 20 year old female and weigh 60/61kg at a height of 169cm. I want to get down to 57kg so have adjusted my food choices (mainly less sugar and carbs - I now dont eat bread after 12pm etc). I find it hard to exercise much as Im up at 6am and work all day. However I do work in a busy cafe where I only have 30 mins to sit out of an 8-10 hour shift. So that counts as exercose right? I stand all day, work quite fast and walk around alot - briskly! Yet while doing this and eating healthy I cant seem to lose weight! So I'm thinking. ..am I eating too little? I aim for 1400 calories a day because I thought it'd be approproate..but I dont know how much I burn at work. Thanks for any help :)

Replies

  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    If you aren't losing weight (over a 2 or 3 week period), then you can presume you haven't got a calorie deficit. You need to either eat fewer calories or do more exercise.

    Edited to add - you've been a member a year longer than me. How has the weight loss gone during that time?
  • kelsierose094
    kelsierose094 Posts: 232 Member
    I'm just talking about how when your body decides it isnt receiving enough then itll hold onto any fat (starvation mode).

    Yeah I was a member when I was 18 I think... but I was unhealthy woth my weight. I had an umhealthy obsession with food and would eat only 1000-1200 calories (if I hit lower I would see it as a bonus). I got to 49.5kg ubtil I decided to go to the gym and eat more. But that was before I got a full time job and much busier social life. I need to priorities again.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    The existence of "starvation mode" is generally unaccepted on MFP due to lack of evidence.

    Personally, I have found that just making a change gives my weight change some impetus - perhaps changing my exercise routine or eating a significantly different amount of calories for one day.
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
    In the context you are referring to, starvation mode does not exist. With a calorie deficit you will lose weight. Experiments show that even after being on a semi starvation diet for over 160 days, the body only reduced its activity by 15%, so there is plenty of room to keep losing weight. The body sheds mass to reduce the calories per day it requires.

    "In the longer term, however, the main mechanism by which energy expenditure is minimised is by the progressive loss of metabolically active tissue. Thus, for example, in the Minnesota experiment, after 168 days of 'semistarvation' metabolic rate had decreased by 37% when expressed as kcal/day but by only 15% when expressed as kcal/day per unit active tissue mass."
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    hold onto any fat (starvation mode).
    Doesn't exist. Not in the "hold onto fat" kind of way.

    1) It's only been a little over 2 weeks.
    2) You aren't logging everyday.
    3) Are you sure your logging is accurate?
    - Weigh food with a scale
    - measure liquids with measuring cups
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
    4) You should read:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
    5) I also noticed a lot of days that were under 1000 calories. Are you sure you really ate that little or did you only partially log?
    6) As for work, that should be included in your Daily Activity level before exercise. I would go back and make sure your activity level is set to lightly active or active.
  • kelsierose094
    kelsierose094 Posts: 232 Member
    I only partially log some days. Mostly because I eat pretty much the same thing during days im at work (perhaps changing this will help?) So i know the amount i fall on. I also dont measure all the time because I used to do it obsessviey for a year so am pretty good at recognizing the amount of things like spreads and liquids etc. Maybe if i switch up my diet each day and exercise whenever i can, ill start seeing results. Also when I got to 60kg, it wasnt from eating unhealthy.. I ate more unhealthy things than when I was at 49kg but that was just the occasional treat fromrwork. Im a pretty healthy person so is it possible that the slow weight loss is because 60kg is an okay point for my weight to be at? I still want to lose weight, im just also recognizing the fact that im in no way overweight haha
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
    From a weight loss point of view, there is no difference between healthy food and unhealthy food. Its all just a vehicle to get energy from outside of your body to the inside. From a health perspective macros matter, but you can eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and lose weight as long as you are at a deficit.

    I've plugged your stats into this site, and based on your work, I'd think your TDEE was around 2200 calories a day.

    http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee

    As you only want to lose 9 or 10 pounds, you should stick to around 1/lb a week loss target or less, reduce that number by 500 cals, so you should be eating 1700 a day. Therefore it you are not losing, you are probably inadvertently eating more than you think. The only way to be accurate is to get a digital scale and weigh all of your food and measure liquids. Eyeballing portion sizes, or using cups, is not going to get you to where you want to be.
  • kelsierose094
    kelsierose094 Posts: 232 Member
    Thank you that was actually really useful :) I might have to start measuring stuff now. But even if I do go a bit over with the amount of spread etc, what I eat during the day is hard to imagine to be whats maintaing my weight. I eat one slice of toast in the morning with peanut butter and honey, with a black tea with one sugar. For lunch I have a chicken salad (chicken, pumpkin, spinach, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, olives). Then at about 2:30 ill have a small chai latte - half soy half almond milk (because almond nilk is low calorie). When I get home ill have a banana or a small fruit salad, and then for dinner ill eat usually roast with veges or a stirfry etc. This doesnt all sound to be 2000+ calories which apparently will maintain my weight.
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
    Breakfast - 280 cal

    Toast - 1 Slice Bread - 100 Cals
    Peanut Butter - 1 tbsp 17g - 100 cal
    Honey - 1 tbsp - 20g - 64 cal
    Tea one sugar - 5g - 16 cal

    Lunch - Around 450 - 500
    chicken - 219 cal per 100g
    olives - 115 cal per 100g
    pumpkin - 26 cal per 100g
    spinach - 23 cal per 100g
    tomato - 18 cal per 100g
    cucumber - 15 cal per 100g

    An average chicken breast weighs around 130g bear in mind.

    Chai Latte - 100 cals

    Snack - 100-150
    banana - 105 cals
    small fruit salad - 100-150 cals

    Total before dinner - 1100 calories

    Not knowing how or what you cook for the roast or what oils and sauces you use, its hard to say. Oil has around 120 cals per tbsp, so if you are cooking you need to be measuring everything. Meats like pork and beef tend to have around 200-220 cal per 100g. And that is not a lot of meat on your plate.

    I'd say you could quite easily be eating over 2000 cal per day without realising. Which goes to highlight until you weigh you won't know exactly.
  • kelsierose094
    kelsierose094 Posts: 232 Member
    I see your point. My dinners are pretty small portions but I think the no-weighing is affecting me. I just thought all my constant fast paced moving at work could help haha.my bodies probably used to it too... okay im gonna start weighing! I think I under-calculated for the chicken too... but theres only about 4 olives chopped up in the salad
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
    Good luck, I'm pretty sure you'll see results quickly once you start, and be slightly surprised about how much some things weigh!
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    With a lower body weight and the small deficit you'll need to healthily lose weight, your weight loss can be masked just by normal fluctuations. Personally I typically see and record my lowest body weight like one week a month and after that it cycles up and down randomly. Looking at the wrong day or even the wrong time of the day could give the wrong impression. So while logging accurately and such is really important if you're to maintain a small deficit , you could still be doing all the right things and not see what you want on the scale within 2-3 weeks

    In short , keep improving your logging accuracy, and have patience :)
  • kelsierose094
    kelsierose094 Posts: 232 Member
    Thank you so much :) it can get disheartening so this support helps :)

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