Can't seem to lose weight!

cdukes26
cdukes26 Posts: 3
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I saw a similar post about not losing weight and I am having the same problem. I am a 26 year old female, weight 132 height 5'4". I just want to lose the extra weight I gained after I got married so about 6-7 pounds. I'm pretty athletic and work out every week. I walk 5 days a week 1-2 miles and go to the gym at least 3 times a week to do cardio and weight training. I have been UNDER my goal of 1200 calories every day for 15 days! I've not lost a single pound. What in the heck is going on.

Replies

  • runner915
    runner915 Posts: 106
    This is going to sound weird, but you might not be eating enough calories. Often when you eat less than 1200 cals your body goes into starvation mode. So if you are working out and eating less than 1200 calories I think that is what is happening.
  • julsdolphin
    julsdolphin Posts: 32 Member
    You're not losing the weight because you are starving your body. 1200 is the bare minimum you should be eating s to go below that puts your body into starvation mode and it starts to hoard all the fat you have. Because you have so little to lose and are athletic to begin with, it may not be easy for you to lose the weight.

    Exercise, drink your water, eat your calories (at least the 1200 plus your exercise calories), watch your fat intake, make sure you are geting your daily calcium, etc.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I have been UNDER my goal of 1200 calories every day for 15 days! I've not lost a single pound. What in the heck is going on.

    That is your problem, you should not be under your goal at all. You should be withing 100 under or over at most. MFP gives you a caloric deficit that you will lose weight by eating all 1200, eating less is not a good thing. Sometimes you have to eat more to lose weight. You should also be eating the extra calories you burned from exercise as your body needs fuel. If you eat 1100 cals and burn 300 at the gym your body will function as if you only ate 800 (1200-300) not enough for anyone. Your metabolism may be slowing down and storing your consumed cals as fat as you body thinks it is starving. Please eat more 1200 Net which means 1200 plus exercise calories burned.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
    read:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
  • ashlee954
    ashlee954 Posts: 1,112 Member
    That is your problem, you should not be under your goal at all. You should be withing 100 under or over at most. MFP gives you a caloric deficit that you will lose weight by eating all 1200, eating less is not a good thing. Sometimes you have to eat more to lose weight. You should also be eating the extra calories you burned from exercise as your body needs fuel. If you eat 1100 cals and burn 300 at the gym your body will function as if you only ate 800 (1200-300) not enough for anyone. Your metabolism may be slowing down and storing your consumed cals as fat as you body thinks it is starving. Please eat more 1200 Net which means 1200 plus exercise calories burned.

    EXACTLY what he said!
  • pilotgirl2007
    pilotgirl2007 Posts: 368 Member
    I know the people before me have said that you aren't eating enough and I am going to repeat it : ) mostly because I had the exact same problem. And it was HARD to make myself eat more when I wanted to LOSE weight not gain it but it does work. You will gain a little at first especially if you have been "starving yoursef" for a long time but it will start to come off trust me. I have finally started to get the scale to move in the other direction.

    So instead of thinking oh I need to eat as few calories as possible think about how you can eat all of your calories and make it healthy to fuel your exercise and your body
  • linsben
    linsben Posts: 108 Member
    Its got to be a combination of your low calories and the food your eating. Try eliminating all carbohydrates like pasta, grains, potatoes bread. And limit your fruits. If you are between 100-150 grams of carbs a day(i try to be around 100) you should loose 1-2 pounds of fat (not muscle!) a week. Thats not taking into account your calorie deficit so make sure your eating atleast 1200 calories(also my calorie goal) and taking into consideration the calories you burn while exercising( eat most of these back)

    On January 10th i started eating this way( eating only meat and vegetables, low carbs, low to zero dairy, higher fat etc) Its called the Primal blueprint if you want to look it up. For me its been a lifestyle change completetly and prob for years to come. But for other its a quick way to loose the fat. ( my bf is going primal for that purpose). It was 11 days yesterday and i lost 3.8 pounds in 11 days. It usually is a struggle for every single percentage of a pound i loose so i know how frustrating it is. Google "marks daily apple" and it will guide you through what you should be eating if you'd like to try this.

    Good luck!
  • cdukes26
    cdukes26 Posts: 3
    Thanks to everyone that commented. That helps! It does make sense I just have a hard time doing it! I do have a tendency to not eat enough so I will try to eat more and make the best choices possible for those calories.
  • Paige1108
    Paige1108 Posts: 432 Member
    I started out at 135 and was eating under 1200 and my weight loss totally stalled for 4 or 5 weeks. I upped my calories to 1320 and I never hit another plateau. I ate all or almost all my exercise calories every day. Hungry or not because I had to eat to lose. This was so hard for me to believe but it really worked. I lost 20lbs in 21 to 24 weeks including the 4 or 5 week slump. And these were all vanity lbs, the lbs that are suppose to be super hard to lose, and as long as I ate they melted away.

    Good luck on your journey. I hope you find a system that works for you. These are just my opinions based on what worked for me.
  • taletreader
    taletreader Posts: 377 Member
    OK, let me say what others have said in a different manner -- and I hope you'll forgive the humorous-exasperated tone...

    WOMAN! How on earth did you end up with a calorie goal of under 1200?! From what you told us -- your age, weight, activity level -- your maintenance level must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2100 calories daily, or even a little more (varying for individual metabolism). That is, if you eat 2100 calories, or whatever your exact value is, you won't gain or lose, provided your metabolism runs normally.. You aren't overweight, so you don't have masses of fat lying around just waiting to be oxydised. And now you're trying to make your body run on about half its expenditure. This pushes your metabolism out of the zone where it will just dip into fat reserves. Maybe it's breaking down muscle, even, who knows (without measuring you with precise instruments none of us has access to). And even if you can persuade it, by going on like this, to finally drop some of your extra pounds (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't), what do you think will happen once you go back to eating at maintenance levels or a tiny bit above? Your body, after that ordeal will put on the lost pounds as fast as it can, already having ratcheted down its metabolism.

    Is there a race on? A medical emergency? Do you HAVE to do this in a month instead of three? Just adjust your calories to a little below maintenance levels -- eat 1700 or 1800 or whatever, and the pounds will slowly come off and STAY off.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Its got to be a combination of your low calories and the food your eating. Try eliminating all carbohydrates like pasta, grains, potatoes bread. And limit your fruits. If you are between 100-150 grams of carbs a day(i try to be around 100) you should loose 1-2 pounds of fat (not muscle!) a week. Thats not taking into account your calorie deficit so make sure your eating atleast 1200 calories(also my calorie goal) and taking into consideration the calories you burn while exercising( eat most of these back)

    On January 10th i started eating this way( eating only meat and vegetables, low carbs, low to zero dairy, higher fat etc) Its called the Primal blueprint if you want to look it up. For me its been a lifestyle change completetly and prob for years to come. But for other its a quick way to loose the fat. ( my bf is going primal for that purpose). It was 11 days yesterday and i lost 3.8 pounds in 11 days. It usually is a struggle for every single percentage of a pound i loose so i know how frustrating it is. Google "marks daily apple" and it will guide you through what you should be eating if you'd like to try this.

    Good luck!

    The low carb thing is more of a personal thing, it really comes down to calories in vs calories out. Carbs are great for you and a balance diet consists of 45-60% carbs, these should be complex carb not simple sugars.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    OK, let me say what others have said in a different manner -- and I hope you'll forgive the humorous-exasperated tone...

    WOMAN! How on earth did you end up with a calorie goal of under 1200?! From what you told us -- your age, weight, activity level -- your maintenance level must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2100 calories daily, or even a little more (varying for individual metabolism). That is, if you eat 2100 calories, or whatever your exact value is, you won't gain or lose, provided your metabolism runs normally.. You aren't overweight, so you don't have masses of fat lying around just waiting to be oxydised. And now you're trying to make your body run on about half its expenditure. This pushes your metabolism out of the zone where it will just dip into fat reserves. Maybe it's breaking down muscle, even, who knows (without measuring you with precise instruments none of us has access to). And even if you can persuade it, by going on like this, to finally drop some of your extra pounds (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't), what do you think will happen once you go back to eating at maintenance levels or a tiny bit above? Your body, after that ordeal will put on the lost pounds as fast as it can, already having ratcheted down its metabolism.

    Is there a race on? A medical emergency? Do you HAVE to do this in a month instead of three? Just adjust your calories to a little below maintenance levels -- eat 1700 or 1800 or whatever, and the pounds will slowly come off and STAY off.

    T 132 lbs her maintenance will be around 1700-1800. I weigh more than that and my maintenance is 1950.
  • chocolatnoir
    chocolatnoir Posts: 182 Member
    From my own experience, it sounds like you need to be eating more. You are quite possibly eating 1000 or so UNDER your maintenance...and you probably don't have a lot of fat to start with so your body is probably holding on to whatever is there.

    Try eating a few hundred more calories after you do the math to figure out your TDEE. It is really hard when you have anything less than 20 lbs to lose. I'm in the same boat. Figuring it out as I go, but am seeing positive changes after increasing my calories a lot and continuing the cardio.

    You just have to figure out what works for your specifically.

    Good luck!
  • taletreader
    taletreader Posts: 377 Member
    T 132 lbs her maintenance will be around 1700-1800. I weigh more than that and my maintenance is 1950.

    I'm sure there are variations, and my tools are crude, but from her account I selected "moderately active" in a few online calculators. It's less if she's less active, for sure.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    T 132 lbs her maintenance will be around 1700-1800. I weigh more than that and my maintenance is 1950.

    I'm sure there are variations, and my tools are crude, but from her account I selected "moderately active" in a few online calculators. It's less if she's less active, for sure.

    Sorry I assumed like most of us here she would be considered Sedentary (desk job) exercise does not get accounted for in activity level.
  • taletreader
    taletreader Posts: 377 Member
    Sorry I assumed like most of us here she would be considered Sedentary (desk job) exercise does not get accounted for in activity level.

    Um, I quite clearly said that based on all the data she gave, which includes the exercise, she should be around the value I said (+- quite a bit -- no quibbling). In the greater scheme beyond MFP, exercise most certainly counts.
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