Repost: (posted on a different area) Not losing weight?

MsWisconsinite
MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
in Health and Weight Loss
For the past 4 weeks, I have been constantly losing 5 lbs per week by eating less calories and somewhat working out. However, this week, I haven't really changed anything with how I ate/how many calories I take in but I am not losing weight. Is there a good explanation for this because I am having a hard time understanding how I could lose certain lbs in the past weeks and not lose even 1 this week...
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Replies

  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    The explanation is it's never linear. After losing that fast, you might plateau for a month. It takes a lot of patience.
  • 365andstillalive
    365andstillalive Posts: 663 Member
    It sounds like you just started, so a lot of that, was likely water weight.

    You aren't going to lose 5lbs of fat per week. That would mean you'd be creating a deficit of 17,500 calories per week.

    Calculate your BMR and TDEE, eat at least to your BMR or do TDEE -20% (or -10% I don't know any of your stats to know how over weight you are) and you'll lose at a reasonable pace, which for most people is anywhere between 0.5-2lbs a week. Unless you are very, very obese, even 3lbs per week is really aggressive weight loss.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    If you lost 5 pounds a week for four weeks, that's amazing. Usually you can expect to lose 1-2 pounds a week depending on your height, weight and goals set. Your profile is closed therefore no one can see your diary, so you won't get much help in that area. Calorie deficit = weight loss.
    Congratulations on your loss thus far!
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    Background info:

    I'm 5' 2.5" and my starting weight about a month ago was 185 lbs. I am now 165 lbs. My calorie intake was about 300-500 calories per day since I started, and I walked about 1-3 hours per day as my work out.
  • tracymayo1
    tracymayo1 Posts: 445 Member
    Background info:

    My calorie intake was about 300-500 calories per day since I started, and I walked about 1-3 hours per day as my work out.

    It isn't possible you were only eating 300-500 calories a day... your body would shut down... did I read that right?
    Definitely open your diary if you want more help - but your numbers above must be wrong...
  • z_bra
    z_bra Posts: 79 Member
    Get help for your eating disorder.
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    It is now open!
    I started my diet with actually having 1 fit & active yogurt (90 calories) per meal (270 calories per day?)

    I get more tired in the afternoon...so I take a nap.
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    Get help for your eating disorder.

    I don't think I'd go as far as calling it an eating disorder?
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    I call Troll. Diary is for a week.
  • pplastics
    pplastics Posts: 135 Member
    It is now open!
    I started my diet with actually having 1 fit & active yogurt (90 calories) per meal (270 calories per day?)

    I get more tired in the afternoon...so I take a nap.

    What you are doing to your body is very dangerous. It can lead to extreme stress on your heart and result in permanent damage or even cardiac arrest. It will also slow your metabolism, which can hamper future weight loss attempts.

    Why do you want to do this to your body?
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    I call Troll. Diary is for a week.

    Uh what? And I just saw this site on the first...Look at my intro post?
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    It is now open!
    I started my diet with actually having 1 fit & active yogurt (90 calories) per meal (270 calories per day?)

    I get more tired in the afternoon...so I take a nap.
    That's all you're eating? Why are you torturing yourself?
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,839 Member
    I call Troll. Diary is for a week.

    Agreed.
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    It is now open!
    I started my diet with actually having 1 fit & active yogurt (90 calories) per meal (270 calories per day?)

    I get more tired in the afternoon...so I take a nap.

    What you are doing to your body is very dangerous. It can lead to extreme stress on your heart and result in permanent damage or even cardiac arrest. It will also slow your metabolism, which can hamper future weight loss attempts.

    Why do you want to do this to your body?

    Someone actually messaged me about tips on how to change it.
    Have come up with trying to do 6 meals a day and slowly increase it to 1200 calories a day and probably change my exercise habits to see what better fits me
  • pplastics
    pplastics Posts: 135 Member
    I call Troll. Diary is for a week.

    If true, I will never understand why people come here to do that. What can they possibly get out of it?

    Sometimes the internet makes me sad.
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    It is now open!
    I started my diet with actually having 1 fit & active yogurt (90 calories) per meal (270 calories per day?)

    I get more tired in the afternoon...so I take a nap.
    That's all you're eating? Why are you torturing yourself?

    Someone asked the same thing...this is what I said "I think that I was in a phase where I was super motivated to lose weight. After one week, I lost like 5 lbs. it felt good and I didn't want it to stop so I kept doing what I did from that first week, and I just kept losing it more..."
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    I'm surprised at the responses I've gotten...
    I thought that it was a very serious question, and all I've gotten is what? I'm being a troll?
  • rachelrb85
    rachelrb85 Posts: 579 Member
    Background info:

    I'm 5' 2.5" and my starting weight about a month ago was 185 lbs. I am now 165 lbs. My calorie intake was about 300-500 calories per day since I started, and I walked about 1-3 hours per day as my work out.

    I'm sorry, I think you meant 300-500 calories per hour, right?
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    I thought this was a support site...my mistake.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I thought this was a support site...my mistake.
    Huh? Who is not giving you support? You will harm your body eating so few calories. I also suggest you speak with a professional because if you do not have an eating disorder, you are certainly headed down that road.

    With all due respect, that's all the support I have to offer.
  • monicastricker9
    monicastricker9 Posts: 56
    It is more than likely a plateau. However, a couple things to consider are eating plan and fitness.
    Are you eating the same way every day every week. You may need to just do some tweaks.
    I know this is not what you want to hear, but kind of working out is not going to cut it to lose weight, tone up and keep it off long term. Further, if what you are doing for exercise is at the same intensity, duration and type for this whole time, your body will adapt making it less effective the longer you do it.
    My suggestion is up the cardio this can be running, cycling, walking, swimming etc. Keep changing up what you do and how you do it. For example say you walk 3 times a week for twenty minutes around your neighborhood. To get results after awhile sneak in maybe a minute of running every five. Or walk in a place that has hills, go to the local track and walk bleachers. Try body weight exercises as well, like pushups, crunches etc mixed with jumping jacks, burpees etc for the cardio to make a circuit.
  • 365andstillalive
    365andstillalive Posts: 663 Member
    I thought this was a support site...my mistake.

    It is a support site, but what you're doing is highly disordered eating, and what many doctors would classify as the beginning stages of an eating disorder; especially as you seem to feel there isn't anything wrong with eating 300-500 calories a day.

    What people are trying to tell you, although occasionally a little harshly, is that what you are doing could literally kill you if you kept it up for too long. You clearly did not speak with a doctor before starting weight loss, something just about everyone should do and you're not even giving your body enough calories for your brain to properly function, let alone the rest of your internal organs (this isn't an attack on your IQ btw, you just literally need more calories for proper function and control).

    You're napping because your body doesn't have enough calories to keep even keep you awake.

    Please, meet with a registered dietician or your doctor; explain the program you've been on. You should also follow my advice from earlier and calculate your BMR so that you have at least a rough idea of the base amount of calories your body needs to function, without physical activity.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    It is more than likely a plateau. However, a couple things to consider are eating plan and fitness.
    Are you eating the same way every day every week. You may need to just do some tweaks.
    I know this is not what you want to hear, but kind of working out is not going to cut it to lose weight, tone up and keep it off long term. Further, if what you are doing for exercise is at the same intensity, duration and type for this whole time, your body will adapt making it less effective the longer you do it.
    My suggestion is up the cardio this can be running, cycling, walking, swimming etc. Keep changing up what you do and how you do it. For example say you walk 3 times a week for twenty minutes around your neighborhood. To get results after awhile sneak in maybe a minute of running every five. Or walk in a place that has hills, go to the local track and walk bleachers. Try body weight exercises as well, like pushups, crunches etc mixed with jumping jacks, burpees etc for the cardio to make a circuit. If you need some ideas join me over at tribesports.com it is an awesome site for all levels of fitness.
    No. Just no.

    Besides that, you're advertising with the link.
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    I thought this was a support site...my mistake.
    Huh? Who is not giving you support? You will harm your body eating so few calories. I also suggest you speak with a professional because if you do not have an eating disorder, you are certainly headed down that road.

    With all due respect, that's all the support I have to offer.

    Mostly the people that sound sarcastic or are just plain outright mean...

    I appreciate all of the comments/ideas/tips that people that are legit in their responses are saying, thank you for that
  • ruffnstuff
    ruffnstuff Posts: 400 Member
    It is more than likely a plateau. However, a couple things to consider are eating plan and fitness.
    Are you eating the same way every day every week. You may need to just do some tweaks.
    I know this is not what you want to hear, but kind of working out is not going to cut it to lose weight, tone up and keep it off long term. Further, if what you are doing for exercise is at the same intensity, duration and type for this whole time, your body will adapt making it less effective the longer you do it.
    My suggestion is up the cardio this can be running, cycling, walking, swimming etc. Keep changing up what you do and how you do it. For example say you walk 3 times a week for twenty minutes around your neighborhood. To get results after awhile sneak in maybe a minute of running every five. Or walk in a place that has hills, go to the local track and walk bleachers. Try body weight exercises as well, like pushups, crunches etc mixed with jumping jacks, burpees etc for the cardio to make a circuit. If you need some ideas join me over at tribesports.com it is an awesome site for all levels of fitness.

    REPORTED - advertiser. Not to mention you obviously haven't paid attention to what's been revealed in this thread.
  • MsWisconsinite
    MsWisconsinite Posts: 23
    BMR: 1567.8.

    I think that when I started, I read a lot about staying away from soooo many food and saturated fats, that it has become a routine for me to look at the nutrition facts and to just put down a lot of stuff that has a lot of what I've seen that is "negative" for the body.

    Don't get me wrong the 300-500 calories was just a rough estimate, I allow myself to have a few more when my parents cook food that I can't simply say no to.
  • 5stringjeff
    5stringjeff Posts: 790 Member
    I thought this was a support site...my mistake.

    It is a support site, but what you're doing is highly disordered eating, and what many doctors would classify as the beginning stages of an eating disorder; especially as you seem to feel there isn't anything wrong with eating 300-500 calories a day.

    What people are trying to tell you, although occasionally a little harshly, is that what you are doing could literally kill you if you kept it up for too long. You clearly did not speak with a doctor before starting weight loss, something just about everyone should do and you're not even giving your body enough calories for your brain to properly function, let alone the rest of your internal organs (this isn't an attack on your IQ btw, you just literally need more calories for proper function and control).

    You're napping because your body doesn't have enough calories to keep even keep you awake.

    Please, meet with a registered dietician or your doctor; explain the program you've been on. You should also follow my advice from earlier and calculate your BMR so that you have at least a rough idea of the base amount of calories your body needs to function, without physical activity.

    This is spot on.

    I went to this BMR/TDEE calculator:
    http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/
    and punched in your numbers from above (5'2" female, 165 pounds). Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is something like 1500 calories. That is how much your body needs each day simply to survive. Eating 300-500 calories per day is not sustainable long term. You need to eat more simply to survive.
    If you're exercising 3 days a week, your average TDEE is around 2100 calories. Eat at a deficit from that level. If you want to lose a pound a week (which is sustainable), then aim for 1600 calories per day.
  • scottyray12
    scottyray12 Posts: 3
    This will happen through out the process. I got real excited when I started and was dropping weight real fast and then for two weeks I stalled and actually gained a pound. Then one day I was down like 3lbs. The body is crazy and will adjust it self as needed. Just keep it up. But also maybe you have reached a point where you need to eat fewer calories now that you have lost so much weight. Go to the goal page and re-enter your new weight and goals and see if your calorie intake drops.
  • scottyray12
    scottyray12 Posts: 3
    I did not read your whole post. WOW you are in starvation mode. Your body is not losing weight so it can keep you alive. You need some more food. Go get a pizza quick and add some parmesan cheese and while your at it order some wings. I am being serious. You need to eat
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    So far I guess you have lost 4-5 lb of glycogen/water, 3-4 lb of stuff going though your gut, 4 lb of muscle and a few lb of fat. I know you are desperate to loose weight and my hat goes off to you for the grit you have put into this but you are really going about it all wrong. You don't have to listen to me and you can assume you know more but there is no way what you are doing is sustainable and every day you sustain it you are damaging yourself. As I said you are so determined to do this but
    1) set a realistic calorie deficit - 1000 per day max - mfp will do this for you
    2) eat up to your target calorie intake
    3) exercise regularly and eat back most of of your exercise calories too.
    4) try and hit your macros - get near all of them but significantly overdo the protein for a few weeks so your body can mend the damage it has undergone

    Listen to this - if nothing else. You have backed yourself into a cul-de-sac. you are most probably going to see the scales increase as you back out no matter what you do. Don't worry about this, just do what I've suggested (which is what most people would suggest) and you will be ok. Don't listen to the bashers. You are trying your hardest so respect to you for this,. if you want support please send me a friend request :- )

    Good luck

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