PLEASE HELP ME - I'M BECOMEING SO DISCOURAGED

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  • mkskippy24
    mkskippy24 Posts: 45
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    Take a look at what your eating. even if your at or under your calorie goal...are you eating alot of processed foods? if you are get rid of them, eat healthy natural foods, you will see a diffirence. Are you eating back your "workout" calories burned? dont...this is the only place ive seen it done and i never eat them back.

    OR.... just eat some of your calories back. You still should average 1200-1600 calories a day so your body's metabolism doesn't slow down. I just had this discussion on Sat with a friend of mine who took courses on nutrition and the likes.... and is a trainer. While you don't have to eat ALL of your calories back, you really will lose more weight in the long run if you eat some of the calories back. Keeps the metabolism kicking along and a better pace.

    Keep your head up. I am 5'5, 36yr, and 181.9lbs.... I started at the gym a month ago at 183lbs. I've lost MAYBE a pound. I really was starting to stress out, but the thing is I also lost 1.5 inches from my waist. So even though the work doesn't look as if it's showing.... it is. And, for every 1lb of muslce gained theres generally 2lbs of fat lost. And if you are like me and are doing a lot of running, walking, aerobics..... you are probably building leg muscle which could effect what you see on the scale.

    Bottom line.... don't give up just yet. Hang in there. Ignore the scale for a week or two. Measure yourself. And make sure you are hitting all the goals in your diet, not just the calories. It takes food and exercise changes to lose weight :)
  • kittytrix
    kittytrix Posts: 557 Member
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    I went through the same thing the first time I tried to lose weight. I wasn't being totally honest with my food diary just not to see those red numbers. I rationalized that If I walked around the grocery store I should log it in when I would do that normaly even when I was fatter.

    It wasn't until I really started to log in honestly that I started to see the needle move.

    Also. I realized that my calorie intake was too low. Once I bumped it up I really began to lose.
  • Jade_Butterfly
    Jade_Butterfly Posts: 2,963 Member
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    Don't be discouraged. I am assuming if you are doing the biggest loser challenge that you have taken body measurements and such. To determine progress it is not always measured in weight, but in inches. After the birth of my daughter. I did that. I was going to the gym 5 or 6 days a week and working out and ended up losing three sizes in my clothes and no weight. What you need to keep in mind is this muscle is denser and weight weighs more than fat so as you are changing the composition of your body, you are going to be losing fat and putting on muscle which in turn will metabolize the fat at a faster rate. It will increase your resting metabolic rate. So don't worry. Keep going, just make sure that you are cross-training. You have a good amount of cardio with weight training as well. As far as diet I would say to limit dairy, make sure that you are eating lean meats and a good amount of fibrous foods, or I include flax meal in my diet or flax oil, and drink a lot of water. Hope this helps.:bigsmile:
  • FitPhysique
    FitPhysique Posts: 284 Member
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    Make sure you are not overestimated the amount of Calories you are burning trhough exercising. I was working out 5-6 days a week running and other exercises and only lost about 3lbs yes I did tone up a great deal. Also over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed that not eating all my exercise calories have helped moved the scale. Eventhoug, It's TOM I lost 1.6lbs when I weighed myself this past saturday, the most for me ever. Actually, If go back to what I weighed on Monday Morning after going out to dinner on Sunday it's actually at total of 3lbs.

    Moral of the story, try to use only half of the calories you've burn through exercising. Try that for two weeks and see what happens. Good luck!

    P.S MAke sur eyou are drinking a lot of water at least 100Ounces a day about 12 cups sounds like a lot but is very achievable.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    5 pounds is progress!! Make sure you NET at least 1200 calories. Keep sodium low and water high. You can eat at night as long as it isn't a huge high fat meal. I heard lowfat cottage cheese or something high protein is great for night time. I have a glass of 1% or skim milk and my protein powder about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs before bed. Try to stay away from as much junk as you can. VEGGIES, VEGGIES, VEGGIES. Very important.

    Take measurements - sometimes you won't see loss on the scale immediately. You are most likely not building muscle. You need heavy weight lifting and a calorie surplus for that. Diet and cardio will cause fat loss AND muscle mass loss. Getting plenty of protein can help counteract some of that muscle mass loss. Right now my ratios are at 40/40/20 carb/pro/fat.

    And be patient. It takes a little while for your body to do what you want it to do.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
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    As stated, unless we see you food diary, we cannot know how to help you. Ultimately weight lose comes down to burning more calories than you eat. Just so you know, it is almost impossible to out exercise bad eating hence the comments above that pretty much all of losing weight is diet. The type of exercises you do make a difference as well, so we would want to know that as well.

    If you don't log what you eat here, start doing so, and enter every single thing that enters your mouth. One candy may not seem like much, but some of those candies have almost 100 calories in one candy. That is significant if you are trying to lose weight.

    Finally don't get discouraged. For some people it takes a while for the weight to start coming off. Remember shows like the Biggest Loser not only play with the length of a week to get those big weight losses, but they also pick contestants for the best TV, and I am guessing they look at who they think will lose weight well. The other thing they do is encourage the false idea that the last chance workout has anything to do with true weight loss. All it does is dehydrate the contestants so they seem to weigh less. All of that gives many a skewed view of losing weight that is far from reality. There are probably things we can help you tweak to get you losing more consistently, but until we get to see your food diary and know the exercises you are doing, we can't really help.
  • thatssodiva
    thatssodiva Posts: 1 Member
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    I felt the same way. I went to a weight loss doctor and got phenetermine. They also gave me a water pill. Within 2 weeks, my number came down. I was and still am keeping up with food intake on here. Good Luck...
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    Take a look at what your eating. even if your at or under your calorie goal...are you eating alot of processed foods? if you are get rid of them, eat healthy natural foods, you will see a diffirence. Are you eating back your "workout" calories burned? dont...this is the only place ive seen it done and i never eat them back.

    The reason there are workout calories here is because MFP has already put the calorie deficit in when it give you your calorie goal. If you are at 1200 and you burn 400 that puts you at a NET of 800 calories. That is not enough. You risk slowing your metabolism down and your weight loss down. And it is very unhealthy nutrition-wise. It is drummed into our heads that restricting calories is the way to lose weight. This is true to a point but too much of a restriction and your body can go into Starvation Mode and stop burning fat, store what you eat and dig into more of your lean muscle mass for fuel. 1200 is a baseline number and a good number to go by. So you don't have to eat back all of your exercise but eat enough to get you to over 1200.
  • hooghie
    hooghie Posts: 711 Member
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    5lbs is good! Good job!

    I agree that the path to weight loss is mostly diet but here's my experience. I didn't lose a lot in the beginning and became really frustrated. I logged my food for a week and realized I was eating way more than I thought and not eating enough of the right things (protein & fiber). I've slowly changed my habits little by little. Every month or 2, I log my food again for a week to keep myself on track.

    Also, with exercise, I wasn't burning as much as I thought. As I kept going to the gym, I got stronger and therefore now burn way more calories that I used to in the same 45 or 60 minutes.

    Good luck and don't be too hard on yourself. Make small changes and keep it up.
  • mkskippy24
    mkskippy24 Posts: 45
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    Take a look at what your eating. even if your at or under your calorie goal...are you eating alot of processed foods? if you are get rid of them, eat healthy natural foods, you will see a diffirence. Are you eating back your "workout" calories burned? dont...this is the only place ive seen it done and i never eat them back.

    The reason there are workout calories here is because MFP has already put the calorie deficit in when it give you your calorie goal. If you are at 1200 and you burn 400 that puts you at a NET of 800 calories. That is not enough. You risk slowing your metabolism down and your weight loss down. And it is very unhealthy nutrition-wise. It is drummed into our heads that restricting calories is the way to lose weight. This is true to a point but too much of a restriction and your body can go into Starvation Mode and stop burning fat, store what you eat and dig into more of your lean muscle mass for fuel. 1200 is a baseline number and a good number to go by. So you don't have to eat back all of your exercise but eat enough to get you to over 1200.


    Very well said!
  • Chrissy_Michelle
    Chrissy_Michelle Posts: 176 Member
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    Hello! firstly, 5 pounds is awesome, congrats!!! Second, after viewing your food diary over the last few days I can see why you are having difficulty in losing more weight. Where are the fruits and veggies? I see lots of processed food and sweets even soda. Even when we stay in our caloric window, the foods we eat can impact our efforts and slow us down dramatically. You need lean protein, low fat or non fat dairy, lots of veggies and fruits and tons of water, high fiber foods and if you must have breads or pasta or rice, go for whole grain ones! Good luck and try incorporating more of the things i listed! I think you will be pleased with the outcome :)
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
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    Looking at your diary, the problem becomes very apparent. You could theoretically lose weight eating what you are eating, but much of it is empty calories. By that I mean it does not have the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Those may seem like a small thing, but they make a huge difference in the function of your body, especially in weight loss. Next, the food you eat has almost no fiber. Of all the things you can increase in your diet, that is one that is proven to help in weight loss, the other is protein. Start eating more fruits and veggies. A coffee and donut a day would be fine, but you need veggies, fruits and lean meats as well. This will mean making some of your own food. The other thing that worries me is are those entries for restaurant sandwiches accurate? I ask because 2 slices of bread will usually come to about 200 calories all by themselves. Add about 80-90 for say turkey, then some more for various toppings and you are easily over 300 calories in one sandwich. More is the bread slices are thicker and the meat put on it is more than one serving. Don't trust all the stuff in the database unless you verify it. I have found a bunch that are wrong when compared to the numbers on what I am eating. If I had simply trusted them I would have been way over on my calories a number of days.

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