Over 100 to lose and not making progress. Cry for help!

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mrjason
mrjason Posts: 61 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The subject says it all. I've stuck to this thing for almost a month, have built up my exercise, but haven't lost anything in the last two weeks. People tell me I'm not eating enough calories but nutritionist says at my weight starvation mode doesn't come into play. I exercise for 45 minutes, it gives me 800 more calories. I know I consume too much sodium but even so, the weight still has to come off sometime. Is it possible that MFP is actually giving me TOO MANY calories. Last time I tried to lose weight it was all protien, now I try to do something sustainable and balanced..and nothing? Any other extra heavy people run into this issue? Losing weight should not be this hard when following a plan.
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Replies

  • ramonad
    ramonad Posts: 14
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    how many calories r u eating?
  • Purplegal32
    Purplegal32 Posts: 85 Member
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    while I am no expert but are you drinking lots of water that can help instead of diet soda (granted I dont know if you are or not but that can help a bit.. Make sure to get lots of water every day at least 8 glasses
  • Greyhawkk
    Greyhawkk Posts: 34
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    Cant really comment without knowing what you are eating.
  • latoyakilgour
    latoyakilgour Posts: 1
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    Can you give me an example of what your eating. What is a typical eating day for you?
  • GorillaNJ
    GorillaNJ Posts: 4,051 Member
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    What sort of program are you following to exercise?
  • hummzz
    hummzz Posts: 384 Member
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    I'm in the same boat as you as far as the amount of weight to lose. I've been at a stand still for about month. Haven't lost a thing. I'm working on cutting my sodium and getting my exercise up. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror today and even though I'm not losing I can tell that my body is looking leaner. I don't have any magic suggestions for you but to encourage you that it may not ALWAYS be about the scale. Try to see the difference in your body and your health and hopefully you won't be so discouraged and stick with it. That's what gets me through. I'm rooting for you!!!!
  • hickman52003
    hickman52003 Posts: 40
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    I have been following the calories that MFP provides I just don't eat the extra calories after my workouts. I try not to eat past 7pm. I have been losing about a pound a week. Got to drink your water and watch sodium. If you don't you will hold tons of water weight and not lose anything. Hope this helps. I don't really know what your eating but maybe change things up a bit.
  • Grimmerick
    Grimmerick Posts: 3,344 Member
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    If you just started exercising on a regular basis recently then you shouldn't weigh yourself for a month because you might build up muscle before you lose the weight therefore it will make the scale look like it isn't moving. I had that happen too I started exercising and then for like 3 weeks I hadn't lost a pound, I stuck with the exercising and then all of a sudden the weight started to come off again. Measure yourself, you should see a difference there. Remember, you are building up the muscle which weighs more to help burn the fat so don't get frustrated you have to wait for your body to make that transition first, it is annoying though. But I promise it will be worth it!!
  • Yoyolady44
    Yoyolady44 Posts: 1
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    It's hard to give you advise without know what you're eating and drinking but have you looked into HCG? Look at www.clinicalHCGdiet.com
  • seers
    seers Posts: 7 Member
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    Sometimes the exercising can actually make you gain muscle which weighs more then fat. Prior to joining MFP I joined the gym and went 3 - 4 times a week and felt like I was eating the same amount of food. I never lost a pound and I felt 100% better. Had way more energy. Funny thing is I probably would have been gaining if I hadn't joined the gym. My clothes actually felt loser. Have you measured your inches. Maybe you are losing inches. Are you feeling good. Do you have more energy. If so then please don't get discouraged. It will all work out.
  • mrselw410
    mrselw410 Posts: 2
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    Hi
    sorry to hear your frustration. I wanted to ask you if you are eating all the calories that you burn and if so I think personally that is defeating the purpose of burn more than you take in. Try not eating the calories you burn and just focus on eating the ones you get daily. Try focusing on how to make those calories fill u through the day and if you do go over a bit don't beat yourself up. It took time for us to put this weight on and its gonna take time and perserverance to get it off. Hold your head up high and be proud of the small victories at least you are doing something. I wish you all the best and God bless.:bigsmile
  • leomom72
    leomom72 Posts: 1,798 Member
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    likewise..i have 50 lbs left to lose, and i stick to my MFP calorie intake of 1200 perday, and my progress is slooooww going as well..i work out with my program 4 times a week 35 mins a day, and the other 3 days i do about 20 mins a day, and still in about 5 weeks, i have only lost about 8 lbs (would have been about 15 if i hadn't gained it back)..i totally feel your pain, so please feel free to add me if you like..best of luck
  • neonpink
    neonpink Posts: 203 Member
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    I also have a similar amount of weight to lose. I did plateau for a while after I'd lost 28lbs or so, but that was before joining MFP. Since then I never let my NET calories fall below 1200 and its been working fine for me. Also remember muscle weighs more than fat so maybe if you could see these values you would see that the fat % is decreasing and the muscle % increasing.
  • Mairgheal
    Mairgheal Posts: 385 Member
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    How do you get 800 calories for 45 mins of exercise - what exercise is that? (I want it!)
  • eabeumer
    eabeumer Posts: 8
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    I feel your pain!! I have walked in your shoes, exercising, watching what I'm eating and nothing lost for months! Time to take a deep breath, the pounds will come off. Your body needs time to re-learn how to burn calories efficiently. One question I must ask, are you being true to the plan that MRP has worked for you? Are you eating just serving sizes? Measuring food, weighing food? Our eyes, or at least mine, don't do good job of "measuring" serving sizes or ozs correctly. It's a must to be true to that. I count out the estimated number of chips, if I'm having chips, or I pour my "drink" into a glass size I know or into a measuring cup. I use measuring cups when I eat cereal. But you have to be eating enough...that's really important. Remember it is a balance of carbs, fat, protein and calories. Also the water, is important. If you are doing all this, then my only other suggestion is change up the exercise you are doing. Muscles get used to doing the same exercise, they become efficient in how many calories they burn. So if you are walking, ride a bike one day, or do a yoga class, or jog. Or just do jumping jacks and sit ups, plus get some hand weights and do 5-10 minutes. You only have to do this 1 or 2 times in a week to jump start your fat burning potential. I know I've been there. Plateaus are hard, especially in the beginning. I am living proof what I'm saying works, I have lost 41 lbs since July. Best of luck!! Keep the faith and don't give up!!
  • andreammusic
    andreammusic Posts: 2
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    One of the biggest pitfalls for people struggling to burn fat is that they take exercise as an excuse to eat more. It's not!!
    1200 calories will ensure that your body does not go into starvation.

    I think your best bet is to consume 1200-1600 per day (or whatever your planned daily calories are), keep it stuck at that- and NOT take your exercise into account. If you need to, just enter that you exercised in the notes so that MFP doesn't give you those extra calories. That really messes with your mind.

    Cardio/exercise calories burned vary per person and per workout, so they're not accurate. and the one thing that MFP may do is encourage reward eating- i.e. eating because you exercised. I heard some good advice once ----

    Forget you exercised and follow your normal fat-loss nutrition plan.

    If you incorporate a good preworkout and postworkout snack -within your daily calorie intake-, it should boost your muscle growth and fat-burning potential. But I say stop letting MFP put those extra calories in, try it for a week or two, and see what results you get!

    hope it helped : )
  • mikeyrp
    mikeyrp Posts: 1,616 Member
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    How are you measuring your cals burned at the gym? 800 Cals in 45 minutes seems kinda high - on my best days I can burn 500 Cals in 30 minutes but that is going flat out. Do you have a heart rate monitor (HRM) with calorie calculations - they seem to be the most accurate: use that over a whole day (24hrs) without exercise to get your baseline:

    The difference between your baseline and what you eat is going to be the weight you are going to loose.

    If you work out, use the HRM to get your cals - not the machine (for me they are actually about the same so don't stress too much) - dont forget to subtract your baseline for that workout time.

    Example:
    Baseline 1800 Cals
    Target 1400 Cals
    Deficit 400 Cals (this is your weight loss margin)

    Baseline = 75 Cals per hour (1800/24) - or better still - just take an average waking hours cal consumed - after all you burn less when you sleep)
    So, in a 1 hour work out if you burn 600 cals I would only count 500 of them.



    All that aside - if you started exercising and dieting at the same time there is a good chance you have lost fat and replaced it with Muscle - I had exactly the same for the first few weeks - after about 4 weeks - and after a very small further reduction of my target calories the weight started coming off - its been a pretty consistent pound or so a week - slow but steady - and I look and feel loads better because of the exercise.
  • forestdancers
    forestdancers Posts: 146 Member
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    I think that this site has too many calories for people like myself who are clinically obese. After all a lot of the calorie calculations are based on sites that deal with sports medicine. Lets face it a person weighing 350lbs who is a football player is going to be able to eat differently than a person like myself who is 350 lbs of mostly fat. So what I did was set my lifestyle to sedentary even though I am a janitor and only log in a tiny fraction of my job as a workout. I also eat a big breakfast (500+ cal), smaller lunch (400+cal) and then have a yogurt and 10grams of almonds for dinner. Also have two or three snacks of apples and oranges or protein such as lean meat or boiled eggs during the day every two or three hours. I also allow for a cheat day to go over calories if I am feeling starved out. So far I have been losing steady and have dropped about 3 or 4 lbs a week since mid Jan. If you want you can friend me so you can see my food log.


    Stay strong.
  • weightedfootsteps
    weightedfootsteps Posts: 4,349 Member
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    I have been following the calories that MFP provides I just don't eat the extra calories after my workouts. I try not to eat past 7pm. I have been losing about a pound a week. Got to drink your water and watch sodium. If you don't you will hold tons of water weight and not lose anything. Hope this helps. I don't really know what your eating but maybe change things up a bit.

    Exactly what I was thinking. If you eat too much sodium you would have water weight...I think if sodium is just the problem try to knock that lower and you'll be fine.
  • NeuroticVirgo
    NeuroticVirgo Posts: 3,671 Member
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    From my personal experience, this is what I would suggest.

    1 - Make sure you are really tracking all your food. If you grab 5 M&M's while your at work, then an hour later, take a tiny bite of a cookie, etc. Make sure your being completely honest with yourself and not brushing off calories.

    2 - Sodium! I know you want to say sodium shouldn't matter, but it does. I'm not a doctor, scientist whatever, but I swear because I'm 100+ overweight that I retain like 15 more lbs of water weight than a skinny mini person. I was stuck forever at the same weight for over a month until I started watching my sodium and making sure I was drinking enough water through out the day. Now its finally starting to come off at a good pace.

    3 - Carbs. I don't mean go all crazy and try to not eat any, but I know MFP alots me almost 200 carbs a day. And my body likes to soak up them carbs! lol Try lowering your carbs to around 125 a day. (But honestly I'd try to conquer sodium first).

    Those are things that have either stopped me from losing in the past, or have stopped me from losing while on MFP.

    Good luck!

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