Haven't Lost Any Weight in over 2 Months

bokaba wrote: »

I am getting discouraged because I haven't lost any weight in over two months. I weighed 283 pounds when I joined on 9/02/14 and weighed that much today with a couple of pounds either way. I should be losing 1.5-2 lbs a week. With about 9 weeks, I should have lost between 13.5 and 18 lbs making my total weight 269.5 to 265 by now. This clearly has not happened.

I am probably not logging correctly and MFP is probably overestimating my workout calories, but I usually never eat exercise calories to make up for it and I cannot imagine that my logging could be so bad as to make the past two months an exercise is futility. Whatever I am doing is clearly not working for me.

I am happy that my fitness has improved over the past two months. On lifting days, I am able to do 70 pushups in a day (when I started, I could do zero) and I am able to bicycle sever miles (I could make it around the block a couple of times two months ago).

If I am unable to lose 1.5 pounds or more in the next week, I plan to stop logging and join a weight loss program offered by my physician and see if that works better for me. I know it is unrealistic to expect big losses quickly, but zero progress in two months is unacceptable to me and I realize much of it is probably my own fault.

I think that my frustration is understandable. Has anyone else experienced this kind of lack of progress?

Are you weighing out your food?

What medications are you on?

bokaba wrote: »

I am probably not logging correctly and MFP is probably overestimating my workout calories, but I usually never eat exercise calories to make up for it and I cannot imagine that my logging could be so bad as to make the past two months an exercise is futility. Whatever I am doing is clearly not working for me.

Weigh and measure everything.

As everyone said, you need to accurately weigh and log everything. Yesterday you logged cheese pizza. Was that a recipe you created or was it from somewhere like Pizza Hut? Anything like that out of the database you can't be sure that's what you're consuming due to different amounts/kinds of ingredients used between two people.

Use a food scale.

Given that you started working out some of this weight may be water or muscle gain. Have you been tracking your measurements as well as your weight?

I looked at your diary and the numbers for that plain cheese pizza seem to be about half of what they should be. When I google I get 952 calories for 3.5 slices of cheese pizza. The stuff you've been getting could have even more than that. Some pizza is dripping with oil.

If you love pizza so much make your own. You can buy frozen pizza dough at the supermarket. Take a frozen ball out in the morning, put it in a big tupperware container with a cover and put it someplace warm to rise all day, like an oven with a pilot light. Or your kitchen counter. In the evening punch it down and put it on a pizza pan (don't worry about getting it round), put on your favorite sauce and part skim mozzarella slices or grated mozzarella (and or other cheeses). You can add chopped veggies for toppings. Put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Voila. You have fresh pizza and you control the calories. What you don't eat you can save for lunch or dinner for the next day.

I'm seeing a lot of inaccuracies in your diary.

Nov 10
-Lowfat - Whole Wheat Pancakes, 3 pancakes: Use a food scale.
-Apple - Green - Small, 2 - Raw : That is meaningless. 2 small apples could be any size.
-Strawberries - Raw, 4 small (1" dia): Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Fruit - Banana (2 Fruit), 0.25 banana: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Pizza - Plain Cheese, 3.5 Slice: Meaningless, use a food scale.

Nov 9
-T - Tomato Slice, 2 slice: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Cheese - Swiss, 1 cubic inch: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Romaine - Chopped Romaine, 2 cups: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Olives - Black, Pitted, 3 large: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Pizza - Plain Cheese, 3.5 Slice: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Spinach - Raw, 2 cup: Meaningless, use a food scale.
-Trader Joes - Coconut Cream, 1/6 CUP: Do you have a 1/6 cup measuring cup?
-Oatmeal Quick Oats - Great Value, 1/2 Dry Cup: Meaningless, use a food scale.

Nov 8
-Trader Joes - French Toast, 2 slices: Unless pre-packaged, this is probably inaccurate. Does this include the syrup/toppings?
-Homemade - Sanwich-Turkey, 1 sandwich: Did you create this entry using the recipe builder? Otherwise, it's inaccurate.

It's not a bad idea to take occasional breaks when you feel frustrated or "diet fatigue". I don't mean eat whatever you want, stop exercising, load up on a lot of high calorie junk etc--rather, try to eat at maintenance for a week or a few weeks. I do that periodically: if I have a lot of socializing and know I will be at restaurants and in situations where it is difficult to log accurately I just eat around maintenance calories and keep exercising, walking a lot. Sometimes I still lose weight, sometimes I don't, sometimes I gain a pound or 2. Over the weeks and months the weight trend keeps going downward and I don't feel like I am missing out or leading a restricted life.

I am aware that this is not for everyone but I like doing it every other month or so. I only really use my food scale for fats and proteins too. Sorry, not going to weigh lettuce. That isn't gonna work for me

If you aren't weighing your food and measuring your liquids, you're overeating. It's that simple. Before I started weighing my food, I couldn't figure out why I was stuck. Turns out, I was overeating by enough to cancel out my 500 calorie per day deficit (thus eating at maintenance).

Also, if you ever "sneak" a bite of anything (nut butter, a piece of chocolate, whatever) log it. You aren't doing yourself any favors by sneaking a taste and not logging it. (I've been guilty of this before. Hell, I'm still guilty of it now.)

And are the recipes yours or the generic ones in MFP? If they aren't yours, don't use them! Make your own so you know you're eating the actual calorie/fat/protein/carb numbers in the recipe.

And for reals man, lay off all the supplements. There is no reason to take 16 different supplements, some of which probably double you up on some vitamins/minerals. Does your doctor know about all of these? What does he/she say about it?

I'll say it again because it really is that important: weigh all solids and measure all liquids to know what you are actually eating. If you aren't willing to do that, there's nothing any of us can do for you.

And I'm pretty sure I've told you this all before, so this is really just for grins and giggles.

This is an easy fix.

First, stop all those supplements you are wasting your money. All you need is a good multivitamin and fish oil.

Second, until you get the hang of estimating calories and weighing your food buy everything prepackaged.

Third, cut on a strict 500 cal deficit for two weeks. By strict I mean if your goal is 2500 cals hit 2500 cals everyday for 14 days. If you lose weight at an acceptable rate in those two weeks then keep cutting at a 500 cal deficit if you didn't lose the weight you wanted to then drop another 250 cals and repeat until you find your correct deficit. The formulas to find your BMR are not an exact science and everyone is different.

prettigirl01 wrote: »

all im going to say is I don't weigh or measure anything and as of a few weeks ago ive been doing just fine. I was thinking about buying a food scale but decided that im not going to. I don't need to and I don't care what other people think. do what works for you, what makes you happy. ive come to realize that there are a bunch of so called know it alls on here, people who try to bring you down when youre living up to their standards. if you continue to listen to everyone who thinks that their way is the only way then you'll never get anywhere

OP doesn't HAVE to use a food scale. Many people can get by without weighing or logging anything by just eating less, moving more. I think it's great and preferable to lose weight without a food scale. However, "do what works for you, what makes you happy" as you say, is bad advice because it is NOT working for the OP. OP is not losing weight, so the OP needs to change something.

Using a food scale is not the only way. The OP could just eat a little less every day. That's hard to quantify, though. It's speculation whether it is actually less food unless it's weighed.

I have had plateaus, yes. Very frustrating! Be sure to weigh/measure everything you eat and log every little thing, even a cup of black coffee for example. Then switch up your exercise routine in some way. If you were doing elliptical, switch to weights and stationary bike for example.

Alright OP - just gonna say it loud and proud: quitting this style and going on a doctor referred program may give you the results you want in XX amount of weeks, BUT what happens when that program is over?

You know the saying give a man a fish he eats for today, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime? Same rule applies here: if you have someone giving you a detailed outline of every single bite of food you're putting in your mouth for 6 - 8 weeks, of course you're going to lose, they're monitoring you like a child. What happens when that program ends? You have to learn to fend for yourself, you have to learn to feed yourself in the real world where the only person you're accountable to is yourself.

I am happy that you want to use the programs available to you, but just be careful because if they're babysitting you now to lose 10, 12, 15 lbs whatever, you're going to need to be babysat forever or the weight will just come back on.

The best results for me came when I started understanding what goes into my body and what kind of exercise my body needs. I learned for myself new eating habits, new grocery shopping habits, new ways of looking at food - I learned for myself, no one sat there and told me to have exactly one serving of this, and one of that - I did it, for me by myself every single day. To me, you need that kind of commitment and dedication; it seems like you just want to wake up skinny one day and never have to worry about losing it - it's a constant battle and you have to earn those pounds, they don't just drop for most of us.

As many have said, stop taking so many supplements! This causes your kidneys/liver to work overtime to process these things you're putting into your body when you can get MOST of them from food most of us already eat. You don't need to weigh, I don't weigh a whole lot of my food, but you need to be really conscious of what you're actually eating. Like did you really eat 1/4 of 1/2 of an avocado? Did you really eat dry quaker oats for breakfast? I couldn't do that. I think you're logging is off by a bit, and if you're going on what MFP gives you for exercise calories you need to cut 1/3 or 1/2 off of that number because MFP grossly overestimates those burns.

Overall - I don't know that a doctor recommended program is needed, maybe just a little more dedication. It seems like you need someone to tell you what to do and you don't want to figure this out for yourself, you just want someone to say eat this not that and the fat drops: it really won't work like that though.