no weight loss

chantalebelle
chantalebelle Posts: 43
edited November 8 in Health and Weight Loss
so i dont know if i'm doing something or everything wrong or if it's just me or what. i have been working out and eating better (not perfect but definitely better) for about 6 weeks now. I took CLA for a month of this every day (supposed to prevent fat storage etc.), and work out 5-6 times a week for about an hour a day or so.

i just started logging on MFP so i only have about 2 weeks of stuff on here but, even since 2 weeks ago, i haven't weighed in because according to my scale i weigh the exact same (some days 1 lb more some days 1 lb less) that i did when i started MFP 2 weeks ago.

Granted, i do have a cheap scale from ikea that is old and may be the problem although i dont know for sure. and i have been trying to log my food as properly as i can.

aside from the obvious comments (go get a great scale, weigh your food and log accordingly, etc.) what am i doing wrong that i'm not losing weight (if this is the case?)
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Replies

  • tiptoethruthetulips
    tiptoethruthetulips Posts: 3,371 Member
    If you make your food diary public people will be more inclined to answer your question and how tall are you, what do you weigh?
  • wilsoncl6
    wilsoncl6 Posts: 1,280 Member
    Possibly over calculating your exercise calories and you have to open your diary for people to see so they can better answer your question.
  • my diary is now open and i am 5'6" and weigh 142 lbs. i am getting my exercise calories directly from the programs website that i am doing or directly on the video i am doing.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    my diary is now open and i am 5'6" and weigh 142 lbs. i am getting my exercise calories directly from the programs website that i am doing or directly on the video i am doing.

    Does it give you calories based on your height/weight/age/ect or is it just saying "hey this workout burns 200 calories"? If it's the latter, then chances are it is wrong. Even the first method can be a bit on the high side.
  • tracymayo1
    tracymayo1 Posts: 445 Member
    first things first, don't rely on the serving size on the back of the pacakge to log.
    You have to actually WEIGH your food (and measure your liquids) Otherwise you aren't sure what you are actually ingesting.
    Once you get that down you will see a difference. but 2 weeks is not long enough to worry.
    AS for your calories burned - it is always going to be a guess. A Heartrate monitor is best - but you won't know 100% if you are pushing as hard as on the video to burn the same amount. It is an estimate.
    - If you eat back your workout calories - only eat back about 50%-75% at MOST
  • it isn't just this past 2 weeks ive noticed no weight loss, i've just only been logging for 2 weeks now. since i've been working out i've been around the same weight and it won't move.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    tracymayo1 wrote: »
    first things first, don't rely on the serving size on the back of the pacakge to log.
    Very true. I had single serving packs of almonds. Supposed to weigh 17g and be about 100 calories. Every package in the box weighed more than 17g and I ended up with calories ranging from 120 - 140 calories. I am very skeptical of "single serving" packages now. Things like this add up fast.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    I don't know where you're buying your milk, but I've never seen milk with only 16 calories. 2% milk should have something like 125 calories per cup.
  • tracymayo1
    tracymayo1 Posts: 445 Member
    it isn't just this past 2 weeks ive noticed no weight loss, i've just only been logging for 2 weeks now. since i've been working out i've been around the same weight and it won't move.

    Sorry I must have mis-read!
    I still maintain however, that you are eating more than you think.
    If you aren't weighing (with a scale) all the solids you eat and liquids you drink/cook with, then you don't know what you are actually eating in a day.
    Get a scale if you don't already have one - and use it on EVERYTHING.
    Also, for the body scale, if it is the old kind with the little arrow - dump it and get a good digital one. I love my Eat Smart Electronic Scale. Many on this site recommended it to me when I was looking to replace my old school one..

  • wilsoncl6
    wilsoncl6 Posts: 1,280 Member
    I don't know where you're buying your milk, but I've never seen milk with only 16 calories. 2% milk should have something like 125 calories per cup.

    Huh, whut? Logged 2% milk at 16 calories? I think water has more calories than that.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited November 2014
    Homemade entries...unless they are your own recipes using the recipe builder, than they are probably wrong
    Same with generic entries

    Something tells me that you had more than 0.13631cup of milk with your cereal. That's maybe a sip.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    so i dont know if i'm doing something or everything wrong or if it's just me or what. i have been working out and eating better (not perfect but definitely better) for about 6 weeks now. I took CLA for a month of this every day (supposed to prevent fat storage etc.), and work out 5-6 times a week for about an hour a day or so.

    i just started logging on MFP so i only have about 2 weeks of stuff on here but, even since 2 weeks ago, i haven't weighed in because according to my scale i weigh the exact same (some days 1 lb more some days 1 lb less) that i did when i started MFP 2 weeks ago.

    Granted, i do have a cheap scale from ikea that is old and may be the problem although i dont know for sure. and i have been trying to log my food as properly as i can.

    aside from the obvious comments (go get a great scale, weigh your food and log accordingly, etc.) what am i doing wrong that i'm not losing weight (if this is the case?)
    Setting aside water retention and normal weight fluctuation, you are eating the right amount of food to support what your weight is doing.

    If you want to lose weight, you must eat less.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    tracymayo1 wrote: »
    first things first, don't rely on the serving size on the back of the pacakge to log.
    You have to actually WEIGH your food (and measure your liquids) Otherwise you aren't sure what you are actually ingesting.
    Once you get that down you will see a difference. but 2 weeks is not long enough to worry.
    AS for your calories burned - it is always going to be a guess. A Heartrate monitor is best - but you won't know 100% if you are pushing as hard as on the video to burn the same amount. It is an estimate.
    - If you eat back your workout calories - only eat back about 50%-75% at MOST

    Yep.
  • happyfeetrebel1
    happyfeetrebel1 Posts: 1,005 Member
    If you aren't losing, you're not eating enough of a deficit. It doesn't matter how accurate you THINK you're being, if the scale's not moving, you're simply not.

    Weigh everything, move more. Nobody is a special snowflake who burns more than they consume and doesn't lose weight. Life doesn't work that way.

    Good luck :)
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited November 2014
    wilsoncl6 wrote: »
    I don't know where you're buying your milk, but I've never seen milk with only 16 calories. 2% milk should have something like 125 calories per cup.

    Huh, whut? Logged 2% milk at 16 calories? I think water has more calories than that.

    She logged 0.13631 cup (32.25ml) of milk. I guess it's possible she had 2 TBSP's of milk with her cereal, but that doesn't seem like it would even be worth it.
  • wilsoncl6
    wilsoncl6 Posts: 1,280 Member
    I don't think it's the amount she's eating. From looking at OP's diary, she's got a lot of generic entries and the things she's eating have a lot of fat and sodium content, both of which can lead to water retention that plays out on the scale in a negative way.

    I think the problem is a combination of over calculating on your exercise caloric burn, under calculating on your caloric intake and the types of food that you are eating is under your caloric guidelines but high in fat, sodium or sugar.
  • I don't know where you're buying your milk, but I've never seen milk with only 16 calories. 2% milk should have something like 125 calories per cup.

    im literally eating/drinking like maybe 4 tbsp with cereal, i don't drink the milk afterwards
  • tracymayo1
    tracymayo1 Posts: 445 Member
    off topic Chantalebelle.. but I LOVE your avatar! ;)
  • lavaughan69
    lavaughan69 Posts: 459 Member
    I don't usually jump in and give advice because I think losing weight is so individual and what works for one person may not work for another....but...I did take a quick look at your log and I think there are a couple simple things besides the obvious WEIGHT and MEASURE everything. That's just an absolute must, you are most likely taking in more calories than you think.

    You really don't have that much weight to lose so there's not a lot of wiggle room for logging mistakes and guesswork. I couldn't help but notice that on some days you consume over 500 calories in drinks alone. If you switched out your pop and juice for water you would have more room for error. I won't bother to criticize the fast food as I believe that as long as your within your calorie allotment for the day you should be okay, but clearly your eating at maintenance if you're not down at all. Try not eating back your exercise calories or only eating back half. During my weightloss stage I didn't bother eating back my calories because I knew there were times throughout the week when the food I logged wasn't accurate.

    One last suggestion, I moved my weigh-in days to Friday morning. I found that on weekends my salty food intake was higher and my water retention was up so the scale didn't move when I weighed in on a Monday. Weighing in on a Friday morning gives you all week to fix some of the eating mistakes you may have made from the previous weekend!


  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    I don't know where you're buying your milk, but I've never seen milk with only 16 calories. 2% milk should have something like 125 calories per cup.

    im literally eating/drinking like maybe 4 tbsp with cereal, i don't drink the milk afterwards

    Log all of it, even if you don't drink the last bit. Do this because you don't know how much of the milk you actually consumed. I tend to put a 1/2 cup on mine and there is very little (if any) left in the bowl when the cereal is gone.
  • wilsoncl6
    wilsoncl6 Posts: 1,280 Member
    I don't know where you're buying your milk, but I've never seen milk with only 16 calories. 2% milk should have something like 125 calories per cup.

    im literally eating/drinking like maybe 4 tbsp with cereal, i don't drink the milk afterwards

    Try measuring out 4 tbsp. next time and see how much milk you have left over after you cereal is eaten. You might have to add more so you can finish it up. Do you measure out exactly 8 ounces into your bowl? How do you know that you only put a cup into the bowl?
  • i do understand i need to weigh and accurately log my food properly, i guess that is the main problem, so i am willing to accept that, but even having said that i feel like since ive been working out for 6-7 weeks already approx. 5 times a week i should have at least lost something. am i crazy?
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    i do understand i need to weigh and accurately log my food properly, i guess that is the main problem, so i am willing to accept that, but even having said that i feel like since ive been working out for 6-7 weeks already approx. 5 times a week i should have at least lost something. am i crazy?

    What happens a lot of times when people work out (who aren't tracking calories) they will end up consuming a couple hundred extra calories here and there without realising it which effectively wipes out any deficit the exercise had created.
  • ok ya that makes sense. but i feel like either way, even if i am eating a few extra hundred calories, theres no way i'm eating over my maintain or whatever so in any case i feel like i should be losing or something. i dont know. it's all very frustrating. maybe i just have it all wrong.
  • tracymayo1 wrote: »
    off topic Chantalebelle.. but I LOVE your avatar! ;)

    LOL thanks
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    ok ya that makes sense. but i feel like either way, even if i am eating a few extra hundred calories, theres no way i'm eating over my maintain or whatever so in any case i feel like i should be losing or something. i dont know. it's all very frustrating. maybe i just have it all wrong.

    While you may not be eating over maintenance, you seem to be eating at it or you would have lost weight by now. The fact that your fluctuating 1lb up/down says you're maintaining.
  • i hate this. it's hard enough getting the motivation almost every day to work out and get a sweat on and not eat exactly what i would if i had no restrictions, i don't know how to push it even harder without feeling like this is taking over my life. i dont mind working out like i have been and i dont even mind eating better, but any tips on staying motivated and not being stressed by no or slow results?
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    edited November 2014
    i do understand i need to weigh and accurately log my food properly, i guess that is the main problem, so i am willing to accept that, but even having said that i feel like since ive been working out for 6-7 weeks already approx. 5 times a week i should have at least lost something. am i crazy?

    Not if you have been close to maintenance all the time, because its the existence of a deficit that determines if you lose weight. If youd had one proplery sorted out when you started then you ould have had 5/6 weeks weight loss.

    How hard are you working during your 5-6 times weight loss a week?

    You should get c1lb loss a week just from that depending on what you are doing.
  • AskTracyAnnK28
    AskTracyAnnK28 Posts: 2,817 Member
    Hey - look at it this way: At least you know what your maintenance is :D
  • 0067808
    0067808 Posts: 119 Member
    I agree with one of the other posters - at 5'6, 142 lbs, you haven't much to lose. The last pounds are always the toughest. I hope you find a solution - but if you don't I'll bet you look fabulous already!
This discussion has been closed.