Two Weeks Exercise & watching what I eat no weight loss :(

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wildflower83558
wildflower83558 Posts: 9 Member
edited January 2015 in Motivation and Support
What am I doing wrong? Is it my age? I'm 45 1/2 yrs old. Yes I was bad during the holidays and gained 5 or 6 lbs but I can't seem to make it budge despite my best efforts. I've been working out 5 days a week (walking, power yoga or nordic trac walking) and I haven't lost one lb! My close are still tight too. Am I just being too impatient? Does it take more time? I used to be able to shed pretty quickly in my youth but now it seems to have changed and I feel stuck. :\
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  • RhythmGypsi
    RhythmGypsi Posts: 79 Member
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    Hi there. It's a little difficult to tell what might be going on without having a little bit more information. Would you feel comfortable opening your diary to the public? By being able to see what you eat on a daily basis, we'd have a better idea of what might be keeping your progress back.

    Exercise is excellent, but it's only a part of the process. Depending on what you eat, and how much of it you eat, you might be hindering your progress. It definitely does take time, and please do not take offense (I definitely mean no harm), but the older one gets, the slower their metabolism becomes, which therefore keeps them from losing weight as fast as they did in their younger years.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
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    All the exercise in the world isn't going to help if you are eating as many calories are you're burning. Are you weighing (solids) and measuring (liquids) absolutely everything you eat and logging it accurately (including cooking oil and beverages?) If you're not, you are probably not eating at a calorie deficit. "Eyeballing" stuff doesn't work - it is very, very easy estimate incorrectly and it doesn't take much of that incorrect estimation to completely wipe out a calorie deficit.
  • mildred01226
    mildred01226 Posts: 2
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    hello forget for now the exercise if you do want to do any 10 mins brisk at a time ,, and to get me started each morning asap I have 2 scrambled eggs and then lunch bowl of quaker oats half teaspoon of honey dinner plenty of meat , chicken or fish protiens with new potato,s jacket potato or boiled and 1 veg, I never have salad and have weight watcher yoghurt and either a small apple or half a banana , if I am hungry late eve I have 2 ryvita and a t spoon of marmalade I started this 29th Jan and have lost 9bls good luck
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Well, with your diary closed it's going to be hard to give specific advice. The first thing that should be said is that unfortunately two weeks isn't always enough time to see changes. This could be a normal stall that happens to a lot of people even when they're doing everything right.

    The most common problems we see come from underestimating calories eaten and overestimating calories burned.

    You're logging everything you eat? Including condiments, cooking oils, veggies, cheat days, etc? Are you using a food scale, measuring cups, or eyeballing your portion sizes? Most people can be off in their estimates by several hundred calories when they eyeball portions. Measuring cups are better, but a food scale is going to be the most accurate.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1290491-how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale

    And make sure that you've calculated your calorie goals appropriately. Remember that these are just estimates. You may need to play around a little to find what works best for you.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    If you're exercising and eating back your earned exercise calories, be sure that you're using accurate estimates of your burn. MFP and gym machines have a tendency to overestimate certain activities, which can cause you to eat back more calories than you need to. Even a heart rate monitor isn't 100% accurate. If you're eating those extra earned calories it might be a good idea to eat only 50-75% of those.
  • colochel
    colochel Posts: 263 Member
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    What are you doing in the food dept.? Personally, I find it takes about 5x as long to shed the weight as it does to put it on, and the holidays were only a couple of weeks ago... it could take a few more weeks until you start seeing results.

    And yes. It's gets harder as we get older, unfortunately. But still, entirely possible! Keep the motivation up, and try switching up your workout intensities.
  • 2snakeswoman
    2snakeswoman Posts: 655 Member
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    I agree with most. The secret to losing weight lies in controlling the number of calories that you consume. Exercise helps, yes, but not as much as we sometimes imagine.

    I decided to lose weight with exercise alone in 2009, and it worked, to a point. I lost 15 pounds in a year. Most of us want to do better than that.
  • Nappingcat97
    Nappingcat97 Posts: 21 Member
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    Yes, you are being impatient. Losing weight is like waiting for water to boil. Make changes, feel better. Then one day, sooner than you think, you hit the scale and you've made a dent. It should be all about quality of life.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    What Dianne said, its hard to tell with a closed diary, but it normally means you are not at deficit, even though you think you are. Weigh and log all your food as suggested, we simply have no idea what you are doing, so cnat say if you should be losing weight or not. As you said you are probably being impatient as well.
  • wildflower83558
    wildflower83558 Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you for all the responses. Sorry I'm new here I just signd up a few days ago. I just opened up my food diary if anyone wants to peek, I didn't even know there were settings for that Lol. And yes I'm logging everything for the past couple of days or so with the exception of Tuesday where I didn't log my dinner. I haven't been logging water but I've been drinking a lot of herbal tea lately wit stevia for the sweetener and I didn't log that in. I measure everything and even weigh stuff too. I've been logging all my exercise too. I'll just keep plugging away and hope I see my body change soon.
  • LYL353
    LYL353 Posts: 41 Member
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    IDK but I'm right there with you. Logging for 5days and gained 1.5 and lost 1.5. So I'm right where I started. Glad to know that there is someone else in my boat too. Let's just hang in there a bit longer.
  • wildflower83558
    wildflower83558 Posts: 9 Member
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    @Lyl353 hang in there and keep trying. :)
  • LYL353
    LYL353 Posts: 41 Member
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    Hey, I sent you a friend request.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    edited January 2015
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    When you have 5 pounds to lose, this weight will come off slowly. Patience is key. Sorry. Weigh everything tyou eat :) and you may be overestimating your calorie burn.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    When you have 5 pounds to lose, this weight will come off slowly. Patience is key. Sorry. Weigh everything tyou eat :) and you may be overestimating your calorie burn.
    +1
  • kyta32
    kyta32 Posts: 670 Member
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    It's often recommended to only eat back 1/2 of exercise calories, as MFP tends to overestimate them.
  • dme100
    dme100 Posts: 34 Member
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    If you can find out what your BMR (max daily calorie consumption based on gender, height, current weight), then consume 500 less of the BMR per day, you should lose a pound per week regardless. But, you must calculate how much calories in everything you consume and be honest with yourself when working out the calories.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    dme100 wrote: »
    If you can find out what your BMR (max daily calorie consumption based on gender, height, current weight), then consume 500 less of the BMR per day, you should lose a pound per week regardless. But, you must calculate how much calories in everything you consume and be honest with yourself when working out the calories.

    I think you might have BMR and TDEE confused. You'd generally want to take your deficit from your TDEE, which factors in all of your activity, not your BMR.
  • Diet_Soda
    Diet_Soda Posts: 124 Member
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    I see that MFP has your daily caloric goal around 1800. I don't know how tall you are or how much you weigh, but for me, if I ate 1800 calories per day, I would not lose weight either. Have you looked around to see how to manually figure caloric needs based on your goals and your activity levels? I know it is frustrating. What day are you weighing in on? I found that I was much better off when I switched my weigh-in day to Wednesday or Friday. Monday weigh-ins reflect my more relaxed habits during the weekend, so I prefer weighing when I can see the effects of my hard work rather than the bacon cheeseburger I ate on Sunday! Sodium is a real killer for me!
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    dme100 wrote: »
    If you can find out what your BMR (max daily calorie consumption based on gender, height, current weight), then consume 500 less of the BMR per day, you should lose a pound per week regardless. But, you must calculate how much calories in everything you consume and be honest with yourself when working out the calories.

    NO! Deficits come from TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) if one is basing exercise in the calculations or RMR (resting metabolic rate) if the plan is to eat back exercise calories.

    BMR is not the basis point for deficit calculation.
  • aundreago
    aundreago Posts: 1 Member
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    Focus on your efforts, not your results. The results WILL come but it always takes more time and effort than you anticipate. This should be a lifestyle, not a short term diet. Fall in love with the process of taking care of your body and health. And relax! If you are earing healthy and staying active, you will get results. Also, don't rely only on the scale. Take pictures every 1 weeks and compare. Sometimes the scale doesn't budge but the photos show a transformation. Hang in there!

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