Following MFP recommendations to a tee & should be at 3lb weight loss, but only 2??
CharityC2182
Posts: 38 Member
I'm following the mfp recommendations to a tee and should have lost 3 lbs and going on my 4th. I've barely lost 2. I literally record everything I put in my mouth and never even eat back my exercise calories so really I should probably be going on losing the 5th pound. Is it safe to assume I have a slow metabolism? I've always figured that since it seems a lot harder. The past 3 weeks I've rarely gone over 1200 calories and on running days and gym days barely go over 1300. What gives??
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Replies
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Nononononono.
Weight loss is not linear. You are not going to have a perfectly matched weight loss every week.
Why aren't you eating back your exercise calories?
Do you weigh all your foods?
How much do you have to lose?0 -
I don't weigh my foods. I pretty much eat the same thing everyday. A turkey bacon wheat tortilla W/ egg and a slice of cheese and a coke for breakfast (460 calories), a P3 protein pack for lunch (170 calories), Turkey Jerky bites for a snack (60 calories), a lean cuisine for dinner and a slice of cheese (180-300 calories), and a coke to finish it off (140). It keeps me full the rest of the night. I also drink lots of water through the whole day. It usually barely makes 1200 and occasionally tips 1300.0
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I'm 107 and want to get to 100. I'm 5'1.0
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I also run 3 1/2 miles every other day and do 7 different strength training machines every other day. I'm 20% bf. I got a health assessment and they used the skin fold machine so Im pretty sure it's fairly accurate0
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You should be aiming for half a pound a week, since you only have a few pounds to lose. Your body is going to resist losing fast. Also, you want to lose slower so that you preserve lean body mass. You want to burn off fat, not muscle. When you aim to lose faster, you will burn off muscle.0
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You don't really need to lose weight. If you do lose weight, you can expect it to be slow. You are actually eating too little food right now.0
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CharityC2182 wrote: »I don't weigh my foods.
This is your problem. You can easily underestimate your foods by hundreds of calories without knowing it.
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Ack, nevermind. I misread your first post and thought you were trying to lose 3 pounds a week.
Try for a half pound a week and be patient
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When you think about what percentage of weight you want to lose, it's going to take a while so just be patient. If it were me I'd cut out the Coke except maybe once a week, and drink more water. And you should always try to eat at least 1200 calories minimum, IMO. If I add up all your calories and assume your dinner is the max at 300 calories, it's still only 1130 total for the day.0
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Until I started weighing my food, I thought I was being accurate, but I was really underestimating most foods by a lot. It ended up being a few hundred calories a day.
Also, with only 7lbs to lose it will take you, on average, 14 weeks. Ish.
And, I don't really know what you have 7lbs to lose? When you get that close to "goal" and it's more about recomp than the scale, the scale isn't important.
If you have areas you want to lose fat from or look smaller, you're going to have more success eating at a small deficit and starting a lifting program.0 -
Since you are able to run 3 1/2 miles every other day, it is pretty obvious that you don't have a slow metabolism. A slow metabolism results in fatigue and an inability to do a lot of strenuous activity because your body isn't getting enough energy.0
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Good advice! thanks everyone and to the person who said I want to look 12, no that's not the case..It is still in the healthy weight for my height and when I felt my best. To each their own!0
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No fruits or no veggies-gee you are being hard on your body Try replacing your 2 daily cokes with the same calories of fruits and veggies.0
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How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck 0 -
How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
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"Estimate" is the word you are missing.
MFP estimates. Your BMR is an estimate. Your TDEE is an estimate. Your calories burned during workouts are estimates. The calories consumed, even when weighing and measuring, are all estimates.
It'll never be an exact science.
Are you losing? Good!
Are you losing consistently? Even Better!
Stick with the program. You'll get where you want to go.
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I think you're eating more than you think you are. I'm 5'2, run 5 miles 4 times a week and on my run days I'm extremely hungry eating 1400 calories.
Also, you don't have much to lose so it won't come off as fast as you're expecting it too.
Aim for half a pound but understand it may even be slower than that.
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How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
According to the online calculators, my strength gains, and my mirror, I've gained muscle mass eating less than 1300 calories a day. People gain more on a bulk, sure, but as long as the muscles are challenged and there is adequate quality protein intake, lower (but healthy range) total calories does not stop protein synthesis. OP may well have built some muscle, and as she is losing weight slowly, even gaining a few ounces of muscle in a month might mask fat loss.0 -
All the advice about weighing is well and true, but you could be weighing your food down to the tenth of a gram, with perfect calorie information, and still be off by many pounds. As another said above, everything is an estimate, and weight loss isn't linear.
Things like water weight fluctuations, food and waste in your system, etc. can cause your weight to vary by many pounds day-to-day -- and that variation is not indicative of actual fat lost or gained (I vary by 5 pounds or so in some instances, and that's weighing the same time, same circumstances every day). I find taking a rolling three and five day average of weight smooths a lot of the peaks and valleys and helps me fine tune how much fat (and hopefully not too much lean mass!) I am actually losing. Take it easy and try not to let a pound here or there stress you out.0 -
How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
According to the online calculators, my strength gains, and my mirror, I've gained muscle mass eating less than 1300 calories a day. People gain more on a bulk, sure, but as long as the muscles are challenged and there is adequate quality protein intake, lower (but healthy range) total calories does not stop protein synthesis. OP may well have built some muscle, and as she is losing weight slowly, even gaining a few ounces of muscle in a month might mask fat loss.
Um .... no. Building muscle mass is difficult for women when on a serious progressive overload exercise program and surplus caloric intake. Beyond "newbie gains", a woman eating that little will not gain appreciable muscle mass.0 -
If you are not weighing your food you are pretty much guessing how many calories you are consuming. Even weighing your food only gets you to a rough estimate. I have found that when most people use guessing as a means to count calories they tend to state their calorie intake at what they want it to be rather then what they ate. After weighing food for months on end even the best and most disciplined calorie counters start to underestimate calories after a few weeks of guessing.0
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brianpperkins wrote: »How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
According to the online calculators, my strength gains, and my mirror, I've gained muscle mass eating less than 1300 calories a day. People gain more on a bulk, sure, but as long as the muscles are challenged and there is adequate quality protein intake, lower (but healthy range) total calories does not stop protein synthesis. OP may well have built some muscle, and as she is losing weight slowly, even gaining a few ounces of muscle in a month might mask fat loss.
Um .... no. Building muscle mass is difficult for women when on a serious progressive overload exercise program and surplus caloric intake. Beyond "newbie gains", a woman eating that little will not gain appreciable muscle mass.
+1
Unless she's obese and new to lifting or obese and a returning experienced lifter. Under the right conditions she might gain a very little.
@kyta32, you're right. Protein synthesis does not stop. You'd be dead if it did, every cell in your body requires it to function. But protein synthesis is not muscle mass synthesis. Synthesizing new muscle, as opposed to muscle repair, does not happen to any significant degree in a deficit.
Getting stronger != muscle mass increase (though it can be an indicator)
Getting more ripped != muscle mass increase (though it can be an indicator)
Online calculators of %BF are really inaccurate. And even a decrease in %BF != muscle mass increase (though it can be an indicator). Even in your %BF calculations are correct, don't forget that lean body mass includes water and bone as well as muscle. No way to separate those out without something like a DEXA scan.0 -
I've lost 24lbs pretty easily in the last few months. I'm nearly at my goal weight., and now I'm losing roughly 2lbs a Month! I'll get there eventually, just slower than I would like. You're at such a low weight to begin with, so IMO it's not going to go quickly.0
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How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
According to the online calculators, my strength gains, and my mirror, I've gained muscle mass eating less than 1300 calories a day. People gain more on a bulk, sure, but as long as the muscles are challenged and there is adequate quality protein intake, lower (but healthy range) total calories does not stop protein synthesis. OP may well have built some muscle, and as she is losing weight slowly, even gaining a few ounces of muscle in a month might mask fat loss.
LOL that ^^^ up there ^^^.
Now that's a funny one.
Ya almost had me goin' there for a minute.
Almost ...
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brianpperkins wrote: »How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
According to the online calculators, my strength gains, and my mirror, I've gained muscle mass eating less than 1300 calories a day. People gain more on a bulk, sure, but as long as the muscles are challenged and there is adequate quality protein intake, lower (but healthy range) total calories does not stop protein synthesis. OP may well have built some muscle, and as she is losing weight slowly, even gaining a few ounces of muscle in a month might mask fat loss.
Um .... no. Building muscle mass is difficult for women when on a serious progressive overload exercise program and surplus caloric intake. Beyond "newbie gains", a woman eating that little will not gain appreciable muscle mass.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9309627
A study where participants lost fat (were in a calorie deficit) and gained muscle at the same time. It has been scientifically established that it is possible to gain muscle in a calorie deficit.
Clearly, OP is not obese. However, she may be new to lifting. If she is aiming to lose 0.5 lbs/wk, and has expected to lose 4 lbs by now, and has just started a new lifting program, she may very well be in the newbie period, and thus put on some muscle, which can mask fat loss. Women are capable of gaining muscle. I've met women who have a 20+ muscle pound weight advantage over other women their size. And, we are not talking about "appreciable" muscle mass (whatever that means). At a loss rate of 0.5 lbs week, a few ounces of muscle could look like slowed fat loss.0 -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9309627
A study where participants lost fat (were in a calorie deficit) and gained muscle at the same time. It has been scientifically established that it is possible to gain muscle in a calorie deficit.
LOL-ing again.
Did you actually, y'know, *read* that abstract before linking? 'Cause this " A study where participants lost fat (were in a calorie deficit) and gained muscle at the same time. " nor anything that could reasonably, logically, or rationally lead to such a statement ... none of it is there, Bro.
Give up now.
Quit while you're ahead... mmm-kay?
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Your weight being 1lb off is totally normal. That can be caused by a number of things such as how much water you drank, what kind of food you ate and whether it's your period, regardless of how much you're eating.0
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SergeantSausage wrote: »
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9309627
A study where participants lost fat (were in a calorie deficit) and gained muscle at the same time. It has been scientifically established that it is possible to gain muscle in a calorie deficit.
LOL-ing again.
Did you actually, y'know, *read* that abstract before linking? 'Cause this " A study where participants lost fat (were in a calorie deficit) and gained muscle at the same time. " nor anything that could reasonably, logically, or rationally lead to such a statement ... none of it is there, Bro.
Give up now.
Quit while you're ahead... mmm-kay?
For my first one, this link summarizes how the men involved gained fat free mass while losing weight and body fat
http://muscleevo.net/calorie-deficit/
The full info is available on this one:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/58/4/561.abstract
14 obese females eating 800 kcal/day lost an average of 16 kg over 90 days (eating in deficit). Muscle biopsies showed increases in FT and ST muscle fibers in the weight training group, and a 24% increase in strength in the WT group, while the control group showed no increase in muscle fibers, and a decrease in strength. Muscle hypertropy during caloric deficit.
It has been scientifically established (repeatedly) that you can gain muscle while losing fat, and we all know that losing fat requires a calorie deficit. As long as someone is getting enough quality protein, and doing resistance exercise, building muscle and strength while in a calorie deficit is possible.0 -
That would be for health not for calories. A person can eat and drink what they want and still lose weight.No fruits or no veggies-gee you are being hard on your body Try replacing your 2 daily cokes with the same calories of fruits and veggies.CharityC2182 wrote: »I'm following the mfp recommendations to a tee and should have lost 3 lbs and going on my 4th. I've barely lost 2. I literally record everything I put in my mouth and never even eat back my exercise calories so really I should probably be going on losing the 5th pound. Is it safe to assume I have a slow metabolism? I've always figured that since it seems a lot harder. The past 3 weeks I've rarely gone over 1200 calories and on running days and gym days barely go over 1300. What gives??
Charity, you don't have slow metabolism. Your goal is way too aggressive and you're low on patience. You do not need to lose weight.
Besides this, why are you trying to lose weight when you are already close to underweight? Weight Chart 100 will put you into the underweight category.
I would suggest eating at maintenance or a slight surplus and starting some heavy weight lifting.
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How long have you been losing for? Changing your exercise regime or how you eat can cause you to hold onto water, which can mask weight loss. Hormones may also cause you to hold onto water (if you don't like what the scale says, sometimes you just need to wait a week). Not drinking enough water can cause you to hold onto water as well.
You look amazing, by the way. If you are gaining muscle mass at the gym, that can also mask fat loss to some extent. Are you keeping track of your inches?
+1 to the eating more veggies. You can also try more home-made meals. Eating all packaged food can lead to water gain from the sodium content. Good luck
She is not gaining muscle mass eating only 1200-1300 calories a day.
According to the online calculators, my strength gains, and my mirror, I've gained muscle mass eating less than 1300 calories a day. People gain more on a bulk, sure, but as long as the muscles are challenged and there is adequate quality protein intake, lower (but healthy range) total calories does not stop protein synthesis. OP may well have built some muscle, and as she is losing weight slowly, even gaining a few ounces of muscle in a month might mask fat loss.
No. Just no.0
This discussion has been closed.
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