Came close to weekly goal, lost barely any weight

HangoverSquare
HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
edited November 11 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5'11'', 220lbs.

I've been eating 1500 calories/day. This week, I was only 200 calories over my weekly goal.

However, I only lost 0.4 lbs.

What's the deal with this? Do I have to drop my calories to 1400/day to lose some weight or what?

Replies

  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    Are you weighing your food? Picking accurate data in the food logs?
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Give it more time. Weight loss isn't linear. You're not going to hit your goal spot on every single week.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    Can you open your diary?
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
    Ninkyou wrote: »
    Give it more time. Weight loss isn't linear. You're not going to hit your goal spot on every single week.
    Laurend224 wrote: »
    Are you weighing your food? Picking accurate data in the food logs?

    Both of these. I wouldn't drop my calories at this time, give it another week or 2. Are you weighing yourself at the same time of time under similar circumstances and the same scale?
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I'm guessing you are eating more than you think you are, meaning that maybe you are actually eating 1900 calories and so your intake ended up being closer to 2100 calories. So that would further reduce your deficit.

    And as stated, weigh loss isn't linear. Weigh your food (or at least measure with cups everything you eat) so you can get a much better idea of how much you are eating... and 1500 is way lower than any male needs to be eating to lose weight. Just sayin.
  • Pack100
    Pack100 Posts: 13 Member
    Are you exercising? I found that when I exercise I need to eat more to lose the weight. Especially when I am plateauing. I know it seems backwards but pumping up the calories a couple of hundred seemed to help me.

  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    edited January 2015
    My diary is now public.

    I've been weighing/measuring my food, but perhaps not well enough. For food like pizza, which I had Saturday, it's tough measuring it. So, I think I'll just stay away from that s**t for a while.

    I weigh-in every Monday morning, before eating breakfast.

    I had knee surgery a couple weeks back and I'm on crutches for another 2 weeks. So no exercising until then. I figured that could possibly be part of the issue.
  • klund13
    klund13 Posts: 98 Member
    If you went over your goal and still managed to lose something, I would consider that a win!
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    You had surgery a few weeks ago? Your body is holding on to water to help heal itself.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    Plus if you are on prescription pain medications or even NSaids like ibuprofen, they will cause water retention.
  • joneallen
    joneallen Posts: 217 Member
    You're diet is all over the place. Sometimes you're under by 200 calories, and other days your over by 700.

    Consistency is the key.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    joneallen wrote: »
    You're diet is all over the place. Sometimes you're under by 200 calories, and other days your over by 700.

    Consistency is the key.
    2nd

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    You say you weigh things? Then why is your cereal showing up as 3 cups? Did you measure it out so that it equaled hte 3 cup serving size in grams on the box?

    You also used a generic recipe from the database. Make your own recipe.

    HOw do you eat 0.21 of a can of tuna? Just weigh the amount you are eating.

    Your log basically looks all over the place, your logging practices need to be cleaned up, and you need to be consistent.
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
    ana3067 wrote: »
    ... and 1500 is way lower than any male needs to be eating to lose weight. Just sayin.

    I'm guessing he's trying to lose 2 lbs a week at 1500 calories.
  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    Laurend224 wrote: »
    Plus if you are on prescription pain medications or even NSaids like ibuprofen, they will cause water retention.

    I'm on Norco, which is hydrocodone and acetaminophen. I take one a day for the pain at night. Not sure if that causes me to retain water, or not.
    joneallen wrote: »
    You're diet is all over the place. Sometimes you're under by 200 calories, and other days your over by 700.

    Consistency is the key.

    I see. I'll stick as close as possible to my 1500/day then.
  • joneallen
    joneallen Posts: 217 Member
    HangoverSquare wrote: »
    I see. I'll stick as close as possible to my 1500/day then.

    That's honestly where you'll find some results. Try and plan ahead. That always helps me.
  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    ana3067 wrote: »
    You say you weigh things? Then why is your cereal showing up as 3 cups? Did you measure it out so that it equaled hte 3 cup serving size in grams on the box?

    You also used a generic recipe from the database. Make your own recipe.

    HOw do you eat 0.21 of a can of tuna? Just weigh the amount you are eating.

    Your log basically looks all over the place, your logging practices need to be cleaned up, and you need to be consistent.

    How are you measuring these properly? I'm guessing you input your food manually. For instance, when you eat x grams of mushrooms, you add the nutrition info to MFP based on what's on the package of the mushrooms you ate?

    I've been scanning barcodes recently for more accurate readings. The box of cereal, for example, says 1 cup = 110 calories. So I take a measuring cup and measure the cereal.
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
    edited January 2015
    Personally if I were recovering from surgery I wouldn't be eating at a deficit.

    Solids (cereal) should be weighed not measured. Your box of cereal should also say 1 cup = 28 grams (1 oz).
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    loulamb7 wrote: »
    ana3067 wrote: »
    ... and 1500 is way lower than any male needs to be eating to lose weight. Just sayin.

    I'm guessing he's trying to lose 2 lbs a week at 1500 calories.

    MOst likely, but I'd bet it's still lower than he needs. Especially since I did not notice him eating back his exercise calories when he does log exercise. But I think his biggest issue is that he is being reaaaaaally inconsistent and has poor logging. So cleaning both issues up will actually allow him to see proper trends.
    HangoverSquare wrote: »
    Laurend224 wrote: »
    Plus if you are on prescription pain medications or even NSaids like ibuprofen, they will cause water retention.

    I'm on Norco, which is hydrocodone and acetaminophen. I take one a day for the pain at night. Not sure if that causes me to retain water, or not.
    joneallen wrote: »
    You're diet is all over the place. Sometimes you're under by 200 calories, and other days your over by 700.

    Consistency is the key.

    I see. I'll stick as close as possible to my 1500/day then.

    1500 is your NET goal. Meaning if you exercise, log and eat bak at least half of those calories.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    edited January 2015
    I disagree that consistency is key. Many people actually find a lot MORE success with varying their calories throughout the week - see 5:2 fasting as a more formal example, but there are many more others who just informally try to stay within a weekly goal rather than focusing on a daily goal. It may be an adherence thing, or it may be a metabolic thing (though I tend to side-eye any approach that claims to "boots" one's metabolism), or some combo of those or other factors, but for many people it's a successful approach. Not saying that consistency doesn't work perfectly fine as well, just that being inconsistent with your actual calories eaten (within the confines of, overall, eating a proper amount over the course of a week or whatever your measurement period is) is unlikely to slow your loss.

    I would personally point far more to the idea that weight loss isn't linear. So you only lost 0.4lbs this past week. How long have you been at this? Have you ever had a week where you lost *more* than you were expecting? Your weight can fluctuate up and down for absolutely no reason that relates to your daily/weekly calorie deficits. Water, waste, all sorts of reasons. Look more to your trends over time than the exact amount your weight changes each week.

    Also, 100% agree with checking your logging accuracy, which is an important point for every single person using this site for logging, but even then I wouldn't automatically assume that your logging was off until you had a few weeks where you were losing less than expected.
  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    edited January 2015
    BarbieAS wrote: »
    I would personally point far more to the idea that weight loss isn't linear. So you only lost 0.4lbs this past week. How long have you been at this? Have you ever had a week where you lost *more* than you were expecting? Your weight can fluctuate up and down for absolutely no reason that relates to your daily/weekly calorie deficits. Water, waste, all sorts of reasons. Look more to your trends over time than the exact amount your weight changes each week.

    Also, 100% agree with checking your logging accuracy, which is an important point for every single person using this site for logging, but even then I wouldn't automatically assume that your logging was off until you had a few weeks where you were losing less than expected.

    I was on a decent weight-loss streak a year and a half ago. Then, I regained my weight back and I'm trying to lose it all again.

    I've been serious about sticking to my calorie goals for the last 3 weeks, I'd say, so I'm still pretty early into this. I think I've lost 7 pounds in total since January 1st, which might not be bad at all, looking at it on the large scale (pun not intended).

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    BarbieAS wrote: »
    I disagree that consistency is key. Many people actually find a lot MORE success with varying their calories throughout the week - see 5:2 fasting as a more formal example, but there are many more others who just informally try to stay within a weekly goal rather than focusing on a daily goal. It may be an adherence thing, or it may be a metabolic thing (though I tend to side-eye any approach that claims to "boots" one's metabolism), or some combo of those or other factors, but for many people it's a successful approach. Not saying that consistency doesn't work perfectly fine as well, just that being inconsistent with your actual calories eaten (within the confines of, overall, eating a proper amount over the course of a week or whatever your measurement period is) is unlikely to slow your loss.

    I would personally point far more to the idea that weight loss isn't linear. So you only lost 0.4lbs this past week. How long have you been at this? Have you ever had a week where you lost *more* than you were expecting? Your weight can fluctuate up and down for absolutely no reason that relates to your daily/weekly calorie deficits. Water, waste, all sorts of reasons. Look more to your trends over time than the exact amount your weight changes each week.

    Also, 100% agree with checking your logging accuracy, which is an important point for every single person using this site for logging, but even then I wouldn't automatically assume that your logging was off until you had a few weeks where you were losing less than expected.

    And this method is consistent because they are consistently following the same pattern. It's like people who only eat at a deficit on rest days and maintenance on workout days - it's a consistent pattern. Randomly eating 700 cals surplus Monday, 300 surplus tuesday, 400 cal deficit wednesday, on target thursday, 1000 surplus Friday, and then 100+/- from goal on the weekend... is not consistent. I have just introduced refeeds into my deficit, meaning once a week or bi-weekly I will eat at maintenance or a bit above. This is still consistent from week to week, meaning that my weekly average will still be about the same from week to week. OP's approach? Does not yield consistent weekly averages.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    HangoverSquare wrote: »
    ana3067 wrote: »
    You say you weigh things? Then why is your cereal showing up as 3 cups? Did you measure it out so that it equaled hte 3 cup serving size in grams on the box?

    You also used a generic recipe from the database. Make your own recipe.

    HOw do you eat 0.21 of a can of tuna? Just weigh the amount you are eating.

    Your log basically looks all over the place, your logging practices need to be cleaned up, and you need to be consistent.

    How are you measuring these properly? I'm guessing you input your food manually. For instance, when you eat x grams of mushrooms, you add the nutrition info to MFP based on what's on the package of the mushrooms you ate?

    I've been scanning barcodes recently for more accurate readings. The box of cereal, for example, says 1 cup = 110 calories. So I take a measuring cup and measure the cereal.

    No... I search "white mushrooms" and enter in "40 grams" or something into the serving size. I have my own private database for this, but it would be the same if I were using MFP's public database. Use the correct entry, enter in the weight of the food you eat, and log it.

    Your cereal wll also say 1 cup (x grams). So.. use that. If there isn't an entry in the database that offers grams as an opton for serving sizes, then create your own private database entry that allows servings in grams.
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
    HangoverSquare wrote: »

    I've been serious about sticking to my calorie goals for the last 3 weeks, I'd say, so I'm still pretty early into this. I think I've lost 7 pounds in total since January 1st, which might not be bad at all, looking at it on the large scale (pun not intended).

    That's probably about 2 lbs a week. Surgery and NSAIDs may explain the perceived slow down. Still may want to tighten the logging accuracy.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    edited January 2015
    ana3067 wrote: »
    BarbieAS wrote: »
    I disagree that consistency is key. Many people actually find a lot MORE success with varying their calories throughout the week - see 5:2 fasting as a more formal example, but there are many more others who just informally try to stay within a weekly goal rather than focusing on a daily goal. It may be an adherence thing, or it may be a metabolic thing (though I tend to side-eye any approach that claims to "boots" one's metabolism), or some combo of those or other factors, but for many people it's a successful approach. Not saying that consistency doesn't work perfectly fine as well, just that being inconsistent with your actual calories eaten (within the confines of, overall, eating a proper amount over the course of a week or whatever your measurement period is) is unlikely to slow your loss.

    I would personally point far more to the idea that weight loss isn't linear. So you only lost 0.4lbs this past week. How long have you been at this? Have you ever had a week where you lost *more* than you were expecting? Your weight can fluctuate up and down for absolutely no reason that relates to your daily/weekly calorie deficits. Water, waste, all sorts of reasons. Look more to your trends over time than the exact amount your weight changes each week.

    Also, 100% agree with checking your logging accuracy, which is an important point for every single person using this site for logging, but even then I wouldn't automatically assume that your logging was off until you had a few weeks where you were losing less than expected.

    And this method is consistent because they are consistently following the same pattern. It's like people who only eat at a deficit on rest days and maintenance on workout days - it's a consistent pattern. Randomly eating 700 cals surplus Monday, 300 surplus tuesday, 400 cal deficit wednesday, on target thursday, 1000 surplus Friday, and then 100+/- from goal on the weekend... is not consistent. I have just introduced refeeds into my deficit, meaning once a week or bi-weekly I will eat at maintenance or a bit above. This is still consistent from week to week, meaning that my weekly average will still be about the same from week to week. OP's approach? Does not yield consistent weekly averages.

    Why can't it yield consistent weekly averages? Obviously you still need to stay within a weekly or whatever goal, like I clearly stated ("being inconsistent with your actual calories eaten (within the confines of, overall, eating a proper amount over the course of a week or whatever your measurement period is) is unlikely to slow your loss"). But, if one week you go over your goal by 800 calories on Monday and then eat 200 under Tuesday through Friday and then the next week eat 100 calories over Monday, Wednesday, Friday and 100 under Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and then the next week log a huge exercise day and eat 1000 under on Sunday and then eat 200 over Monday through Friday it isn't going to negatively impact loss, and certainly wouldn't be significantly different than if you ate within 25 calories of your goal for 21 straight days. The OP stated that they were still within 200 calories of their weekly goal, which is a negligible difference, and if that eating pattern works for them then there's no problem with it - and, as I said, for some people it actually improves results. For some people consistency works, and for others it doesn't, and that's ok. It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you get there in a way that is satisfying and sustainable for you.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    edited January 2015
    The key word here is "barely".

    You still lost weight. Progress is progress. So you didn't lose quite as fast as you'd hoped this week. So what? Where's the fire? Are you in a race? Will something terrible happen if you don't meet your goal within a very specific window? I'll go ahead and guess the answer to that is "no".

    Keep doing what you're doing, don't beat yourself up for doing what you are trying to to in the first place, which is weight loss. You're doing that. You're good.
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