What am I doing wrong?

akaar78 · February 2015

Hi,
I have been hitting a gym for 5 days a week and taking a break over the weekend.
Its been a month.I alternate cardio /strength 45 to 60 min on the days I go.
I am also trying to keep my calories intake less than 1450.
I have really been eating down compared to what I was .But the scale wouldn't budge.I am still in my starting weight.I didn't lose even 1 pound.I have been doing this for the past 1 month.I defnitely have perks of getting active.My knee pain and back pain were completely gone after I became active.But losing pounds is my goal.
What am I doing wrong?

malibu927 · February 2015

What are your height and weight? Do you use a food scale? Are you eating back some/all of your exercise calories? Most likely you're eating more than you think if you aren't losing.

wildtxn · February 2015

have your measurements changed at all during the month? Muscle weighs more than fat but will up your metabolic rate in the long run. sometimes you will gain or seem like you are not losing at all especially during early stages of starting to work out although your measurements will show the loss. Keep at it, it will come as long as you are keeping the nutrition in check with it.

yopeeps025 · February 2015

Food scale?

TheSurge0n · February 2015

Don't be discouraged my friend, keep going.
Check your calories intake properly & find out basic calories required for your body for inactive phase and set it as your goal intake.
Advice, check your weight in the morning after getting freshened up. You will definitely see the change.

hdrenollet · February 2015

You're putting too much focus on the number on the scale. Are you losing inches or becoming more tone? Obviously your health is starting to improve if your knee and back pain is going away. It sounds like what you're doing is working.

I think we'll need some more info to be able to help you any further though if you're really determined to lose pounds. There's a lot of factors to take into account. Age/Sex/Height/Weight, more detail about what you're actually eating (instead of just calorie count), along with a lot more detail about your workouts. Specifically your cardio workout. I can walk for an hour and call it cardio, but I burn 5x as many calories if I do HIIT for an hour instead. All exercise is not created equal, and all food is not created equal. As far as food, it's good to know what your ratios are. During my weight loss journey, I am sticking to a 40-40-20 ratio (40% of my calories from carbohydrates, 40% of my calories from protein, and 20% of my calories from fat). Now, if I was going for lean muscle mass instead of weight loss, I'd probably swap my fats and carbs, or maybe do a more balanced 30-40-30. There's just a lot of information to take into account when it comes to diet and exercise. That being said, the basics of weight loss is simply calorie-in vs. calorie-out, so logging accuracy may be an issue as well. You need to create a deficit of 3500 calories to burn 1 lb. of fat.

Anyway, if you're willing to give us some more info, I'm sure there's a lot of people that will be more than happy to jump in and help you out.

SueInAz · February 2015

akaar78 wrote: »

Hi,
I have been hitting a gym for 5 days a week and taking a break over the weekend.
Its been a month.I alternate cardio /strength 45 to 60 min on the days I go.
I am also trying to keep my calories intake less than 1450.
I have really been eating down compared to what I was .But the scale wouldn't budge.I am still in my starting weight.I didn't lose even 1 pound.I have been doing this for the past 1 month.I defnitely have perks of getting active.My knee pain and back pain were completely gone after I became active.But losing pounds is my goal.
What am I doing wrong?

The calories you are eating vs. what you are burning in exercise is the key component here. You can exercise yourself to death but if you're still eating more calories than you've burned each day you won't lose weight.

So... you're trying to eat under 1450 or you are? Are you weighing your food for accuracy? If you aren't, you may be eating even more than you think you are on the days you do stay below 1450.

StaciMarie1974 · February 2015

When you say you take a break on the weekends, what does this mean? Do you mean 'rest' days from the gym/activity - or also from logging/tracking/paying attention to what you eat?

4legsRbetterthan2 · February 2015

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide#latest

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

read both of those links

log every single thing every single day

If your exercise routine is new you might be seeing some weight loss masked by water retention from a new workout. This is a normal part of muscle repair and will go away in a couple weeks.

akaar78 · February 2015

Thank You for all the info.I am 36/f/5.2h/161 Lbs.I take a break on weekends from gym/trackings.But I still eat clean.I stay under my calorie goal.I have one cheat meal for dinner.I will pay more attenntion to track my food.I dont have a food scale.I measure them in terms of cups .I do 45 -60 mins of a local exercise class.Its a group class.We do a mixture Strength training /cardio with 30 sec intervals.Ok,I will track my food to the morsel to see if thats having an impact.I will come back with more updates.

LeanButNotMean44 · February 2015

akaar78 wrote: »

Thank You for all the info.I am 36/f/5.2h/161 Lbs.I take a break on weekends from gym/trackings.But I still eat clean.I stay under my calorie goal.I have one cheat meal for dinner.I will pay more attenntion to track my food.I dont have a food scale.I measure them in terms of cups .I do 45 -60 mins of a local exercise class.Its a group class.We do a mixture Strength training /cardio with 30 sec intervals.Ok,I will track my food to the morsel to see if thats having an impact.I will come back with more updates.

If you do not have and use a food scale to weigh your food, then you are likely NOT staying under your calorie goal.

arditarose · February 2015

akaar78 wrote: »

Thank You for all the info.I am 36/f/5.2h/161 Lbs.I take a break on weekends from gym/trackings.But I still eat clean.I stay under my calorie goal.I have one cheat meal for dinner.I will pay more attenntion to track my food.I dont have a food scale.I measure them in terms of cups .I do 45 -60 mins of a local exercise class.Its a group class.We do a mixture Strength training /cardio with 30 sec intervals.Ok,I will track my food to the morsel to see if thats having an impact.I will come back with more updates.

Right. So what you are doing wrong is not tracking your food properly.

scottacular · February 2015

Eating 'clean' is meaningless in terms of how it affects your weight, calories in vs. calories out regardless of where those calories come from. Not that I'm saying it's wrong to only eat so called clean food, as long it fits into a calorie deficit. But please don't ever fear having something that falls outside of that category.

That cheat meal you have may need looking at by the way, at this early stage I'd suggest not cheating just yet until you've established a balance that allows you to start losing weight. This is where all of us who oppose the term 'clean eating' have a problem. People deny themselves things unnecessarily, eat what they deem to be clean food and believe it'll automatically lead to the results they're after regardless. And then when they inevitably start craving food that doesn't fall within that strict criteria, they can end up going crazy when their will is broken and prevent them reaching their goals. Instead of a cheat meal, simply fit in what you really want into your deficit. You can easily do it if you have it in moderation. Anyway, long story short - if you're not losing, you need to cut calories a bit more. Don't go crazy, just knock a little bit off and see how it goes.

SueInAz · February 2015

akaar78 wrote: »

Thank You for all the info.I am 36/f/5.2h/161 Lbs.I take a break on weekends from gym/trackings.But I still eat clean.I stay under my calorie goal.I have one cheat meal for dinner.I will pay more attenntion to track my food.I dont have a food scale.I measure them in terms of cups .I do 45 -60 mins of a local exercise class.Its a group class.We do a mixture Strength training /cardio with 30 sec intervals.Ok,I will track my food to the morsel to see if thats having an impact.I will come back with more updates.

Eating "clean" won't stop you from gaining weight if you are eating too many calories.

Measuring food using cups isn't always accurate. Do you pack the food into the cup or lay it in loosely? Doing the former will end up with you eating more calories. This can be especially problematic if the food has a lot of calories. Also, how large the pieces of food are are will result in more or less food in the cup.

Buy a food scale if you can afford it. I saw a bunch of them in a store this weekend for $30 and less. It's probably the most important piece of equipment for someone who is trying to lose weight.

tlblood · February 2015

akaar78 wrote: »

I dont have a food scale.I measure them in terms of cups.

I would highly encourage you to get a food scale. It amazes me how often the cups serving size is inaccurate compared to the grams serving size (particularly if you think about 1 cup of cereal from the top of the box when all the pieces are whole compared to the end of the box when you're getting a bunch of crumbs...1 cup with a bunch of crumbs is more than 1 cup without crumbs).

LoosingMyLast15 · February 2015

akaar78 wrote: »

Thank You for all the info.I am 36/f/5.2h/161 Lbs.I take a break on weekends from gym/trackings.But I still eat clean.I stay under my calorie goal.I have one cheat meal for dinner.I will pay more attenntion to track my food.I dont have a food scale.I measure them in terms of cups .I do 45 -60 mins of a local exercise class.Its a group class.We do a mixture Strength training /cardio with 30 sec intervals.Ok,I will track my food to the morsel to see if thats having an impact.I will come back with more updates.

buy a food scale. you'll be SHOCKED how inaccurate measuring cups are once you start weighing your food.

What am I doing wrong?

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