Not losing weight, any ideas?
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JAT74
Posts: 1,078 Member
I started doing 5:2 on 23rd February so I'm now at the beginning of my 3rd week but not lost any weight so far.
Just before starting, I recorded my lowest weight of 139.8lbs, which is down from 147.5 when I started counting calories on MFP on 5th January.
What I was doing before 5:2 was working out my sedentary TDEE which was 1550 or thereabouts and then subtracting enough to lose 1lb per week which took me down to 1050 calories per day. I was then adding on exercise calories and trying to eat in the region of 1350-1450 calories on average per day.
My weight loss was fairly consistent before and I lost around 1lb per week, though some weeks I lost nothing and then the following week I'd be down just over 1lb.
Since I started 5:2 I did my maths to calculate how much I should be eating on non-fast days so that I didn't exceed the total number of calories I was having each week and so that it was pretty much the same as before. I've been eating around 550 on fast days and 1500-1650 on non-fast days so it averages out to under 1300 per day.
So far I've been weighing daily or every other day and I've noticed that the day after a fast day my weight is lower but then when I have a 'normal' day it goes up again.
The lowest weight I've recorded after a fast day is 138.5 but then after my 2nd fast day and 2 days of normal eating I'm recording around 140.5 and yesterday after 3 days of normal eating my weight was 141.5.
Does anyone know what's going on? On my non-fast days I know I'm eating a lot more carbs so could it be down to water or sodium being retained, or is it just that my weight is not really doing down at all?
This week I'm going to try and lower my non-fast day calories to around 1350-1400 and see if that helps but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. I tried 5:2 a couple of years ago but was having a similar problem so gave up after a couple of months but I really want to stick with it for the health benefits though it is very frustrating.
My mum lost a stone a couple of years ago on 5:2 but she said she ate around 1000 calories on her non-fast days. I'm training a lot and don't intend to do that but am thinking about going as low as 1250 in order to get the weight off.
My body fat has gone down around 1% since 11th February so that was probably not due to 5:2 and my boyfriend lost 3lbs last week eating the same food as me on fast days (though 100 cals more) so what is going on with my body and why can't I lose?
It seems that everyone around me is losing weight but me and after an initially promising start on MFP I feel like I'm now really struggling to get the weight off and I still have another 20lbs minimum to lose and 10% body fat ideally too.
Michael Moseley made it look so easy in his documentary!
Just before starting, I recorded my lowest weight of 139.8lbs, which is down from 147.5 when I started counting calories on MFP on 5th January.
What I was doing before 5:2 was working out my sedentary TDEE which was 1550 or thereabouts and then subtracting enough to lose 1lb per week which took me down to 1050 calories per day. I was then adding on exercise calories and trying to eat in the region of 1350-1450 calories on average per day.
My weight loss was fairly consistent before and I lost around 1lb per week, though some weeks I lost nothing and then the following week I'd be down just over 1lb.
Since I started 5:2 I did my maths to calculate how much I should be eating on non-fast days so that I didn't exceed the total number of calories I was having each week and so that it was pretty much the same as before. I've been eating around 550 on fast days and 1500-1650 on non-fast days so it averages out to under 1300 per day.
So far I've been weighing daily or every other day and I've noticed that the day after a fast day my weight is lower but then when I have a 'normal' day it goes up again.
The lowest weight I've recorded after a fast day is 138.5 but then after my 2nd fast day and 2 days of normal eating I'm recording around 140.5 and yesterday after 3 days of normal eating my weight was 141.5.
Does anyone know what's going on? On my non-fast days I know I'm eating a lot more carbs so could it be down to water or sodium being retained, or is it just that my weight is not really doing down at all?
This week I'm going to try and lower my non-fast day calories to around 1350-1400 and see if that helps but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. I tried 5:2 a couple of years ago but was having a similar problem so gave up after a couple of months but I really want to stick with it for the health benefits though it is very frustrating.
My mum lost a stone a couple of years ago on 5:2 but she said she ate around 1000 calories on her non-fast days. I'm training a lot and don't intend to do that but am thinking about going as low as 1250 in order to get the weight off.
My body fat has gone down around 1% since 11th February so that was probably not due to 5:2 and my boyfriend lost 3lbs last week eating the same food as me on fast days (though 100 cals more) so what is going on with my body and why can't I lose?
It seems that everyone around me is losing weight but me and after an initially promising start on MFP I feel like I'm now really struggling to get the weight off and I still have another 20lbs minimum to lose and 10% body fat ideally too.
Michael Moseley made it look so easy in his documentary!
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Replies
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Hmmmmm I'm not sure.... Have you lost size? I know I lost quite a few cm's but hardly any weight. Silly question but do you weigh your food? There is always the possibility of underestimating what you're eating.0
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No I weigh my food very meticulously using a scale so it's unlikely I'm going over on calories. I have lost inches but not since starting 5:2. I do a workout plus a walk every day so exercise for between 70 & 100 minutes. My calorie burn each day can't be less than around 400 and even if it's closer to 300 it should still be enough for me to lose weight. I am netting around 1000-1200 on non fast days which would mean a daily deficit of 350-550 cals and I am eating 1000 calories less than my sedentary TDEE on fast days. So my weekly deficit is over 4000 calories owe week or more.0
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It may be muscle...it weighs more than fat. With being small it is tough even if you are off 200 calories or so. You may need to start doing body measuring ...body fat going down usually means muscle mass going up. Muscle is about 20% heavier...so doing the math if you are now around 140 (based on your slider), and you lost 1% of body fat, then if you had not gained any muscle you would be down 1.4 lbs, but my guess is you gained muscle...about 1.1 lbs of it. This means you lost about 1% in your waist or somewhere else.
Also never rule out water, a 16 oz bottle of water is ~1 lb...and there is no way to guess how saturated you are at any given time. If you don't drink for a few hours and sweat or go to the bathroom, you could easily go down a # of lbs. When I was playing ball I could lose 7 lbs in a 3 hour practice and that was when I was in the best shape of my life.
Try keeping a weekly log of your measurements...you can do it here on MFP. But also, try logging your weight maybe twice a day, maybe morning and night and look at the numbers at the end of the month...you should see a pattern emerge and it should tell you when you are at your highest and lowest. If you are not losing any inches then my guess is that your average daily weight is trending down...meaning you may not be seeing it in your low weight but it may be reflected in your high. This makes more sense if you are gaining muscle.
Don't lose faith...good luck.0 -
good response oralcam0
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Looking at your FD to NFD ratio, it s like you are running 30%-40% ratio of FD cals to NFD cals. I am wondering if that could be too high? The plan calls for a 25% ratio. Could you be slowing down your metabolism with this higher ratio? Just thinking out loud....0
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You may be netting too low. I have read from many and have at least one friend here, that experienced the same thing. When she started netting closer to her maintainance cals on non fast days she started losing well and she didn't even have that much to lose.
Overrestriction is not really your friend. Up your cals slowly on non fast days and see how your body reacts. Go for a 20-25% defecit over the whole week for a while and see what that does for you.0 -
Stop comparing yourself to your Mum or your boyfriend - everyone's body is different and you need to work out what works for YOU.
The numbers are just a start point, not an exact science. Tweak them about a bit, maybe try to get under 500 on FDs to give more of a contrast.0 -
I am really not sure what to do. I know that I need to keep my overall weekly calories at a deficit of at least 3500 in order to lose a minimum of 1lb a week, but as I have a low TDEE and BMR (1290 ish) then I can't eat a lot on my non-fast days or the deficit will be lost. For the last 2 weeks I've worked out that the deficit has been at around 4000 (not counting exercise calories burned on top) so I am not eating massively low calories for my size and TDEE. I have no idea of my true calories burned but if it's say 300 per day, then my deficit is a bit higher at 5500 - either way I should be losing pounds.
I don't want to increase calories, given my past experience of doing 5:2 for around 2 months, I was eating 'what I wanted' on non-fast days and my calories were fairly high but it didn't lose more then either.
Orlcam I have taken measurements and I've lost about 0.5 inch off each thigh recently, but I can't be sure that happened since starting 5:2. I haven't lost any more off my waist though I lost some before doing 5:2 and the same with my hips.
I am going to weigh myself daily as suggested and keep eating as I am, though maybe cap daily calories at 1500 on NFD and see what happens. It's all very well saying that you need a certain ratio between fast days and non-fast days but if I was to eat 25% less than TDEE on fast days that would mean eating 375 cals on Fast days which is way too low.
I am also going to try and increase my fibre intake as some days it's quite low and that could be causing me problems!
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Best of luck!!!!!0
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I was stalled for a year, so I know how hard it can be!
What is your true TDEE ?
Are there things that you have changed in your routine since last time you lost consistently over a period of time?
Have you taken blood panels, checked for any of the usual suspects PCOS, Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, Adrenal Fatigue, Thyroid issues...take a checkup at doctor!
If you're certain you've combed over your logging, then there's not really much else to do than to change 1 variable at a time every 3 weeks or so:
a) macros
b) lower kcal intake slowly
This is not meant in any demeaning way, but use the resources in general stickies
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1058378-oh-noes-i-am-eating-below-my-bmr
I think we have all been there done some of these mistakes, at least I have.
From my own experience, I had to go below my BMR in average intake to lose weight. It's not something that I recommend, but if that's the only way it happens, then so be it. If you do this make very certain you get all the micronutrients needed.
Have you tried on previously too tight clothes?...as Orlcam said maybe body recomped. I have maintained weight last month, the measurements are same...but...my BUTT is smaller (sorry Orl) Hips are same width, but I can get into a smaller size. Yea it sounds like magic and I'm frankly unsure what happened to my body.
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Foamroller I had a blood test recently and all was ok and also asked them to check for thyroid problems.
Someone said not to compare myself to my mum but maybe there is a genetic element to my weight problems because she's had the same problems all her life too, though she's taller than me and about 14lbs lighter at the moment but to her she's still 14lbs overweight. Basically we need to eat very low calories to lose weight at a reasonable rate (as you've said, probably below BMR). I know I've lost 8lbs so far, but some of the weight that came off at the beginning would have been water weight so it's not a true figure and now I'm in week 10 and haven't lost for a while so my average weight loss is getting lower and lower.
The only thing that's different from a time when I lost consistently and fairly quickly is the calorie numbers and exercise level. Two years ago I lost 10lbs but had the same problems as I'm having now. 3 years ago I was able to lose around 25lbs by eating calories between 850-950 per day and doing light cardio only. I lost weight at a rate of around 2lbs a week and was very careful not to exceed those calories.
I managed to keep it off for a few months then as I was working away from home and eating calorie counted ready meals but when I stopped doing that and stopped counting calories the weight crept back on so probably every year for the last 10 years my weight gets to around 148lbs after the winter and I have to work my butt off to get it back down for the summer.
All the TDEE calculators tell me my sedentary TDEE is 1495 or thereabouts which is low anyway and my BMR 1295 but I think in reality those figures are probably too high, as even when adding in exercise burns of a minimum of 400 calories per day and sometimes as much as 800 cals per day which you'd think would increase the TDEE number by a lot, enabling me to lose 1lb per week easily it doesn't happen.
I've read all the threads about probably eating more than I think etc. but I know I'm not as I weigh everything very carefully and try and buy things which have nutritional info on them so I can count more accurately.
As for clothes, I'm noticing some differences in the fit, but I have been working really really hard training, not long workouts but ones where my heart rate is really high and I'm sweating buckets! I am feeling a lot stronger as I'm using weights with the DVD workouts I'm doing too.
I think the answer for me will be to lower my calories further to I eat no more than 1300-1400 on non-fast days, or even add in a 3rd fast day possibly. It's not really what I want to have to do but if it's the only way I'll do it. I will also have to stick to this for life now, people around me keep telling me that it's not necessary to count calories (as well as other 5:2ers) but for me I think it's the only way I'll be able to get it off and keep it off long-term.
I suppose the one positive in all this is that even if I have to suffer 1300 calories on my non-fast days and continue with 5:2 I should be able to increase that number a little when I reach goal. Though I am also aware that my weight loss might even slow down the closer I get too so I might be stuck with that number for life. I'd still rather do 5:2 and eat 1300 on the other days than eat 1000 or so calories every day!0 -
Just to add. I generally never keep a lot of junk food in the house. Even when I have gone through periods of weight gain when I haven't counted calories I haven't eaten a lot by most people's standards and I don't generally snack a lot or drink much alcohol. I have gone through periods of inactivity in terms of exercise but for my weight I don't think it makes a big difference. I've noticed that my body shape changes a little when I exercise more that's all.
Also, my weight gain I think has always been due to my very low TDEE so even when eating 'normally' I was in fact eating way over maintenance cals without knowing it so I gained.0 -
You are right that genetics have an influence - both my parents struggled with their weight and were not big eaters at all.
Also correct about calculators/estimators not always being accurate, they are guidelines for an average person and there will be outliers (both ways). My results over time (losing and maintaining) seem to show I need about 300 cals less per day than the average person my size.
I'm also someone who also has to count calories (eyes bigger than my belly as my Mum used to put it!!). Whenever I stop watching what I eat I gain weight.
Without a lot of exercise I would be on a very restrictive calorie allowance.
For exercise calorie burns short workouts really don't cut it I'm afraid, you simply can't compensate with high enough intensity in a short workout to match a longer duration moderate intensity exercise.
One part of the equation people neglect is day to day activity, swapping car journeys for walking or cycling. Pottering around the garden instead of watching the telly. Using stairs instead of elevators. It all adds up.
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Sijomial unfortunately you're right about a lot of these things, though the workouts I'm doing are very high intensity and burn a lot of calories per workout. On top of that I am doing extra cardio either on the gym machines or in the form of a walk at what MFP considers a very very brisk pace.
Now that I have a Fitbit I'm definitely a lot more aware of how much I move though, and make more of an effort to get out and walk as if I don't then my daily step total is minimal. This has been really good for me, though I try and ignore the numbers regarding any of this physical activity because I know that in my case it's hard enough to lose weight so don't want to make it even harder by allowing myself to eat more if I have a particularly active day.0 -
Oh, dear...it really sounds like you're doing your utmost to shed weight. Must be painful to try and try, I know. If you had to go that low, it sounds like there's a medical issue. I'd try check for PCOS and diabetes still, post-prandial and fasting blood glucose. If no results, try get a referral to an endo ?
Personally I've found that I need to do every bit of method available and stack them to get results. It just means it's way harder work, but it's possible. I hope you find a solution that works for you too.
Interesting you mention a possible hereditary factor. In this lecture of Behavioral Genetics part 1, professor Sapolsky talks about non-Mendelian heritage. Basically stuff you get from mother in the womb that's not genes. Also of interest is the following segment about the Dutch Hunger Winter. Where children that were of a certain stage in the pregnancy got extremely "thrifty" metabolisms as adults when their mothers were trying to survive a war induced hunger in 1944. He also talks about the effect of glucokorticoids and stress in weight loss in this episode, which is VERY interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0WZx7lUOrY&index=6&list=PLhMVa_juzVPnV82p1cVOuwbWnPDGAtsHt
Starts at ca 50:12
I recommend the whole episode and the series for anyone interested in an entertaining attempt to try explain why we do all the stupid and wonderful stuff that we do. Watching the series blew my mind!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask
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I'll have a watch when I get time, thanks. Fortunately or unfortunately there is no medical issue as I had several blood tests in the last 6 months due to an op I had and everything was fine. I don't think it could be PCOS because I had a single cyst removed last year too (quite large) but it was the only one and it had probably been there for a while.
I also know there's no medical reason because I have always been able to lose by eating low calories at a reasonably fast rate. I just think it's a case of bad luck and the fact that calculators based on averages overestimate my numbers as I'm on the wrong side of the average!
Friends have always commented on the fact I don't eat anywhere near what the do and how strange it is I gain weight so easily. Plus as I work from home I'm sedentary in everyday life so that adds to lower burns than others, even though I move as much as I can.0 -
I found it took nearly a month to lose anything. I'm starting to lose slowly - although went to a wedding last weekend and indulged! Make sure you eat close to you TDEE- sometimes it can seem a lot but when I started doing this the whole way of eating made sense any my body responded. Good luck0
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Thanks Rachel, good to hear I'm not the only one in the same boat! I can't eat to my TDEE (read through previous posts in this thread) but hopefully I'll find what works for me soon and start to lose.0
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I understand your frustration and by no means are you alone. My wife and I started at the same time and she was reluctant to start and I was enthusiastic. The results were the oppisite as expected the pounds just melted off of her and I had the same frustrations you had. As has been well stated earlier everyone's make up is different so you have to do as I did, and mix things up. A great place to start is a small book by Caitlin Collins called The Fast Diet Magic Book: The Cheat's Guide to Easy Weight Loss With Intermittent Fasting it is a quick read and it is not like the other Fast Diet books. It is only on her experience and different ways to mix it up.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SCUNONU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Something that worked for me is (as suggessted by the book) to relieve stress about losing weight only weigh after a fast day. This way you can see the progress without the gains that you were experiencing on non fast days. Additionally combine a 16/8 eating window to your non fast days. This means every non-fast day you eat in a window of 8 hours. What works best for me 11:00AM to 7:00PM. I have found that giving up breakfast and evening snacks it is easier to stay within my calorie limit and I am not near as hungry as you may think at lunch time. You may think this would be hardest to keep after a fast day because you will not be eating until 11:00 after you fasted the whole previous day. as long as you keep your water intake up to prevent dehydration I have found it is easy to follow, maintain a schedule and still eat what I want and loose.
This may not work for you but I wanted to share my experience.0 -
Hi Ordoff73 I'll have a read of the book you've suggested, it's a bit pricey via the link you posted to the Amazon.com site but on the UK site it's only £2.99 for the Kindle edition.
I've heard about eating windows but not sure if they make any real difference scientifically, but not read a lot about it. I wouldn't be able to do 16/8 most days anyway because I usually get up and do a workout first thing in the morning so need to have a protein shake or breakfast after training at around 9am. Some days I don't do my workout until mid-morning so I eat breakfast earlier at around 8.15 so I have more energy for training. I usually don't eat again after that until 2 or 2.30pm which is my lunch time as I work until 1.30 most days and then cook or go out and then in the evening I try and have a snack or another protein shake but whatever it is I usually don't have more than 200 calories.0
