What am I doing wrong?

Who cooks your food?

I know that it's tough when you don't cook your own meals. I had the problem when I still lived at home. (Not saying you do)

1900 calories a day on it's own is not that much of a deficit in my opinion.. unless you also are very active next to your biking of course.

However, unless you check with the one cooking your meals very carefully, you are probably not accurately logging and you may be eating a lot more than you think. My solution (if cooking your own meals isn't one) was to just ask my mom (in my case) to weigh whatever she used and let me know exactly what she used to cook it in (butter, oil.. etc). Or at least accurately weigh what you put on your plate, but you need to know what's in it.

Also, how long have you been doing this, before you are 'discouraged'?

britishbroccoli wrote: »

Spaddel2710 wrote: »

I started getting into biking again which i usually do on three to four days in a week. I do eat normal since I am being cooked for. It is just very discouraging when I see that I don't loose weight. What am I doing wrong? I'm sure I don't get over 1900 calories a day.

Weight loss is 100% food. I could cook the same thing 2 days in a row and have 500 extra calories in one meal if I didn't weigh my ingredients, especially with high calorie fats and proteins (like oil, butters, nuts).

I would say 80-90% food.. I mean.. once you get to the last few bits of weight to lose, increasing exercise can help, because you don't want to reduce what you eat further.. and the more active you are the more calories you burn.. BUT.. I agree that diet is first priority.. usually you're just eating too much.

Agree-- it's not ALL food.

Bottom line it's the calorie deficit that creates the weight loss regardless how one achieves it.

Since, for most people, exercise is more sustainable (we're more likely stick with it), we really need to focus on what we are eating and when.

Our bodies have a natural sense of how much we are eating (though it doesn't measure in calories). From whatever you are eating now, reduce it and you'll see weight loss.

Caloric deficit equals weight loss. Start tracking. Better yet, get involved in the cooking, so you know exactly what you're eating.

Spaddel2710 wrote: »

Thanks you guys. So not only the calories are important when watching what I eat?

It's not the only way, but it's the easiest to account for.

You can estimate how many calories you use in exercise, but you know how many you eat. If you focus most of your energy on what you eat you'll get the most weight loss success.

I put in every ingredient in a recipie and evenly divide (by weight or volume) into the portions, weigh my fruits and veggies, and don't eat anything that doesn't get logged in detail. All of this has helped me be successful in meeting my goals and not hit a plateau.

Look at the way your account is set up, are your calorie targets calculating for an active lifestyle or a sedentary lifestyle? And which describes you more? If your targets are too high, you won't have a deficit built in and you won't lose weight. Make sure you update your daily targets as you lose weight too...

If you are using MFP to estimate your calories burned while biking you may be over estimating. I use a heart rate monitor, but I still don't eat back ½ (or more some days) of the calories burned.

Edit to Add: May or may not apply, but it helps if all ingredients in a recipie are weighed if solid and measured in cups/ml/etc if liquid. If you are estimating anything, or using volume for solid foods, you could be off on your ingredient nutrition.