Net Calories are under but still not losing weight, Need help!

Try this:

Eat at home as much as possible for two weeks. If you can't eat at home then go to the store and buy food in a package that has the calories on it. For example you can get some hard boiled eggs and string cheese or whatever. But don't go get a super burrito at the local Mexican joint down the road. In other words, eliminate all guessing. Weigh everything that goes in your mouth. Include cooking oil, condiments, dressing etc. and find the entries for those items with a scale weight in grams.

Next, don't log your exercise, or if you really want to, then log it at the end of the day before going to bed. In other words don't eat the calories you get from exercise. Instead, adjust you're activity level up slightly on MFP to include the exercise you do. Start with "slightly active". Set MFP to burn 1 pound a week. You'll probably burn more than this if you're exercising a lot and not logging it.

Do these steps to eliminate all the errors in measuring and estimating exercise calories. Do this for two weeks and see what happens. From there you can tweak your program. If you're loosing too much you can up your activity level setting in MFP. If you're not losing 0.5-1 pounds then lower you activity level in MFP.

This will help you calibrate your brain to how much calories are in typical food items. Once you get that down you can start eating at restaurants again, but this time you'll know much better how much calories are in the items you order because you've eaten a lot of the components separately at home. If you start eating at restaurants again and you stop losing. Then you know that that's your problem and you should probably cut down on going out to eat to once a week.

With the hurtful people some of them still have some things they say that are helpful to listen to, just disregard the rest. I am pretty new to this myself and have had a similar experience as you. But there are many other really helpful people here so don't let the hurtful people chase you off. it takes a some trial and error to find foods and exercise that works for you, also it takes some time to fully utilize MFP to your advantage. At a minimum I suggest logging everything and this is a good starting place. Hang in there. If this was easy we would all weigh want we want to way without any effort.

MrM27 wrote: »

thin1dayplease wrote: »

I just looked at your diary and you are eating a HIGH amount of fat in your diet. Cut down on fats and you might start to see progress.

High fat doesn't make someone not lose weight.

and fat sates the appetite for me, hence I feel full longer. Such a shame that media makes us think fat is bad to consume. And how can I eat a proper tuna sandwhich with low/fat free mayo

spainsoccerfreak wrote: »

Thanks to those who post positive useful advice, its hard sometimes to ask for help here since many ppl can be ready hurtful as if trying to lose weight isnt hard enough, so thanks to those who choose to help me I am just at the beggning hopefully make it thru!

You are on your way. You'll start to get it. I thought I had an idea of what I was doing until I joined here, then I learned so much that when I look back in retrospect, I did not know squat... Now I'm doing squats Also, one thing that's really helped me is that I am having as much fun as possible doing this. Good Luck and have fun!

olivia_june wrote: »

MFP is notorious for underestimating food calories and overestimating exercise calories.

My number one tip for newbies is to find a good calorie amount for YOU (this will require some wiggle room), a good start is to go through this calculator: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Take that number and then follow the instructions on the page to get your recommended daily calories.

Then follow that number for 2 weeks. Weigh everything on a food scale (solid and semi-solid), and measure using measuring cups (liquid).

*Do not eat back your exercise calories*

After those 2 weeks, look back and reevaluate. Did you lose weight? Were you always hungry? (Note that your body needs time to adjust to eating reduced amounts of food). Add in an extra 100 calories per day if this is the case, and repeat again in 2 weeks.

Once you find the right amount of daily calories that feels right for you, stick with it. When I started I was doing 1200 because of MFP's stupid auto feature, felt better when I popped it up to 1300, but it didn't stick. Now I've been eating at 1600-1800 per day for the last year and it's working great.

The idea is that you want to be eating as much food as possible while still losing weight. You want it to be sustainable for the long run, and able to be adjustable around plateaus. If you're only eating at 1200 (never do this), and you stop losing, where can you go if you want to reduce your calories? If you eat at a sustainable level, you won't starve yourself and make yourself miserable. Being constantly miserable and hungry guarantees that you won't ultimately succeed in your weight loss efforts.

tarrasandwick wrote: »

What is bmi, I just calculated it and it says 1289.5, also what is op thanks

BMI is your Body Mass Index (quick Body Fat Calculation)

You figured out your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate). Basically the amount of calories you'd need per day to sustain yourself in a coma.

OP = Original Poster.

I cannot comment on what you do, but maybe I can tell you what I do when I am successful and some of that may help! Other posters commented on your macros. I NEVER pay attention to macros and I do not worry about fat content. I DO worry about - eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies and protein, cutting way back on fried food and processed carbs, trying not to eat out (too many calories, easy to overeat and underestimate, too much salt, MSG, and processed carbs), trying not to overestimate exercise (I NEVER eat back more than 300 to 500 calories of exercise a day - I would also never eat back more than what would total my maintenance calories for the day). I also eat within a range of daily calories depending on amount of exercise (with the above caveats), so I do not think there is anything wrong with that and it has helped me. On really hungry, active days, I eat more. On days I am not as hungry, less active, or more regimented, I eat less. Some say it helps your metabolism. That may be, but for me it keeps me from giving up and keeps me headed in the right direction without getting discouraged. Good luck!!

Why do u say, to sustain myself in a coma, I guess it's gone over my head

spainsoccerfreak wrote: »

Thanks to those who post positive useful advice, its hard sometimes to ask for help here since many ppl can be ready hurtful as if trying to lose weight isnt hard enough, so thanks to those who choose to help me I am just at the beggning hopefully make it thru!

Argghhh ignore my post - I missed the last page!

Golf IS exercise if you walk the course and carry your clubs, otherwise if you ride around in an electric cart....not really good exercise (sorry). I use a polar hrm and only when doing aerobic exercise: running on a treadmill, bicycling, ellyptical, dance aerobics....for stretching and weight lifting, the burn is really low, ie a half hour of weight lifting may range from 80 calories to 130 calories. I will still log it but the good burn is from aerobic activity. Running 3 miles is about 300-400 calories. Not 800 or 1000.....again, sorry.

Weight lifting is good for other reasons....and will help you lose weight. Mostly repairing the micro-tears when lifting weights increases the calorie demand and lessens calories being stored as fat.

Invest in a good scale that weighs in grams, about 25-30 dollars. Weigh everything in grams and use package labels to help. Learn to see what a serving actually is. For me a bag of trail mix was not a serving, but 14 servings....what an eye opener. No wonder I gained weight. I eat a lot of apples and one of my favorites is honeycrisp and it weighs 330 grams. A large apple is supposed to be 150 grams. Once I weighed my apples, I learned a lot. I was underestimating my calories. Mfp has a beautiful data base, and members are always contributing.

Also it is okay to eat out but minimalize it. If you can, pre-cooking your meals will really help you. Package in small bags or zip-locks. When you are hungry, it is already in the refrigerator---just reheat. Vegetables have little or next to little calories...Eat a few per day....really and they taste good also.

Drink a lot of water...sometimes when you are hungry you are really thirsty. Sometimes when you need sleep, you want to eat... I work the night shift..and know that this is true.

thanks for listening to our advice.