stopped losing

staya14
staya14 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Joined mfp4 weeks ago and lost 6 lb in the first 2 weeks, already do a lot of high intensity gym classes and bought a mountain bike 2 weeks ago which iv been doing a fair bit of miles on, Iv been on 1290 cals which mfp allocated me and been having at least half of exercise cals back, not lost anything for 2 weeks now, only need 4lbs to my target, any advice?

Replies

  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    Be more patient.
  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
    If you have stopped losing then you are simply no longer in a deficit. Either you are eating more calories than you think or you are not burning as many calories during exercise as you think or a combination of the two. The only thing that is absolutely required for fat loss is a deficit. You have to make sure you are as accurate as possible when logging food and especially exercise calories.
  • 3bambi3
    3bambi3 Posts: 1,650 Member
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    Be more patient.

    This. Weight loss isn't linear. Also, you may want to reassess how you are logging your food and make sure that you are weighing/measuring everything. Accuracy counts when you have so little to lose.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    edited May 2015
    This^^

    You don't have much to lose. It is not going to come off quickly. You may have to work at that last four pounds for months.

    Do you use a food scale to weigh all your food?
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Give it more time.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    jeffpettis wrote: »
    If you have stopped losing then you are simply no longer in a deficit.
    Or it could be water retention from the increased exercise, right?

  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    jeffpettis wrote: »
    If you have stopped losing then you are simply no longer in a deficit.
    Or it could be water retention from the increased exercise, right?

    It could be water retention for a day or so but not for two weeks.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    jeffpettis wrote: »
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    jeffpettis wrote: »
    If you have stopped losing then you are simply no longer in a deficit.
    Or it could be water retention from the increased exercise, right?

    It could be water retention for a day or so but not for two weeks.
    LOL, OK.

    Maybe you can explain how I've gone two weeks with no loss, on the exact same measured food, and then started losing again. Multiple times.

  • jessmorgan92
    jessmorgan92 Posts: 2 Member
    As you said you have been doing extra exercise it may be that you are losing fat but your muscles are toning up. Therefore you are not losing weight but are still getting smaller. Have you kept track of your measurements to see if you are getting smaller?
  • 3bambi3
    3bambi3 Posts: 1,650 Member
    jessmorgan92 wrote: »
    As you said you have been doing extra exercise it may be that you are losing fat but your muscles are toning up. Therefore you are not losing weight but are still getting smaller. Have you kept track of your measurements to see if you are getting smaller?

    No, she is not building muscle eating at a deficit and doing only cardio.
  • staya14
    staya14 Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks everyone, yes I use accurate food scales, obviously the extra calories given for my exercise by MVP won't be 100% accurate, so I don't use all of the extra that are given eg- 2 classes I do on a Tuesday MVP gives 900+ extra on top of my 1290 cals that I'm on for each day, so should I be eating half of them back or are they not accurate?
  • 3bambi3
    3bambi3 Posts: 1,650 Member
    staya14 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone, yes I use accurate food scales, obviously the extra calories given for my exercise by MVP won't be 100% accurate, so I don't use all of the extra that are given eg- 2 classes I do on a Tuesday MVP gives 900+ extra on top of my 1290 cals that I'm on for each day, so should I be eating half of them back or are they not accurate?

    MFP seems to overestimate calorie burns. If you are eating half your calories back, keep doing that and then reassess after a few more weeks. If all of this exercise is new, you can have some temporary water retention as well. If you still have no loss in a few weeks, I'd eat back less of your exercise calories.

    If all of the exercise is not new, then you are simply not eating in a deficit.
  • lthames0810
    lthames0810 Posts: 722 Member
    I find that bicyling is really hard to get an accurate calorie burn for. A heart rate monitor may not help that much either. Last weekend I recorded a moderate paced, 3 hour ride and got well over 2500 calories for it from the MFP database. Even using my average heart rate, I got a ridiculous number because of the heat.

    If this is your primary means of exercise, I would suggest being very conservative when recording and eating back any of these calories.
  • staya14
    staya14 Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks, the high intensity classes are not new to me, metafit, afterburn, spin, step, aerobics and circuit i have been doing for a while now, its the mountain bike that's new to me, i will stick at it and review in a week or 2, I drink plenty of water so that's not really an issue, I do feel more toned and my fitness has got better.

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