Its not working - please help!!

no..listen its only been 4 days for goodness sakes..give it time!

keep your water levels up and you need to be eating at LEAST 1200 cals a day for the amount of exercise that you're doing! Your body will think you're trying to starve it and promptly stop loosing any weight.

I agree with everyone else. it takes time. And please don't rely on the scale too much, my weight can change between up to 2-3kg difference from day to day depending on how much water I drink etc. Measuring is the way to go

I do agree with others. Give it some time! I don't think you're eating back enough of your exercise calories. I know this doesn't work for everyone, but I try to always eat back all my exercise calories. I never have more than 100 left over. This has been working for me. Not everyone agrees with eating them back, but it might be worth a shot if you don't start losing more weight over the next few weeks. Good luck!

[quote Just thought should I be sticking to 1200 cals no matter how much exercise I am doing, is that where I am going wrong?:sad:
[/quote]

Yep - you should be eating back a good portion of your excercise calories.......
Once you log your excercise you will see the numbers at the bottom of your food diary change to account for your exercise cals.....

Have a look at my food diary and you will see that normally my calories would be 1490 - because of the excercise I did today I got an extra 371 calories which takes my goal up to 1861 - that is what I should eat today...

One thing - how do you track your exercise calories - if you are using a Heart Rate Monitor with a strap they should be reasonably accurate ..... if you use the database here I would not eat ALL my calories (maybe 80%) just to account for margin of error..

Stick with it - eat a bit more - and the pounds will go one by one...

Give me a shout if you have more questions - and good luck on your journey

Hi
I have joined MFP this week and have been following some newbies and how well some of the others have been doing on the plan.
I have done various diets over the years and am trying this one for a change.
I think that the harder you exercise,especially at this stage when your bod is used to getting what it wants, may be the wrong way to do it.Remember the rule. of putting yoursef into starvation modeGive yourself a day in betwen exercise-I read that somewhere ages ago.If you want to be active go for a gentle swim in between the gym days but give yourself time to get used to the strict regime you seem to be putting yourself through.
I remember trying to get rid of he baby fat after my 2 kidz and it does seem harder to shift but you will do it.My 2 are grown up now 21 & 16 and I have a wedding this year for the eldest so have the holiday and the wedding to aim for, so like you I have goals.BUT pushing yourself hard at this stage my have a reverse effect. The acalories you burn at the gym don't counteract those eaten totally-look at the advice that some people have made re this on MFP.
Keep up the good work,It really is early days and the worst time to get despondent.
Good Luck

Bev W

i don't quite get the numbers, but the reason MFP is different is because it advises you to eat back your exercise cals. it's worked for an awful lot of people. plus it means you don't go hungry. it's working for me too. but i'm way bigger than you, and i'm losing about 2 pound a week- which is perfect.

i don't think i even looked at my loss after 4 days. and i also think you may need to look at something that's achievable over the long term, because those numbers that you have up there looks like you've been working your *kitten* off, and you may burn yourself out fast. take a rest day, chill out, and work out what your focus is here? long term loss or short term burn out........

Half a pound is half a pound - ALSO u haven't even given it a full week yet.

I only lost half a pound in week one- and now I have lost 4lb in 3 weeks- that means in another 3 weeks I may have lost another 4lb.

Keep going- and make sure you eat all the exercise cals u burn coz for some reason this seems to speed up the weightloss (for me anyway).

If you've only been here a few days, don't expect any change for 2 weeks. If nothing has happened (including your measurements) after 2 weeks, then change something. I lost nothing for 2 weeks initially and then it all started coming off.

For now I would just do whatever you want so long as you are reducing your net calories from what they used to be. YOU ARE NOT IN STARVATION MODE AFTER 4 DAYS so don't worry about that. Anyone who says you can be in starvation mode after 4 days is scaremongering.

However you're not getting much benefit from netting so little every single day and in order to avoid binging and losing your diet intentions it's probably better to eat a more sustainable amount. If you can take in 1200 calories a day, that's 3 decent size meals or 5 small meals, then you will have the energy to sustain your diet long-term. Otherwise you might well just crash and burn when you find yourself get tired and irritable in a few days.

As far as eating back exercise calories goes, people will tell you many things: eat them all, et half, eat none. So basically just do whatever you can make work for you, and please try anything for at least 2 weeks before deciding if it works or not. Or talk to a doctor who can assess your personal needs from a professional perspective.

You definitely need to be eating your exercise calories - your body will be going into starvation mode with those figures and you will get ill.

A few things.

1. Starvation mode does not occur in 4 days. Those who advocate it tend to suggest it takes months to slow the metabolism to the extent that it stops weight loss. Four days of netting below 1000 is not going to make any difference long term.
2. Starvation mode is not starvation. Starvation makes you physically ill, starvation mode makes your weight loss and metabolism slow down. The only reason illness could occur in starvation mode is if insufficient nutrients are being consumed, and if the intake level is above 1000 and is a balanced diet there is no reason to assume that is the case.
3. And anyway, the concept of starvation mode is debatable in itself, as this website frequently proves.
4. You don't "definitely" need to eat your exercise calories. Some people have successful, healthy weight loss eating them. Others have equally successful and healthy loss eating half or none of them.

It's incredibly irritating when just because something works for one person, a logic is taken that it will work for everyone. The best way to do things is to try something for a while and if the results aren't what you want, try something different. So long as it works, loses you weight at an appropriate speed and allows you to get the nutrients you personally need there are no rules.

Its a long weekend here so I am going to chill a bit, we are going to a wedding on Saturday night which will be a boozy affair but to compensate I will go for a long run during the day which should burn over 1000 cals.. Also planning to go on a nice long bike ride over the weekend which should help if I eat a bit more.

Be sure to drink lots of water when drinking. Dehydration wont help the weightloss. Plus it will help to avoid the hangover.