Help! Not sure what I'm doing wrong!
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momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
At 239, you can eat a lot more than 1052 calories to lose 2 pounds a week. In fact, it is considered unhealthy to eat below 1200.
With the MFP method you ARE supposed to eat exercise calories back.
Also you don't gain 2 lbs of muscle in a calorie deficit. Newbie gains, if any, should not stall the scale much.
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Meal timing has no effect on weight loss. You can eat when you like, whenever makes you feel best and whatever works best with your lifestyle. So long as you eat less calories than your body burns, you will lose weight. Not much more to it than that
This is absolutely correct. All that truly matters is calories in and calories out. Doesn't matter if you eat once a day or 6 small meals a day. The calories is all that matters. And that issue we think about (starvation mode) is not true. Your body doesn't go into starvation mode. We also can't increase or decrease our metabolism. We can burn calories with exercise but this isn't the same and increasing our metabolism. Metabolism is not adjustable with diet and exercise. This comes from my metabolic specialist endocrinologist I"m working with to lose weight.0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
You should not base you deficit on BMR! BMR is the amount of calories your body needs to survive let's say if you were comatosed. Going below that number ca actually be very unhealthy and cause your metabolism to slow down incredibly.0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
@momma_4boys - BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate (calories you burn before activity...the calories your body uses just to keep basic functions like your lungs and heart working...it does not include daily activity. So your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is over 1752. For example, my BMR is around 1389 and my TDEE (BMR + Daily Activity + Exercise) is somewhere around 2400 calories. I lose weight eating in a range of 1600-2000 calories a day and I have lost weight eating in this range since I was 200+ lbs. I've gone from losing around 2-3 lbs a week to about 1 lb per week now.
Undereating can be just as bad for you as overeating. It is hard to get the macro/micro nutrients your body needs on less than 1200 calories (and less than 1000 will be even worse). Undereating can result in malnutrition which has side effects like hair loss, brittle nails, etc. Over long periods of time you can cause permanent damage.
While some will experience slight noobie gains while eating at a deficit, it is a very small amount. Women don't produce enough testosterone to put on "tons" of muscle even when they are trying to bulk. Muscle definition doesn't come from more muscle, but from losing fat over existing muscle.
Weight fluctuates in general. Hormones, sodium intake, etc will all effect the number on the scale. Some weeks you will lose, some you won't and some you might see a slight gain. This is why it is often advised to watch the overall trend. There are too many factors that make the scale seem like it's not moving or even go up on not only a day to day basis, but throughout the day as well.0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
You should not base you deficit on BMR! BMR is the amount of calories your body needs to survive let's say if you were comatosed. Going below that number ca actually be very unhealthy and cause your metabolism to slow down incredibly.
To a point you are correct. I am doing what I am while working with my doctor and dietitian. I went a weight loss surgery orientation and listened to what people go though after stomach surgery and said, why do I need surgery to do that? They eat 400-600 calories daily for a few months of just protein. So I went back to the surgeon and asked him and he said go talk to the MD endocrinologist/metabolic specialist. So this is what I am doing with their assistance and monitoring
In 41 days I've lost 16 pounds and over 15 inches in total so it's working for me. I have cut out nothing but replaced my diet coke addiction with water. I make better choices to keep my calories lower but I'm not watching my carb/protein/fat intake it's all calories in and increasing my activity from my previously sedentary lifestyle. 0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there0 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
Your doctors and dietician told you to eat below your BMR and not eat exercise calories back? And that you can replace fat with muscle?0 -
arditarose wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
Your doctors and dietician told you to eat below your BMR and not eat exercise calories back? And that you can replace fat with muscle?
Yes they said I can eat below BMR
Yes said do NOT eat exercise calories back
No did not say you replace fat with muscle. But with exercise you build muscle and burn fat. They are not interchangeable.0 -
momma_4boys wrote: »arditarose wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
Your doctors and dietician told you to eat below your BMR and not eat exercise calories back? And that you can replace fat with muscle?
Yes they said I can eat below BMR
Yes said do NOT eat exercise calories back
No did not say you replace fat with muscle. But with exercise you build muscle and burn fat. They are not interchangeable.
That's false. Especially with a deficit that large. You need fuel/calories to build muscle (along with fat).
I'm glad you're being supervised by a doctor. Maybe you have medical conditions we don't know about. The rest of your information/advice should not be promoted to other users.0 -
Hey MFP peeps,
I'm really confused and frustrated at the lack of weight loss. I've been tracking for 40+days and eat a fairly clean diet and I've only lost 2 pounds.
Background: ate paleo for 2 years and only exercised 2 times a week. Needless to say with all that bacon and butter I gained 10lbs.
Currently: I'm 190 and have my daily calories at 1870. I do crossfit 3-4 times a week and sometimes add a run or 2. At work I'm on my feet all day moving around. I track my steps and on a daily basis I'm well over 10000 steps. I've competely changed the way I eat, prepping my food for the week and no more bacon, butter or cheese. I have a couple of protein shakes a day and on my cheat days, I still log.
I'm at a loss, some say I'm not eating enough but is that possible?!? I feel somewhat satisfied.
Any advice would be great!!
Why don't you try setting your activity level at Lightly Active and use the adjusted calorie goal .... plus be diligent about weighing your food. See if that helps.
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momma_4boys wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »momma_4boys wrote: »I'm not a pro at this in the least but your intake seems excessive to me if you truly want to lose weight. I'm at 239 and my BMR is 1752 cal/day. To lose 2 lbs a week I need to go down to 1052 cal/day. Also, don't eat what you're burning. On the 4th of July I supposedly burned 1095 but only took in 1080. You don't eat back any of those burned calories until you want to maintain or gain.
Also, with crossfit you're building tons of muscle and definition. So for every 2 lbs of fat you might take off you're replacing with another 2 lbs of muscle. So is your goal to be fit or lose right now? Pick one. If not just one,if you want both right now then you'd be better off looking at your measurements.
I just about went out of my mind this past week without any weight loss in spite of a daily average calorie intake of under 1000 and increased exercise. Finally a little over a pound comes off and I redid my measurements from just a week ago and I lost 8 total inches. Only one pound but 8 inches is amazing!! I assume that means I exchanged a few pounds of fat for some muscle. Makes a huge difference to look at all angles.
Good Luck!!
youre giving a lot of bad advice, there
You might be right but I'm just repeating what my doctors and dieticians have told me!
One thing that you need to realize is that the advice from your doctors is for you. You are on a medically supervised diet. It's not a one size fits all type of thing. Giving advice based on what your doctors are doing for you is not a good idea.
Also understand that you cannot gain muscle on a calorie deficit. You cannot build something out of nothing. With the amount that you eat you are going to end up losing even more muscle than if you had a reasonable deficit. If you increased exercise you are probably retaining water for muscle repair.0 -
I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.0
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sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.
Sometimes prepackaged items are not the same weight listed on the nutritional facts. Personally, I work so hard at weighing everything-I don't go out of my way to empty a little container of yogurt and weigh it. If you're weighing everything else, you should be okay. Weighing out your bread slices can be helpful as well, though I choose not to do that. They can definitely weigh more than the package says.
As far as restaurant eating goes-you guesstimate the best you can if the nutrition facts aren't available. The nice thing about weighing your food all the time is you get better at eyeballing your restaurant meals. I eyeball vegetables in grams now. Adding a tablespoon of oil or butter is usually a good idea as well.0 -
Highly caloric items measured by volume as opposed to grams can result in large inaccuracies.
You measure by grams at home. You pick good database entries (verified and sometimes even cross-checked to outside sources such as the USDA database).
You measure the contents of pre-packaged foods (like yoghurt and bread) a few times and discover that some are not the same all the time; but maybe 1g off and close enough for government work.
Others are sufficiently off (slices of bread, Walmart protein bars) that maybe it is a good idea to keep on weighing them.
There are various strategies for restaurants!
-ballsy: take your scale with you
-sample: take a meal to go and go home and measure it (suitable for a place you go to frequently)
-half-sies: take half of everything and place in togo container. Measure at home.
-eye-ball: mark 1 eye ball at your service
You can also check the web-site and go with what you find there. Read carefully. For example subway sandwich calorie counts do not include sauces, most do not include the cheese, and they only include a certain amount of veggies.
Most people do find themselves decreasing the frequency and variety of eating out when counting calories.0 -
Have your measurements changed? You could be gaining muscle. Are you getting enough rest days? Have you thought about decreasing your sugar (all sugar not just added sugar) and sodium?0
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If you're not losing, you're not in a deficit. Lower your activity level and eat at the new amount for a few weeks, then reevaluate.0
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sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.
At home I weigh all that I can. Prepackaged stuff I go with their counts. If I see my weightloss has stalled for a reasonalble amount of time, that will change.
I eat out a lot too, and unfortunately, you can use the count they give you for the food but that is just the average made to the specs the coproate office gives them. For example: At Chili's: Chef A may put less sauce on a burger than Chef B and neither are what was measured for the "official" company measurement.
If I am worried about those discrepancies I can always save/bank some calories during the week as a buffer zone.0 -
sunnyazgirl wrote: »I have a question or two. I have seen it said here and on another thread that you should wegh all of your food in grams to be accurate. That has me a bit flustered as I am trying to figure out how to work that concept into my life. It is a new concept for me. I have been religious about measuring anything that can be measured (cereal, milk, etc, etc). I now understand I should weigh my apple and not just say that I had a medium apple and weigh my oats, not just scoop out 1/4 cup. But I also love the convenience of scanning a prepackaged container of Greek Yogurt, for example. I take that to work with me every day. Isn't the scanning of a single serve packaged item accurate? Or are you still saying it should be weighed? Also, how do you handle restaurant eating? To not go out at all is not realistic for me. Unrealistc diet have a history with falure for me. I am thinking that I should just assume the portion size is larger than the website says (I always look it up before going out) and cut back the portion by 25% (Or add 25% to the calories given)? Not arguing here, just wondering.
I think weighing the apple and oats is a good idea, but personally I don't bother weighing a single serving of pre-packaged yogurt or a package of nuts that is single serving. It may well be off a bit, but like you I use these at work where I don't have a scale (unless I were to go use the postal scale) ;-) and I am confident enough that they will even out over time.
When you are trying to recomp or lose the last few pounds and having trouble it might be worth refining it down even more, but for most people it's probably not necessary. Weighing in general I think is, in part because it's less work than the cup thing and in part because for a variety of items the cup/tsp/tbsp thing can be quite imprecise. And for stuff like avocados I think it's important since the "small avocado" type entries can be so off compared to the actual numbers.
Restaurants are tough, but I am proof you can be successful without cutting restaurants out, as they are an important part of my social life. If you mostly go to restaurants with calorie counts, I think you shouldn't have too much trouble--I'd try to watch whether the meal seems consistent with what the menu item said and maybe add in a few extra calories, but I'd probably generally trust the calorie counts until I found I wasn't getting results. I would try to be very aware of any extra calories I might be getting -- bites of other people's meals or desserts, bread on the table, etc. (I mostly go to dinner places that have no calorie counts and those are a pain -- I always add in lots of extra butter when trying to log them. However, I buy lunch from places with counts reasonably often and have been successful just mostly using those counts.)0 -
I have been losing rapidly until I came to a sudden stop about 6 weeks ago. I lost 90 pounds in 10 months, and that included a cruise and vacation 12 nights long. I have been diligent all along with weighing and measuring. I will stop measuring and just weigh from now on. I am eating 1200 calories, am 62 years old and am 5'3". I still weigh 200 pounds so I am nowhere near goal. Walking, using the treadmill and now starting weights. Frustrating.0
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