Week 1 on 1200 and only one 1lb lost
TiaGia101
Posts: 51 Member
Help. I'm being super careful, measuring and not going over my 1200. I noticed at the start when I was working out harder (running, Pilates, and Barry's Bootcamp) I had no loss at all and even a gain. Since I cut back on workingn out, I'm just down 1 pound from where I started (165 to 164). Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?
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Replies
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How much were you expecting to lose?
I think what's wrong is most likely: You have unrealistic expectations of how fast you should lose weight. 1 lb a week is a good rate of loss.
Not enough information to tell anything else.0 -
Well, according to MFP, at 1200 I should be losing 2lbs a week. That's why my confusion.0
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- Are you weighing your food with an electric food scale?
- Are you weighing accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
- How are you obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?
Open your diary so we can see your logging and how long have you been in a caloric deficit?0 -
1200 is the lowest amount MFP will give you, so you won't be able to reach a two pound per week deficit without undereating. A pound is perfectly fine. In fact, I gained my first two weeks!0
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Still not enough information.
MFP won't recommend lower than 1200 calories, so even if 1200 calories will only be 1lb a week and you tell it 2lbs a week, it won't put you lower. By the way, unless you have like 60+ lbs to lose, a 2lb a week goal is not for you.
What are your current stats? Age, sex, weight
What is your goal weight?
Are you weighing all solids on a food scale and measuring all liquids?
When did you start working out? Did you recently increase intensity?
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Potential pitfalls:
--Overestimating calorie burn.
--Underestimating calorie intake.
Are you using a food scale? I can promise you, there is a great difference between measuring your food with cups and spoons and weighing your food. You may be eating more calories than you think.
Lastly, if it is any encouragement at all, I NEVER lose at the rate MFP says I should be based on my food and activity. I am like you in that I am only losing a pound a week even though MFP's estimates say I "should" be losing 2 or more.
Trying to embed a Youtube video but MFP is being difficult. I am doing the exact same thing I've always done to successfully embed a video, but it's not showing up for me at the moment. Here is a link to this video demonstrating the difference between weighing and measuring cups (in case I can not get the embedding to work!) https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk
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Your results will fluctuate. You will lose more than that some weeks and less than that others. Were you careful about weighing yourself under the same circumstances (after using the bathroom, wearing similarly weighted clothes and same time of the day?) If you weigh yourself several times per day you will notice you range between a few lbs.
Also weighing food and getting portion perfect make a huge difference. MFP will over estimate calories burned in a workout so be careful not to eat everything back unless you know for sure that it's accurate.0 -
IsaackGMOON wrote: »
- Are you weighing your food with an electric food scale?
- Are you weighing accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
- How are you obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?
Open your diary so we can see your logging and how long have you been in a caloric deficit?
Yes, I'm weighing everything with a scale. And I'm using ounces instead of cups. I'm getting my calorie burns from MFP.0 -
Your headline states week 1. If this is indeed your first week, you really shouldn't be worried at all! And secondly 1 lb per week is good! Losing it slowly is much better & you're more likely to keep it off/follow your 'new' life style.0
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SingRunTing wrote: »Still not enough information.
MFP won't recommend lower than 1200 calories, so even if 1200 calories will only be 1lb a week and you tell it 2lbs a week, it won't put you lower. By the way, unless you have like 60+ lbs to lose, a 2lb a week goal is not for you.
What are your current stats? Age, sex, weight
What is your goal weight?
Are you weighing all solids on a food scale and measuring all liquids?
When did you start working out? Did you recently increase intensity?
I'm a 38 year old female. As of today I weigh 164lbs and would like to lose 10-15lbs.
Yes, in weighing all solids and measuring all liquids. I also eat "clean" and only organic. I have always worked out though I did try to step it up for weight loss as I have a desk job and am sedentary most of the day.0 -
MicheleStitches wrote: »Potential pitfalls:
--Overestimating calorie burn.
--Underestimating calorie intake.
Are you using a food scale? I can promise you, there is a great difference between measuring your food with cups and spoons and weighing your food. You may be eating more calories than you think.
Lastly, if it is any encouragement at all, I NEVER lose at the rate MFP says I should be based on my food and activity. I am like you in that I am only losing a pound a week even though MFP's estimates say I "should" be losing 2 or more.
Trying to embed a Youtube video but MFP is being difficult. Here is a link in case I can not get it to work! https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk
I am using the exact food scale in this photo0 -
Don't forget that you could be replacing fat lost with muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, causes you to burn more calories and is generally a good thing.
Don't let the scale be your only measure of success. Measure your arms, legs, hips, waist, chest, neck etc. to see if you are losing inches. Then use the combination of measurements along with how you feel and look to determine success.-1 -
rebbylicious wrote: »Your results will fluctuate. You will lose more than that some weeks and less than that others. Were you careful about weighing yourself under the same circumstances (after using the bathroom, wearing similarly weighted clothes and same time of the day?) If you weigh yourself several times per day you will notice you range between a few lbs.
Also weighing food and getting portion perfect make a huge difference. MFP will over estimate calories burned in a workout so be careful not to eat everything back unless you know for sure that it's accurate.
Yes, I weigh myself every morning, post bathroom, no clothes on.
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You're going to find that weight loss fluctuates from week to week as your body makes adjustments. Don't give up...stay the course.
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Don't forget that you could be replacing fat lost with muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, causes you to burn more calories and is generally a good thing.
Don't let the scale be your only measure of success. Measure your arms, legs, hips, waist, chest, neck etc. to see if you are losing inches. Then use the combination of measurements along with how you feel and look to determine success.
It's not possible to gain muscle in a calorie deficit.
OP, don't worry. 1lb a week is good! Plus it's only your first week.
P.S - organic food doesn't have any less calories and isn't actually any better for you.0 -
Don't forget that you could be replacing fat lost with muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, causes you to burn more calories and is generally a good thing.
Don't let the scale be your only measure of success. Measure your arms, legs, hips, waist, chest, neck etc. to see if you are losing inches. Then use the combination of measurements along with how you feel and look to determine success.
There's some good info here like not letting the scale be your only measure of success and body part measuring. Taking pictures also helps.
OP isn't replacing fat with muscle tho.
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Based on your profile, you don't have a lot to lose, so it's going to come off slowly.
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Well, according to MFP, at 1200 I should be losing 2lbs a week. That's why my confusion.
MFP would never put you at less than 1200 calories even if you tell it you want to lose 2 pounds, because based on your loss you would need to eat 700 calories to lose that much which is not enough nor healthy.
It's actually misleading and I have seen it cause many misunderstandings. They should post a warning like "based on your stats, your expected weekly weight loss is xx and not 2 pounds".0 -
I was having 1200 but lost nothing in a week. So i added more, i am now on 1370 and i weighed today and i have actually lost 3lb on my streak.
redo your tdee and take away from that figure. Thats what i did thanks to people on here.
You are lucky to lose that to be honest. 0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Well, according to MFP, at 1200 I should be losing 2lbs a week. That's why my confusion.
MFP would never put you at less than 1200 calories even if you tell it you want to lose 2 pounds, because based on your loss you would need to eat 700 calories to lose that much which is not enough nor healthy.
It's actually misleading and I have seen it cause many misunderstandings. They should post a warning like "based on your stats, your expected weekly weight loss is xx and not 2 pounds".
Yes, people get confused. If you go to update diet and fitness profile and put in your stats at the bottom it should say what you are projected to lose based on them, no matter what you asked for.
For example, I have my activity level in as active right now, but even so if I ask for 2 lb/week (which is not realistic for me), it gives me 1200 calories and says at the end that I am projected to lose 1.4 lb/week.
(I don't do that, it's just an example.)0 -
Thanks everyone. The math of this is so confusing but I try to estimate my activity level very conservatively to leave a margin of error. I'm dialing back my rigorous exercise too because I heard it causes water retention.
I'm 5 foot 10 and in the past my weight at this height has sat confortably at 140 (8 years ago) and gone as high as 177 (5 years ago when I broke my foot). I'd like to get back down to around 150-155 but it's so hard to offset all the time I spend at my desk for work with activity. I've been taking 1 to 2 hour walks every night which helps expend calories while not bulking me up with water weight. So frustrating.0 -
I had my calorie goal set to 1200 per day also (I am a woman, 51 years, 5'9" 180lbs), and my weight would go down a pound, up a pound. Everybody kept telling me to make sure I was weighing and measuring (and I was). I finally had my BMR checked and it is pretty low (1307). So my first instinct was to reduce calories even more but I was so miserable it just wasn't okay. Then yesterday I did a bunch of reading/investigating and in some cases when there is a history of starvation diets/eating disorders your BMR slows way down to protect the body and provides fat stores very readily (my fat percentage is also higher than to should be). What I understand so far is that if this applies to you the answer may be increasing your calories and increasing your exercise, specifically adding resistance training to your routine. So, with much trepidation, I have increased to 1500 cals per day and will add weight /resistance training and see how it goes. This scares me to death (the calorie increase, not the weight training) but I feel so frustrated by my body's response to trying to lose that I must try something else! I don't know if this is the case with you but thought I would throw it out there. And, of course, if you have trouble losing it is best in general to stay away from foods that are high on the glycemic index scale (white flour, processed sugar) because they store more readily as fat, especially in people with slower metabolic rates.
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It's only a week keep at it. Some weeks you lose more, some times less, some times nothing, some times a gain! It all averages out (though probably not to exactly 2lb/week)!
Did you lower your exercise because you observed a gain on the scale? If you're happy with less exercise, that's great, but exercise is a great way to preserve your muscles while you're on a (pretty big) deficit and it's good for so many thee things.
Good luck!0 -
If you just started to exercise, or if you bumped up the inensity, your muscles will retaiin water in order to repair themselves. That should level off fairly quickly.0
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Yes, I did bump it up and saw a gain right away so I sort of panicked and decided to cut back on the intensity though I'm still walking a lot.
I guess it comes with age but I can't help think back to my younger days when is lose weight so easily and quickly. Now it feels like one wrong move bumps me up two or three pounds instantly. I have to travel next week and I'm already worried about the irregular eating pattern setting me back in my already slow progress0 -
This is incorrect. Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. It's more dense than fat, and that's what confuses people into making statements like that.
More importantly, nobody is going to be gaining muscle (a) in the first week of anything and (b) when eating at a deficit. Finally, even for people who are eating at maintenance and focused specifically on increasing lean muscle, it's a very slow process.
Obviously you don't understand the meaning of density. 1 cubic inch of muscle definitely weighs more than 1 cubic inch of fat. Just like water weighs more than snow. I guess one could say 1 lb of muscle is smaller in volume than 1 lb of fat but that just sounds weird.
As far as the first week of anything is concerned you did not read the OP correctly. She stated that it was her first week at 1200 calories. Not her first week of anything.
I know there is a lot of information out there that says you can't build muscle at a deficit but there is also contradictory information. I can't see how you don't build some muscle at a deficit as how do you get stronger to be able to lift more or bike further up a big hill with out stopping if you are not building some muscle.
The main point of the message was not to use weight as your only indicator of success and to that point I hope we can both agree.
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Yes, I did bump it up and saw a gain right away so I sort of panicked and decided to cut back on the intensity though I'm still walking a lot.
I guess it comes with age but I can't help think back to my younger days when is lose weight so easily and quickly. Now it feels like one wrong move bumps me up two or three pounds instantly. I have to travel next week and I'm already worried about the irregular eating pattern setting me back in my already slow progress
With only 10-15 lbs to lose, 2lbs a week is not realistic. A more realistic goal is .5 lb a week, honestly. The slow and steady route is the way to go!0 -
Because a group of muscle fiber cells can become more efficient at a task you make it repeatedly do. But in a deficit it's tough to actually create additional muscle fiber cells.I can't see how you don't build some muscle at a deficit as how do you get stronger to be able to lift more or bike further up a big hill with out stopping if you are not building some muscle.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Uk
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