confused and frustrated
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CarlanaVanHouten
Posts: 12 Member
i've been keeping just under all of my goals (i do go over in sodium sometimes, but that's it), and i've been drinking about 8 cups of water every day, and i've been swimming five days a week, but i'm not losing any weight. why am i not losing any weight?
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Hey Carlana, not nice to be trying so hard and not seeing the benefits. When you say you're not losing any weight, do you really mean none at all or are we talking not as much as you though you would. There are lots of things can could be causing this but you first need to understand if you really aren't loosing any weight, then you need to consider that, if you had really low muscle density and are now doing exercise far more than you were before you will also be changing fat mass for muscle mass and muscle weighs more. Try taking your measurements, waist, hips, bust, arm and legs and see if you are loosing anything there. I'd also be looking at your sodium. I haven't been calorie counting for long myself but I know I've barely used half of mine each day and used nearly all my calories. I'd be wondering if you might be retaining fluid because of that. I'd have a look at these areas first and if you are loosing just not as much as you hoped then I'd try not to be too hard on yourself. A loss is a loss, dieting can be hard enough as it is without expecting more that your body is willing to give.0
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I'm not losing anything at all. The 8lbs loss it shows in my profile is because I got a new scale and it reads differently than the one I was using. My measurements have been weird, too. One week I had lost half an inch on my hips but gained an inch on my waist, and the next I had lost an inch on my waist but gained it through the hips. I think maybe I'm not taking the measurements right, which is hard to do anyway because of my belly flap. I do have some difficulty staying below 2300mg sodium, but I am trying. Thank you!0
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I'll eat my hat if it's not down to the exercise you are doing. I have only just started losing after 6 weeks of taking up a lot of exercise. I feel it in my body though, I feel much smaller and clothes fit better.
Keep logging everything with a scale, keep drinking the water and give it a few weeks.
Just make sure your calories and method of weighing your food is good.
What do you use to track exercise calories, and do you eat them?0 -
From your diary:
1) Stop using cups to measure things, you can be completely off. If it is solid, use a scale
2) Be very careful about recipes. Unless you prepared it and measured everythign yourself, what you think had 150 calories per serving for example, could easily have 300 per serving on a generic entry or a homemade entry someone else logged, or the serving could be 1/4 of what you think it is.
3) Stop logging normal activities like cleaning etc as exercise
4) You are not burning 500 calories swimmign for half an hour. Not unless you are really serious about it, as in athlete-training type serious. No matter what MFP thinks.
In brief, you are eating more than you think, burning less than you think. You are eating at maintenance.0 -
From your diary again, who logs 300 calories burned from sexual intercouse and then eats them back??? Get serious
and you will see results. Logging is great, as long as it makes sense. 0 -
From your diary:
1) Stop using cups to measure things, you can be completely off. If it is solid, use a scale
2) Be very careful about recipes. Unless you prepared it and measured everythign yourself, what you think had 150 calories per serving for example, could easily have 300 per serving on a generic entry or a homemade entry someone else logged, or the serving could be 1/4 of what you think it is.
3) Stop logging normal activities like cleaning etc as exercise
4) You are not burning 500 calories swimmign for half an hour. Not unless you are really serious about it, as in athlete-training type serious. No matter what MFP thinks.
In brief, you are eating more than you think, burning less than you think. You are eating at maintenance.
All of this.
If you aren't losing weight then you aren't eating less calories than you are burning. It is almost always that simple. Inflating your exercise calories or choosing food entries that are lower than reality only hurts you in the long run. There's no one watching you and no reason not to be brutally honest with yourself about what you're eating. Always underestimate your calorie burns and overestimate your food calories and never log things that are a part of your daily routine; cleaning is not exercise as much as we'd want it to be. If you think you should get extra calories for that time, invest in a pedometer/activity tracker which will give you extra calories for more steps taken during the day. The extra calories will be much lower than what MFP is giving you for "cleaning".
Sodium doesn't cause fat gain or inhibit its loss. At best, you'll see a temporary gain until your body flushes out the extra. Don't obsess about sodium unless you have a health reason to do so. There are other things which are much more important for you to focus on, including correct logging and weighing your food. Once you are losing weight at a steady pace you can focus on the little things like sodium intake.
Additionally, someone mentioned "cheat" meals. Don't do it. Cheat is a word to be avoided as it sounds like you're doing something illegal or immoral. Besides, it's really easy to wipe our your calorie deficit for several days if you have a day where you aren't logging. If you want a treat build it into your calories for the day. If you have a party or event, understand that you may not lose weight that week depending on how much you indulge. If you do those things you won't feel the need to "cheat."0 -
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I DO have an HRM now and am using it. The calories burned that I logged were estimated from this website, so I will adjust after this shift, since it is all cleaning anyway. Some calories are burned during chores, though likely not as much as MFP says. Some of the foods logged had barcodes that I scanned, and the nutrition facts that the app showed me matches the label on the food itself. But you are right, measuring in cups may be a mistake. I just got a new kitchen scale and will be using it.0
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Yeah.... the rest of it was appropriate. This was not.0 -
You are not losing weight because you are eating too much and overestimating calorie burns during excerc...wait...everything apparently.0
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CarlanaVanHouten wrote: »I DO have an HRM now and am using it. The calories burned that I logged were estimated from this website, so I will adjust after this shift, since it is all cleaning anyway. Some calories are burned during chores, though likely not as much as MFP says. Some of the foods logged had barcodes that I scanned, and the nutrition facts that the app showed me matches the label on the food itself. But you are right, measuring in cups may be a mistake. I just got a new kitchen scale and will be using it.
Great! You're on your way then. Trust me, the advice people are giving you isn't necessarily intuitive. Some of these things I've learned after being on the site for 4 years.0 -
It takes a bit to figure out the logging often. I found this thread extremely helpful when I first started in understanding the logging: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1CarlanaVanHouten wrote: »I DO have an HRM now and am using it. The calories burned that I logged were estimated from this website, so I will adjust after this shift, since it is all cleaning anyway.
Yeah, that's another thing that people understandably often do not realize at first -- that MFP overstates the calorie burn from lots of things.0 -
Let me be clear. I came here for support. I did NOT come here to be harassed because you think calories are not burned in sex or house cleaning. There is nothing unreasonable about logging calorie burn for whatever you do. Will you next harass me for logging a walk? If so, harass someone else. I WILL NOT hear it. If you can't say something nice or supportive, then keep your mouth shut.-2
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You are getting support. You asked why you're not losing any weight and people are answering you.0
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Maybe some people aren't being as kind as you'd like them to be; regardless of that, the advice being given is true and should be applied. The most accurate way to log your food is by purchasing a food scale. The best way to get a grasp on your activity level is through a HRM or device like a Fitbit. I have a Fitbit Charge HR and I still only eat back ~25% of extra exercise calories it gives me. I've deep cleaned my bathroom for over an hour without stopping and didn't even burn 200 calories.
Things like cleaning and sex really should not be logged. Unless you're moving vigorously nonstop and your heart is racing, which it's most likely not. Exercise logs really should be used for intentional exercise only, even if your intentional exercise is a walk. You don't have to be excessively out of breath for it to count as exercise, but a 30 minute walk without stopping is more exercise than a 30 minute sex session where, realistically, both partners are taking turns moving, taking breaks, and not constantly having sex with one person doing the work the entire time.
If you're the type that does not enjoy exercise, then the way for you to lose weight is by a pure calorie deficit. With the inaccurate logging and the severely inflated calorie burns, you are eating at maintenance. If you're gaining weight, you're above maintenance cals. Bottom line. If you don't want to get a food scale, then you're going to have to make sure you don't eat your exercise calories back because it seems to be a huge part of what's preventing progress.0 -
UltimateRBF wrote: »CarlanaVanHouten wrote: »Let me be clear. I came here for support. I did NOT come here to be harassed because you think calories are not burned in sex or house cleaning. There is nothing unreasonable about logging calorie burn for whatever you do. Will you next harass me for logging a walk? If so, harass someone else. I WILL NOT hear it. If you can't say something nice or supportive, then keep your mouth shut.
Actually there kind of is. Logging things like sex or cleaning the house is kinda pointless since everyday stuff like that (jokes aside) is included already in your activity level. Assuming you're not completely sedentary, like borderline bedbound sedentary counting that stuff is basically double dipping and won't really benefit you. Unless you're doing like complete house cleaning where you move the furniture, are on hands and knees scrubbing floors or are uprooting trees or whatever or are are having some sort of marathon sexytimes.
Sorry if that wasn't nice or supportive. Hopefully you'll still listen to it.
+1 If you're logging everyday activities then you're double dipping.0 -
CarlanaVanHouten wrote: »Let me be clear. I came here for support. I did NOT come here to be harassed because you think calories are not burned in sex or house cleaning. There is nothing unreasonable about logging calorie burn for whatever you do. Will you next harass me for logging a walk? If so, harass someone else. I WILL NOT hear it. If you can't say something nice or supportive, then keep your mouth shut.
Plenty of people on MFP have sex (I assume)
And I guarantee 90% of them don't log it lmao
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CarlanaVanHouten wrote: »Let me be clear. I came here for support. I did NOT come here to be harassed because you think calories are not burned in sex or house cleaning. There is nothing unreasonable about logging calorie burn for whatever you do. Will you next harass me for logging a walk? If so, harass someone else. I WILL NOT hear it. If you can't say something nice or supportive, then keep your mouth shut.
Calories are burned by everything we do, just by virtue of being alive. If you would like to lose weight, you will need to be selective about what is part of normal life and what is part of deliberate, above and beyond normal activity, to count as exercise calories. If you would like to lose weight you will need to measure and chose entries that are as accurate as they can be for the calories you eat or drink. If you do these two things then the equation (calories in minus calories out = weight change) will work the way you want it too.0
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