Is there a reason I'm losing weight so slowly?

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

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jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

I mean I do consume 1300 a day and my caloric needs arent much anyways because of my lifestyle... but 1200 a day is pure misery for me, I wouldnt be able to stay awake and it might cause serious emotion shifts ( ei i will burst into random tears if I am too hungry) I can't go below what I am currently doing. i am at the point my body SHOULD be adjusted to the calorie change, right? or am I supposed to be hungry all the time? I feel 1300 is barely enough, like I wouldn't be able to sustain this is I actually did have a job.

But you aren't consuming 1300 a day. You said that your MFP goal is 1300 and you are eating back 75% of your exercise calories. How many calories have you eaten on each of the past 10 days? Not your net. Your gross--the total number you've actually eaten. (in your estimation)

In mfp any calories you exercise off, you eat back. I usually don't even reach 1300 even after easting back those calories. I usually have a deficit of 75-150 calories a day.

I assure you I understand how MFP works. How many calories have you actually been eating?

[/quote]no, that's why I'm concerned, no changes in the way clothes fit or how I look, I mean a tiny bit maybe but not significant at all.[/quote]

Tiny bit is quite a lot for such a short time. You will get there. Don't be so hard on yourself Hun

quiksylver296 wrote: »

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AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

If you are comfortable sharing your height and weight, I would like to see if we could up your calories and still get successful weight loss.

If not, use scoobysworkshop.com to calculate your TDEE-20% to determine what you could be eating.

5'6 medium frame, 150 lbs.sedentary. I work out about 4 hours a week. idk my body fat percentage because i don't have the measuring tape so idk. I looked up a tdee calculator and it says i need 1900 a day( so that's bullcocky) idk, i have referenced so many calculators and formulas they always say something different

So, at TDEE-10% (I didn't do 20% because you don't have much to lose), your calories can be 1745 per day. That sounds about right to me. I'm 5'9, and have mine set at 1930 per day. (BTW, if you do this, don't eat back your exercise calories...)

Also realize, because you have less to lose, it's going to come off slower. Work the system and it WILL WORK, but you are going to have to be patient and give it time. It may take three months to lose ten pounds, not three weeks.

This is so true! Realistic expectations may need to be used here.

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

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jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

I mean I do consume 1300 a day and my caloric needs arent much anyways because of my lifestyle... but 1200 a day is pure misery for me, I wouldnt be able to stay awake and it might cause serious emotion shifts ( ei i will burst into random tears if I am too hungry) I can't go below what I am currently doing. i am at the point my body SHOULD be adjusted to the calorie change, right? or am I supposed to be hungry all the time? I feel 1300 is barely enough, like I wouldn't be able to sustain this is I actually did have a job.

But you aren't consuming 1300 a day. You said that your MFP goal is 1300 and you are eating back 75% of your exercise calories. How many calories have you eaten on each of the past 10 days? Not your net. Your gross--the total number you've actually eaten. (in your estimation)

In mfp any calories you exercise off, you eat back. I usually don't even reach 1300 even after easting back those calories. I usually have a deficit of 75-150 calories a day.

I assure you I understand how MFP works. How many calories have you actually been eating?

okay i average 1250 net calories, sometimes more sometimes less, never over 1350.

You can eat 3000 calories and think you net 1250 if you log 1750 for exercise.

You can eat 1300 calories and think you net 1250 if you log 50 for exercise.

You can eat 2000 calories and think you net 1250 if you log 750 for exercise.

Your "net" is meaningless because you don't weigh your food accurately and, for some reason you will not actually say how many calories you think you are eating. So nobody can even tell how far off or close to on point you are.

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

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jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

I mean I do consume 1300 a day and my caloric needs arent much anyways because of my lifestyle... but 1200 a day is pure misery for me, I wouldnt be able to stay awake and it might cause serious emotion shifts ( ei i will burst into random tears if I am too hungry) I can't go below what I am currently doing. i am at the point my body SHOULD be adjusted to the calorie change, right? or am I supposed to be hungry all the time? I feel 1300 is barely enough, like I wouldn't be able to sustain this is I actually did have a job.

But you aren't consuming 1300 a day. You said that your MFP goal is 1300 and you are eating back 75% of your exercise calories. How many calories have you eaten on each of the past 10 days? Not your net. Your gross--the total number you've actually eaten. (in your estimation)

In mfp any calories you exercise off, you eat back. I usually don't even reach 1300 even after easting back those calories. I usually have a deficit of 75-150 calories a day.

I assure you I understand how MFP works. How many calories have you actually been eating?

okay i average 1250 net calories, sometimes more sometimes less, never over 1350.

You can eat 3000 calories and think you net 1250 if you log 1750 for exercise.

You can eat 1300 calories and think you net 1250 if you log 50 for exercise.

You can eat 2000 calories and think you net 1250 if you log 750 for exercise.

Your "net" is meaningless because you don't weigh your food accurately and, for some reason you will not actually say how many calories you think you are eating. So nobody can even tell how far off or close to on point you are.

I'm sorry, someone else wanted the net I got mixed up. And this point I do not understand because why would I think i am eating anything other than what I have logged if i do not have a food scale as you say to go by? mfp diary is all the reference i have....so how could you expect me to answer that? I'm not trying to be pushy, I just don't understand so if there's something i am missing? I think i eat what I put in the diary because I look up the nutrition for it.. I'm pretty consistent with it. I mean obviously now I know I can be off by 30% because of the food scale( is that what you want? did you want me to multiply 1300*30%?) sorry, i'm just at a loss

No, there'd be two reasons the gross is important.

First, let's assume your estimation of exercise calories is spot-on. The calories you could be off due to standard measuring error is going to be more if you gross 3000 cals than if you gross 1300 calories.

Two, let's assume your estimation of exercise calories is more than it should be. The error is likely to be more if you gross 3000 cals than if you gross 1300 calories.

Plus, if you post what exercise you're doing and how much you think you're burning, experienced people can tell you if you're in a reasonable ball park.

You are losing at a "slow" rate because you have a small(ish) deficit. And even though getting a food scale is a great idea, you said yourself that you can't see yourself eating less than you are now, even if the scale tells you that you're eating more than 1300 cal/day. But the important thing is that you are losing.

You can play around with your macros (personally I would up my protein because that fills me up), or you could try to increase your deficit with more exercise, or you could just keep going as you are with the knowledge that this will take a little more time than you'd like.

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

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blankiefinder wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

I mean I do consume 1300 a day and my caloric needs arent much anyways because of my lifestyle... but 1200 a day is pure misery for me, I wouldnt be able to stay awake and it might cause serious emotion shifts ( ei i will burst into random tears if I am too hungry) I can't go below what I am currently doing. i am at the point my body SHOULD be adjusted to the calorie change, right? or am I supposed to be hungry all the time? I feel 1300 is barely enough, like I wouldn't be able to sustain this is I actually did have a job.

But you aren't consuming 1300 a day. You said that your MFP goal is 1300 and you are eating back 75% of your exercise calories. How many calories have you eaten on each of the past 10 days? Not your net. Your gross--the total number you've actually eaten. (in your estimation)

In mfp any calories you exercise off, you eat back. I usually don't even reach 1300 even after easting back those calories. I usually have a deficit of 75-150 calories a day.

I assure you I understand how MFP works. How many calories have you actually been eating?

okay i average 1250 net calories, sometimes more sometimes less, never over 1350.

Back to the food scale issue... Are you really eating that amount of calories if you are not using a food scale?

Okay, seems this is the point everyone keeps coming back to. I'll get a food scale, but truth be told, I don't think I'd be so hungry all the time if i were significantly overestimating my caloric intake. I'm not saying it's spot on, but there was a time in my life that I became moderately anorexic for an extended period of time , and this feels weirdly similar to that, except it's apparently okay to be this hungry lol...so my confusion could easily be traced to that I suppose. My perception of unacceptable hunger is set to real life experiences. probably tmi, but your last comment just provoked some critical thinking. I try to understand things as best i can.

I already said upthread (11:39) that you shouldn't feel that hungry, and that you may need to make some adjustments to what you are eating. Try different choices. I gave some examples in my post of what I ate while losing. And do get a food scale, and don't go back to previous disordered thinking it's a fine line sometimes. Good luck.

thanks, yeah, i thought maybe that experience could be altering my perspective, an dI know a lot of things have been repeated in these comments, a lot of people didn't bother to read the original post lo. But it's my second post as a member here so now I know what to expect next time I ask a question i guess lol..

There's definitely a learning curve, I pretty much didn't post for months when I joined, just read, and learned. Learned not to use the word tone, that a pound is a pound (whether fat or muscle lol) and to stop reading articles in magazines

Honestly though, I don't handle hunger well, and I do believe that you shouldn't be very hungry while losing. One other trick I used was I would have an emergency pack of Welch's fruit snacks (80 calories per pack) and I could stretch that package out over half an hour if I was quite hungry and it was an hour until my next meal. Everybody is different, so you will have to figure out what food choices fill you up. But I would suggest high protein snacks might help (greek yogurt, tin of flavoured tuna, cottage cheese, etc)

AlissaGilbert1 wrote: »

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TCamardella wrote: »

My doctor informed me not to touch my exercise calories. Say I burn 300 calories. That's it, done, those are not calories to eat back. You might want to try that. You also NEED to invest in a food scale. Your tablespoon of peanut butter is not a portion of peanut butter. It's almost enough to cry over what your REAL portion of peanut butter is.

You shouldn't be hungry while losing, no one should starve for their weight. If you're really having such a hard time and believe you're in the right about everything why not see a doctor? Sometimes people may have underlying illnesses that make it hard to lose weight, or medications may make it difficult as well.

I don't really have the means to see a doctor..
I don't doubt I could be off, but not by much. I already undereat what I am suppose to just in case something is overestimated. and my diet is very limited, not much variety.I was hoping someone would mention maybe if a certain metabolism speed would make hunger a regularity..I mean, If it's just something you deal with in a diet then ok, right? but all these people are saying i shouldn't be, but also that i should probably eat less lol since i don't have a food scale I'm probably wrong... I thought it was okay to eat carbs 2 slices a day totalling 90 calories isn't much, but it looks like, for me, I would have to give up the bread in order to fit in more filling, low cal food. That's what i gather from all these comments at least.

no, you dont have to give up bread, you make it fit into you calorie goals. you can eat what you want you just have to make it fit into your calories. once you get a food scale weigh your bread too because anything that comes in a package is notorious for its portion sizes and calories being off. when you get a scale weigh everything solid/semi solid. I use measuring cups for liquids but I still weigh on a scale because measuring cups can be off by quite a bit too.making sure you get enough fiber,healthy fat and protein can make you less hungry as well.drinking water before meals can help you not feel as hungry also.

There is no certain metabolism speed everyone is different. body frame size also has no impact on weight loss.once you start weighing foods and get the hang of logging accurately,will make things easier. If you want to eat a lot of low cal foods that is your choice. you dont have to.you can have carbs too. those who tell you you need to cut out certain foods are wring. you dont have to unless you have a certain health issue. and set MFP to lose .5(1/2_ lb a month since you have so little to lose.

even a small difference in how your clothes fit is still a difference. its really easy to overeat when you dont weigh food. trust me I learned that the hard way. I even gained weight back because I didnt weigh food. its easy to eat more than you think you are. even 2 pieces of fruit(say apples) the same size are not going to weight the same therefore the calorie count will be off and even a difference in say 20 calories can make a difference in the long run. good luck you can do this. also, the less weight you have to lose the slower it is to lose it. sucks but its true. so just hang in there

TCamardella wrote: »

My doctor informed me not to touch my exercise calories. Say I burn 300 calories. That's it, done, those are not calories to eat back. You might want to try that. You also NEED to invest in a food scale. Your tablespoon of peanut butter is not a portion of peanut butter. It's almost enough to cry over what your REAL portion of peanut butter is.

You shouldn't be hungry while losing, no one should starve for their weight. If you're really having such a hard time and believe you're in the right about everything why not see a doctor? Sometimes people may have underlying illnesses that make it hard to lose weight, or medications may make it difficult as well.

This might work if you're only burning 100-300 calories through exercise, but there are some days where i burn over 1000 calories. Not eating those back would put me dangerously low in net calories..