Scale is being stubborn and won't move!

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deebol
deebol Posts: 24 Member
in Motivation and Support
If anyone out there can offer suggestions or even just share a similar story to help motivate me I'd appreciate it because right now I want to emotionally eat the kitchen.

For the last few weeks I've stayed the same weight (it went up and down for my little friend coming to town but up 1lb down a 1lb when it left)
I've been frustrated with it so I made sure to log everything this week. Even using measuring spoons for the milk in my tea. I've just weighe'd myself this morning and I'm still the same weight. I've increased my workouts and rely on my activity tracker to log exercise calories.
MFP gives me 1200 which I feel isn't enough so I eat my exercise calories bit never all of them. Its also on the negative counting. I like the idea of iifym so I've been attempting to get around 40c 35p 25f although not overly worried.
Not really sure what to do or how to get around this hurdle and it's seriously demotivating me. I lost inches the first time it stayed the same but nothing off there since.

Replies

  • GsKiki
    GsKiki Posts: 392 Member
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    The first pound is always the hardest one. You haven't mentioned how much weight you have to lose and what kind of exercise you're doing. For example if you have just couple of pounds, and do weights with cardio, you will not see results on the scale so fast, but you will notice changes in your body, and that's what you should be aiming for. Scale is sometimes not the best representation of your change.
    Other reasons could be that you are underwstomating how much you're eating, or over estimating how much you are exercising.
    If you are sure that you are eating enough, and doing cardio and weights enough, then just continue and results will come.
    Don't lose your focus and don't get discouraged! Good luck with your goal! Feel free to add me :)
  • flabassmcgee
    flabassmcgee Posts: 659 Member
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    The fact that you didn't measure your milk in your tea before and only "eyeballed" it says that you need to tighten up your logging.

    Invest in a food scale. Weigh all of your food.

    Have you calculated your BMR/TDEE?

    Height, weight, age, average activity level, exercise?
  • Chupiite
    Chupiite Posts: 55 Member
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    Maybe for week try to stay in 1200 calories and not eat exercise calories. Might help!
  • deebol
    deebol Posts: 24 Member
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    Thanks @gskiki I will. :)
    I have 60lbs to lose and have lost 17 so far since August slow and steady is the aim because I have had issues in the past and I'm trying to focus on healthy.
    I normally do a mixture of cardio and weights in every workout. If I'm at the gym I'll do 30 mins cardio and 30 mins weights. I also aim to do 11,000 steps per day and I've started a fitness programme last week which I do at home.
    I think I'm disappointed because I don't know what I could have done differently and I'm hoping someone could offer some suggestions or tweaks to what I'm doing wrong these last few weeks to see a change.
  • deebol
    deebol Posts: 24 Member
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    I do weigh all of my food the only thing I didn't measure accuratlely was milk in tea and my daily berocca which I started doing last week. I've roughly been the same weight for 4 weeks now....
    I calculated my tdee through an iifym calculator and it's 1736. I averaged that out over the full week sometimes less.
    I'm not sure if I should ditch the activity tracker but it motivates me throughout the day to see my exercise calories go up.
    I also increased my activity level on my goals setting to make sure it wasn't over calculating activity calories.
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
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    I once didn't show a loss for two months, then I dropped 8 lbs. Then 5 lbs the next week. It'll happen if you're doing what you need to.
  • RoseTheWarrior
    RoseTheWarrior Posts: 2,035 Member
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    deebol wrote: »
    Thanks @gskiki I will. :)
    I have 60lbs to lose and have lost 17 so far since August slow and steady is the aim because I have had issues in the past and I'm trying to focus on healthy.
    I normally do a mixture of cardio and weights in every workout. If I'm at the gym I'll do 30 mins cardio and 30 mins weights. I also aim to do 11,000 steps per day and I've started a fitness programme last week which I do at home.
    I think I'm disappointed because I don't know what I could have done differently and I'm hoping someone could offer some suggestions or tweaks to what I'm doing wrong these last few weeks to see a change.

    Plateaus happen. And it doesn't matter if you're on point on everything. The scale is only one measure of success in the journey of weight loss. You must be patient. Very patient. And keep doing all the right things. I'd be leary of eating back too many exercise calories. If you're feeling really hungry on 1200 calories, perhaps you need to look at *what* you're eating (I haven't even tried to look at your diary, so I don't know). For me, I average around 1200 a day even though I'm allowed 1310. I don't feel hungry at all. Another thing that you mention is weights. Is this fairly new? If so, your body will retain water for muscle repair.

    All in all, if you stay consistent and persistent, the scale will eventually move. In the meantime, are your clothes feeling looser? Are you feeling good? If so, breathe, relax, and keep on with the process. Weight loss is not EVER linear.
  • flabassmcgee
    flabassmcgee Posts: 659 Member
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    With all of that activity, 1200 is too little for you. If your TDEE is over 1700, your BMR must be above 1200 calories and you shouldn't eat below your TDEE.

    Tighten up your logging. Eat more.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
    edited January 2016
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    How many calories do you put for you exercise? Weights are hard to know how to calculate. I put 98 calories for my 30-40 min workout and that seems to be right as I'm losing 3# a month. For cardio I stationary bike. My heart rate monitor gives me about 340 calories for 60 min. MFP is pretty close to that. For a total of one hour (30 min lifting and 30 min on cardio) I'd put a total of 268 calories. I eat it all back. Since it sounds like your calories at 1200 are low enough, you have enough to lose, you're logging accurately but you aren't losing, look at what you're putting for exercise.
  • deebol
    deebol Posts: 24 Member
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    Thanks for the tips guys I will deffo be tightening up my logging and making sure absolutely everything gets recorded. @fiddletime I don't log specific workouts I use my jawbone and it calculates what I actually burn that day and adds it on for me. Hopefully next Saturday will see a positive change.... at least if it's not off its not on either. X

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