Why aren't I losing any weight?

abijones75
abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been actively dieting and exercising for a week now and haven't lost anything...could someone who knows about exercise and nutrition please have a look at my diary and tell me what I'm doing wrong? I have a fitbit so my exercise is synched from there and it doesn't specify what it is, but basically i do an hour in the gym a day plus a fair bit of walking to and from school and to and from the gym. At the gym I'm alternating classes with free weights and cardio.
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Replies

  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    1 week.

    Give it more time.
  • PollyEH
    PollyEH Posts: 21 Member
    How often are you weighing yourself? Day to day fluctuations can be quite extreme, so if you just weighed after one week, you could have had an upward fluctuation that is skewing things. I weigh in every day or every other day and take a weekly average, to try to avoid this.
  • abijones75
    abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
    Every day PollyEH, it's soul destroying doing so much and seeing no change! I know 1 week isn't a lot but it's just frustrating as I usually drop quite a few pounds in the first week when I start dieting. This time I'm doing a lot more exercise and seeing no results :/
  • hpetty65
    hpetty65 Posts: 3 Member
    Don't know if it helps but I lost hardly any weight, just a few pounds, in the first 6 weeks - even though I had reduced calories massively and was keeping to the level suggested, and had increased exercise.

    I used the 'reports' to look at the individual sections recorded over the past 30 days - sugar, protein, carbs etc. My protein was really low and sugar really high compared to the recommended, so I altered my diet - increased protein, reduced sugar and I've been losing about a pound a week ever since.

  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    abijones75 wrote: »
    Every day PollyEH, it's soul destroying doing so much and seeing no change! I know 1 week isn't a lot but it's just frustrating as I usually drop quite a few pounds in the first week when I start dieting. This time I'm doing a lot more exercise and seeing no results :/

    When you change exercise routines, concomitant bloat occurs due to tissue repair via an inflammation response. It masks weight loss. Wait it out a few weeks. It will come.

    Oh, and stressing about it results in further water retention.
  • abijones75
    abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
    Hmm that's interesting hpetty65 I will have a look at mine. BTW my diary is public if anyone wants to look at it. My diet is not very varied atm, I'm just sticking to the same things every day, I think I prob need to increase my protein a bit.
  • lemonlionheart
    lemonlionheart Posts: 580 Member
    First of all, it's one week. If you've just started exercising your muscles may be retaining water for repair, so you might not be seeing the scale go down even if you're losing fat. Secondly, looking at your diary you seem to be using a lot of teaspoon and cup measurements and generic entries. Are you using a food scale? It can be reeeeally easy to underestimate calories consumed, especially things like butter that is calorie-dense.
  • abijones75
    abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
    The butter is whatever it takes to spread a slice of toast, so I did guess 2 tsps. I measure my milk for cereal, for everything else I've used the barcode scanner. I'm eating so little compared to what I was though, and not drinking any alcohol which I was drinking loads of over Xmas, so I had expected to see a bigger change more quickly. What you said about the exercise makes sense though, I've been sore so that could be it.
  • abijones75
    abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
    OK thanks EvgeniZyntx that also makes sense, that makes me feel a lot better. Hopefully once my muscles get used to working out I will see s drop in the scales :)
  • abijones75
    abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
    edited January 2016
    Looked at my reports and its showing protein as way below target. Sugar is also low apart from on Sunday when i went to a baby shower and had one of those large choc chop cookies!!
  • lynnstrick01
    lynnstrick01 Posts: 181 Member
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.
  • ReflectivePhase
    ReflectivePhase Posts: 17 Member
    Try and ween yourself off the sugar in the tea, weighing your food portions, try varying your diet to see what works for you for example if bread bloats you then try substituting it for something else like some extra protein such as lean mean or fish, some people find that diary alternatives help as well.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.

    Sigh, no. We don't have a significant drop in metabolism from increase in exercise and we do not make a significant amount of muscle in a week. No. It's been a week.
  • lynnstrick01
    lynnstrick01 Posts: 181 Member
    yeah the Almond milk (unsweetened) is super low in calories and tastes GREAT, works in most recipes that call for milk
  • spiccand
    spiccand Posts: 1 Member
    I'm trying to loose a few pounds (10), since 3 months : I reduce my calories and increase my sport a lot, may be too much. So after 3 months, I loose no weight but took 4 more pounds. So I decided to stop looking at my balance and start at looking at me in the mirror. And you know what ? I am proud of me because this 10 pounds as been transformed in muscule and now my body is well design. I loose nothing but I transformed it.

    If you want to loose, calm down your sport (1'400 calories burn by sport on a day is a lot). So you will grown your muscule (don't worry, you won't take a massive body) but you will have trouble to loose weight.

    But .. I am not an expert, just my own experience.
  • hayyleyj
    hayyleyj Posts: 9 Member
    PollyEH wrote: »
    How often are you weighing yourself? Day to day fluctuations can be quite extreme, so if you just weighed after one week, you could have had an upward fluctuation that is skewing things. I weigh in every day or every other day and take a weekly average, to try to avoid this.

    I weigh 4lbs more every evening! Crazy!
  • lynnstrick01
    lynnstrick01 Posts: 181 Member
    Just remember, Dont "DIET" but change the way you LIVE, otherwise the weight will come right back (plus some) I know from experience.. It is better to make minor changes and take the weight off slowly and then continue with those good habits than it is to live a life of misery and starvation, reach a goal, and then put it all back on.
  • abijones75
    abijones75 Posts: 116 Member
    That's what I'm trying to do Lynn :)Thanks for all the help everyone, I feel a lot better now. I know I'm not eating too much and I'm increasing my fitness which can only be a good thing. I'll check on here n a week, hopefully I will have either lost a few pounds or look better, I don't mind which! :)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.

    this is not true

    what Evgeni said is true, but this post you can ignore because none of it is true
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    abijones75 wrote: »
    That's what I'm trying to do Lynn :)Thanks for all the help everyone, I feel a lot better now. I know I'm not eating too much and I'm increasing my fitness which can only be a good thing. I'll check on here n a week, hopefully I will have either lost a few pounds or look better, I don't mind which! :)

    the best advice I can give anyone is judge your weight loss over rolling 6-8 week periods

    because day to day and week to week means nothing

    there are trend trackers you can use: I like trendweight.com it links from mfp via my fitbit account, there's also libra, weightgrapher, happy scale

  • WrenTheCoffeeAddict
    WrenTheCoffeeAddict Posts: 148 Member
    Your daily goal of calories is 1200. There will be a lot of people on this site that don't agree you should go that low, regardless of what MFP says.
    Personally, I don't lose weight on 1200. I do lose weight on 1500. Sometimes you need to eat more to lose more.
  • lynnstrick01
    lynnstrick01 Posts: 181 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.

    this is not true

    what Evgeni said is true, but this post you can ignore because none of it is true

    Excuse me,, but this information came directly from an internal medicine Dr. when I visited him with my mother regarding her weight loss for diabetes, please check your facts before you call someone a liar
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,224 Member
    edited January 2016
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.

    this is not true

    what Evgeni said is true, but this post you can ignore because none of it is true

    Excuse me,, but this information came directly from an internal medicine Dr. when I visited him with my mother regarding her weight loss for diabetes, please check your facts before you call someone a liar

    Not saying you're a liar, just saying you're wrong. Which you are. Sorry. Doctors are not infallible, and frankly, they are often very deficient in nutrition and physiology.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.

    this is all wrong.............. all wrong.


    you re likely retaining water from the new workouts. it will fall off.

    also simply by the fact you said you THINK 2 teaspoons of butter, tells me you are not accurately weighing your food. Buy food scale and weigh EVERYTHING

    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    A couple of things could be happening to you, first and foremost, drastically cutting calories and increasing exercise all at once puts your body into a sort of "shock" it thinks that you are starving.. so it reduces metabolism. and secondly, remember muscle weighs more than fat, If you are feeling a little sore from all this exercise you are likely building muscle, try body measurements, waist, chest, hips, arms and thighs, the scales don't always tell the whole story.


    this is not true

    what Evgeni said is true, but this post you can ignore because none of it is true

    Excuse me,, but this information came directly from an internal medicine Dr. when I visited him with my mother regarding her weight loss for diabetes, please check your facts before you call someone a liar

    Doctors give horrible weight loss/ exercise and diet advice and very rarely actually know what they are talking about in that respect.

  • audreyanderson4
    audreyanderson4 Posts: 245 Member
    I am not lsing either same to be stuck now
  • lynnstrick01
    lynnstrick01 Posts: 181 Member
    OK, I did use the phrase incorrectly, true enough 1 lb is 1lb regardless if it is muscle or fat.. but by VOLUME.. Muscle is more dense than fat, and therefore weighs more than fat. if you filled a box with fat and the same sized box with muscle, the weight of the muscle (by volume) would be more, just as rocks by volume are heavier than feathers. therefore the scales can show you are maintaining or even gaining weight while you are still actually losing fat, which is the ultimate goal. you cannot get a complete picture just looking at the scales, Picture in your mind a 5 foot 3 inch woman ( overweight right), now google a picture of Aleesha Young, female body builder, yep 5 foot 3 inches, 190 lbs and 0 body fat. If I looked like that who cares what the scales say
  • oolou
    oolou Posts: 765 Member
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  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,224 Member
    lynnstrick01 wrote: »
    OK, I did use the phrase incorrectly, true enough 1 lb is 1lb regardless if it is muscle or fat.. but by VOLUME.. Muscle is more dense than fat, and therefore weighs more than fat. if you filled a box with fat and the same sized box with muscle, the weight of the muscle (by volume) would be more, just as rocks by volume are heavier than feathers. therefore the scales can show you are maintaining or even gaining weight while you are still actually losing fat, which is the ultimate goal. you cannot get a complete picture just looking at the scales, Picture in your mind a 5 foot 3 inch woman ( overweight right), now google a picture of Aleesha Young, female body builder, yep 5 foot 3 inches, 190 lbs and 0 body fat. If I looked like that who cares what the scales say

    Yes, but that doesn't happen in a week. No one gains enough muscle in a week to show up on the scales, not even if they're lifting very heavy weights. It just doesn't work like that. The muscles can retain fluid for repair, which can add to scale weight temporarily, but it's not muscle gain.
  • lynnstrick01
    lynnstrick01 Posts: 181 Member
    ok, i really am not trying to be argumentative, and you do make some valid points, but I do know from research, from weight loss discussions with medical professionals and from personal experience that the scales do not always tell the whole story, if they did weight loss programs would not all have you doing measurements in addition to weigh ins. That is all I am saying
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    abijones75 wrote: »
    The butter is whatever it takes to spread a slice of toast, so I did guess 2 tsps. I measure my milk for cereal, for everything else I've used the barcode scanner. I'm eating so little compared to what I was though, and not drinking any alcohol which I was drinking loads of over Xmas, so I had expected to see a bigger change more quickly. What you said about the exercise makes sense though, I've been sore so that could be it.

    I am also going to state, as others have, that "I guess 2 tsps" is not logging accurately. You are eating more than you think. Save the measuring cups and spoons for liquids.
    ALL foods needed to be weighed with a scale if you want to be the most accurate with your logging. If you don't, you're risking eating more than you think because measuring cups for solids do not take into account the volume of food; thus, they are inaccurate.

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