Help

jennybug328
jennybug328 Posts: 4 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I'm new to all of this. I'm 26, 290lbs...I'm eating only 1200 calories a day, within 4-5 days a week for at least an hour and I'm not losing anything! What am I doing wrong?! :-(

Replies

  • jennybug328
    jennybug328 Posts: 4 Member
    jennybug328 wrote: »
    I'm new to all of this. I'm 26, 290lbs...I'm eating only 1200 calories a day, working out 4-5 days a week for at least an hour and I'm not losing anything! What am I doing wrong?! :-(

  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 902 Member
    Are you measuring everything you are eating? Making sure to count liquids, too? What do you do for 'working out'? PS, you quoted instead of editing, but I got what you meant.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

    2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

    3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

    4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

    5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

    6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

    7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

    8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

    9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
  • jennybug328
    jennybug328 Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you both for the response! As for excersize I have been using the eliptical at the gym for an hour and it usually says I burn around 500-600 calories at a time. I don't add my weight and my age into the machine, I just hit the"quick start" button and get on with it. I've started trying to add some weight training afterwards but that's only been in the last few days.

    I try to be as accurate as possible when logging my calories and ive been trying to have a deficit of at least 500...except on days I don't go to the gym. ..but in days I do work out my calories never go over 1300 or 1400. I drink only water or unsweetened black tea. I don't log these. I will def invest in a scale. I do try to guess at the meat sometimes...but since its so high in calories I do try to skip the meat as much as I can. I measure veggies and all that. Idk. ..just kinda feeling discouraged since I'm not really seeing a difference....but thanks again for all the advice!

Categories