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    Not losing weight!

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    • Posts: 1,823 Member
      Oh you need to definitely weigh everything and not go by the packaging.

      For example, I had some baked beans yesterday. The can says "3 servings of a half cup and there are 3 servings in one can." But the serving size is 130 grams and when I actually weigh it out, 130 grams comes to almost the entire can. Definitely NOT 3 servings to a can.

      So you can really overdo or underdo your calories if you're not weighing.
    • Posts: 1,897 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      I see.. so for portions where the serving is in pieces, do the companies typically have corresponding weight info to accurately weigh?

      I'm using this picture as an example. The serving size is 1 ounce (28 grams/about 15 chips). Most nutrition labels on pre-packaged food have similar information to make weighing out your food possible.
      bakedlays.jpg
    • Posts: 302 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      40 pounds.. and my calorie intake for last week was 8,500.. so on a 1,200 calorie a day diet that's 1,200x7=8,400... I'm no where near 14,000

      Is that a profile picture of you? How tall are you and what is your current weight? I'm kinda having a hard time seeing where you could possibly afford to lose 40 pounds.

    • Posts: 12,294 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      No I use a heart rate monitor when working out and do a lot of cardio (zumba/ interval training) in addition to running two miles and lifting weights...

      HRMs will not be accurate for interval, zumba or strength training. They are only designed to give a good estimate for cals burned for steady state cardio, all other forms of exercise will most likely be grossly overestimated.

      Also, do you weight your solid foods and measure liquids?
      You may also be retaining excess water if you changed or increased intensity of exercise.
    • Posts: 1 Member
      Hi, How much weight do have to lose? If you only have 5 or 10 pounds then it will come off very slow. Addressing other posters they are right if you are burning 800 and taking in 1200 your body will go into starvation mode and start storing fat. Also you are building up muscle which weighs more than fat. Seek some professional guidance from the people at the gym and I am sure you will start to lose soon :)
    • Posts: 21 Member
      nilbogger wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      No, no, no. There's no way OP could have gained any significant amout of muscle eating at a deficit and exercising for only a couple weeks. Water retention is a possibility, though.

      Curious... how would working out make me retain water? Wouldn't it do the opposite?
    • Posts: 10,179 Member
      Igotithear

      You're still new at this. When I was new at this I learned sodium matters and fiber matters. Check your Reports. If your sodium is over 4000 and your fiber is less than half your target, just be patient. And fix your sodium intake.
    • Posts: 2,979 Member
      xcalygrl wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Exactly that. The package will say "1 cup (29 grams)", so weigh out 1 cup and see if it is actually 29 grams. (These are random numbers for the point of this example.) Measuring cups aren't accurate for solid or semi-solid (yogurt, nut butters, etc.), so you're best bet is to weigh them out on a food scale. An example that I use often: my oatmeal says 1/4 cup or 40 grams. My 1/4 cup measuring spoon actually gives me closer to 50 grams of oatmeal. That may not seem like much, but if I did that over a week, I would eat 245 additional calories a week that I wasn't accounting for in my food log.

      Also, those 17 pieces may be bigger or smaller than what the company has decided is 17 pieces. They're 17 pieces may be 17 grams, but you count out 17 pieces that actually weigh 25 grams. Guess what, you just ate 8 more grams than they anticipated, which could be a few calories or a lot (if it's something like nuts). Example: 1 ounce of almonds is roughly 32 almonds and 28.4 grams. Let's say you count out 32 almonds, but some of them are larger than average and you actually end up with 38.4 grams. Instead of eating 163 calories of almonds, you just ate 220 calories, or 57 more than you had planned. Now, if you do that everyday, you just ate 400 calories more than you logged for the week. If you're goal is only to lose 0.5 pounds a week, you just wiped out almost 2 days worth of deficit with just your serving of almonds.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Uk


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTsqwSve914

      /endthread #micdrop lol

      Seriously though. Exactly what she said.
    • Posts: 885 Member
      In addition to the great advice given to weigh everything and to make sure your exercise calories are not overestimated, my personal experience is that is just takes me a few weeks to start losing weight. I need to be consistent and accurate for 4-5 weeks before I see any loss of weight on the scale. It sucks and it's hard to continue when you're not seeing results right away but as long as you're doing everything you're supposed to it will come off. Accuracy and consistency is key to weight loss.
    • Posts: 21 Member
      Cindy01Louisiana wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Is that a profile picture of you? How tall are you and what is your current weight? I'm kinda having a hard time seeing where you could possibly afford to lose 40 pounds.

      Haha! That's cause that's a an old picture of me from when I lost weight on here the first time! I'm 5'7" and current weight is 180, my goal is 140. Just had a baby at the beginning of January.
    • Posts: 776 Member
      ddowdy64 wrote: »
      Hi, How much weight do have to lose? If you only have 5 or 10 pounds then it will come off very slow. Addressing other posters they are right if you are burning 800 and taking in 1200 your body will go into starvation mode and start storing fat. Also you are building up muscle which weighs more than fat. Seek some professional guidance from the people at the gym and I am sure you will start to lose soon :)

      Your first post and you got it all wrong. You dont build muscle in a calorie deficit. The people at the bym are not professionals who to seek guidence from and starvation mode does not exist. Anyone can starve to death.
      Hang out, read more, learn.
    • Posts: 108 Member
      I never eat back my exercise calories.

      And two weeks is a very short time. Give it more time. I agree with one of the posters, you may not be eating enough.

      How is your clothes fitting? Are you seeing any changes there?
    • Posts: 21 Member
      Thanks for all the replies. I think most if what I'm hearing from everyone is to weigh foods to get better accuracy of what's going in, and ditch the HRM? Sound about right?

    • Posts: 108 Member
      What HRM are you using?
    • Posts: 12,294 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Curious... how would working out make me retain water? Wouldn't it do the opposite?

      muscles store water to protect them and aid in recovery. same reason you get a bump when you bang your elbow on a table.
    • Posts: 21 Member
      Mystical64 wrote: »
      What HRM are you using?

      Polar FT7
    • Posts: 21 Member
      erickirb wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      muscles store water to protect them and aid in recovery. same reason you get a bump when you bang your elbow on a table.

      Is there something I can do to counter that?
    • Posts: 108 Member
      I used to have one of those. Now I use a fitbit HR and love it.
    • Posts: 14,776 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Curious... how would working out make me retain water? Wouldn't it do the opposite?

      It's pretty common for new workouts to cause water retention. Your body floods sore muscles with extra fluid to help cushion and repair them. This can also give the muscle a "pumped" look that some people mistake for new muscle gain. Always give your body a few weeks to adjust when you make changes to your work outs.
    • Posts: 21 Member
      diannethegeek wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      It's pretty common for new workouts to cause water retention. Your body floods sore muscles with extra fluid to help cushion and repair them. This can also give the muscle a "pumped" look that some people mistake for new muscle gain. Always give your body a few weeks to adjust when you make changes to your work outs.

    • Posts: 2,188 Member
      ddowdy64 wrote: »
      Hi, How much weight do have to lose? If you only have 5 or 10 pounds then it will come off very slow. Addressing other posters they are right if you are burning 800 and taking in 1200 your body will go into starvation mode and start storing fat. Also you are building up muscle which weighs more than fat. Seek some professional guidance from the people at the gym and I am sure you will start to lose soon :)

      No. Starvation mode is a myth.

      You lose weight by eating less calories than you burn.

      Rate of loss is unique to each person.

      Weigh, measure and log EVERYTHING that you eat and drink accurately.

    • Posts: 14,776 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Is there something I can do to counter that?

      Not really. You can drink plenty of fluids to try and get rid of any excess, but your body needs that cushion.
    • Posts: 12,294 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Is there something I can do to counter that?

      keep working out and when you get use to it your muscle wont require as much water retention.
    • Posts: 13,342 Member
      ilex70 wrote: »
      800-1000 for one gym session is an awful lot. If you are using the MFP entries for exercise calories they are generally believed too be to generous.

      Try only eating back half the exercise calories and see if that gets the scale moving.

      ^^ this
    • Posts: 3,565 Member
      Igotithear wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      Is there something I can do to counter that?

      Why would you want to counter a natural, protective process of your body? The point is, it is water weight, not body fat, and it will only temporarily mask a loss in body fat. The water weight will come and go, but the mass underneath it will continue to go down.
    • Posts: 2,113 Member
      RunRutheeRun wrote: »
      show previous quotes

      ^^ this

      Agreed. HRMs are meant for steady-state cardio and may not be that accurate for interval workouts and/or strength training. A quick and dirty calculation of calories burned when walking/running is 85-115 calories per mile for a 150 lb person... (http://www.runnersworld.com/peak-performance/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn) I find this correlates pretty well with what I get from my HRM and is significantly less than either MFP or MapMyRun gives me.
    • Posts: 82 Member
      Well when the portions on the box say 17 pieces... That's when I count... Or when it says 1 cup, what is there to weigh? [/quote]

      Be careful with counting portion sizes. I still weigh food when I eat chips, crackers, etc. Those are approximate. When I weigh 28 grams of potato chips - sometimes it's more than the recommended 14 chips, sometimes they are giant chips so it's only 8 or 9 chips before I hit 28 grams. Same thing with cup sizes - any dry foods you want to weigh and not go with what the cup delineation states. Recommended oatmeal is 40 grams. When I put my 1/2 cup in, it's over 40 grams.
      Weighing is the gold standard for the amount of calories you are putting in your mouth. Everything else is an approximation and even if it's only a few things a day, that can add up and keep you at a steady state rather then a deficit.

    • Posts: 2,145 Member
      Two and a half weeks is too small a data set. Work your program for 8-12 weeks and get back to us.
    • Posts: 321 Member
      I avoid logging my gym sessions because both MFP and exercise equipment is very, very generous in the amount of calories they say you've burned. Rule of thumb is to overestimate the calories you eat and underestimate the calories you burn. It's different for every person, but I just don't take the chance. I eat foods that keep me full AT my calorie allotment so I don't need to worry about eating back calories, etc.

      It's possible you're retaining water or not logging as accurately as possible. It's probably overestimating your burn that's doing you in though.
    • Posts: 21 Member
      I don't know exactly what happened, but I've lost about 4 pounds since this post. I didn't run out and buy a food scale (sorry I'm poor lol) and I didn't change anything to my routine, but I'm very ecstatic to see this new number! Thanks peeps!
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