Not losing weight - why?
ezmaz
Posts: 7 Member
For 41 days I've been religious about tracking my intake. I'm a male, 5ft8, 198lb. I'm averaging 1782 cal/day over this period after deducting my expenditure. Even if not counting expenditure, I am intaking 2077/day, which should still result in 1-2lb loss/week. Over these 41 days I've managed to only lose 1 pound. What am I missing?
Because of work I do have a bit of an abnormal eating schedule. My first meal of the day is usually lunch, around noon, I rarely eat breakfast as I sleep late. Then I work from about 5-10pm. After work I have dinner around 11pm, then I'm in bed by about 1am. So I mainly eat two big meals a day with a few snacks in between and I often eat close to bedtime.
Full disclosure, I do drink a good amount of beer/wine on the weekends, but again, I track everything religiously. I am guilty of taking a bit of a feast or famine approach as well. Some days I'll binge and have over 3000 calories followed by a very conservative recovery day of 1500 calories, for example. Sometimes I throw a fasting day in the mix as well. So my intake does go through peaks and valleys. But again, I have worked out the averages and by all accounts I "should" be losing more than I am...
Thoughts?
Because of work I do have a bit of an abnormal eating schedule. My first meal of the day is usually lunch, around noon, I rarely eat breakfast as I sleep late. Then I work from about 5-10pm. After work I have dinner around 11pm, then I'm in bed by about 1am. So I mainly eat two big meals a day with a few snacks in between and I often eat close to bedtime.
Full disclosure, I do drink a good amount of beer/wine on the weekends, but again, I track everything religiously. I am guilty of taking a bit of a feast or famine approach as well. Some days I'll binge and have over 3000 calories followed by a very conservative recovery day of 1500 calories, for example. Sometimes I throw a fasting day in the mix as well. So my intake does go through peaks and valleys. But again, I have worked out the averages and by all accounts I "should" be losing more than I am...
Thoughts?
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Replies
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Personally, I'd first start to look at "what" exactly I'm eating & my macronutrients0
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I'm curious to know if you are possibly following a diet plan and if so what kind?0
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Summary: you've averaged 2077 cals in, and have lost 1 pound in 6 weeks.
Are you consistent/thorough in your logging? Using a food scale for solids, accurately logging the alcohol, etc.? Are you consistent in your weighins? Such as for the 1st and most recent weighin, are they equivalent in time of day, schedule, clothing level, etc.? Have you begun any workout routines in the recent 2-3 weeks, or increased workout intensity or frequency?0 -
Time of day that you eat, or even the number of meals you eat per day doesn't matter. What matters is that you are probably still eating more than you think you are, or are burning less calories than you think you are. Your diary isn't open so it's hard to tell how well you are tracking.0
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Are u tracking the nutrition chart to follow fat, carb and protein levels that your intakes are within suggested goals? Maybe that will work.0
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Going on a TDEE calculator I get you maintain at 2187 calories/day with minimal exercise, so not sure why you think 2077/day is 1-2lbs/week. Even if you burn 400 cals/day which you seem to indicate this would translate to 1lb/week, which is lower than your other estimate. I would guess a few things, one is that you are taking your exercise burn from MFP or a piece of gym equipment which are known to overestimate and you are not accurately measuring everything you take in. On top of this taking in a good amount of alcohol could well lead to you making mistakes, either through memory or motor skills, when logging.0
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I think alot of people put their emphasis on calorie intake and not reasonably track their macros. Depending on what you want to do, what you eat and the amount of it matters.0
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This could be an issue - bad math to start. TDEE based on stated stats is 1823. So yes, if sedentary in lifestyle total daily burn before exercise would be ~2200. But we don't know the lifestyle. And its hard to know for sure how many cals are burned during exercise so its easy to overestimate there.
SO the low weight loss could be a matter of overestimating calories in, and underestimating calories out. Hopefully Ezmaz will come back and share more details about how he's tracking his numbers.Mathsrunner wrote: »Going on a TDEE calculator I get you maintain at 2187 calories/day with minimal exercise, so not sure why you think 2077/day is 1-2lbs/week. Even if you burn 400 cals/day which you seem to indicate this would translate to 1lb/week, which is lower than your other estimate. I would guess a few things, one is that you are taking your exercise burn from MFP or a piece of gym equipment which are known to overestimate and you are not accurately measuring everything you take in. On top of this taking in a good amount of alcohol could well lead to you making mistakes, either through memory or motor skills, when logging.
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Not following any specific diet plan. I am a carnivore by nature so I'm usually pretty protein/fat heavy, often coming under the usual recommends carb intake. But sometimes I will have a binge day and crush some pizza which will shoot my carbs up high.
How do I open up my diary for others to see? Would love to have it criticized actually. I'm pretty confident that it's not my tracking that's the problem. As I said, I'm pretty anal about it. I do suspect that maybe the MFP calories burned estimate might be off. I don't go to the gym but I work as a waiter at a large restaurant where I'm power walking for like 4-6hrs straight, 3-4 nights/week. My phone is always in my pocket so I have been relying on the pedometer. Sometimes after a busy shift I'll see that I've earned close to 600 extra calories. Maybe this is an over estimate?
I got my calculation of 2077/day should be losing 1-2lb/week by using one of those simple online calculators and entering my activity level as moderate, not sedentary...again, I don't "work out" but at work I do a lot of power walking. My heart rate doesn't really go up but I am moving all the time for like 4-6hrs straight.0 -
Go to settings. Go to Diary. Lower left of screen, choose to make diary public.0
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PS-working 4-6 hour shifts as a server means you're NOT sedentary. But whether you're lightly active vs active is hard to say. So instead of TDEE of 2200, perhaps 2400-2600. Which means 2077 intake should average .5-1 pound a week at least.
Back to original questions. Do you weigh your solid food? Log everything, every day - including alcohol in accurate quantities.0 -
Not following any specific diet plan. I am a carnivore by nature so I'm usually pretty protein/fat heavy, often coming under the usual recommends carb intake. But sometimes I will have a binge day and crush some pizza which will shoot my carbs up high.
How do I open up my diary for others to see? Would love to have it criticized actually. I'm pretty confident that it's not my tracking that's the problem. As I said, I'm pretty anal about it. I do suspect that maybe the MFP calories burned estimate might be off. I don't go to the gym but I work as a waiter at a large restaurant where I'm power walking for like 4-6hrs straight, 3-4 nights/week. My phone is always in my pocket so I have been relying on the pedometer. Sometimes after a busy shift I'll see that I've earned close to 600 extra calories. Maybe this is an over estimate?
I got my calculation of 2077/day should be losing 1-2lb/week by using one of those simple online calculators and entering my activity level as moderate, not sedentary...again, I don't "work out" but at work I do a lot of power walking. My heart rate doesn't really go up but I am moving all the time for like 4-6hrs straight.
A more accurate way of calculating how many calories you maintain at, since online calculators estimate and activity levels are not overly clear in the calculation, is to take all your data you have so far for food you've eaten, add up all 41 days worth of calories then add on 3500*weight lost and divide it all by 41. The number you get will be your maintenance calories (including the exercise you do), reduce that amount by 500 to lose a pound per week. As you lose weight you'll have to reduce it further, but it should give you a good idea of where you should start from.0 -
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I just made my diary public. I do weigh my solids when I can. I've also tested myself multiple times by estimating how much I think a piece of food weighs, then I weigh it to confirm, and I'm almost always spot on. This is a talent I've acquired after many many years working as a waiter and having to learn to tell how much something weighs by looking at it. I work at a steakhouse and we have many different protein options and I'm trained to know exactly how much each weighs so I can accurately describe it to guests.0
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Oh and the same as above goes with alcohol. I am truly very accurate when entering my booze consumption. I know exactly how many ounces are in most types of glasses simply by looking. I know full bottle of wine is 26oz. A regular bottle of beer is 12oz...etc0
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Looking at your diary:
-Basmati - Basmati Rice (White) Cooked, 487.5 g (1 Cup): Things like rice should be weighed uncooked.
-Sauza Tequila - Sauza Tequila Gold, 4 oz: You sure it was 4 oz? A shot is 1.5 oz, so it's typical to get 1.5 oz, 3 oz, 4.5 oz...
-Generic - Sliced Vanilla Pound Cake, 1 slice: This is not accurate.
-Ice creams - Vanilla, 1 cup: Not accurate, what brand??
-Morrison - Roasted Herb Potatoes, 4 fluid ounce: I wouldn't trust this entry. Fluid oz? Is this soup?
-Eggs - Fried (whole egg), 1 large: I see a fried egg but no oil measurements.
-Quick Add, 1 serving(s): Not accurate
-Pepsi - Drink, 0.25 can: should be fl oz, unless you perfectly poured it into 4 even servings.
Most of your meat is listed as exactly 4 oz, 6 oz, etc. That seems unlikely unless everything you eat is pre-portioned. Normally, when i see an accurate journal, I see, "Chicken 4 oz; Serving: 1.58"0 -
Yesterday you went 2000 calories over your goal. Last Tuesday you were over by 1500. The sunday before you were over by 1200.
Sure you have some days where you are a few hundred under goal, but I'll bet that deficit is being completely wiped out by the days you go so massively over.0 -
I guess I'm not as to the T as I should be with including decimals into my protein intake, for example - but I try to over estimate as much as possible, like rounding up a 7.5oz portion to 8oz, etc. I often am not able to find out exactly what brand of an item (eg ice cream) I am consuming, as the item is served to me rather than me serving myself, so when I do my search for my diary I try to choose the most reasonable item I can find. I also do try to OVER estimate if I'm not exactly sure about a particular item. It's true I sometimes go way over on intake, but I've done the math, and those averages I quoted at the top check out. I could def work on trying to be more consistent rather than feast or famine so often. Using the fried egg as an example, I was under the impression that the calories quoted when choosing the "fried" option include a bit extra to account for the oil. Maybe I'm wrong about that. As far as counting the potatoes as fluid ounces, yes I guess that's a weird one. I think that particular search item didn't have an option to go by regular ounce so I chose fluid ounce thinking it would be the same. Rookie mistake? I do think my biggest problem might be putting too much faith in the MFP calories burned estimates...going to avoid factoring those into my decisions from now on.0
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definitely watch for those calories burned estimates. I wear a heart rate monitor at the gym. It syncs to teh treadmill or the elliptical. At the end of the session, my HR monitor may say I burned 275cals in 30 mins but the treadmill will say 180cals in 30 mins and when I work out the #s using formulas I get about 255cals. So I usually split the difference or take the lower number. Also I try to not to eat back more than 70% of what I burn so i still am safe to have a deficit0
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Are you logging every single LBandT (lick bite and taste)also? I work as a waiter puts up a big red flag for me, Are fries or tastes of food sneaking their way into your mouth?
Bottom line, be exact, and be honest. Even if you track every morsel it's not going to be perfect but if you leave stuff out or way underestimate it doesn't help either.You do not need to get so technical as the macronutrient/iifym thing. That may be fine and work for some people. Don't want to get into that discussion here.
And a regular bottle of beer? Way different calories depending on alcohol content. My favorite 90 minute IPA by DFH is a whopping 294 calories.
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For 41 days I've been religious about tracking my intake. I'm a male, 5ft8, 198lb. I'm averaging 1782 cal/day over this period after deducting my expenditure. Even if not counting expenditure, I am intaking 2077/day, which should still result in 1-2lb loss/week. Over these 41 days I've managed to only lose 1 pound. What am I missing?
Because of work I do have a bit of an abnormal eating schedule. My first meal of the day is usually lunch, around noon, I rarely eat breakfast as I sleep late. Then I work from about 5-10pm. After work I have dinner around 11pm, then I'm in bed by about 1am. So I mainly eat two big meals a day with a few snacks in between and I often eat close to bedtime.
Full disclosure, I do drink a good amount of beer/wine on the weekends, but again, I track everything religiously. I am guilty of taking a bit of a feast or famine approach as well. Some days I'll binge and have over 3000 calories followed by a very conservative recovery day of 1500 calories, for example. Sometimes I throw a fasting day in the mix as well. So my intake does go through peaks and valleys. But again, I have worked out the averages and by all accounts I "should" be losing more than I am...
Thoughts?
You make it easy to have thoughts, thank you. I had a binge day near or over 3000 calories 8 days ago, along with many thousands of extra mg of sodium. In the days since, I maintained a 1200-1300 calorie and <1500 mg sodium daily diet, and only today, fully 8 days after the binge, did my weight fall below the point at the morning of my binge. I developed the notion that my body was able to excrete 500 mg of excess sodium per day. It was only on Friday that I perceived my sodium balance to be restored to normal and my water throughput to be un-retained. My thought on your binge eating is that you have them too frequently to successfully lose weight long-term. Is bingeing part of your plan? I hope not. My binge 8 days ago was caused by my very inadequate breakfast that day. I had my normal good lunch, but before my dinner was scheduled, I was overcome by hunger and ate everything I could grab. Since then I've been diligent to have a good breakfast. Both during the work week and on the weekends, this has enabled me to have my planned lunch and dinner and to stay within my macro goals for weight loss. It's also enabled me to do my sedentary mouse-driving job with a clear mind. I suggest that if you diligently modify your diet to have up to 800 calories of mostly protein, some carbs, and some fiber for breakfast each day you will see an end of the bingeing.
Your 2 big meals is also part of the problem. Examine the nutrition of that 2nd meal in the evening. If it is high in carbs, and I mean bread, potatoes, white rice, and alcohol, you are providing your body with an abundance of carbohydrates for your nighttime sleeping. Your body preferentially converts carbohydrates into the energy that your brain and body need, so your high-carb evening meal is giving your body all the carbs it needs to carry on metabolic business all night without burning any stored fat.
These are the 2 big reasons you don't lose weight. You avoid breakfast, which causes bingeing, and you (probably) have a big carb-loaded meal late in the day.
If you could get something less than 800 calories for a breakfast, even a carb-loaded breakfast is ok, you could subtract the carb contribution from your dinner and spend your nighttime sleeping in fat-burning mode. The weekly calorie numbers can be the same, it's just re-arranging your eating schedule and menu that needs to happen.0 -
Thanks for the great feedback everyone. I know eating two meals a day isn't ideal but with my work schedule the way it is, it's tough to get around it. It also doesn't help that I love food. I'm a bit of a foodie so I really look forward to my meals. I get what you mean about too many carbs in the evening. I have had success years back trimming down. I was out of work for 3 months (on a writing retreat, actually) so I started doing p90x, was adhering to a strict eating plan and managed to drop from about 190 to 165 in three months - and was nicely ripped with tons of energy. It's taken me about five years to slowly and surely put the weight back on. This time, I don't have the ability to be doing p90x like before so I've really gotta try to make it work through mainly diet and rely on my shifts at work as the main source of activity.
And oh yeah, I for sure don't eat/graze while at work. It's kind of hard to explain but the way our floor plan is set up I'm far away from the kitchen. There's no real opportunity to graze. The off times that I have grabbed a handful of fries I have gone in and entered it.0 -
Dump the booze. Build the muscles mass. Keep the rest the same. I would be surprised if the weight did not start falling off.0
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