Consistent effort but still NO WT LOSS!

Seth1825 wrote: »

Hey guys, so my gf doesn't feel like going on these message boards so I thought I'd help her out by asking you guys myself. She is consistently eating under her calories that MFP sets up for her based on her current weight and what her goal weight is. She has noticed a small difference in her size, specifically her pants size have basically gone down a size. She has lost zero lbs though! Her bf% has stayed the same too! She runs on treadmill for an hour about 4 days a week. Does she need to increase the cardio? There are some days that she barely eats enough and I told her I think that if you calorie restrict too much you might not lose any weight. So yea what do you guys think?

well there are many factors that can cause this. I will go into a few obvious ones then hit on a couple key points you may want to tell her to look into. First the obvious: is she in fact eating at a deficit by properly weighing and measuring her foods? Is she actually "running" on the treadmill the entire 60 minutes when she works out? When she runs, is she doing interval training with inclines or is she running through normally and on a consistent speed? (interval training gets you a better and more effective workout) Is she sure that she isn't losing inches and not weight while her body readjusts intself to muscle index, et? And is her goal realistic for her height and age? Now those are the obvious culprits. Here are some key points she may want to look into: First you both need to understand that MFP has it set up so the calories you are allowed to eat in order to get a deficit are a base and does not factor in the exercise or activity you do. It may seem counterproductive but you do need to eat all the calories that MFP allows plus any exercise calories you earn for that day. I reccomend you look into BMR information and check other sites to compare with what MFP allows you. Why do I say this: because I had the same problem once I got down close to my goal size and had increased my activity (exercise) I hit a plateu with what MFP said I could eat. I then looked into my BMR reccomendations and what I should eat as far as calories in a day and discovered that MFP was actually saying I should eat way less. ONce I upped those calories by 500.. I was back to losing weight again. Also I had to change up my exercise routine by adding in weight resistance training and doing interval training when I ran/walked. I ended up getting in a better sweat and also it helped with the losing weight again as well. She may also want to make sure the calories she eats are good calories and not empty ones. Carbs are hidden everywhere. I hope all this long long answer helps. Just try to make a change at least for a few weeks and see how that goes.

I'm about her same size and I maintain at 1500 to 1700 calories per day. My goal is 1200 per day and I lose on average 1 pound per week. Bodies don't lose evenly though each week. Sometimes I lose a little nothing or very little in a week and sometimes over 2 pounds. Women's bodies especially hold water weight at times. How lon has she been trying?

A few thoughts...

Does she eat a lot of processed food? If so, try cutting back and eat more fresh foods because there is a lot of sodium in processed food that will make her retain water. Also, labels are not exactly accurate. I once heard that they are allowed to be up to 30% off on calories. If there is something she eats quite often and the calories are off then it could add up.

Is her exercise routine new? If so her body could be holding a lot of water. Tell her to just keep with it and it will eventually come off and she'll see a big drop at all at once.

But I do think if she goes down to 1200 she will see a difference. Although if her pants size is going down then that is a good sign that something is working.