Week 5 and not 1lb has budged!
smnasypany
Posts: 13 Member
After having my son in February I was given the all clear from the doctor to get back to working out the first of March. On March the 7th I started logging everything (measuring and weighing everything religiously), struggling to stay at 1200 a day and started with walking 3days a week. Now I'm on my 5th week and I've gotten back to doing my turbo fire home DVD HIT workouts 3 days a week and easily keeping at 1200 now. Upon weighing myself this morning the scale has not moved a single pound. I have had people tell me I'm probably starving myself and not eating enough calories but I have been following what fitnesspal tells me to calorie wise. I found an online calorie calculator that figures a 35 yr old 5'4" weighing 200lbs should eat 1789 calories to lose a pound a week. A different calculator said 1684.
I'm losing steam and hope at any progress. Should I ignore myfitnesspal and eat 1650 a day? Why would the calorie calculated be different in myfitnesspal from these calorie calculators if all the same info is given to both?
I'm losing steam and hope at any progress. Should I ignore myfitnesspal and eat 1650 a day? Why would the calorie calculated be different in myfitnesspal from these calorie calculators if all the same info is given to both?
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Replies
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ZeroDelta, you beat me to it.
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1200 calories is a terrible goal for someone of your weight and height who just had a baby. Thankfully I don't think you are actually eating 1200 calories.0
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Just to add maybe relevant info. If you're nursing, it can be very energy-intensive and can cost an extra ~600 calories or so above your own energy requirements. I know your dr. ok-ed the workouts, but I'd check in about the diet as well and see if they have any guidelines for you since you might have a few extra considerations to think about in terms of nutrition.0
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1200 calories is a terrible goal for someone of your weight and height who just had a baby. Thankfully I don't think you are actually eating 1200 calories.
The first week was a struggle, keeping between 1200-1600 but by that Friday I had it down to a science. Its a high protein diet so its kept the hunger away but if that isn't the right amount of calories I'm wondering why MFP would tell me that's the amount I need to be consuming. It has way more info then these other calorie calculators do since I enter everything into it everyday. It just frustrates me.0 -
Just to add maybe relevant info. If you're nursing, it can be very energy-intensive and can cost an extra ~600 calories or so above your own energy requirements. I know your dr. ok-ed the workouts, but I'd check in about the diet as well and see if they have any guidelines for you since you might have a few extra considerations to think about in terms of nutrition.
I quit nursing at the beginning of March so that shouldn't be a factor anymore.0 -
Eating too much. Doing exercise doesnt equal weight loss. Calorie deficit = weight loss0
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smnasypany wrote: »1200 calories is a terrible goal for someone of your weight and height who just had a baby. Thankfully I don't think you are actually eating 1200 calories.
The first week was a struggle, keeping between 1200-1600 but by that Friday I had it down to a science. Its a high protein diet so its kept the hunger away but if that isn't the right amount of calories I'm wondering why MFP would tell me that's the amount I need to be consuming. It has way more info then these other calorie calculators do since I enter everything into it everyday. It just frustrates me.
This poster was implying that you're eating more than 1200 calories per day without realizing it. Which is likely true. Opening your diary would be helpful.0 -
Are you weighing your foods? If you open your diary, people can give more specific advice.0
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How are you measuring out food? Lots recommend you use a food scale. It's actually not uncommon that when we use measuring cups we have more than we actually think. There is a great video people post, i don't have it, so i hope someone posts it. But you could actually be consuming more than you think...
What types of food are you eating? Have you measured yourself? Losing inches? I personally went a month without the scale budging but i was losing inches. I just now got the scale to go down..0 -
Try eating at least 1500 calories a day, at how little your eating your body is probably thinking its starving itself and therefore will hold onto the fat to protect your body. I weigh 140 and am aiming to lose a pound a week and I eat 1480 calories a day (thats my goal) and I exercise (weights and cardio) 5 days a week so your body probably needs more calories. That being said, If you are exercising as long as the number on the scale isn't increasing, it could be muscle gain. And try taking measurements instead if weighing yourself. I know personally my weight is staying the same but I'm losing inches off my waist. But only take measurements about once every month or you'll get discouraged easily.0
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daynaxxanne wrote: »Try eating at least 1500 calories a day, at how little your eating your body is probably thinking its starving itself and therefore will hold onto the fat to protect your body. I weigh 140 and am aiming to lose a pound a week and I eat 1480 calories a day (thats my goal) and I exercise (weights and cardio) 5 days a week so your body probably needs more calories. That being said, If you are exercising as long as the number on the scale isn't increasing, it could be muscle gain. And try taking measurements instead if weighing yourself. I know personally my weight is staying the same but I'm losing inches off my waist. But only take measurements about once every month or you'll get discouraged easily.
The answer to not losing weight is never to eat more calories. Your body doesn't 'hold onto the fat' if you aren't eating enough. It's just not possible.
More likely is the scenario in which the OP needs to tighten up her logging.0 -
There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings0
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smnasypany wrote: »1200 calories is a terrible goal for someone of your weight and height who just had a baby. Thankfully I don't think you are actually eating 1200 calories.
The first week was a struggle, keeping between 1200-1600 but by that Friday I had it down to a science. Its a high protein diet so its kept the hunger away but if that isn't the right amount of calories I'm wondering why MFP would tell me that's the amount I need to be consuming. It has way more info then these other calorie calculators do since I enter everything into it everyday. It just frustrates me.
1200 calories is the setting Mfp gives women who want to lose 2 lbs/ week. It doesn't take anything else into consideration.0 -
Hi I'm 9 months post partum and I've only started a Low calorie diet last week. Before this I was eating around 1800 per day as i was worried about my milk supply. I woundnt eat that little if your baby isn't on solids yet.0
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I have mine set at 2 lbs per week but when i weighed 240 lbs my calorie intake was higher. As I lost weight it adjusted the amount of calories I could have. Not sure what yours is set to but it should adjust for you as you lose. 1200 seems low to me but i am male so maybe this is why.0
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Really gotta see that diary to give any reasonable feedback. And needs to be filled out for a few weeks and accurately.
The best I can offer right now is that it is likely you are not in a caloric deficit. There are many things that can be the cause: Underestimating calories in, overestimating calories out, hormones lowering overall BMR, and more.
You should not judge based solely on the scale either. Go by how your clothes fit and measurements as well.0 -
".. started with walking 3 days a week. Now I'm on my 5th week and I've gotten back to doing my turbo fire home DVD HIT workouts 3 days a week .."
It sounds like you are doing plenty of cardio. I found that I had to work on building lean muscle to help burn fat, especially after having a baby. Light weights with 15 reps for your arm (change up exercises for your various upper body muscles, add weights for lower body and don't ignore the core muscles) every other day may help you burn more fat when you do your cardio work outs. This, and as others have mentioned, really keep track of the foods (and when you eat - I try to eat my larger meals earlier with dinner being one of my lighter meals per doctor recommendation).
Keep going - you can do it!0 -
willrun4pancakes wrote: »Are you weighing your foods? If you open your diary, people can give more specific advice.
I'm weighing and measuring every single item to the point of being obsessive about it. I have to figure out how to open my diary.0 -
willrun4pancakes wrote: »Are you weighing your foods? If you open your diary, people can give more specific advice.
I'm weighing everything with a digital scale and measuring everything else to the point of being obsessive about it.0 -
n1cholee93 wrote: »How are you measuring out food? Lots recommend you use a food scale. It's actually not uncommon that when we use measuring cups we have more than we actually think. There is a great video people post, i don't have it, so i hope someone posts it. But you could actually be consuming more than you think...
What types of food are you eating? Have you measured yourself? Losing inches? I personally went a month without the scale budging but i was losing inches. I just now got the scale to go down..
It's a high protein diet so chicken breasts, hard boiled eggs, quinoa, edamme, chickpeas, and almonds all make up a lot of my meals and snacks.0 -
daynaxxanne wrote: »Try eating at least 1500 calories a day, at how little your eating your body is probably thinking its starving itself and therefore will hold onto the fat to protect your body. I weigh 140 and am aiming to lose a pound a week and I eat 1480 calories a day (thats my goal) and I exercise (weights and cardio) 5 days a week so your body probably needs more calories. That being said, If you are exercising as long as the number on the scale isn't increasing, it could be muscle gain. And try taking measurements instead if weighing yourself. I know personally my weight is staying the same but I'm losing inches off my waist. But only take measurements about once every month or you'll get discouraged easily.
The answer to not losing weight is never to eat more calories. Your body doesn't 'hold onto the fat' if you aren't eating enough. It's just not possible.
More likely is the scenario in which the OP needs to tighten up her logging.
I've been extremely diligent and obsessive about logging since this is so incredibly important to me. I will not eat or drink anything that I cannot log. I am going to meet with a nutritionist to see what I can find out from their perspective. I should probably be measuring myself but I haven't done that yet.0 -
I'm about the same weight as you, 5'3 and 38 years old. I have a 10 month old which I am still nursing. My only exercise is walking. I have been losing consistently for the past 3 months eating around 2000 calories/day. Either you have an undiagnosed metabolic disorder or you are eating much more than you think you are. You said you are logging diligently - are you putting in the nutritional entries yourself from the food packaging or trusting the MFP entries. Some of the entries in the MFP database are way off - the ones with a green check mark are verified by other users and they are good to use.0
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Some of your diary entries are questionable... for example 2 medium grapefruit, 3 large eggs. You need to weigh those. Even your banana is in oz, it needs to be in grams. Your baked chicken entry too is questionable. Did you bake it with anything? Ideally your meat should be entered in raw weights.0
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smnasypany wrote: »daynaxxanne wrote: »Try eating at least 1500 calories a day, at how little your eating your body is probably thinking its starving itself and therefore will hold onto the fat to protect your body. I weigh 140 and am aiming to lose a pound a week and I eat 1480 calories a day (thats my goal) and I exercise (weights and cardio) 5 days a week so your body probably needs more calories. That being said, If you are exercising as long as the number on the scale isn't increasing, it could be muscle gain. And try taking measurements instead if weighing yourself. I know personally my weight is staying the same but I'm losing inches off my waist. But only take measurements about once every month or you'll get discouraged easily.
The answer to not losing weight is never to eat more calories. Your body doesn't 'hold onto the fat' if you aren't eating enough. It's just not possible.
More likely is the scenario in which the OP needs to tighten up her logging.
I've been extremely diligent and obsessive about logging since this is so incredibly important to me. I will not eat or drink anything that I cannot log. I am going to meet with a nutritionist to see what I can find out from their perspective. I should probably be measuring myself but I haven't done that yet.
I looked at your diary. Since March 7, you have been over your calorie goal 11 times, with some of those days being 1,000+ calories over goal. Days like those can completely negate whatever deficit you have built during other days. Also, it looks like you eat your exercise calories back. I would suggest only eating 50% of them, as MFP tends to overestimate calories burned.0 -
Really gotta see that diary to give any reasonable feedback. And needs to be filled out for a few weeks and accurately.
The best I can offer right now is that it is likely you are not in a caloric deficit. There are many things that can be the cause: Underestimating calories in, overestimating calories out, hormones lowering overall BMR, and more.
You should not judge based solely on the scale either. Go by how your clothes fit and measurements as well.
I just opened my diary. The clothes aren't fitting any better but I'm going to take measurements tonight and just go from there. I am going to meet with a nutritionist and see if they can shed some light on it, especially since I have an exact record of calories consumed and exercises. I know the first week I thought that I was supposed to eat whatever calories I burned since it was adding them to my daily calorie allowance in my tracker. After researching I discovered that isn't the way to do it and I think I'm expecting more then myfitnesspal is able to give for being a free tracker.0 -
smnasypany wrote: »Really gotta see that diary to give any reasonable feedback. And needs to be filled out for a few weeks and accurately.
The best I can offer right now is that it is likely you are not in a caloric deficit. There are many things that can be the cause: Underestimating calories in, overestimating calories out, hormones lowering overall BMR, and more.
You should not judge based solely on the scale either. Go by how your clothes fit and measurements as well.
I just opened my diary. The clothes aren't fitting any better but I'm going to take measurements tonight and just go from there. I am going to meet with a nutritionist and see if they can shed some light on it, especially since I have an exact record of calories consumed and exercises. I know the first week I thought that I was supposed to eat whatever calories I burned since it was adding them to my daily calorie allowance in my tracker. After researching I discovered that isn't the way to do it and I think I'm expecting more then myfitnesspal is able to give for being a free tracker.
If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back. But you have to be careful to ensure you have an accurate understanding of how much you're actually burning because it's easy to over-estimate how many calories you are truly burning through exercise.
Lots of people have successfully lost weight with this free tracker -- it just requires some consistency and attention to detail. If you regularly have days where you go way over your calorie goal or if you are making logging errors, you can't blame that on MFP being free.0 -
Some of your diary entries are questionable... for example 2 medium grapefruit, 3 large eggs. You need to weigh those. Even your banana is in oz, it needs to be in grams. Your baked chicken entry too is questionable. Did you bake it with anything? Ideally your meat should be entered in raw weights.
I usually just use dried seasonings to flavor the chicken with. I will start weighing the other items, I was just scanning the barcode of the packaging and trusting those measurements but I guess it would be best to weigh everything.0 -
smnasypany wrote: »daynaxxanne wrote: »Try eating at least 1500 calories a day, at how little your eating your body is probably thinking its starving itself and therefore will hold onto the fat to protect your body. I weigh 140 and am aiming to lose a pound a week and I eat 1480 calories a day (thats my goal) and I exercise (weights and cardio) 5 days a week so your body probably needs more calories. That being said, If you are exercising as long as the number on the scale isn't increasing, it could be muscle gain. And try taking measurements instead if weighing yourself. I know personally my weight is staying the same but I'm losing inches off my waist. But only take measurements about once every month or you'll get discouraged easily.
The answer to not losing weight is never to eat more calories. Your body doesn't 'hold onto the fat' if you aren't eating enough. It's just not possible.
More likely is the scenario in which the OP needs to tighten up her logging.
I've been extremely diligent and obsessive about logging since this is so incredibly important to me. I will not eat or drink anything that I cannot log. I am going to meet with a nutritionist to see what I can find out from their perspective. I should probably be measuring myself but I haven't done that yet.
I looked at your diary. Since March 7, you have been over your calorie goal 11 times, with some of those days being 1,000+ calories over goal. Days like those can completely negate whatever deficit you have built during other days. Also, it looks like you eat your exercise calories back. I would suggest only eating 50% of them, as MFP tends to overestimate calories burned.
I counted 14 and added them all up. It comes out to 5,378 calories over. Granted some days are only a handful of calories over, but there are several that are over by several hundred.0
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