Help: weight loss not happening despite excercise and dieting
rusty_balls
Posts: 9 Member
I go to the gym almost every day, and I have been avoiding sugar and other carbs like bread, rice, pasta etc.
I do 45 mins - an hour and a half of cardio and always 30 mins of lifting.
The weight isnt coming off?!!
I dont know what i'm doing wrong but it's so discouraging honestly.
I'm trying to feel confident and be healthy but this is taking forever.
Ive been on this set gym cycle for about a month and a half.
Can anyone suggest things to help, or stuff that can kick start metabolisms/ weight loss?
I do 45 mins - an hour and a half of cardio and always 30 mins of lifting.
The weight isnt coming off?!!
I dont know what i'm doing wrong but it's so discouraging honestly.
I'm trying to feel confident and be healthy but this is taking forever.
Ive been on this set gym cycle for about a month and a half.
Can anyone suggest things to help, or stuff that can kick start metabolisms/ weight loss?
0
Replies
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Use a food scale to weigh out any food that's not a liquid, even condiments like ketchup, mayo, etc.5
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You don't mention if you're in a calorie deficit. That's how you lose weight. Exercise and cutting out foods won't do much if you don't know how much you're eating.5
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I eat from 1,000-1,200 calories a day, sorry i didnt mention that0
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When you say the weight isn't coming off, do you mean your aren't losing anything or not as fast as you want? Slow is better for you and more sustainable in the long run. 1-2 pounds a week makes the most sense. Limiting carbs is ok, but watch your total calorie intake...remember, more calories out than in will result in loss.3
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rusty_balls wrote: »I eat from 1,000-1,200 calories a day, sorry i didnt mention that
Are you using a food scale to weigh everything?
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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.
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rusty_balls wrote: »I eat from 1,000-1,200 calories a day, sorry i didnt mention that
How are you measuring those calories? 1000 is below the recommends minimum (1200), so if your logging is 100% accurate you should be losing.4 -
Ive lost like 5 pounds in a month and a half and I really feel like im busting my *kitten* here for little take away
I think im just gonna really look even closer at the calories i eat, even in veggies and stuff0 -
5 lbs in a month and a half is excellent10
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You haven't told us how much you weigh and your height. Your stats are just as important if you want anyone to give you helpful advice. If you don't have a lot to lose it will come off slowly, painfully slowly.0
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You haven't told us how much you weigh and your height. Your stats are just as important if you want anyone to give you helpful advice. If you don't have a lot to lose it will come off slowly, painfully slowly.
she replied saying she has lost 5 lbs in a month and a half so that's good progress3 -
rusty_balls wrote: »Ive lost like 5 pounds in a month and a half and I really feel like im busting my *kitten* here for little take away
I think im just gonna really look even closer at the calories i eat, even in veggies and stuff
This makes me think that you are not weighing your food or logging consistently. Even with that, you're losing just fine.0 -
It sounds like you are making good progress. How much do you have to lose? What does MFP have as your daily calorie goal? If you don't have a lot to lose, you don't have my leeway for errors in logging. That being said, if you aren't using a food scale, you should invest in one. It makes a world of difference.1
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Since you've been asked a few times if you're weighing your food, and you refuse to answer, I'll take that as a no. I don't know how you can be sure how much you're eating without using a food scale.
Anyway, maybe this will help you find an answer to your problem:
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1000-1200 calories a day by how much of a deficit is that for your weight/height & gender? Your deficit in the begginging should be close to your manitance level around 200-300kcal below would be a good starting point. Also long steady-state cardio wich will down regulate metabolism not to mention the amount of calories your eating wich are dropping you metabolic rate rapidly & cutting carbs drastically is not a good over a long period of time ( 5 months in your case ) Get out of low carb and start reintroducing carbs again & upping calories by 100kcal weekly until you hit manitance level, there are all types of metabolic adaptations that have occurred in your body for 5 months to effect your hormones that inevitably determine if you will lose weight safely. Personally to me this looks like the typical "Quick Rapid Fat Loss Solution" Wich is never-ever the way to long term healthy weight loss and or body-recompistion. I've seen this over & over again, You need to Reverse Diet. That's it.0
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You've lost 5 pounds in 6 weeks.
That is progress, even though it's not as fast as you want.
The reality is that it takes time to lose weight, especially if you aren't too heavy to start with. This is real life not a TV program, and you have to put in the effort over a prolonged period of time to get the results you want.
As you have lost weight, you are clearly doing something right. Just keep on doing that (though you would be better to keep your calories close to or over 1200, getting enough good nutrition to keep you healthy isn't going to be easy on 1000 cals a day).
I'll also note that cutting out specific foods isn't necessary - if you like to eat that way, or have a medical reason to do so, then go for it, but most people just have to eat a variety of foods and watch portion sizes in order to stay healthy and lose weight.5 -
pebble4321 wrote: »You've lost 5 pounds in 6 weeks.
That is progress, even though it's not as fast as you want.
The reality is that it takes time to lose weight, especially if you aren't too heavy to start with. This is real life not a TV program, and you have to put in the effort over a prolonged period of time to get the results you want.
As you have lost weight, you are clearly doing something right. Just keep on doing that (though you would be better to keep your calories close to or over 1200, getting enough good nutrition to keep you healthy isn't going to be easy on 1000 cals a day).
I'll also note that cutting out specific foods isn't necessary - if you like to eat that way, or have a medical reason to do so, then go for it, but most people just have to eat a variety of foods and watch portion sizes in order to stay healthy and lose weight.
Worse advice ever to you current situation. To rusty_balls Do not keep doing what your doing. You will evetually wreck yourself in the long term. You need to emphasis of *Need* to Reverse Diet.0 -
Exercise doesn't necessarily mean weight loss. To lose we have to eat less than we burn so if you aren't losing you are simply eating at maintenance calories.
Logging your meals as accurately as possible, use a food scale so you know the calories you really are eating.
Be patient, if you are doing everything right, then you will lose.2 -
rusty_balls wrote: »Ive lost like 5 pounds in a month and a half and I really feel like im busting my *kitten* here for little take away
I think im just gonna really look even closer at the calories i eat, even in veggies and stuff
Seriously annoys me when people say they haven't lost anything when they have.
The fact you're saying "even veggies and stuff" means you haven't been counting all calories you eat, so maybe you're eating a lot more than you think.5 -
First off, some of you on here are kind of condecending and its coming off rude, I asked this question because i'm kind of doing this on my own and I wanted help from a nice community wanting to reach out and help. Secondly no I do not own a food scale, based off of the comments I should definitely invest in one so I will.
Im 5'5 and 200, thats why i'm thinking it should be coming off a lot quicker.2 -
Im definately counting cals, i dont know how someone else can tell me im not.0
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rusty_balls wrote: »First off, some of you on here are kind of condecending and its coming off rude, I asked this question because i'm kind of doing this on my own and I wanted help from a nice community wanting to reach out and help. Secondly no I do not own a food scale, based off of the comments I should definitely invest in one so I will.
Im 5'5 and 200, thats why i'm thinking it should be coming off a lot quicker.
So you haven't been using a food scale up to now?rusty_balls wrote: »Im definately counting cals, i dont know how someone else can tell me im not.
Without a food scale you've not been counting calories, you've been estimating them. Even if you use measuring cups you're probably eating more calories than you think.
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diannethegeek wrote: »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.diannethegeek wrote: »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.diannethegeek wrote: »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.
Thank you, this helped a lot. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, you were very nice and gave many good tips.2 -
Okay. Like I said I will be getting a scale, It seems like its the most accurate thing besides measuring. Thanks!
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I really do think you will find the food scale a big help! I started out at about 226 lbs (5'3"). I was doing really well until I hit 200lbs. Then the weight loss just seemed to stop. I got a cheap food scale and started weighing what I ate. I was really underestimating what I ate - like a 300 calorie difference a day! I also realized I had to log EVERYTHING that went into my mouth even the lick of the PB spoon or the squirt of cooking spray that I added when making my eggs.
I was also exercising about an hour a day (cardio and some weights). When I got my Fitbit, I realized that even with an hour workout , days where I was not working I was pretty much a slug! Getting 10K steps on a workout day was still hard, so I was only burning maybe 2K calories a day , when I thought I was burning more.1 -
I really do think you will find the food scale a big help! I started out at about 226 lbs (5'3"). I was doing really well until I hit 200lbs. Then the weight loss just seemed to stop. I got a cheap food scale and started weighing what I ate. I was really underestimating what I ate - like a 300 calorie difference a day! I also realized I had to log EVERYTHING that went into my mouth even the lick of the PB spoon or the squirt of cooking spray that I added when making my eggs.
I was also exercising about an hour a day (cardio and some weights). When I got my Fitbit, I realized that even with an hour workout , days where I was not working I was pretty much a slug! Getting 10K steps on a workout day was still hard, so I was only burning maybe 2K calories a day , when I thought I was burning more.
Yeah I think it'll really help. I wasnt accounting for condiments and stuff.
I think probably a bit more working out, mixed with literally accounting for everything should help.
When you were 200, how did you get off that slump?
Like workout wise?
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I find a food scale is absolutely critical; I weigh & measure everything & it has really helped me. If you put your info into MFP & then stick to the calorie goal it sets for you, be careful about your food, weigh & measure & track everything, you will be successful. Keep exercising for health; exercise does so many good things for our bodies including helping with sleep, mood, cardio-vascular systems, it's really worth it.rusty_balls wrote: »Okay. Like I said I will be getting a scale, It seems like its the most accurate thing besides measuring. Thanks!
If you can look at this as a journey, to help yourself get & stay healthy, weigh & measure & track all your food, don't eat below the calorie amount MFP gives you, the weight will come off. I'm a firm believer that weight loss is about calories in/calories out, so don't kill yourself with workouts. Be scrupulous about tracking your food. You'll see!1 -
So weight loss is happening
just not as fast as you'd like. It took me 2 1/2 mos to lose 7 lbs. You have to be patient. You didn't get to 200 lbs in a month. And yes it is a lot of work. If I had a dime for every time someone says "I haven't lost any weight" when in fact they have I'd be rich.0 -
rusty_balls wrote: »Ive lost like 5 pounds in a month and a half and I really feel like im busting my *kitten* here for little take away
I think im just gonna really look even closer at the calories i eat, even in veggies and stuff
Your efforts are working! You lost 5 lbs in 6 weeks--good for you! Sounds like you plan to get a food scale and tighten up your logging--very good choice. Also--please choose a reasonable daily calorie limit--1200 or fewer calories is not necessarily reasonable, especially if you are working out frequently. Wishing you good health and healthy losses
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Hi! This is so frustrating and happens to almost everyone at some point along the way. There are many other factors in weight loss other than calories in and out, like stress level, sleep quality, nutrient deficiencies and quantity and types of food you're consuming. It's difficult to say your reason for slow progress.
I have a group for positive support and weight loss/lifestyle tips beyond calories and macros, so if you'd like a friendly and motivating space to enjoy the journey of losing weight, join in!0
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