I am taking less calories than I should and exercising a lot, why aren't I losing weight?

katgeno088
katgeno088 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I work out everyday, I stopped eating bread and limit myself to one beer a week, (corona light), and I take in less calories than expected (not intentionally) and I don't seem to be dropping weight. Thoughts?
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Replies

  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited June 2016
    The question you ask is so very common. Your details about your current situation are lacking and vague. If there is something that you want to include or provide to us here in the MFP community forums that may be helpful to help be more precise, please do so..

    The chart does pretty much cover the scope of what may be going on with your weight loss.

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
    If you aren't losing weight, then you are eating more than you think. How are you tracking those calories eaten? are you using a food scale? (they are very enlightening).
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
    If you've done a lot of cardio combined with low calorie eating for a long time, then check out this video. If you're stuck in the low calorie trap, then you should start a reverse diet to get your calories up to a point where you can cut them back and start an efficient fat loss phase.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5C3uqA1yRI
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,339 Member
    How many calories a day are you consuming, and what are you using to calculate them? Also, how are you tracking and logging your activity? First, cutting bread will help only if you aren't replacing it with anything, because you are cutting calories. Weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you eat. CICO. Calories IN versus Calories Out. I'd like to suggest you pick up a cheap digital foodscale (mine cost 8 dollars)...start weighing all your foods, including your beverages, and little nibbles here and there. Put your stats into MFP. Log everything, including cheat days. After the first few weeks, you will notice trends, those will help you to see where the issue is. More than likely you are either OVER estimating your activity burn, or UNDER estimating how much you eat. Believe me, once you start weighing everything, you'll be amazed at how many calories are in what you eat. Very eye opening! Good luck! xo
  • katgeno088
    katgeno088 Posts: 2 Member
    Thank you all for the information, I am eating anywhere between 800-1000 calories a day. I work out for 20 min a day focusing on legs, butt, and abs. In the evening I go walking/jogging. I have been tracking what I am eating using this app. And I measure out my food in cups. I have my coffee in the morning and usually an egg or two, then I typically don't eat again till 1:00? I'm not usually hungry till later. I focus on eating a lot of meat and veggies. I am a small person already, but just wanted to get myself into shape and drop maybe 5-6 pounds in the process. I was eating a lot of bread before though.

  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,339 Member
    edited June 2016
    Cups will fool you, grams are more precise for our purposes....If you're already small, you may not even need to lose weight anymore, but may benefit more from doing some bodyweight resistance workouts, lifting weights, and maybe throwing around some kettlebells. They call it Recomp. You can shape/sculpt your body to make you look/feel like you lost those 5 or 6 pounds. I cut all bread products as I have Celiac, and noticed the muffin top melt away very fast, but the trick is NOT to replace those products with something else. xo
  • ummijaaz560
    ummijaaz560 Posts: 228 Member
    katgeno088 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the information, I am eating anywhere between 800-1000 calories a day. I work out for 20 min a day focusing on legs, butt, and abs. In the evening I go walking/jogging. I have been tracking what I am eating using this app. And I measure out my food in cups. I have my coffee in the morning and usually an egg or two, then I typically don't eat again till 1:00? I'm not usually hungry till later. I focus on eating a lot of meat and veggies. I am a small person already, but just wanted to get myself into shape and drop maybe 5-6 pounds in the process. I was eating a lot of bread before though.

    You are not accurately counting calories by using cups. You need a food scale. Tldr; you are eating more than you think.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited June 2016
    katgeno088 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the information, I am eating anywhere between 800-1000 calories a day. I work out for 20 min a day focusing on legs, butt, and abs. In the evening I go walking/jogging. I have been tracking what I am eating using this app. And I measure out my food in cups. I have my coffee in the morning and usually an egg or two, then I typically don't eat again till 1:00? I'm not usually hungry till later. I focus on eating a lot of meat and veggies. I am a small person already, but just wanted to get myself into shape and drop maybe 5-6 pounds in the process. I was eating a lot of bread before though.

    I got to say a big no no on the 800 - 1000 calories and added exercise. And a big no no on the measuring cups and spoons. I am going to predict those 800 - 1000 calories are closer to your maintain calories, but if you do not eat enough then your body is not going to want to drop fat like you think its going to...

    Up the calories.. stop the low calorie eating.. And get the food scale in order to weigh out the number of calories MFP gave you (your real deficit) to loose weight, and like magic the weight will start coming off.. and if these pounds are possibly "vanity pounds" then this says you are most likely at an already ideal weight.. a bit more challenging to get off those pounds than say you were 15 - 20 - 30 pounds heavier.

    20 minutes of exercise calorie burns for body weight exercising and a little bit of walking does not concern me as much as the not logging.. if you suffer from energy balance from that little bit of exercise then eat back some of it (maybe 100 calories or so)... MFP is designed to for you to eat the MFP calories and some of your exercise calories..

  • catsdogsh
    catsdogsh Posts: 130 Member
    Have you been tested for metabolic disorders?
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    If the OP is measuring in cups, she is probably eating closer to 1200-1400 calories, which could be maintenance for her. And I know that because 1200-1400 is maintenance for me as a small (and in my case older) person.
  • Wicked_Seraph
    Wicked_Seraph Posts: 388 Member
    Speaking from experience... you really may want to try using a food scale instead. I'm guilty of using cups or otherwise going by what a package says, but a scale truly does make a difference. Dinner last night was 183g of Special K... an amount I'm sure would have fit into 3-4 cups. 183g of Special K is 600+ calories, but per the package 3-4 cups is about 330-440 calories. Quite a difference! I'm sure the difference is even more significant when it comes to things that are entirely dependent on size, such as slices of bread or nuts.

    Try purchasing a small food scale and see where that leads you. Tighten up the logging - you don't have to give up bread if you don't want to, but it would be wise to track the calories via weight rather than # of slices.

    Good luck, OP.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,084 Member
    Set your goal weight loss to no more that .75 pound per week. Get a digital kitchen scale to measure your serving sizes. Log everything. Not using a scale is likely your issue, although we are still pretty short on information. Check out the video to see how large a difference can come from not using a scale.
    https://youtu.be/vjKPIcI51lU
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/another-look-at-metabolic-damage.html/

    Something explained in here perhaps?

    Which is a little of the adaptive thermogenesis which could happen (aka "starvation mode" but without the associated myths that normally are said with it) - but at this beginning stage - the other more likely reasons.
  • nixxthirteen
    nixxthirteen Posts: 280 Member
    Unless you have a medical concern impeding your ability to lose weight, there is no way you're not losing weight at 800cals per day. I am also on team "you're eating more than you think".

    Cups were not created to measure solid food. Even a TBSP of peanut butter can vary in grams (and therefore calories) WILDLY. In my own day-to-day experience, here are some things that can be racking up the calories if measured as "1 fruit" or "1 cup" or even "1 tsp":

    -Oils
    -Rice
    -Oats
    -Butter
    -Peanut butter
    -Avocado
    -Bananas
    -Yogurt
    -Cereal

    Try getting a scale that measures in grams, and give it 4-6 weeks. It's a game-changer.
  • AuroraGeorge8393
    AuroraGeorge8393 Posts: 100 Member
    JustMissTracy wrote: »
    Cups will fool you, grams are more precise for our purposes....

    THIS. When I first joined MFP, I too was measuring my food with cups, and like the OP, I wasn't losing weight. Taking the advice of MFPers to buy a food scale was the best thing I ever did. They are relatively cheap and far more accurate than using cups. Once I started accurately weighing my food and calculating my calorie intake, the pounds started to come off.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,966 Member
    AuroraGeorge8393 wrote: »
    JustMissTracy wrote: »
    Cups will fool you, grams are more precise for our purposes....

    THIS. When I first joined MFP, I too was measuring my food with cups, and like the OP, I wasn't losing weight. Taking the advice of MFPers to buy a food scale was the best thing I ever did. They are relatively cheap and far more accurate than using cups. Once I started accurately weighing my food and calculating my calorie intake, the pounds started to come off.

    Yes, absolutely. And weighing food is also quicker and easier than measuring everything in cups, once you learn the tricks. Plus less washing up!

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