The scale is stuck

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R70woolsey
R70woolsey Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I've been following a low calorie 1000 to 1200 per day with 30-60 minute cardiovascular 3 to 4 times a week the scale has not budged in the last 3 weeks. Need advise

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  • MrsPadrona
    MrsPadrona Posts: 10 Member
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    You might be starving. How may calories are you burning when you work out and are you eating your exercise calories?
    I had a nutritionist for several years that I worked with and at our first few meetings she pointed out that I was accidentally starving myself but not eating enough calories for my body to function
    Once I increased my calories to at least what I burned off with exercise, the scale started to move again.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    edited June 2016
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    How are you determining the number of calories you are consuming? Three weeks could be a temporary stall. I had that happen when I started a new workout routine. It actually took about two months and then a big whoosh dropped off practically overnight.

    If you are absolutely certain about your intake, give it a little bit longer. 1000 is a bit low if you are working out, however, if you aren't weighing all solid foods, you are likely inaccurate on intake. This is a very common cause of stalls. Also check the entries you are using. The database is mostly user entered, as a result there are many incorrect entries, plus there are regional differences from country to country.

    ETA: Those are the areas I would start with. If those aren't applicable, let us know.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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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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