Losing motivation

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baciodolce18
baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I just need to vent. I've posted a couple times before on my issues with not losing. I'm at the point where I'm really feeling why bother. I haven't lost any weight at all since January. I lost 7 pounds in January and then it just halted. I thought I finally lost 3 pounds in June but it doesn't seem to have taken.

I'm not looking for analyzing. I hear you when you say I'm obviously eating at maintence and am eating more than I think I am but I weigh my food at home and try to pick the best entries when possible. I work out 5 days a week and don't eat more than 50% of that. I log everyday except for times I've been on vacation. I've lost weight a lot in the past, counting calories, so I feel comfortable with what's needed to be done. I've never not lost weight when I put the effort in.

But here I am 6 months later and wondering why I'm still bothering to weigh everything day in and day out. I even still weighed my breakfast even as I contemplated quitting. It's a very ingrained habit at this point.

I know the past 2 months or so I start loosing dedication after a bit because at this point I just feel so hopeless and like no matter what, I'm not gonna lose weight. I don't know how to get out of that head space.

Has anyone been in this spot? What did you do? I keep wanting to dig in and be 100% accurate and maybe even eat at a 1000 cal deficit (but I don't really want to eat that little) but then the doubt just starts creeping back in. I've always been so mad at myself every summer that I'm not at a better weight because I wasn't even trying and this year I tried and I still got nothing.

Sorry I'm just so frustrated and down and needing to vent.

Replies

  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
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    Are you building muscle? I lost just under a pound over the last three months but improved my body composition because I'd lost fat and gained muscle.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    distinctlybeautiful wrote: »
    Are you building muscle? I lost just under a pound over the last three months but improved my body composition because I'd lost fat and gained muscle.

    No. I'm not doing heavy lifting and my clothes are the same. I'm 80 pounds overweight so I'm not at a recomp size.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    I think for now, you should keep doing what you're doing but set some other health-related/performance goals. Pick a date for a local 5k and learn how to run. Something like that, but don't change what you're eating. Don't eat back more calories, just pick a flat amount every day to eat.

    Sometimes we have to stop thinking about it, trust in the good habits keep logging, and then 6 months later look back at pictures and/or marvel that we just finished our first 10k (or whatever goal you pick). There's more to health than a number on a scale.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    I think for now, you should keep doing what you're doing but set some other health-related/performance goals. Pick a date for a local 5k and learn how to run. Something like that, but don't change what you're eating. Don't eat back more calories, just pick a flat amount every day to eat.

    Sometimes we have to stop thinking about it, trust in the good habits keep logging, and then 6 months later look back at pictures and/or marvel that we just finished our first 10k (or whatever goal you pick). There's more to health than a number on a scale.

    I agree on that. I think even if I decide to stop counting calories I know I'm not giving up the gym and the fitness I've build up the past 5 months. I enjoy working out again and I'm happy to keep doing it regardless of weight.
  • erwingeminie20
    erwingeminie20 Posts: 26 Member
    edited July 2016
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    @baciodolce18: Have you tried only plant-based diet or juice Veggie juicing(you made)? No meat. Because for me I weigh 293lbs last June 5 and I am now(Jul 1) 273lbs just by juicing. I know this is a drastic move for me, but I really need to loose the pounds. For me, it doesn't have a side effect cause that fruits and veggies. I also walk like 1 - 1 1/2 hours everyday. Just send me a message if you wanna ask anything. :)
  • sparklyglitterbomb
    sparklyglitterbomb Posts: 458 Member
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    Where are you logging your meals? Looks like you only logged one day here on MFP for the month of June. There are some very smart people on here that might be able to offer suggestions as to what is going on if there was more information.
  • bendis2007
    bendis2007 Posts: 82 Member
    edited July 2016
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    I feel the same way sometimes - the past 2 months I thought I was eating awesome, and should have been on track to lose weight.....but I didn't. It's very easy to lose motivation and give up, but I think changing your focus will help amp you up again.
    I agree with the above poster - pick different goals. I know that I'm still a little obsessed with the number on the scale, but I have different focuses these days. I signed up for a 5K in September, and I want to complete it at a specific mile pace, so now I find myself dragging my butt out of bed to run a few miles in the morning - I've been hitting mile pace goals with that and it's made me feel very good because I can SEE that improvement. I also made small food goals too - I'm going to have 1.5 cups of greens at every meal for x amount of weeks.

    Since I got off the focus on weight loss and focused on making small attainable changes in my life that I could be comfortable with - I have actually lost 4.5 of the pounds in 2 1/2 weeks that I regained the few months previous (we had a vacation to Michigan - sooooo much wine and cheese!).
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    sparklyglitterbomb wrote: »
    Where are you logging your meals? Looks like you only logged one day here on MFP for the month of June. There are some very smart people on here that might be able to offer suggestions as to what is going on if there was more information.

    I switched to Fatsecret and then Lose it. I logged a day here because I was trying to figure out which app I liked best with my new Apple Watch. I like Lose it. I shows my cals remaining for the day on my watch and let's me quick add calories from the watch. Pretty nifty.

    It makes me sad how little MFP does given how much money it makes from ads and subscriptions. I wish it would make more improvements.
  • dlkfox
    dlkfox Posts: 463 Member
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    Go to your doctor and rule out any medical issues.
  • Ws2016
    Ws2016 Posts: 432 Member
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    What's your current TDEE and your daily calorie intake?
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    dlkfox wrote: »
    Go to your doctor and rule out any medical issues.

    I think I'm going to just for piece of mind at this point.
    Ws2016 wrote: »
    What's your current TDEE and your daily calorie intake?

    I get about 2400 from different calculators when I'm exercising 5 days a week. June has been a little funky with some illness and moving houses so I've only been getting 2-3 days a week. I come up with 2000-2100 from different calculators for sedentary maintenance. I basically aim to eat about 1600-1650 NET.

    Going by TDEE makes me nervous because of weeks when I can't get to the gym 5 days a week. So I prefer to just do NEAT.

    I usually do at least hour of cardio sometimes also adding in body weight exercises or plyo type exercises and will eat 200-300 back depending on how long it was and how intense it was.
  • godlikepoetyes
    godlikepoetyes Posts: 442 Member
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    I know you've probably heard this, but sometimes, for some people, the numbers just don't add up. I've had no problem losing weight, but I have a friend who has had a terrible time--she eats far, far less than I and exercises far more, and yet her losses have been tiny. We had close stats, but obviously her metabolism is just slower, waaay slower. There has been a good deal of research on this--check out HBO's The Weight of the Nation. Some people can eat maintenance calories when they've lost their weight and some folks can never get even close. The experts are still trying to untangle this. I also recommend reading Why Calories Count. This book explains, in great detail, how calorie counting, no matter how careful we are to weigh everything and measure everything, is always an ESTIMATE. Period.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
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    erwingeminie20 wrote: »
    @baciodolce18: Have you tried only plant-based diet or juice Veggie juicing(you made)? No meat. Because for me I weigh 293lbs last June 5 and I am now(Jul 1) 273lbs just by juicing. I know this is a drastic move for me, but I really need to loose the pounds. For me, it doesn't have a side effect cause that fruits and veggies. I also walk like 1 - 1 1/2 hours everyday. Just send me a message if you wanna ask anything. :)

    No need to do this, you just need to make sure you are 100% correct with your logging and have a deficit.
  • baciodolce18
    baciodolce18 Posts: 113 Member
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    godlikepoetyes wrote: »
    I know you've probably heard this, but sometimes, for some people, the numbers just don't add up. I've had no problem losing weight, but I have a friend who has had a terrible time--she eats far, far less than I and exercises far more, and yet her losses have been tiny. We had close stats, but obviously her metabolism is just slower, waaay slower. There has been a good deal of research on this--check out HBO's The Weight of the Nation. Some people can eat maintenance calories when they've lost their weight and some folks can never get even close. The experts are still trying to untangle this. I also recommend reading Why Calories Count. This book explains, in great detail, how calorie counting, no matter how careful we are to weigh everything and measure everything, is always an ESTIMATE. Period.

    I've been thinking about it and thinking I might just stop eating back any exercise calories to cover the discrepancies involved in calorie counting. If I feel like I need more on workout days, I might rearrange my deficit to have more on those days and less on rest days.
    debrag12 wrote: »
    erwingeminie20 wrote: »
    @baciodolce18: Have you tried only plant-based diet or juice Veggie juicing(you made)? No meat. Because for me I weigh 293lbs last June 5 and I am now(Jul 1) 273lbs just by juicing. I know this is a drastic move for me, but I really need to loose the pounds. For me, it doesn't have a side effect cause that fruits and veggies. I also walk like 1 - 1 1/2 hours everyday. Just send me a message if you wanna ask anything. :)

    No need to do this, you just need to make sure you are 100% correct with your logging and have a deficit.

    Yeah, I was never gonna lol.

    I don't have the willpower even if I thought it was a good idea.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    I've been using MFP for about a year and a half. I've lost 40 lbs, but have done nothing but maintain for several months. I know I'm not logging carefully enough, but even so, it's surprising to me that this level of calories & activity is apparently my maintenance level for 200 lbs! Once I wrap my head around that and am ready to reduce further, I'll move on. But in the meantime, I AM maintaining my initial loss. I consider that worth the effort to log and keep up my good habits (I don't consider this a short-term project- I just plan on logging forever). It sounds like you have had some loss and haven't regained it. That's a success in my book, and if you need to log to continue to sustain that, I say do it. And I also agree with the idea of not eating back your exercise calories for several weeks and see how that goes, as I think it does help make up for inaccuracies in logging. By all means, don't give up! That won't help you at all!

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