Frustrated

1. 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.

melissabartush1 wrote: »

From all the advice, I'm going to start using a digital scale, I had a manual one....i still don't feel like that's the issue bc I find it hard to believe I am eating 1000 calories more than what I'm logging each day ( i use measuring utensils and a manual scale so I'm not just guessing) so as to only maintain my weight, not lose. I've checked my fitbit, it seems very accurate as compared to any other heart rate monitor and my name with activity level chosen formula available online.
I went to my school doctor three times for blood work to check my overall health. Only thing that was out of the ordinary was my triglyceride levels were slightly elevated. The only way to lower it is to take fish oils (which I already do) and lose weight...the doctor seems stumped. I will gladly open my diary for anyone to see. I try to get my macronutrients balanced in the proper portions too, so I'm aware of WHAT I'm eating rather than just calories.
I am female 5'5, 215.... 31 years old.

This is a good idea; it can help us spot possible errors. Since a lot of the database entries come from MFP users, some can be terribly inaccurate and you can end up being hundreds of calories off even when trying to be as diligent as possible.

nat8199 wrote: »

I think this is part of the danger of fit bits.... they measure a lot of activity that is just normal every day stuff. When looking at the math for weight loss, I would have an exact measure for your intake and only measure your purposeful exercise, especially if you are thinking about eating calories back.

I understand where you're coming from, but we can't assume this without taking a look at her food diary. With her current stats, a 2800 to 2900 TDEE doesn't seem far-fetched. I use a Fitbit Charge HR. I'm 5'3" and 108 pounds and my TDEE is usually around 1900 to 2400 per day. If I eat anything less than that, I still lose weight.

Well, a couple of things I see that could be problematic:

you logged 1 banana, did you weigh it before you logged it? bananas can vary in size and weight. did you also measure your protein powder by grams? or the peanut butter? and the flax seed?

I see a lot of tablespoon and cups measurement and that could be the issue.

Colorscheme wrote: »

Well, a couple of things I see that could be problematic:

you logged 1 banana, did you weigh it before you logged it? bananas can vary in size and weight. did you also measure your protein powder by grams? or the peanut butter? and the flax seed?

I see a lot of tablespoon and cups measurement and that could be the issue.

^^^This, I'm seeing a lot of cups, scoops, and spoons. This can throw off your numbers considerably. Start weighing everything that can be placed on the scale. I know it sounds crazy, but it's much more accurate. Even the prepackaged stuff is frequently off by a pretty good margin. These things add up more than you realize throughout the day.

Colorscheme wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Colorscheme wrote: »

Well, a couple of things I see that could be problematic:

you logged 1 banana, did you weigh it before you logged it? bananas can vary in size and weight. did you also measure your protein powder by grams? or the peanut butter? and the flax seed?

I see a lot of tablespoon and cups measurement and that could be the issue.

^^^This, I'm seeing a lot of cups, scoops, and spoons. This can throw off your numbers considerably. Start weighing everything that can be placed on the scale. I know it sounds crazy, but it's much more accurate. Even the prepackaged stuff is frequently off by a pretty good margin. These things add up more than you realize throughout the day.

I learned the hard way. Bought pre package pizza that said it was 500 something calories but after weighing, it was more like 900 something. It was enough to wipe out my deficit and then some. Now I weigh and log everything, especially pre-packaged food.

Yup. Then there is the fine print on boxes. I have a granola breakfast where the serving size is 28g for 120 calories. There are four packages in the box. One would think that each package is a serving, but the box says 10 servings per box. So each package has 2.5 servings, factor in the weight error, and each package is around 360 calories! If I didn't weight the packages/read the box, that's 240 calories in breakfast alone!