When does it start happening where you notice a weight loss?

Options
catleego
catleego Posts: 5 Member
edited September 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
Almost a month in and sticking to 1200 calories or below. Struggling with hunger a little which I guess is due to the lower carb diet I am now on so fueling the hunger with a boiled egg or a mandarin when absolutely desperate. I don't get it....nothing has changed! Totally revamped my eating habits, veges, salads, no bread, Weightwatcher meals if I don't feel like cooking, smaller portions, wholewheat pasta once a week instead of at least four, no sweet stuff, no yummy sauces, read every goddamned packet at the supermarket to check the Nutrition Info list, and have been fastidious in keeping within my counts which I admit I am finding super difficult (surely it gets easier).

Not doing a huge amount of physical exercise...concentrating on exercises to focus around the tummy area which I also do daily (morning and evening). Lost no weight! Nothing! Do feel better healthwise though but, just not noticing a difference in weight or shape. Feeling very despondent and disappointed. I thought it would happen faster.
«1

Replies

  • AlabamaMama224
    AlabamaMama224 Posts: 137 Member
    Options
    Are you weighing your food and picking accurate entries from the database?
  • violet0ann
    violet0ann Posts: 72 Member
    Options
    you need to work out your TDEE. bellow 1200 is normally too low. your body will start going into starvation mode if its too low. myfitnesspal should generate your TDEE/calories by default. but it dose need a fair few weeks to see any changes.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,922 Member
    Options
    I'm down 25 kg (55 lbs). It took me 10 days on MFP before I lost anything ... and a good 16 weeks before anyone else noticed ... and there are still days when I look in the mirror and wonder if I've lost anything.
  • Carriehelene
    Carriehelene Posts: 178 Member
    Options
    AlabamaMama224 wrote: »
    Are you weighing your food and picking accurate entries from the database?

    This. Weighing and logging your food is the most important part of this new lifestyle imho.
    Before I started doing this, I was "watching" what I ate, reading nutrition labels, blah, blah. Pretty much what you said you are doing. Here's the problem with that. We take their word for it, and they are often wrong with their serving size. And we are often wrong with both our guesstimates, and measuring.

    And log every darn thing you swallow. I had a twizzler stick on Thursday, was surprised at how many calories were in that thing. Yesterday I was babysitting and ran out of my drink, so had some grape juice. Yup, I logged it. If it's takeout where I don't know the count, I'll pick the entry with the most consistent calorie count in the database.

    I've lost 6 lbs this month since I started actually weighing my food on a digital food scale. And I've had 5 different people say to me "have you lost weight, you look really good".
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited September 2016
    Options
    For starters, 1200 is the lowest you can go on calorie intake and be within the healthy and safe weight loss recommendations. Should never eat below 1200. Under eating if you will, only compounds stress you are putting on the body.

    Next, are you using food scale to weigh all of the 1200 calories you consume (no measuring cups and spoons, a real digital scale?)

    It can take upwards of 3 - 4 weeks before real fat loss can be noticed on the scale. And upwards and downwards in water weight during these weeks can attribute to scale movement, but once you are down in weight for at least 4 -5 days you can assume you have lost real weight (accumulation of fat, muscle and water). Muscle sparing can be done through getting ample protein and following a strength training program.

    Know that plateaus really do not exist as long as you are 100% in a calorie deficit daily to lose weight. Weight loss in not linear as well, so once you start losing, there may be a week or two when no loss or you may get a drop all at once, it depends on how you lose weight.

    So if the scale is not moving after 3 -4 weeks, you need to reassess the calorie intake from a logging standpoint. SInce you do not exercise much, eating back exercise calories is not in your situation thus it has to be all calories in so check the logging.

    If you are a daily weigher, know there are varying fluctuations that occur and water retention can be masking fat loss. For daily weighers I recommend using a weight trending app and use the scale for this particular reason, so use the scale to your benefit and work with the scale instead of the scale working against yo per se.
  • catleego
    catleego Posts: 5 Member
    Options
    No I'm not weighing at all but cut my portions right back and log every food detail no matter how small. I google to check all the food details because I find there is too much variation if I search on here. I'm not doing takeaways at all and TOTALLY changed the type of food I eat...steamed veges, salads, no dairy, no bread, and plain meats. According to MFP I should be at 1200 calories per day and I usually hit that or slightly below. I'm starting to feel like my day is revolving around what I can eat next that is going to keep me within the data limits. Maybe I am just being a little too impatient.
  • AlabamaMama224
    AlabamaMama224 Posts: 137 Member
    Options
    catleego wrote: »
    No I'm not weighing at all but cut my portions right back and log every food detail no matter how small. I google to check all the food details because I find there is too much variation if I search on here. I'm not doing takeaways at all and TOTALLY changed the type of food I eat...steamed veges, salads, no dairy, no bread, and plain meats. According to MFP I should be at 1200 calories per day and I usually hit that or slightly below. I'm starting to feel like my day is revolving around what I can eat next that is going to keep me within the data limits. Maybe I am just being a little too impatient.


    But if you aren't weighing your food, how do you know? You have gone a solid month eating 1200 calories a day and lost no weight at all? Not one pound?

    You might be eating more than you think, that's where weighing comes in.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    Options
    How long have you been doing this?

    On August 15, which was 20 days ago, I started a spreadsheet in which I simply recorded my net calories each day.
    In another column I calculate and sum my calorie deficit for each day and previous days. In another column I record my weight each day and in another column I calculate my expected weight by dividing my calorie deficit by 3500 and subtracting that from my weight of August 15. My actual weight and my expected weight differ, but never yet by as much as 1%. I weigh, today, 199.2 1% of that is still nearly 2 lb. It's not unusual for the inaccuracy and uncertainty of my logging, and I'm fastidious about logging everything, to be 'wrong' by nearly 2 lb. There's nothing wrong with the science behind weight loss as expressed by mfp. The inaccuracy and uncertainty of our logging food and exercise are the sources of our disappointed expectations.
  • catleego
    catleego Posts: 5 Member
    Options
    I am at day 25. I did initially think that I had lost a little however, I went out several days ago and purchased new digital scales (I was using the older style with the needle). The digital scales weigh me as heavier than what I thought I was and I'm guessing the old scales were more prone to inaccuracy and much harder to read. Every day I seem to be getting heavier than the last (according to my new scales) and yet the food I am eating is no longer crap and in excess like I used to eat. Go figure!
  • thatboyjosh73
    thatboyjosh73 Posts: 15 Member
    Options
    If you are really hungry and not loosing I think you need to start getting more leafy greens like spinach and kale into your diet and cutting back SLIGHTLY on carbs... People have different reactions to carbs even though there is low cal bread and other things the increase in carbs can stall ppl...
    Honestly I'm 6'3 285 and because of the amount of greens and vegetables I eat I actually have a hard time even hitting 2k cals a day because I'm so full...And when I cut back on my carbs that is when I saw a massive loss on the scale.... ppl have different bodies...cals in vs cals out works but so do the amount of carbs ...some ppl just need to cut back further.
  • AlabamaMama224
    AlabamaMama224 Posts: 137 Member
    Options
    catleego wrote: »
    I am at day 25. I did initially think that I had lost a little however, I went out several days ago and purchased new digital scales (I was using the older style with the needle). The digital scales weigh me as heavier than what I thought I was and I'm guessing the old scales were more prone to inaccuracy and much harder to read. Every day I seem to be getting heavier than the last (according to my new scales) and yet the food I am eating is no longer crap and in excess like I used to eat. Go figure!


    Ok new scales... That changes things. You can have 5 different scales and weigh somethings different on every single one.

    But still, buy a food scale, they're inexpensive and really handy to have around. And they make logging foods on MFP oh so much easier!


  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    Options
    violet0ann wrote: »
    you need to work out your TDEE. bellow 1200 is normally too low. your body will start going into starvation mode if its too low. myfitnesspal should generate your TDEE/calories by default. but it dose need a fair few weeks to see any changes.

    Starvation mode is a myth, and MyFitnessPal doesn't use the TDEE method.
  • thatboyjosh73
    thatboyjosh73 Posts: 15 Member
    Options
    Starvation mode IS a myth...your body will actually go into a fat burning mode because you have used all your stored glucose.Actually you burn the most fat while you are fasting... You body really only starts using your own muscle after 24 hours of fasting.Like I said before...if u are truly keeping your cals below you limit then I believe you need to cut back SLIGHTLY on your carb intake especially if you are not doing any kind of lifting or cardio....even 50 grams of carbs and be converted into fat if you don't burn them off by either cardio or weight training.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    Options
    thatboyjosh73 wrote: »
    Starvation mode IS a myth...your body will actually go into a fat burning mode because you have used all your stored glucose.Actually you burn the most fat while you are fasting... You body really only starts using your own muscle after 24 hours of fasting.Like I said before...if u are truly keeping your cals below you limit then I believe you need to cut back SLIGHTLY on your carb intake especially if you are not doing any kind of lifting or cardio....even 50 grams of carbs and be converted into fat if you don't burn them off by either cardio or weight training.

    If you are in a caloric deficit, there is no net conversion to fat regardless of the macro composition.
  • catleego
    catleego Posts: 5 Member
    Options
    thatboyjosh73 wrote: »
    If you are really hungry and not loosing I think you need to start getting more leafy greens like spinach and kale into your diet and cutting back SLIGHTLY on carbs... People have different reactions to carbs even though there is low cal bread and other things the increase in carbs can stall ppl...
    Honestly I'm 6'3 285 and because of the amount of greens and vegetables I eat I actually have a hard time even hitting 2k cals a day because I'm so full...And when I cut back on my carbs that is when I saw a massive loss on the scale.... ppl have different bodies...cals in vs cals out works but so do the amount of carbs ...some ppl just need to cut back further.

    Thanks. Yep been doing the spinach and kale for the past week and my daily carb goal calculated by MFP is 150. Looking back over the past few weeks I am averaging a count of 100 per day. I would hazard a guess and say that prior to starting to change my diet and listing my daily food intake, I would have been three times that. Hopefully the next week or so may start to show some changes :-)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,986 Member
    Options
    catleego wrote: »
    I am at day 25. I did initially think that I had lost a little however, I went out several days ago and purchased new digital scales (I was using the older style with the needle). The digital scales weigh me as heavier than what I thought I was and I'm guessing the old scales were more prone to inaccuracy and much harder to read. Every day I seem to be getting heavier than the last (according to my new scales) and yet the food I am eating is no longer crap and in excess like I used to eat. Go figure!

    OK, so not only do you not weigh your food, so you really don't know how many calories you're eating, but you don't know whether or not you lost weight because you've changed the scales you use to weigh yourself. Different scales will not show the same weight, and you're comparing the weight shown on the new scale now to the weight your old scale showed a month ago. It's meaningless.

    Do you still have the old scales to check what your actual weight loss is? How much had you lost before you switched scales?
  • thatboyjosh73
    thatboyjosh73 Posts: 15 Member
    Options
    It's so funny how ppl on MFP community think that just BC she may be off and that I recommend she cut her carbs automatically think I'm wrong...it has been PROVEN that it IS what you eat and not just how much....I have seen ppl eat 3 to 4 k cals a day and STILL drop weight like crazy...it is NOT always cals in cals out...ppl process fats and carbs at different rates...I promise you ,you cannot be so far off on your cal count that it is making THAT big of a difference...if everyone that comes on MFP is all of a sudden a pro at weight loss they would not be on here ......dang I am new to MFP and I feel like everyone is so critical of other ppl just simply suggestions things to try but then everyone thinks they know everything about weight loss...crazy...

Categories