Not losing weight despite calorie deficit?
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StinkyCheeze
Posts: 26 Member
Hello I'm 5'5 and 135 pounds. I'm trying to lose weight but the scale won't move. I have a fitbit and it's synced with MFP. According to fitbit, I burn 2000-2200 calories a day because I'm so active. 10-15k steps a day and 1-2 hours of cardio 5-6 days a week. I consume 1500 calories minimum and 1600 maximum. And there's no way I'm underestimating by several hundred calories, especially since I don't eat calorie dense foods. I eat lots of fruits and veggies along with proteins like eggs and tuna. My snacks are low calorie especially pickles. And I use soy sauce on meats and other cooked dishes instead of calorie dense sauces. And use vinaigrette dressings on salads instead of ranch, and unsweetened almond milk instead of regular. Also, salsa and/or hummus in tuna sandwiches instead of mayo. And cottage cheese with fruit instead of ice cream. What's going on? The scale won't budge.
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Replies
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Pickles? Soy sauce? Have you considered tracking your sodium? In the absence of other issues (you don't say how long you've been at this, your diary isn't open, etc.), you might be retaining water.8
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With so very little fat left on you to lose, you have extremely narrow margins of error. 1550-1600 should be working for you.
1. How long have you been logging your food and staying at that level?
2. How are you arriving at the portion sizes you are using? With your thin error-margin, you need a digital food scale and very fastidious record keeping.2 -
You are eating more than you think.5
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You are eating more than you think.
Nope. Example. Yesterday I had an apple and black coffee for breakfast. Lunch was 2 slices of bread, can of tuna, 2 tablespoons salsa. Snack was 2 pickles. Dinner was a 250 calorie tv dinner (it's easier to measure calories that way). Another snack was 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 4 strawberries, 2 more pickles. I frequently eat like this. Sometimes 1300 calories. Explain...?0 -
cmriverside wrote: »With so very little fat left on you to lose, you have extremely narrow margins of error. 1550-1600 should be working for you.
1. How long have you been logging your food and staying at that level?
2. How are you arriving at the portion sizes you are using? With your thin error-margin, you need a digital food scale and very fastidious record keeping.
I weigh fruits and veggies. I use measuring cups for almond milk and cottage cheese, and measuring spoons for salsa and hummus. And as for canned and packaged foods and TV dinners, I scan. I eat the whole thing because I buy them in single portions or small calories (can of tuna, minute rice cups, applesauce cups, small tv dinners, etc)0 -
male or female?0
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nosebag1212 wrote: »male or female?
Ok. And some days I only eat 1200-1300. So again, very confusing. I have IBD anyways so I rarely get hungry and don't eat much to begin with.0 -
I'm guessing water retention as much of what you say you are eating is very high in sodium. If that is the case, drink more water and it will eventually start moving.2
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StinkyCheeze wrote: »You are eating more than you think.
Nope. Example. Yesterday I had an apple and black coffee for breakfast. Lunch was 2 slices of bread, can of tuna, 2 tablespoons salsa. Snack was 2 pickles. Dinner was a 250 calorie tv dinner (it's easier to measure calories that way). Another snack was 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 4 strawberries, 2 more pickles. I frequently eat like this. Sometimes 1300 calories. Explain...?
You know way more than I do so just disregard what I said. Good luck.3 -
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How long have you been at this? It takes a long time to lose weight when you are already at a healthy weight. Don't expect to see big losses, more like 1/2 pound per week - and it's not going to be every week.
If you are going to continue to use measuring cups and scanning dinners, you are going to continue to have less than perfect food logging - which is fine, but don't assume that you're "doing everything right."
You ARE eating more than you think.
Why do you feel like you need to lose more weight? Your BMI is 22.
Maybe start doing some weight-lifting if you want to change your body.7 -
I would aim for around 64oz per day and see what happens. Also, start tracking your sodium and look for low sodium substitutes.0
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cmriverside wrote: »How long have you been at this? It takes a long time to lose weight when you are already at a healthy weight. Don't expect to see big losses, more like 1/2 pound per week - and it's not going to be every week.
If you are going to continue to use measuring cups and scanning dinners, you are going to continue to have less than perfect food logging - which is fine, but don't assume that you're "doing everything right."
You ARE eating more than you think.
Maybe more than I think but not 500-700 calories more. Especially with the low calorie snacks I eat and small tv dinners etc. Again, I don't eat much. Not a big appetite. If you don't believe me, maybe I'll go on 1,000 calories a day to prove you even more wrong about my "high calorie intake"0 -
Okay, then.
Carry on doing what you're doing.
Good luck.9 -
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StinkyCheeze wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »With so very little fat left on you to lose, you have extremely narrow margins of error. 1550-1600 should be working for you.
1. How long have you been logging your food and staying at that level?
2. How are you arriving at the portion sizes you are using? With your thin error-margin, you need a digital food scale and very fastidious record keeping.
I weigh fruits and veggies. I use measuring cups for almond milk and cottage cheese, and measuring spoons for salsa and hummus. And as for canned and packaged foods and TV dinners, I scan. I eat the whole thing because I buy them in single portions or small calories (can of tuna, minute rice cups, applesauce cups, small tv dinners, etc)
measuring cups are for liquids only.cottage cheese should be weighed on a scale as well as salsa and hummus. anything packaged can end up being more than the package states which is why you should weigh everything. scanning them can also result in entries in mfp that are not correct.so yes it is possible you are eating more calories then you think if you are not weighing packaged foods and using cups and spoons for semi solids. every little bit can add up I know Ive been there.I used to use measuring cups and spoons and they are not 100% accurate,I only use them for liquid measurements. I started losing weight again once I got a scale6 -
Hey, be careful with those tv dinners! I had some microwave curry today. The packaging said that the box contains two servings with each at 250kcal. So I microwaved the whole box to eat half of it later on. Only: I found 3 tablespoons of oil swimming at the top. One tablespoon could easily be 10-15 grams, 1 gram of fat has 9kcal. 3x10x9 is at least 270kcal. Which means the herbs, chicken, further oil not swimming at the top and other stuff in there can only be 230kcal or less. No, that absolutely makes no sense at all! This dinner could easily have twice the amount of calories.0
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Personally I would not trust those TV dinners to be accurate in terms of serving size. The times I have measured ones I have eaten by weighing them, they have always been more, sometimes substantially more, then the package stated.3
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I could easily have 2 servings of cottage cheese in a measuring cup and easily 2 or 3 servings of hummus in a measuring spoon.4
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