Not losing weight 6 miles of walking atleast 3 times a week

mrsghosh · October 2016

After a miscarriage in July I gained 180 to 192..I became anemic, took medications for it and finally feeling good. So I have not worked out for 3 months with all the sad things going on. Decided to start workout but since I gained pounds I started off with walking for 2 hrs which will come to 5 to 6 miles. Also watched my food intake cut back on white rice and including salads for meals. The lowest I saw in the past month was 187 otherwise I just see 189 or 190 which is discouraging. I know weight loss is not magic but am too frustrated with scale not moving. I started feeling like walking does not help me and may be I have to start a diff activity. Just venting here and please give your support and advice that will give me a boost. Thanks in advance!!

roamingtiger · October 2016

Not losing weight just means that you're eating too much. The amount of calories you consume need to be less than what you burn.

malibu927 · October 2016

Are you counting calories and logging everything with as close to 100% accuracy as possible (i.e. using a food scale)?

Unknown · October 2016

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mrsghosh · October 2016

Not using food scale but my day looks like this: 1 cup oatmeal in morning , veg salad sometimes quinoa with veg lentils for lunch and wheat Roti and veg. 2 coffee plus 2 snack

roamingtiger · October 2016

It also sounds like you're not eating enough calories. How many cals does MFP say to eat?

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

You need to start measuring and logging your food and make sure you are in a caloric deficit. Even if you were running marathons every day if you were eating as many or more calories as you burn you still wouldn't lose weight.

Make sure you are fully healed though before going into a caloric deficit- its harder to heal when eating fewer calories.

I would suggest you use a mild to moderate calorie deficit to start- somewhere between 250 to 500 calories less than daily maintenance. You can find your daily maintenance calories by using a TDEE calculator (there's several free ones online).

VintageFeline · October 2016

You need to start logging. Until you do you have no idea how much you are eating.

mrsghosh · October 2016

1400.is the calories goal

Bankman1989 · October 2016

Sorry to hear about your miscarriage. I would say what everyone above is but I am going to go a different route. Let's say you are logging all your foods and not eating more. 6 miles is a lot every day and you definitely should be losing some weight. Sometimes stress stops us from weight loss. You did just go through something very traumatizing. Also I would throw a little jog in the mix during your walk. Street light to street light. Walk to a street light, then jog to the next and repeat. You will get your heart rate up and the pounds will go down. Good luck.

mrsghosh · October 2016

When I followed the same pattern 2014 I lost 30 lbs after second delivery. But this time around the same diet is not working. But noting all your suggestions to see where I am doing wrong. Sometimes I feel may be the hormones imbalance may cause this due the miscarriage but am not sure.

Psychgrrl · October 2016

Quinoa is actually quite calories dense. A very small serving adds up very quickly. (Sigh ...)

Until you really know how much you're taking in, it's hard to figure the numbers out.

Exercise is for fitness--weight loss is all about food. While exercise can help create a little extra room with what you can eat, you can't rely on it solely to create your deficit.

roamingtiger · October 2016

Have you talked to your doctor about the hormonal imbalance?

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

Believe me you really need to track to see results in this type of situation- I had a similar one. I put on 20 pounds after some female health issues and a hysterectomy. Once I was feeling healthy I started walking then going on hikes, doing a little yoga, eating clean, etc. but I barely lost any weight and kept regaining it anyways.

Then I joined a gym, got a personal trainer and did weight lifting 3 times a week plus cardio and my walks and hikes... still no weight loss!

I was very frustrated thinking how could it be I'm active & working out and eating right and just not losing weight?!

But as soon as I started tracking & counting calories I realized I was eating a lot more calories than I should be - with snacking, using too much oil or butter for cooking, eating high calorie foods that I thought were healthy... it all adds up. Also the more I exercised the more hungry I was, and the more I ate so I was never in a caloric deficit.

Do yourself a favor and just figure out what your calories should be and track your food. It will be so much easier and actually work. (Do continue to walk & exercise though, and do more as you feel strong enough. It's not absolutely necessary but it does help and feels great).

tennileb · October 2016

So sorry to hear of your miscarriage.

I won't restate the previous recommendations of food intake. can you up the intensity of your walks? Walk/ jog? Use a heart monitor if you have one or can borrow one, this will give a better picture of how hard you are working. And like it is important to measure food ....measure your distance and intensity of exercise.

I know my personal tendency is to underestimate my intake and overestimate my output.

Spliner1969 · October 2016

mrsghosh wrote: »

Not using food scale but my day looks like this: 1 cup oatmeal in morning , veg salad sometimes quinoa with veg lentils for lunch and wheat Roti and veg. 2 coffee plus 2 snack

Are you logging salad dressings? Adding anything to your oatmeal? Really the quality of the food matters very little if at all, it's the overall calories that matter. I dunno about you but I love salads, especially with lots of dressing, usually 3-6 tbsp of dressing which can, unless I buy light versions, easily add 300 or more calories to the salad. Oil and vinegar dressings are just as bad, 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil is 120 cals, so 2-3 tbsp of that type of dressing may be healthy for you but it can be over 300+ calories easily. Add honey or syrup to oatmeal, sugar, etc. and bam more calories. I had to start weighing my condiments to get them under control. I also switched to lower calorie vinegar based dressings which helped drop the calories a bunch. Light or low fat dressings can be helpful as well. My wife loves to add nuts and seeds to her salads which ups the calories even more. Quinoa, at least every brand/recipe/mix I've used/eaten/etc. is usually fairly high calorie but a good source of protein.

Just some thoughts. A food scale is cheap on Amazon, usually you an even find them under $20, I think mine was $24 delivered.

As far as the walking you're doing good with that, keep it up. Maybe walk faster if you want to burn more calories. Usually where there is plenty of exercise, like in your case, but the weight is not going down, it's the food that isn't accurately being logged.

Aaron_K123 · October 2016

mrsghosh wrote: »

After a miscarriage in July I gained 180 to 192..I became anemic, took medications for it and finally feeling good. So I have not worked out for 3 months with all the sad things going on. Decided to start workout but since I gained pounds I started off with walking for 2 hrs which will come to 5 to 6 miles. Also watched my food intake cut back on white rice and including salads for meals. The lowest I saw in the past month was 187 otherwise I just see 189 or 190 which is discouraging. I know weight loss is not magic but am too frustrated with scale not moving. I started feeling like walking does not help me and may be I have to start a diff activity. Just venting here and please give your support and advice that will give me a boost. Thanks in advance!!

The part you left out in this description is the calories, which is the part that actually matters. How many calories do you maintain at and how many calories are you eating. If you don't know then work to figure that out and then you will have something to go off of to correct whatever the issue is.

Gamliela · October 2016

Are you meeting calories goal and logging everything you eat daily? sometimes its not easy to get the exact amount of calories in certain foods exactly right, so thats why people suggest using a food scale to weight foods like quinoa.

Logging the calories worked for me.

I didn't do any extensive walking or cardio type excersize. I did some simple body weight excersizes every morning.

There are various ways to excersize, but your calotie intake is what is most important for weight loss. It should be 200 or 300 less than your TDEE for you to lose reasonably.

Best wishes.

Sara1791 · October 2016

I'm very sorry for your loss.

quiksylver296 · October 2016

Cbestinme · October 2016

Aaron_K123 wrote: »

The part you left out in this description is the calories, which is the part that actually matters. How many calories do you maintain at and how many calories are you eating. If you don't know then work to figure that out and then you will have something to go off of to correct whatever the issue is.

I confess it took me several posts to understand the concept of calories, I did have a very long duh about that, but thanks to all of you it's sinking in

Unknown · October 2016

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Cbestinme · October 2016

So how many calories were you eating at tons more? Maybe 1200 calories were too few for you?

Unknown · October 2016

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Cbestinme · October 2016

It would be curious if you logged your food for a few days to see the actual number of calories you eat. I eat lots of produce, meats, fat, whole grains, & still stay at 1600 calories. The processed foods i eat cheese, peanut butter.

SusanMFindlay · October 2016

Trixiegirl66 wrote: »

MFP said that 1200 was the amount I needed to eat in order to see weight loss. I usually eat a good thousand over and have seen steady drops in inches, and on the scale. At 5'6" I am currently at 139 and hoping to drop another 14 pounds by 2017.

My thought is more is more when you eat nutrient dense foods and add exercise. The only times I seem to burn fat is when I add another 800 calories or so to my MFP 1200 allowance.

But did you tell MFP that you were sedentary? Because if you say "sedentary" but you're not, the calories MFP gives you will be way too low. I'm currently set on "active" and "lose 1 pound/week" and MFP tells me 1800 cals/day. My weightloss record tells me even that's too low, and FitBit confirms that I actually burn ~2800 cals/day on average. Yet I only "work out" twice a week for an hour each time. So, why the high calorie burn? A neat little thing called Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). I walk. A lot. Usually 15K-20K steps per day. I hit 27K steps the other day. To do that, I need to eat.

I suspect you're the same way. If you undereat (e.g. stick to the 1200 cals/day), you don't have the energy and you don't get much NEAT. If you eat more, you have more energy and are more active. It doesn't mean that CICO doesn't work. It very much works. It just means that if you drop CI, you might actually drop CO more. So, you find the sweet spot. I'm still working on finding my sweet spot. I log meticulously, and have crept my calories up from 1750/day to somewhere in the 1900-2000/day range without slowing the weightloss. I realize that as I lose weight, my daily burn will slowly drop so I don't want to raise the calories too drastically - but I also want to lose at a safe and sustainable rate.

Rocknut53 · October 2016

Trixiegirl66 wrote: »

The thing with hormonal imbalance, it responds very well to a diet built on lean protein, healthy fats and as much produce as you can fit into your day. I personally experienced correcting hormonal imbalance by increasing the good fats like Kerrygold butter, avocados, olives, eggs and nuts, along with chicken and tons of berries and veggies. In my own experience, the cutting out gluten made the biggest difference - as a journalist, I found tons of research indicating that gluten can disrupt hormones.

I am not a believer in the CICO myth - I recently lost over 30 pounds and 12 inches by significantly upping my calories, fat and protein. After years of diligently weighing and logging my 1200 calorie allowance, only to lose and gain the same five pounds over and over again, I decided to eat more - tons more!

I remembered being pregnant with my twins in 1996, and recalled how I ate a good 3,300 calories a day and delivered a set of healthy full sized twins 4 weeks early. I started at 124 and delivered at 147 - so roughly 12 pounds gained for each healthy baby, and yet I ate enormous amounts of food. By the six week postpartum checkup, I weighed five pounds less than where I started the pregnancy - while still eating massive plates of food several times a day.

No measuring, no logging - the thing is I lived off of produce, eggs, avocado, olive oil, chicken, beef, peanut butter etc. - no processed foods, minimal sugar and very little gluten. As soon as I stepped away from this eating style, I gained 10 pounds a month until I maxed out at 175.

A day after my 50th birthday on June 14th of this year, I decided to work toward getting back to losing weight by eating more - usually upping my calories by a good 500 to 800 OVER what MFP suggested for weight loss. Since going back to what works four months ago, I am down over 30 pounds and counting.

My profile pic is me at just about 8 months pregnant with my fourth child - a time when I again massively upped my calories to just under 3000, and again gained well under the expected amount for pregnancy. If you look at my pics, I was at near my highest weight of 175 in a photo with my eldest twins. Sorry in advance for the length answer and unsolicited testimonial - but if I had been advised to eat more a decade ago, my forties would have been a lot healthier!

CICO is not a myth, it's simply how the human body works. Whatever you did, however you configured your diet, it still boiled down to eating less than you burn to lose weight. MFP is only as accurate as the information you put in when you determine your goals. You can tweek the numbers any way you please to get the results you want.

Helloitsdan · October 2016

It's stress.

Rate the following from 1-10, 10 being amazing!

Mood
Stress
Sleep (also how many hours/night)
Daily Bowel movements
Satiation per meal

If you're on medication that could interfere with "weight" loss too.

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

It really is calories in and out. I know tracking your food accurately sounds like a chore but it gets to be second nature pretty quickly.

You can struggle for months "trying" to lose weight, or you can track your darn calories and start losing weight TODAY. It's up to you....

Helloitsdan · October 2016

Google Precision Nutrition portions and understand that you don't have to count calories if you don't want to.

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

mrsghosh wrote: »

Not using food scale but my day looks like this: 1 cup oatmeal in morning , veg salad sometimes quinoa with veg lentils for lunch and wheat Roti and veg. 2 coffee plus 2 snack

This is not tracking calories. How many calories in the salad? How many ounces of quinoa? How much lentils? How much pasta? What were the snacks? What did you put in the coffee???

This could be a 1200 calorie day or a 3000 calorie day- there's no way to know without measuring.

Also are you a vegetarian? I see no protein and that's a big problem for weight loss. You want to eat adequate protein normally, and maybe a little extra when in a calorie deficit to help prevent muscle loss- you want to lose fat not muscle. It doesn't have to be animal protein it can be vegan protein powder or tofu but you need to get enough protein. About 50 grams a day if you are mostly sedentary, 100 grams or more if you exercise/lift weights.

Not losing weight 6 miles of walking atleast 3 times a week

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