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

Cbestinme · October 2016

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

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.

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

Trixiegirl66 wrote: »

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.

Susanmfindlay, I had never heard of NEAT before, and now I fully get why I barely gained while eating so much in pregnancy - I walked very hilly terrain for hours with each pregnancy, especially my twin pregnancy. I am going to start tracking with greater precision and figure out the sweet spot for two pounds of loss a week until I hit goal. Thanks for explaining the process - this helps a great deal. Walking really is fabulous - I remember being young and living on chocolate, toast and Guinness but remained at a size zero thanks to living in a city as a pedestrian.

She doesn't even know how many calories she's consuming because she's not actually tracking them.

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

Trixiegirl66 wrote: »

She doesn't even know how many calories she's consuming because she's not actually tracking them.

courtneyfabulous,

Never did I say I do not track my calories. My husband said today that I way underestimated the calories I took in during pregnancy - he does all the cooking, and said I put away at least 3600 calories on very hungry days. So I am going to go with the logic that my body functions best with optimal food intake and see where it takes me.

My MFP diary is open, and indicates that I track and log everything down to black coffee. I am merely pointing out that the weight loss never took off until I ate way more than MFP suggested. For the first time in ten years, I fully anticipate getting back to my pre-twin pregnancy size. I think I simply need to eat enough now to regain the killer metabolism I took for granted in my twenties and early thirties.

I meant the OP does not track her calories. She listed the typical foods she eats but not the amounts or ingredients or total calories - wasn't talking about you.

MlleKelly · October 2016

Make sure you're getting your heart rate up when you're walking. I walked almost ten miles a day in Italy, but I still gained because it was ten miles of mosey-ing around monuments from restaurant to gelato shop to bar to restaurant...

Stick with the process of keeping your calories in check, getting your heart rate up several times a week, and be positive. That last bit is the hardest, but you can do it!

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

Notice the first half of this graph is fluctuating but not really losing - this is what my results were from eating "healthy" and exercising a lot. Notice the second half of this graph there is steady weight loss - this is what my results were from actually tracking food and eating within my calorie goal (and continuing to exercise). Now do you think maybe you should start actually tracking food/calories?? I think yes.

karl317 · October 2016

Also, exercise is a pretty crappy way to lose weight.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11518804/weight-loss-exercise-myth-burn-calories

There's over 60 studies cited in that article.

Of course that isn't to say you SHOULDN'T exercise - everyone should, as it's probably the biggest thing you can do for your own longevity - but for losing weight? No, that's going to be mostly dietary for most folks.

khhregister · October 2016

courtneyfabulous wrote: »

Notice the first half of this graph is fluctuating but not really losing - this is what my results were from eating "healthy" and exercising a lot. Notice the second half of this graph there is steady weight loss - this is what my results were from actually tracking food and eating within my calorie goal (and continuing to exercise). Now do you think maybe you should start actually tracking food/calories?? I think yes.

This is exactly the pattern I see. I should paste this on my wall to look at every day. It's so true. I know what my calorie goals are, but I let myself overeat about half the time. It's right there in the numbers!

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

khh1138 wrote: »

courtneyfabulous wrote: »

Notice the first half of this graph is fluctuating but not really losing - this is what my results were from eating "healthy" and exercising a lot. Notice the second half of this graph there is steady weight loss - this is what my results were from actually tracking food and eating within my calorie goal (and continuing to exercise). Now do you think maybe you should start actually tracking food/calories?? I think yes.

This is exactly the pattern I see. I should paste this on my wall to look at every day. It's so true. I know what my calorie goals are, but I let myself overeat about half the time. It's right there in the numbers!

Glad it helped! Yep, gotta track and hit that calorie goal as consistently as possible!

Longevity100 · 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!

Great post! A lot of wisdom here, refreshing to see a different experience and perspective on the typical CICO advice. I figured that would open up a can of worms.

OP, I invite you to experiment with eating lean meats, vegetables ("eating the rainbow") and smart carb choices at each meal. If your interested in a simple method of portion controlling without having to weigh and measure things let me know and I'll post it here for you.

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

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