Am I doing enough to lose weight?

jamieparadis20
jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
edited November 13 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everybody,
I joined this app with my Fitbit with a goal to lose weight but never really did research of exactly HOW to do that. Basically, my plan is set to eat 1300 calories a day and I get 12,000 steps a day. Monday's, I have jazz and ballet class. Tuesday's I do strength workouts in my room (several sets and pretty intense/heavy weight). Wednesday I do HIIT for 20 minutes. Thursday I get at least 17,000 steps on my Fitbit. Friday strength training again. Saturday intervals. Sunday I take a group fitness class (a different one each week). I'm also vegan and eat generally pretty healthy (my food diary is public so if you want to look at that it would be great!). I drink tons of water (at least 3 liters a day). In two weeks preseason for lacrosse is starting and there's tons of conditioning so hopefully I'll get into really good shape. It's just I see the scale going down (mfp says I've lost zero weight bc I accidentally logged my starting weight incorrectly but I've actually lost 13 pounds) but my waist measurements which is where I'm most insecure haven't decreased and my stomach area looks exactly the same. Also a lot of people say the stomach is the last place where you lose weight and first you see it around your face or arms but I haven't seen that at all either. Will my current lifestyle lead me to fat loss? What can I do to improve this?

Replies

  • Intentional_Me
    Intentional_Me Posts: 336 Member
    What are your stats? Are you eating back half of your exercise calories?
  • jamieparadis20
    jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
    Intentional_Me wrote: »
    What are your stats? Are you eating back half of your exercise calories?

    Sorry, I'm kind of uninformed haha. What do you mean by stats?
    Should I be aiming to eat back exactly half my calories? Or less? My daily deficit is 750 I'm pretty sure, is that related?
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    jamieparadis20 wrote: »
    Intentional_Me wrote: »
    What are your stats? Are you eating back half of your exercise calories?

    Sorry, I'm kind of uninformed haha. What do you mean by stats?
    Should I be aiming to eat back exactly half my calories? Or less? My daily deficit is 750 I'm pretty sure, is that related?

    stats are height,weight,age,calorie goal, your activity level,etc
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    jamieparadis20 wrote: »
    Will my current lifestyle lead me to fat loss? What can I do to improve this?

    Your current lifestyle is leaving to fat loss. You've lost 13 lbs.
    How long has that taken you? You don't want to lose too fast, because you'll be sacrificing too much muscle. Also, you probably should increase your calorie intake when you start training for lacrosse. 1300 calories isn't much for somebody who is that active.
  • jamieparadis20
    jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    jamieparadis20 wrote: »
    Will my current lifestyle lead me to fat loss? What can I do to improve this?

    Your current lifestyle is leaving to fat loss. You've lost 13 lbs.
    How long has that taken you? You don't want to lose too fast, because you'll be sacrificing too much muscle. Also, you probably should increase your calorie intake when you start training for lacrosse. 1300 calories isn't much for somebody who is that active.

    I started losing weight at around the end of August. I'm pretty sure that I've hit a plateau because for the past two or three weeks my weight has been bouncing around the same area. I just wasn't sure if I'm supposed to see or feel and results yet besides the number dropping

  • jadelois
    jadelois Posts: 28 Member
    Just having a quick whiz back through your diary you don't seem to be hitting your calorie goal on the days when you earn a lot of calories back through exercise.

    Assuming you log everything then over the week you've an entire days worth of calories uneaten which may result in a weight loss but probably won't help in building the tone (which is the visible bit). Maybe look at upping your fat (seeds, nut butters etc since you're vegan) and protein (beans or upping the amount of protein powder you use in the mornings), play with the numbers on the previous days until you hit your goal (including your exercise cals) and then you have a ball park figure of what extra you can have on any specific day.
    Also don't be afraid to take a rest day (or at least a more gentle day) :)
  • JamestheLiar
    JamestheLiar Posts: 148 Member
    I'd like to thank you for spelling "lose" correctly. Not even kidding.
  • jamieparadis20
    jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
    jadelois wrote: »
    Just having a quick whiz back through your diary you don't seem to be hitting your calorie goal on the days when you earn a lot of calories back through exercise.

    Assuming you log everything then over the week you've an entire days worth of calories uneaten which may result in a weight loss but probably won't help in building the tone (which is the visible bit). Maybe look at upping your fat (seeds, nut butters etc since you're vegan) and protein (beans or upping the amount of protein powder you use in the mornings), play with the numbers on the previous days until you hit your goal (including your exercise cals) and then you have a ball park figure of what extra you can have on any specific day.
    Also don't be afraid to take a rest day (or at least a more gentle day) :)

    I think that below goal could be because of a few reasons:
    1. Whenever I DO hit my goal, my Fitbit app says that I've eaten too much even though I have them set with the exact same deficit. It's super upsetting when mfp says I've done well and Fitbit gives me a big red line so I try to be under.
    2. Because of the reason above and sometimes laziness, I don't always log every single calorie exactly. Like sometimes I'll have a small handful of nuts if I'm hungry but not count it (I know, it's bad)
    3. I just don't understand if even though I've been under my goal, which I now know isn't great and I'll pay more attention to, why I've hit a plateau? Shouldn't I be losing faster/too fast if I'm not eating enough?

  • jamieparadis20
    jamieparadis20 Posts: 129 Member
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    jamieparadis20 wrote: »
    Intentional_Me wrote: »
    What are your stats? Are you eating back half of your exercise calories?

    Sorry, I'm kind of uninformed haha. What do you mean by stats?
    Should I be aiming to eat back exactly half my calories? Or less? My daily deficit is 750 I'm pretty sure, is that related?

    stats are height,weight,age,calorie goal, your activity level,etc

    Ok then I'm 5 foot 2, 126 pounds, I'm 18, my cal goal is 1300, and I'm pretty activity like it's something that I pay attention to a lot. I'll be a lot more active once lax season starts too. My goal weight right now is 120, but considering I don't have any visible results right now I'm probably going to have to lose more. I just can't even get to 120! Last week my weight was an average of 124 but this week after a kind of bad weekend it bounced up to 127 yesterday then 126 today.
  • jadelois
    jadelois Posts: 28 Member
    jamieparadis20 wrote: »
    jadelois wrote: »
    Just having a quick whiz back through your diary you don't seem to be hitting your calorie goal on the days when you earn a lot of calories back through exercise.

    Assuming you log everything then over the week you've an entire days worth of calories uneaten which may result in a weight loss but probably won't help in building the tone (which is the visible bit). Maybe look at upping your fat (seeds, nut butters etc since you're vegan) and protein (beans or upping the amount of protein powder you use in the mornings), play with the numbers on the previous days until you hit your goal (including your exercise cals) and then you have a ball park figure of what extra you can have on any specific day.
    Also don't be afraid to take a rest day (or at least a more gentle day) :)

    I think that below goal could be because of a few reasons:
    1. Whenever I DO hit my goal, my Fitbit app says that I've eaten too much even though I have them set with the exact same deficit. It's super upsetting when mfp says I've done well and Fitbit gives me a big red line so I try to be under.
    2. Because of the reason above and sometimes laziness, I don't always log every single calorie exactly. Like sometimes I'll have a small handful of nuts if I'm hungry but not count it (I know, it's bad)
    3. I just don't understand if even though I've been under my goal, which I now know isn't great and I'll pay more attention to, why I've hit a plateau? Shouldn't I be losing faster/too fast if I'm not eating enough?

    Based on your stats etc then its possible you will just lose it very slowly now, sometimes the number in our heads doesn't tally up with what the body wants or needs. Try not to get too strung up on the numbers between Fitbit and MFP and its not bad to eat nuts when hungry (healthy sort of fats and minerals) so don't feel guilty for logging them.
    So long as you are getting adequate calories then the muscle tone will come with time and you'll probably find the plateau will only be temporary. All the best in achieving your goals.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    The question is not if you are doing enough, but if you are doing too much.

    Burnout (by eating too little or exercising too much or both) is a potent culprit and the reason why some people do not make it to their goal. Do you see yourself keeping up your current routine 6 months from now?
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