Weight loss issues
donnaleekohrs
Posts: 4 Member
HELP!!! I am a 53 year old women 190 lbs. I exercise 5 days a week for an hour and a forty minutes. These exercises include 45 minutes of Zumba, 15 minutes of weights, 15 minutes of stomach crunches, 15 minutes of jogging, and 12 minutes of core exercises. I also eat about 1400 calories per day which include fish, chicken breast, salads, fresh fruit, smoothies with fat free yogurt, and steamed veggies. Instead of ground beef in my dishes I use ground turkey. Salad dressing are all low fat or low calories. I weigh my food before I eat it. I have a fresh hot lemon water every morning before I start my day. I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning. I have a green tea after each meal. I drink 7 glasses of water a day. I take multivitamins every morning. I am not on any prescription medication. My issue is I CANNOT lose wight. I either stay the same weight or gain. Last year I did 2 hours of exercises a day and ate less then 1200 calories per day. In 7 months I only lost 20 lbs. This year I have been exercising for almost 4 months and like I said I haven't lost weight. I either maintain it or I gain. I have had my thyroid checked and its normal. What am I doing wrong??
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Replies
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Are you weighing 100% of your foods (or as close as possible)? Using correct entries from the database and making your own recipes to log instead of using homemade/generic entries? How are you measuring your exercise calories and how much, if any of them do you eat back?1
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You say you weigh your food... are you logging here? Are you weighing everything by grams? Are you verifying data base entries?
Can you open your diary?2 -
I think you are trying to exercise off your weight and not incurring enough of a deficit to get anywhere. You need to eat less. You may need to exercise less so you are a bit less hungry but you'll have to work on the equilibrium between calories and exercise. Regardless, your current plan clearly doesn't work.4
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The crucial thing for weight loss is not eating healthily or exercising, it's specifically about how much you eat compared to how much you burn. A lot of people find themselves stuck in the same way you have, and the problem is usually either underestimating what they eat, or overestimating how much energy they burn through exercise. Or both.
It is very easy to underestimate what you eat, human beings are incredibly bad at estimating portions and we get thrown off by things like plate size, plate colour, level of hunger, behaviour of other people - we're just bad at it. Have you tried weighing your food to see what your portions are really like?
And when you are exercising as much as you do, it is very easy to overestimate the burn. How do you estimate how much you burn through exercise?3 -
I'm not sure that she needs to eat less. With her rate of exercise and weight, I think 1400 is a good calorie intake.
I'm her age and short, and that's about what I was eating, with exercise, to lose a pound a week when I was around that weight.
She could maybe drop it to 1300, but not too much lower.2 -
The question is if the 1400 calories is actually accurate or not.4
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I do use a food scale that measures my food. I have a fit bit that I also use that calculates my steps, calories burned etc.. I also use my fitness pal and record everything I take in. It usually say I burned more calories than I take in0
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Can you open your diary? Perhaps some of us looking through it might help shed some light. Your answer really didn't help.0
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Fitbits aren't always accurate. I don't have personal experience as I don't have one but I've seen a few people on here having trouble with them overestimating calorie burns.0
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donnaleekohrs wrote: »I do use a food scale that measures my food. I have a fit bit that I also use that calculates my steps, calories burned etc.. I also use my fitness pal and record everything I take in. It usually say I burned more calories than I take in
usually? Fitbits can be super off especially for the types of exercises you say you do. Still shouldnt be having an issue at 1400 if your accurate so im betting your not. Do you snack, not count condiments, Drink calories you dont count?0 -
How tall are you, OP?0
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No sodas just water, teas a coffee each morning and if I do go out which I hardly ever do I have a beer or 2 or a wine cooler. But like I said that maybe once a month. I don't have a sweet tooth. I do prefer salty over sweet but again I do not do much snacking as I make sure not to have it in my house0
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I'm always suspicious when someone refuses to open their diary or address the questions asked. Based on that I'd recommend checking your logging. Be sure you're using your scale for ALL solids - measuring cups for all liquids, use accurate entries, be sure you're logging exercise calories accurately, use the recipe builder for anything you cook yourself, log every single thing that passes your lips. Be very honest with yourself if you're really logging as accurately as you claim.4
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Donna, you aren't answering any direct questions asked of you. You want to go on with laundry lists of what you *think* you're doing in your efforts to lose weight.
That isn't helpful in addressing why it's not coming off.
Please stop trying to convince all of us that you're working as hard as you can to do everything right. Weight loss is about setting your ego aside, admitting that there's a learning curve, and being ready to adapt.
I'm your age and started out at 210 pounds.
Now please, open your diary if you're serious about finding out why the scale isn't moving.7 -
Take the calorie burn fitbit gives you with a grain of salt.. For some people they are spot on, for others they overestimate. Do you eat any of exercise calories back?
I've tried the create a deficit with exercise thing before, it didn't go too well for me. Partly because exercise calories are nearly impossible to pin point down to the calorie, and also, the more i exercise the hungrier i get, so in that sense it's a catch 22.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Take the calorie burn fitbit gives you with a grain of salt.. For some people they are spot on, for others they overestimate. Do you eat any of exercise calories back?
I've tried the create a deficit with exercise thing before, it didn't go too well for me. Partly because exercise calories are nearly impossible to pin point down to the calorie, and also, the more i exercise the hungrier i get, so in that sense it's a catch 22.
I feel liek im getting to know you very well XD I knew you were going to say the hungrier you got thing before you even did
I never noticed until you said it my appetite does the same if i do more than walk 0 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Take the calorie burn fitbit gives you with a grain of salt.. For some people they are spot on, for others they overestimate. Do you eat any of exercise calories back?
I've tried the create a deficit with exercise thing before, it didn't go too well for me. Partly because exercise calories are nearly impossible to pin point down to the calorie, and also, the more i exercise the hungrier i get, so in that sense it's a catch 22.
I feel liek im getting to know you very well XD I knew you were going to say the hungrier you got thing before you even did I never noticed until you said it my appetite does the same if i do more than walk
Oh God, am i that predictable
I think the mfp community know more about me and my husband and my little intricacies than my family does lol
ETA: I've been reducing my exercise over the last week and i can feel a noticeable difference in my appetite which is reducing also.0 -
Also @donnaleekohrs if you want more detailed advice change your diary to public. The experienced members here are really good at spotting mistakes or little oddities.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings2 -
Throw away your fit bit and use a TDEE calculator to figure out how many calories you should be eating per day. Generally TDEE minus 250 to 500 calories is good (but do not go lower than your BMR). Keep exercising but maybe do more weights and less cardio, and make sure you get a couple rest days per week. Make sure you're eating enough protein and a good balance of carbs & fat- Google "how to calculate my macros" to find this.
Manually adjust your calories and macros in myfitnesspal. DO NOT enter exercise into myfitnesspal and don't eat back exercise calories. You might want to implement 1 day of eating at maintenance/TDEE per week to help bring up your metabolism- on these days just increase your carbs to reach the higher calorie goal.
If this doesn't work you may need to take a diet break altogether (eat at maintenance) for a few weeks to give your metabolism a rest.1 -
donnaleekohrs wrote: »I do use a food scale that measures my food. I have a fit bit that I also use that calculates my steps, calories burned etc.. I also use my fitness pal and record everything I take in. It usually say I burned more calories than I take in
I have a Fitbit and I DO NOT calculate the steps into my calorie burn. It WAY overestimates what you burn. Additionally, while I log ALL of my food, I put myself as sedentary in the mfp app as mfp WAY overestimates how many calories an "active" person burns. I would much rather underestimate how much I really burn exercising and then I can be pleasantly surprised when I step on the scale and lose more than the 1 lb I have mfp set to loose.1 -
I've set my fitbit height to be 30cm less than my actual because it overestimates my calories by a lot. Don't trust it 100%.3
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gebeziseva wrote: »I've set my fitbit height to be 30cm less than my actual because it overestimates my calories by a lot. Don't trust it 100%.
Yep, my fitbit thinks I'm a short 50 year old woman, as it def overestimates when i put my real stats in. Also, it had that my walking stride length was 91cm (my manual mistaken entry) which is my jogging stride, when i let fitbit automatically change it, it dropped down to 60cm!2 -
How many calories are you logging for weights, crunches, and core exercises?
45 minutes of Zumba,
15 minutes of weights,
15 minutes of stomach crunches,
15 minutes of jogging, and
12 minutes of core exercises
Also are you saying you eat 1400 or you net 1400?0 -
I think telling someone to throw away her Fitbit is a bit extreme.4
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How many calories are you logging for weights, crunches, and core exercises?
45 minutes of Zumba,
15 minutes of weights,
15 minutes of stomach crunches,
15 minutes of jogging, and
12 minutes of core exercises
Also are you saying you eat 1400 or you net 1400?
Even if she were sedentary, her TDEE, giving her a short height to calculate it, would be about 1800 at her weight.
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »How many calories are you logging for weights, crunches, and core exercises?
45 minutes of Zumba,
15 minutes of weights,
15 minutes of stomach crunches,
15 minutes of jogging, and
12 minutes of core exercises
Also are you saying you eat 1400 or you net 1400?
Even if she were sedentary, her TDEE, giving her a short height to calculate it, would be about 1800 at her weight.
That's fine. I'm trying to get info since she has not provided many useful details. Is she logging 1000 calories for exercise and just thinks she's netting 1400, for instance.0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »How many calories are you logging for weights, crunches, and core exercises?
45 minutes of Zumba,
15 minutes of weights,
15 minutes of stomach crunches,
15 minutes of jogging, and
12 minutes of core exercises
Also are you saying you eat 1400 or you net 1400?
Even if she were sedentary, her TDEE, giving her a short height to calculate it, would be about 1800 at her weight.
That's fine. I'm trying to get info since she has not provided many useful details. Is she logging 1000 calories for exercise and just thinks she's netting 1400, for instance.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, it's tough when OP's like this aren't very forthcoming.1 -
I never found my fitbit accurate for calories from steps. I only track calories burnt from actual exercise (not activities of daily living) and even then I only eat back half.
It is highly unlikely that a person weighing 190, exercising almost 2 hours a day and only eating 1400 would not be dropping ponds. Not trying to make you defensive, but the reality is there is no magic, calories in calories out. if you have tracked everything you eat....every taste test when cooking (I'm bad for that) ...etc and you are still not loosing then see your Dr and get a check up. I know when I have not lost and I tell me self I am tracking everything when I dig down and look at it I am not being 100% accurate and the inaccuracy adds up fast.
Keep trying, don't loose sight of it being about more than weight loss, it is about health and being active and eating well is good for you.2 -
Yes, that's true, when I said the crucial thing was not eating healthily or exercising, I was talking purely about weight loss. Of course those things are important for your health - but they won't automatically make someone lose weight. That's a matter of quantity.1
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To the comments of people saying I have not shown you my diary ever think that maybe I don't know how! Instead of complaiining maybe tell me now to do that. I am not saying I never eat salty foods or eat junk food especially when it's a certain time of month. I also told you I do drink once in a while. I think I'm pretty honest when I enter the items in my fitness pal. I have been very busy so I also couldn't get back to most of your comments sooner. I will not be logging on again for a while as I am away for the weekend. Thank you to all those that gave me some good advice. I really appreciate it. I am 5"4 and 53 year of age for the person that was asking. I eat 1400 calories from what my food scale says and when I enter it into my fitness. Not sure how more accurate I can be. I do not skimp on my entries0
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