Why is my weight loss unsuccessful

13567…12

Replies

  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
    Two weeks isn't long enough to know. The only way to be sure it to weigh it, whatever "it" is. If you are logging everything, using the package sizes is close enough, you might be off some calories, but it wont be enough to stall you if you are doing everything else right. Lastly, OP I think I am seeing a little defensiveness in your responses, I haven't seen anything that would warrant that. If you want to succeed, be open to the possibility that you may be doing something wrong. My advice is to keep doing what you are doing for about 6-8 weeks and then reevaluate.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    lemonychild wrote: »
    At her weight, even with the inaccuracies she will see weight loss. She's eating too little anyway for her weight and exercise regimen:

    Eating too little is not going to cause her to NOT lose, though.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    chynaloveee1 wrote: »
    @Look_Its_Kriss as for the chicken I weigh it on my food scale when it's done cooking ... should I do it raw?

    I always weigh my chicken cooked. 4 oz of grilled chicken breast is 170 calories.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    prattiger65 wrote: »
    Two weeks isn't long enough to know. The only way to be sure it to weigh it, whatever "it" is. If you are logging everything, using the package sizes is close enough, you might be off some calories, but it wont be enough to stall you if you are doing everything else right. Lastly, OP I think I am seeing a little defensiveness in your responses, I haven't seen anything that would warrant that. If you want to succeed, be open to the possibility that you may be doing something wrong. My advice is to keep doing what you are doing for about 6-8 weeks and then reevaluate.

    While her deficit might be a nice cushion now on the package errors, being aware of them and getting into the habit now is probably a good idea. Just like the picture i posted, the muffin says 1 muffin is 130 calories, however at a 77g weight, the muffin is 175 calories. And if all she ate that day was a muffin, 45 calories might not seem like a big deal.. but we also know she was logging her chicken wrong by 102 calories. sometimes she would eat that twice in the same day.. calories add up, small errors can make bigger errors bigger.. its important to know things now so that when her deficit is smaller and shes only got 250 calories between losing and maintenance that shes not eating her deficit.

    That muffin is just as likely to be less as more. I mostly agree with you that as the deficit gets smaller the logging must be tighter, however, that is something everyone learns over time. OP is concerned as to why the scale isn't moving NOW, not sometime later as the deficit gets smaller. I like the idea of keeping it pretty simple in the beginning, but I don't disagree with you on the whole. I am more concerned with OP being defensive.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    chynaloveee1 wrote: »
    I've been clean eating and working out for about 2 weeks but I see no changes. I stick to my diet religiously (egg whites for breakfast, 6oz of chicken, 5oz of veggies for dinner and lunch... drink only water and maybe a protein shake if I need it) ... I see a lot of people saying they see change fast and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. I stick to my 1200 calorie diet with high protein and low (non) carbs. I also do an hour of cardio everyday plus weight training. What can I do to start seeing results?

    What results? Have you lost any weight? It's only been two weeks...very often, people's expectations are pretty out of whack with reality.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
    Is the accurate, the only comprehensive and accurate database available.
    If you have frozen chicken and intend to cook it, search that database for "chicken, raw".
    You'll get a lot of choices. The one I use is

    05039, Chicken, broilers or fryers, light meat, meat only, raw

    I copy that from the USDA web site and paste it into the MFP food diary. I even sometimes double-check the mfp nutrition to see that it exactly matches the USDA site.

    A neat feature of the USDA site is that you can change the serving size. If you weigh your breast and it's 251 grams, you can change the USDA serving size from 100 to 251 and all the values change to reflect the nutrition in the serving.

    I keep tabs open on my browser for the USDA database and for convertunits.com, which is always useful.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    bjvbcuyna1pl.jpg
    recommended serving sizes are often never right

    Look at this photo, the package says "1 muffin" but the gram weight is 20g LOWER then what the muffin actually weighs, making the calories in that muffin much higher then what is listed on the package.

    That photo also shows the plastic package touching the weighing plate, which can easily be the additional 20 grams. I'm just saying.
    My morning Ole Xtreme Wellness tortilla is supposed to be 45 grams, but rarely is. Today it was 43 grams.
  • erichoush455
    erichoush455 Posts: 1 Member
    Can somebody tell tell me the difference in calories between 3 oz. of raw chicken breast vs. 3 oz. of cooked chicken breast. I have always followed the rule that 1oz of cooked chicken breast = 30 calories. Is this correct?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    erichoush455 wrote: »
    Can somebody tell tell me the difference in calories between 3 oz. of raw chicken breast vs. 3 oz. of cooked chicken breast. I have always followed the rule that 1oz of cooked chicken breast = 30 calories. Is this correct?

    The exact difference will vary depending on how much moisture is lost during cooking. Since the difference in weight is due to water leaving the chicken, the same weight of cooked meat is generally going to have more calories than the same calorie of raw meat.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
    Is the accurate, the only comprehensive and accurate database available.
    If you have frozen chicken and intend to cook it, search that database for "chicken, raw".
    You'll get a lot of choices. The one I use is

    05039, Chicken, broilers or fryers, light meat, meat only, raw

    I copy that from the USDA web site and paste it into the MFP food diary. I even sometimes double-check the mfp nutrition to see that it exactly matches the USDA site.

    A neat feature of the USDA site is that you can change the serving size. If you weigh your breast and it's 251 grams, you can change the USDA serving size from 100 to 251 and all the values change to reflect the nutrition in the serving.

    I keep tabs open on my browser for the USDA database and for convertunits.com, which is always useful.

    This is exactly what how I get my entries ^.

    I don't feel that it matter much if I am using an entry for raw or cooked, as long as that matches the state of the food I am weighing, and the entry matches the USDA database.
  • junodog1
    junodog1 Posts: 4,792 Member
    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
    ...
    I keep tabs open on my browser for the USDA database and for convertunits.com, which is always useful.

    Side note - you can enter in google and bing search bars something like ' 3.25 oz = g ' or ' 32 F = C ' and you will get the converted result. Easy Peasy.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    sadeelisha86 wrote: »
    Hi OP
    I'm in the same boat. I started earing clean and doing daily hiit sessions 4 weeks ago. After 2 weeks, I'd lost 5lb , which I was pleased with. 3rd week I stayed the same, and today I weighed of see I've gained 3lb.
    I'm trying not to let it faze me. As someone said, unless there's something medically wrong , this won't continue, and the fat will start dropping off soon.
    That being said, I'm giving it another 2 weeks amd if I still haven't lost anything (I have 48lb I want to lose, and I'm 5ft 1), then I'm going to sign up to the body coach. I've been following his hiit workouts on YouTube and Facebook but his actual plan tells you what to eat and when, specifically to you. Have a look at the transformations on his website, they're incredible (but realistic)
    Stick at it !
    I love this quote -
    "Don't put off doing something because of the time it will take. The time will pass anyway."
    Xx

    Where are you in your menstrual cycle? I gain at ovulation and right before my TOM. Because of this (and because Lyle McDonald said to) I compare myself to last month, not last week.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6846ZTBu08k&index=4&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    prattiger65 wrote: »
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    prattiger65 wrote: »
    Two weeks isn't long enough to know. The only way to be sure it to weigh it, whatever "it" is. If you are logging everything, using the package sizes is close enough, you might be off some calories, but it wont be enough to stall you if you are doing everything else right. Lastly, OP I think I am seeing a little defensiveness in your responses, I haven't seen anything that would warrant that. If you want to succeed, be open to the possibility that you may be doing something wrong. My advice is to keep doing what you are doing for about 6-8 weeks and then reevaluate.

    While her deficit might be a nice cushion now on the package errors, being aware of them and getting into the habit now is probably a good idea. Just like the picture i posted, the muffin says 1 muffin is 130 calories, however at a 77g weight, the muffin is 175 calories. And if all she ate that day was a muffin, 45 calories might not seem like a big deal.. but we also know she was logging her chicken wrong by 102 calories. sometimes she would eat that twice in the same day.. calories add up, small errors can make bigger errors bigger.. its important to know things now so that when her deficit is smaller and shes only got 250 calories between losing and maintenance that shes not eating her deficit.

    That muffin is just as likely to be less as more. I mostly agree with you that as the deficit gets smaller the logging must be tighter, however, that is something everyone learns over time. OP is concerned as to why the scale isn't moving NOW, not sometime later as the deficit gets smaller. I like the idea of keeping it pretty simple in the beginning, but I don't disagree with you on the whole. I am more concerned with OP being defensive.

    I think defensiveness is normal.. i used to feel that way too when i started on MFP 500 times before finally losing the weight lol
    I think a lot of it comes from misinformation from people losing weight close to her.
    Like.. she says in her first post that shes seen people do this diet with success, maybe they told her a lot of stuff that really isn't true.. kind of like the starvation mode comment or people telling others that the key to success is paleo, clean eating or keto or fasting etc.. or media telling people things.. I have a girl i work with who body builds for competitions who strongly believes in starvation mode in the same way as the girl above posted. But try and explain that to her now when shes already convinced and she gets defensive too.. she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesnt even want to hear it, people on her body building forum are having success so clearly they must know something, right? lol
    All we can do as a group is give information now.. maybe she will take it in... good tips were that two weeks is definitely too soon to tell anything, that she was eating far too little and shes risking her health and that logging errors can happen with packaging and measuring cups.. she may not apply that stuff now.. maybe she will just keep doing what shes doing, weight will drop, etc and maybe she will get to that point of small deficit.. when a stall happens again, if she comes asking for explanations, when people give her these replies again, she might go "Oh yeah! i was told that a long time ago" and maybe the truth behind it will stick more and she will decide to put these practices into play.. maybe they will finally push out the misinformation thats hanging around in her mind.

    Its always worrisome that people might get frustrated and quit, i worry about that too.. too much information overload, for sure.. If i had a better memory of my past experiences here on MFP during the 500 times i started and quit, It would be interesting to remember if the tips i got back then were the ones im actually using now with success..

    I hate to copy a whole post like this, but I want to say that I agree with ALL of this!
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    OP - you've received some great advice on tracking and logging.

    Understand that you're in a marathon, not a sprint and that you are on a path identifying those root causes that led to obesity. Take baby steps and realize that weight loss is not linear. My weight fluctuates ~5lbs/day just from water variation.

    Start setting goals and only take on 1-2 at a time. Make these small, meaningful, and achievable. Hit those goals, celebrate and set new loftier goals.
  • bee_bee8
    bee_bee8 Posts: 96 Member
    You've gotten some great advice from people far more knowledgable than I... But I do want to offer some words of encouragement. You're off to a great start, using a tool like MFP and getting serious about eating and fitness. Everyone is different and loses weight at different rates, so try not to compare yourself to other people. Also keep in mind, if you're exercising much more than usual, you're building muscle which weighs more than fat. The number on the scale might not change much, but that doesn't mean your body isn't changing. Try using a tape measure around your waist, hips, thighs, etc to get a better sense of your progress; that's a more effective way to determine fat loss.

    Keep at it and try to be patient, as tough as that can be. If you're accurately logging food and exercising consistently, you should start to see results soon. If you still don't after another couple of weeks, it could be a medical problem. I was having trouble losing weight a while back, and a blood test revealed I have hypothyroidism (which I believe is not uncommon). I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet, but keep that in mind if you're still struggling after a month or so.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    chynaloveee1 wrote: »
    @misskarne those are the "recommended serving size. So if it says 16 crackers for 160 cals, then I'll count out 16 crackers, lol 1pkg is the packet my protein powder comes in (one packet per use) and the granola bars come 2 in a pack "2 bar"

    Instead of going by the serving number (which is just an estimate), go by the weight listed next to the serving size. It should be there right next to the "12 crackers" or "1 slice". You'll see, by weighing everything (yes everything) that you eat, the numbers will he far mire accurate.

    Weigh foods raw (meat, pasta, rice) as generally the nutrition information on the packaging is for raw.

    Also, you've only been going for 2 weeks, just started exercise and are on your period. You need to give weight loss more than 2 weeks. You are retaining from your hormones as well as the exercise. Give changes at least 3 weeks.

    Also? No need to "eat clean" for weight loss. Weight loss is all about eating less calories than you need to maintain your current weight (aka, eating less than your TDEE or total daily energy expenditure).

    Why are you eating so little? At your height weight and age, you can lose weight eating more than 1200. You shouldn't aim to lose more than 2lbs per week.

    Don't "spoon dry items" into cups. Cups and spoons are for liquids. For work lunches, prepare them at home or weigh your food at work.

Categories