Not losing much....

elizagirly
elizagirly Posts: 10 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been watching what I eat faithfully for almost 4 weeks. I'm watching my carbs for the first time and have been keeping my carbs under about 75 and many of those are fruits even. (Previously I'd eat about 150-175 carbs and few veggies/fruits). My calories have been at about 1200. My job is sedentary and I haven't had much time to exercise or even walk during lunch, sadly. About 4 years ago, I went from 265 -> 190 in about a year and then depression hit, I went up to 225 last year. I'm proud to have not gained everything back at least! I'm frustrated that over the past month, I've only shaved off 3 measly pounds! I know I should still be proud at the dropping scale, but I have been SO DEDICATED with my eating. (I sat through a 2 hr meeting with a tray of cookies in front of me yesterday! lol) Thoughts?

Highest 4 years ago- 265
SW this time- 221.5
CW- 218.5

Female
Age 40
5'4"

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    cq8hshsya5ig.jpg
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    Good to see this flowchart is still around! OP - check out the flow chart for help its very helpful imo.
  • elizagirly
    elizagirly Posts: 10 Member
    Thank you @quiksylver296 . I log all my food, but I admit that I mostly eyeball a lot of measurements. (But some things are scannable...and some things are as easy as they can be - small apple, medium red banana, 2 cups of mixed greens isn't THAT much different than 2.5 cups of mixed greens...) Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I'm not actively exercising (once the snow melts... I hope to change things) and I have no medical issues and yes, I've had a recent check-up/blood tests.

    Hmm... I guess I'll keep giving it time for now. :/
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    3 pounds in not even 4 weeks isnt bad good job. tighten that logging up for sure
  • cross2bear
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
    Youve lost some weight, so thats a good thing, right? Patience is a virtue....weight loss isnt 100% predictable over any given time span, nor is it linear, so just keep up the good work, have faith and you will be rewarded!
  • elizagirly
    elizagirly Posts: 10 Member
    Thanks everyone. I guess I need to just be patient. The 265 -> 190 was so easy in comparison and I suppose I'm frustrated that things aren't the same... Thanks again.
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    elizagirly wrote: »
    Thanks everyone. I guess I need to just be patient. The 265 -> 190 was so easy in comparison and I suppose I'm frustrated that things aren't the same... Thanks again.

    people tend to forget the second time around how hard it was the first time :p I bet some of it went slow and drove you crazy back then to. You just dont remember, The human brains funny like that you remember the success not the journey
  • elizagirly
    elizagirly Posts: 10 Member
    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    elizagirly wrote: »
    I bet some of it went slow and drove you crazy back then to. You just dont remember, The human brains funny like that you remember the success not the journey

    You're probably right.... THIS time, I don't want there to be a next time!
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    edited March 2017
    Atta girl :P There wont be you got this!
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    You're nearly doing a pound a week which means you're probably eating 400-500 cals less a day than your body needs to stay the same which without exercising is really good going and actually quite hard. Well done on the progress so far the only thing I can suggest is tighten up your logging and when you feel up to it earn a bigger deficit with exercise. x Good luck, you're doing great it just takes time and that's a nice healthy rate of loss.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    A few more of those measly 3 lb lost months and you'll a hot chick.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    3 lb in 4 weeks? That's pretty good. While you could tighten up your logging - and I'd advise to do so asap, as you'll likely need to later on, when you get closer to your goal - for now, it's working fairly well. So I wouldn't worry too much and think you could probably continue doing what you're doing. If things change drastically, then definitely reexamine your logging.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited March 2017
    elizagirly wrote: »
    Thank you @quiksylver296 . I log all my food, but I admit that I mostly eyeball a lot of measurements. (But some things are scannable...and some things are as easy as they can be - small apple, medium red banana, 2 cups of mixed greens isn't THAT much different than 2.5 cups of mixed greens...) Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I'm not actively exercising (once the snow melts... I hope to change things) and I have no medical issues and yes, I've had a recent check-up/blood tests.

    Hmm... I guess I'll keep giving it time for now. :/

    Even if something is scannable, it still needs to be weighed. If a package has 200 grams in it, and the serving size is 1 cup (100 grams). You eyeball a cup, you scan it and it logs 1 cup (100 grams). But there is no guarantee 1 cup weighs 100 grams. The manufacturer determines all the nutrition info based on the weighed serving (grams) then estimates what volume goes along with that (cups, tablespoons, 20 chips). And they are usually not very good at estimating.

    I've had what I consider a "medium" banana be anywhere from 75 to 125 grams. Fruit can be very juicy and dense sometimes, but drier or airier another time - same size, different weight, different calories. Seriously, when i went from eyeballing/measuring cups to using the food scale, I found i was easily eating 200-300 cals per day MORE than I thought I was! That's another half a pound per week. Even if you only do it for a few weeks, it will help you see where you are losing calories.

    Plus, 3 lbs in 4 weeks is pretty dang good :drinker:
  • perkymommy
    perkymommy Posts: 1,642 Member
    I have to be sure and adjust my time when I enter my exercise for the day. For instance, on my treadmill I can walk 40 minutes but have to scale it back to 25 or 30 to make the calories burned match what MFP tries to give me. They will give me anywhere from 10-30 extra calories than what I actually burned. I like to eat them back up if I get hungry on any particular day so I have to watch that closely.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    perkymommy wrote: »
    I have to be sure and adjust my time when I enter my exercise for the day. For instance, on my treadmill I can walk 40 minutes but have to scale it back to 25 or 30 to make the calories burned match what MFP tries to give me. They will give me anywhere from 10-30 extra calories than what I actually burned. I like to eat them back up if I get hungry on any particular day so I have to watch that closely.

    You know, instead of editing (shortening) the time, you can edit the calories burned when you are adding the exercise to your diary...
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    A couple of years ago I lost more than 60 pounds with very "inaccurate" logging. I mostly went by what it said on the package and made good use of the bar code scanner. I didn't, however, do it without exercise. I suspect I underestimated my calorie burns and made up for any flaws in my food logging. Twenty years ago I lost 70 pounds without exercise. That time I didn't log anything. I just made sure that each of my three meals were at or below 500 calories (being the bright college student I was). I was hungry most of the time, but it worked.
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    elizagirly wrote: »
    Thank you @quiksylver296 . I log all my food, but I admit that I mostly eyeball a lot of measurements. (But some things are scannable...and some things are as easy as they can be - small apple, medium red banana, 2 cups of mixed greens isn't THAT much different than 2.5 cups of mixed greens...)

    Eyeballing bad. Especially the closer you get to goal, the more accurate you want to be. And you'd be surprised at how different things are on the scale, sure the calories may not be really far off, but when you take into account how often you're off on several items, it could come into play.
    Also keep an eye on the entries, they're people added so they are sometimes inaccurate - today I weighed out over 7oz of chicken, the entry told me it was 40 calories. Such lies, I had to find an accurate entry with ounces, and I had to go through a few before I found it.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Your bmr is about 1650, and if you are truly sedentary/inactive then your body only uses about 2000-2050 calories worth of energy in a day. That means at best you could hope to lose 1.5 pounds a week with calorie restriction. Considering there is bound to be some error in logging, and water weight may be masking some of your results, showing 3 pounds lost in 1 month is pretty good in my opinion.
  • PrincessTinyheart
    PrincessTinyheart Posts: 679 Member
    I would definitely recommend tightening up the logging. I find myself continuously fine-tuning my measuring, to the point that I even have a digital pocket scale that I use in restaurants and potlucks - it's still not 100% perfect but it helps me a lot and when I'm not sure what exactly is in a recipe, I choose the match that has the highest calories.

    Weigh all solids, measure all liquids and powders. I weigh fruit and veggies too and have stopped using generic "medium banana" or whatever.
  • BridgetteM14
    BridgetteM14 Posts: 12 Member
    I am turning 40 in a few months and I've been having a harder time losing weight than in my past. I started 5 weeks ago and am only down 5 pounds. 5 years ago I could lose 10 pounds in a week or 2.
    HEIGHT 5.4
    SW 200
    CW 195
    There's definitely some great advice on this thread! Knowing I'm not alone in this journey helps me, I like adding friends and watching/reading their journey helps keep me going.
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