Feeling discouraged
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DesertMermaid29
Posts: 181 Member
I'm feeling very discouraged. I go to the gym for cardio and strength training 5 times a week, walk my pup almost every day and have introduced new sports into my week also: kickball and golfing. I'm counting my calories and making sure I eat enough. No fried or fast food. No overly processed foods.
It's been just over 3 weeks and I haven't lost even 1 pound. I also feel more "fat" than I used to.
In the past I lost 30 pounds just doing light exercise 3 days a week and eating worse than I am now. That was a couple years ago and I know my body is changing as I get older.
Does anyone have any advice? I'm not going to give up but I'm having a hard time pushing myself and eating healthy when I feel like there is no point.
It's been just over 3 weeks and I haven't lost even 1 pound. I also feel more "fat" than I used to.
In the past I lost 30 pounds just doing light exercise 3 days a week and eating worse than I am now. That was a couple years ago and I know my body is changing as I get older.
Does anyone have any advice? I'm not going to give up but I'm having a hard time pushing myself and eating healthy when I feel like there is no point.
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Replies
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Are you logging your food every day? Your food diary is locked, so we can't really get much info.
What is your height, current weight, current calorie goal?0 -
Are you weighing what you are logging?0
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When I have had to get back on the wagon, I know that I won't see any real changes (weight or clothes) for a MINIMUM of six weeks. I don't even check before then. It's just too discouraging. Instead, I use that time to focus on reestablishing my good habits, breaking off the old ones that sabotage my success, and other good things for me (sleep, water, etc). After that six weeks, then I evaluate if it's working. Even if it's a 2 pound change, it's going in the right direction. If you calculate in your head what you "should" lose according to MFP, you might be disappointed. Remember that slow and steady is a good thing, and in spite of thinking that nothing's changing, you can't do all of this good for yourself and not have some good changes-you just can't see them all. Hang in there. Read success stories. You'll get there. Giving up won't do any good.3
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what works for me is a binge day, 1 binge day usually over the weekend where I will consume double my calories , I will maybe gain 2 lbs the next day but it triggers the loss to start again1
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Are you weighing your food. If not we cannot help you. No one can help you until you weigh everything because any assumptions you are making are wrong 100% of the time. If you are weighing your food then you are assuming you are burning more through exercise than you are actually burning. Cut the calories you are giving yourself for exercise in half and see if that works.
The body is just a machine if you give it more than it needs, it stores fat, if you give it less than it needs, it burns fat. Sure some people's bodies do not store as much when they eat too much as other people's do but the body doesn't get a choice about burning it. It cannot run on air so it will burn the fat when you hit the tipping point where it is not getting as many calories as it needs to do what you tell it to do.
Its easier said than done but there is no magic pill and everyone has to eat less than they burn to lose weight.1 -
Do you have significant muscle soreness? Do you have any swelling or water retention?0
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Advice?
Follow the chart (yay chart)
Don't give up foods you don't want to -clean eating/food removal is not necessary, just eating at a deficit is. If I gave up sweets and the like, I'd crack like old Grecian pottery and eat a quart of ice cream
Weigh your food (except liquids - those you can measure with spoons and cups)
Don't give up.
The last is terribly hard when you're not seeing results, but if you give up, you'll never see any progress.
I've had that lack of loss. I was weighing food, going to the gym 3 times a week, and there was no loss for almost 2 months (my very part time trainer thought I wasn't weighing food, or logging accurately, etc). Eventually I did start loosing weight again just for some reason there was a stall.4 -
Thank you everyone for the advice and help. To answer your questions:
I am logging everyday (aside from the last couple days due to feeling discouraged). I am weighing my food but it is a new concept for me. I'm 5'4" and 168 lbs and I marked my goal as 125 but it's honestly to get to 132.
I have definitely been sore, several days I have a hard time climbing the stairs haha. I have noticed that I am more bloated than usual. I am drinking an average of 3.2 oz of water daily.0 -
DesertMermaid29 wrote: »I'm feeling very discouraged. I go to the gym for cardio and strength training 5 times a week, walk my pup almost every day and have introduced new sports into my week also: kickball and golfing. I'm counting my calories and making sure I eat enough. No fried or fast food. No overly processed foods.
It's been just over 3 weeks and I haven't lost even 1 pound. I also feel more "fat" than I used to.
In the past I lost 30 pounds just doing light exercise 3 days a week and eating worse than I am now. That was a couple years ago and I know my body is changing as I get older.
Does anyone have any advice? I'm not going to give up but I'm having a hard time pushing myself and eating healthy when I feel like there is no point.
Are you also making sure you're not eating too much? How many calories are you aiming for NET every day? You can't lose weight if you aren't in a deficit. When people say "maybe you're not losing weight because you're not eating enough" they are 99% of the time misguided as they are trying to say that starvation mode (in the common sense) exists - which is does not. The only case where it's true is if you're eating so little most days that it's causing you to binge often and you're lying to yourself and pretending that those binges aren't happening. And the calories from those binges are wiping out your calorie deficit. Those are the times when increasing calories daily can help you get better control over your binges - thus reducing your overall calorie consumption.
The truth is that if you aren't losing weight after a few weeks, you are eating at your maintenance calories (whether you know exactly what those numbers are or not).
Are you eating back 100% of your exercise calories? If so, then you are probably eating back too many calories. Try eating back only 50% of the calories you burn instead. Maybe up to 75% if you're finding that's not enough. Keep in mind that weight training calories are usually negligible in terms of if you should eat those back or not.
@ 24 years old, it's unlikely that it's your age being a factor. That might be more of an issue around 35 at the earliest. Many people don't notice a big difference until their 40's. It's more likely that your lifestyle has changed. Do you sit more at school/work than you used to? Do you have less active time during the day? Do you generally have less free time that you spend outdoors or do you spend more of your free time watching TV or reading instead of moving?
Also, do you eat out a lot? The calories from eating out can easily be 20-30% more than the online nutritional guides say. Even at the "healthy" places.
And assuming you meant you are drinking 32 oz of water a day (opposed to 3.2 oz)... that's really not much. Most people recommend drinking at least double (64 oz) that everyday - even more if you exercise often which you do. That might help you with your bloated feeling, and may help your muscles feel better as well.
Are you also remembering to log all the things you drink as well as eat? Milk, juice, coffee additives, energy drinks, etc?4 -
I'm eating at about a 500-600 calorie defecit0
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DesertMermaid29 wrote: »I'm eating at about a 500-600 calorie defecit
So how many calories are you eating a day (not deficit)? This way we can help double check the numbers for you. And does that goal include or exclude exercise calories?0 -
It includes exercise calories. For example, on a day I burned 500 calories I will eat 1900-2000 calories. Am I doing this right?0
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DesertMermaid29 wrote: »I'm feeling very discouraged. I go to the gym for cardio and strength training 5 times a week, walk my pup almost every day and have introduced new sports into my week also: kickball and golfing. I'm counting my calories and making sure I eat enough. No fried or fast food. No overly processed foods.
It's been just over 3 weeks and I haven't lost even 1 pound. I also feel more "fat" than I used to.
In the past I lost 30 pounds just doing light exercise 3 days a week and eating worse than I am now. That was a couple years ago and I know my body is changing as I get older.
Does anyone have any advice? I'm not going to give up but I'm having a hard time pushing myself and eating healthy when I feel like there is no point.
Are you also making sure you're not eating too much? How many calories are you aiming for NET every day? You can't lose weight if you aren't in a deficit. When people say "maybe you're not losing weight because you're not eating enough" they are 99% of the time misguided as they are trying to say that starvation mode (in the common sense) exists - which is does not. The only case where it's true is if you're eating so little most days that it's causing you to binge often and you're lying to yourself and pretending that those binges aren't happening. And the calories from those binges are wiping out your calorie deficit. Those are the times when increasing calories daily can help you get better control over your binges - thus reducing your overall calorie consumption.
The truth is that if you aren't losing weight after a few weeks, you are eating at your maintenance calories (whether you know exactly what those numbers are or not).
Are you eating back 100% of your exercise calories? If so, then you are probably eating back too many calories. Try eating back only 50% of the calories you burn instead. Maybe up to 75% if you're finding that's not enough. Keep in mind that weight training calories are usually negligible in terms of if you should eat those back or not.
@ 24 years old, it's unlikely that it's your age being a factor. That might be more of an issue around 35 at the earliest. Many people don't notice a big difference until their 40's. It's more likely that your lifestyle has changed. Do you sit more at school/work than you used to? Do you have less active time during the day? Do you generally have less free time that you spend outdoors or do you spend more of your free time watching TV or reading instead of moving?
Also, do you eat out a lot? The calories from eating out can easily be 20-30% more than the online nutritional guides say. Even at the "healthy" places.
And assuming you meant you are drinking 32 oz of water a day (opposed to 3.2 oz)... that's really not much. Most people recommend drinking at least double (64 oz) that everyday - even more if you exercise often which you do. That might help you with your bloated feeling, and may help your muscles feel better as well.
Are you also remembering to log all the things you drink as well as eat? Milk, juice, coffee additives, energy drinks, etc?
Thank you for the reply!
It includes exercise calories. For example, on a day I burned 500 calories I will eat 1900-2000 calories. Am I doing this right?
I will try eating back only 50% of my calories and see if this makes a difference.
I'm actually currently the most active I've been in my entire life. That's one of the reasons I am so confused. I also very rarely eat out, maybe once or twice a month.
I also had a total typo with the water! I have a water bottle that holds 27oz and I refill it 3 times a day, so 81oz. I also do not drink anything except for water, aside from the very occasional glass of wine which I do log. Other then that I just add lemon to my waters.
Thank you so much for all of your help. The last time I lost weight a few years ago I just generally logged and was active a few days a week and the weight flew off of me. Now I'm trying to do everything right and it's still new. I'm hoping that I'm just missing something simple that I can tweak and get on with having a healthier body.
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I usually feel more "fat" when I'm retaining water and if you have severely upped your activity that could be it!2
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Keep doing what you're doing and give it some more time. If it still isn't working then make readjustments. I went through the same thing and got tripped up with my frustration over having had success in the past while doing half as much work. I didn't let my frustration bring me to a standstill for very long. I accepted it and experimented until I found the perfect zone for losing weight which was significantly less (1380 vs 1900-2000) then what I was eating. I've since lost 70 lbs.2
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what works for me is a binge day, 1 binge day usually over the weekend where I will consume double my calories , I will maybe gain 2 lbs the next day but it triggers the loss to start again
Yeah this isn't how it works. At all.DesertMermaid29 wrote: »It includes exercise calories. For example, on a day I burned 500 calories I will eat 1900-2000 calories. Am I doing this right?
1900-2000 might be your maintenance, honestly. I'm 5'5" and 140 lbs and if I don't make an effort to walk 15k steps a day, my maintenance is 2200ish... and that's weighing everything I eat. Exercise really doesn't mean as much as your general activity either. I can burn more calories in a day when I only exercise for 30 minutes as long as I'm active the rest of the day, than if I go to the gym for 2 hours then do nothing the rest of the day.
I'd go to http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/, use lightly active, and eat what it tells you, without worrying about eating back exercise calories.2
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