Should I make a change

I started only two weeks ago with my fitness pal. I do the elliptical about 35 to 45 minutes daily and stay in my calorie goals, except for one day I went a little over. I lost weight the first week, but did not lose any weight this week. I weigh myself once a week. If you do not lose weight in a week should you eat less and change everything or should you give it a little longer? Perhaps my weigh-in day I was retaining water weight?

Replies

  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    One week is not long enough to determine that changes are needed. Just keep working on an accurate dairy and meeting your calorie goals.
  • DaniCanadian
    DaniCanadian Posts: 261 Member
    For one, give it more time. For two, are you using a kitchen scale to weight absolutely everything that's not a liquid? Measuring cups and spoons are not accurate for solid foods. Even processed stuff from a box should be weighed out.

    A kitchen scale got me over my "plateau".
  • Aundres242
    Aundres242 Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks so much for your replies. I do have and use a kitchen scale. I weigh out most things, but bad habit, I do eat a lot of low calorie frozen foods.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    1. One day's weight doesn't mean a whole lot. I weigh daily, log my lows, and use Libra a phone app to watch my weight trend. Any one day could be +/- 2lbs for me. If you are female and tend to retain water around that time of month, are salt sensitive, are not REALLY regular, it could be way more.

    2. 1 week means nothing at all. I wouldn't readjust unless its been at least 3 weeks at approx same calories and exercise.

    3. Make sure logging is accurate as Dani said. Sounds like you are doing this.

    4. How did you pick your calorie number and how are you logging your exercise? are you eating your exercise cals back?
  • Aundres242
    Aundres242 Posts: 7 Member
    Lilawolf, thanks for your advice. This sight helped me calculate my daily calories when I first signed up and answered a few questions. I eat about a 1/4 to 1/2 of my exercise calories back. I am scared to eat them back because before I started with Myfitnesspal, without exercise at 1200 calories I maintained my weight. IF I ate more than that, I gained. Since my husband passed away, I had a hard time getting my self motivated to even get off the couch. I am ready to make a change and now I do 45 minutes of the elliptical and plan to add weights soon. I would say I am pretty good at counting my calories, just tasting something several times a day can easily add up to a lot. I count everything, even if it is just a dab of ketchup.
  • Aundres242
    Aundres242 Posts: 7 Member
    I wanted to add that I do have a bad habbit with going over my sugar daily goal. I am addicted to coffee and crave the coffemate vanilla creamer. I measure the creamer out to one serving and count those calories. For example I ate almost 1,200 calories today, counting the creamer. I was still in my set calorie goal, but did go over 3g of sugar. Do calories count as calories or can sugar calories make you weigh more, even if you total calories are kept within your daily goal?
  • RaphaBianchi
    RaphaBianchi Posts: 51 Member
    Aundres242 wrote: »
    Do calories count as calories or can sugar calories make you weigh more, even if you total calories are kept within your daily goal?
    It shouldn't matter as long as you stay within your daily calorie allowance. Plus 3g of sugar is hardly anything, I often go over my daily sugar allowance by 20g.