Not sure what the problem is
zach121989
Posts: 44 Member
First month I dropped 10 pounds. I weigh all my foods, I'm very diligent with being as precise as possible with the calorie count, and this week I only lost .6 of a pound. My weigh in day is usually Friday mornings before work. I weighed today after work and expected to see at least two pounds gone. My calorie level is at 2,040. I currently weigh 209.4 pounds. I usually eat around 1200-1400 calories a day. I run at least 1.5 miles a day, and I throw in some weight lifting, sit-ups, push-ups. I also walk 10,000 steps daily, or more. So I don't know what is holding me back.
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The only problem I see is that as a male you shouldn't be eating less than 1500 calories a day. Why are you eating so little??? Especially since your goal is 2,040.
Weight loss should be viewed over a long period - just looking at one point of time doesn't tell the whole story.4 -
Well honestly I just have certain meals that I eat. And they happen to be lower calorie. I eat the same thing for breakfast each day. One egg, 4 pieces of bacon. Sometimes I'll have home fries or something but only a cup. That's about 240-360 calories. For lunch it's usually baked chicken breast and a side or a progress o soup. Normally for dinner it's another baked chicken breast, and a side. I like shoestring French fries so if I have those with the chicken the meal is about 500 calories. I go to bed around 9 because I have to be up early for work. So I feel full. Or I'd eat more. @Ready2Rock2060
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zach121989 wrote: »Well honestly I just have certain meals that I eat. And they happen to be lower calorie. I eat the same thing for breakfast each day. One egg, 4 pieces of bacon. Sometimes I'll have home fries or something but only a cup. That's about 240-360 calories. For lunch it's usually baked chicken breast and a side or a progress o soup. Normally for dinner it's another baked chicken breast, and a side. I like shoestring French fries so if I have those with the chicken the meal is about 500 calories. I go to bed around 9 because I have to be up early for work. So I feel full. Or I'd eat more. @Ready2Rock206
But don't you weigh all your foods? How much in home fries are you actually eating?
In any event, losing a little more or less over a given week doesn't mean much. Weight loss isn't linear. You'll have ups and downs on the scale for reasons having nothing to do with the amount of "real" weight you're losing.2 -
Experiment a little - add another 100 calories at each meal for a week. My husband lost a lot fast at 1200 a day with weight training and cardio, but stalled out after less than a month. He added in a lot more protein after lifting and some moderate recovery carbs after a long run (for him, >60 minutes) and continued to drop more and more after adding in more calories. Just don't add in poptarts and potato chips.
Remember, you are eating for fuel at this point, not because you feel hungry. 0 -
Your weight will always be different in the morning vs in the evening. (Assuming that when you said you weighed in "after work" that means evening.) Always weigh in at the same time of day, wearing the same clothing (or none). I always weigh in first thing in the morning, naked, after peeing.
I agree that if you are weighing and logging everything, you aren't eating enough calories.3 -
Yes I weighed the home fries. On the bag it tells me how many calories there are per serving. Which is 3 oz's. So I put it in my scale and make sure it's 3 oz's. It just normally turns out to be about a cup of them. It's not much really. Enough for 5 or 6 bites with 2-3 little home fries per bite. It equals out to be 112 calories. If I add them.0
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I am weighing and logging everything, I have not cheated. I leave for the police academy in 3 more weeks so I've really been on myself to do this right. And I've not strayed from the path. I may honestly be eating too little. I will try adding 300 cals to my diet. And see if it helps. @quiksylver2962
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I agree that you're not eating enough calories too. Your first month was likely a combination of water weight and lower calories, but now you'll see it slow down. Add a few snacks in between and try to meet your goal with healthy options (my version of healthy is no added sugar, high protein or high fiber or both, but find what satisfies you)1
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zach121989 wrote: »I am weighing and logging everything, I have not cheated. I leave for the police academy in 3 more weeks so I've really been on myself to do this right. And I've not strayed from the path. I may honestly be eating too little. I will try adding 300 cals to my diet. And see if it helps. @quiksylver296
Have fun in the academy! Congrats! Fellow LEO here (although it's been a lot of years since I did the academy. LOL).
Just FYI, I'm a 42 year old female, 5'9, 172 pounds, and I lose steadily on 2000 calories per day. You should easily be able to eat more and still lose.2 -
If he's not eating enough calories but not losing weight either, is he hitting that starvation thing where the body hangs on the weight? Could those who suggest he eat more explain?0
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I will def add more calories to my daily Intake. I'll shoot for 1600-1800 a day and see how that does over the next 2 weeks. I appreciate all the feedback. Hopefully I continue to lose.0
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My body may be hanging onto weight. I don't feel starved. But it may very well be begging me for more without me knowing it. That's an easy fix tho. Who doesn't want to eat more! That's just a little more of the foods I'm already having. Or maybe a snack I want in between.0
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one week isn't enough to denote a trend. i wouldn't change anything based on one week! You just had 4 awesome weeks before this one! if you change now, then you won't know what works and what doesn't. who knows, you could be down a pound or two tomorrow.1
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Well @rhiawiz57 that's the beauty of the community forum lol multiple ideas from multiple ppl. But I will take all opinions into account. I won't be adding a thousand calories or anything to my daily intake. But I'm sure I could stand to eat 200-300 more. It really would be nice to have a snack in between lunch and dinner. Between those meals are about 6 hours. I'm sure the academy is going to work my as* off. And I'll lose there as well. It's similar to basic training, I lost 45 pounds during those 9 weeks. But thank you for the input!1
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Simplest answer: you weighed yourself after work with food in your belly. The food you have eaten is still digesting and is adding to your weight, jump on the scale in the morning and I would say there will be a bigger loss.
Also the lowest recommended amount of calories for a man is 1500 I recommend you stick to that as a bare minimum so you get the minimum nutrition your body needs.
Lastly, there will be weeks where you see less of a loss and weeks you see more. Over time it will slow down, plateau speed up you get the gist. I get you are disappointed but you didn't gain it overnight you won't lose it overnight there is a lot of patience and some frustration involved in the weightloss process.3 -
zach121989 wrote: »Well @rhiawiz57 that's the beauty of the community forum lol multiple ideas from multiple ppl. But I will take all opinions into account. I won't be adding a thousand calories or anything to my daily intake. But I'm sure I could stand to eat 200-300 more. It really would be nice to have a snack in between lunch and dinner. Between those meals are about 6 hours. I'm sure the academy is going to work my as* off. And I'll lose there as well. It's similar to basic training, I lost 45 pounds during those 9 weeks. But thank you for the input!
I am a statistician for my living so i do want people to take into account what constitutes a trend or what is just a week or two of your body playing catch-up. You're crushing it so far. Seems like you can well afford an afternoon snack in terms of calories, too. Congratulations!
And yes, always weigh yourself first thing in the AM before eating, at least take that variable out of your plan.2 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »If he's not eating enough calories but not losing weight either, is he hitting that starvation thing where the body hangs on the weight? Could those who suggest he eat more explain?
That doesn't happen, so no.
Eating MORE calories will not cause him to lose more weight. That's not how it works.3 -
You weighed at a different time of day - undigested food, liquid, waste - all different. You could very well see a lower number in the morning. But even if you don't, I agree with the others who've said it's too early to even begin to get concerned! Weight trend over time > any one random weigh-in.1
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Simplest answer: you weighed yourself after work with food in your belly. The food you have eaten is still digesting and is adding to your weight, jump on the scale in the morning and I would say there will be a bigger loss.
In my experience, yes you'll gain 1-5 pounds any given day holding onto food and fluids so this is likely "the problem"!
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It's only one week. Weight loss isn't linear. Even if you do everything perfectly, every single day, some weeks will not look like the others on the scale. You have lots of stuff in your body other than just fat, and this stuff affects your weight. Patience 2
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endlessfall16 wrote: »If he's not eating enough calories but not losing weight either, is he hitting that starvation thing where the body hangs on the weight? Could those who suggest he eat more explain?
No. The body doesn't actually work that way. I suppose in a way I said he should eat more. Because he needs to get adequate nutrition however, in this case I don't feel there's anything wrong with his lack of weight loss except impatience. He is losing, although not as fast as he'd like, but it's only this week so there's no problem yet and he's not clinging to weight because his body fears it is starving. He's just experiencing the natural ebbs and flows of weight loss. Some weeks you lose more than others. No biggie.0 -
I'm sorry bud but adding 200-300 calories isn't going to make you lose weight faster. It's just not the way it works. Weight loss is controlled by calories in versus calories out. The amount of weight you lose over time is directly tied to the calorie deficit that you create.
Now that being said there are a lot of reasons for daily fluctuations in weight. Hydration, bowel movements, timing of meals, timing of workouts, digestion patterns (time) of the foods you are eating... and the list goes on. You also could be in a small plateau where your body is in reset mode.
The advice on here is pretty good. I wouldn't change anything after a week. If you are measuring, continue to measure and use a scale instead of measuring cups/spoons whenever possible. You may want to consider changing some of the things in your diet but not total calories. Have an extra egg instead of the hash browns. Cottage cheese instead of French fries? Thrown in some fiber some place in the diet, etc. Whenever I am in a plateau I try to switch things up some.
Give it a little more time. It will pick back up again...0 -
Weighing after work also doesn't depict your lowest weight of the day. You will weigh less in the AM after you pee and before you ingest anything. Afternoon weighing doesn't even count in my book.2
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adipace815 wrote: »I'm sorry bud but adding 200-300 calories isn't going to make you lose weight faster. It's just not the way it works. Weight loss is controlled by calories in versus calories out. The amount of weight you lose over time is directly tied to the calorie deficit that you create.
Now that being said there are a lot of reasons for daily fluctuations in weight. Hydration, bowel movements, timing of meals, timing of workouts, digestion patterns (time) of the foods you are eating... and the list goes on. You also could be in a small plateau where your body is in reset mode.
The advice on here is pretty good. I wouldn't change anything after a week. If you are measuring, continue to measure and use a scale instead of measuring cups/spoons whenever possible. You may want to consider changing some of the things in your diet but not total calories. Have an extra egg instead of the hash browns. Cottage cheese instead of French fries? Thrown in some fiber some place in the diet, etc. Whenever I am in a plateau I try to switch things up some.
Give it a little more time. It will pick back up again...
Re: the bolded, no it won't but it will give him the minimum nutrition a man needs to remain healthy and not damage his body. Unless he is medically supervised it is not advised for a man to go under 1500 cal a day.
Also op 10lbs loss in a month is pretty good going I would be happy with that and take the slow week for what it is, just a week.1 -
I hear everyone, I know I'm impatient, I just thought that if it was as simple as calories in and calories out, there wasn't any possible way I could have lost less than a pound. Especially while working out. The difference in weighing in this evening instead of the morning may be the cause, or I may have just not lost as much as the other weeks. I weighed out of curiosity, normally I am a morning weigher after a bathroom use. I'll check in the morning, see what it says. And soldier on with continued progress.4
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zach121989 wrote: »I hear everyone, I know I'm impatient, I just thought that if it was as simple as calories in and calories out, there wasn't any possible way I could have lost less than a pound. Especially while working out. The difference in weighing in this evening instead of the morning may be the cause, or I may have just not lost as much as the other weeks. I weighed out of curiosity, normally I am a morning weigher after a bathroom use. I'll check in the morning, see what it says. And soldier on with continued progress.
It is as simple as calories in vs calories out but you are applying a mathematical principle against a biological system so as a trend you WILL see an overall loss most likely at the weekly goal you have set but be aware that things as simple as for example salt intake on any given day, the amount of waste retained in the body or even the amount of exercise done can affect it and that is just the basics we aren't even talking about stress, amount of sleep hormones or anything else. Biological systems are notoriously unpredictable and as a biologist I speak from experience, but over time it will even itself out so don't let one week affect how you feel things are going as it isn't a good reflection of the overall picture.
Also if your calorie goal doesn't automatically adjust itself as you lose, periodically go into goals and do it yourself. Mine doesn't unless I go into that section of the app and just 'fiddle' a little after every 20lb loss or so is reasonable (provided you eat the number of calories mfp has set you) to maintain your losses over time.1 -
The first month was probably 3 weeks of water weight loss as you inadvertently cut high sodium foods down. Keep doing what you're doing for another 4 weeks and see what the weight loss is (make sure to eat min 1500 a day net). That will help you calculate what your true deficit is. I suspect the deficit isn't as high as you thought originally.
Also check the entries you're using from MFP. You might be weighing correctly but using incorrect entries. So probably eating more than 1400 calories a day.
You might also be over estimating how many calories you're burning. There could be a lot of calories there. A lot. Use only 50% of what MFP says for cardio exercises, and 0 to 5% of what it says for weight lifting.
But a 1 week result isn't really representative and I'd say the first month of weight loss can be so unpredictable because of the big changes in diet.0 -
I don't use any calories from what MFP tells me. I haven't eaten the recommended 2040 calories so any workout calories are not being calculated as "extra" that I can eat back. There just simply there. I don't even log my workouts, I just do them knowing that it's beneficial to my weight loss and overall feeling. I am logging my food correctly As far as I know. It seems pretty cut and dry, especially since I am using a good food scale. If the packaging says 8oz if chicken is 240 calories, and my chicken weighs 8 1/3 oz I adjust the little sliding bar on the app to 8 1/3 oz and it give me the correct calories. This was just an example. A lot of times I use the bar code, it pulls up the complete nutritional information, and after I weigh it I choose how many servings I've had of the item. @VeryKatie0
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zach121989 wrote: »I don't use any calories from what MFP tells me. I haven't eaten the recommended 2040 calories so any workout calories are not being calculated as "extra" that I can eat back. There just simply there. I don't even log my workouts, I just do them knowing that it's beneficial to my weight loss and overall feeling. I am logging my food correctly As far as I know. It seems pretty cut and dry, especially since I am using a good food scale. If the packaging says 8oz if chicken is 240 calories, and my chicken weighs 8 1/3 oz I adjust the little sliding bar on the app to 8 1/3 oz and it give me the correct calories. This was just an example. A lot of times I use the bar code, it pulls up the complete nutritional information, and after I weigh it I choose how many servings I've had of the item. @VeryKatie
Where do you live? Curious since when I scan the barcodes, they're wrong for me 40%(ish) of the time (since I'm not in the US). So it's also worth double checking that.
If you're sure of all your numbers and aren't forgetting to log drinks and medications (like tums or cough syrup when you take them), then honestly you probably are just retaining a little water or poop or something that will go away in a few days. Nothing to worry about at the moment. Just keep chugging along.
However, I can't stress enough that you should be accounting for exercise as I suggested and you should not be eating less than 1500 calories a day, including eating back exercise. You could be doing far more damage than good and depleting important nutrient stores in your blood and body that are there to keep you healthy. It could result in hair, bone, and immunity loss.0
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